Happy 2010!

The Sparrow-Finch-Polls are back! I was beginning to think that I'd wasted money on a whole big bag of thistle seed... we've gone through about 10 pounds of sunflower seeds and another 10 of corn for the jays, Canadian jays, grossbeaks and our huge family of hungry chickadees - but not a finch or a sparrow or a red poll have we seen - until this morning. A whole flock of hungry goldfinch arrived bright and early today and ... well, I'm glad the finch feeder was ready for them because they were more than ready for it!

We did have one unusual visitor over the weekend - I've seen them before, but not around here. When I turned on the porch light to let Major out for his bedtime walk I saw the reflection of eyes in the feeder - so I ran for the camera. It's a little hard to get a photo late at night in the dark - but here's a hungry little flying squirrel enjoying a free supper.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and that 2010 will be a great year for you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Mike and I at Rockwood to all of you! Thanks for all your cards and notes - we love hearing from you. Here's hoping the roads are clear wherever you wish to go this holiday season, safe travel, great fellowship, and a wonderful Christmas!



The Gunflint Trail got about 4 inches of snow yesterday and overnight, so Mike's been out blowing the driveway and thinking hard about his snowmobile. He hasn't gotten it started yet this year but now there's probably enough snow - not to mention winter fishing opener coming up so he's got that on his mind!

Getting ready for Christmas

The Christmas tree is up and decorated, yet another year when Mike and I just couldn't stand the thought of cutting down a real one. Guess we lived too many years in a new subdivision located more or less in the middle of an Iowa beanfield - trees take too long to grow for us to cut one down! I've gotten a little sentimental about our artificial tree, anyway - we've had it a long long time. And it's fun to look out the window past the tree and see how nature has decorated the trees outside with snow! We're starting to feel pretty "Christmasy" around here right now!

The lottery for 2010 BWCA permits is open, and we'd be happy to help you with yours! It's the same website as last year - www.recreation.gov . Lottery results will be sent out around January 18.

Snow at home

We're back! We had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving week - saw all the family, enjoyed great dinner, great fellowship... and we're also greatly thankful to be home again on the Gunflint!

The weather was fantastic almost the whole trip, traffic wasn't bad, our truck cooperated - everything was fine. On the other hand, Mike had a little trouble sleeping because of all the noise from cars driving by our relatives' houses, I missed my "pet" grouse and there sure are a lot of yard lights in southern Minnesota, all of Iowa and most of Missouri!

We knew we were getting close to home when we started to see deer along the road near Lutsen, knew we were getting closer when we got to Grand Marais to see a dusting of snow, and were sure we were almost home when we started up the Gunflint Trail in a minor blizzard with the road 100% covered in new snow and no vehicle tracks! There were a LOT of fox and snowshoe hare tracks to welcome us, not to mention a long string of moose tracks wandering down the middle of the road. This morning there's a nice coating of new snow on the lake ice. It must have been warm while we were gone, since there's a bit of open water along the shores of Poplar Lake but we're obviously in winter mode here!

Frosty morning

We woke this morning to beautiful blue sky, lots of sunshine - and a frozen lake! The new ice is like a mirror, almost as clear as still water, but I guess this means the end of fishing until it gets thick enough to walk on. We got a dusting of snow over the weekend and there's still a little in shady spots - winter is definitely headed our way!

We have been helping a neighbor to net, pickle and smoke whitefish this past week. The smoked fish taste pretty darn good but we have to wait awhile to try the pickled fish. Tonight we're going to learn to make fish cakes. Other than that we're pretty well settled in for the winter, waiting for thicker ice and snow for winter activities!

Virginia!

Well, we took advantage of fair weather last week and hauled a load of canoes over to Spring Creek and sold them. Lin got her annual shopping trip to Virginia - several of her favorite stores have branches there - and Mike got his annual trip to L and M Fleet. So we're pretty well stocked for the winter with new jeans, flannel shirts and odds and ends. Also - we got ourselves out of Cook County for the first time since the food show in Duluth back in April. Cook County is a beautiful place and we love living here, but it was nice to see some different scenery for a change.

We met a man at the day-old bread store who was stocking up with four loaves of bread and explaining that he had to plan his shopping because he lives so far out in the woods. He looked at our cart full of bread and said "You must have a deep freeze? That's really stocking up!" We weren't sure he believed us when we told him we really live "in the woods" - thirty miles from town!

Mike celebrated the last day of trout season by taking his pole and his one left over crawler and walking in to Birch Lake. He came home with a limit of trout. There aren't many places where you can take one nightcrawler on a fishing trip and come home with a limit of trout!

The weather the last several days has been great. Mike's gotten some painting done and Lin's been collecting pine needles for her baskets. The cool, damp summer apparently meant that the pine needles got more water and they're unusually long this year - say six or seven inches instead of five or six. The longer needles make basket weaving easier, so there's at least one upside (besides having no campfire restrictions) for a damp summer!

Halloween Day

Well, we're almost buttoned down for the winter. The water lines are drained, the canoes are stored, and the new septic system for Cabins 4 through 7 is just about in! The electrician was here yesterday, just before last night's snowfall, so the new pump is all hooked up.

We got a new camera yesterday, so I can share a photo of our new mound - Mitch and Mike really did a great job - we'll plant a few more trees and we won't even know it's there!

Putting in the new system was quite a job - the weather hasn't exactly cooperated. Lots of rain and not what you'd call warm weather didn't help. Mike did a lot of the "grunt" work so he's pretty worn out... digging trenches, filling in trenches, crawling under cabins to unhook and hook up plumbing etc. wasn't a lot of fun. He's also been working on some cabin foundations - as long as he's under there anyway, why not?

We're hoping to make our annual trip to Mountain Iron with used canoes next week, it's always a great visit with friends and Lin really likes shopping in Virginia. We'll have a whole stack of new Kevlar canoes next spring! In the meantime, isn't the little creek between Cabins 3 and 4 beautiful?

October's Here - and so is the snow!

Well, the cabins are closed for the winter, the water lines are blown and dry... and it's a good thing! We awoke yesterday morning to a light dusting of snow - no big deal, about 1/2 an inch, and it was gone by midmorning, so Jeremy and his group decided to go on out into the BWCA to fish and maybe camp. After all, our moose hunters are still out there ... have been for a week... so why not?

They - and we - woke this morning to about two inches of new snow at their campsite- and it's still snowing! They shared these photos - the first of Rockwood when they arrived back - the second of a portage on the way out this morning. At least the lake was nice and calm! And... they had a great time... lots of good memories to share for years to come!

Incredible Weather

It's been a totally WONDERFUL September. It's so nice... the ducks haven't left yet, they're still lining up every morning at each dock quacking "isn't it breakfast yet?" I fed three when I came down at 7 this morning, and another six at 7:30... good thing there's plenty of leftover "duck bread" that's come in uneaten from canoe trips!

The daytime highs have been in the 70's and the nightime lows - well, it dipped all the way to 47 one night this week. Considering that we occasionally have snow by the 23rd of September... this is awesome! Only fly in my ointment is that my camera died, so I can't share photos of how beautiful it is... the trees around here aren't turning yet, it's so warm!

Still fantastic for canoeing or cabining around here - and the moose are coming out of hiding. There was a big bull wandering along the side of the Gunflint Trail very near us yesterday morning!

Labor Day Weekend

What an incredible morning to start the Labor Day weekend - gorgeous sun, clear skies - and a lake like a mirror! Beautiful! The forecast suggests that this will continue all weekend - that would be fantastic!

We've been very busy, our student helpers, Sean and Brandi, went back to college on Aug. 20, so we've been doing a lot of helping, packing, cleaning, etc. It's been great to have so many wonderful people around - we've had guests recently from Germany, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, the Virgin Islands... as well as Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin! After a slow start, it's turning out to be a great summer.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Beautiful mornings!

August is here... and we're pretty busy! Lots of canoe trips, lots of people having great vacations - it's being a great month! The early mornings have been beautiful - gorgeous mist on the lake. It's wonderful to be here!

Fishing

Plenty busy around here this past week - lots and lots of canoe trips, lots of people enjoying cabin life - and the fishing is finally improving! Cole caught this nice bass last night right between Cabin 2 and the lodge!

Two gifts

I had a pleasant "gift" when I came down to the lodge yesterday morning - a huge, beautiful, light green luna moth was perched on the lightpole just under our flag. About once a year I see one there... such a beautiful creature!

So I looked around and there was a little girl - I asked her if she liked luna moths and she said "what's a luna moth?" So I showed her and she was delighted.

Two gifts - a beautiful luna moth for me and someone to share it with!

Lots going on...

Sunshine, a bit breezy, but a busy, happy week here! Our boy scout troop from Iowa had a great BWCA experience, other old (and some new) friends also had fun on their visits/canoe trips. Lots of moose wandering around Caribou, Horseshoe and Meeds lakes... one group had a moose visit their campsite to check them out!

Two groups had interesting encounters with turtles, it must be "nesting" season for turtles! I understand it's a little disconcerting to hear an odd scratching noise right in front of your tent door in the middle of the night and look out to see a big snapping turtle busily digging a hole for her eggs! They said that they could hardly tell that she'd been there come morning, she'd done such a good job of disguising her new nest.

Mike's new sauna gets an "A+" rating from our friends from Dallas who are originally from Finland, so I guess he did a really good job on it. It's nice to have it up and running again!

Seems hard to believe it's already mid-July, but it's certainly being a wonderful summer!

Visitors

What a wonderful week! We had some very special visitors. A Canadian Lynx has been wandering around the resort this week... several of our guests have seen him! As one surprised guest reported "That's the biggest, most beautiful cat I've ever seen!" I haven't managed to see any more than something rather large disappearing into the woods, but two guests, two canoeists and our grandson have all seen that long-legged, short tailed, crazy earred creature either walking on the resort road or sitting on a rock next to the road! It's very exciting to see a lynx, we see their tracks quite often in winter snow, but this is the first we've seen in daylight.

Our other special visitors were our son, daughter, and two grandsons - they even brought Mother along for the week! We had a great time exploring and canoeing and just being together. A highlight of the visit was a trip to Grand Portage National Monument. One of the guides was kind enough to take the time to demonstrate a flint-lock rifle for us and explain all about "gunflints". Now we know why the "Gunflint" area was so exciting to the Voyageurs - at the trading post a flintlock rifle only cost 10 beaver pelts, while the English flint to make it work cost a whole beaver pelt all by itself! Finding a source for free flint must have been like finding a whole bunch of beaver they didn't have to trap!

When the guide found out we came from the Gunflint, he got out his tinder box, pulled out one of "our" red jasper flints, his firecloth and his steel striker, and, with the help of the boys blowing on the spark, started a fire with our flint! It was exciting, and really brought the history of the Gunflint Trail home!

Boundary Waters Families

What fun! Our weekly Boundary Waters Families Paddle and Lunch event this past week was a great success - lots of fun! We took families out to an island in Poplar Lake to visit a campground, enjoy a picnic lunch, and learn a little about camping in the wilderness. Here, Mike and Sean are just starting out with guests for the island. Our other summer intern, Brandi, was waiting on the island with lunch. The families had a great time, and so did we!

MOOSE!

The moose are out! We've been seeing them all over the place - as we're driving down the Gunflint Trail, hiking on the South Lake Trail, on our way to drop off or pick up canoe trips - all over the mid-Trail area! And... they've mostly been bull moose - big ones! It's exciting to see so many bull moose around... and good to see a couple cows too - one of them has twins!

We're also seeing quite a few "teenage" bears - apparently the mama bears have kicked out the yearling cubs and they're also wandering around here trying to make it on their own. It's definitely a good idea to hang your food pack out of their way - they're looking for food!

And... it's finally warm around here, too!

Great week!

Lots of things going on the past few days! Boy Scout Troop 152 from Sioux Falls, SD had a wonderful six day trip from Cross Bay to Rockwood - here they are on the beach at Rockwood unloading and sorting through their stuff. Great bunch of Scouts!

In the meantime, all the cabins were full and everyone was having fun - lots of canoeing, fishing, and relaxing happening around the resort.

Another group of guests ran into a whole mess of walleye on their canoe trip - caught enough to take home! Congrats to the Engelmeyers on finding some VERY nice fish!

Lawn mowing season has arrived!

In other words, the grass is growing, the trees are leafing out, there are a few flowers blooming - it's gorgeous up here at Rockwood! The fish are cooperating - some of the time - but then that's why they call it fishing? One of our guests got several nice bass off the dock in front of this cabin.

Our summer staff has arrived and are quickly getting into the swing of helping run a small family resort in the wilderness - so lots of little projects are getting done.

And, to make things even more interesting, there's a good sized bull moose wandering along the South Lake Trail just across the road!

Memorial Weekend's coming!

What a perfect morning! One of our guests (Thanks, Carl) snapped this photo of his cabin bright and early - the lake was still and clear as glass... perfect weather for canoeing, fishing, or just relaxing at Rockwood! We're full for the holiday weekend, so it's been a very busy week... our guests have been exploring the hiking trails, relaxing, canoeing, and generally enjoying watching Spring arrive.

Open Water!

We woke this morning to a wonderful sound... water lapping against the dock in front of our house! The past several days we've been enjoying what I call the "ice tea" noise - little chunks of ice rattling against the edge of the "big freeze" - sounds just like ice in a glass of iced tea!

We had a little bit of wind last night and it cleared all the ice cubes away... we have open water! The ducks will be so pleased! I can't tell whether it's open all the way across, but our bay looks like its summer self again!

Happy May Day!

It's melting! We actually have a few feet of water along the shore! Spring is getting close!

Busy Week

I promised myself I wouldn't mention the "s" word again, but I have to say that it certainly made the first part of our annual trip to the food show in Duluth interesting! The road reports from Grand Marais to Duluth were good, so we decided to ignore the wet, nasty, white six inches of new "s-word" on Monday morning and go. The plow trucks hadn't been past yet so getting to Grand Marais was a bit of an adventure - Mike said he was proud of me as I only mentioned once that we were going down the road sort of sideways.

I always enjoy sampling things and picking out goodies for our outfitting trips at the food show, not to mention my new cleaning stuff shopping sweep through Duluth's big box stores. In the meantime, Mike gets to pick up all sorts of maintenance things... it's a bit of a break for us to get away and remember how much we like driving in traffic and waiting at stoplights. The trip home was wet, we had rain most of the way until, of course, we got back on the Gunflint Trail. Yup, more "s-word", but the plows had cleared the roadway so travel wasn't difficult. It's a big improvement over waiting at a "left turn yield on green" sign through two or three stop light intervals!

Then Mike had a committee meeting on Tuesday, I got to go to the BWCA Cooperators' meeting at the ranger station on Thursday - we were out and about more than usual! The new permit system seems to be pretty straightforward and I'm looking forward to testing it later this week.

The ground is slowly appearing as the white stuff receded - the rain we've had on and off this weekend has helped there - and we've seen about six inches of water at the edge of the lake on warm days. This cute little guy has been wandering around the house yard the last couple days - good thing grouse season is in the fall! The temporary fence is supposed to keep our bird dog from wandering off on a hunt and of course the grouse is inside the fence within the dog's area. It's easy to see why they call grouse "fools hens"!

Hints of Spring

Despite the fact that we still have knee-deep snow around
here, there are hints of spring starting to show up everywhere. The snow piles are shrinking, there's a bit of grass showing along their edges, and the mail lady reports that the skunks are coming out of hibernation - she's seen quite a few along the road this week. The red squirrels have been very active, and judging from the tracks, so have the snowshoe hares. "Beep Beep," the little owl, is still nearby and still calling for a friend.

The population around the bird feeders is changing - we're seeing quite a few new guests. There are juncos and purple finches and another bird I can't identify - and another new guest. The fox has been up on the porch several times looking in the windows and he's also been prowling around under the feeders. He's certainly a handsome fellow - if a lazy one - looking for a handout?

Fish!

Monday was absolutely gorgeous - warm, sunny - a perfect day to go fishing! Nice, easy snowmobile trip to the edge of the BWCA, nice half mile hike into a small lake, cooperative fish - a wonderful day! Finally we have the fish picture we promised in an earlier blog! You can see the sunshine - and shirtsleeves - and the beautiful lake trout.

Well, the trout tasted so good at dinner Monday night... and Tuesday was the last day of the trout season... and the forecast was for 1-2 inches of new snow - mostly flurries... so Mike and friends bundled up a bit, grabbed the tackle and gear, and off they went again for a mid-morning fishing trip.

They'd hardly gotten the sleds started and headed up the trail when someone pulled the zipper on the clouds. It started snowing hard. And then it snowed harder. And then the wind started blowing. One hour into the trip we had over two inches of new snow and visibility was down to a third of a mile if that. And it kept snowing.

The fish had been biting and "what's a little snow?" so... they kept fishing. By noon it was coming down at 2 inches per hour and blowing harder. By the time they decided that "a little snow" had turned into "a lot of snow" there was over 8 inches of new stuff on that nice easy hike into the BWCA... and it wasn't what you'd call an easy hike any more, more like a heavy slog, especially in wet snowmobile suits and parkas. Crossing the lake to the landing where they left the sleds was an adventure with blowing snow and visibility minimal. Digging the sleds out of the new snowbanks and getting them started was another adventure.

The fish are delicious, the winter trout season is over - and it's still SNOWING! As of this morning we had at least 14 inches of new snow (it's hard to tell because it's blowing too and there are a lot of drifts) and it's still coming down in big wet flakes. Mike and his snowblower are getting a getting a real workout clearing the driveway and a path to the house, the siskenfinchpolls are hitting the feeders in dozens and Lin is just as glad to be inside.

He's Back!

The other night I put the dog out... and there was that noise again... "beep beep beep beep"... sounds just like the backup alarm on a utility vehicle, or worse, the overflow alarm on a septic tank. Several years ago - the first time we heard it - we checked every tank on the resort to make sure we weren't having a spring overflow problem - the beeping seemed to be moving around and we couldn't catch up to it. This is not a fun thing to do in the middle of the night with knee to hip deep snow and five or six tanks with alarms on our 11 plus acres! "Beep Beep Beep" - never stopping - no vehicles backing up, no alarm lights flashing, what on earth?

It's a saw-whet owl, is what. A tiny, persistent and lonely little saw-whet owl trying very hard to make contact with another saw-whet owl. Calling out "beep beep beep," flitting from tree to tree, searching for a mate. Late winter/early spring is courting season for saw-whets - and what a mating call! I don't suppose it bothered anyone until the advent of back up alarms on vehicles and septic tank alarms, but now!

The neighbor's dog was reacting the same way we did the first time we heard the calls - since she's a dog we heard "bark bark beep beep bark beep" - meaning, we assume, "someone please come and take care of this alarm going off, please!" Poor lonely little owl - I hope he finds a mate SOON!

Fishing and Mushing

Mike's been out fishing several times this past week. He says it's a real challenge! There's enough slush between the snow cover and the ice that the auger barely works; he starts drilling and water pours into the hole - sort of over-lubricating the cut! On the other hand, there are enough holes already dug in the ice that all he really needs is a crow bar - just punch out the ice in the existing hole and fish - of course, it's a smaller hole than he's used to. Getting down the hill to Birch Lake is also challenging - steep, slippery, and hard walking. You can see by the picture that the trail is still a bit rough!



We enjoyed the Mush for the Cure last weekend. We went up to Iron Lake where the dog teams were running close to the road and there was a good place to watch. One little guy kept us entertained between teams. He cheered "DOGGIE!" the minute he saw a team in the distance. His parents may regret bringing him, though, midway through the race his cheer changed to "WANT DOGGIE!" and by the time this beautiful matched white team came by his cheer became "WANT THAT DOGGIE!" It was a great day to be out and fun to have the teams to watch.

Measuring snow

A few people have been asking if there's still enough snow on the Gunflint Trail for skiing and snowmobling. The short answer is "YES". There will probably be plenty of snow here for the foreseeable future too!

The measuring stick Lin is holding is an official "snow stick" from the National Weather Service office in Duluth; it's 36 inches long and as you can see there's something over 36 inches of snow behind it. The official Duluth Weather Service website is www.crh.noaa.gov/dlh/ and it has a local forecast option so you can click on a spot on the map and get a seven day forecast for that area; you can also get reports from the snow spotters in the Duluth area. During the snowstorm this week Lin got to make snowfall reports just about every hour on the hour - we got 9.5 inches!

Thinking SPRING!

Despite the recent presence of polar bears on the trail - during the annual Winter Tracks Festival last weekend, which was a great time for all! - we're starting to think about spring here at Rockwood.

Mike has been working on the sauna building (and riding his snowmobile back and forth from the shop to the sauna and back again - sure beats walking!) and figuring out how to install the new stove. Mostly he works for a while, thinks for a while, works for a while and thinks for a long while, but it's coming.

In the meantime, Lin is really thinking spring. All she could think about when we moved into the owners' cabin at Rockwood was, "WOW, a GREENHOUSE LIVING ROOM!" Lin's always wanted a greenhouse and this south facing room with all the floor to ceiling windows is the next best thing, So... this week all the "dead" planters came up from the basement storage area, the plants got cut back and cleared of dead leaves and blooms, fertilized, watered, and set on the floor in front of the windows. Just a few planters - somewhere between 30 and 40 of them, mostly with teeny little baby leaves and a few blooms. With a little luck and a little care and a lot of sunshine and water we'll have lots and lots of pretty flowers again this year at Rockwood!

Sounds of Silence

Lin got to ride along with a friend to spend a couple days in the Cities this past week - shopping, a quick visit to Mall of America, haircut - and came home very glad to be living on the Gunflint Trail! The traffic, the slick streets (around here the only thing sharing the road when it's slick is the occasional moose or deer) and the noise and lights... it was very good to get home to starlight and silence. As we unloaded the truck (I did mention shopping, didn't I?) the only sound was the crunch of our feet on the snow and the moonlight was bright enough to find our way down to the house without flashlights.


Sometimes it's so still you think you can hear your thoughts, while the stars have been so bright the sky looks coated with them. And during the day you can eavesdrop on the birds' conversations, right now the siskenfinchpolls are discussing whose turn it is to eat from the feeders and whose turn it is to check the ground. You can even hear the flap flop flap of the little birds' wings as they fly onto the feeder.

It's snowing today, so the world is white and very very quiet - here is the view from our deck looking out towards the lake.







Mike has been fishing a couple times, demonstrating why they call it "fishing", I guess. Going fishing is quite a project this time of year, he has to carry his ice auger and all his gear down the trail, down the "cliff" to the lake, wade through deep snow and then drill his holes with an auger that seems to need sharpening. He's met several new neighbors - and they weren't catching anything either. But it's lovely to get out and enjoy the sunshine and the quiet.

I guess spring is coming. Right now it's perfect outdoor weather - temperatures in the twenties, several sunshiny days - gorgeous for snowshoeing, skiing, snowmobiling and enjoying the silence!

Weatherly week

Not much happening around here this week - except trying to keep the driveway and paths open. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were warm, with light rain and sleet on and off, never enough to matter but enough to soften the snowpack and create huge nasty ruts when we drove in and out. Wednesday it cooled down enough so that Mike used the snowblower to even out the ruts - it was nasty snowblowing that wet, heavy snow but better than trying to blow ice ridges when the ruts have refrozen!

So it's been indoor work for us, I've got the outfitting food for 2009 ordered and have been interviewing prospective employees. We've offered jobs to a great young couple from Iowa to help us this summer. Mike's been organizing and starting work on taxes and this afternoon he started installing the new sauna stove (see 1-4-09 post).

The sun can start shining any time - after a week of our beautiful black and white world we're ready for black, white, and blue! If the sun comes out next week Mike plans to start fishing Birch Lake for splake - pictures to follow?

Walking on water

This week Mike has been testing the theory that it's easier to straighten a dock if you stand ON the water rather than IN the water. (The water is way over his head at the end of this dock.) The dock sits on a rock-filled crib that rests on a large "Volkswagen" sized rock. The crib and the dock have almost slipped off the large rock and need to be put back in place.

Mike has frozen an anchor post into the ice on the left and is using a "come along" to pull the dock to the east to a temporary post that sits on top of the base rock. The stick at the end of the dock shows how far the dock had slid.

Then he bolts the dock down to the post and starts to position a second temporary post - he still has to chip out the ice down to the rock and bolt the post into position. Hopefully, when we have water he can no longer walk on - the dock will be nice and straight and we can rebuild the support crib.

Nothing like a little exercise on a nice sunny day!

Signs of "Spring" on the Gunflint

Happy Groundhog Day! If there are any ground hogs up here, which we doubt, none of them would have seen their shadows this morning - we were getting a very pretty, very light, blanket of new snow. We've not seen a groundhog around - ground squirrels, yes, in several varieties including Franklin's Ground Squirrel, which rather resembles a very ugly squashed ground hog. They didn't see their shadows this morning either!

However - we did - both of us - see a robin! Here's hoping the combination - no shadows (and nice clean snow) plus one very stupid, thoroughly chilled robin means an early spring and great canoeing and cabining weather! In the meantime, Lin has just volunteered for the National Weather Service as a snow spotter so she got to call in her first snowfall report - and see the first sign of spring - on the same day.

Mush!

Our excitement this week was having the annual John Beargrease 400 mile sled dog race in our front yard. The race is the longest and most challenging sled dog race in the lower 48 states, with entrants from across the country and Canada. Sadly, we discovered that watching the race from our front deck was a non-event as the dogs raced across Poplar Lake in the middle of the night! Sled dog racing - at least from our house - isn't a spectator sport.

We decided to go down to Trail Center to see the dogs and mushers bed down for their required rest stop before their late (or early morning) departure. It was really interesting, the dogs were very quiet - of course, they'd were pretty tired after mushing all day. We were also surprised to see that they were also much smaller and much thinner than we expected, but some had some bounce left!

We took a couple of pictures, trying not to bother the dogs - who had only two things on their minds - dinner and a rest! I was interested to see that one musher had built a snow fort around his truck to shelter his dogs from the wind. Dinner is obviously not ready yet and the straw bale is destined to become dog beds.

The teams pulled out of Trail Center around midnight, ran up Poplar Lake to Gunflint Lake, across Gunflint and down to Loon and back down to Devil Track Lake. From there it was across to Sawbill, over to Finland and back to Duluth - about 400 miles in around 4 days. We were told that the dogs really enjoyed the good weather - temperatures ranging from a high around 19 above to a low around minus 15 with not a lot of wind and no new ice or snow during the race, just perfect powdery snow on the trails.

Winter canoe adventure

Since yesterday was such a nice day we decided to make our long delayed trip to Mt. Iron with last year's well used canoes. Just getting started was quite a process - first Mike had to dig them out of the snow banks down by the lake, then portage them up the hill through knee deep snow. The trailer had to be dug out of its snow bank and towed over to the drive, loaded, and tires filled with air, not to mention thawing out the hitch and the safety chain holes.

I really should have taken the camera along with us. Thanks to all the slush and sand and salt on the roads - by the time we arrived those canoes were not only "dead" but buried as well! Mike literally had to chip the straps out to get them off the trailer. What with the slush, ice and road salt we had our own ice cream freezer - just a trifle short of sugar!

We must have been the most popular attraction on the road. We had visions of people calling their friends to say "You won't believe what I just saw! A pickup towing a canoe trailer full of snow covered canoes!" By the time we got to Mt. Iron we felt we were drawing a crowd. Maybe there is a future in winter canoeing - sort of a cross between tobogganing and skiing?

Anyway, the old canoes are sold and the new canoes are on order to arrive by spring. Now all we have to do is clear a new path through the upper yard so we can re-park the trailer!

Siskinfinchpolls

It’s early morning, 26 below outside but warming up. Our digital thermometer remembers how cold it was (or how hot) in the past 24 hours. Last night the low temperature reading was 31 below. Someone is going to have to go out and fill the bird feeders as we'll have a rather hungry crowd later this a.m. Lin says that someone hung the finch feeder just out of her reach so I guess the someone filling the feeders will be me!

The birds are … grateful and enjoying our bounty. Yesterday we looked out the window and there were three jays on the garbage can corn feeder, three grosbeaks on the sunflower seed feeder, six siskinfinchpolls (pine siskins, assorted purple or gold finches and red polls – it’s really hard to tell them apart so we've settled on calling them siskinfinchpolls) on the thistle feeder, and a chickadee and a nuthatch on the millet seed feeder. On the ground underneath the feeders were more siskinfinchpolls and grosbeaks than we wanted to count! We have entirely too many dependents all of a sudden!

Sauna Furnace and Winter Fun

We finally found a gas sauna furnace. Now all we have to do this winter is hook it up and then find and install a thermostat and timer. Hopefully, it will be ready to go this Spring. Meanwhile a neighbor gave us a 25 year old snowmobile that only needed a few repairs.

If you look closely at the picture of the outfitting building you'll see tracks where the snowmobile has make it out on the lake. Looking at the sauna building you might notice that the snow is 3 feet

deep and the lack of tracks which might indicate that we haven't been inside to install the new sauna furnace. It's a good thing that Winter up here in the BWCAW will last for four more months. We promise that the sauna will be ready this Spring.