First things first. Here is the picture of the lake effect cloud that I spoke of in last weeks entry. I wrote that entry on the laptop we have in our house and for some reason, once I upload it from that machine, I cannot edit it any more. So lesson learned, no more writing from that PC! I will now vacate my spot in the writer’s chair to make way for my beautiful wife!
Well, I wasn’t really prepared to write this week, which leads me into this….I bet you all didn’t know that writing the journal is rarely a volunteered position. Sometimes we flip a coin, sometimes we swap a chore that the other doesn’t care to do and sometimes it’s taking a break from a “town trip”. Which is the case this week. That, plus John wanted to watch Gracie skate her last winter lesson at Tech until most likely summer. We continue to skate in Calumet through April.
This past weekend was spent in Iron Mountain at their annual skating camp. Gracie went last year but it was cut a bit short due to John’s “finger accident”. She had a great time and it was really a turning point in her love and dedication towards skating. She ended up skating for around 8 hours this weekend. Actually, 9 if you count her Tech ice time. Due to covid I was only able to watch her for a few minutes. It’s so fun to watch all the skaters, all levels, working so hard. It’s also super cool to see the professionals who come to coach and test the skaters. Iron Mountain picks up some pretty impressive skaters! A lot of the older kids are working on their dances and it’s so beautiful to watch them practice their dances, just gliding around the rink. I’m not really sure where Gracie gets her energy from….all that skating this weekend and she’s currently in the back yard shoveling the roof of the shed!
We had a little bit of a scare this week with Huckie. I feel we are on borrowed time with our old friends these days. Like a lot of our other dogs, Huckie’s joints and arthritis will probably be the thing that takes him from this world. He had a real hard time mid week and could barely walk one day. He never shows signs of pain and some times he runs like he’s a pup. We do watch him very closely though. Never do we want any of our dogs to suffer. So I was feeling a bit sad about our old friend and started to look through my photos. It was very obvious looking through the pictures that Gracie and Huck have been buddies all the along the way. I love this picture where her little hand just reaches over to pet him in the truck. He would do that on long trips…ride backwards like she had to in her car seat…lol….And on the rare occasion we didn’t have Gracie in the truck with us, he’d always sit in her car seat! They basically have grown up together….he was only 7 months old when Gracie was born and unlike Gracie, Huckie would sleep anywhere when he was a pup. I remember when Burt was in his final months, a gentleman saw us out on a walk and said, “look at that old guy”. I remember thinking that was odd because he didn’t seem that old looking to me. It wasn’t until I saw this young picture of Huck, and then looked at my friend sleeping at my feet, and saw no longer a young pup but an old, faithful companion. The good news is, Huckie sprung back and is running and even initiated a wrestle with Bleau yesterday.
As mentioned, our deer friends are back and eyeing up the feeders. When I pulled the images from one of our cameras at first I thought this was a cow! Man, that’s a big deer. We do have one deer that surely must be pregnant. So now we have “cow” deer, Anya, Apple, Star….I don’t know how but we can actually tell them apart….And yep, they are still driving Bleau crazy and they clean out the bird feeders on the daily. While we were out of town, we picked up another tube feeder. Those they can’t get into as well. And so far they don’t touch the suet. We also added some feed to the back yard. We won’t be able to do that in the summer as that will encourage the bear to wreck the fence and come close to the house. John and Gracie left for town and the dogs and I took a 30 minute sit in the den. The birds have already found the new feeder and seemed to be very pleased with the berry suet.
I am also happy to report that we have finally come out of the deep freeze! Today I walked the dogs for the first time in probably a week or 2. Not only is it cold for me, but it’s cold for their paws too….Bleau and Huck don’t really seem to mind but Kashi has sensitive little paws. I wasn’t going to take Kashi on the walk today, thinking that Bleau probably really needed a walk. He didn’t go to school on Friday and then was home on Saturday all day. But, as soon as I put Bleau’s collar on, Kashi was at my feet. She followed me around, stopping on occasion to howl at me. As if to say, “mom take me too”. So I reluctantly gave in. I was unsure how she would walk with Bleau at her side. There were times when her and Dune would have words with each other and knowing how Bleau is not her favorite “person”, I just wasn’t sure how it would go. But, it was a success! I think they were both so happy to be out and getting some exercise that neither wanted to grumble at the other. Poor Huckie wanted to go so bad and even ran to the door. I felt terrible but he just can’t make it. He received a chewy treat in place of the walk.
In other news this week, John finally has a surgery date! He’s been waiting since April of last year for this surgery. We are very hopeful that it will fix the a fib and get him feeling back to somewhat of a normal guy. I really don’t know how he does it, other than to say he’s one tough cookie! All the medical issues, major surgeries etc. and he rarely complains. I watch him and know that many days he just doesn’t have the strength or energy to do what he wants to do. So, hopefully in a little over a month he will be on the road to living life to it’s fullest again!
Looking ahead to this weeks weather it sure looks like the Keweenaw will be perfect temps for getting outside. 20’s and 30’s will make alot of people happy around here after the bitter cold. I know we are looking forward to spending some time outside too. You don’t realize how much nature and the outdoors fills you up, until you can’t partake in it. Thankfully there is so much right here for us to soak up.
Well, that’s all I have…always when I write the journal I wonder….anyone still reading who was around for the very first journal?
Good night from Jake~
