Happy New Years!

Happy New Years to all and yes we're still alive,

although I'm typing this blog with the use of just one arm.

The lack of a left arm is the result of a high speed cross country ski crash that ended 

with a half day visit to our local emergency room.

The trial description called the run "a gentle incline stretch followed by a  long glide back to the parking lot".

Let me interpret this language for you.:

"a very long  steep uphill sucky part, followed by a rocket fast scary death run back to your car!"

After whezzing my way to the summit, I took a little time to gather my thoughts, my air, my courage and let my ears pop. Pointing down hill, I stepped into the track of death , lifted my poles and was gone in a flash.

After breaking the 150 mile per hour mark I began to make what I hoped to be life saving adjustments, :

I pulled down my goggles, tucked my poles under my arms, got my hands out in front and dropped into my high speed aerodynamic tuck.

However, these adjustments had just the opposite affect I had hope for, not only did they not seem to be life saving it sadly just allowed the speed to quickly pass into the high 200 mph mark. 

At 300 miles per hour things started going horribly wrong, hat and goggles peeled off my head, eyes now blurry, the buffeting ski tips chattering in the icy tracks, it was just horrifying,  but then, for just a split second, everything was fine.

silent, everything went quit and peaceful, almost floating like an out of body experience which was interrupted by impact, not some little impact, more like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs type of  impact.

 I was in the middle of a body part survey as Pat made her way into the strewn field that was my gear spread down the hill for hundreds of yards. Now at first she found the sight of her 31 year companion,  4 days after their 25th year wedding anniversary, to be somewhat funny, which was quickly replaced with the realization that I was hurt, I'd be really hard to get out of the woods and she had left her gun in the truck so just shooting me on the trail and leaving for the wolves wasn't an option.

She helped with ski removal, then gathered all my stuff off the hill and we set off walking to the truck followed by a trip to the hospital. The emergency room story itself is a great one, but for now I'll keep it private since I may need their help again.

So here I sit with a badly injured left shoulder but I have learned a few things, skiing up hill sucks, skiing down hill sucks, crashing sucks, a bad shoulder sucks and going to the hospital sucks.

(speeds in story are approximated)

Summer recap

Fishing and boating

The last post in May we had just launched both boats and this year turned out to be great for both fishing and sight seeing year. We are happy to report that fishing at Deeryard Lake has become a Stuart Smith grand kid approved destination spot and this year we entertained the whole clan.

Crew number one,

Stuart & Anita, Shannon & Barry with Emily 15: William 12: and Matthew 9:

Crew number two,

Stuart & Anita, Stacey, Jeff with Crawford 13: Forrester 11: and Robert 8:

Both trips were blessed with good weather, good fishing, great fun and no one got hurt, which is better then they ever do on the alpine slide at the Lutsen ski hill

We also had Tom Christensen with his grandson Soren, his neighbor 

Pete and his son Eric

unfortunately fishing was just slow but the night was fun.

Then came Conner.

I received a call from my friend Gregg wondering if I would take his wife's cousins son from Philadelphia out fishing. They showed up, Gregg, his brother, his wife's cousin and Conner.

We got lucky on this trip, turns out Conner was the only skilled angler in the boat and

he put the rest of his group to shame.

I think the only reason he hangs around with that bunch is Gregg has a nice truck and buys the minnows,  juice boxes and chips

Well the day after the fishing trip, Conner had his driver take him into town were he had a t-shirt

made for me that I now use as my seat cover in the observatory:

Thanks Conner

"NUFF SAID"

We also had many sight seeing trips including Tom Christensen, his dad from Arizona, two daughters, stepson and some grandkids. Other trips included my mom and sister Kathy and more.

Later in the year we pulled the seats out so the pontoon could be used as a barge for installing 

over a mile of fiber optic cable in the lake.

spool one

spool 2

Down the lake we go.

Just waiting for next year

Along with the water drop the fiber is now down the road and run to the houses and observatory

It's still not up and running but we're closer then last year and we need it bad . Our Verizon internet and phone service has been dreadful.

Part of the summer projects included removing and replacing  9 windows, 2 doors and 2 storm doors in the cabin.

This included all new trim work and paint.

The observatory had a small open house for the neighbors so supporters could go in both buildings and see it first hand.

Turn out was good

with great food, drink and fire

Flower and vegetable gardens went very well and I have to say we learned a lot

The fall steel head fishing was good, here is just a few photos from the last day in Wisconsin

My net man Doug

Doug's net man swishy Chuck

Chuck 

Great fall colors on Deeryard

Bird feeder back up for winter now with Christmas lights

Thanksgiving with Jim and Michele

and a large bacon wrapped turkey that was very moist.

1st ice

1st snow

Was notified by Full Tilt Power I could start playing  as LayDownSally again but only for play money right now

Sold Pats 20th wedding anniversary present,

I'll bet most of you don't even know that a snow plow is the 20th year gift

Our cat Itchy has found a new friend at the feeder. After losing our resident buck last year, named appropriately Bucky, I have named this new one Tulip, this name is for the 50 tulips Pat planted this fall that he will eat this spring.

Spent a fun Christmas week in the cities with the entire family, then back up north for our 25th anniversary

which now brings us back to.

SKIING UP HILL SUCKS, SKIING DOWN HILL HURTS

Sorry for the lack of writing I'll try to do more

Spring Time Work

Wow, 

one busy spring. 

I've been putting in some time working in the warm room work along with some software practice
and education, but I still have a ways to go on that front.

 We have finished trimming out the last windows and upper wall and are concentrating on just getting everything moved in.

The shelf system worked out well.

Part of the spring work load around here includes:

so maybe it's not all work!

We also had to deal with the fact that our composter is not Pine Martin proof!

He loves to poke his head out to see if the coast is clear.

We did get both boats ready, launched and water tested.

It's been years since I have unwrapped and ran my poor John boat,
it took a bit of work but it now runs great,

this is the year.  I'm either going to fish it or sell it.

The pontoon launched without incident and started right up.

(Thank you Yamaha)

We also replaced 7 windows in the cabin before the bug season. The new windows are wonderful

with larger glass panes, lo-E treatment and very fine screens.

After that we pulled down our winter bird feeder. Limited deck space combined with blocking the view meant it had to go.

Bird feeder loaded up for it's truck ride out to the storage building till next winter.

We received countless hours of enjoyment from the feeder and it's design will continue
to evolve year after year.

Then came the flower gardens.

Last years dirt work included two more large terraced rock gardens along  and a few pockets along the driveway edges suitable for planting, suitable that is with the exception of dirt with color and rocks removed.

Pat worked hard prepping the sites and defining the edges with rocks.

We attended the DFL convention in Duluth the weekend of May 6th and got very lucky to find a Duluth composting site, open on Sunday with a bobcat to load our empty pick-up for the low low  price of $27.00 a yard.

So we are now proud owners of a steaming pile of compost in the back of our truck.

After we  unloaded this pile it was very clear we are at least one truck short of of what we needed so  we planned another trip.

Trip two included plants and another yard of compost.

Pat's new tulips have just bloomed. 

Even the window boxes are done.

 Sorry for the lack of observatory news but life up here is fluid and  dealt with day by day.
Getting things done before the bug' get bad is very important,  as a matter of fact there is a half an hour in the spring and anther in the fall where you can be outside naked without being cold or bite by bugs and last Sunday from 11:00 to 11:30 am was it!

Sorry if you missed it, there's always next year.

One last thing,

 I know I said I would not get political in this blog but I have to brag.

Cook County sends 6 delegates to the District 8 precinct convention and they only have 1/2 votes, so we get a total of 3 votes.

At this convention there was a total of  176  votes, so when one of our delegates wanted to be elected as a delegate to the DFL convention in Charlotte NC I was concerned that our 3 votes couldn't carry it off.

Well the combined efforts from our table campaigning and a great speech from our delegate we are sending Denny Fitzpatrick to the national convention.

Denny and Al Franken

Congratulations Denny!

Short Mud Season, Ice Off & Green House

Well I haven't done anything with the observatory in weeks but I do have a boatload of excuses
 for the lack of progress.

We pretty much got through the mud season in good shape. The snow has been gone for a few weeks and we've had some rain with warm weather, that along with the road work last fall,
kept everything in good shape.

Looking East from our driveway

Moved the track vehicles out to the storage building. I'll pull tracks off next week

Snow completely gone at Observatory

We started up the green house to get a jump on the early spring,
Pat has lot's of plans for her new rock gardens that Dean built last fall.

We taped it to the deck at front door so we enter it from inside the cabin.

The boys are happy with the new square footage 

Already had to re-pot, we might have jumped the gun!

Got back home today and found the lake is open!
Last year this happened on May 5.

Here is the same view as the one in my last post.

Looking East from our dock

Looking West

That's all your getting today and I promise to get back to work on the Observatory.

If there are any readers from the University of Duluth Astronomy Department or even a local geek,
I would love some help or tech support from somebody that knows
software to hardware configuring using Maxim DL Pro.

Thanks

Company, Snow and Another Bobcat Photo

Sorry for the slow post's and progress with the observatory.

I had some company up for a few days, the kind of company you have visit when your significant other is away on travel. This type of company also needs preparation time before and recovery time after, you know a guys weekend.

Even the cats needed recovery time.

Speaking of cat here is my latest photo of our local bobcat.

Just missed, I'm still figuring the camera aiming out.

Then came the snow.

 We were able to keep our road open  to February 27th, but that's all over now! We have 10" of new snow on top of  the 4" from last week and more on the way, so our road is officially closed and we're now back to running the tracks.

This is the view from our deck over looking the dock which 5 days ago was completely free of snow. 

I'm not  complaining  though,  we really do need the moisture.

Bobcat and Wolf Photos

Yesterday afternoon I had a bobcat encounter that lasted around 5 minutes.

I scared the cat off the road driving back home, it jump the ditch and slowly walked into the woods about 75 feet in from the edge of the road.

After looking back at me, it then turned and walked a line parallel with the road heading toward our cabin. I just kept pace with its slow walk for maybe 300 feet and during this time the cat would give me the occasional glance to be sure I wasn't a threat.

Talk about blending in, this animals coloring is perfect! With all the down Maple trees on the forest floor and the light snow cover, I would lose sight for a time, only to find it again by detecting movement,. This was my 2nd best animal sighting ever, surpassed only by the Lynx we saw last winter.

After this encounter I pulled two of the game cameras from around the cabin and placed them out on the road just east of the private land. This area of the road has a lot of wolf and cat tracks with pee spots everywhere.

This morning as I left for town around 6:15, both cameras flashed so I knew they were still working. I kept driving even though the road was covered in wolf shit and I knew there had to be new photos.  I  decided instead to pull them after the meetings.

I got to town about 6:45 and  had my usual breakfast at S.O.B.but found myself still too early for the meeting so I took a drive up the Gunflint Trail. I parked in the Pincushion parking lot overlooking Grand Marais and saw this  wolf walk by!

Clicking might make movie bigger

Pincushion is a cross country ski area that is also lit for night skiing,

A suggestion if you are skiing around there, don't fall behind your group and no matter how bad your leg cramps gets try not to look wounded!

Just kidding, we rarely find skier carcasses in the woods, 

although this might explain all the clothing, boots, ski's and poles we uncover.

Returning to the cabin around 2:00 I stopped and pulled the cards from the game cameras and headed to the Observatory's warm room to look over the photos

(Thanks Berry for ordering the card reader in our computer.)

Well say hello to our local Bobcat

You will want to click on this photo and see it large, 

This photo was time stamped 11:58 am, probably on his way to lunch.

Earlier that morning around 2:00 am the wolf pack moved by as well.

Not sure how many  wolves were in the pack,  but according to the time stamp they were around 5 minutes.  I have the camera set to shoot 3 photos per event with a delay of 1 minute between events so I had a total of 15 photos.

Some shots just show glowing eyes in the background and I'm sure the flash startled them, so tonight I reset one of the camera to shoot more across the road rather than down it.

I've  never really shared Jim's excitement over the game cameras.

The man has 3 of them, a sack of batteries and a solar battery pack along with two A.C. chargers.

He'd place them all over in the summer and I would check them when he was gone but  I  never saw the big attraction.

 Hell, he even had a camera on his dock to find out what was crapping all over it and I have to say I didn't care as long as it was crapping on his dock and not mine.

 Well that attitude changed last fall when we started getting some great deer, moose and wolf photos from a salt lick camera. However when it got cold I pulled them because battery life is so short in the winter.

Now I'm running a battery charging rotation, bought more memory cards so I can just change them out and am enjoying the heck out of this. As a matter of fact it might be tough for Jim to get them back