Animals and Weather

Our good friend Kevin called today. He complained that I wasn’t writing enough blogs because we were traveling too much. So, this blog is for Kevin.

Our biggest news is the weather. Mother Nature has taken control again. The past several days have been cold. This means morning temperatures of -30, -35, -40, and -30. I am not talking about wind chill. These are absolute temperatures. Luckily there was no wind on any of these days. It warmed up some each day but nothing to brag about. We have large south-facing windows in our house and the sun did a great job of raising the living room temperatures.

Our guests are a hardy lot. They were out skiing, dog sledding and walking during the entire time. Bruce even had one of them tell him that at -13 it was really nice outside. Luckily we don’t have any fashion patrol around here. The only fashion was to wear as many layers as you could fit on.

This morning it clouded over. The temperature was zero at 7:00 a.m. So, of course, it started to snow and the wind started to blow. There is so much blowing wind that it is hard to tell exactly how much snow has fallen. We will see what happens tomorrow. It will be time to start plowing and shoveling.

Chris and Lance, our two maintenance men, were the heroes during those cold days. Cabins and cars all froze up. Except for one car that sprung an oil leak, the two guys got everything working. At those temperatures just surviving outside is an accomplishment.

Bonnie’s housekeeping staff were another group of heroes. There is no joy in hauling sheets and towels all over to keep cabins clean. The past two weeks have been exceptionally busy and the girls have been putting in some long hours. Bonnie has been out working right alongside of them.

Our other big news flash is that animals are out all over to be seen. One of the neighbors stopped by and bought all our cards with a picture of a lynx on them. She had just seen a lynx on the road and wanted to tell all her friends about it. There is a family of lynx hanging around our side road.

Lance drove into town with recycling the other day. Right in Grand Marais at the water tower, he saw a wolf. It was a big, black one. Everyone in town should be watching their small dogs when those animals are outside.

About ten miles outside of town Heidi, our bookkeeper, saw a bobcat when she was driving up this morning. It had a smaller bobcat with it that Heidi thought was under 50 pounds. We were not sure when bobcats are born or how fast they grow.

All these other animals make our moose, deer and snowshoe hares seem pretty boring. To our guests, however, they are just as wonderful to see. It is hard to beat a deer eating corn out of your hand.

Happy New Year to all of you!