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So tomorrow will be the final day of February for 2017. New flash eh? My point is that March is typically the final stretch of winter for us. In some seasons, it is basically over…in others we still have a ways to go. Only time will tell what will happen this season, but I suspect we will work our way towards more spring like weather, with the occasional burst of winter interrupting that progression. The stronger sunshine at this time of the year is already being noticed. It only takes a few peaks of sun to start melting the roadways and in some cases, the sun can still be behind the clouds, as long as they are not too thick.

We did start last week in the throws of the latest thaw, but did manage to finally wiggle out of it by Wednesday night. Thursday morning we awoke to a nice fresh coating of snow in the woods. I marvel at how humans can be so different. Snow lovers would look at that picture and probably feel a sense of calm. I know I did. Yet, those that do not like snow would likely react to it with anxiety. Many of us snow lovers might even think the non snow lover is being goofy with their reaction, while it could be the case for the other side. Obviously this plays out for just about everything in life, but I get the feeling that many of us forget that fact and are not willing to accept the differing opinion. Many times we try to explain it by saying were just “being human”, if true, I want out. My dogs can see and accept the differences between them and humans and even them and other dogs and I am trying my hardest to follow their lead. There are still stumbles, but I suppose it takes time. Nearly a half a century of programming can take time to undo.

I have know idea how I just got so side tracked, but the words just started flowing and I could not stop! Now… there is no way I can delete them and stay in a right mind, so I hope you all were able to bear with me through that!!!

Anyway, the snows returned on Thursday and brightened up all the nasty looking stuff that was left behind from the latest thaw. The dinge is among the things that I dislike most about spring up here. Thankfully, our woods typically do not get all nasty looking. The snow remains white right up to the point where the ground starts to show. In town, it is a different story.

So the woods were nicely frosted Thursday morning and so was the house. The patch of driveway where Nora’s vehicle was parked being the only reminder that just 12 hours prior, things looked a whole lot different. That snow was just the harbinger of things to come. The advance guard so to speak. The main storm was scheduled for Friday and Friday night. I have to admit that on Wednesday and even Thursday, I was quite nervous about the storm. Not just for our area, but for areas like northern IA, southern MN and northern WI, which were suppose to get hit pretty good too. I am not sure if I am imagining things, but it seems like I can sense the collective mindset of the visitors to the site and about midweek last week, I sensed a ton of anticipation for that snow to actually fall! Some areas had bare ground, but with double digit accumulations, it could put them back in business for snowplay for at least the weekend. For other areas (like us) it would take us from marginal conditions to pretty darned good. I even woke up Wednesday morning at around 2:30 in the morning and could not get back to sleep thinking about all the possibilities.

Thursday night was a little better, as by the time I was going to sleep, the snows were already breaking out across NE and western sections of IA/MN. Our snow was suppose to start in earnest the second half of the day on Friday. We did have light snows start up in the morning, but then it stayed pretty light through most of the day. I was starting to get nervous again, as I had friends driving up from around 7 hours away and had said we only needed around 6-8″ to make things pretty good again and had a good chance that would happen. Just as the sun was setting, the snows started to pick up and by the time they arrived, it was snowing pretty good and we had picked up a few inches of fresh.

I went to bed Friday night hoping that what it was doing outside would keep up for at least a few hours and it did and more. By the time we all rolled out of bed Saturday morning, there was a fresh 10″ of powder on everything. Of all the scenes that a snow lover likes to see, this has to be ranked very near the top. I was able to get out and clear our neighbors driveway as well as ours and then got in and make breakfast for us all and then we got suited up and headed out to play in the fresh.

The conditions we encountered in the woods were pretty similar to what was in our driveway, although the snow was very powdery and did get moved around a bit by the winds in spots. At times we were riding on only 3-4″ of fresh and other times had powder over the hood. Here is a shot of a section of road where if you went far enough to the left, you had powder filling your helmet. The two significant warm ups we have had up here this season has also caused some interesting sections in the bush. In spots, water was either flowing or sitting and melted the snow, but not entirely. In the same spot, the snow had not melted, so you would have 2-3 foot trenches in the snow, which made for some fun times getting through. To make things even more interesting, the snow underneath the 8-10″ of fresh stuff was almost like concrete, so it did not give way to  a ski being pushed into it. I learned the hard way one time, with an attempted carve to the left going very wrong and the sled rolling. I got very lucky, as it ended up rolling on top of me with the track still spinning a bit, but the throttle did not get pinned and I was able to use my feet to keep the sled from rolling right on top of me. Nothing hurt but my pride! I am pretty familiar with that!

On Sunday, we headed out again. The fluff of Friday night had settled some, but the goings in the bush were still loads of fun. On Saturday we had Ben from Keweenaw Cabin Keeper join us in our ride and on Saturday, we had Dave from “Downtime with Dick Dostaler” join us. Dave is one of the guys that was part of the band of brothers that got together to ride almost every weekend back about a decade or so ago. He is one that I still get out and ride with a couple of times a season, but this was the first time this season we got together. We actually rode some of the old hunting grounds we used to ride back in the day, areas I have not been to in quite some time. It felt really nice to be with good friends in memorable places. As if on cue, it even started to snow.

We had our fair share of creek crossings and other obstacles to get around on Sunday’s ride as well. Some even required a bit of reconnoitering on foot. All of the challenges were met and successfully crossed, but a few did bite back. In this shot, not only is it snowing to beat the band, but there is a sled hiding behind the trees to the right. The one crossing was made, but another hidden one caused the rider to hit the ejection button, resulting in a stuck sled. We all made it back safe and sound and then settled in for a nice dinner with Nora and Gracie. Thus the reason why I did not write last night.

The forecast for this week looks OK. A chance of snow and/or wintry mix tomorrow, with some fresh snow Wed-Thur. Not a lot, but enough to keep things in pretty decent shape for playing. The CopperDog 150 sled dog race is going on up here this weekend and the snows will be welcomed for that. The race uses sections of our trail system and I got a notification that a section that they use had been washed out by water over the weekend. So this morning I headed down to survey the damage there (the reason for no forecast text). It was a pretty nasty wash-out, that will require a fair amount of work in the off season. This wash out happened on trail 122 just north of Lake Linden. Most of 122 has been closed due to logging all season, but we kept the section open that connected with the Dreamland trail. Well, now due to this wash out, that little section is also closed, so all of 122 is now closed.

There is a solution for the dog teams this weekend. It will require a bit of work for the organizers of the race, but nothing too major. They will be able to get around the wash-out.

I guess that covers it for this one. Stay tuned for more!

Good night from the Keweenaw..

–JD

What a winter! It just cannot seem to make up its mind. Very slow start, then record setting pace, then 10 day thaw, then back into it with vigor and now major thaw number 2. What’s next? Well funny one should ask…It looks like winter will return with both guns blazing by the end of the week and weekend and looks to keep shooting into next week. The models do differ some on the exact track of the low later this week and thus the exact placement of the heaviest band of snow, but it looks quite likely that areas of the northern Midwest will be ending up with double digit accumulations Fri-Sat and then the potential exists for another round of meaningful snows in the northern Midwest by the first half of next week. The potential for lake effect also exists for the weekend into early next week. So there is still hope for some powder busting yet this season.

That is the sneak peak at the forecast. More details will be gotten into tomorrow when I resume the forecasts. I don’t have a ton more to share with you. It was a week spent more in the truck than anything. On Tuesday I traveled to Marquette to get my phone fixed. The bad news is that I traveled 200 miles and used up over a half of my day only to learn that there was a small wood chip stuck in the charging port and that is why I could not charge or use the port for other purposes. The good news is that it did not cost me a single penny (other than gas money) to get it fixed and I was instructed in how to remove any obstructions in the future. That is one of the only downsides to not living in a major metro area. We do not have every kind of store at our disposal. A trade off I will take any day, by the way!

On Friday, I traveled with my brother to southern WI to have a nice dinner and then overnight at my other brothers house in the Milwaukee area so that we could then continue on and go to my Aunts place on Saturday to pick up some things she was parting with and to help her move a few things around. She was widowed a few years back and lives in a really nice place in Bull Valley IL, which sits just a bit north of Crystal Lake. It is a beautiful spot and beautiful home on 10 acres of heavily wooded land, but has become too much for her to take care of and is going to move into a townhouse type living facility where all maintenance is done for her.

I picked up an old lumberjacks saw that had special meaning, as well as my grandfathers homemade wooden tool chest. Inside were lot of the hand tools he used in his working wood. He was a pattern maker by trade, so had loads of talent when it came to making things out of wood. He died when I was just one year old, but for some strange reason, I have always felt there was a strong connection. It was he that moved to that spot in the woods in Bull Valley upon retirement and I believe that his spirit for living among the trees was bestowed upon me. I also feel his spirit for woodworking was passed on to me. So Grandpa John’s chest and tool will find a very special place in my woodworking shop and will hopefully remain in the family for many more generations.

My brother also picked up some things from our Aunt and all told, we filled up the back and bed of my truck as well as a 5 x 10 enclosed trailer pretty good with all the things and my brother still needs to go down and get some more items once our Aunts place sells and she moves out.

After getting all packed up, we headed back to the Keweenaw and arrived a little after 8 pm last night, a full 33 hours later, much of them spent in my truck. This morning we unloaded all the stuff and I returned the trailer. I am excited to spend time looking at and welcoming the tools to the shop. Some will be used, others will be kept for their special meaning only. For some of those that will not be used, I plan to build a special case to display them in. While I do not have any memory of my Grandfather, I do know from others that he was meticulous in his approach to doing things. I can be just the opposite sometimes, rushing through a job…just to get it done. Sometimes the rush is justified, sometimes not. In any case, I am hoping the tools gifted to me will help me to be more meticulous in what I build. I have come a long way since first starting, but still have a ways to go!

So with all the traveling and other things, I did not get a chance to go out and play in the snow before the thaw hit on Friday. I also did not take too many pictures, as the camera (my phone) was not even available for use until late Tuesday afternoon, but I do have a few. The first is of the empty wood shed. Yep, I used up the last of the cut firewood Thursday morning. I still have the reserve tucked away on the other side of the shed. It just needs to be cut to length to be able to be tossed into the boiler. For now, I just plan to cut as I go. Seems to be working pretty good and the usage will be pretty low for the next 3-4 days.

Even though we had to endure a record setting 10 day thaw at the end of January and are now into another major melt, there is still enough snow around to allow one to go onto the shop roof without using a ladder. Which ironically is exactly what Gracie did on Thursday when I was out doing some chores. She is quite fearless, but not foolish, which makes it a whole lot less stressful for her pops when she does such things. Mom is not quite on board with the low-worry frame of mind, so we tend to do such things when she is away. Of course, when she is up there, I am playing 100% attention to her and talking to her. At times I guess I might even be a bit of a cheerleader. So with all of that banter going on, the pups cannot stay out of what is going on. So they hopped up there with sticks in mouth and had some fun on the shop roof as well.

The final bit of business that I can share with you is that the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club is holding another fund-raising raffle in which someone will win a barrel sauna. This is the second year that is it being done and all of the funds raised will go towards a new groomer building. The land has already been secured for the building, but a lot more is needed to be raised to be able to construct a building for all of the equipment. The sauna is really nice and is transportable on a regular two place snowmobile trailer. It is built right here in the Keweenaw and is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside. There are plenty of tickets still available and the drawing will be held in a few weeks. So don’t delay in purchasing your tickets to win it! I know I will have a fist full of ticket stubs when the drawing is taken place!

Guess that covers it for this one. With a little luck, next week I will have pictures of copious amounts of new snow to share with you!

Good night from the Keweenaw..

-JD

As the title says, we jumped back into winter with both boots on in the past week. No school closures for us, but a few districts in the UP did end up closing for the day or at least delaying things by two hours. Since last Sunday we have picked up 26 1/2″ of the white gold. It sure has spruced things up around here and we are back to looking like we should for this time of the year…At least for now. I say that because it looks like another thaw is coming for the end of this week and weekend. Probably not so bad at first, as the air looks to be dry through the weekend, but then by early next week temps look to remain mild and the air looks to get soupy enough to do what it did last time we were warm, with humidity in the air. Oh, well, I am not going to worry too much about it. Perhaps I will fire up the woodworking shop next week when it starts to look nasty and depressing again.

The snows this week came in about as perfect a manner as I could ever request. It’s always great to get hammered day after day, but it also causes so much work that it can cut back on the play time. This past week, it was more a case of getting 2-4″ every 24 hours, with a period Tue-Wed when we got 11″. There is quite a bit of time difference that is needed to move 2-4 and the double digit accumulations, no matter what equipment you are using. So it was nice to head out and spend around 10 minutes doing the neighbors driveway, another 30-40 to do the ice rink and then finish with a 15-20 minute clearing job to do ours.

Last week I promised to have lots of pictures to share with you and I almost had to eat my words. On Wednesday, the charging port on my phone stopped working. So that not only meant that I could not charge the phone, but I could also not back it up. There was still around 50% battery when this happened, so I have been nursing it along. I still have about 20% battery left and it is scheduled to be repaired this Tuesday. But, I was without my main source of capturing pictures. Ever since the smartphones started taking such good pictures, there has not been a need to have a digital point and shoot any more. We do have the digital SLR and I did use it at time. I also was fortunate enough to go riding Friday with friends and they were kind enough to send me some shots from that expedition. So all told, I have over 20 pics to share with you.

The first is of a little garden shed at my neighbors house. This is the neighbor that I clear the snow for and I enjoy looking over and watching the snow on the roof get deeper and deeper. It is a good tool to use to see the true depth, as it does not get cleared off and also is fairly well protected from the winds, so it does not drift or scour. Looks to be around 3.5 feet up there. That pic was taken Thursday morning.

So as mentioned, I got out to ride on Friday. I loaded the sled into the back of the truck and headed down to meet up with friends south of the bridge. When I left our house, it was snowing quite heavily, then by the time I got to the airport (between Hancock and Calumet), it was still snowing big flaked, but at a reduced clip. By the time I got to Houghton and Hancock, the flakes were smaller and it was not coming down too hard. Just past South Range, it changed to sleet, as I could no longer see anything falling, but could hear something “tinking” off the windshield. Just after getting past Painesdale, it changed to freezing rain. Of all the weather elements that would be deemed the worst to ride in, I would put freezing rain right at the top. Rain is no fun either, but freezing rain will ice up your visor or goggles and make it a real pain to ride in.

So I pulled into the driveway of my friends place and got out of the truck and unloaded the sled in the freezing rain. There was no talk of calling things off, and quite honestly I believe I wanted to ride more than I did not, but would not have made a big deal if the others wanted to suspend things. We went in and got our gear on and when we went back out, all the sleds were coated in a layer of ice, but it was no longer raining! So we took off and not long after being in the woods, the sun came out! Temps were in the upper 20’s and there was a ton of fresh snow and with the sunshine, we went from about as bad of weather conditions I could ask for to about as good in the course of about 10 minutes!

The freezing rain that had fallen did put a very thin layer of ice onto the fresh snow, but it was so thin that it did not impact the ability or euphoria of carving up the untracked fresh! It is nice for me to head south, as I do not have to worry about being the tour guide. I just get to play follow the leader and have fun. In this case, the leader had momentarily stepped off his sled to take a picture of it and the fresh ahead.

With my photo taking abilities severely limited, it allowed the opportunity for me to just worry about having fun and ride and so some of the pictures this go around are of me, because I was in front of the camera and not behind it! This is not exactly an action shot, but still a rare shot of me on my snowmobile. Here is one of me and friend Skylar in a “paused” action shot. We had paused on the side of a hill, while side-hilling, when along came Kris.

It was a really fun time with great friends and great conditions. It’s funny, it has been almost a year since I have ridden with some of these guys, but about 5 minutes into riding, it felt like I had been riding with them all season long. We just picked up where we left off and had a blast. I believe that is one of the signs of true friends, when all egos are put aside and you just have fun. I am fortunate to have a handful of such friends- both local and from out of town. To me, riding is not about how deep the snow is, or how many miles we are putting on, it is about the smiles.

Of course there always seems to be someone that finds themselves in a bit of misfortune and the good natured ribbing kicks in, such as here when a sled had a small, but fixable issue and then we carried on. As with all good things, our fun time of riding came to an end as the sun set lower on the horizon, but the fun was not over. After getting back and putting the sleds away for the day and in the back of the truck in the case of mine, we headed to fill our bellies with some great food and great company. Good times!

On Saturday, Nora, Gracie and I piled into Nora’s vehicle and headed south, only this time to check out the snow statues that had been created for MI Tech’s annual Winter Carnival. The first stop of the day was actually across the bridge from the Tech Campus and in Hancock, but was it ever worth the side trip to it! When we got close to the fraternity that does the work there, the traffic suddenly got pretty busy and there was a lot of persons coming and going from the display. As we neared it, it became clear why. The guys that put this one together did an amazing job. It was a wild west scene, complete with a saloon, church, jail and bank on one side and the back, as well as an old fashioned steam train engine and cars on the left side. They were the winners of the statue competition in the mens and overall categories. A very impressive job, considering two of the 4-5 weeks they have to build these things was too warm to work in and actually did some damage.

Next we drove across the bridge and parked on campus and headed out on foot to check out the rest of them. One of the first stops was to the statues that were in front of the ROTC building and built by ROTC members. My favorite in this group was the P-51 Mustang, but a really cool jeep was also constructed. Another of the better statues on campus was of a burger, fries, drink and shake.

As we neared the east end of campus, we also knew we were nearing the end of our tour. We usually start near the west end, go to the east end of campus and then turn around and take a different path back, so we can see the ones closer to the highway. I was a bit surprised to see a large one done right on campus. Most of the time, those are done on the front lawn of a fraternity or sorority, but in this case, the Sigma Phi Epsilon crew had constructed a replica of the Quincy Mine on one of the courtyards on campus.

There is a separate category for judging and that being statues not started until 4 pm on Wednesday and completed 16 hours later by 8 am on Thursday. These are obviously smaller in scale, but in some cases can still be highly detailed. I am not sure why, but it seemed like this years “all nighters” were not as good as in past years. There was one that Gracie really loved of Yoda, but the others did not even seem very photo worthy.

On our way back, we did come across another ice sculpture in the form of a vehicle. Only this one was able to be climbed upon and in, to which we got Gracie to do so we could take a picture. A little further down was a small tunnel that had been dug into the snow with a little hole to pop out of at the end. Gracie climbed into the tunnel and then did her very own groundhog impersonation, only to pop back in and tunnel out. No shadow. The next play area for her was a giant pile of snow that others had climbed up and slid down, creating makeshift slides made of snow.

Back home, there were no snow statues to be found, but Gracie was all pumped up to make a two story castle of snow some day. Knowing her determination, I believe there is a good chance it will happen some day! For now, we just have a halfway buried swing-set. I failed to take a picture of the wood reserve, but we are getting dangerously close to being out of cut logs. I figure I have around 3-4 more days before we run out of the stuff that was cut to length. I then have a stack sitting inside the woodshed that just need to be cut to length. After that I have to hope and pray that enough snow melts that we can get to the stuff under this mound of snow if we need it! Only time will tell!

Good night from the Keweenaw.

-JD

So this will be a really short one. For one, I do not have a single photo to share. I laid kinda low this week. Still battling a cough, which I think is bronchitis. So I figured I would not do too much extra this week and see if that helped. It seems to have, as my body finally seems to be able to fight a winning battle and the cough is gradually going away.

We did have a pretty good week of weather up here. Not as much snow as I would have hoped for, but hard to complain about getting 13″ of snow in the past 7 days. Plus the forecast looks quiet good for more. The potential for double digit system snows Tuesday and Tuesday night and then lake effect to follow it up for Wed-Thur. Maybe some more system snows for next weekend to boot.

There was a period the second half of this week that we could have gotten buried by snow had the winds not been blowing so hard. Much of the day on Thursday and part of Friday we had optimal wind direction and OK atmospheric conditions for a dominate band to set up across the Keweenaw. The “Bayfield Bomber” as I like to call it, but the winds were blowing so strong, it did not allow the air to stay over the lake long enough to get fully moistened enough to produce big snows. We still got a few inches in that time frame, but coulda gotten feet. To add insult to injury, it was so windy that it was not very pleasant to be outside either. Our temps were not bitter, but were cold enough that when combined with the winds, made it just to nasty to be out for very long.

I would have to say that the majority of the problems created by the January thaw and rain have been done away with. The trails could still use some fresh snow, but the groomers have been out and doing their magic to the trails and the only news I have gotten from riders is good news. The snow off trail is OK. I have not been out on the sled, but when you live in the woods, you get a pretty good feel for how things are like there! We probably have around 8″ of fresh on top of the old snow left over from the thaw/rain a few weeks back. So with more on the way this week, next week could be one of the best riding weekends we have had all season so far. A very solid base of 2-3 feet and then another 1-2 feet of fresh on top of that.

As mentioned, I have been laying kinda low for the past week. Not lying around doing nothing, but just kinda being in a more relaxed mode when I am not doing my regular work duties. It has been kind of nice to just hang out by the fire and either watch it snow or read a magazine, or both. I know I am looking forward to the days spent out on the screened porch relaxing. I have to admit that there is a part of me that is getting excited for the drab days of April. I have not done anything in the wood shop for quite some time now and am getting the itch. I could work in it now, but would either have to work in it with the air temps in the upper 40’s, which is where I keep it all the time, or crank up the heat to get things more comfortable. It does not take long to get it warmed up to around 60, but I guess I just feel like it is a bit of a waste of energy to heat it up and then use it for just an hour or two. In the spring when the temps start to get warmer, I can heat it up early in the morning and I can spend some time out there in the morning and it will remain warm through the rest of the day. Sometimes even overnight! I do have a list of projects waiting to get done, mostly for my office.

So believe it or not, that is about it for this one. I need to get over to the ice rink to clear off the 5″ of snow we picked up yesterday afternoon and overnight and then get back in time to get ready for our Super Bowl extravaganza! Actually, it will be just Nora, Gracie, my brother Jim, the pup and I. Gracie is also making it a Welcome Home party for her uncle Jim, as he was away for about a month doing art shows in CA and FL. None the less, we have quite the spread of appetizer-type things to munch on and I suppose I should be able to make it through the first quarter before having to go to sleep! If all pans out as it should weather wise, then I should have some great photos and stories to tell next time.

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

I was so proud of myself for being able to keep such a positive attitude through the first week of the January thaw. Then it hit…Monday Nora came home for lunch and said that the driveway was getting pretty bad, meaning the mat was going. I figured that it was just beginning to get soft in spots because it had been holding pretty good even Monday morning. Nope, somehow in the course of just a few hours, we went from a driveway with a nice compacted mat to one with a bunch of slush on it. What was even more disappointing was the fact that the mat was WAY thicker in spots than I thought it was. I thought I had been keeping it pretty scraped down and that it was only an inch or two thick. It was only that thick in a few spots, but in many others, it was upwards of 6″ thick! So now I had a mess on my hands.

The mat had gone soft right down to the gravel driveway and was thick enough to cause both Nora and I to almost get stuck while trying to traverse through it. That was the straw that broke the camels back. Suddenly my attitude about the meltdown changed. I was a broken man. Not that I got utterly upset, but no longer could I see the upside to it and no longer could I keep a smile on my face.

It’s funny how something that is really not that big of a deal in the whole scope of things can totally change the perspective and attitude I have about things. My heart literally sunk when I saw the mess on the driveway and suddenly the old snow in the woods was a lot uglier. The discolored snow on the sides of the roads was a mix of disgusting shades of brown, gray and black. The dripping of the melting snow still left on the roof was no longer a side distraction, it was a form of crewel torture. Oh, and the fog, that persistent dreary, nasty, depressing fog! When was it going away!?

After sucking it up enough to pull myself together, I fired up Big Red and headed down to the neighbors to see if any of the mat on their driveway needed clearing. Yup, in most areas it was only an inch or two deep, but in others 4-5″ thick. Their driveway is paved, so all I had to do was drop the blower and let it do its thing. In a matter of minutes the driveway was cleared to either the bare pavement or a very thin layer of ice/slush. Now back to clean up our driveway.

That was a different story. No longer could I just drop the blower and go. It would dig right into the gravel base and spit rocks all over the place. So I had to take it slowly, adjusting the height of the blower so that it did not dig into the gravel, but also did not leave too much slush behind. Things were going pretty good, right up until the moment the blower stopped working. I dropped the RPM’s of the tractor, but kept the blower engaged to see which sheer pin had gone. To my disappointment, both augers and the impeller were not spinning at all, but the shaft that powers the blower was still spinning. That meant it was something more serious than just the sheer pins. I did not have time to drop the blower and take it apart enough to get to the problem, so I just used the tractor/blower in reverse and “back bladed” the snow off the driveway.

It worked OK, but not as nicely as using the blower as it is meant to be used. I was able to clear the driveway down enough to allow for a trouble free passing. However, the process of pulling the snow off the driveway did not allow me to blow it into the woods, nor did it even allow me to put it off in a spot where it was completely out of the way. I did the best I could and made an area of slush and some rocks on the far side of the driveway. Out of the way enough to allow us to drive in and out and park without hassle.

I had just finished when the girls arrive home from school. They were very happy that I had cleaned up the driveway and I had a bit of a sense of accomplishment myself, but it was severely diminished by the kick in the gut the melting had caused in the first place, plus the headache of having to dig into the blower to determine what had broke. My first task was to break out the manual and look at the exploded view of the blower assembly. It did not take me long to find the “smoking gun”, or so I had thought. There is a rubber belt that is part of the drive system for the augers and impeller and best I could tell, that is the only thing that would cause the interruption of power from the driveshaft to the augers and impeller if the sheer pins were still intact. So I called up Land O’ Lakes Rec and explained the situation. They were able to get the part ordered and shipped to me in just 2 days. So I just let things sit until the part arrived.

The part arrived on time on Thursday. I was able to track its journey and when I saw it was “out for delivery” I made my move and detached the blower unit and left it in the heated shop and then backed the tractor out. The tractor is about 1″ too tall to actually fit into the shop. I can pull it up as far as the top of the cab and then have to stop there. So once the blower was dropped off, I took to dismantling it enough to replace the belt. As a dug in and removed enough steel drives and plates to get to the belt, I learned that the belt was just fine! So I continued to dig and learned that there is a point where the driveshaft goes into a collar that is part of a universal joint for the blower. In that connection, there is a square key that keeps the shaft and collar aligned and spinning in sync. So it was off to the hardware store to get a new key and bolt that had also snapped in the same spot. Came home, got things in and put back together and all was well.

I have to admit that as much as I love snow, I was glad that mother nature had been kind enough to me to keep me from having to move snow while the blower was down. I do remember finishing up working on the blower and going outside to fire up Big Red so that I could re-attach the blower to it and seeing these wonder flakes of snow come down. It was almost as if it were on cue. I was ready to move snow again and the flakes were flying again! They did not fly with enough vigor that I had to move snow for a while. We picked up a dusting Thursday night and about an inch on Friday. With the blower going again, I did get to fixing up the mess on our driveway Friday and things looked pretty good.

The snows have continued to fly and with a bit more vigor in the past 36 hours. All told, we have picked up around 5 1/2″ of new snow since Friday morning and I did fire up Big Red to move snow today. I am happy to report that things are finally returning to normal. Gone is the dingy, old snow. Well, it is still there, but sits under around a half foot of beautiful, fresh lake effect snow. Our driveway is back to being in pretty good shape and I am ready for snow…hopefully lots more!

My spirit is better and the forecast promises some decent snows in the coming week. All was not lost during this past week. While the weather did not exactly support much fun outside. I was blessed to have lots of company while doing some work one evening this past week. I knew they were all in the room with me, but when I turned around and saw the three of them hanging with dear old dad, I could not help but capture the moment. Put Nora somewhere in that last shot and I could not get any better!

Our driveway was not the only thing to take a serious hit with the thaw. I did not realize, but the ice rink had totally melted! I got an e mail from one of the folks that has been flooding it and he was wondering if I could come over this afternoon to clear the snow off and I did. When I got there, a nice sheet of ice was underneath the snow, but I guess it took 3 floods on Friday and 2 yesterday to bring it back to life. After finishing up the clearing, it hit me that this evening might be a great time to go over and do some skating with the family. So when I got back, I asked the girls and they enthusiastically said yes! So after dinner, we got into some outdoor skating attire and headed over to the rink.

Word had gotten out that the rink was back in business and by the time we arrived, the lot was full of vehicles and the ice was busy with skaters. As luck would have it, I received a text from my friend John saying that he and his son Jakob were heading over to skate and were wondering if we wanted to join them. So I let him know of our plans and we all met at around 6. It was really a perfect night for skating. The temps were in the mid teens and a bit of light snow was falling, but not enough to negatively impact the skating. This was my first time skating in some time and it was also done on brand new skates, so my feet did not last too long. I think I was on the ice for around 20-25 minutes before going into the warming hut to change back into my boots. Before I did, we did manage to get a nice group photo of our first skate of the season. We all had a ton of fun and I can see us going over there to skate quite a bit before mother nature pulls the plug for good!

So I think that about covers it for this one. The final bit of info I have to share is that it looks like all of the northern Midwest will be seeing some snow fly early this week. Not a huge storm, but a pretty solid 3-5″ in much of MN, WI, upper and lower MI. Some lake effect then looks to take over for the rest of the week. Probably not epic snows, but by the end of this coming week, we should be back into pretty decent shape with the old snow left over from the thaw buried under at least a foot of fresh. I’ll take it!

Good night from the Keweenaw..

-JD