Bright colors, blue water

Surprisingly, there is still a fair amount of fall color to be seen in our world. The leaves have mostly fallen from the trees, although a few tamaracks are still sporting bright gold needles. The underbrush is where I am seeing the most vivid hues. We still have not had a hard freeze. We've come close, with frost at the end of September that painted the rooftops and windshields white. Since then, the temperatures have been mostly mild, with temps in the forties, and even the high fifties on the rainiest days.

We were able to finally take a boat ride recently, and so I snapped a few pictures on the Canadian side of the lake.

How much has the lake come up?

Offhand, it probably came up 36 inches. Last November, it was a foot lower than it was this year before it started raining.(That would be around September 6th.) Without actually measuring it, he estimates that it is 47 and 3/4 inches higher than it was last year in December. That's a lot of water!

I prefer to see landmarks that help me understand what has happened. To that end, here are some photos to share.

This photo of our boat landing was taken on October 18th.

This was taken just four days later.

I took this one today. These are the two trees on our beach (or what remains of it) that had fallen down after the blowdown storm in 1999. With the high water and waves, these two trees are once again under stress. We are hoping that the water doesn't take away all of the soil/sand that surrounds the roots.

This one is a bit dark, but it is of the lake today, when the wind came from the northwest. Greg is just to the right of this pool. He is out at Cedar Point, looking west. Where the waves seem to be crashing is a line of rocks that normally delineates the top of the beach. Water has spilled over that. This is true in many places. We are seeing standing water, islands of trees, rocks on the shoreline completely submerged. We had more rain today, though not as much. The next few days are supposed to be sunny, so that should give the shoreline a reprieve.

Wolf on the Trail

A month ago, Greg and I went to a wedding in Spooner, Wisconsin. It had been a good stretch of weather, so we decided to go just for the day. We knew that it meant that we would be driving home in the dark, but we felt it would go just fine.

The day stayed beautiful, the wedding was lovely, and by about seven p.m., we were ready to drive back. This timing put us on the trail around eleven. That is generally a very quiet time, with little or no traffic joining us.

As we approached the mid point of the trail, near Swamper Lake, we saw an animal up ahead on the side of the road. I slowed down, in case it decided to come into the road in front of the car. As we got closer, we could see that it was a wolf.

Greg told me to slow way down, and he got out the camera. The wolf cast occasional glances our way, especially after I rolled the window down and it could hear us whispering. As I leaned closer to the steering wheel, Greg attempted to take some photos. Instead of leaving the road with all of this happening so near, the wolf just continued trotting on. Greg took several photos while I slowly drove. We were impressed to hear the click-click-click of the wolf’s toenails on the pavement.

You might think that this story ends with the wolf leaving the road and disappearing into the woods. That was the ending I expected. Instead, I noticed in my rearview mirror the lights of an approaching vehicle. I told Greg that I was going to have to speed up, because a car was coming. I added, “Maybe the wolf will be their friend now.” Sure enough, as I accelerated, I could see in my mirror that the next car was decelerating, and then stopping for their chance to see this marvelous animal.

Seasonal Chores

So much of fall is really about winter--specifically, getting ready for winter. For those who have a garden, fall harvest is the time to put up the produce for the long winter season. I confess that I did not have much of a garden this year, since spring planting time was so disrupted. I did manage to get a few beans and some chard in the ground by late June, so we have enjoyed some homegrown goodies. Thank heavens for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to which we belong. Three wonderful women near Grand Marais farm all summer and fill a cooler each week with the fruits and veggies of their labor. Already I am looking forward to next summer, for the CSA coolers and for the opportunity to again test out my own green thumb. Moses and Jethro are consistently doing their part to provide dirt for more raised garden beds.

I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but one of the most important fall chores is to process the firewood. You may have noticed our huge stack of logs in the backyard across from the gravel pit. Having a woodpile like that is like having money in the bank. It will keep us warm in the months to come, once we have it bucked up into stove-length pieces, split, and stacked to dry. Ever since the kids were little, they have been required to help in some way during firewood season. As they get older, they have been able to help even more. Paul and Addie are both proficient at running the splitter, and they are excellent stackers. There is a bit of an art to making a good wood stack, so that it is neat, spaced for good air circulation, and most importantly, so that it won’t fall down. To do this, one must build “corners” at the end of the stacks. We log-cabin the wood on each end of the stack, so that it is a little more stable. I used to dislike making corners, but have since come to enjoy the challenge. I’ve also learned that if I split the wood properly, I have good corner pieces to work with. Even the most rote and mundane chores can have their interesting moments.

Another way we are preparing for winter is by having some new furnaces installed. Birch cabin is getting two small heaters, one in each bedroom. The big old gas furnace finally is being replaced. This should help make even the coldest nights cozier. In Diamond Willow cabin, the furnace in the master bedroom will be given the old heave-ho in favor of a new and efficient one. It is good to know that we can head into the next season a little better prepared to handle it.

Speaking of the next season, we are all hopeful that it will be a snowy one. It feels like we are overdue for a really good winter. Greg has a new truck and is ordering a snowplow for it soon. He is excited as he loves to go plowing. Already we have had flurries, the first time having been in mid-September. We saw some snow again last week, so that sends us scurrying out to work a little harder on the woodpile. It is much easier to get that job finished before the snow flies. So why am I not out there today? You guessed it---it’s raining again.