What a great day, and week for that matter! As much as I want to, I haven't written for a few days so I have quite a bit to catch up on.  It was beautiful today.  Snowing lightly for the better part of the day so we have a great new fluffy inch of the white stuff.  Of course we wish it was more, but all in due time.

Here's a picture of guests Tarikua and Meharu enjoying the freshly falling snow.  Also a great picture Bob took of a Northern Hawk Owl he had the opportunity to watch while out hunting one afternoon.  He watched it hunting too.  He saw it study the ground then suddenly take off to dive to the forest floor to nab a mouse.  Pretty cool.

Saturday Bob took a Buck.  A smaller 10 pt, but nice.  The boys helped gut and haul it out.  Bob has been taking Jaret out hunting quite a bit this weekend, and Sunday afternoon just as the season was closing, Jaret got his first deer - a nice big Doe!!   We're so proud of him! He helped gut it, skin it, and today we all helped process the deer.  We have food for the year!!

Earlier today guests/friends spent the afternoon teaching the boys how to build model airplane gliders.  Paul had shown them to them last year and taught them how to fly them.  This year he brought kits for them to build and spent the afternoon constructing them.  Tomorrow is the big flight day!!  Better yet, Paul may volunteer to do this again next year, but include interested guest children.  He's been building and competing in competitions for 50 years!  What a treat.

Have a great day!!!!  We did. - Thanks.

Every day in the Northwoods presents challenges and rewards.  Yesterday started off cold & windy and blustry as the past week has been.  As the day went on the wind died down, and the sky cleared and the sun came out.  So I got dressed properly in my winter woolies (wool bibs), boots, hat, mitts & neck gaitor and headed outside to take care of some of the outdoor chores that had been building up. 

We had guests arriving yesterday, today and more over this weekend so we went to check the cabins to be sure they were ready for arrival, heat on, water working, doors closed, beds made etc.  As can happen on occassion - we found 3 cabins without water so I began the walk about to figure out what was wrong.  Did a heat tape get unplugged, did a crawl space heater blow out causing pipes to freeze, was the bag filter for the water system full and needed changing?  After about 15 minutes of searching we concluded that the heater in the water treatment room had blown out allowing the wind and cold to penatrate slowly over the past week an freeze a few pipes near the doorway.  Thankfully lighting the heater, and a supplemental heater, and patience thawed the pipes in short order and all was functioning without any damage.

So next for the garbage.  Garbage men don't come drive by to hual the garbage off, rather we are the garbage "men" gathering the garbage from the cabins and campsites as ofen as daily in the summer to drive to a canister site approximately 3 miles away where we have canisters reserved for our use. There's a cardboard recycling trailer there too, which is very helpful.  On the way back I got to see a fox!

Belive it or not I had a great time gathering garbage, hauling cardboard to the recycling trailer, and moving scrapwood to a burn pile.  Probably because I was outside and I was warm due to dressing properly as I mentioned in my previous blog. 

In the evening I took a trip to town with a friend to attend a benefit concert at the Bethlehem Luthern church. The church is trying to raise money to replace their baby grand Piano with a concert quaility baby grand and was fortunate enough to have Tom Tipton join in the effort.  Before I left I had the fortune to see a Pine Martin while waiting out on the Gunflint trail for the kids to get dropped off by the bus.  On our way to town we saw another fox and a cow moose!  On the way home we almost got hit by an owl nearly scaring my friend out of her seat!!!  

I've been watching for signs of Moose since the end of the hunting season.  Winter is actually an easy time to watch for signs, as they usually like to wander on the Trail and leave footie prints in the snow along the roadside.  Well we saw a lot of that action last night,so I was hoping to see more, but just the one.  My personal record is 21 moose sighted on a trip to town & back.

Giving thanks for what we have - another day passes. 

   The past 4 days have been coooold - At least that's the way it feels, but I think I'm just doing what you city folk do.  It's been in the Teens each day, and we got a fresh 1/4 inch of snow yesterday.  Winter is only cold and not fun if you don't dress right.  I'm still trying to run out to the cold car at the last minute in my p.J.'s, slippers and a polar fleece jacket - duh.  Of course I'm cold.  The wind hasn't helped either.  But if I'd just admit that winter is really here and start wearing a hat and mittens and proper jacket & footwear - I could start enjoying what's to come soon!

     This monring as I was loading recyclables to run to town, I noticed the lake steaming off.   The lake hasn't begun to freeze over, but it sure is working on cooling off.  As I drove to town I took note of the area lakes. Swamper & Iron/Little Iron are frozen over, and Birch is partially frozen over. 

     Usually Gunfint is one of the later lakes to freeze over.  I remember one Thansgiving years ago when I worked over at Gunflint Lodge.  The lake had begun to freeze over and the bays to the west had frozen and begun to work onto the main lake.  We had the fortune and unfortune to witness a Deer struggling to get out of the water onto the ice.   Wolves had chased the deer out onto the thin ice.  Not exactly the wildlife you want to watch, but it is part of life.

Often fortune and misfortune go hand in hand.  Friday I spent most of the day arguing with the computer so Saturday I got to take an unexpected trip to town to the computer doctor.  As we often do in the Northwoods I made the trip worthwhile and decided to run a few errands and get some supplies.

This past summer we began concentrating on recycling more.  Our local garbage hauler doesn't require or offer recycling services so we sort and store it until the next trip to town.  The recycling center doesn't have the most convenient hours so sometimes it's a bit hard to coordinate.  This time it worked perfectly and I was able to haul a bunch to town.  There's nothing more annoying than filling your car with recyclables only to arrive a minute after they close only to have to take them home again (remember we live 43 miles from town).

Fortunate for me, on the way home I was treated to the sighting of a wolf not far from home!  Sorry I didn't have my camera, and I'm sure the hunters in the wood were not as thrilled as I was - but it was fun to see one in broad daylight.

It was a bit colder this weekend, windy on Saturday but it cleared up and we enjoyed some much needed sunshine. 

Today started out at 34F, all the snow had melted,  but soon it was snowing again, large wet chunks of snow.  It really never amounted to anything and the temps have stayed cold and wet all day. 

Bob went deer hunting again today.  He returned as he always does with a "story".  He ran into a little 10 point buck - or rather, almost got run over by one.   Dead center in his scope, he watched it run down the path towards him but the buck finally figured out something wasn't right a mere 20 ft from Bob.  The buck still lives as Bob likes the hunt and usually passes up the little ones looking for the area trophy.

It was a fairly quiet day - normal chores for me.  Up at 6, kids on the bus at 6:50, open the lodge at 8am, laundry, check guests out, paperwork, stock the lodge with wood, start a fire.  By 10 am I started seeing visitors.  Sometimes coffee lasts for hours, and you never know who will show up, a local cabin owner, a local hunter, sometimes the county deputy just stopping by while checking the area.  It's always nice to chat, and I'm glad the coffee pot is always on. Lunch, more visitors like an uncle in the area making a delivery, stoke the fire, work again, then get supper ready, Kids off the bus at 4:15, Homework (and No sometimes I'm not smarter than a 5th grader), Dinner, reading, spelling, bedtime for the kids, and back to work on the computer for awhile.  I won't need to bore you with that again - but as you can see - My life is as normal as all of yours - I just get to be in the woods!!!!

Shari