Fall days in Morris

Finally, a few nice--even warm--days have arrived this fall. But instead of taking advantage of it and working on the woodpile, we are in western Minnesota visiting the University of
Minnesota at Morris. Paul is considering this college, and so we packed the car and headed west for a different reason than most of our trips.

The prairie is always wonderful to see. What a contrast to our northern forest. Minnesota has so many different "faces" to it. Personally, I wouldn't mind spending a few years in an area like this. After the campus tour today, I was ready to sign up. Greg asked me what I would study, and I said "Art." He said that he would study writing and art. But we've both been to college already, so we'll encourage Paul to go, instead. We brought Addie along, as she isn't too many years away from this decision herself.

The tour of the campus was informative and enjoyable. We followed our tour guide, Ali, from one building to the next, learning about many of the educational opportunities that Morris offers, and getting a glimpse into the life of a student on campus today. Paul is pretty quiet about sharing his opinions, but here are a few of the things that I liked:
---The small campus is laid out well, is easy to navigate, and is beautifully landscaped.
---The people are very friendly--from the admissions folks, to Ali, to the English professor who
met with us, and the polite student who sat across from us in the cafeteria. I got a great
feeling that everyone cares.
---The focus on the student was good to see and hear. We've long believed that all students do
not learn alike. I get the strong sense that the faculty and staff at Morris understand
that and are willing to support a student in finding what works best for him or her.

If Paul is accepted and decides to go to Morris, we'll be happy with his decision. This seems like a good match for him. It's about an eight hour drive away, so he won't be able to come home on weekends for us to put him to work. He's probably happy about that.

It's been awhile since I mentioned Robert and what he is doing. He is in Fairbanks, Alaska, and currently is enrolled in a diesel mechanics program. I'm so happy to say that he is enjoying it. This is probably the first time in his life tht he actually likes school. I remember when he started kindergarten so many years ago. For the first two weeks, he would board the bus happily in the morning, and then tell about his day when he came home. But then one day, he told us that he was done, and he wasn't going again. He'd experienced school, and now it was time to move on to something else. You can just imagine how displeased he was to learn that he indeed was going back the next day, and for several days (and years) to come.

At that time, I had no idea that he, Paul and Addie would all come home to learn, after completing fifth grade. Robert used to enjoy telling his former classmates that he had dropped out. The homeschool years were not always an easy path, but like child-raising itself, it has been most rewarding. One of the side benefits for me has been all of the time we've spent together as a family. When Robert left home last year, I felt like he was ready to go. I can see that now in Paul. Like his brother, he's ready to experience life out of the woods. We knew this day would come, we just hoped that it wouldn't arrive so quickly.

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.