Mother's Day At Gunflint

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone.  We are having a pretty good day at Gunflint.  Sheryl sent me this picture of sunrise on Gunflint Lake.  As you can see, we still have ice.  My hope is that the ice will be gone by the 15^th.  A huge wind storm would help that happen.  A northwest wind would push the ice down the lake and out.  One more sign of spring is that the ice is gone on Lonely Lake.  On Tucker Lake we just need a little wind for the ice to be gone.  Pretty soon you will see me out there blowing.

The new staff building is almost finished.  Monday and Tuesday should be the last days for the plumbers, electricians and carpenters.  The carpet is down.  Now it is time to hang the curtains, clean the dust out, fill the kitchens and put in furniture.  Sheryl is going through the building today making her list of what we still need to buy.  Generally it is a bunch of small stuff that mounts up – clips to hang shower curtains, hangers, odds and ends of small kitchen stuff.  Someone will have a busy time in Duluth to pick up all this stuf.

If is clears up this afternoon, I hope to get into my garden again.  Each day I haul some dirt for the beds where things are packed down.  The first day I moved 8 wheel barrel loads.  Yesterday it was only five when I tipped the fifth one over and had a few choice words to say.  Then I spent time weeding the incoming plants.  Today I hope to get the strawberries organized.  There are also the day lilies in front that need a little weeding.  My three rhubarb plants are coming up quickly.  I also need to clean out the grasses that are growing in the chives.  That is a mess every year.

The birds are still eating us out of house and home.  Most of the juncos have moved on north.  The flocks of them have degenerated into a bird here and there.  The goldfinches have completely changed color for all practical purposes.  They provide a beautiful splash of color in the pine trees.  Yesterday I filled my hummingbird feeders and put them out.  I know it is a little early but we will see what happens.  We have been seeing a steady number of partridge on the side road.  Bruce wants to keep them healthy until hunting this fall.

I am still working a transcribing Grandma Spunner’s diary.  She must have been out of town for a couple of weeks and Grandpa Spunner took over the writing.  I could see the difference in handwriting immediately.  His was much easier to read.  The tone was also different between the two of them.  Grandma always talked about how beautiful the weather or the day was.  Grandpa would just comment on the awful weather.  Of course, as we all know, there is not much that is pretty about snow in April.  I must be about half way through the diary.  We will see what happens.