Casa Blanca: What Season Is It?

Like much of the world, climate change has really messed with the weather we expect to have. We had the first brown Christmas that Ely can remember in over two decades. Now we’re having the biggest snowfall of the year and it looks like it will be a very white Easter.

Last year we had 11’ and this year only 11” until this latest snow event.

In January we had the required 3” of snow so we burned 3 piles of dead balsam as part of fire risk mitigation. Hopefully we can burn another pile this week.

This pile was so big that we had a fire going on two sides.

I have been doing lots of hiking, including this one around Bass Lake.

I’ve also found a nice group of people to do winter biking on frozen lakes.

I volunteered to be a screener for the Ely Winter Film Festival, which involved hours and hours of watching festival entrees and doing evaluations. During the festival, I introduced one of the films and hosted a Q&A with the producer. Fun!

Between film showings, I worked with my AAUW group to serve free meals for about 80 kids on Student Day of the film festival.

On opening day for the MN Legislature, I traveled to St.Paul with several other AAUW ladies for a rally at the State Capitol. MN currently has an ERA resolution that grants equal rights to women. It is not part of the state constitution, so with a change in legislators it could easily be overturned. The current bill is one that would expand the ERA to cover ALL people and be an amendment to the MN State Constitution.

Hundreds of people joined our Ely contingent in the rally!

While visiting the Capitol in St. Paul…

…we stayed at The Celeste Hotel, with rooms like “nun” other.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet not only lived and taught at this Beaux-Arts landmark, they built it.

Under the guidance of Mother Celestine Howard, St Agatha’s Conservatory of Music and Art became Minnesota’s premier fine arts academy.

The Chapel with its 24’ ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and stained glass windows now functions as a dining hall.

Often we can see beautiful sunsets from our porch.

We finally received our new generator which is essential for us to keep our new plumbing pipes from freezing if we happen to lose power during the colder months.

We tested it and it works!

Many afternoons Rusty builds a fire in the wood stove to heat his shop.

He spends time “moving paint” while listening to jazz.

My AAUW has several “pop-up” fundraisers throughout the year. We decided to have Pie-For-Breakfast.

Rusty’s bass clarinet took an unfortunate rapid trip to the floor and now is in a repair shop. Being a person who cannot survive without a musical regimen, he decided to teach himself how to play the soprano saxophone.

I hear improvement, but he says it’s a struggle to learn something entirely new at age 75.

The absolute highlight of 2024 has been the Fisher visit!

Di, Pierce, Reece, Olivia

Reece and Pierce muscled our newly-arrived generator off the back of the truck.

Reece got a kick out of being able to pee in an outhouse for the first time.

Our neighbors, Wintergreen Dogsled, generously squeezed us in for a morning dogsled ride.

Using a mock dogsled and stuffed animal, Peter teaches us the ropes about dogsledding.

Reece gives some extra lovin’ to one of the dogs.

Pierce harnesses a dog for the ride.

It was a beautiful day! Everyone had a good time.

There were a few moments when I was fearful for my safety. When the dogs take the shortest route around a corner, they don’t realize exactly where that puts the sled.