Yep, that’s right. I’m ready for a change in the weather. Actually, I would be ok with remaining warm to even borderline hot, but am ready for the humidity to head south! The unfortunate thing is it looks like that will not be happening anytime soon. We did get a little break from the heat and humidity for Friday night into Saturday and yesterday and then overnight, the humidity returned and looks to remain in place for the week ahead. We also look to have quite a bit of rain chances in the next 7-10 days. Not that every rain event will pan out, but we do remain very dry up here and it would be nice to see rains fall and help turn things green again or turn the pale green a deeper shade.
I also am continuing to feel the urge for the autumn chill to set in and to ditch the summer wear for jeans and a sweatshirt, I am just not fully there quite yet! Stay tuned though, as I have a feeling in a week or so, I could be fully there, especially if the current forecast holds true.
When we reach the second half of August or even the last week to ten days of the month and it is hot and humid (like we are now) that in just 35-40 days, we could be seeing our first flakes of the season. Things can really change in a hurry up here! I have no ideas yet what this winter will portray for us here. I am hoping for something like this, or this. Those two pictures were from last year after a very snowy period impacted the French and Italian Alps with over 100 inches of snow in around a weeks time. We did have that happen in areas of the Keweenaw last year, during an arctic air outbreak in late January and early February. Of course Jacobsville missed almost all of that snow and even had sunshine when it was dumping buckets along the big snow areas. I think all told, we picked up less than 6″ during that same time frame, but got to enjoy the cold! I think if I win the lottery, I will build a winter camp in the higher terrain of Keweenaw County and stay there when the big dumps are hitting, then come home once I have had my fill!
I do love living in Jake, more so in the summer and autumn than in the winter and early spring. As far as places to be in the Keweenaw in the summer, I have said it before and will say it again, I don’t think you can beat Jake. With the beach, the lower entry, the quiet country roads, it is just a nice slice of paradise. On Friday, I went fishing with some friends. We left at around 7 am and we were blessed with some beautiful sights as we took to the water. To the north, the humidity in the air combined with the cooler water to produce a layer of condensation fog. To the east the sun was just peaking above the treetops and trying to peak through the clouds. All the time, the waters surface was almost like glass. They decided to keep to the Portage Waterway and not hit the big lake, so we took the small boat. Just kidding, that boat was heading up the water way a bit after we got out.
I’m not a big fisherman. I had gotten my license the evening before, but once out on the water I traded a rod and reel for the foot controller of the electric trolling motor. I had never used one and it was pretty fun sitting at the front of the boat, pulling us around by the totally silent motor. They guys caught around a dozen fish. Only one keeper, so they ended up tossing it back in before we returned (the boat has a pair of live wells). However, as most fisherman know, it’s not only about what or how many you catch, it’s about the hunt and being out on the water.
As mentioned in last weeks entry, the blueberries and blackberries are in full swing up here. I talked about how Grace and I went to Poncho’s blueberry farm by Rice Lake to get 10 pounds of already picked blueberries and then this week, Nora, Grace and I headed to a blackberry patch we know of. I would say that the blackberries at that location were just at the beginning of peak. About 70 percent of them were ripe and ready for the picking and the other 30 percent were around 4-5 days away from being ripe.
There are 4 bears roaming the greater Jacobsville area. One that is probably 2-3 years old and the other are much older and much larger. The young one is quite brazen. It came towards our bird feeder early in the summer and Nora yelled at it through the open window and it did not phase it. Bleau gave it a nervous bark or two (he’s not the bravest dog in the world!) and that did not even scare him off. Finally, I got to the window and gave it a good hollering at it and it did turn and run, but not far. It only made it to the shop, where it stopped and turned around to see what was going on. It did eventually leave. Others have had their screen porches broken into by it and one family even had it go into their house! Now, in the bears defense, they did leave their door wide open and there was a bunch of food just inside the door, but that is a pretty bold move for a bear!
The only other activity worth mentioning is that I continue to make progress on the office. Three walls are done and have been for quite some time. The ceiling got finished last week and I hope to get the fourth wall done this week. If all goes well, I hope to even be putting the flooring in later this week. Once the floor is done, then some trim and it is off to the shop to get the dust collection system up and running and things in full working shape. After that, it will be up into the apartment to finish the walls in the bathroom and the electrical. It will still need drywall and once the drywall is done, the flooring can go down. I am not going to do the drywall, so when we reach that point, I will head back down into the shop and put up the siding on the walls there and then start making a new desk and cabinetry for the office. By the time I am done with that, it should be snowmobile season! I will leave you with that beautiful thought!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
