King Leonardo
All long time readers or anyone who has visited the observatory or our house know the King and his brother Itchy.
Unfortunately Lenny died Sunday April 27 from health issues that just piled up and was too much for him.
He was well loved and will be sorely missed maybe most by his brother, they have never been apart.
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Now the weather
It's getting harder to convince my wife Pat that the move to Grand Marais was a good idea
We have been on tracks since late November and I don't see getting off them till end of May.
Six months of not being able to drive her car to the house is getting very old!
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This was almost a daily site, our snow total is over 180 inches this year and snow is still in the forecast. We have had 18 inches in the last 12 days.
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weekly snow removal from the dome
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and cabin
Jim started to worry about his deck so we went down to clear it off
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Took half a day just to get the path to his house
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We opened the deck door and started shoveling
4 to 5 feet of snow on the deck
January 10th, 2014. The moron season started with this guy buried in our road. He was driving a truck with tires that most people up here wouldn't drive on Highway 61 in the winter. Best of all he was towing a 2 place snowmobile trailer with a sled on it!
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He got stuck sometime Thursday afternoon, I came upon the truck Friday morning, no sign of people no note, nothing!
I was stuck with no way to drive around it, I was just standing there wondering what to do when someone roars up on a snowmobile.
Turns out he was from the local snowmobile club that grooms our trails around here. He had received a call from this skilled driver wanting his truck and trailer pulled out.
The club member explained to me what had happened. Once stuck they offloaded their sled and went for help, first was a call for a tow truck. The tow rig showed up and told them there was not a chance of getting it out.
By then it was getting late so the tow truck driver took them to Cascade Lodge so they could get a room for the night.
From there they made the call to the snowmobile club asking for assistance, which is why this guy came out to try to find the truck Friday morning.
Now it's 10:00 am Friday and with the truck located, the call went out for the groomer an ETA of 3:00 that afternoon there was nothing for me to do but go back to the house.
At 3:00 I went back to watch the show. First to get pulled out was the trailer, no big deal, then came the truck.
Chained to the groomer with the owner in the driver seat they had to drag the truck out backward for a 1/2 mile, shedding body trim parts the whole way out
Glad it wasn't my truck!
Big thanks to the Lutsen Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club,
not only for getting rid of that truck but for repairing my road, they did a great job!
I know this little mess up cost that wayward traveler around a $1000.00
After this our neighbors Lonnie and Loren were kind enough to paint up a sign to hopefully keep others from making the same mistake.
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Must have been too polite because three more drivers went right on by over the next two weeks so we tried a second sign .
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Apparently this was clear enough to end the madness.
As far as the fishing opener goes
forget it!
Not only will the lake still be ice covered but the road won't even be clear.
A home owner at the other end of the lake drilled a hole few days ago and found we have still over 20 inches of ice.
Last summer Jim gave us a nice remote weather station
so when WTIP (local radio station) asked for weather reports from around the county I started emailing in a report every morning.
I usually turned in the report around 6:00 am , at first it was fun but it soon got depressing.
For a total of 10 reporting days in December
we had only 2 days above 0,
coldest was -24
January
We had a total of 9 days above 0
coldest -29
February
We had a total of 8 days above 0
coldest -33
March
We had a total of 20 days above 0
coldest -25
I have to believe the mud season is going to be long one, snow melting has been gradual but getting rain now and for the next few days.
We might try to get the green house up next week, this time last year it was already full of nice green plants by now.
I can tell you living up here would kill a normal person!
He was well loved and will be sorely missed maybe most by his brother, they have never been apart.
Now the weather
It's getting harder to convince my wife Pat that the move to Grand Marais was a good idea
We have been on tracks since late November and I don't see getting off them till end of May.
Six months of not being able to drive her car to the house is getting very old!
Jim started to worry about his deck so we went down to clear it off
January 10th, 2014. The moron season started with this guy buried in our road. He was driving a truck with tires that most people up here wouldn't drive on Highway 61 in the winter. Best of all he was towing a 2 place snowmobile trailer with a sled on it!
I was stuck with no way to drive around it, I was just standing there wondering what to do when someone roars up on a snowmobile.
Turns out he was from the local snowmobile club that grooms our trails around here. He had received a call from this skilled driver wanting his truck and trailer pulled out.
The club member explained to me what had happened. Once stuck they offloaded their sled and went for help, first was a call for a tow truck. The tow rig showed up and told them there was not a chance of getting it out.
By then it was getting late so the tow truck driver took them to Cascade Lodge so they could get a room for the night.
From there they made the call to the snowmobile club asking for assistance, which is why this guy came out to try to find the truck Friday morning.
Now it's 10:00 am Friday and with the truck located, the call went out for the groomer an ETA of 3:00 that afternoon there was nothing for me to do but go back to the house.
At 3:00 I went back to watch the show. First to get pulled out was the trailer, no big deal, then came the truck.
Chained to the groomer with the owner in the driver seat they had to drag the truck out backward for a 1/2 mile, shedding body trim parts the whole way out
Glad it wasn't my truck!
Big thanks to the Lutsen Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club,
not only for getting rid of that truck but for repairing my road, they did a great job!
I know this little mess up cost that wayward traveler around a $1000.00
After this our neighbors Lonnie and Loren were kind enough to paint up a sign to hopefully keep others from making the same mistake.
As far as the fishing opener goes
forget it!
Not only will the lake still be ice covered but the road won't even be clear.
A home owner at the other end of the lake drilled a hole few days ago and found we have still over 20 inches of ice.
Last summer Jim gave us a nice remote weather station
so when WTIP (local radio station) asked for weather reports from around the county I started emailing in a report every morning.
I usually turned in the report around 6:00 am , at first it was fun but it soon got depressing.
For a total of 10 reporting days in December
we had only 2 days above 0,
coldest was -24
January
We had a total of 9 days above 0
coldest -29
February
We had a total of 8 days above 0
coldest -33
March
We had a total of 20 days above 0
coldest -25
I have to believe the mud season is going to be long one, snow melting has been gradual but getting rain now and for the next few days.
We might try to get the green house up next week, this time last year it was already full of nice green plants by now.
I can tell you living up here would kill a normal person!
