Orange, Orange…everywhere!

It’s started! The long awaited color show has finally gotten into swing. We are still not at full peak, but are probably around 65-70% of they way and only 4-5 days off from the peak. This is one of the time of the year where our blessings for being able to live here are nearly impossible to ignore. Not all up here love the snow. Not all up here love the isolation from the rest of the world and not all up here appreciate the day to day natural beauty. However, I have yet to come across anyone that did not marvel at our color show. I probably say it every year, but if you have the chance to get up here to see it, you will not be disappointed. I have been in many other areas of the Midwest and even the country to see their colors. There may be areas where they are comparable, but I have yet to experience any that are better.

I think what adds to the quality of our show, is that you are also not fighting hoards of people to view them. Word has gotten out through various publications (both printed and online) about how fantastic our colors are, but it seems like the hoards of folks still travel to places like Door County, Traverse City…etc. Anyway, I am fully pumped for the color show going on and for the most part, the weather has cooperated nicely for viewing and looks to do so. We did have an all day rain yesterday, but today is cobalt blue skies, as will the next few. I have some pics to share with you all, but plan to get more, along with some video.

The first shot I have is of the road we live on, it was taken a few days ago, when the show was really starting to get ramped up. It is such a joy and privilege to be able to drive down such a beautiful road and turn into our driveway. It is popular to say “living the dream” in a sarcastic manner when asked what you are up to, but for me, there is no sarcasm. In fact, I tend not to use the phrase, as I do not want to confuse people into thinking that I am NOT actually living the dream. Sure, live still has its ups and downs, but I would not trade where I live for anywhere in the world…that is the 100% honest truth.

Upon turning into our driveway, the view seems to only get better. I know I might be biased, but this is the sight we are all treated to as we pull into the parking area in front of our house. That is not even peak colors yet! We do have some trees that are at peak and here is a shot of one of them taken just minutes before I sat down to write. Believe it or not, that is all the pics I personally have taken to share with you, but thanks to local photographer/videographer Mark Upton, I have a few more. He took advantage of the nice weather to get his drone aloft to get some shots of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse, as well as Lake Medora.

I have a few hours of work that I HAVE TO do on the addition tomorrow, but then plan to dedicate much of the next few days to getting some pics from ground and hopefully some footage from the drone. As mentioned, it does look like the weather will be good for flying and I have some ideas of where I want to go. Heck, if I have time, I may even do a special mid-week edition to the journal!

The past week has been kept busy for the entire Dee family by the fact that Gracie auditioned for a play being put on by a traveling theater group from Chicago on Monday and got a part. It’s a pretty amazing job everyone does. The kids all audition on Monday afternoon. Then the first practice occurs for an hour or so after the auditions are done. They then spend the rest of the week having practices from 4-7:30 PM and the first show is Friday night. So in just 5 days, things go from having absolutely no cast or lines known, to being able to perform an entire full-length play. Gracie was involved in a similar play, but it was put on by a traveling theater group from Missoula Montana and I had to miss it because of my travels to Milwaukee for the Snowmobile Show. So I was extra excited to see her perform in this years play!

They had two shows, one Friday night and the other Saturday afternoon. The kids range in age from the early stages of elementary school all the way up into high school. The play they were doing was “Peter Pan” and Gracie was part of the group of crocodiles. Here is a group photo taken after Friday nights performance, Gracie is the crock second from left in the front row. After the show, they also have each group of actors come out and do some poses for everyone to be able to take their pictures, as there is no flash photography allowed during the show. The actors go through different things they all perform through the play and it makes for some good shots. In one of the scenes, all the crocks were suppose to laugh out loud and for anyone that knows Grace, you can imagine that it came pretty naturally to her, but she still did a good job of playing the part. I still laugh when I think about them all doing their best to put out a big old belly laugh!

Grace really enjoys performing like that and I can see her being a part of each traveling theater group that comes to town. The Calumet Theater is a beautiful and perfect spot for these plays to take place and it is really neat to see the bottom floor and parts of the first balcony filled with persons coming to watch the play. After Saturday’s show, we met up with Gracie out in front of the theater and were lucky enough to get a photo with the up and coming actress!

So in addition to the leaf peeping and regular work duties this week, Nora and I…especially Nora…were busy accommodating all of the extra duties the play required of Gracie. I also got some work done on the addition. It is fully insulated and ready for tongue and groove to go up on the walls and ceiling. I sprayed all the walls and ceiling with foam, putting 2″ in the walls and 5″ in the ceilings. The walls then got 3 1/2″ of traditional fiberglass insulation. The floor is actually built as a deck, with 4″ of rigid foam. So it will be nice and tight as well as well insulated. I need to get at least the back walls tongue and groove put up as soon as possible, as that is where the furnace will hang and it looks like the furnace could be going in this week. However, it would be nice to just have it all done and be out of my hair.

There is still some behind the scenes work being done on the website to get it ready for the snow to fly. I am fully aware that none of the trail cams work, nor to the AL Cam and Woods Cam. They are all down for different reasons, but will be brought back to life in the next few weeks. Hopefully sooner in the case of the AL Cam and Woods Cam. I will also be doing an overhaul of the ThinkSnow Store and making all the past journals available again. The new features that I have hinted at in recent posts are also being worked on and will be rolled out soon. I also will be sitting down to produce my “Seasonal Outlook” for the upcoming winter and plan to have that done by Thursday morning. So lots happening and exciting times up this way!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
JD