High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
August 2020 - August 2021
Late Summer 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
House Progress
What’s Mom eating this week!
What I found this week!
Not much is the bottom line! I still am trying the intermittent fasting along with walking and some exercising each day. I do feel better, but I cannot keep up with Dad’s 3-5 mile daily runs! I am eating more and more fruit every day, and again channeling Beanee with arugula and big salads.
finished washing the first floor (Recognize the pants, Joh?)
finished oiling the first floor
Lite popcorn is my go-to treat if I need a salt fix. Being scared to walk the trails and drive way is a bummer - bearaphobia.
Cute boys and one of my tap dancing photos. This routine was called “Sugar Lips!”
What are we watching.... Mom - I am splitting my evening time on the computer between Twins games and then a few series on Amazon Prime. I used to love watching the Eco Challenge races, and Amazon Prime just realeased Eco Challenge Fiji. Crazy things they do! Dad is rewatching all the seasons of House.
pond work continues
Favorite photos of the week
Gratitude Journal I found a journal I used to keep where I wrote five things per day I was thankful for. I didn’t have many entries, but from 2000, here are a couple of entries. 7/10/2000 • Reading Harry Potter with Chris 10/4/2000 • Joh’s writing ability (11 years old) • Christopher’s 7:10 mile and second place (9 years old) • My strong legs (Why did I say that???) I restarted the journal, and I have tried to write each day in this little book, maybe someday one of you will find it. Entries center around how thankful I am for all of you. Yes, even Kylo has made my gratitude pages.
From the garden...
We ate sweet corn a number of times, and Dad made a vegetable beef soup with yellow squash, carrots, and green beans from the garden. Every single day Dad has been eating strawberries.
Bear news...
Jerome is simply part of the family now. He is present almost daily, but after reporting the problem, it seems everyone has bears this summer. They predict 2500+ bears to be hunted during this fall’s bear season. We tried a hot bag of peppers disguised with lots of peanut butter, but Jerome’s middle name is Juan - he likes hot peppers. We will try again, but we are just careful, and I just don’t walk the driveway or trails now.
Soon we will have potatoes, more corn, more beans, and tomatoes. We even have cantaloupe blossoms are popping up.
September 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
House Progress
What’s Mom eating this week!
You cannot really see what is happening here, but I (Mom) have spent two days in a brier patch cutting all the brambles away. First, Dad washed the second floor, and then he oiled the boards. You can see in the bottom photo that he also put a rain gutter up there. He was on two stages of scaffolding, and then on top of a board nailed to two saw horses. I couldn’t watch!
Well...I am still trying to stay on the diet combining with exercise, but the results this week are disheartening. The pounds were coming off, but as predicted now I am on a plateau. This is where I usually give up, but I am determined to continue this time. I am in it for the long haul. New food treats I have discovered include mixing my plain Greek yoghurt with a tsp. of honey and a banana. (1 pt in Weight Watchers world.) I eat a lot of fruit!
Book news...again! I am trying to not watch a screen as much, so I am reading - a lot! I did finish three books: The Yellow House (Sarah Broom) The Great Influenza of 1928 (John Barry) Once in a Blue Moon Lodge (Lorna Landvik)
The house is looking amazing! We get a metal carved grate on Tuesday for the front Watch for a new photo next week!
Dad is rereading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Photos
Odds and ends... Jerome seems to only like to visit at night and poop in our yard or on the driveway. He did eat the peppers and, we think he then had an upset stomach. We found a bit of bear vomit, too. No sighting of him this week, but his scat! Cook County only has six cases of Covid 19 still. Minnesota is doing average, but still hundreds of new cases every day. We still plan to head to Switzerland in October and probably be there for one month. Switzerland, as most of Europe, is having an upswing in cases, too. I know you are all anxious about the Minnesota Twins, but they are holding their own and should make the playoffs.
Thank you for your interest. I know you are all thrilled for me and my Twins obsession. Recent Amazon purchases: silicone popcorn popper, salt and pepper shakers, powdered peanut butter (PS2), a USB hub for my new computer, a lettuce keeper, two books, and weight watcher’s food. Did you know you could buy anything on Amazon...amazing! Bird sightings - blue jays, lots of hawks, a bald eagle, swallows (very fast and in a group of 4-5). Duluth is reporting lots of action on Hawk Ridge. We will get better at finding birds - we promise.
The Peace of Wild Things “When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
— Wendell Berry
September 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Potatoes and a Freeze....
Grand Marais news... BWCA received dark sky sanctuary designation. You can read about it here. It seems that Veep star Julia Louis Dreyfus likes the BWCA and will be part of a program in October.
We ended up with 14 potatoes from our four plants. We used them in soup! The potatoes, green beans, and corn have been the most successful. You can almost always see what the weather is like here by viewing the Grand Marais Harbor cam or the camera set up at our neighbors place: Pincushion Mountain Inn webcam. Link: Area Webcams
No, not dead bodies, but there was a frost warning a couple of nights this week. We covered our squash, melons, and tomatoes. The red cloths are actually the old curtains from the Shattuck-St. Mary’s library. Dad thought they would be useful.
Covid numbers still holding steady at six county cases. However, we think that they are more cases in the county with tourists, but those people’s numbers count in their home counties. It is a bit of a mystery.
Still playing with my camera...
New favorite purchases I love my new silicone microwave popcorn popper. You place 1/4 of a cup of popcorn in this silicone rubber thing, put the top on, power 8 on the microwave for 2:20 seconds, and boom - popcorn. It doesn’t take like microwave popcorn, and you could put a bit of sugar or spices to flavor your popcorn. You might all be getting one for Christmas! haha
Kindling Cracker Dad taught me how to use this, and now I place a log on the blade and whack away to make kindling for both stoves. The basement stove is here, and Dad hopes to have the hearth and that stove installed by December.
House Progress
Bird and Wildlife Report
I chased (quietly) this little guy down the entire driveway, but didn’t get very close.
The entire first floor is now washed and oiled. The upper floor is only done on the side you can see in the photo above. The entrance white flapping paper is gone now, too and that whole structure is sided. The window also has the top boards and siding done. You can see in the window below the finished outside windows.
This small, but fat, bird was right by the woodshed. Joh said it was a Swainson’s Thrush. This week the blue jays have been swarming. We saw at least six brilliant blue flying all over the place. I did chase them, but didn’t get a photo. Both Dad and I have seen bald eagles flying pretty close to the house while we have been outside. Of course, no camera or binoculars in hand. No activity in any of the houses, but I check every so often. As for Jerome - he seems to have left us! We have not seen him since he stole all the apples. Even the rabbits seem to have disappeared. Fall is in the air, and it is fun to be here to see the changes in color and animal behavior.
horizons
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
September 2020
Fall is in full swing here in Grand Marais!
Being here in the fall again is amazing. This week they say that the maples around Lutsen and Grand Marais are probably at their peak. The birch will not be far behind with their brilliant yellow. Pincushion Mountain is on fire right now with the red of the maples. Just a mile up the Gunflint the reds disappear. Taking a walk on our driveway is a completely different experience with colors everywhere. It is difficult to even know where to turn the camera - possible photographs are absolutely everywhere.
“Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We’ll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure.” — Thomas Wolfe
Work on the house and property
Oh, the memories...
Dad has been playing with gravel and dirt a lot. A load of gravel was delivered, and he spread it out on the driveway to smooth out the bumps. He likes his tractor! Below our bedroom he is working on getting the footings in place and building a staircase that will go down from the north end of the deck. Other projects: • Trim around all the doors which finishes the first floor exterior. • The septic system was pumped out - very exciting I know for you to hear! (We hire this done.) • Washing all the windows in the house and cleaning up all the window sills of nails and tools. • More wood cut up and stacked for the basement wood stove. • Split more kindling for the winter wood. • Pulled the pump and cleaned up the pond for the winter
Harvest time in Iowa Notice Johannes is wearing part of his Power Ranger costume. Chris is on Grandpa’s lap.
“Home is where love resides, memories are created, friends always belong, and laughter never ends.”
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
September 2020
Visitors and memories
This week was full of visits by Wilderness Canoe Base friends and then Beth’s Adventure Weekend trip to High Doubt. Ingrid, Chris, and Isabella Evavold stopped by before Chris dropped off Ingrid and Isabella at the northern terminus of the Superior Hiking Trail. They are through hiking the entire trail (approx. 310 miles) and walking all the way to their home in northern Wisconsin. Ingrid and Isabella stopped by on Wednesday for a quick shower and a load of laundry. We had a great visit. Beth came up Thursday night and plans to stay until Sunday morning. Sue Ahrendt stopped by on Friday to see Beth. The Evavolds, Sue/Andy, and Beth were all part of our summers working at Wilderness and Amnicon. And, on Saturday Karin Rorem Anderson and her husband Tony came by. We worked at Wilderness Canoe Base together. Lots of birds visited this week, too. Eagles, turkey vultures, yellow-rumped warblers, cedar waxwings, blue jays, and lots of birds that looked very similiar - sorry Johannes - I cannnot tell them all apart. The mid-week temperatures hit 80 F., and we think it really brought out the warblers in the whole area. We had a few more birds die on the deck, so we are working on solutions. Promise, Johannes!
Beth’s surprises...
Recipe of the Week Ingredients: • Banana(s) -3 small, ripe • Uncooked old fashioned oats -1½ cup(s) • Powdered peanut butter - 1/3 cup(s) • Table salt -¼ tsp, optional • Mini semisweet chocolate chips -1/3 cup(s)
Beth came bearing gifts! Funny story - I came across some recipes for using a slow cooker or a crock pot. I thought, “Hey I have a crock pot!” So, I decided to make a soup. The recipe called for a 5-6 quart crock pot, and when we unpacked boxes, the crock pot we had seemed smaller. Yup - it was a crock-ette pot. It is tiny! I happened to tell Beth about my little pot, so she surprised me with a big one! We made an 8-hour slow cooked potato - corn chowder.
Instructions: • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. • In a medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Stir in oats, peanut butter powder, and salt, if desired. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared pan to form 16 cookies; flatten cookies slightly. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Serve warm. • Serving size: 1 cookie Reviews: Sue’s comment was “these are not very good.” For me, they were life-changing. One point treat with chocolate in them! I am still working dropping the pounds!
John’s reponse was “Ah.. more adventure cookingl”
Reviews: Kim - would make again with some tweaks like more potatoes John - another “Adventure Meal?” It was not easy to tell if he liked it or not.
Luna Bars and a brush with celebrity - a true North Woods story Sue got a call a few years ago from a guy who wondered if their store was open. It was February. She was living there this winter, but they were not really open. She asked what he wanted from the store. “A Luna bar, “ he answered. Sue was confused, and asked who he was and why a Luna bar. “I have a friend who was there this summer and really would like one of those Luna bars (They had just come out.)” Sue kept asking who was the guest and maybe she knew her. Initially, he would not answer her. Sue asked if he know where the resort was . And, he answered yea - I fly into Mpls, and then drive up to Duluth, Grand Marais, and then head up the Gunflint Trail. Finally, the man said his friend was Kim Kardashian. Sue asks who is she? The man said “google her”! She had just signed on for a
23 million dollar television show. As it happened she had visited Tuscarora in the summer after being in Thunder Bay for a wedding of a friend who was marrying a basketball player. Sue did remember her visiting (did not know at the time who she was) and that she had been there with two very tall black men. And, that she had bought a Luna bar. To make a long story short, she finally convinced him to buy the Luna bar in Los Angeles at a Cub Food. The following week Sue realized standing in line at the grocery store who Kim Kardashian was since she graced the cover of many of the magazines at the check out counter.
What kept us busy this week!
Bits of Grand Marais News
Foundation piers for the deck stairway put into the holes
Grand Marais Community Facebook page Black cat found sleeping - on the road by the mini golf course. We removed the cat from the road. If you’re missing your black feline friend, we unfortunately might of found him or her. Probably best to prepare yourself to say your goodbyes.
Final panel of glass was put in front of our bedroom door. More roadwork completed and chewed up wood chips for the pathways. Started to build fences around the apple trees. Finished washing the windows - upstairs and basement. Killed 4,642 stupid flies in the house. Finished Ordinary Grace and started The Splendid and the Vile (book by Erik Larson) about Churchill. Read any of Erik Larson’s books for great nonfiction reads. Dad ran 11 miles on Sunday, and 12 miles during the week - almost a marathon
Cook County Covid News After more than a month since the last case of COVID-19 was reported in Cook County, a seventh local resident has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Northern Minnesota Bear numbers The influx of bears is not because the bear population has exploded but because bears are hungry right now. This is what happens during bear food failures. Statewide bear populations are relatively low, compared to the peak in the early 2000s (2020 numbers =12,000–15,000 vs. 25,000, early 2000s).
Walking the Pincushion Trails
License plate update! Found Oklahoma which pushes our list up to 47 out of 51 states found in Cook County. We did use September, but crazy that all the states have been found. We have records for 18 years (+/- a couple of years). Yes, we are one exciting family. Flagged and plotted out a hiking/snowshoeing/cross country ski loop up past the pond and into the woods beyond the opening. Next step is to clear the path and get it set for the winter. Found a box with my antique bowling pins, missing house decorations and things that we forgot we had! So - the sorting continues! Remember the moose jawbone?
Summer of 1997
Beth Visits High Doubt It was an adventure weekend for Beth! The colors were beauiful and probably at their peak during her visit. The weather was cloudy with some rain, but this made for nice relaxing times by the fire and with a book. It was cool outside, so Beth helped chop kindling! Saturday morning was beautiful with sunshine and much warmer until the fog and mist rolled in. We then also went inside! At the time of publication, no decision had been made about a 15-mile-hike, but pretty doubtful. Fire, a book, and quiet music win out! The only wildlife seent on our Friday hike was this little guy. No Jerome. We did some serious leaf collecting! Then scanned one leaf for fun!
“The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” Paul Strand
It was another week of enjoying amazing colors. It didn’t matter if it was rainy or sunny— it was just plain beautiful. The dream would be to share a fall with all of you here at High Doubt. Maybe someday
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
October 3, 2020
Weather Changes
The weather is certainly changing with the first snowflakes falling on Wednesday and Thursday. The temperatures during the day have been 40-45° F. and in the evening dipping as low as 30° F. We have a fire going in the stove most days now, but the heat is also on. When the sun shines the house warms up quite a bit, so with the fire in the stove quite often the heat/pumps will not turn on.
The colors have shifted to green and yellow with almost all the maple trees dropping their leaves. Dad calls the upcoming season “stick season” since it will soon be bare branches on the trees and no leaves at all. The ground cover until the snow falls will be dead leaves and sticks. I will continue to shoot photographs, but the challenge will be to find engaging compositions. I may well start shooting more black and white. Stay tuned. The warblers are pretty much gone, and the only birds I saw this week were hawks, eagles, turkey vultures, blue jays, and some chickadees. The many yellow warblers have now moved on, so now I will just read about them in my new warbler book and prepare for the spring.
Photos too good to pass up!
Remember all your school photographs? Well one year I guess ordered bookmarks, too. They were never taken out of their perforated sheets, so I have them all ready for you to pick up and use. There are five per sheet, a ruler, and also three trading cards!
This was a photograph taken in Berlin right after Christopher was born for sending in a Christmas package to the grandparents. We took a whole set with just the boys, and the entire family, too. I like this one. Johannes is so tender with his little brother.
“Expect Sled Dog Traffic” signs are always a hit!
Lots of Outside Work!
During the winter, we will go through three or four cords of wood. (A cord is 4’ by 4’ by 8’) We just finished using up last year’s old birch. The wood shed is full, but I can always help crack more kindling.
Garden prep took a lot of time this week. I cut and chopped up all the corn stalks, we both used a garden tiller to work the ground, and then dad spread compost all over the worked ground. He will cover all this with hay/straw next.
Yes, we have a bear cage around our apple tree. I asked why it was so big, but more trees will be planted here in the spring. The plans are for another cage to protect the apple trees by the solar array from Jerome and his relatives.
We used caution tape and pushed all the chairs against the glass to help the yellow warblers avoid crashing. It worked!
A very attractive photo....we have a trail flagged from above the pond and out into the woods between the driveway and the highway. We have tried to plan the trail with gentle curves that would allow skiing. Odds are it will be more of a hiking/ birding/snowshoeing path. I was clearing the trail and will continue for the next week before we head to Switzerland.
last bits of color...
October 10, 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Leaving High Doubt for a few weeks in Switzerland It is bittersweet to have to leave here now. I have enjoyed watching the seasons change, and once we return in November there will be more changes again. As John calls it ‘stick weather’. We are not super excited about traveling to Switzerland with a pandemic going on and being away from family. We assure you we will be careful, and return as soon as possible! Next week’s newsletter will have a different look to it. I will be back to balcony photography. We have been enjoying the GM overlook the last few weeks, too. We have had some beautiful skies. The parking lot is remarkably full every singe time we stop!
Sunday Drive/Hike
We took a short Sunday drive to Greenwood Lake to just enjoy the backroad color and see the lake. The public landing is tucked in a bay, and most of the lake was around to the left. We also hiked to the top of Blueberry Hill, and it was described as a short 1/2 mile hike to beautiful vistas overlooking Northern Light Lake. It seemed like it was more than a 1/2 mile to the
top, but this might have been that the entire hike was uphill from the very first step. The vistas were not like Pincushion Mountain, but through the trees we could see Northern Light Lake. The highlight was getting a photograph of a Gray Jay. I have seen them often before, but not since I have been keeping a bird list.
House progress Dad has been working hard on many projects that will get the place ready for snow and colder temperatures. He has made at least six trips to the town compost pile to bring home compost to layer onto the garden. It should be ready for winter now. He also has been finishing up the quarry tile for the hearth down in the basement. The stove is here, but he has to get the floor set before it can be installed. He should be able to finish installing the stove by December. I have been working on kindling and on the hiking trail and will continue to clear the path until we leave on Monday.
Little jobs take up Dad’s time, too. He has fixed outside lights, cleaned the garage, oiled some posts, and also working on the steps coming down from the deck. A new pump was installed for one zone of the house. Our bedroom has not heatp for quite a few months, so last year we slept upstairs, but now it is all better. And, this means I can sit in my little cave and be warmer!
We also made a trip to Duluth and met with the kitchen designer. No final decisions have been made, but we will be thinking/ planning and making an order in early December. By June, we should have an upstairs kitchen!! Once we return in November from Switzerland, Dad will work on the remaining floors on the main floor. They have to be done before cupboards can be installed. We will try to pick out tile or at least look at some in a few days in Minneapolis before we leave for Switzerland. I know there is discussion about losing the window to the carport, and nothing is decided yet. The appliances just fit so much better this way. Feel free to share your thoughts with us! Nothing is set in stone yet.
Flies! We have had an interesting time with flies this fall. Every year the big slow “cluster flies” come out when it gets cold outside and we heat the house. Every morning I simply sweep them up, but they hang out by the windows. After Beth left, I didn’t change the bedding for about a week and when I went to clean yesterday, I vacuumed 121 flies from the upstairs floors.
And, aother fly story! We brought our tomatoes in to ripen, but a couple had some bad spots. Well, fruit flies decided to invade. what a pain. Here is what you do - remove all food - don’t leave anything out, Pour 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar in a bowl, wrap it in plastic and tighten the plastic with a rubber band. Then poke little holes in the plastic - the flies go in and cannot come out. We also use the bug zapper daily.
...even though fixed in time, a photograph evokes as much feeling as that which comes from music or dance. Whatever the mode from the snapshot to the decisive moment to multi-media montage - the intent and purpose of photography is to render in visual terms feelings and experiences that often elude the ability of words to describe. In any case, the eyes have it, and the imagination will always soar farther than was expected.” — Ralph Gibson
Ralph Gibson is one of my favorite photographers. As the leaves fall, the composition I see become more abstract and I am enjoying the challenge. These two were my favorites of the week.
October 17, 2020
Switzerland
A short trip back to Ticino....
Air travel during a pandemic Returning to Switzerland as Europe hits a second wave of Covid 19 was not my idea of a good time! For a variety of reasons, however, we needed to return to make sure we were honoring the requirements of our C permit, check on the apartment, car, etc. The trip went smoothly, and as we left Detroit early Wednesday the sky turned purple, pink, and I pulled out my phone and shot away! The flights were not full at all, and we flew in the new Delta Premium section with four other people. From Amsterday to Zurich there were only about 25 people on the plane. We were masked up and the longest we spent at all close to anyone was the taxi ride from the Lugano train station stuck in traffic.
Rainy departure
Apple Valley
Passenger
Reflection
Back in Switzerland We spent a little over an hour in Zurich waiting for our train to Lugano which was tough. After a three hour layover in Detroit and the flight from Amsterdam, we were starting to tire. Both of us slept a bit on the trip from Zurich. It was a gray rainy day, and although Switzerland is beautiful, as your dad would say “It wasn’t our first rodeo, “ so we slept! The apartment was in good shape, and we were reminded that we had really packed up our belongings well. There is still furniture, but most shelves/drawers are empty as we get the place ready to sell. The weather is cool, so balcony sitting may have to wait a few days, but the view here is still beautiful. It is so different than High Doubt, and I have to say I prefer the empty ‘no people’ view in Minnesota. I did bring my binoculars along since we are stuck here for 10 days and I thought I might try some balcony birdwatching. First night’s sunset below!
Isolation: t-minus 10 days & counting
Isolation - 10 days in this small space
Reading - I only brought two physical books along - one fiction The Age of Light, and one nonfiction The Heart of the Photograph. I did load up my kindle with free Amazon Prime choices. Right now I am reading John Grisham’s newest novel! Dad brought along the book Guns, Germs, and Steel. Netflix - yea - a lot of screen time. Any suggestions? We also have television here, so we can keep up with all the news! Online courses - I plan to finish the Birding 101 course I purchased through the Cornell program, and also spend some time in LinkedIn Learning with sharpening some photoshop/indesign/premiere skills. Dad plans on ramping up his Italian Rosetta Stone and Duolingo in the next week. (me...not so much!) Writing - Hopefully I will dig into some journaling and working on a project that I have in mind. Stay tuned.
This past week has also been filled with worry and concern over Grandpa and little Emory. At this point, I believe they are waiting for test results for Emory and Grandpa has his appointment on Monday. Keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.
Driveway
drive·way \ drīv-wā \ a private road giving access from a public way to a building on abutting grounds.
October 22 2020
Switzerland
A short trip back to Ticino....
Attempts at Balcony Photography It was tough to shoot from the balcony during our 10-day isolation adventure. The skies were mainly overcast and cloudy except for the first day or two. I had hoped to see lots of birds, but they tended to be quite far away. One day there were hundreds of geese (I think) on the water for about 20 minutes. It was very odd - they came and then they went. We must have been a quick stop on their fall migration. I have to say I was not inspired by the gray skies, but do like the photo to the right when the clouds broke and settled into the lower spots across the lake!
Ten Days of Isolation - in a small apartment! Friday, October 23 Yes. It has been interesting, but today is day nine (Friday), and isolation is getting a bit old! In 24 hours we can go to the grocery store and drive around. However, it is not really encouraged to do much socializing at all with cases in Switzerland on the rise. We plan to take a few things to a local store to sell, research how much we can sell the car for, and take a few day trips/hikes bringing our lunch along. When we return again, it will be this winter, and we are hopeful that the isolation rules change. If not, we will just bring more books!
You may think these were all taken the same day, but John has worn the same sweats every single day. He doesn’t take photographs of me, but I have changed my outfits a number of times! And, I am also trying to ride the bike daily! Diet is going so-so, but my guess is I have gained back a pound. Walking will be good next week, and we hope to get a lot of fresh air! `v
Screentime and Books John’s List Reading - Guns, Germs and Steel Netflix Family Guy, American Playboy - The Hugh Hefner Story, Prometheus (precursor to Alien), Naked Gun 331/2, Jimmy O. Yang (comedy special), Moneyball (rewatched), The Trial of the Chicago 7 Rosetta stone - Italian and Russian Kim’s List Reading - A Time for Mercy by John Grisham, Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah, The Cypher by Isabella Maldonado Netflix - Top Chef - dream of learning to cook better, Emily in Paris , American Barbeque, Star Trek - yes I dug into Klingon Wars
Bits of wisdom learned for the next isolation • • • • • • • • •
Reaffirmed that Kindles are wonderful. It was good to bring along a couple of loaves of bread and peanut butter Maybe bring two pair of sweat pants, John. Drink multiple pots of coffee a day Don’t stay up until 3:00 AM for the presidential debate - not worth it. Excercise every day Thirty steps round trip from the balcony to the kitchen and back. Return to Minnesota as soon as possible! Retirement is really great....
It was Christopher’s birthday week!
Happy Birthday!
Switzerland
A short trip back to Ticino....
October 31, 2020
Finding Flat Walks in Lugano We finished our 10-day isolation only to find out two days later the law had been changed. The Swiss have had such an uptick in Covid 19 cases that the ‘high risk’ countries they identified had lower number than Switzerland. They dropped the isolation requirement. No problem. We survived, and this week have tried to spend time outside (remaining socially distant) and looking for walks that are easy on the knees! A few TASIS friends did come over to catch up, but we are trying hard to not expose ourselves. There are now mask requirements for once you leave your home, limits to number of people who can gather, and clubs are closed at night. This has really cut into our even clubbing plans, but we have adjusted! Temps have been mild and it feels like fall. From the weather reports and photos, Grand Marais seems to have some snow and cold temps already!
The view from our balcony The view from our balcony here in Lugano is beautiful, and each day once the sun hits the balcony - one or both of us are outside reading or enjoying the sun. We never close the curtains since noe one can see into our place. I used to think that the planes taking off from the airport might get a good glimpse inside our place, but now the airport is closed!
What did we accomplish this week? Decided to sell the car to a dealership for not money, but Isolation: t-minus 10 days & much counting they will take care of all the paperwork and headache.
Isolation: t-minus 10 days & counting
John spent hours doing laundry since it had been 10 days. Checked and made sure my ballot was in and acounted for. Rewatched all three seasons of the Danish political drama “Borgen”, finished two more books, ate at least eight Mandarin oranges a day. It was a slow week...
Reminder of Iowa on a recent walk!
Collected photos from the week
Some Pandemic humor - not to make light of the situation, but these quotes made us laugh. I still can’t believe people’s survival instincts told them to grab toiliet paper. I’m going to stay up on New Year’s Eve this year. Not to see the New Year in, but to make sure this one leaves. At the store there was a Big X by the register for me to stand on...I’ve seen too many Road Runner cartoons to fall for that one. Keep in mind, even during a pandemic, no matter how much chocolate you eat, your earrings will still fit. The buttons on my jeans have started social distancing from each other. Having some states lock down and some states not lock down is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool. If I had only know in March it would be my last time in a restaurant, I would have ordered dessert. Until further notice, the days of the week are now called, thisday, thatday, otherday, someday, yesterday, today, and nextday.
When does Season Two of 2020 start? I do not like Season One? I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are! Eventually, everyone will be quarantined to their houses with no sports to watch... and in nine months from now a boom of babies will be born..and we will call them Coronials. In Germany they are preparing for the crisis by stocking up with sausage and cheese. That’s the Wurst Käse scenario.
The dumbest thing I’ve every purchased was a 2020 planner.
November 7, 2020
Switzerland Time to head back to Minnesota...
A quiet week in Lugano. Our final week in Lugano was quiet. We went on a few short walks, read a lot, watched Netflix, followed the election results, and organized the apartment. We ended up selling the Volvo to a local garage, and now when we visit we will rent a car. It didn’t make sense to carry insurance and have the car sit for months at a time.
Working on Abstract Landscapes We didn’t really do a whole heck of a lot this final week. Every evening I could have shot beautiful sunsets, but they all start to look the same, I decided to play with Intentional Camera Movement where you set your camera to a smaller aperture and a low ISO, and experiment with the moving the camera during the resulting slower shutter speed. I would shoot 30-40 shots to get a few that worked. I plan to continue playing with ICM in Grand Marais with Lake Superior and the shoreline.
Flight back to Minnesota
The drive to Zurich, staying at at a hotel near Zurich’s airport, and taking a taxi to the airport went very smoothly. The KLM flight was quite full to Amsterdam, but the flight to Minneapolis only had maybe 35-40 people in the whole aircraft. Flight was smooth, and Delta makes things feel very safe. Less food/snack service during the flight, but this is no big deal. MSP airport was completely empty - felt like a ghost town. Glad to be back.
Latest
What is in store for the next few months...
Here is a list of what the plans are for the upcoming weeks. I will try to keep documenting the changes in the house and the changing conditions at High Doubt.
Latest kitechn renderings
Ordering floor tile on Monday - big step. In early December we will finalize the plans for the kitchen with Dave the designer. We have decided to save the window, and we found a way to get the stove off the middle island. Dad will be leveling the kitchen floor with a liquid floor leveing compound right away this coming week. Then he will finish the hardwood floors in the family room. The basement floor needs to have the remaining cement board (?) in place before the hearth can be completely finished. Then the wood stove can be installed. The decorative iron piece for the front of the house has arrived. Dad will build a cedar frame, and this will be a project for the upcoming weeks, too. Before the snow flies and temperatures get too cold, I hope to finish the hiking trail. Photos to come soon! Darkroom - It is not an important part of the house, but I hope to fix my two enlargers and get them ready. I may be able to cobble together a workable darkroom in the coming weeks. It is not a priority in the scheme of house projects, but I would love to get the room started.
Note: floor tile/wall color are not right. I really did not want the stove/oven on the middle island, and I know that most folks wanted that window kept. By placing the refrigerator in the new location, it may well help define the kitchen space. We may well extend the wall another 12 inches behind the stools. Again, this will help define an fairly open planned kitchen space.
Quarantine for a couple of weeks. Since we did travel from Switzerland, one of the world’s current hotspots for Covid, we will stay away from GM as best we can for the next two weeks. Pondering plans and working on Italian/Russian with Rosetta Stone
Please feel free to send your opinions. It is definitely a work in progress, but we are moving closer and closer to final design decisions.
November 14, 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the north woods...
Happy to be back! We drove up to High Doubt on Monday, November 9, and it was a gray, gloomy drive up the North Shore. It was great to get back, and everything was fine. Snow was in the forecast for Tuesday night, so most of the work done on Tuesday was outdoors. I finished clearing the walking/hiking trail as best I could. There is a bit more work to move some larger downed trees, but it is close! We also purchased a tube bird feeder and were able to get that up on Tuesday, and it took about 20 minutes for the chickadees to find the feeder! The snow started falling about 8:00 pm Tuesday night, and only 4-5 inches fell - it was beautiful! When we woke up on Wednesday morning, it suddenly looked (and felt) like winter. There wasn’t enough snow to get the snowblower out, but the solar arrays had to be cleaned off!
Lots of projects and work! The big project right now is to finish installing the hardwood floors in the family room. Before Dad could start on the actual installation, he had to mix and pour a floor leveling compound. It dries fairly quickly, and so after 12 hours, he started to install the final hardwood floor. All the furniture and junk in that front room had to be slid over into the kitchen area, and once the floor is done, we will move the furniture back. There is a subfloor that needs to be installed in the hallway and kitchen before the tile is put down. Lots of electrical and plumbing preparations, sheet rock, vents, etc to get in place once the final kitchen design and plans are finalized. Lots of work! We purchased a metal grill for the front of the house to be installed in the final panel in front of the main door. There continues to be outdoor work to do with a few trees to take down, mulch was put down around all the apple trees, and making sure the snowblower is ready to work once it is needed!
The pond
I love our little pond, and the rains on Monday filled it to the brim. A thin layer of ice formed on Tuesday afternoon, then came the snow. It is such a nice walk up to the pond, and it marks the start of the new hiking trail. This area at the top of the hill is covered with deer tracks and deer droppings. I have never seen so much sign of deer.
Close up of the pond’s surface just as the ice was forming on Tuesday. Tuesday night the snow fell and this beautiful surface was gone.
Not Johannes, but having fun trying to photograph birds!
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the north woods...
November 21, 2020
Between seasons The week started off with a beautiful 2-3 inches of snow on Sunday, November 15, but by the end of the week we were back to ice and stick season! Temperatures hovered on either side of freezing, and the sun did make an appearance most days. It is interesting to note that we have made more electricity this November than the past two years. This pleases John a great deal.
Towards the middle of the week John took the chainsaw out and finished clearing the hiking trail. Now we just need some snow to try out our skis or snowshoes. The trail is not long, but it is a nice walk. Matter of fact, today I was walking along the trail and happened upon a pilleated woodpecker right above my hear. (Yea, I was excited and had my camera along.)
Hardwood floors all done!
New look for the house! The new maple leaf metal piece has been installed in in the deck now, too. With the siding newly washed and oiled, siding installed under the windows, this final piece completes the outside of the house. There is still some washing to do on the second floor in front of the house and the north side. These will be projects for next summer!
Finally after over a year, all the hardwood floors have been installed. John is a very happy man! Every single board had to be predrilled and then nailed in place. He also had to be careful with placement so he would not damage the geothermal tubes under the floor. It has been a huge job, and the floors look beautiful. In preparation for the kitchen, all the tools and junk have been cleared out of that kitchen space. John will start to mark out where the venting and plumbing will go. Then he can sheet rock that room and the ceiling.
The pond
Adventure Cooking! Two ingredient bagel dough: • •
2 cups self rising flour 1 to 2 cups nonfat plain Greek yogurt
Toppings: • • • •
1 large egg pinch of fine sea salt 1 teaspoon water everything bagel seasoning mix, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc (all optional) These really were pretty good, and by adding other flavors the skies the limit. Here is the recipe and also more instructions. https://www.recipegirl.com/2-ingredient-bagels/
In Weight Watchers world, these are 1/3 the points of a regular bagel!
Odds ‘n Ends Our plans for the next month include a possible trip to Minneapolis to drop off Goodwill and garbage, pick up food, and also get some needed supplies to prepare for tiling the kitchen floor. Since Minnesota is locked down for a month, we will limit our visits to only a few stops. COVID is spreading all over the Midwest, and we are very careful. John does our errands, and I have not been not really even been off the property for two weeks. We will also get another car to the cities for Beanee and Joh! I will soon begin the search for the Pokeman cards that you guys had as little kids. This one is a first edition Machamp worth about $1,000 (I guess). I actually didn’t believe Chris, but after a bit of research the worth in mint condition is about $1,000. The card I found is in a sealed package, too. Hmmm...I may spend some time looking for the other cards, but I have no idea where they might be. First Edition Holographic Machamp Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $1,000 https://www.oldsportscards.com/first-edition-pokemon-cards/
Our nests - You can find either of us sitting in our chairs every day!
Mom’s side
See any difference?
Dad’s side
Sunday November 22 update - Reading the Sunday paper and enjoying a light snow.
Looking for compositions Every day the weather is different, the light changes, and with the temperatures hovering around freezing collected water in the woods is freezing or thawing. On my daily walks I usually head down the driveway and then often turn off into the woods to explore. There are no bugs and with leaves gone it is easier to walk almost anywhere. The ground is also frozen, and so the bogs are easy to navigate. Here are some of this week’s photos.
November 28, 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
The rhythm of winter
It seemed that every night an inch or two of snow would fall. Just enough to make the ground perfect with only animal tracks breaking the surface. The temperatures are still hovering around 32 F., and so by the end of the day sections of the driveway often will have cleared. This week’s snow total was about six inches, and it was enough that the snow blower made its November debut. The wood pile seems to shrink every day, but John assures me we have enough for most of the winter. In preparation for next winter, he felled about four trees that were starting to die and might have caused problems . Daylight is limited with the sun rising at 7:15 am and setting at 4:12 pm. I try to walk every day, and one afternoon took off cross country to try and bushwack to the Pincushion Ski Trails. I left and had plenty of light, but by 4:30 pm I was definitely walking back in the dark. On Friday, John tried to burn the wood piles in the back and had success with only one pile. They are extremely difficult to burn, and it gets even more difficult as the snow deepens.
Thanksgiving at High Doubt Since John doesn’t really like turkey (I guess) we decided to make a slow cooker stew and give his last year’s Christmas present a try - the bread machine. We had limited success! The stew was really good, but the verdict was next time smaller potatoes and the beef was cut up too small. It was very good, and we froze almost half for later. The bread - well...it didn’t really look like bread. It appeared that it did not rise or mix. We ate some of the pieces, but it wasn’t what we expected. We will try again, and we might take Ryan’s advice and pull it out to bake in an oven mid-cycle. We call these cooking experiments ‘adventure cooking’, and it was still fun to do everything together and at least smell the bread and stew cooking all day.
The stew (as you can see) has a lot of potatoes, but this was the top layer. While it was cooking you can see more than just potatoes. We will perfect our stews before Beanee and Joh visit!
Yes.... this was our first attempt at baking bread. We are determined and since we have the machine I will conquer it. Next week we hope to show you a perfectly formed loaf of bread!
John’s brush with fame and fortune...and Kim “upskills” at 63! We did get the snowblower out to clear the driveway twice this week. It simply helps to prevent ice buildup, and the first time the snowblower is used is exciting. Ask us in March if we still think it is a special event to highlight! I did get a lesson, and managed to go up and down the driveway successfully. I was a bit nervous with the controls, but I did okay. I posted the photo of John on Facebook and a local blogger stuck the image in her weekly blog. As you can guess John loved the exposure. See the blog post here - photos are at the bottom: http://northshoreartscene.info/
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt
Changing skies
December 5, 2020
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Evening light The days are short and getting shorter. Luckily, the living room looks great with the blue light at twilight and then the wood stove and lamps warm the room during every evening. We will be cutting down the Christmas tree this week, and I think we will get decorated for the holidays. We were going to wait until Joh and Beanee come, but I don’t know if I can wait that long! Our evenings tend to have a predictable pattern. Dinner around 6:30, followed by a bit of computer/streaming time, and at some point in the evening some reading. John is still working on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, and I am reading The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt. Night time is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep. —Catherine O’Hara
More kitchen work
On Friday, December 11th we will order the kitchen. Now that we haave all the specifics and design Dad spent this week getting the electrical outlets/conduits set, and then he was able to install the final insulation in the ceiling. Sheetrock was delivered, and he is able to now close in the ceiling and the walls. The first two pieces of sheetrock are now up. Soon, this unfinished
room will have walls and we are closer to a real kitchen! Floor tile will be ordered, too On the couch you can also see a box with a new TV in it! We are not certain where we will put it, but it will allow us to stream and watch on a bigger screen
Odds ’n ends Finding Gems I continue to sort and find things in boxes in the basement. This week I found this August 1974 newspaper when Nixon resigned. I also found the Charles City Press from May 29, 1957. My mom must have saved the paper for the day I was born!
Feeding the birds continues. We have only seen nuthatches and chickadees at the tube feeder, but recently put up some suet. So far nothing has nibbled at our suet, so we will try a new location.
Mixed Buck This young buck was below the deck, but just as I had my camera set up, he bolted off to the edge of the clearing. Oh well!
Dentist Office with a View Kim’s broken tooth is all fixed, and I enjoyed a view of the lift bridge!
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” — Aaron Siskind
High Doubt A weekly update about life in the woods...
December 12, 2020
Northern Light Alert Everyone was talking about the solar storms and that the Northern Lights would be dancing on Wednesday and Thursday. There was some ‘light’ in the sky as you can see in the above photo, but nothing quite danced. I checked a number of times, but nothing really happened. Weather this week was mainly gray with one day of warm weather that ended up taking our snow pack down. It was warm enough that it rained a tiny bit, but from the sounds of it the smooth black skating ice up the trail became a bit pitted by the warming temps and the rain. We only have about 3-4 inches of snow in the woods now. More snow please! I did not take a ton of photos this week. Lots of other secret projects taking up time!
This week it was all about the kitchen!
We headed to Duluth on Friday to meet with our designer “Dave”, and we worked out every single drawer, cabinent, the countertops, finalizing all the details and ordering the kitchen. It will take a few months for the order to be completed. Wtih the pandemic, there is a delay for many things. We also order the floor tile which are NOT what the renderings in the sketches above show. The countertops represent the tone, but are not exact either The island is a darker color with the counterrops a lighter color. We will order the appliances once we are closer to the delivery date for the kitchen. Again, there is a delay with most appliances because of the pandemic creating havoc with the supply chain. And, we are not certain about the wall color, tile if any that will be installed, and all the cupboards/drawer handles will be ordered separately.
I did not take many photographs this week, but did manage a still life of my vacuum, which John and I affectionatly call “472” in reference to how many feet of vacuum hose I have to haul around. (It actually is only 30 feet of hose.)
High Doubt
A weekly update about life in the woods...
December 20, 2020
Getting Ready for the Holidays
John and I got the Christmas tree up this week. John found a large spruce tree and trimmed it down to only an 11 foot tree for the living room It is tall and thin, but perfectly shaped. Love having the tree up! Much of this week was preparation for Johannes and Beanee’s arrival yesterday. I did some baking (four types of cookies), prepared a few meals for the week, and got the house looking as best we could! Temperatures are supposed to be mild throughout their visit, but Christmas Eve will drop below zero. Hot chocolate time! Big news this week is Beanee and Joh’s University of Pennsylvania acceptance to grad school! Since it was the only school they both applied to - so happy for them both, and of course Kylo!
Preparing for visitors and just livin’ in the NOrth Woods
It was a good week to continue to burn brush piles with a bit more snow falling, but moderate temperatures. John also finished taping and mudding the sheetrock in the kitchen The next adventure will be on Monday , December 21 when three tons of tile gets delivered to the lumber yard here. It was supposed to come straight to our house, but now they are refusing to go up anyone’s driveway. John may have to load boxes of tile into our van a little bit at a
time unless he can find someone to help from the yard. We shall see! I made a different cookies each day starting with biscotti and ending with some really good orange cookies! I have been working to NOT eat these treats and have been marginally successful! We also had 2-3 inches of fresh snow this week.
Random photos from the last couple of days!
“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience”. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
High Doubt
A weekly update about life in the woods...
Quiet Sunday Morning
December 27, 2020
This past week was wonderful with Johannes and Beanee visiting High Doubt for Christmas. John drove them to the airport yesterday and the quiet here was almost overwhelming Usually, I love a bit of quiet for reading, walking and thinking, but yesterday the house was a bit too calm! I did go out for a walk, but I did not see one living thing. The bird feeder had frozen, so I cleaned out the old seed, cleaned the tube, and refilled it early in the afternoon. No one visited - not a chickadee or nuthatch in sight. I think they were mourning Johannes’s departure and were resting after the holiday week. We missed visiting everyone in Iowa and having Chris and Max here, but some day we will all get together again! And, next time everyone visits we will have a new kitchen!
Not too many projects this week!
John burned the brush pile in front of the house this week, but projects were on hold with Johannes and Beanee here. Johannes helped when all the floor tile was dropped off in Grand Marais at the lunber yard. John and Joh were able to load and bring all 3,000 lbs of material up from the yard using both the van and the Suburu - just before the blizzard arrived! Food this past week was important and food adventures did continue! We used the bread machine only once, but Beanee and Kim made White Chocolate bread and foccacia with olives. It was fun to make bread, and these two recipes are worth making again! Kim and Beanee also made a second batch of biscotti and used the extra white chocolate to cover half of the biscotti. Cooking is not Kim’s forte, but it was fun to use the crock pot Beth gave us twice more for a beef stew and her Chicken Taco Soup! Two other food adventures were Kim’s first lasagna - it was actually pretty good, and our final night pizzocheri - a northern Italian hearty pasta with potatoes and cabbage. There were lots of cookies and other things to munch on - now the challenge is to get back to eating better! These photos do not do these two items justice!
Random photos collected this past week!
New logo stickers made by Beanee and Joh for our maple syrup!!
High Doubt
January 3, 2021
An occasional update about life in the woods...
A New Year What will this new year bring? Changes - that is for certain! Joh and Beanee will become students again, We will have a kitchen on the main level of the house. Hopefully the Corona virus will leave the headlines, and we can start to travel to see friends and family. Not much changed here at High Doubt this past week. The quiet continues. Temps were lower at the start of the week, and now an early January thaw seems to be here with 30 degrees and above early this week. As for the birds, I do not see them except at the feeder. I cannot hear them or find them, but I continue to try! I have been interested in all the tracks all over the property, and it is the story of these tracks that keep me interested as I search in vain for a bird. A plain old raven excites me these days. With the warmer temps this week, I remain hopeful that I will see a few more on my daily walks!
Mailbox Therapy
Every day I head out to get the mail in anticipation of finding a letter in the box. We usually get something every day - insurance policy notices, weekly grocery flyers, and an occasional magazine. But...what I look forward to the most is the view of the lake. Every season brings something different, and we are now in a winter blue palette!
Painting and Ceiling Work
Much of John’s time this week has been priming walls and also finishing off the ceilings. He has been busy sanding, painting, and then placing a slight texture on the ceilings. This allows any slight mistake or the showing of the tape to be hidden and in the long run will be best for our situation. Early this week the kitchen walls will be primed and then we will be painting them either “Accessible Gray” or AAAA Beige. Both are a mixture of beige/gray that will blend with the floors, countertops, etc. The Christmas tree will come down later today, and it is always bittersweet. It is exciting to get the tree up and I enjoyed decorating it this year. I think it makes a difference when it is a tree from your own property, and you know guests (!) are coming. When the tree comes down, it really feels as if a new year has started. Battle with 472 continues... With the sanding and construction happening in the house, keeping the hardwood floors clean has been a challenge. Almost daily I unwind “472” and lug it to the main floor wall connections to vacuum the floors, but bits of sheetrock dust settle almost immediately. This results in smudges and shoe prints. It is annoying and since I cannot control the clutter in a construction site, I try to keep our living spaces dust and smudge free. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to let go of my floor obsession! Grandma sent footies for John and I to wear in the house. This may help! You can see that John has a pair on in the photograph...just like Grandpa’s! Note: that is not only a scarf around my neck, but “472”!
Exploring with Kim The photographs below are often taken with my phone since the big lens I use is for birds I never see. Every day I get out and walk the same route to see what changes happen and yes - search for birds. After a fresh snow, tracks are everywhere. I have identified most of the animal tracks, but I am not 100% certain. I have both snowshoed and skiied the new trail I cut, and the moral of the story is to not bring the big lens along for those days. Inevitably I will trip or fall and it is not easy to keep the camera dry and then getting back up! I hear you all laughing!!
Even from the kitchen window, you can watch the feeder and see squirrel tracks.
These tracks are all over the driveway and then head off into the woods to the east. I think they are a bobcat or maybe a fox, but I just don’t know. The scat below appeared right near these tracks this week
I call these deer snow angels. You cannot see from this photo, but I was able to see the outline of the deer’s legs, head, and body. Just beyond this spot were four more deer indentations...right on the snowshoe trail.
Fresh scat on the road.....lots of hair. Bobcat/Lynx/coyote? If any of you know what this is for certain. Let me know.
Just an empty nest...with all the leaves down I keep finding these little beauties all over the place.
So many woodpecker holes in all of our trees, and I do occasionally hear them pecking away.
100 Days Project
Experimenting with cyanotype printing and handcoloring have kept me busy this week . Over Christmas Beanee and I worked one day with printing cyanotypes. We used a digital negative and also some dried plants. The results were interesting and, so I plan to print with organic items more soon. I signed up for the 100 Day Project - a “Solstice to Equinox - Out of the Darkness into the Light” project which is described as a holistic and gentle approach to growing a creative habit. Many participants post their work online, but I decided to simply try and commit to trying new printing techniques. At first I thought I would only work with cyanotype printing since you do not need a darkroom for the process. My ideas are now changing to include different alternative processes - again without a darkroom and using digital printing and contact printing. This photograph of the Hermann Hesse museum wall started life as a digital file. I printed a digital negative and contact printed it onto photography paper in the darkroom at TASIS. Now I am handcolring the imags with oils, pastels, and a vareity of colored pencils. It has a vintage look to it. Stay tuned for next week’s experiments. I have eggshells drying treated for cyanotype printing right now!
Detail of image
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
January 10, 2021
Creating space You guys might not know this, but I like having a nest. Somewhere for my books, a coffee cup, computer, a workspace, comfy chair, and photography equipment. John knows this and so he made me an office/special room in the master suite. However, it is chilly in there in the winter, so I am looking for a winter spot to migrate to! John and I often sit in the leather chairs in the living room to read, but before Christmas when I was working on the family newsletter I began to work at the desk up in the library. It is warm up there, and I don’t have to pick up and put away everything when I finish for the day with whatever I am doing. During the day the light is perfect these for my handcoloring projects, and the coffee pot I put up there for Johannes and Beanee remains! Win! I even pulled out the watercolors sets yesterday, and I might take Beanee’s advice and give it a go. I watched three videos. We shall see. John also worked on a table in the basement for working on Cyanotypes and other alt processes I hope to play with. Access to water and being able to make a mess is critical for some of these experiments. With all this new time on my hands, I feel a bit like a kid in a candy shop these days.
Almost ready to paint the walls
John has been working every single day on the kitchen and family room ceiling and walls. He taped, mudded and sanded this week, and now he has the room painted with primer. Early next week we will be painting the kitchen walls the gray/beige color we have chosen. For us deciding on the color for the walls is tough - not really a gift either of us have. It amazing to see the space coming alive. Now there John has to finish up getting connections for gas/ plumbing set and then will finish the floor. First, level the floor, then cement board and finally install the ceramic tile. Nothing is easy!! The photo to the right has cabinet, floor tile, and countertop tiles next to the paint chips we are working with now.
Very warm this week.. We had been having a bit of snow each week, but this week we had sun and warmer temperatures. I loved the blue skies and I think the birds did, too. I was actually able to see a few birds not by the feeder! It is not a testament to my birding abilities when I get excited to simply see a chickadee NOT by the feeder! I might have to go off property to simply see a different bird soon. Fingers crossed we get fresh snow soon. I even miss helping to shovel!
Random shots from the week
I pulled out the macro lens for a few walks, and also played with layering and moving my camera to change things up a bit. It becomes a challenge to find new compositions on these daily driveway walks1
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
An amazingly full week There were a few special events this week beginning with the arrival of the new treadmill. It weighed close to 400 pounds, but John figured out a way to get it out of the van, into the house, and down the steps to the basement! Then, it took about two hours to put together. We also ordered another cord of wood that was delivered, and the wood then had to be stacked into the wood shed. I did help with both projects - if you were wondering! I became obsessed in finding all my journals this week. Well, from 1978—present I found every single journal except 20082012. I looked everywhere, and then I came to the conclusion it must still be in Switzerland. John was sorting some boxes Saturday afternoon, and I came down the steps and he handed me a black moleskine and said “Is this the missing journal?” It was in a box he had yet to unpack from Switzerland. I was so relieved!! It is crazy to read 40-year old journals, but I am so glad I have all those memories. I recommend journaling!
January 17, 2021
Almost ready to paint the walls
And, then the chimney sweep came and cleaned out the chimney also giving us advice on putting in the stove in the basement. He also had a few suggestions for the current stove and set-up. Nice guy! Everything was fine, but it is always good to have things checked out. When John empties the ash box he spreads the ash on the driveway to help melt the snow. The much blacker soot that was taken out by the chimney sweep makes our driveway especially attractive!
To see a chimney sweep is considered good luck! Read about the tradition of chimney sweeps!
Kitchen status
The kitchen is now painted a gray/beige which looks great when we hold the countertops/floor tile and cabinet samples next to it. The painting is done for now, and John has the holes in the floor cut for the drain and power connections. Now he will pick up the cement floor in Duluth, level the floor, and start get the floor set for tile. He thinks he will be tiling by mid-week.
Odds ’n ends The new treadmill It is much bigger and a lot more quiet. I walk daily, and this week I had two walks with Karin. Now I need to incorporate more aerobic walking with the new treadmill! More special friends on the mountain In the summer we have Jerome, and now we have a wolf pack on the mountain: Grand Marais man recounts dog-wolf encounter on Pincushion Mountain trail - Link to story. Love Gift When my mom went shopping or just when she felt like it she would give us love gifts. I loved doing the same with the boys, but now it is tough. Well...Sara and Adam sent me a love gift this week! Adam started to watercolor and I said that Beanee watercolors and I thought I might start! I said that I only had one tiny brush. On Saturday UPS dropped off a package with a love gift! Watercolor brushes!!
It’s a miracle.
My Tostita chip came out of the bag in the shape of Minnesota. I knew that I was destined to live here, and now I have the proof!
A few beginning scans
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Changes are coming The big news this week had to be the call from our kitchen cabinet folks that they hope to deliver our kitchen components in early February. This means the floor needs to be finished! John has worked very hard to make this happen in time for the delivery There is cement board on 50% of the room, and he has laid two-three rows of tile. It is not a fast process and requires patience and accuracy. He uses a laser level to help him with lining up the rows, and simply goes tile by tile. The hump in the floor has not made putting the tile down easier, but he has managed to lesses the rise in the truss. This morning we woke up to our first snow in weeks. It was only about three inches, but the woods look fresh. No real snow in the forecast until possibly early February. Temps have been colder and below zero at night and often single digits during the day. It feels like winter, but just not a lot of snow!
January 24, 2021
Firewood Lessons
We have settled into routines this winter and our days are remarkably predictable (boring to most)! Keeping the house (and us) warm is important. Every couple of days we have to bring in a fresh wagon of wood for the fireplace. We are now burning the maple we received last fall. John is always teaching me something. I didn’t know we had a way to test the moisture of the wood we have in the shed. I knew that there are some types of wood that burn better than others and you let wood dry, but I did not know that John tested the wood with this fun little device. Nerd alert...here is a lesson about firewood! There are three factors which determine how much heat you can get from a log when you burn it. The variety of the wood (and how ‘dense’ it is) and the efficiency of the stove are two, but these are fairly insignificant when compared to the importance of the third: moisture content. Depending on the variety, a log from a recently felled tree can have as much moisture as 60% – something like a pint of water for every kilo of log. A seasoned log will produce twice as much heat as a freshly cut (aka ‘wet’ or ‘green’) log because this water must be boiled away first before the log gives up any real heat. This makes unseasoned logs an incredibly expensive heat source, not to mention the damage that burning them does to our air quality, so it is vital that your logs are always ‘dry’ and ready to burn. Virtually every wood burning stove manufacturer recommends only burning wood logs with a moisture content of less than 20%. Somewhere between 10% and 20% is ideal. Once the moisture content gets less than 10% then the wood quickly burns away, sucking in too much air and cooling the flue gases as it does this, which in turn increases unwanted emissions. A little moisture is good for moderating the burn rate. ( www.thestoveyard.com) We do keep the fire going most days, but if it is a sunny day the house heats up nicely. The geothermal will often not even be needed. With the stove/sunshine streaming in the house is comfortable. After the chimney sweep was here John cleaned the glass on the front of the stove. Oh my what a difference! It almost feels like there is now glass! This end of the living room will change once the chimney is faced with stone, a mantle piece is added, lights, artwork on the wall, and a wood storage cupboard built. Lots of projects!
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. — Edith Sitwell
Bernie Visits High Doubt
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
All about the kitchen these days If everything goes to plan, the floor will be done in the next few days, and the kitchen cabinets will be delivered the end of the week. Chuck Feske will come up around the 14th to help install the cabinets. Then the countertops will arrive. I have mentioned before that we have had trouble getting things delivered to the door, and so stay tuned for this week’s delivery. We may well be making lots of trips with our van to town to load boxes! Right now there is a 400 lb. electronic log splitter in the back of the van. Yup, somehow that has to get pulled out of the van. As for photographs this week, I have had to dip into photos from the past for much of this issue. Driveway walks were limited since I had a bit of a sinus infection. Plus, the birds were getting so tired of me that they needed a break. I have been reading up on different feeding stategies, and I am ready to get back out there this week! There was a full moon midweek and so I did click a few shots of the moonrise. And, we have had fresh snow this morning, so I will get out later today!
January 31, 2021
Scanning the past
I bought a new flatbed scanner that has film scanning abilities, too. There are literally thousands of slides, photographs, and negatives that I am sorting and scanning. Before I started shooting digital, I shot slides or black/white film. The job is a bit overwhelming when I see all the boxes and sheets of images, but slowly I am digitizing files that are worth keeping. I have made galleries on my SmugMug account that will grow with time. You can download any images you want or just look at them. The link is kimnelson.smugmug.com and the password is nelsfam.
Photo won Honorable Mention in Outside Magazine contest.
The John Beargrease Sled Dog Race
Odds ‘n Ends
The John Beargrease Sled Dog Race The race starts today down in Duluth. It is a dogsled race held along the North Shore and at 400 miles, it is the longest sled dog race in the lower 48 states.[2] The “Beargrease” is a qualifier for the famed Iditarod race in Alaska. There are shorter races, too. No spectators are allowed this year, but you can follow the race from from this link. The closest the race gets to us is at Skyport Lodge on Devils Track Lake. Check it out! https://beargrease.com/follow-the-race/ Bird Lists Last week when I was looking for my journals I came across my Aunt Pearl’s Bird Life List she made and gave to each of her grand nieces and nephews. It lists all the birds she saw from 1933 - 1989 with handwritten observations and notes. Each year she kept a daily list, but this is a compilation of the order and years she added specific birds. She wrote that her long morning walks ended in March of 1989, but she continued to watch her feeders. She saw 254 different species of birds over her lifetime. It may not sound like many, but it is a very limited area near Marble Rock, Iowa. Each yearly list was given to the University of Iowa ornithological archives. Attempting a Home Improvement Project In my attempts to feel useful at High Doubt I decided to strip another office chair back to its original finish. I will get this done, but the project is going more slowly than I hoped. And, it might not have been the best idea to do it in the basement. It really smells, and it makes spending any time down there not the most pleasant experience. Stay tuned, but I promise by summer we will have another finished chair like the ones Carl Feske stripped for us. It may not be as good a job, but I am trying!!
Hints in the past for today Birder in the making
When we lived in Berlin I often had Johannes count birds from our living room window. He also had a weather board that he would turn dials that indicated if it was raining or sunny/warm or cold. At first I made him binoculars from two toilet paper tubes, but he quickly realized he wanted the real thing. Little did we know what would happen in 29 years.
Foreshadowing of 472...
I realize now that any problems I have with our vacuum is that I don’t wear a cape! Thanks, Chris for the tip!
Lovers of the North Woods
In addition to loving northern Minnesota, there are hints of fashion sense here,too.
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Cold Weather and Cabinets... It has been a week with a few adventures. We thought the kitchen was coming on Monday, but after waiting and waiting we called and they said “No, Thursday around noon.” Thursday morning came as did 4-5 inches of snow, wind and cold temperatures. A quick call to the driver, and he said he would wait until Friday. On Friday morning we got up and it appeared we had been plowed out. When John went out to check the driveway, we had not been plowed out - the drive was drifted shut. Our plowing service was out plowing, but we only had an hour before the truck would arrive. So, John took the snowblower (-10 degrees F.) and walked to the Gunflint clearing enough of the drive and then the Pincushion road for the truck. It all worked out and the truck made it to the house. All 40+ boxes were unloaded into the carport, and then John had to move them into the house. My job was to check the shipment and make sure that we got all the pieces we ordered. Now everything is in the house waiting for Chuck Feske to come on Thursday and to install the cabinets.
Februay 7, 2021
More about the cold - past and present! You wish you were living in northern MN, don’t you?
Bear with me for the next story - it is worth reading. I know it is a bit long, but it was an adventure from my past! Last night I was trying to remember the coldest weather I had ever experienced and it was in the winter of 1982 at Wilderness Canoe Base. Jim Wiinanen sent the following write-up out to a past staff a few weeks ago. The January 1982 the college interim at Wilderness Canoe Base began much like many others In 1982 the third week in January outdoor education section did the usual ski, snowshoe, practice ice rescue (ice rescue training is a whole ‘nuther story) and prepared for a 3-day two-night expedition. Because of staff scheduling the winter camping would take place at nearby Arc Lake involving: Day One-Travel out and spend the night. Day Two-Switch staff leadership and students would day trip the area around Arc Lake and spend a second night. Day three-Travel back to camp. Preparation went well, students were pumped for the trek to Arc Lake even though it was cold. Day 1: Carrying packs and pulling sleds the group had to break trail all the way. Across Fishhook Island, then south across Sea Gull Lake. Enter the lowland drainage and travel across a remarkable beaver-created meadow before the uphill climb to the black ash swamp and jackpine ridge. From the ridge we could see our destination, Arc Lake. We descended and headed for the south bay to set up camp. And it was cold, hovering around zero.
Your dad and I are in the lake after intentionally falling in for the students to practice an ice rescue. It was cold!
We have a late lunch, break into 2 or 3-person camp groups and setup sleeping pods Students get their frozen Ensolite pads and sleeping bags set up. Paul: “I recall getting the foam sleeping pads near the fire to warm them enough to unroll with breaking them...a cold weather challenge indeed.” With little daylight it is not unusual to spend 9-10 hours in the bag…always anticipating/dreading the middle-of-the-night bathroombreaks. Kim: “In the woods, the camp they made was set and you came out with only one bag since you thought one night - you would be fine. The next morning when I came out to check on folks. You were freezing and had not slept. The kids were three to a double bag with their own sleeping bag, and they said they were not getting up until I had a fire and breakfast going. They were cold.” The students’ system Kim referenced consisted of two rectangular bags opened up and then zipped to each other then up to 3 students slipped their personal bag inside Kim’s reference to my sleeping system consisted of one winter bag but including my parka and wool pants in the bag. I also tried sleeping “off the snow” by nesting several layers of snowshoes tail-to-tail and an ensolite pad on top, then my sleeping bag. It was a bitter cold night occasionally interrupted by the bang of freezing trees. Day 2, Morning: The fires were started to boil water for hot drinks and hot cereal breakfast. On this clear sunny morning I headed back to camp for a session with other students and Kim came into Arc Lake to lead the day trip.
How cold was it? It was so cold…. Kim: “What I remember is that for some reason - I did not want to camp with them or felt my skills were such that I was not the right person? I do remember that I walked out and back a few times with students and we kept an ensolite pad on our shoulders holding it to break the wind as we crossed Seagull. …… The next morning when I came out to check on folks Kim: “It is all a bit fuzzy except the images of me walking with two others holding up the pad to break the wind, checking our faces every 25-30 steps, you freezing, and the kids not moving once I got there in the morning.” In the afternoon of Day 2 I headed back to Arc and met Kim who informed me that two students could not spend another night out. Paul, a student: “The smartest thing I did was to admit to one of the leaders that I was not properly equipped for another night and returning to WCB the next day was my desire. Another student joined me on cutting the trip short. Thanks for coming out to get us. I do believe another night it would have truly been miserable....or worse.” After considerable discussion the plan was set: Make sure the remaining students were fed and ready for the night..extreme cold predicted. Then head back to camp with the students. That night temperatures kept dropping and the wind picked up. I had a fitful sleep at camp, but confident the camping students were tucked into their sleeping systems. I got up early to howling winds blowing 30+ and temperature at -30 degrees. The lake looked like whiteout conditions with the blowing snow. I put on more layers than I had ever worn before, downed some calories and hot chocolate and headed back to Arc Lake in the dark. I had no idea what I would find at the Arc Lake encampment. I made good time on the trail that had been packed with three crossings. I got to Arc Lake and entered the south bay but there was no movement, no “sign of life.” I snowshoed to the first sleeping site and called out. I got a sleepy response from campers, snug(?) in their bags. I checked on all the students who were OK, but reluctant to get out of their bags in the wind and bitter cold. This situation called for extreme measures. I collected a couple pots for water from the water holes that had been used for the previous couple days. Instead of two or three small fires for cooking, I started to collect dead and down anything for a big fire. Soon I had a teepee fire set about 7’ high and 5’ across at the base. Finding a corner in the pile out of the wind I was able to coax a flame in the dry frozen wood. Over the next half hour I was able to get the water pots tucked into the fire as the teepee set fire grew higher and higher. Soon calls of hot chocolate and coffee coaxed students to stir and thinking the fire looked warmer and more inviting than staying in their sleeping bags. It took about three hours to get everyone fed and camp broken. But now the wind had increased. Reminders of frostbite protection were constant. The trek through the woods from Arc to Sea Gull was relatively comfortable, but the coming open lake posed a dangerous situation. At the edge of the woods everyone buddied up for frostbite checks and add more layers if they had them. The lake crossing was slow but steady. The temperature was still -30 or more and the winds blowing snow everywhere. After less than a quarter mile I realized that I needed to add more insulation from the wind. I pulled out an extra scarf and folding it to multiple layers, stuffed it down the front of my pants. This was the second time in 20 years of winter camping I felt the need for additional protection. After an hour or so we made it across Sea Gull to the shelter of the woods on Fishhook Island and back to relatively warm buildings at camp. Now we could check what we had experienced over the last couple days. From our own maximum-minimum thermometers we confirmed the -30 degrees. For wind speed we had to rely on the inexact Beaufort Scale we estimated the winds 35 or more miles an hour. At the evening meal we were able to announce that this group of interim students had winter camped at -100 degrees windchill, at least, and maybe even lower. Amazing. Kim (40 years later): “I also looked up temps “On January 9th and 10th, 1982 temperatures of -30 degrees F and winds of around 40mph were reported in Northern Minnesota (100 degrees F windchill)”
“Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” — Imogen Cunningham
A new regular feature - scanning the Nelson family’s past!
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Februay 14, 2021
A New Look! Last Friday, the cabinets all arrived, and just a few minutes ago Chuck and Pam left High Doubt for St. Paul. And, the kitchen cabinets are all in place! What a difference. Next step is to call and get the countertops installed and also order the appliances. Odds are we will head to Duluth this week to pick out the refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher along with the handles for the cabinets. Supply and demand during the pandemic has delayed some products, but we are hopeful the appliances can be here before we go to Switzerland in April. By summer we will should have the kitchen and family room under control, and who knows what other projects will be completed! Everything will move pretty quickly now.
Freezing weather and good friends Polar Vortex Continues A weather station at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness east of Ely saw temperatures plummet to 50 below zero on Saturday morning — that’s the air temperature, not counting the wind. The 50-below low was recorded at a station at Snowbank Lake off the Fernberg Road, about 25 miles east of Ely. If verified, it would be a new daily record low for Minnesota for Feb. 13. Here the windchill is probably still -30 F. or below this morning, and it appears that this cold will continue until mid-week!
Feske Visit It was great to have both Chuck and Pam visit the past few days. Chuck was invaluable in getting everything level, straight, and help John. Pam and I drank a lot of coffee, talked, laughed, watched the impeachment trial, and just caught up. Karin Rorem Anderson came out to see them both, too! We talked about what all you kids are doing and made plans for future adventures. FYI -Dylan and his girlfriend live and work near Denver, Mitch and his girlfriend work at a winter cross country ski resort in Colorado. Mitch will be heading to Alaska to work with a juvenile treatment program in May called Alaska Crossings. He will guide and lead trips. He is also ski patrol in Colorado. Lauren is in the Cities working at a Middle School administering their after school programs. We reminisced about the family canoe trips we took and “No Vampire Island”. Good memories.
“Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we’d have frozen to death.” — Mark Twain
Time for more memories..
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos.
Februay20, 2021
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Warm up this week
The temperatures were much better to be out and about this week, so I headed to town for a walk with Karin and also spent quite a bit of time on the driveway looking for anything alive! Most of the week had gorgeous blue skies, but we did have a few inches of fresh snow this week. It was soft and fluffy, great for photographs and for seeing the tracks in the woods. The deer especially like the new trail I cut in our woods. They use it more than I do! One night as I was in the kitchen a deer startled me as it looked into the window from only 5-6’ away. We talked, I used my phone for a photo, and headed upstairs to grab my camera - then John came home from town and all I saw what his little white tail bouncing into the woods!
Project update, etc. Floor tiles in the hallway The entire hallway connecting the kitchen to the back door is to be tiled with the same tile. There is a lot more cutting and measuring now since with corners and diagonal pieces needed. It takes time, but John is methodically getting more done every day. He moved all the boxes, tools, and the game cupboard out of this hallway, and it is amazing how open and nice it feels! The countertop guys will come and measure on March 3, and we have no idea how long it will be before they come back and install the sink and countertops. We may well try to order the appliances this coming week, but we have to make certain the measurements are all set. With our upcoming trip to Switzerland in April, we still are hopeful everything might be in place before we leave. There is still a lot of unknowns.
Other bits of news Today John is heading to Apple Valley to take garbage, and then he will pick up supplies/groceries. It is amazing how much cheaper construction supplies are and most food items. The windows are scheduled to be replaced in Apple Valley, but we are not certain if they have started that project yet, so he will connect with the firm that is working on all the townhomes. On March 2, I will get my haircut. I usually get it cut every 5-6 weeks, and the last time I had it cut was October 12th. Sometimes I just take a whack at it with a scissors in the bathroom, but I think I am starting to have a mullet. It is not a good look. Vaccinations - They are still only vaccinating folks 65+ here in MN and Cook County. We had hoped that in early March they might drop it down to 60, but we don’t know. This week there are no more doses since the freezing weather in the US broke up the supply chain. We would love to have at least one dose before we leave for Swizterland (if we do indeed make the trip!). Grandma and Grandpa Fluhrer have received their first dose. OWL Sighting!! On Friday early evening, we had gone to town in the van and picked up the Suburu from the garage. The 4-5 inches of snow we had received prevented the van from making it up the hill. I grabbed a shovel from the house and headed back down the driveway only to see John was standing at the top of the hill looking at a tree. Just as I followed his gaze a Great Horned Owl took flight and headed into the woods. I immediately texted Johannes. On Saturday, I went out and snowshoed (quietly) all over the area between the driveway and the Gunflint, but didn’t see any sign of the owl. I will not give up! The owl house appears to be empty still, but I will watch it (from a distance).
Lake Superior is pretty amazing!
• • • • • • • •
• • • • •
Lake Superior contains ten percent of all the fresh water on the planet Earth. It covers 82,000 square kilometers or 31,700 square miles. The average depth is 147 meters or 483 feet. There have been 352 shipwrecks recorded in Lake Superior. Lake Superior is, by surface area, the largest lake in the world. A Jesuit priest in 1668 named it Lac Tracy, but that name was never officially adopted. It contains as much water as all the other Great Lakes combined, plus three extra Lake Erie’s!! There is a small outflow from the lake at St. Mary’s River (Sault Ste Marie) into Lake Huron, but it takes almost two centuries for the water to be completely replaced. There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America with water one foot deep. Lake Superior was formed during the last glacial retreat, making it one of the earth’s youngest major features at only about 10,000 years old. The deepest point in the lake is 405 meters or 1,333 feet. There are 78 different species of fish that call the big lake home. The maximum wave ever recorded on Lake Superior was 9.45 meters or 31 feet high. • • •
• • •
If you stretched the shoreline of Lake Superior out to a straight line, it would be long enough to reach from Duluth to the Bahamas . Over 300 streams and rivers empty into Lake Superior with the largest source being the Nipigon River The average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is about 8 meters or 27 feet, making it the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes. Underwater visibility in some spots reaches 30 meters or 98 feet. In the summer, the sun sets more than 35 minutes later on the Western shore of Lake Superior than at its Southeastern edge. Some of the world’s oldest rocks, formed about 2.7 billion years ago, can be found on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior. It very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for a few hours. Complete freezing occurred in 1962,1979, 2003 and 2009.
“Actually, it’s nature itself that creates the most beautiful pictures, I’m only choosing the perspective.” —Katja Michael
Blast from the Past...
Februay 28, 2021
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Changing seasons
It might be a bit early to think winter is gone and spring is here, but this week felt a lot like spring. On my daily walks I often did not wear gloves, a hat, or even zip my jacket. With the temperature above freezing during the day and dipping below freezing at night, it was also time to tap some maple trees. On Wednesday, John tapped a dozen maple trees along the drive and near the house/garage. Stay tuned for more maple syrup reports in the coming weeks. Wednesday was a beautiful day, and I especially liked that he wore his bright blue coat along with blue jugs and the sky. The colors all worked together nicely!
Keeping Busy Tiling the hallway takes time. There are many corners to fit, tile to cut, and items to move. This week John took down the wall to the elevator space in order to tile to the edges of the hallway. The bathroom door had to be taken down and will need to be trimmed to allow space for the tile to fit into the doorway. (The flooring of the bathroom will not be tile.) As I said last week the countertop men come on March 3rd to correctly measure our space before the final counters are cut. It is wonderful to see the kitchen in its present form, but we are both getting anxious to get it finished! Rumor has it there are months delay in appliances, so we hope to be able to order soon. John also felled a few more birch trees to prepare for next winter’s wood supply. We have now used almost all the wood we had initially stored in the wood shed. Another order of wood came about a month ago, and we hope that will be enough for the rest of the winter. More wood was used this year since someone has been living in the house than any other winter.
The Chair project The desk chair I have been working on is now in the final sanding phase. It is coming along and I hope to finish all the sanding and maybe the varnishing this week. It is the same style as the kitchen chairs we use, but it swivels. It will be nice for a desk in the house somewhere. There is actually one more chair to strip that is still in the garage, so that will be the next one to work on. All of the other chairs were stripped and brought back to life by Carl Feske. I did try to work on them years ago, but it was painful for Carl to watch me work on the chairs - he took over! The chairs were made by the Johnson Chair Company, and Lousie Feske found an article written about the company in the St. Olaf Magazine. Grandpa Nelson got them at some point from his office building in Chicago. There were gray office chairs and then Grandpa spray painted a number of them red. We believe they are from the 1940s? Online you can find them and they are described as ‘vintage’ office chairs or courtroom chairs.
Still working on trying to get nice birds photos!
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos.
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos.
“I look out over Lake Superior, through the bare branches of birches and the snow-covered branches of aspens and pines. A hard wind blows snow over my face. I know this place, I know its seasons - I have hiked these mountains in the summer and walked these winding pathways in the explosion of color that is a northern fall. And now, the temperature drops well below zero and the deadly cold lake rages below, I feel the stirrings of faith that here, in this place, in my heart, spring will come again. But first the winter must be waited out. And that waiting has worth.” — Marya Hornbacher
March 7, 2021
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Evening surprise
This week I decided to venture down to Grand Marais to capture a sunset. I pulled into the parking lot by the guard station and felt like I was at the Grand Canyon. A row of cars with people inside them all waiting to see the sunset. I did not feel like being part of a crowd. I left, but as I drove away I noticed the colors were starting to pop, so I headed to the campground to access the lake there. What a surprise when I got down to the water and saw two guys surfing and shooting with an underwater camera. I have heard of surfing south
was quickly dropping away, and so I had limited time. I did talk with the photographer briefly. He said they had been out since 6:00 am, he had broken the fin off two boards, and they had not really ‘caught’ a single wave. The waves were not anything like the ones I have seen from Johannes’ photos. They were smaller with very little time between each wave. The photographer then admitted it was only his second time surfing.
News from the week
John continued to tile the hallway, and he now only has the
next three-four weeks. We also headed to Duluth and will place
mud room and two entry ways to finish. It is such a long
an order for the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher soon. Home
process and very repetitive, so I am certain he will be excited
Depot said they will not deliver to our place, so we will have
to finish in the next week! The countertop man arrived to
to make trips to Duluth with our trusty Sienna van and get the
make final measurements before they cut and prepare our
appliances. These should arrive in Duluth in the next month, so
countertops. He had tried calling all day since he was driving
when you visit next summer we should have coffee and food on
all the way from the Cities and wanted to confirm. John’s
the main floor.
phone did not work all day, and we finally realized I had used
And, just the day-to-day work continued: getting wood,
all his minutes (oops)! We are not certain when they will come to install the countertops, but most likely within the
Maple Syrup The sap is just starting to run, and so we think this coming week will mean shifting some work on the house to making maple syrup. John has tapped 13 trees this year, just a couple more than last year. It is supposed to warm up a lot in the next few days, and this is what you need. Warm days and cold nights!
composting (Thank you Chris and Max), cleaning, cutting down trees, doing taxes, etc.
Odds ‘n Ends Kim qualified for the vaccination this week, and had her first shot on Thursday. It was the Moderna vaccine. Second shot will be on April Fools Day. If you want to know the medical condition that qualified her for the shot the two photos below offer a clue. John has not yet qualified, but he might in the next week or two. Because of the two-shot regimen, the April 14 date
to
head back in Switzerland might create a bit of a problem. We have to simply wait and see.
Bedroom Design A few weeks ago we moved all the beds around upstairs. Now in the SE bedroom is the King, SW has the double, and we will set up two twin beds in the NW bedroom (the one with the little window to the main room). We would like your input and ideas for the rooms, so here are photos of the rooms as they are now. Think about color, rugs, chairs, what type of furniture, etc. We would love to have you four help design and decorate those rooms!
SW bedroom
SE bedroom
TASIS Farewell Assemblies
What we are Reading/Watching
Kim has been working to clean out hard drives to organize
Kim is on track to read a book a week and the current books
thousands of digital files in addition to scanning. Most of the
she is reading include: Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis,
Farewell Assemblies from 2005 -2020 are accessible via this link.
Crime Scene by Jonathan Kellerman, and Sabbatical Journey
You can download your grad year if you want. So many good
by Henri Nouen. Screentime includes a variety of shows/tu-
memories! Farewell Assemblies
torials: 24, Chopped, Adobe Lightroom tutorials, an eCornell birding course, and Hawkeye basketball. John just finished The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin, and he is now reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. His screentime includes Hill Street Blues and a variety of movies.
Trail Cam We have finally placed the trail cam up, and so we will be checking and sharing any creatures that pass by in upcoming issues! Our neighbors had a wolf pass by their’s this week. Jerome is our bear - name the wolf!
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos.
“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.” — Galen Rowell
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
March 14, 2021
The Push and Pull of Seasons This was the first week that one could tell that spring was trying to push winter out of the way. On Monday afternoon, a quick winter storm blew through leaving 3-4 inches of snow which covered the driveway again. By the weekend and days of sunshine, the snow pack receded again. This March seasonal ‘give and take’ is expected. As much as I love winter and snow, the sunshine did feel nice, and I am anxious to have morning coffee on the deck! The temperatures at night still dipped below freezing, and except for the Wednesday night storm we had a lot of sunshine. This created a lot of solar gain for the house, and for most of the week we did not need a fire in the stove during the day.
Sap Starts to Flow High Doubt rests at the edge of maple tree range up on this hill. The trees closer to the lake are producing more sap than us right now. It is still early, but John thinks this week the trees will start to produce more sap. We have a couple gallons already, but with the predicted sun and daytime/night temps, conditions are improving.
Thursday morning
Sunday morning
And, the tiling it done! John deserves a prize. He has finished all the tiling except the front door entryway, and the entryway to the back steps. With over 350 tiles and 800 square feet of floor to tile, his knees can now rest. On Saturday, he finished the grouting. The floor stills needs a good cleaning to get rid of the layer of grouting dust, but for now no more tiling. I helped clean the grout for a few hours on Friday, but it is tough for me to kneel for extended periods of time. Sorry, John. Next indoor projects will include electrical work in the island to prepare for outlets and a light switch, finishing the stove in the basement, and maybe the stairways. Once the snow is gone, there is quite a bit of work outside to complete, too. A few more selected birch trees need to be taken down, bat houses built, the garden will be extended to the west for more corn and potato space, and the backside of the house needs to be cleaned still with the pressure cleaner. It was time for more kindling this week, and so I was able to break out the kindling maker and cut 3-4 boxes of kindling. It is great to have work that I can actually complete and feel like I can help! If you look closely at the woodshed, you can see the left side is empty. Now hte trees that were felled in the fall will be pulled out of the woods and get bucked up for next year. No time to rest in the North Woods.
Trail Cam The Trail Cam works, but the first spot we set it up was looking at the driveway. Dumb! We got a lot of photographs of me walking, the Suburu and UPS truck coming and going, and no animals at all. Now we have it set up below the deck looking out at the clearing. Our first night we had a visitor as you can see, but nothing since. We will be playing with different locations in the coming weeks, and it would be great to have it up by the little pond. Right now I can check it from down inside the basement since the wifi is strong enough, it will take some experimenting, but exciting to see what we can capture!
More News Vaccination and Food News John got his first shot on Thursday, so now both of us will have our second doses before we head to Switzerland. Grandma and Grandpa Fluhrer received their second dose on Friday which is a relief to them (and the family). Last week I included photos of the veggies and oranges I snacked on. This week I added chocolate covered almonds and potato chips to my snacks. Kim fell off the diet wagon a tiny bit this week. As dieting goes, tomorrow is Monday and time to buckle down.
New Monitor for Editing/Creating For most of my working life I was provided with a big monitor for editing photographs, doing the yearbook, and designing graphics. Once I retired I purchased a small laptop that is wonderful, but there is simply not a lot of ‘real estate’ to have multiple windows open. So, I purchased a 27” monitor to help to allow me to better edit and create. I use it daily, and it makes thing like this newsletter much much easier. There is one slight problem and that is the base of the monitor is too big to fit on my current desk. I will need to purchase a work table for it to fit. Once I get the table, I will be able to fit the printer and scanner in one spot, too. I know this is not that interesting to everyone, but as I look at producing issue #2 of the Fluhrer Family News - it will be helpful!
Signs of Life
Yes...the full extent of my bird/animals shots this week was an eagle and a squirrel. I saw the usual nuthatches and chickadees, but I already have many bird feeder shots. Come on Spring migration!
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos.
“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.” — Galen Rowell
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
March 21, 2021
Making Syrup There was a dramatic change in the weather this week with very warm temps for mid-March, and it was great for the sap to start flowing. On Saturday, John strained 27 gallons collected from 13 trees and began to boil the sap. It will take a 2-3 days of boiling to get the syrup/sugar made. We will continue to collect sap each day, too. It is not as exciting a process as I thought it might be. John has a great system for making the 12-18 bottles of syrup and maple sugar we want. We will also try to make maple cream this year which is a maple butter.
Burning Brush Piles The dry warm weather also raised the fire danger for much of Minnesota this week. Luckily, we still have lots of snow cover in the woods, so we were allowed to burn two brush piles. It did get interesting for about 30 minutes when the wind came up and the smaller brush pile began to burn quite hot. High spring fire danger in northern MN is common because of dry/exposed grass and a lack of green plants and trees. On Friday, a fire warning was given for much of Minnesota because of high winds and lack of snow cover and extremely dry conditions. No more burning.
News from the Week Indoor projects now center around electrical outlets, switches, and getting the kitchen and the mud room ready for appliances. Outlets for the island are now installed as well as a light and dimmer switch for the light directly over the island. The stove and refrigerator have been ordered, but they will not arrive until May 14. Washer, dryer, and dishwasher will be purchased in the Twin Cities, and we believe the store we are using has them in stock. These three items are not as critical as the stove and refrigerator! No words on when the counter tops will be installed. It is frustrating to see the kitchen waiting for a coffee pot on the counter, but it is a puzzle and patience is required. We are confident that we will have the kitchen completed by summer. Once the sink and other bits and pieces of the kitchen (range hood/trim) are out of the room adjacent to the kitchen we will turn our attention to a new couch/table/lighting to make that room another space to enjoy.
Trail Cam report
I was way more excited to see a skunk on the trail cam this week than John. This little guy was the only thing we picked up this week, but with spring here hopefully more animals begin to move around.
Bird Migration
John purchased a Boss log splitter to help him prepare the wood for the winter. They say the birds are on the move, and I will be more diligent and try to get out to watch and listen this week.
We will also order our wood unspilt (cheaper)and split it ourselves. It will also save John’s back and shoulders since splitting wood is difficult. And, the solar arrays provide the electricity. Win..win!
A Morning in the Woods I decided to pack my lunch, camera, binoculars, a stool to sit on, and head out and sit in the woods to see if I could find signs of life. My little adventure started with a walk on the hiking trail I cut this past fall. The snow is still 8-12 inches deep, but because of the warm weather the top layer is hard, and you can walk on top. No snowshoes needed. I broke through a few times, but overall it was perfect for exploring. As I sat quietly eating, I did manage to hear and take a photograph of this woodpecker and watched a number of chickadees in the trees. I explored the area between the Gunflint and the driveway, and the big spruce tree is really quite amazing once you get to its base. It is huge! This tree is an easy marker for when people drive up the Gunflint to our place. We always say look for the Pincushion Moutain Haus sign, but also just look for a really really tall spruce. The area around the tree has a number of old cedar trees that are also very large, and John believes could be part of the old cedar forest that used to cover this area.
As I sat on the camp stool eating lunch, I made a couple of exposures as I sat therel. It is a challenge to make a composition from one spot, but I love this time of year and the network of branches/shadows.
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos. This week I spent hours sorting my digital files and did not do any new scanning. I will get back to scanning next week again. Images here are post-2000. There is a lot of hair.
“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.” — Galen Rowell
Signs of Spring
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
March 28, 2021
Winter Makes a Return In March the weather is often all over the place, and this week we had sunshine, snow, and then more snow. The ground is now covered again, but it will not last long. The forecast is a return to the 40s F. during the day and just below freezing at night. This will also mean the sap will start running again! With a week of colder temps and no sunshine, the amount of sap collected dropped considerably. John had about 27 gallons already, and so last Saturday he started to boil down the sap. Yesterday we bottled nine 12 oz. bottles of dark syrup. After boiling it outside for six days, we brought the syrup inside and finished on the stove. Once the syrup got to 216 F. we strained it twice before bottling the syrup. This week we will hopefully collect more, and then we will make some lighter syrup, maple sugar, and maple cream.
Ongoing projects
These photos may look a lot like last week’s kitchen photos, but there are distinct differences. The baseboard trim pieces in the kitchen are all in place, and all the cupboard handles are now installed. Every little bit helps! The hallway is now completely sheet-rocked, and this helps lessen the construction site look of the house. We moved the game cupboard to the basement. Matter of fact, lots of things have been moved to the basement. As weather warms and we are able to move things around more easily, we will start to organize that space more, too. In my world after many hours of stripping, sanding, and varnishing, the office chair is done. It looks great, and we now have six chairs around the basement table. My next project (another chair) awaits, and I will start it this week.
Trail Cam report
Yea...well a very scary animal walked in front of the trail cam this week. Actually, there were not a lot of tracks at all, so I went out and checked to see if the camera was working. It was. We might try another location just for fun this week.
As usual I try to find birds around the property, but with a wintry mix most days I did not see as many or get out as much. The chickadees were hanging out by the birdhouse going in and out on a regular basis. No one in the owl house yet!
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) for more photos. I spent more time sorting digital files this week. This might be the last scanning/old photo share for a while. I will begin to scan film which is a much slower process.
“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.” — Galen Rowell
April 4, 2021
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
Another Week in Paradise The weeks start to blend together, and our routines are fairly
We also boiled a second batch of maple syrup, and now we have
established and very predictable! Wake up each day, John runs,
about 15 bottles filled. A last boil this week will be for some
Kim drinks coffee, check e-mail, John works on house projects,
maple sugar and hopefully some cream. John pulled the taps this
Kim putzes with her refinishing of chairs, get the mail, go to the
week since we were getting 11+ gallons daily from our 13 trees
grocery store every other day, and so on. This week had a breaks
and felt we had enough. Plus, we leave this coming Saturday for
in the routine, however. Crazy gale force winds on Lake Superior
the Twin Cities to start the journey back to Switzerland. And,
made for an interesting photo shoot, the baseball season started,
Happy Easter everyone!
Kim got her second Moderna vaccine, and John turned 64!
Keeping Busy Right now everything that could be completed in the kitchen is done. We are simply waiting for the countertops and appliances. The countertop folks called and said they would be here on April 16, but since we won’t be here - they will delay until mid-May. Again, appliances should be here by then, so we are still on track for the kitchen by summer. A cord of unsplit maple was delivered, and guess “who’s the boss?” Yes, this coming week we will use the new Boss splitter and split a cord of wood! John turned his attention to a lot of different projects this week. He cleaned up a lot of the basements in order to complete installing the Durock cement board. Once this was done he worked on cleaning out the mortar in the quarry tile and will grout that this coming week. He also made and installed an extension to the hanging shelf unit in the garage. This shelf is for lighter weighted objects.
Another Chair...Another Challenge
For some reason I really enjoy the challenge of stripping an old piece of furniture and bringing it back to life (or at least breathing again). This chair had a tough life. It was from John’s aunt, and after she died Sue Lund thought John should have it since it resembled the other chairs we already had. It is not quite the same style, but close. It does have a label under the seat from the Colonial Chair Company of Chicago. We guess it is from the 1930s or 40s. Someone stained it with a mahogany stain, then painted it white, and then yellow. The legs have water damage on the ends, and stain is turning out to be a bear to sand. We shall see!
And, in other news One Year to Medicare John successfully turn 64 this week, and I gave him a clue as to one part of his birthday present. “Merry Christmas” was the clue! Get it? Hoe..Hoe..hoe! I thought I was clever. I also gave him a few other smaller gifts with one more to get in the Cities!
Other Info Fluhrer Family newsletter - check your email and try to send some things to me asap. PLEASE. Off to Switzerland - We leave on Tuesday, April 13 and will probably return on May 7 or 8. Since we have to get the PCR test 72 hours in advance we will leave here on Saturday to get the tests done on Sunday. John gets his second Moderna shot on Thursday, so both of us will have had both shots before we leave for Switzerland. Check out what was in the Washington Post this week about Cook County, Minnesota and its vaccine data!
Trail Cam report Every day I check the trail cam to see what wild creature visited us in the evening, and it has been sort of slow lately. This week we did have a deer come into the frame and hung around for a bit. Not a wolf or super exciting, but it was fun to capture an animal.
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) Wilderness Canoe Base Gallery password: WCB2021 I scanned some old prints this week and did not get to negatives, and I have also started to organize slides for Wilderness Canoe Base.
“You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.” — Galen Rowell
“It turns out that our ability to connect with other people is driven by our ability to connect deeply with ourselves. And that can be just a few minutes sitting on your porch feeling the breeze against your face. That can be a few moments spent in meditation or in prayer or remembering three things you’re grateful for.” — Vivek Murthy
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
April 11, 2021
All About Stories This week’s newsletter has a number of stories included. As I searched and sorted more photographs, the stories from family vacations, Wilderness Canoe Base, and the story of the changing seasons kept popping into my head. Our current story is the adventure of returning to Switzerland. I am writing this newsletter from our place in Apple Valley where I am happy to report all the windows and trim have been replaced. The sliding glass doors to the deck look especially nice since they were all fogged over! We went to the airport this morning and spit into a tube for a Covid test in preparation for our Tuesday departure. Fingers crossed the results come back in a timely fashion. Spring definitely made an appearance this week. The snow is almost all gone with only a few patches in the woods. We had a week of April showers and our first thunder storm with lots of soaking rain. The rain will help keep the spring fire danger down. And, bird migration is starting. The predominant color in the woods is brown with patches of rich green moss. Once we return from Switzerland, I suspect the trees will be starting to bud, and I hope the warblers will be in full spring color!
Love “the Boss” The start of the week was all about using the new Boss log splitter to split and stack a recently delivered cord of wood. We only had about 1/3 cord of maple left in the woodshed. It appears that we might have received slightly more than a cord delivered. It is all safely stacked in the shed. John thinks that the new log splitter reduces the time it took him to split wood by 90%. We now have the wood delivered unsplit which is cheaper. So, guess what! We had another cord delivered right before we left, and we will be getting that in the shed when we return. It only took about 5-6 hours to finish that first cord. The machine is simple to run, and even I am able to split and stack the wood! This winter we used about 4.5 cords of wood. This is more than past winters, but we lived here. All in all, the Boss splitter was one of the better purchases we made this year. We will get all of you working with it this summer!!
Other projects
It Wwas a week of finishing projects in preparation for leaving for Switzerland. John spent time outside cutting and pulling up nasty dogwood which seems to grow all over the place. He also finished the quarry tile in the basement, so the stove can now be installed. I worked on ‘the chair’, and although it is looking better, they are still some stubborn spots to sand. I will pick up a few different tools and finish the chair in May.
And, in other news Maple Syrup Report It was a successful maple syrup season, and we finished with 18 twelve ounce bottles of syrup and just a cup or two of sugar. Story - the making of maple cream. We tried, but we made maple cement instead. After getting the syrup to 235 degrees we took it off the stove and place the pan in an ice bath and began to stir (It is about 10:00 pm). The directions say to stir from 10 minutes to 30. At some point it is supposed to magically lighten and become a creamy consistency. At 11:00 pm, we gave up. The next morning, we boiled that same syrup to 235 degrees, and then placed the syrup in a waiting metal mixing pan sitting in an ice bath. The syrup was much thicker than the night before, and after 10 minutes it did lighten up. It also became almost impossible to stir. We placed our maple cement in a jar in the refrigerator. After some research, we think Martha Stewart’s recipe which includes butter might be a better bet!
Solar Array Data Lifetime production: 47.74 MWh Equivalent Trees Planted: 558.59 CO2 Emission saved: 73,928.04 lb.
Trail Cam report
The only animal we seem to see are deer, and they are often caught in the frame. Just before we left, John repositioned the camera up by the pond. We hope the batteries last, and we can see what lurks up by the pond. Will Jerome make an early appearance this spring? There are already reports of bear knocking down bird feeders and garbage cans. So, when will Jerome appear again? Any guesses?
It has helped this winter that after a snow John has been able to go and clean off the arrays. Other years, the snow just sits there until it slides off
Remember to check www.kimnelson.smugmug.com (pw: nelsfam) Go to the new gallery April 11. I also added almost 100 new images to the Wilderness Canoe Base Gallery. Password: WCB2021
The Story of No Vampire Island For a number of summers we took a family canoe trip with the Feske family. One year we were paddling on the west end of Seagull Lake, and we saw a small island that was essentially a big rock. It looked like a possible lunch and swimming spot. As we climbed to the top of the island, we found a handmade cross. Lauren Feske asked what the cross was for. John answered it was to keep away the vampires. From that moment on, the island became “No Vampire Island”. After we ate lunch, a jumping spot was found (and checked for depth and no hidden rocks under the surface). Everyone wanted a photo of the group jumping, so I paddled away from the rock to get the shot! Christopher was organizing everyone (1). Once I counted to three everyone jumped (2). Well...not everyone. Chris forgot to jump, and his face says it all!
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Bird Stories I saw about a dozen juncos out in the trees by the deck, and then noticed a woodpecker, so I grabbed my camera for a final bird shoot. Just for old times sake I also shot a photo of the feeder! I saw what I thought was a big squirrel in a small tree near the driveway, and lo and behold sat a ruffed grouse. I quickly shot a few frames of the bird just sitting there trying to blend, and then I walked away and hid. The grouse then began to nibble on the tree. Yesterday, I heard at least one grouse drumming off to the left of the driveway. Wish I could stay and see other signs of spring!
This little guy was way up in a tree, and I shot the photographs not knowing if I even captured the bird. Quality isn’t great, but another sign of spring!
April 18, 2021
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Back in Switzerland The trip back to Switzerland was uneventful and went very smoothly. We managed to get our PCR test at the airport a couple of days in advance, and the results came back in 24 hours(free). The flight was fairly empty and so John was able to stretch out in a middle row. The transfer in Amsterdam was also problem free. The number of travelers seems still to be down, but increasing more in the U.S. - at least at MSP. We picked up our bright electric blue Ford Puma in Zurich. It is not a car we will easily lose in a parking lot. As it turns out it is much easier and cheaper to rent a car in Europe than in the US. The drive from Zurich to Lugano was also an uneventful except for the stop at a Burger King which took almost 30 minutes to simply get our order. Restaurants are very limited in Switzerland, and only a few folks were allowed in at a kiosk to order. Our apartment was dusty, but everything looked fine. On Saturday, the gardening/pool company came and got the pool ready for the season. It is only in the 50s here, however, so lounging at the pool and even on the balcony might be limited.
The Flight
We left High Doubt last Saturday, spent almost three days in Apple Valley, and then flew over on Tuesday. So the opportunities for photographs were a bit limited. Here are a few images from the trip back to Switzerland!
A look back and a look ahead These weeks in Switzerland will allow John to rest from the constant projects and construction in Grand Marais. We have a flight scheduled to return on May 7, and fingers crossed that in mid-May the kitchen appliances and counter tops will arrive! He is busy sketching ideas for a headboard for our bed, the stairs and railing from the main floor to upstairs, and also a garden shed. The garden shed will be bear “Jerome” proof and house our compost along with garden tools. We will begin to prepare the garden right away upon our return. The plan is to push the garden to the west to plant more corn and potatoes. As for what I am doing here in Switzerland - well, I am reading, finally finished watching “24”. I did not realize there were so many seasons, and I have tired of Jack Bauer’s adventures. I am still on track to read at least one book a week, and currently I am reading The Time of our Singing by Richard Powers who wrote The Overstory. I have also collected my photographs taken since retirement started and pulled a galley together. Here is a link to this new collection: https://kimnelson.smugmug.com/Fall-Spring/
No new family SmugMug gallery I was not able to continue the scanning project this week, but I did go through collected digital files I have on my hard drive. I was drawn to the many hair styles and lengths over the years! I will get a new gallery of TASIS images pulled together for next week!
April 25, 2021
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
A Quiet Life in Switzerland Life here on Via Promessi Sposi is slow, quiet, and relaxed. To be honest, both of us are quite excited to return to High Doubt and our projects there. John is doing lots of planning on paper and in his head, so he can hit the ground running once we return. What have we done here in Switzerland? Not a lot! A few walks, visits from TASIS colleagues, and of course I try to take in a Twins game or two. We have contacted a realtor who will visit us next week to talk about listing our apartment. There are six condos in this building, and two on the lower level just sold. We will be using the same realtor. At this point, we do not know when we will officially list this place. In a perfect world we would finalize a sale next April. The weather has been wonderful here, and it sounds like there has been cold temps and snow in Cook County! We have sat out on our balcony almost every day taking in the sun and simply enjoying these quiet days. A final note - usually, you do not see the big houses (villas) around us hanging their clothing out to dry. We always do, but I actually have felt guilty about having our laundry out drying. At TASIS, Mrs. Fleming never wanted students to hand clothes outside on their balconies. She did not think it was proper! I was so surprised to see a big home below us with laundry drying the other day!
Space
From our home here it is a short walk to the lake, and I usually go with camera in hand. I enjoy the space a lake affords. We have a view to our north of snow-capped mountains from our balcony. Fom the top of a mountain the view can be breathtaking, but when you are in the valley and looking up it often has felt claustrophobic to me. I grew up on the prairie where one is always aware of the horizon line, and at High Doubt I am always aware and can feel the space that Lake Superior creates.
A Spring Poem by Johannes No new photographs this week since I am still without my scanner, but I did find this poem that Johannes wrote in third grade (?). A springtime poem to enjoy!
Final thought..
This newsletter gets sent each week to Taylor and Meagan, so we wanted to send a note to you both. It is almost baby time, and I believe that Taylor may have already started his paternity leave? The Nelson family around the world wants you both to know we are thinking of you!
A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for.... — Anonymous
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
May 2, 2021
Rainy Week
This past week has been a rainy and cool week here in Lugano. We did get out and took a long walk directly on the other side of the lake from our place. I thought there might be a path there, but wasn’t sure. Well, it is a great walking/biking path and you can walk all the way to Caslano if you want to! It was sprinkling the day we this path, and so we only did a three-mile loop. From this vantage point across the lake, we could see our apartment, and it looks very small and low from this distance. When we are on our balcony, it feels as if we are much higher! The sun came out a couple of times during the week, and with the recent rain fresh snow appeared on the higher elevation. It will be exciting to have the realtor come tomorrow and see the apartment and start to advise us on when and how best to get the place on the market. It is a beautiful little place, and served us well for the past eight years, but we are ready to head back to High Doubt and a new kitchen!!
Life at Via Promessi Sposi 13
The view is every changing. When it rains, and the fog descends we sometimes cannot even see across the lake. Once the skies clear it can actually be breathtaking. Reading a book and sitting out on the balcony is relaxing and quiet. We can hear the occasional train rumble from across the lake, but that is about all we hear. At High Doubt, there is actually quite a bit of noise from the logging trucks as they start to brake to begin the long descent to Lake Superior. This past week we continued to sort the few belongings we have left here, drop items off to the recycling center, and give away some of our furniture. Frank (my teaching colleague) came by yesterday and took my guitar, Joh’s old guitar stand, my exercise bike, fans, dishes, and Taylor’s camping table! He will also take the couch, DVD player and TV when we are done. This week we will pack our four suitcases with more odds and ends. Eventually, we will sell the furniture with the apartment or give it to a local charity. Today John is attacking the balcony tile and we are sprucing up the place for the realtor’s visit tomorrow.
Screen time
With a rainy week, there was a lot of Netflix and reading (Kindle and books( to pass the time. With a busy summer ahead, the down time is welcomed. I continue to watch the Twins games whenever they play afternoon games. Last night’s game was difficult - we got blown out, but I am forever hopeful!
A few images from this week’s one rainy walk
The pathway from our balcony. It runs right along the lake below the train track.
Around the Neighborhood...
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
May 8, 2021
Another Trip Across the Atlantic We returned to Apple Valley on Friday around lunchtime. Our trip was uneventful except for the extra time and steps we had to take because of Covid precautions. Odds are we will return at least two more times before we are done with our C permits and life in Lugano. The flight felt fairly safe, but we did notice a few more passengers on this flight. However, the planes are not still not near capacity. The biggest hassle had to be getting the PCR test completed 72 hours in advance. In Switzerland, it cost each of us approximately $160 for the test. (US = free) The Swiss tests are free if you are just testing to see if you are sick, but if you are traveling they charge you! It feels good to have made the trip, but feels even better to have returned.
Cleaning, sorting, and throwing away lots of items! The apartment is now listed with a realtor, and we have our fingers crossed we can sell the place by next March. The housing market in Switzerland is not has active as the United States. You can see that we cleaned and got rid of the exercise bike and older chairs.
A Sunday Morning Walk With jet lag alive and well, I woke up quite early today, so I set out for a morning walk to check out the wildlife situation. It is still nippy up here, matter of fact snowflakes were just falling. At 6:15 when I left the house it was only 30 F. The trees are just starting to bud, so the woods are not very green yet at all. As I began to walk down the driveway, it was quiet - I did not hear much of anything. Usually I hear the trucks hauling on the Gunflint, but since it is Sunday no traffic noise either. As I got to the end of the driveway, I heard a woodpecker going to town on a nearby tree. It only took a few minutes to locate the Downy Woodpecker way in the very top of a tree. As I was photographing the woodpecker, a ruffed grouse began drumming off to the north, and then a different ruffed grouse started to drum to the south. I think I heard drumming at least six different times on my walk. Ruffed grouse are near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons. In college, two friends and I mapped and photographed ruffed grouse drumming logs in a 700 acre section of Winneshiek County for a field bio project. With topographic maps in hand, we walked that 700 acres in a grid fashion marking and trying to identify the logs for many Saturdays that spring. My other encounter with a ruffed grouse was when I was guiding at Wilderness. We had gotten to Monument Portage near Saganaga Lake, and as it happens ‘nature called’. I stepped off into the woods behind some trees to take care of business when not more than six feet from me a ruffed grouse started to drum. It literally scared the crap out of me, but was so cool to see happen right in front of me! Back to the walk.... as I turned back to go have my morning coffee two deer were on the driveway, and then finally I saw my first robin of the year. A clear sign that spring is coming.
Other news..
Trail Cam - New Location John moved the trail cam to a tree just to the side of the pond. I went up on Saturday to download and check out the captures, and there were quite a few. The deer definitely use the pond to drink from, and at least one bird was hanging out on the edge of the pond activating the camera. As I approached the area yesterday, it also took a photo of me, and I was quite a ways away. These are not award winning photos, but great to see what is up and about our place!
A Busy Week
Summer Plans
It was a quiet drive up north yesterday, and I could tell that John was thinking about all the projects and the order things have to happen in the coming weeks. Here is a partial list of what is happening this week! 1. install the stove hood and fan (Mon.) 2. counter tops arrive and get installed (Tues.) 3. pick up dishwasher and garden tiller in Mpls. (Wed./Thurs.) 4. pick up stove in Duluth (Fri.) 5. pick up refrigerator in Duluth (Sat.) 6. split and stack another cord of wood 7. pull felled trees out of the woods and saw to stove top length (ongoing)
Whenever I see scratch tickets, I think of summer. I bought two tickets on the drive up and won “just a buck”! Lots of plans for the summer
8. prepare the ground and work on the garden (asap)
brewing, so please let us know as soon as you can dates for your visits.
9. increase the size of the garden to the west for more
You have three cousins getting married Adam and Shea (May 29), Sam
corn and potatoes (asap) 10. arrange for the connection of the stove/dishwasher
and Lucy (June 19) and AJ and Rick (August 22). David and Margaret are going to go to Chicago only this year at the end of August. Send me
and the refrigerator. Gas company has to connect
recipes to try out on dad before you come, so I can practice! You can all
the stove. John does the other two.
come for as long as you want, bring friends and family! As the house
Yes...it will be busy!
gets more finished, entertaining will be fun.
Final shots from Switzerland We often walk along the Ticino River for a quick and easy 40 minute walk near our apartment. It is flat and runs straight along river and the airport. I have seen a gray heron here before, but during a walk our last week, this heron didn’t move for a few minutes, and I was able to get some nice shots And, a final sunset photo from our balcony.
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
May 16, 2021
Spring has Sprung This first full week back at High Doubt has been busy with mostly good news and many projects ticked off our list. John was in Apple Valley on Sunday and Monday picking up supplies, our dishwasher, and a new garden tiller. On Friday, he drove to Duluth and got our refrigerator. The bad news is the stove has now been delayed until May 25. This week he will install the sink, dishwasher, and refrigerator. It was a bit of a challenge to get the refrigerator out of the back of the van and into the house, but we managed to get the job done. As for springtime in the North Woods, this week finally felt like spring. Last Sunday we had snow showers, but this week warm days and beautiful blue skies allowed us to get to many outdoor projects. The forest is also changing daily, and every single day we see new plants pushing up through the ground and trees budding Johannes has kept me abreast of the bird migration, and the number of songs I hear each day has increased so much I am actually very confused. He has encouraged me to get out and find the warblers, but I am a bit at a loss. I hear them, but I am not able to see or find anything. The deer are constant companions on our property, and although they irritate John, the deer are at home at High Doubt. They have found our little pond, and almost every night the trail cam captures one of them drinking or near the pond. Is it bad that I can now recognize different deer and have started to name them?
Johnny Appleseed The list of projects needing to be completed in the spring is quite long. Last week we split another cord of wood and stacked it, but while John was in Mpls. part of it came tumbling down. Two more cords will arrive this week to be split and stacked. I worked in the garden while John was gone preparing four of the raised beds, breaking up the mulch and getting rocks and pine cones out of the compost. We get compost from a community pile, and I also found twisty ties, a few Christmas lights, pieces of plastic, and a very strange little glass hummingbird. This week we used the new garden tiller to prepare the ground inside the enclosed area where we have the raised beds. We only planted the six raised beds since these can be covered in case of colder spring temps. So far, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, sweet corn, lettuce, arugula, carrots and strawberries are now in the ground. We will add more corn, squash, beans, and cucumbers in the center once we are certain about the temperatures. We also have started some peppers growing in smaller containers to move outside once they are ready. John will build an extension beyond our original enclosed space for more corn and to protect the two recently planted apple trees. Jerome will return, but we are determined that he will NOT eat our apples again. It has been very dry this spring, and once we had all the beds planted we watered the enclosure for a couple of hours. John also is able to get the hose out to all six of the apple trees and gave them a good dousing. This might not be too interesting to you all, but it is what we are doing! Once you all visit, you will enjoy the fresh veggies!
The Kitchen - it really is happening The most exciting part of the kitchen project happened on Tuesday when the counter tops arrived. The crew and counters arrived about 2:00 pm, and it took until almost 6:00 pm for the installation to be completed. I was a bit of a nervous wreck having only seen four inch square pieces of our chosen counter tops, but they look great. The island is a different color than the counter against the wall, and I guess it is ‘the thing’ now to do. Earlier on Tuesday, John finished installing the stove vent and hood, so bit by bit the room is looking more complete. The photo doesn’t quite capture the room, but you get an idea.
I cannot wait until everything is installed, and soon we will have a dishwasher at High Doubt. As it happens, the last working dishwasher we had was almost nine years ago at our first apartment in Lugano. Apple Valley’s dishwasher was never reinstalled after the pipes froze, and our current apartment in Lugano’s dishwasher never worked. We used it as a snack cupboard! As for refrigerators, it will be great to have space and the ability to have food organized. By early June, we should be using this kitchen. A few new smaller appliances will be purchased in the coming weeks. We have never had the need for a stand alone mixer or food processor, but now it is time to learn how to cook!
“Come with me into the woods. Where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.” –Mary Oliver
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
May 16, 2021
Rainy Week The week was mainly gray and rainy with a nice one inch+ soaking taking place. The woods were getting very crispy, and a few spot fires had started up in northern Minnesota. Rain was badly needed. Two very steamy sunny humid days followed the rain, and so the recently planted garden took off. Already we have arugula and lettuce starting to push up through the soil with signs of both strawberries and asparagus! John flew the drone a few times this week to grab some stills and videos of the property in the spring. It is always fun to see High Doubt from a different perspective, and luckily there were no collisions with birch trees this year! As usual, I tried to find birds, and they certainly are singing, but I seem to only catch quick flashes of color in the trees. I need more identification skills or slower birds to get any photographs. I did walk the Pincushion Trails in search of an elusive warbler or two, but only shot another photograph of a ruffed grouse hiding in the woods. This morning I grabbed my camera to take a photo of another chickadee at the feeder. And, a hummingbird flew to the wire holding the feeder. In the background as I shot this bird I could see a woodpecker happily pecking away at one of our black pine trees John planted. The woodpecker has been at it for quite some time it appears by all the holes in our tree!!
The Kitchen - it really is happening For the first time in about nine years (since we lived at the Collina d’Oro apartment), I did dishes that were not washed by hand in a sink. Yes, the dishwasher is hooked up and running. It will be an amazing help when we entertain this summer. Now the challenge is deciding where to place the clean dishes in the kitchen. It will take some time to find a home for everything, but we are taking our time since we still do not have a stove. It will arrive on Tuesday, May and be installed the following Tuesday. During the start of the week while the rain fell outside, John installed the sink, got the plumbing all set, and then moved the dishwasher and refrigerator to their new spots, and got hoses/power hooked up.
Other news... Big news in my life this week was a new desk arrived for my office. I loved the mission style desk John bought for me years ago for my birthday, but it simply wasn’t big enough for the external monitor, scanner and printer. Now I am able to be in one spot to continue to work on the scanning old slides and negatives, and also print when needed. The bigger monitor has been a godsend as I am finishing up the Spring Family Newsletter. I am only missing a couple of photographs and a few “pogonip” definitions, and then I will start to proof and fine tune the issue. I do love that little office space, and on rainy days and winter nights it provides a great place to hunker down and work on the computer. I am looking forward to getting a darkroom and workspace for analogue photography done this coming year. Now that the kitchen has moved (almost) I can use the sinks down there for photo work.
Garden Visitors Every single day we see at least one deer and often up to five roaming around the clearing in front of the house, the driveway, and the behind the house. John planted two new apple trees last week, and I shared a photo of one tree with everyone. Well, it only took one night for the deer to discover the delicious buds and blossoms on our trees. We are hopeful that the trees make it. Right away the next day John got a temporary fence up around the trees. He will be heading to Mpls. again this Sunday to pick up some lumber and supplies to make a more permanent fencing arrangement. The rabbits are also back, but we have the garden protected against them, too, we hope!
Last week...
This week...
Looking guilty...
Cute, but nibbles...
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.” — Anne Bradstreet
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Trip to Iowa A wonderful birthday weekend seeing my family in Iowa was the highlight of the week. Adam and Shay’s outdoor wedding was beautiful, and I thought of Johannes a lot as I watched so many birds near the pond and in the woods nearby! I was busy shooting as a behind-the-scenes type photographer, and it was kind of fun to step back into a role that I had at TASIS for so many years. The camera and camera bag were heavy though, and I marveled at the wedding photographer who simply never quit all for 10 hours straight! I have included more wedding photos in this newsletter. We also had some excitement with the house and picked up our new stove, purchased new chairs and countertop chairs all to arrive in mid to late June. The kitchen should be fully functional this week, and by the time Max and Beanee arrive the place should look much different. Already, the kitchen has been a big change with a dishwasher and refrigerator. The temptation to munch is also higher with the food closer at hand!
May 30, 2021
Kitchen, etc. Projects and House News John and I went to Duluth on Tuesday to pick up the stove and do some chair shopping. I have shared the photos of the chairs, but we are hopeful what we have chosen will work! We purchased both countertop chairs and then a set for the family room off of the kitchen. We had not planned on purchasing so much on that trip, but we were in a decision-making mood. The addition to the garden was fenced before we left for Iowa, and the rest of the corn was planted. Unfortunately, very low temperatures while we were gone may have taken out our tomato plants, so we will replant some this week. John covered the beds, but it dipped down to 28 F. this past weekend. It was chilly! We are slowly bringing up dishes, small appliances, pots & pans from the basement to the new kitchen. It will take a bit of time to figure out where everything will live. Once the stove is installed, everything we will use will be moved upstairs. And, a new appliance has been added! John bought me a KitchenAid mixer for one of my birthday gifts. Now I really have to step up my cooking skills! He also bought me the cookbook Foolproof Fish since we have pescatarians in the family and so many guests are not eating meat.
Another Birthday Gift John was very generous this year for my birthday. (Remember I gave him a new garden hoe....need to step it up next year!) He also gave me a “Big Mike” blind for Johannes and me to spend countless hours hiding from birds and shooting photos! It has a case with shoulder straps, pops up easily, and has lots of windows/ screens. We will put it up near the pond this morning. It is camouflaged so well, I hope the deer do not run into it!
I have uploaded a gallery of photos that I am processing and will be adding to in the next few days on SmugMug in our Fluhrer Family galleries. Link to the gallery is here: Adam and Shay’s Wedding Gallery and the password: memories.
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
June 6, 2021
A Finished Kitchen
After we returned from the wedding we quickly got the kitchen set for Tuesday’s stove installation. It was too good to be true. After waiting on the disruption to the supply chain and delays in shipping, the final blow was Tuesday when the technician was ill and not able to come. The appointment was rescheduled for Friday, and on Friday when we called to check we were told the technician was on his way. So at 2:00 pm Friday, June 4, the long wait was over. We are now cooking upstairs! Since we felt fairly confident that we would be using the kitchen by the weekend, we both started to bring dishes, utensils, food, paper products, etc. upstairs. Now the challenge, where does everything go. Adjustments will happen, but for now, everything has a home. It almost seems unreal now, and it is difficult to even remember what this space looked like a few months ago. John was busy designing and constructing wooden inserts for silverware and glasses. We could have purchased them when we designed the kitchen, but these individual pieces were hundreds of extra dollars! On Saturday, a quick trip to Duluth to get the Suburu’s windshield replaced also allowed John to pick up our new countertop chairs.
Other projects/news this week Screened-in Porch When we first moved to the garage, the house was just being framed. It was dry, but completely open to insects and not a place to hang out. The screened-in porch provided another space to relax. Chairs, tables, a radio, and outdoor lamps were all in the porch, and this was where guests went to relax. I would get up and drink my coffee here, and we used it a lot. Once the deck was completed, this area became a storage spot for tools and construction supplies. John has now cleared the space, ripped down the old screen, and the plan is to get this space ready again for use. It will provide a space to be outside at night when the bugs are bad or a space to enjoy being outside, but dry during rainy days.
Basement Cleaning I took the lead on moving dishes and food up to the new kitchen. The downstairs refrigerator is as clean as it has ever been, and cleaning all the cabinets will continue early this week. We will have another load of items to get to Goodwill soon.
Garden Work John continued to plant a few items and even helped the pollination of the apple trees. We replaced our tomato plants, but even the new ones seem to be struggling. I spent a long hour weeding along with hundreds of black flies. With bug hat firmly attached I am determined to continue to attack the garden this week. The apple trees look very good this year with many blossoms. If we can keep Jerome and the deer from eating them, we should be making apple crisp this fall!
BWCA Solo John left today for a short solo trip in the BWCA. His entry point is Brant Lake off of Round, and he plans to be out for 1-3 nights. He is going to see how the bugs are and how he feels. His days have been filled with drives for supplies, building, the garden, and a neverending list of projects. The trip is well-deserved. I could have gone along, but I hate bugs!
Big Mike and the Hunting Cam The hunting cam is set up by our little pond, and we get quite a few photographs every single day. Almost all of them are deer. It is an odd day that we do not see at least one deer walking on the property. However, a new animal was caught in this week’s download! We also set up Big Mike (hunting blind) above the pond, and it is quite amazing how difficult it is to see in these photos. In the photo to the left, you can see a deer taking a drink from the pond we built last summer. John installed the solar power pump again this week and also filled it with fresh water. The downloads include many photographs of deer at the pond throughout the day, but usually early in the morning and towards dusk.
In the photo above, you see the new animal we can add to Our hunting cam list now includes: deer, a crow, a fox, and a skunk. It is often set off by something that we cannot locate in the photograph. In the photo at the left, you can hardly see the Big Mike hunting blind. I have set up a chair inside and go up occasionally to sit and try to watch for animals. No luck so far, but I also think I have to go at dawn. I am not a morning person. It is not completely bug-proof either, so that is a bummer
Wedding LInk Correction! When I sent out last week’s newsletter, I password protected the photos I shot at Adam and Shay’s wedding. The link did not seem to work for everyone. I have since copied the gallery and made it public. Here is the link to this gallery, and I am fairly certain you can share this link with others if you want. Adam and Shay are on their honeymoon in Hawarii right now! https://kimnelson.smugmug.com/Adam-and-Shay-Wedding/
“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” —Rachel Carson
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
June 13, 2021
A Quiet Week This has been a quiet week at High Doubt. John was gone on his solo canoe trip and returned Tuesday afternoon. I battled the black flies while he was gone in the garden, but gave up after about an hour. I can handle about 30 minutes before I go a bit crazy! We did have some well-needed rain off and on this week, but this week’s plan is to get a bug net, long sleeves, long pants, and head out and give the garden a good weeding! The lupines are in full bloom in front of the house, and they are blooming in all the ditches and along the roadsides in Cook County. I guess it is people have a love hate relationship with this plant. I personally find them quite beautiful and took the macro lens out this week. Here is information from the National Park Service about lupine: Bigleaf lupine, Lupinus polyphyllus, originated in the western US and was introduced to MN as a landscaping plant, and quickly got out of control. It is referred to as an invasive species. In a nutshell, it is an invasive plant that can crowd native species out of their preferred habitats. This does not mean that Bigleaf lupine is always harmful, and it is a good source of nectar for pollinating insects and has been known to attract hummingbirds. This plant also provides regulating ecosystem services, as it has deep roots that help prevent erosion, as well as supporting services, as it is a legume and thus fixes nitrogen and returns it to the soil.
Work completed Screened-in Porch Update John spent the better part of two days cleaning the cedar posts and ceiling in the porch. He donned Johannes’ fly-fishing bibs and shoes to try and stay dry. The temps dropped dramatically mid-week, and so he was spraying cold water in low 50 degree temps. (We even built a fire in the stove this week!) This area looks a lot better now, and we have decided to oil the porch instead of painting it. We have a few pieces of furniture that I will paint for use in the porch. Rain does not penetrate too often into this covered area unless there is a lot of wind, and we will get some sort of covering for any cushions we might add to chairs or an outdoor couch.
Preparing for guests Johannes arrives today and Christopher next week, so I spent quite a bit of time moving things around upstairs. We will be taking the dressers out of the rooms and guests will have full access to shelves/hanging room in the closets. We hope to add some comfortable chairs to make cozy corners for reading or relaxing in each bedroom.
First Guests of the season Ryan and Nick stopped by on their way home from a trip into the BWCA. They put in on Seagull Lake and then base camped on Alpine Lake for their trip. After a rainy/stormy crossing of Seagull, they had perfect weather for the week. They also caught tons of fish! Ryan said that “this was the most successful fishing trip he had been on!” Nick caught the biggest - a 12 lb. Northern and collectively they they caught 30+ fish. With the warmer temps, the walleye were not biting, but they were very successful! I also used their visit as an excuse to try out the new oven! Nothing like a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for an after-trip treat!
Garden Update Other than needing a good weeding, the garden seems to be doing well. The tomatoes have come back to life, and the potatoes are thriving. We planted lots of sweet corn, and some looks great, and other corn plants look like they belong in the 1930s dust bowl. Hmmm....we think that different parts of the garden have dramatically different soil depending on where the compost has been placed.
Our Robin
Th
The robin that built its nest in a small tree just outside the back
wood to the wood shed so as to not disturb the robin. Next year
door has created a few problems for us. We are very careful, and
if she returns to this same spot, we will try to prevent her from
try to use our front door and only walk the long way around to
using this little tree for her nest. I tried to peek into the nest from
the garden. We also are not splitting wood or bringing any new
a distance, but I cannot get a good angle.
This is our usual view of the robin if we make too much noise. She makes a quick getaway to nearby trees.
We can catch only a partial side view if we sneak around the carport and then we see her perched on her nest.
Every Single Day We actually are disappointed if we don’t see a deer every day. It used to be so exciting when we first spent a few weeks each summer in the cabin to see a deer. I tried to download from the hunting cam, but black flies were crasy. I am certain they were at the pond this week, too. Now they are everywhere. Here are the numbers for Minnesota: About 950,000 deer in 2020, 935,000 in 2019, and 960,000 in 2018. A modest downward trend from an estimated population of 1 million deer in 2016 and 2017.
Macro Lens Fun
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
June 20, 2021
Birding with Johannes Johannes has been getting up early to hit the Gunflint Trail in search of birds for both his Cook County and life list. Usually, I hear him up and turn over and get a few more hours of sleep. On Friday, however, I joined him for a three-hour tour of the Lima Mountain road and to add to my Cook County list. It was a beautiful morning, and I was impressed and amazed at the birds we found. We saw the following birds: a Black and white warbler, a Parula warbler, a Broad-winged hawk, Boreal chickadees, Redeyed Vireos, Robins, a Blackburnian warbler, and a Black-backed Woodpecker. We saw no one else on the road at all. One day we took a hike down below the Pincushion Mountain House yurt, and on that hike, we saw a beautiful Magnolia warbler and a Canada warbler. This hike had quite a few black flies, too! I walked down to the Little Devil’s track to the pool where the boys used to make leaf boats and thrown rocks. An evening drive towards Two Island Lake did not result in too many birds - lots of black flies, but I did see a Chestnut-sided warbler.
Projects Screened-in Porch is Looking Good! The screened-in porch is looking better and better. John finished washing the cedar and the ceiling early in the week and then put up pine on the side of the house. We will (or Chris will) oil all of these new boards and the rest of the porch before we put the new screen up. John also has to pick up a new door to hang. Once it is bug -proof we will take a look at some of our furniture to see what we can upscale to make a comfy sitting area. John also has a good start on the additional shower in the second bathroom upstairs. He will begin to tile the floor of the shower by the end of the week. By the time guests arrive in midJuly, he hopes to have the shower completed. One small job I completed was to restring one of our deck chairs and will do the second one this week. With a lot of guests this summer, we will need all the outdoor seating we can find! The plan is to still try and find a table and chairs for the deck, but with John having to go to Switzerland on July 3 for a week, the schedule is getting full!
Another Trip to Iowa On Friday we headed south to Apple Valley and then a day trip on Saturday to Sam and Lucy’s wedding in Charles City. It was a short, but nice visit and it was great to have Johannes along to see Grandma and Grandpa and all the aunts/ uncles, and cousins! The wedding was outdoors and with very little shade it was a very warm service! We returned to Grand Marais on Sunday, and immediately put a fire in the stove since the house was a cool 63 degrees! I will be getting a gallery up tomorrow of some photos from the wedding.
Our Robin - the rest of the story
Th
We were eating dinner one night and suddenly flying very fast and low a big bird flew past the kitchen. Johannes jumped and said get my binoculars. He had a bead on the bird, and so then I quickly shot some grainy photographs through the window. We could see the bird was gripping onto something. Another bird was very nearby and quite agitated. Once we could see that it was a Broad-shouldered hawk, Johannes correctly surmised that the hawk had raided our robin’s nest. Sure enough...two of the three baby birds were gone. We watched the mother robin flying in and around the nest for quite a long time, but the next morning we checked to see if the third baby survived. The nest was empty. Blurry shot taken the night of the attack...
Lima Mountain Road It is easy to forget what lies beyond....it was so fun to get out and be surrounded by nothing but trees, bugs, birds, and water. We saw lots of evidence of moose in an area Johannes coined ‘the triangle’. We hope to go back at dawn to try and catch a shot of a moose or two.
The hawk returned again the next night.
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
June 20, 2021
A Full Nelson (house) and Full Moon John headed back up to the cities on Monday to pick up supplies
Today Johannes and Chris will head to the Sax Zim Bog to spend
for the upstairs hallway bathroom, some flooring, and on
an intense day or two birding there. Then Johannes will head to
Tuesday he then picked up Chris from the airport. It had been
New York on Wednesday. John heads to Switzerland on Saturday
a couple of years since we saw Chris in person, and in mid-July,
for a week - busy schedule.
both Max and Beanee will also be here. It will be great to all be here together. Birding continued to be a theme during the week. Johannes heads out every morning, and I did manage to get up for a four+ hour trip on Saturday and headed up the trail with him. It was a great morning, and again we saw a Black-backed woodpecker. Johannes got a few excellent photographs showing the bird’s yellow cap unlike our photos from last week. We also had a bit of a bird-a-palooza Saturday night a Pileated woodpecker was sitting on high snags all around the house, and as we tried to photograph the woodpecker “the” Broad-winged hawk (of babyrobin-eating-fame) was sitting on a snag, too. It is great to see so many birds around the property.
Johannes recorded his buggy bog experience with his phone and used his Canon 7D to shoot photographs like the one at the left.
Work and Play Projects Continue Projects Continue John finished trimming the screened-in porch, and I have almost finished oiling the walls. Hopefully, Chris will do the ceiling (hint-hint) John weed whipped around the house/garage, and then Chris cleared a path to the garden past the now-empty robin’s nest. Can you tell the death of our baby robins weighs heavy? John continued work on the upstairs bathroom, and even with the trip to Switzerland, he hopes to get that shower ready for Chris’s guests coming in July. I spent a few hours in the garden with all the mosquitoes weeding as best I could. We are enjoying lots of lettuce, and so far the garden is looking pretty good. For Father’s Day, John got several gifts including a herb garden. Today we saw the first signs of life with two little mustard seeds popping up through the dirt. I also finished processing Sam and Lucy’s wedding photos I took. The photos are on
https://kimnelson.smugmug.com/ Christopher Gets Vaccinated Chris immediately went to a CVS Pharmacy and got his first Pfizer shot, and he arranged his second or mid-July. Max will arrive then, and she will also get her vaccination at the CVS Pharmacy in Apple Valley.
From Pokemon cards to Bill Ripkin/Dan Gladden Cards Christopher spent a few hours sorting and checking on the value of the baseball/football/basketball/Pokemon card collection that he and Johannes had when they were little. Most of the cards are worth very little, but they do have at least a couple of cards allegedly worth over $1500, a few worth hundreds, and many worth $2 or less. These cards are only worth anything if someone wants them! The question will be who gets the money!
More Bird Photos...
Black and white warbler
Baby Ruffed grouse
American Redstart ( juvenile/f )
Americana Redstart (m)
Chestnut-sided warbler
Blackburnian warbler
Candids from the Week
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
June 20, 2021
Visitors... This week was a week of transition. Johannes and Chris went to Sax Zim Bog on Sunday-Tuesday for a birding trip. It was a great trip for them both, and they saw a Great Gray Owl on two separate occasions. Johannes also added a few more birds to his life list. They ran into Sparky Stensaas along one of the roads in the bog, were interviewed, and will be in Sparky’s next Virtually Live video. Johannes left on Wednesday from Duluth to reconnect with Beanee and Kylo! He will be spending the 4th of July in Vermont with Beanee’s family. Josh and Clare visited with kids in tow on Tuesday night and we had a nice time visiting and having burgers on the grill. On Friday, Jess, CJ, and Beth came up to High Doubt for the weekend! Adventures so far include hiking/running on Pincushion Mountain, shopping and lunch in Grand Marais, hiking Kadunce, and Beth got stoned (that means picking up rocks). Today might be more hiking, swimming, playing with cameras, and going to the fireworks!
House update Construction hiatus Since John left for Switzerland much of the work on the house is on hold for a week. He did get the shower’s waterproof covering applied, and so when he returns he will begin to tile the shower. Chris actually likes the deep red color, but that is only the rubber coating. The tile will be white and grey much like the other bathroom. Sorry Chris! The list of projects for the week for Chris and me include: finishing oiling the screened-in porch, paint the futon frame and see if the cushions are worth saving, clean the big bean bag chair up, paint a small table for the porch, weed the garden, split wood, and also head to Duluth to shop for ‘stuff for the house;. We did pick up our first non-Home Depot rug for the house. We found a nice rug on sale at HOM Furniture, and it really does define the space where the new chair arrangement will eventually be! Chris and I will pick up more stuff this week!
Garden is growing! The herb garden is starting to pop up through the soil, and our garden is going great guns! We will have potatoes for everyone! We are eating lettuce every day and Beth pulled up some beautiful radishes which we enjoyed during her visit.
I sent Beth out to take photos of our garden this morning so I could get this quick issue out! We may get some rain today, but it is thriving just needs weeding!
Guest Photographer Jessica Blumberg
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
July 11, 2021
A Week with Christopher
She Said “Yes”!
The week started with Beth, Jess, and CJ leaving to head back to work and Iowa. We had a great time while they were here, and on Sunday afternoon in temps above 90 degrees, we all made it to the top of Pincushion. It was a beautiful hike and proud to say I made it even if I did turn the color of a tomato! The rest of the week was filled with misc. projects preparing for next week’s guests. On Tuesday, Chris and I headed to The Blue Moose gift shop/florist to see if they had plants for the house. We spent an hour learning about which plants I would not kill immediately and which were sturdy. We shall see how my black thumb works out. The plants make the living spaces so much more alive. Max’s sense of style and design has rubbed off on Chris. He moved books, pottery, and even found a way to make our dining room table an attractive surface. We thought we would go to Duluth for inspiration and to pick up a few things, but after the plants were in place the trip wasn’t needed. On Thursday, Chris and I visited Sue Ahrendt’s new place on Gunflint Lake. What a great location and setting! If the weather and schedule work out, we hope to take
Johannes and Beanee were in Vermont to celebrate the Fourth of July with the extended Beydoun family. Johannes left High Doubt with ring in hand, but we were not certain when he would pop the question. On July 6 while Chris and I were watching the Twins game we got a
Chris’s friends there for an afternoon playing
Whats App photograph. We texted back
on the lake and having a bit more of a BWCA
and forth with them for a few minutes,
experience. Dinner at Poplar Haus. It was a
but cannot wait to congratulate them in
great afternoon. The excitement continued
person! Chris said I was making ‘very
on Friday with dinner at Sue/Phil’s and on
happy noises’. We are thrilled to have
Saturday we took in the GM Arts Fair.
Beanee an official part of the family!
Happy Birthday this week to Johannes! Check out the song Beanee had made for Bird-Man’s Birthday
Kim and Chris Projects Preserved the Cedar Once John returns the screened-in porch is all oiled and ready for the screening. We also moved furniture around in the basement creating space for playing games and lounging in the downstairs space. After pulling out an old frame couch, we decided to not paint it but did buy Peacock Blue outdoor cushions to replace the older ones. This couch and the newly painted yellow table, yellow mild crate, and a blue-striped rug from Greece should dress up the space! Splitting wood We completed as much of the splitting as we could without John adjusting things in the woodshed. There is only an hour of splitting left, and we should finish that cord tomorrow. Then John will have another cord delivered! Decorating Chris and I dug around in our boxes of pottery and knick-knacks looking for a few items to place here and there. The place is looking more and more like a finished house! Once John gets back we do have a few pieces of furniture to move which should open up and declutter the living and family room. Chris used some yellow paint to try and bring an old table back to life.
BWCA Fire Ban - Crispy in the Woods
New visitor on the Outdoor Cam
The woods up here need rain desperately, and this week a fire ban was put in place for the unforeseeable future. There is a constant smell of smoke from fires in Canada, but right now nothing at the eastern end of the BWCA. Link to see the fire status: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ incident/7643/
We capture deer on our outdoor cam almost every night, so I was surprised to see this coyote show up when I downloaded photos recently. The camera is attached to our deck now, and we plan on moving it further into the woods this week.
More photos from the Fourth of July weekend
Goodbye to our Swiss Apartment
John spent the last week in Switzerland, and the apartment is officially sold. On August 31, the sale will be final and at that point we will start the process of deregistering with the commune. It was a great spot to spend our last eight years in Switzerland, and we were lucky to have found such a beautiful spot. It offered a physical break from being on campus. Personally, I will always remember the three months I spent there during the pandemic and teaching from my makeshift office at the dining room table. The one thing I will not miss is driving home with any snow on the road! I will take the winter roads in the Midwest any day!
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
July 18, 2021
Today’s the Day!
Hish Came Back!
For the first time since August 23, I did not get a newsletter done by Sunday morning. It has been a bit busy around here preparing for Christopher and Max’s special week. We are almost set, and I decided to take a break and whip up a short newsletter, so my string of newsletters isn’t broken! It has been a bit busy! This will be a short, but sweet newsletter!! Chris left on Tuesday to go to the cities and visit AJ/Rick before picking up Max on Thursday. Chris and Max went to Iowa to see everyone on Saturday, and everything went well until the trip back to Mpls. The check engine light started to flash if Chris drove over 45 mph. The flashing started only an hour from Apple Valley, and they made it safely. But, this meant finding a rental car on short notice. Nothing was available at the airport, and most rental agencies were closed on Sunday. John found a car rental shop with a car available in
What a treat to have Beanee’s brother Hish visit us this past week. Hish and a friend from Colorado College, Cameron came up to head out on a short canoe trip on Saganaga. They used Seagull Outfitters
Bloomington that opened
to rent canoes and took off on Monday
at 8:00. And then, all the
morning up the channel. Campsites
friends who were to arrive
we recommended were filled, but they
at 8:00 had their flights
pushed to Blueberry Island and found a
delayed to a 2:30 arrival.
great site. They spent a night after their
This means a later arrival up
trip with us, too. Chris has never met
north, but everything seems
Hish, so it was great for them to connect
to be working out just fine.
- esp. since our families will be connected forever now!!
Preparation Screened-in Porch We picked up the final pieces needed to complete the porch when we picked up Johannes from Duluth on Thursday. Now the door closes, the chair is hung up, and the entire structure is screened in. There were two small sections that were missing screens, and the flies, bumblebees, and moths were very confused. I felt badly, but many flew into the porch and just could not make their way out again. Two of the three new cusions for the couch came. The other set seems to be missing! Amazon has apologized. Shower update John is finished the caulking as I write this paragraph, and the shower should be fully funcitonal by Tuesday morning. The trip to Switzerland created a crunch in finishing all the projects we hoped to complete, but it is what it is. Lights are installed in the other upstairs bathroom along with hooks for towels. Mirror Chris and I fell in love with a mirror at Sivertson’s Gallery, and I decided that would be a nice 35th wedding anniversary gift for John and I to buy. A gift certificate from Beth for Sivertson’s would help with the purchase. Once John returned from Switzerland, we went and got the mirror and it looks amazing. Chris was right, it adds depth
to
the room. The first photo is the mirror in the gallery. It is done with some process using resin. As it happend John had already picked up a gift for me - a beautiful necklace. So, this mirror is my gift to him!!
Johannes Returns On Thursday, we
Chris and Johannes are Famous
When Chris and
picked up Johannes
Johanne were in Sax
from the Duluth
Zim Bog a couple
Airport, and Beanee
of weeks ago they
will arrive on
happened to meet
Tuesday. It was so good to see him and congratulate him in person on his engagement to Beanee. The birds are singing a bit less around here now, but he continues to get out and bird most mornings. It will be great to have them all here this week!
Sparky Stensaas on a road in the bog. Sparky worked at WCB with John and me and does a monthly video called “Virtually Live “ about birding in the the bog. He interviewed them. Check out the interview: https://youtu.be/qCNwUDnblZk (watch the whole thing it is great, but Joh and Chris make an appearance at 2:39
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” — John Ruskin
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
July 25, 2021
What a Special Week! Words will not be able to capture the life and spirit of the past week here at High Doubt. Chris and Max arrived with six friends on Sunday, July 18 for a week of celebrating friendship and Chris and Max’s civil marriage ceremony. The group was complete when Johannes picked up Beanee on Tuesday from Duluth! The first three days were work days for almost all the guests. Everyone managed to find spaces to work, and my office served as a great spot for a few who had interviews/zoom meetings. After work, there was plenty of light to go on a hike or go to town. Thursday and Friday were days off for everyone. The ceremony took place on Thursday afternoon on the deck. A more traditional celebration will take place in the Philippines in the future Chris and Max will exchange vows. The pandemic simply did not allow many guests to safely travel to the Philippines. After the ceremony, every one accompanied Chris and Max to the courthouse to file their papers before heading up the trail to Poplar Haus for an early dinner. At the courthouse, small-town America showed up to clap and cheer for Max and Chris. Julz took a wonderful photograph of Max as she left the courthouse! Words cannot fully describe the friendships, the laughter, and the conversations from the week. John and I are so thankful and happy for Chris and Max as they start their life together. And, for Johannes and Beanee as they plan for their wedding. We are so fortunate, Gallery of photos from the week: Max and Chris
Memories from the week...
Dry conditions created quite a smoky start to the week. Blue skies did appears through-
The deck continues to be a place to relax
out the week, but fires in Canada kept the view fairly hazy all week. A storm on Friday
and work. Early rising Max often joined
night brought welcomed rain, but northern MN is still suffering from severe drought.
Johannes to listen and see birds.
Thank goodness for the kitchen, and more importantly the dishwasher! Many hands made for light work, but I cannot imagine hosting a group with only the basement kitchen! The dishwasher got a baptism by fire with three to four loads per day! Breakfasts were cooked by Masterchef Gab with his scrambled eggs extraordinaire and Christopher’s garlic rice. I did my duty, too, and order a dozen and a half of the World’s Best Donuts for Monday morning! We were able to get reservations at a few restaurants this week including a trip to Naniboujou the night before the civil service. As it happens this is the same lodge John and I had our rehearsal dinner 35 years ago, and we sat at the same table! The group also ate one night at Gunflint Tavern and Poplar Haus. The other evenings we enjoyed dinner at High Doubt.
Chris and Max’s Day!
More photos here: Max and Chris Gallery
More moments...
What a week! And, we are so happy for Max and Chris.
“Friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.” — Vincent Van Gogh
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
July 31, 2021
Adjusting to the quiet And, then there was quiet. Sunday morning came and with it the awareness that most of the beds in the house were empty. Johannes and Beanee moved from the cabin, but with John gone and all of Chris and Max’s friends, it was so very quiet. The beginning of the week did entail a bit of laundry and cleaning, but there was no rush and quickly the linen closet was organized waiting for the next guests to arrive. John had an adventure getting everyone settled into the hotel in Mpls. Once they arrived, the hotel was overbooked, and so they had to find a new place at 9:00 pm. Everything worked out, rental cars were returned on time, and everyone made their flight. John then spent Monday getting the Toyota fixed and road-ready. He drove back up to High Doubt still on Monday and right into a very strong thunderstorm. He had a very long day, so we decided he needed to relax on Tuesday! On Tuesday, we headed up to Gunflint Lake and took Sue Ahrendt up on her invitation to enjoy her new place. Joh and Beanee took a short trip to Bridal Falls a few hours to the east of Sue’s place. John and I just sat and enjoy talking with Sue and taking in a very calm Gunflint Lake.
Reconnecting...
We didn’t have to wait long for our next visitors! On Thursday, Justin Long, his girlfriend, Megan, and her son Ola arrived. What a great time for Johannes and Justin to reconnect again. He lives in Hawaii most of the year but spends the summers at Heart Lake with his parents, Jay and Karen. Justin overwhelmed us with his knowledge of plants, spices, gardening and spent time patiently explaining what we could do with our garden. Johannes and Justin spent a lot of time going down memory lane, and it was great for Beanee to meet him, too. Her brother Hish and Johannes met Justin in Mexico years ago for a surfing trip. It is amazing how connections are made! Ola spent the day drawing cockroaches (his favorite bug), capturing grasshoppers, and exploring. It was fun to have a little person here again. Justin and Megan eat organic and natural food, so they brought along beautiful vegatables and dishes to share. For one dinner Beanee and Justin whipped up a wonderful Lebanese feast. It was great and so fun to sit and talk about Lebanon, and all the places in the world Johannes/ Beanee and Justin/Megan have lived and explored. Their next adventure involves developing 40 newly purchased acres on the big island for sustainable products and building a new home. Jay and Karen are also jumping into the project and will be spending half the year in Hawaii. My guess is Johannes and Beanee will visit in the next few years. It was a wonderful visit, and we hope it becomes an annual event!
Other news We talked with Chris and Max a few times this week, and they are having a great time in New York. Chris arrived in Mpls. last night (Sat.) for a 5:15 am departure from MSP. His route home take him first to Atlanta and then non-stop to Japan. He is one tired boy! He has all his paperwork for re-entering Japan and hopes it all goes well. Max will fly to Mpls. in mid-August for one night before she starts her trip back to Japan. I had to include a couple of screen captures from Julz’s Instagram. It doesn’t seem possible a whole week has passed. We are so lucky that their friends were able to come, and that Chris and Max also were able to get to New York. Naniboujou....
Saying goodbye...
Odds and Ends... Our composting situation has been in dire need of improvement, and John finally was able to carve out time to start our compost bin. With the drought and lack of berries, the bears are all over the place. Luckily, Jerome and his friends have not appeared on our property, but we have kept our compost barrel in the garage. It is not a pleasant smell! So, the new compost box will be done in a few days out near the garden. We will use this during the fall, spring and summer, and our compost barrel from Chris will be for our winter compost. John and I finished splitting another cord of wood, and he has pulled in some birch he felled in the spring. The winter wood supply is pretty close to being done. Now I will start to split kindling and fill up the kindling barrels in the coming weeks. Tony and Karin Anderson built a new deck this summer, and they graciously gave us the old pressuretreated lumber from their old deck that will help us build a platform either above the solar arrays or down in front of the house. We haven’t quite decided where the new deck (viewing platform) will go. Beanee’s brother Hish called this morning after his 10-day silent retreat! It was great to see him and hear the retreat was all he had hoped it would be! We miss him, too!
Quiet times at home
It is amazing how different the ‘flow’ and use of the house have changed with the kitchen now complete. Mornings will often find any one of us sitting in the new chairs enjoying the sun and coffee there. Most likely the pattern will change again when the fire in the stove is going, and then the living room will be the go-to spot. In the evening, the dining room table is still game central! Johannes bought A Ticket to Ride, and the four of us have played almost every night. We hope to rekindle some game night with friends here once Covid concerns lessen.
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
August 8, 2021
Getting Back to Routines This week the quiet really descended after Johannes and Beanee left on Monday to catch their Tuesday flight to New Orleans. John drove them down, got them to the airport, and then returned on Tuesday with supplies for his next projects. As John and I reflected on the summer, we smile often. There were definite chapters to our summer with the first being Johannes arriving and his busy mornings of birding, Christopher then arrived and we had a few days with both boys here. Johannes left for the East Coast, and Christopher remained here while John went to Switzerland. Chris and I spent a great week together planning and preparing for Max’s arrival and wedding celebration week. Johannes and Beannee stayed for a week after the wedding, and they played in the area during the day and we played games at night! We were so lucky to have this time with our family. Highlights of course included Joh and Beanee’s engagement and Chris and Max getting married. New chapters begin! Now we are settling down to projects to ready the place for winter. Most of these projects are on John’s list while I play a supporting role. I am concentrating again on trying to shed a few pounds and get back into better shape. I had hoped to start walking the Pincushion Trails again, but because of nearby bear sightings, and even a visitor sniffing around on our back deck I have rekindled a love of my treadmill. (It was not Jerome!) The drought has caused early changes in the color of the woods, so hints of yellow and red are already being seen. The garden is starting to produce daily, so we are excited about tomatoes, potatoes, corn, carrots, and squash in the upcoming weeks. We miss everyone that was here this summer, but like I said smile when we remember everyone hanging around the kitchen eating hummus.
The Story of a Shed and a Finished Box
John is building one of two sheds he hopes to finish this August. The first one is a small woodshed below the deck and nestled to the right into the woods. This will hold wood for the basement wood stove that John hopes to install by October. This shed will hold mainly birch from our property. Currently, the woodshed behind the households close to six cords of maple. The compost box is now completed and is working out great. The best thing is the garage is recovering from a summer having an open compost barrel.
Raspberries, Green Beans, and Carrots John worked hard getting his raspberries (over two gallons) picked for his morning yoghurt. A man of habit and routine, he pulled out a handful of frozen raspberries every day before he does his treadmill run. After his run, he adds yoghurt and has his breakfast. The blueberries were down this year, but we had a bumper raspberry crop. I picked all the green beans we planted and cleaned, cut, blanched, and froze bags for use in the coming months. We also have been eating cucumbers and carrots this week. The apple trees are going nuts with the one right behind the house has over 70 apples right now. The trees up behind the solar array also have apples. Guess I might need to figure out how to dry apples or maybe make applesauce. As John says “Oh boy, adventure cooking!”
In the Kitchen
Air Fryer time?
Our guests this summer know we have lots of food
For my birthday,
in the cupboards (!) and are ready for a zombie
Sara and Beth got
apocalypse. In the refrigerator, we found ourselves
me an air fryer,
with lots of vegetables and food leftovers from our
and as it happens,
time with guests. John made a great beef stew, and I
Christopher is an
used up bananas to make my WW breakfast cookies!
air fryer king. He
Now it is time to pull out the cookbooks again and
used it a lot this
start experimenting.
summer. I am getting braver, and it is fun to experiment. The big question - what do vegetarian corn dogs taste like and will an air fryer make them better? This week a carrot and frozen squash medley was quite good. Dehydrating fruit is also possible, so this might be next!
High Doubt An occasional update about life in the woods...
August 16, 2021
A Few Adventures It was time to dust off the golf clubs for the summer! John and I headed over to Gunflint Hills early in the week to hit the driving range to loosen up our golf swing. Then on Thursday afternoon, we played 18 holes at Superior National in Lutsen. The course is beautiful with expansive views of Lake Superior and several holes with the Poplar River rushing across the fairway. The wind was howling, but we managed to play 18 holes and enjoyed the afternoon. We lost quite a few balls but found just as many. Our scores are not important, but it was a nice getaway for the afternoon. On Wednesday night, we drove up to Gunflint Lake and had dinner with Sue and Andy. They invited two friends (Larry and Marcia) who they hoped we would connect with and become friends. Yea, it was kind of a blind date! It was a great evening of conversation and laughter - another nice break from the routine of High Doubt life.
We also got a call from HOM Furniture, and the chairs we ordered in May finally arrived. John headed down to Duluth on Saturday to pick them up. We were used to the look of a couch in the room, so it might take time to get used to the new chairs. Chris will be happy to hear that I have also saved the hibiscus plant, and it now has no yellow leaves and seems to be on the mend! So far, all the plants we purchased before his friends arrived are still alive.
Washing the House As you can see in the photo to the left, the cedar siding has gotten quite dirty in the last 15 years, and we have been working to wash and retreat with oil preservatives as time allows. This week John put up the scaffolding to clean the top floor of the front of the house. The only section left is the upper floor on the backside of the house. Oiling will continue this week, but the front of the house is now clean and looks great. While John is up there, he will also need to wash the windows. Washing the boards creates a lot of pulpy fibrous residue that sticks to the windows, and it is impossible to clean from the inside. (I have tried!) I was the person who oiled the garage and the first floor, but getting up on the scaffolding is not something I can easily do. Sorry, John!
Helping the Birds There is nothing worse than seeing a lifeless bird on our deck. With fall migration not too far in the future, we are trying to find a solution to treat our glass that will help deter the birds from getting confused. If any of you have suggestions of products - let us know. We have a rope hanging on the deck right now, but we need a better solution.
An Afternoon with a Pileated Woodpecker John alerted me of a Pileated Woodpecker who was busy pounding away on a birch right behind the garage. I grabbed my camera and got in position and started to shoot away. I was able to get very close, and even took the time to try and get directly under the tree to see if I could get better light. Once I got under the tree, I was pelted with bits of tree and bark. I could see the bird pulling out insects, and he continued to peck away for at least an hour. A few facts.... The feeding holes of a Pileated Woodpecker are so extensive that they often attract other birds. Other woodpeckers, as well as House Wrens, may come and feed there. A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. In this area behind the garage I often see these birds, so I am fairly certain it is their home!
What We Are Watching and Reading
W
During the evening, John and I tend to settle down to watch something on our computers. I have been a very good Twins fan, and I would guess I have been able to see at least 90% of the games - maybe not the whole game, but check in on them. Heck, they are only 17 games out of first place! As a nod to Christopher and his interest in the stock market, I have also been watching “Billions”. I also watched a documentary called “Bird of Prey” about the Philippine Eagle that I heard about through my eBird Newsletter. We both continue to read a lot, too. John just finished Underland, one of my books which has been described as “an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.” I finished Birding Without Borders this week that talks of a young man’s big year and his attempt to see 5000+ birds in one year. I also am reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that is a narrative cookbook. The author’s Netflix series of the same title is worth a watch, too.
What a treat to see a deer with her two fawns this week. We see deer almost every day, and for the second time this summer we also had a small black bear sniffing around!
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
August 22, 2021
One Full Year of High Doubt News!
Last August 23 I sent out the first of these weekly newsletters, and they have probably given me more fun to send out than for any of you receiving them. When I retired I realized that I was very used to taking photographs and telling stories. At TASIS I kept multiple social media sites going, and I always tried to imagine what would a boarding parent like to know about daily life at TASIS. I had a tough time turning off that switch and creating these weekly newsletters became a bridge as I adjusted from work life to retired life.
And, with Covid, it was a way for me to share with Johannes/Beanee and Chris/Max what John and I do every week up here in the woods. Then a few others asked to get on the mailing list. It is fun to look back on all the different issues and see the progress on the house, the changing of the seasons, and special highlights from the year. The plan is to continue, but please let me know if you want off the mailing list! I won’t be hurt!
I have uploaded all the newsletters to a Google Drive folder just to have them accessible in one place. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17T87vmsckZJTg51OE0i9E6sPPj3unQ3s?usp=sharing
Forest Fire and BWCA Closure The week’s news has been overshadowed by the active forest fires in and near the BWCA. They say they will reevaluate on a weekly basis. The fires are not near High Doubt, but in the county, and you can smell the smoke when the winds are in certain directions. They say the last time the BWCA was closed was in 1976. John and I started working at Wilderness in 1978, and the fires two years earlier had come fairly close to the camp. I made this graphic which is not to scale but gives you an idea of the three fires nearest to Cook County. There are more fires in Canada directly across the border from the BWCA and also in the western half of the BWCA near Ely. Here is a link to stay on top of the fire situation: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ If you are curious about news from the area including fire reports, check out the local radio station’s home page: www.wtip.org.
Looking For Uses for Cucumbers Our garden is starting to pop with squash, corn, cucumbers, carrots, strawberries, and way too many potatoes. This week we hope the corn will be ready. We had a couple of ears last week, but it was not quite ready to pick. I did make refrigerator pickles this past week that were very easy and taste pretty good. And, Chris, I found a recipe for air frying cucumbers slices. I made them, I ate them, but they might not make my all-time favorite recipe list. We came back from Apple Valley and checked the garden right away. As you can see we have large squash, and John picked an apple from the tree closest to the house. He then went up to our four other trees to grab a couple more apples. Well...again a “Jerome-type” animal destroyed the fencing and tore the tree up and ate all the apples! Everything inside the garden fencing seems okay.
Friends and Family Louise and Beverly Visit High Doubt Every summer Louise Feske visits Grand Marais to connect with friends up here and to enjoy the North Shore. Her friend Beverly has come with her for the last few years helping Louise with the drive. After all, Louise is now 87 years young! They came to dinner on Wednesday, and we had a wonderful time reminiscing and catching up. On Thursday, they headed out onto Lake Superior
Rick and AJ Tie the Knot On Saturday, Rick and AJ’s wedding took place at the Minneapolis Events Center. It was a beautiful venue and day. Connor and Norah were, and it was nice to see all the Lund family. Clare, Josh, and Peter surprised AJ with a song during the service that was a complete surprise. Next week we will be in Chicago for another Lund event!
on the Hjordis, and I was there in the harbor to shoot photos of their adventure. Louise also brought an old photo of Carl and John moving our outdoor latrine from the end of the driveway to behind the cabin. Ah.. memories!
Projects Continue
The front of the house is now washed and reoiled. Now the scaffolding is on the back of the house, and he will finish this final side this week. I have finished stripping, staining, and varnishing another office chair. This chair we inherited from John’s cousin, and it has had a hard life. It started out stained red, then painted white, and finally yellow. It is not a perfect job, but it certainly looks better, and we will find a home for it!
Moments from the Past Year Immediately the highlights from the last year involve family with Chris and Max’s marriage and Johannes and Beanee’s engagement topping the list. We are so happy for them and are excited to be a family of six now! Other highlights pale in comparison, and I tried to pick photos from each month, but there were too many. Too many good moments to share!
What a treat to be able to slip down to Lake Superior and see what mood the lake is in and then try to capture in images.
Enjoying Poplar Haus post the civil service. Notice the birdhouse included in the photo!
Everyone has a newfound interest and awareness of birds because of Johannes and his passion. I am never too far away from my camera and binoc now.
Final kitchen plans were set by mid December and were delivered in mid-February.
The new logsplitter has been a great boon for putting up the wood for the winter. Heck, Chris and I split almost a cord ourselves!
Believe it or not this was in October. Since that time the entire kitchen floor, cabinets, all the plumbing for the kitchen, the downstairs quarry tile, the additional shower upstairs, the outside porch, etc. have all been completed.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. —Frank Lloyd Wright
High Doubt
An occasional update about life in the woods...
Augut 29, 2021
A Week of Smoke
This week started with hot, windy weather that brought the smoke from the Greenwood Fire directly over Grand Marais. I was out downloading images from the trail cam - hoping for a bear shot, but only more deer photographs - and I noticed I was getting ash on my shirt. The sky turned a fairly odd color orange and it was evident that smoke from some fire had come over the area. I drove down to the overlook to see what the view was like, and it was eerie. There were at least a dozen other people there shooting photographs. The smoke passed in about an hour, and the skies cleared up. Large wildfires can create weather patterns that trigger high winds and lightning, Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thunderstorms that are created over the top of large wildfires. The photo to the right is from the Duluth Tribune and shows that one of these clouds did form on Monday. It was a week of weather watching, radio listening, and some worrying as the fires kept increasing early in the week. The Upper Gunflint is on pre-evacuation notice which simply means get your valuables, medication, and personal items collected, sprinklers on, and in case the fires shift be ready. All the resorts were still open, but the BWCA and all campgrounds are closed until further notice. This has not happened since 1976. Luckily, on Thursday night some rain fell on the Arrowhead, and more is forecasted for this weekend. The problem is it is so dry that a thunderstorm with lightning and no rain may start other fires. High Doubt is not near any of the current fires, and so John is not worried. Me....I always worry! I got so excited when the deck had a few sprinkles I took a photograph! We did get a half-inch on Friday night, and more was to come on Saturday. Fire link: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
Kubb and Friends Visiting Friends Russ and Kathy have been camping for a couple of summers now all over the place, and for the past 10 days, they have been at the Devils Lake Campground. Joining them this week were Karin/Tony and Joni/ Nathan. Camping is a perfect way to be with friends, but not sharing indoor space during covid! They invited John and I over for coffee on Wednesday morning this week. We sat around talking for an hour or so before they introduced us to Kubb. They started talking about this game and throwing wooden pieces at a King, and John and I were lost....but not for long! Thank you to Kathy for the photos!
What is Kubb? It did not take long to catch on to this Swedish game! Here is a short history. As an ancient Scandinavian game, KUBB is thought to have originated over 1000 years ago. Legend has it the Vikings used to while away hours on end playing the game during the long light evenings of the northern summers. Aim of the Game - The purpose of the game is to knock over the King. This can be attempted only when you have knocked down all of your opponent’s Kubbs using the throwing Batons. But if
were already turning, however, and he built a set. We decided
you knock over the King before all of the Kubbs and you have
since it was a Swedish game, and Sue and Phil are very Swed-
lost the game!
ish, that we would give the set to them. We have it along for the ride to Chicago and ready to be set up in Illinois! John will make
Nathan had made the set we played with at the campground, and
another set for us to have at High Doubt for the next time Chris
once we got home I looked on Amazon, and sure enough many
and Johannes have a group of firend visit!
many Kubb game sets were available to purchase! John’s wheels
Random Thoughts.... For most of the week I did not get a lot accomplished except for listening to fire reports, and to take my mind off the fires I read two books!! I did continue to sort and clean out boxes in the basement. We have so much stuff, and we are actively sorting and getting vanloads to Goodwill. The gems that made the most recent trip to Goodwill include lots of the boys’ college textbooks, dorm room decorations, boxes of puzzles, and I found and then gave away my favorite pregnancy shirt. Johannes said we are hoarders, but this is not true. At the time we packed all these things, we had no idea we would be gone for 15+ years. Now we are sorting! At one point or another, I started a bookmark collection, and I found them. I plan on keeping this collection, and may even add to it as time passes. Louise Feske brought me a couple of old photographs from Wilderness in the early 80s. The photograph on the left is of me with my stylish glasses at WCB (1984). Beside me is Kevin Proescholdt who is the Conservation Director for Wilderness Watch. In 1982, I was playing my guitar in Pine Cliff.
So Many Deer.... Every single day we see the doe with her two fawns. Without fail around 5:00 pm these three are on or near the driveway. The trail cam we have set up by the pond has only captured photos of deer drinking from the water. I imagine with it so dry the pond provides some needed water for them! A bear has been trying to get into our new compost box, but he has not been successful. Unlike Jerome, this is secretive - he comes only at night. We plan to move the trail cam this week to near the apple tree.
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” — Ansel Adams