First time visitors to the Gunflint Trail often arrive with a cell phone in hand. One of their first questions is "don't you have cell phone coverage?" quickly followed by "How can you live without a cell phone?" Believe us when we say that a much more difficult problem is keeping our computer updated while living nearly "off the grid".

We returned home after an abbreviated Christmas trip to discover that our computer had picked up some unwanted guests. After 5 hours of downloading support programs we discovered that our current Internet security system was not current. Another 3 hours of computer downloading and we finally reached a 115 MB security program update that promised to evict our unwanted guests. We started the program and discovered that it would only take another 23 hours to complete the download. Living with Internet delivered computer program updates and dial-up service is not something we recommend!

Wednesday we unplugged our computer and took it to town where the local computer guru has high speed Internet access. Of course it snowed all day and again today when we went back to town to retrieve our computer. We got to enjoy driving through a winter postcard that is the Gunflint Trail.

I suspect getting our computer fixed after 3 hours of driving time and a day spent without a computer was still faster that what would have happened if we continued to update it using dial-up.

Winter Lights

Anyone who has ever drove up the Gunflint Trail after dark on a cloudy night knows the true meaning of dark --we're talking "can't see you hand in front of your face" here. After driving through a tunnel of dark with only headlights to guide us along we were surprised to see a Christmas Tree glowing in the distance. The only lights to be seen anywhere were from our headlights and the Christmas lights on this tree. We just had to stop and take a picture.

The first thing we noticed after stopping and turning off our headlights was that there is no sound from a hidden generator -- just quiet and dark. No houses, no traffic, no people, and of course no street lights. This tree stands shining along the Trail and begs you to pause and reflect on the important things in life.

After spending a few minutes to enjoy the tree and each other's company we got back in the truck and continued on. We went home so that others would have a chance to enjoy the solitude of the wilderness in the presence of this special tree. Judging by the footprints along the roadway we were not the first to stop near this tree.

Thanks Mr. P.

Animals Looking For Food and Fun

With snow covering the ground and the departure of our summer guests we are starting to have animal visitors that are looking for food. The Martin in this picture is looking for sunflower seeds that might have dropped down from our bird feed -- or maybe he is looking for a mouse that might live under the steps below the bird feeder.

Earlier, this same Martin was playing nose tag with our cat. The Martin was outside running from one patio door window to another. The cat was inside running from window to window to touch the glass opposite the Martin. Definitely an exciting three minutes for all of us!

This morning there was a black wolf walking up the lake looking for food. People were calling neighbors with pets to warn them that a wolf was on the prowl. We see lots of wildlife action in the off season -- especially when the snow is not deep enought to keep the animals from searching our property for food.