Christmas is Coming

We really have the Christmas feeling at Gunflint. The last two weekends the lodge and grounds have been transformed with lights, garlands, wreaths, and Santa’s. This is a picture of Mrs. Carroll putting the finishing touches on a garland and lights over the door leading from Justine’s to the main lodge.
During all our decorating the fireplaces have been going and Christmas music is playing. Of course, Don saw to it that we had plenty of cookies to give us enough energy.

The 13th was a special day. Here is Bruce on that day which happened to be his 70th birthday.

The old boy isn’t quite ready for a cane but there might be a few extra gray hairs. He says that his gray hair is a badge of honor and that he has earned every one of them.

On the 14th the heavens opened and the snow came down. It started about noon and just kept going. By the time we had clear skies again, 14 inches had covered the ground. On top of our 6 inches, that gives us a pretty good base for the ski trails. Monday was the digging out day. Between the plow, three snow blowers and lots of manpower, everything was shoveled and cleaned by Monday night.

It is a good thing the cleanup was finished on Monday. Tuesday morning we woke up to temperatures of 24 below zero. That is absolute with none of that wind chill stuff. Although it was cold all week, now the temperature is up into positive territory. The warmer air is to be expected because the forecast calls for more snow tonight. That is the way it is around here in the winter. The temperatures are either below zero or the snow is coming down.

With all the snow both kids and our animal neighbors are enjoying themselves. We had a bunch of small children sledding down the hill past the lodge and onto the dock. The hill is just perfect for small children.

Another great slider is the otter I saw at the dock. He would run a few steps and slide on his belly. We think he may be living under the dock. The otter is a little confused because he keeps going into the dock house. He must be looking for some minnows.

Of course, we also saw some wolves on the lake over by the point just west of us. They like to curl up on the ice and watch what is going on. What that really means is that they are keeping track of any deer movement on the ice. Two were on the ice that day. During the winter the wolves are very visible as they move across the ice.

The deer have been coming in for some corn, banana peels, and grapefruit rinds. One of the does is quite interesting. On the left side of her head just below the eye and to the side of her nose is a hole 1-2 inches in diameter. On the human we might think it was in the area of her sinus. At any rate this hole goes all the way through the bone. When she breathes, steam comes out. There is frost on the hair all around it. The hole is fully healed and she is quite healthy looking otherwise. Our guess is that it might have happened in a fight of some kind.

This last picture is a “guy thing.”

Our friends Ron and Pat Malina from Florida have been visiting. On Saturday the guys were sent out to cut down a Christmas tree for the house. Ron was given two cameras to record the event. They went out and got a great tree. As they were walking down the driveway to the house, Ron’s hand brushed the cameras in his pocket. They had forgotten to take a picture. So the two guys walked over to the trees bordering my garden and took this picture. They were going to pass it off as being taken where the tree was just cut. Of course, they were laughing so much that the true story came out.

If you have been having trouble getting us on the telephone, it is not that we don’t want to talk to you. For the last two weeks we have been experiencing “intermittent” phone service. That means more no service than good service. By now Century Tel has given us so many explanations that no one knows what the truth is. At any rate, we seem to be up and running now but who knows what will happened in an hour. Because our internet is satellite, you can always get us that way – most of the time. When you live at the end of the road, these modern conveniences work only when they want to.

All of us here at Gunflint wish you and your families a very merry Christmas.