A Time to be Thankful

So many wonderful things have happened since my last blog.  I am so thankful for our many gifts, especially that of family and friends and a life of wonder living in the middle of a forest.

 The shop and the sauna, completed last fall, got two coats of stain this summer.

Cool weather is settling in and we both enjoy a nice, hot sauna!

My cousin, Linda and her friend Joanne came to visit us at the cabin for several days in August.

Rusty shares a map of the area after we’ve enjoyed a nice 4-layer cake.

Linda and Joanne enjoyed a day at the International Wolfe Museum.

We hiked to the Kawishawi Falls which are low in the summer, but still impressive.

Rusty and I paddle and fish on our lake many days.  

Some days, like this one, take my breath away!

I’ve found several different people to ride my bike with.  On this particular day, we parked our cars a good distance up the Echo Trail and then rode a big loop on gravel.  Unfortunately, the van drove over a screw on the drive out and I came back from my bike ride to a very flat tire.  These wonderful folks helped out.

Alas, the hole was too big.  I inadvertently locked my key and my phone in the car, so the valiant Rusty had to drive a long ways to rescue me. 

In August, ten of my Lincoln biking friends came to the North Shore to do the Sky Blue Waters tour with me.

Ray, David, Annette, Gina, Di, Mary, Susan, Francie, Gerry (and Clayton)

The Gitchi-Gami ride was 35 miles of steep hills and gorgeous vistas.

The trail basically follows the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Our group home-based in Two Harbors.  It’s amazing to see these huge ships!

…and pretty lighthouses.

Our guide, David, is part of a volunteer group that is restoring the old railroad station at Knife River.

David, Francie, Gina, Gerry, Mary, Ray, me, Susan, Clayton, Annette

One day we road to Duluth, about a 40 mile ride.

Rusty and I hosted the bike group for dinner on the back deck of our Duluth home.
We talked and laughed until after dark!

In mid September Susan Streich joined me for her very first trip into the BWCAW.

We had warmer than usual temperatures, full sun, and no wind!

As is our custom, we hired Steve to be our guide.

We base camped on Crab Lake and day-tripped each day.  Here Susan is trying to maneuver her pack and herself under a fallen tree.

We ate good food every day with plenty of fish, but my favorite was the lobster mushrooms that we found on the portages.

There were frequent eagle sightings, including the one that perched just above our campsite.

While paddling up Korb River, we had a delightful encounter with two adult otters who were trying to lure us away from their two babies.  I was so engaged with their chattering at us that I didn’t take time to snap a picture.

The woods, the trails, …it’s all so pretty!

I caught more fish on this trip than I have in quite a while.

In four days we traveled over 16 portages (2,627 rods), 11 lakes and paddled 15.5 miles.

While carrying my canoe on the very last portage, I slipped and fell on an incline that looked much like this one.  I’m still doing PT for my torn ligament in my knee in hopes of full recovery.

Meanwhile, back in Lincoln, it was so sweet of my Loveknotters friends to raise a glass to me!  I look forward to their visit next fall.

I’m more engaged than ever before in promoting women, their rights, their equality, and their opportunities for education.  I attended the “Unhappy Hour” where drinks were reduced to reflect the reduced pay of women.

We had a very nice visit from Anna and Kate in September.

We toured the Dorothy Moulter Museum.

Shopping in Ely—what fun!

We went paddling on White Iron Lake.

Anna enjoyed snuggling with Gretchen.

In late September the fall colors began to appear.  They were beautiful this year!

Our driveway is between the red trees.

I’m involved in a project at the Ely Folk School making mittens for children in Ukraine.

Once a week we gather to work on the mittens.  Our goal is 500 pair.  So far we’ve sent 300 pair to the Ukraine.

Our friends Steve and Kate joined us for dinner one evening.  Kate brought this nice gift of maple syrup.

Steve and Kate spent many days tapping hundreds of trees on her property in Connecticut.

In preparation for winter, Rusty portaged the canoes up from the water’s edge and we stored them under our porch.

I joined a book club with ladies on Sunset Road.  We read Eleanor Oliphant.

Beartooth Tree Service came out to clean up our property.

They created about 20 burn piles.

We are trying to get them covered for a burn this winter, but the snow is getting ahead of us.

I “capped” about 3 dozen small trees to protect them from the deer over the winter.

Duluth has some nice trails and I especially enjoy riding along Lake Superior.

I bought a Kona so I can ride in Duluth.

The Mesabi Trail is now completed into Ely.

Raffle tickets for this quilt were sold for an entire year to raise money for AAUW(American Association of University Women)

I won the Equality Quilt!

The back of the Equality Quilt depicts women protesting to have the right to vote.

Since this picture was taken, we’ve had about 7 inches of snow with more in the forecast.  Winter is here!

Adjusting to the ways of the North

 Water was high on our priority list for early spring.  Our outdoor hand-pump well froze over the winter, so we hauled water from town in 5 gallon containers.

The well company replaced the cracked pipe and then added a weep hole.

We believe that the new weep hole will keep the pipe from freezing all winter, as the water immediately drains back down to the bottom.  It's harder to pump water, but having water all winter will be worth it.

It seemed like we had to wait forever for the waters to be navigable.  The ice-out was slow to arrive, and it was followed by substantial flooding.

The wait was worth it!  It's beautiful!

A sunny spot is hard to find in the middle of the forest.  I traded in my huge Lincoln garden for 3 small raised beds.  It took two yards of dirt to fill my containers; there is no real dirt where we live--just rocks.

This area started out as a hole with an exposed gas line.  After 3 yards of Class 5, it now is my main garden space.  I have butternut squash, cucumbers, green beans, chard, and herbs.

This larger container is where I grow tomatoes and peppers.  (The deer already ate all the broccoli.)

In addition to the vegetables, I have a few spots on the property where I grow some flowers.  It takes 21 gallons (all hand-pumped) to water the garden.

Dar and Tom came to visit in late May.  What a treat!

We really enjoyed having them stay with us.

I'm trying to learn the names of some of the springtime wildflowers.  The lupine and daisies are plentiful.

The hawkseed is everywhere.  This is typical of many yards in Ely.

Our Duluth home has a big rhubarb plant, so of course I had to make some jam.

I did not leave my political activism behind in NE.  This pic was taken at the Women's March rally.

Springtime also brings politicians.  Jen Schultz came to Ely to speak.  She is running for U.S. Representative.

Jen is running against Pete Stauber, who, in my opinion, has not been good for the people of MN.

I'm very proud of the work Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith are doing for the state of MN and the future of our country!

We do all we can to support Save the Boundary Waters.

Potica (pronounced Po-TEE-za) is a Slovenian bread that is made for major celebrations like Christmas, Easter, weddings, etc.  Lacy, at the Ely Folk School, gave me a private lesson on the making of Potica.

After much mixing, chopping, stirring, bread raising, and kneading we began rolling out the dough.  It should cover much of the table and be almost as thin as newspaper.

It takes a really large table to make Potica.

When the dough is a thin as one can get it, a walnut and butter mixture is spread on top.

It's tricky to spread the topping without poking a hole in the dough.

Finally, the fun begins.  The entire table full of dough has to be rolled up and then sliced into loaf-sized lengths.

I'm carefully lifting the tablecloth to roll the dough of the potica.

My batch produced 6 loaves of Potica.

Yummy!

Rusty has become quite the woodsman.  He has a chain saw and removes dead or dying trees from our property.  We hire a professional when the trees are in danger of taking out a power line, but Rusty has learned to do rigging for the rest.

Strong rope for rigging

Using rope to guide the direction of the fall.

Success!  No harm done to the LP tank.

Rusty uses the chopping block and maul to de-bark and split the wood.

Rusty made a wood rack to hold the firewood for winter.

I have found some fellow bikers in the Ely area.  My favorite place to ride is the Mesabi Trail.

This picture on the Mesabi Trail was taken in early spring before the vegetation really got going.

This is a link to an interactive map of the trail.  It's all hard-surface blacktop with lots of hills and forest.

https://mesabitrail.com/trail-maps/interactive-map/

The section closest to Ely will be finished by fall.  When the entire trail is finished, it will be 150 miles long!

One of Ely's gems is the renovated State Theater.  They have current movies ($5.00), and concessions that include wine, beer on tap, and hard liquor.  They also host music events and educational events (like the one about Native American use of fire).

A log cabin is especially nice in the winter because once the logs are heated, they have such mass that they retain the heat for a long time.  That's also true in the summer months, so we do most of our cooking on the porch.  We've have electricity on the porch, so we've also cooked with a pressure cooker and a crock pot.

Chef Rusty

Rusty is sitting on the 3-legged stool he made from NE wood to cook our steaks for dinner.

We've attended two Garden Parties so far this summer.  The first one was a celebration for Save The Boundary Waters.  The second one was a fundraiser for my American Association of University Women (AAUW) group.  The host has a home on the lake with the most amazing landscaping and flowers.

Not everyone lives in a primitive log cabin.

Naturally, I had to wear a hat to a Garden Party.

Rusty spends the majority of his mornings practicing clarinet.  Last week he performed with the Jumping' Jehosephats in the city park.

We celebrated Rusty's 74th birthday and the 2nd anniversary of the purchase of our cabin.

It's a minimalist lifestyle at the cabin so
a scrap of tissue paper and some garden string was the best I could do for gift wrap.

The exterior of both the sauna and the woodshed received 2 coats of protective finish this month.

Ely has a giant Blueberry Festival near the end of July.  We have some wild blueberries and a few wild raspberries right off the porch.  They are tiny, but intense with flavor.

Meanwhile, our "Duluth Project" as we call it is still underway.  Flooring is now on the menu.  

The white maple flooring was not salvageable and had to be ripped up.

Then patches to the sub structure.  Then vapor barrier.  Then new OSB sub floor.  Then (finally!) the new floor.

The previous owner of our Duluth home loved flowers.  There are pretty ones all over the yard, both front and back.

We live "on the hill" as they say in Duluth.
The big slope in the front yard is covered with flowering shrubs and rocks.

And Lake Superior continues to fill me with awe and amazement!

There is a several mile boardwalk near the lift bridge following the shoreline of Lake Superior.

Gretchen and I enjoy a sunny morning at Lake Superior.