Views around my yard

Today I stayed busy working on making agate windows until the NFL games. I decided to watch part of the first game and most of the second. After watching Mathew Stafford maximize his effort for a dozen years with the hapless Detroit Lions, it was great to see him take his new LA Rams team to the Superbowl. Congratulations to Mathew!

I decided I did not want to go out for an adventure, so I took some photos from inside my house and garage. I would guess we have received less than 100 inches of snow so far, maybe a lot less. Although the temperatures have been colder than normal and the wind speeds higher than normal, the snow has only piled up between 19 inches and three feet. On the south side of my house, the snow depth this time of year has been up to the top of my kitchen window (looking on the level). This year the snow has only piled up to just below the bottom of the kitchen level.

Apple trees photos taken out of my front window....

From my sun porch, I took the following photo of snow piled on top of a barrel.

The snow against the door of my sun porch is around three feet high.

Here is a photo showing the snow piled up on the south side of my house.

The snow is around three feet high on the south side of the sun porch. Pictured is also the museum founder's telescope.

After spending two months working on the museum to rock shop transition, I began making mineral art. Some of the items are shown below. So far I have made 40 agate windows and lamps. My goal is to have 100 by June 1st.

The photo below shows the snow piled up next to apple trees.

The snow piles from plowing are 6-8 feet high.

Sable Lake Area Cross Country Ski Adventur

Yesterday friends, Barb and Sharon, and I went on our usual Friday adventure. We parked in the Sable Visitors' Center parking lot and skied trail A. About three-quarters of the way around the trail, we skied through deep snow to the Sable boat ramp road and skied down the road to the boat ramp area. We were there the other day and decided to go back to have a picnic. Temperatures were in the mid-teens, but the wind was only around ten mph, which was the least amount in several days. It was also mostly cloudy, but we had peeks at the sun.

Here are a couple of photos I took on ski trail A....

We traversed over to the boat ramp road. If you look close in the photo below (or click on it to enlarge) you can see the boat ramp sign.

We noticed the other day that someone had cleaned the snow off one of the picnic tables. We wiped off the newly fallen snow.

The photo below shows our view from the picnic table. Sable Lake is beyond the evergreens. The Grand Sable Dunes are the other side of the lake.

Lunch was a spinach chicken salad with organic crackers and windmill cookies. I had not eaten windmill cookies in decades until last week. I bought a second package to enjoy them again. 

My skies were buried in snow.

From my skies I got a couple photos of the dunes....

Getting ready to ski back to the car....

On our way....

There is a snow gauge along trail A. In this spot there is 19 inches on the ground. However, this area is vulnerable to a west/southwestt wind, which we have had a lot of lately. Thus, there are other areas where the snow is deeper.

Back to the car.

When I drove into town, I captured a couple of pictures from the top of the hill of the shore ice that broke off shore and floated north. The south/southwest winds broke the ice apart. North winds will crunch it back together.

Ski to the Sable Lake Boat Ramp in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Yesterday my friends and I decided to ski the road to the Sable Lake boat ramp. I was hoping there would be firm snowmobile tracks to get a good glide, but there were three to four inches of snow on top of the tracks. However, the glide was good enough so off we went. It was a great ski.

On the south side of the road there is a large ditch with cascading rock waterfalls. The snow and ice unfortunately were covering the falls up.

View from the Sable Lake boat ramp looking toward the Grand Sable Dunes.

Trees around the parking lot at the boat ramp.

Snow depth on one of the picnic tables.

Very Cold Lake Superior Beach Snowshoe

This past Friday I met friends at their house located out on Coast Guard point. It was very cold with wind chills below zero, but we decided to head out  on snowshoes anyway. We decided to head to the east toward the channel and lighthouse first since the wind was strong from the west. Then we headed back west. Once we arrived back in front of their house -- I decided I had enough. I had forgotten to bring my goggles and face covering. So we headed back in for an incredible venison dinner and a euchre card game.

Recent winds blew most of the snow off the beach. The rocks were exposed, but frozen in the sand.

Friends, Barb and Sharon leading the way.....

The top of the outer harbor lighthouse is peaking above the piled up shore ice in  the photo below....

Pancake ice was floating in the channel.

Birthday Ski at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge

What a treat for my birthday weekend/Monday: two days in a row I was fortunate to spend time at the Seney Refuge, which is located a half hour south of Grand Marais. After snowshoeing on Sunday with my friend, Diane, on Monday I headed back to the refuge with friends, Barb and Sharon. We skied down the access road to the trailhead for the Manistique River Trail. Barb did the cooking. It was fabulous! Thanks for helping to make my birthday something special!

Trailhead....

Manistique River....

Barb cooking.....