WATCH THE WOODPECKERS

SOFT DAWN

PILEATED WOODPECKER

MALE DOWNY WOODPECKER

FIFTY YEAR OLD WHITE ASH TREE

Saturday, 7:15 AM.  1 degree F, wind WSW, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity is 75% and the barometer is 30.56" and beginning to trend down.
   At this point there is no information on whether or not the ice caves are open.
   The continued spread of the Emerald Ash Borer throughout Wisconsin has been a major topic of concern in the Almanac for some time.  There is a relatively new method of monitoring the advance of the insect that is simple, fairly straightforward, and easy for anyone to monitor.  It perhaps should have been recognized before now but sometimes the most obvious factors hide in plain site.
   It often takes several years for the infestation of ash trees by the borer to become noticeable.  Borer activity starts from the top branches and works down over a period of several years.  By the time the upper portions of the tree appear to be dying it is usually too late to save it by chemical treatment.
   But even as the wood boring grubs feed relatively unnoticed under the tree bark, woodpeckers find them and begin to peck at the wood to get at them.  The borer activity may not be noticeable in its early stages, but the woodpecker activity is usualy  obvious.  So, watch for woodpeckers feeding in the tops of ash trees as a sure sign of the presence of borers, and notify a city forester, state forester or other knowledgeable person so the activity cn be confirmed as that of the Emerald Ash Borer and a decision made as to wether or not to treat the tree with a systemic pesticide.
   For some hints on winter identification of ash (Fraxinus species) see the December 13th, 2013, Almanac post.

THE ICE CAVES MAY OPEN TOMORROW

ROSY DAWN

THE CAVES ARE VARIOUS SHAPES AND SIZES...

....MOST BIG ENOUGH TO ENTER 

Friday, 8:00 AM.  -4 degrees F, wind NW, gusty, wind chill considerable.  The sky is clear at present, the humidity 75%, and the barometer steady, at 30.53".  Hopefully the sunny skies will warm things up.
  The Park Service has announced that the Apostle Islands ice caves at Myers Beach will open Saturday, February 28, if ice conditions remain stable.  Last year was the first time since 2009  that the caves were accessible, and thousands of visitors hiked the several miles along the ice to reach them. The ice caves caused something of a media extravaganza last winter, and visitors from all over the country and the world came to Bayfield to visit them.  Whether or not we would have the same reaction  this year is anybody's guess.
   If the caves do open this year, there will be a five dollar fee per visitor over sixteen charged to defray expenses (patrol, safety, emergency services, parking, portable toilets, etc.)
   For more photos and commentary, use the Blog search engine.

LIKE AN ARCTIC SCENE

A GORGEOUS, FRIGID MORNING

THE ICE ROAD IS NOW SMOOTH AND HARD,,,

BUT NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS TRUCK, WHICH WILL TRANSFER ITS LOAD TO SMALLER TRUCKS

THE BEACH IS WINDSWEPT, AND BARE OF SNOW IN PLACES

LIKE AN ARCTIC SCENE

Thursday, 7:45 AM.  -3 degrees F, wind NNW, mostly calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is clear and azure blue, with a band of gray clouds fringed in silver draped across the eastern horizon. There was a pillar of rainbow earlier that could not be captured by my camera, and was shortly obscured by fog rising from the channel. The humidity is 78% and the barometer is more-or-less steady, at 30.44".  It is a gorgeous, still-frigid morning.
   The ice road is hard, smooth and safe for most vehicular traffic, but tanker trucks carrying propane are too heavy and must transfer their loads to smaller trucks that make the crossing to the Island.
   Buddy badly needed to stretch his legs yesterday afternoon so I put his jacket on him and we went to the beach, much of which is windswept and bare after days of brutal wind.  Chequamegon Bay is like an Arctic scene.

OF COURSE THEY DID NOT

STILL COLD

MILES OF TANKER CARS SITTING ALONG HWY 63 IN AUGUST OF 2013.
THEY AREN'T SITTING THERE NOW

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  1 degree F, wind NE, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy, the humidity 74% and the barometer is rising, now at 30.11".  It is still cold but it will be tolerable if the wind doesn't pick up.
   The President of course did what he has threatened to do all along, he vetoed the XL Energy pipeline.  It is probably a dead issue as long as he and his coterie remain in office.  How awful...and how predictable.  It really defies any kind of economic or environmental logic.  But logic is not the point at all.  The point is political correctness.
   After the years of study and delay, the practical result of the veto is probably nil, as a spiderweb of other pipelines has gradually grown over those years that in effect handle much of the oil flow, and the balance is transported by new tanker cars and rail routes. Whether Canada now sends its crude to its own west coast via a new pipeline, refines it and sends it to Asia remains an unanswered question.
   Rail transportation of oil is far more dangerous than by pipeline, as is the cost, but oil is still going to get to the refineries and the marketplace, one way or the other (see Almanac post of August 28, 2013).
   One could hope that the President and the Democrats would yield to logic (to say nothing of job creation and patriotism) in the case of the pipeline,  but of course they did not.

THINKING SPRING

HOPE IT'S A NICE DAY

'FORT MCNAIR' HYBRID BUCKEYES ALONG 6TH ST. ...

... WELCOME SPRING TO THE CITY

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  26 degrees F at the ferry dock, 22 on the back porch.  Wind SW, gusty.  It has been snowing and blowing but it has stopped and the overcast is beginning to clear.  The humidity is 84% and the barometer has started to climb, currently at 29.58". Hope it is a nice day before it becomes figid again.
   Yesterday's Bayfield Tree Board meeting at the Big Water Cafe was very successful, especially considering the frigid temperatures that one would have expected to keep more members absent, but despite some  having fled to warmer climes we did have a quorum.
   Even while being in the depths of winter we had important business to conduct, including making plans to order trees for spring planting.  The program of notifying homeowners of the opportunity to have a City tree planted within the city right-of-way on their property, and to select the general type, will be continued.  And the planting of Fort McNair hybrid buckeyes on 6th St at the city's south entrance will be continued, to replace losses due to snow plow damage.
   The Tree Board also authorized me, as a member of the Governor's Urban Forestry Council, to comment on proposed drastic reductions in the 20015-17 State Budget that would negatively impact  the Bayfield urban forestry program, to the effect that any changes should not be draconian and should be gradual so that we could adapt.
   The special meeting of the Urban Forestry Council will also address perceived redundancies between DNR forestry research staff and University of Wisconsin research staff. It will also address proposed reduction of other DNR staff.  More information on these and other proposed changes in Wisconsin DNR forestry programs is necessary before comments can be made.
   But we are thinking spring!

WE WON'T BE DOING ANY TREE PRUNING THIS MORNING, THAT'S FOR SURE

A BONE-CHILLING MORNING

Monday, 7:15 AM.  -16 degrees F both downtown and on the back porch.  Wind WSW, calm to light with stronger gusts.  The sky is clear at present. The humidity is 67% and the barometer is trending down, now at 30.72".  The temperature should rise to a more reasonable degree by noon, and warm up from there, but plummet again later in the day on Tuesday.  When I stepped onto the back  porch earlier the floorboards let out a crack like a pistol shot.  Buddy went out for about 30 seconds and returned post-haste.  It is cold over most of the country; frigid in Colorado and in Ohio, even Texas is below freezing this morning (all places where our children and grandchildren live).
   We have a Tree Board meeting this morning, but as cold as it is perhaps not a quorum. In day's gone by cars didn't start in weather like this, but they seldom fail nowadays.  But we won't be going out doing any tree pruning, that's for sure.

TIME FOR A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICAN MANIFESTO

FLAG OF OUR FATHERS

THE WRITING OF THE DECLARATION 

Sunday, 7:40 AM.  -10 degrees F.  Wind NW, very gusty at times with severe wind chill effects.  The sky is clear and the sun rising unimpeded.  The humidity is 73% and the barometer trending up, currently at 30.61".  I let the dog out the door and he came back in rather quickly.  We won't take a walk until it warms up some.  We are in the depths of winter at least until next weekend.  A snowstorm is reportedly taking place along the lake shore from Cornucopia to the Rez.  It is indeed winter.
   I eschew politics on Sunday, but the topic today is more akin to religion, so here goes.

______

   "We hold these truths to be self evident: "
   "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
   There is no fuller, truer or more ennobling embodiment of the American ideal than these  lines from our Declaration of Independence.  We have wavered, we have wandered, we have taxed it to the limit, but despite all our stumbling our creed remains to guide us to a more perfect future for ourselves and all humanity.
   And yet we have been and still are mired in self-doubt and the recriminations of others.
   "God Bless America?  No, no, God Damn America! God Damn America!"
   Words hard to hear,  hard to bear, hard to counter.
   Harder still to hear, bear, and counter when they emanate from, or are echoed by, our leaders.
   The Founding Fathers were far ahead of many of their own sentiments and self interests when they wrote our declaration. Thomas Jefferson was rich in rhetoric but also in slaves.  We modern Americans have fallen far short of its ideals as well.  But self-doubt never got us Americans anything, or anywhere.
   We need a Twenty-First Century Manifesto, one which not only emulates our original declaration, in all its bravado, but gives us a strategic direction for the accomplishment of what truly is our national destiny; offering to every human being the gift of freedom from slavery of the body and of the spirit, so that all can pursue their individual destinies.
   Individual liberty is the font of Western civilization, a radical concept inherited from the ancient Greeks by us Americans, their spiritual descendants. And individual liberty, rooted in justice and the love of one's neighbor, is the central tenet of the Christian faith, upon which our country was founded and by which our liberties were authored.
   "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
   What more stirring mantra could any of us poor mortals devise?
   In my less charitable, more isolationist moments I am tempted for us to paraphrase Davey Crockett, and have us tell not the Tennessee Legislature ("I am going to Texas.  The rest of you can go to hell.") but the world:
   "We are going to Mars. The rest of you can go to hell," and with that break our  bonds with other societies and strike out towards our own rondevue with the future.
   But then I realize that our destiny is, truly, to save the world for the cause of liberty and justice, not only ourselves; a daunting enterprise that we have been engaged in now for several bloody centuries.   Only our truly exceptional nation, a composite of all the world's peoples, can accomplish this.
   We must not stop now, with the task half finished.  If we pause, let it be only to catch our breath.
   It is time for a Twenty-First Century American Manifesto, a clear vision of America's role in the world.  I am certainly not the one to to define it, but it sorely needs defining.  And quickly, before we stray further from our destiny's path.

GO BACK TO BED!

A SPARKLING MORNING

LITTLE RED SQUIRREL FEEDING WITH THE BIRDS...

...HE'LL GO BACK TO BED AGAIN TOMORROW

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  7 degrees F, up from -3 when I first looked at it, and rising rapidly.  Wind NW, light with stronger gusts  The sky is currently clear, the morning sparklingly beautiful.  The humidity is 82% and the barometer is rising, now at 30.07".  We will have a good day to catch up on snow removal, recycling and other tasks before the mercury plummets again.
   Several inches of light snow fell within the past twelve hours or so, and city trucks are clearing streets and private contractors snow blowing driveways.  People are walking their dogs on the snow-packed roads.  It is as though Bayfield has come out of hibernation, at least for this morning.
   It may not yet be spring and we are surely not done with extremely cold weather, but everyone, including this little red squirrel, is tired of being indoors.   He has been eating seeds scattered from the feeders as it warmed up a bit the last several days.  He has a home somewhere in the big pine trees in the back yard, to which he will have to flee for shelter again by tomorrow.  He doesn't actually hibernate, but like the rest of us in the winter, he does sleep a lot.  I have some advice for him:
   Go back to bed!

A HAY-BALE HOUSE IN BAYFIELD

HAY-BALE HOUSE BEING BUILT ON 7TH ST. ...

...BETWEEN RITENHOUSE AVE. AND WASHINGTON AVE.

HAY BALES ARE USED WITHIN A TIMBER FRAME, AND STUCCOED

HAY BALE CONSTRUCTION IS SIMPLE IN CONCEPT BUT CAN BE COMPLICATED IN APPLICATION

Friday, 8:00 AM.  -2 degrees F, wind WSW, light with stronger gusts.  The atmosphere has a high overcast underlain with scattered clouds.  The humidity is 75% and the barometer is trending downward, now at 29.99".  The morning is warming rapidly and we will probably get some light snow. Yesterday's temperatures, although very cold, were within a normal range for this time of year in Bayfield.  The record high for yesterday was 48 degrees in 2003, the record low -21in 1966.  Yesterday's official low was -17, and a neighbor a block up the hill recorded -18.
   The sub-zezo weather is due to moderate by late morning and be relatively warm until dropping back to very cold temperatures on Sunday.  We will take the opportunity to do some needed outdoor chores, and go to the recycle center on Saturday.
  A hay bale house is being built in Bayfield, on 7th St. between Rittenhouse Ave. and Washington Ave.  Construction was started last fall, after the razing of an older structure.  The first floor is timber framing and hay bales, the second floor conventional construction.  It has been interesting to see the progress of this hybrid home.  If I am not mistaken it will be heated by a European-style masonry combination stove, oven and hot water heater.  It has progressed to the point that the outside looks pretty well done, and the hay bales have been stuccoed.
   The structure is built on a concrete slab that,  if I remember correctly,  has perimeter footings.
   This is an interesting structure and I am sure the various city authorities were sympathetic to its being built.  From the looks of it during construction and the time it is taking the specialized builder to complete it, it will probably be every bit as expensive (or more) to build as a comparable standard construction home.
   One thing I noticed is that the hay bales decrease the inside dimensions of the structure considerably, making the square footage of useable space more expensive.  Whether the construction itself is less expensive than a standard two-by-six frame would be interesting to know, but I rather doubt that it is.
   A serious consideration in building anything really unique is that it may be very difficult to sell in the future, so anyone contemplating such a venture has to anticipate that factor.  It is not just that tastes change and the popularity of an unusual structure may wane, but when it comes to a potential buyer getting a loan there will be few, or perhaps no, comparable properties in the market place.
   Banks are very averse to making home loans without comparables. This is certainly true of earth homes, homes built "off the grid," etc.  Future home buyers may very well have to purchase with cash, limiting the pool of potential buyers, which usually reduces the market price of a home and makes it harder to sell.
   These cautions being stated, if a person has the money to risk on unusual construction and intends to keep it a long, long time, a hay-bale house might be a lot of fun to build.

BUILD IT!

BELOW ZERO BUT WITH BRIGHT SUNSHINE

AVOID THIS...

...BUILD THIS!

Thursday, 10:00 AM. -8 degrees F, up from much colder (-13) during the night.  Wind N, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is clear...last night's stars were beautiful.  The humidity is still 72%.  The barometer is beginning to fall, and presently stands at 30.49".
   The below-zero cold has pretty much brought at least our own Bayfield neighborhood activity to a screeching halt.  Not much is happening on the streets, with little or no traffic and we are not seeing the usual dog walkers.  Folks are either inside or have left for warmer climes.
   I have not as yet bothered to put Buddy's red winter jacket on him,  as he evidences little interest in being outside except for a few necessary,  and very short, trips.
   Another dangerous explosion and fire involving rail transport of oil has just occurred, this time in West Virginia.  Luckily, no lives were lost.  We are running out of mathematical chances, and the next accident is likely to lead to loss of life akin to the disaster which occurred in Canada last year that took 47 lives.
   Transporting oil by pipeline is much safer and far more dependable than by rail.  The Keystone XL Pipeline is a no-brainer for the transport of oil not only from Canada to to our Gulf refineries but for transporting the glut of domestic oil now produced in the Dakotas and other Midwestern and Western states.
   The President and the Democrats in the Senate who are slowing down, blocking or vetoing the pipeline will be directly responsible for those American lives unnecessarily lost in future rail mishaps that could have been prevented by completing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
  Build it!

IN THE GRIP OF THE DEEP FREEZ

WAY BELOW ZERO MORNING

Wednesday, 7:30 AM.  -10 degrees F, wind N, calm with moderate gusts.  The dawn sky is mostly clear with a few clouds.  The humidity is 78% and the barometer is rising, now at 30.19".  It is a frigid morning, we haven't taken our walk and may not if it doesn't warm up significantly.  I let Buddy out while standing in the garage door and he was back inside in less than a minute.  I still have the remnants of a cough and don't wish to aggravate it.
   Yesterday was Joan's birthday, and to celebrate it we went to diner at the Steak Pit in Washburn, which is invariably good.  It snowed some on the way there, which became a mini-blizzard by the time we returned but we were glad we went.  Joan is finally old enough I don't get accused of robbing the cradle anymore.
   Anyway, we are in the grip of the deep freez.
 

TOO BAD; IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE SO MUCH BETTER

NEW CULVER'S RESTAURANT IN ASHLAND

WITH THE DRIVE-THRUOGH ON LAKE SIDE OF BUILDING...

...IGNORING A MILLION DOLLAR VIEW OF LAKE SUPERIOR'S CHEQUAMEGON BAY

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  2 degrees F, wind N, calm with moderate gusts.  The sky was overcast and foggy but has begun to clear and it appears it will be a partly cloudy day.  The humidity is 77% and the barometer is still falling, presently at 30.01".  The forecast is for bitter cold through Thursday with some warming on next weekend and then more cold.
   The Ashland Daily Press reports that over 2800 skiers, snowshoers and runners participated in last Saturday's "Book Across The Bay" night time event on the ice of Lake Superior.  Brrrr.
   We "got out of Dodge" (Bayfield) yesterday long enough to go to Ashland to do some necessary shopping.  That gave us an opportunity to take a closer look at the new Culver's fast-food restaurant just now opening on Ashland's lake front.  Culver's considers itself a cut-above most other fast-food drive-through restaurants,  and it is a chain that we often stop at while traveling in the Mid West.  I would have hoped that they would have been more sensitive to the lake front site, and built a structure more in harmony with its' lake front environment.  No such luck.
   This building is evidently a corporate cookie cutter design simply dropped onto the lake front site.  The site has a "million dollar view" of the Big Lake's Chequamegon Bay, and I rather expect the cost of the land reflected the value of the view.  However, rather than build a restaurant that respected the esthetics of a special site, one which would have given restaurant customers a proper view of the lake as they ate, the chain chose to have a standard design imposed on that site, with drive-through customers brought around the lake side of the building in a constant stream of vehicles to order and pick up their food, with no consideration being given to the rather special view that could be enjoyed in a number of relaxing ways by customers.
   Now, corporations are free to spend their design and construction budget any way they wish, no matter how grossly inappropriate and un-esthetic I or any other private citizen may think it to be.  So the greater question is, where were the Ashland architectural review and zoning boards while the approval process was going on?   Either asleep at the switch, or driving through McDonalds or some other local fast food venue.
   I am not an Ashland resident so I guess I have no legal right to complain about the monstrosity that has been built on its lake front.  But I am a resident of the Chequamegon Bay region, and have every right to  voice my dismay that  there is yet another long-term eye sore ensconced on its beautiful shores.
   Too bad; it could have been done so much better.

GOIING INTO HIBERNATION AGAIN

ANOTHER FOGGY, SNOWY DAY

Monday, President's Day, 9:30 AM.  6 degrees F, wind SSW, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is again overcast, and the atmosphere is foggy and filled with minute crystalline snowflakes which will not amount to much.  The humidity is 78% and the barometer is heading down, now at 30.22".
   We are having a heat wave, relatively speaking, as it will be above zero today. Then the coldest weather of the winter thus far will be ushered in, things not warming up until next weekend.  We have not been doing much but reading and it looks like after a run to Ashland later today we will go into hibernation again.

HUNGRY BIRDS

BIRDS AT THE FEEDER...

...OR ON THE PORCH FLOOR

 Sunday, 8:15 AM.  -2 degrees F, wind NNW calm with moderate gusts.  The sky is again overcast but does not have the fog and clammy atmosphere that made yesterday so miserable.  The humidity is 79% and the barometer is plummeting, now at 30.73".  Buddy and I took our walk this morning.  It is a much better day than yesterday.
   The cold weather and wind chill have made the birds ravenous, and they are mobbing the feeders.  Those that get pushed off the hanging feeder find plenty of seeds on the porch floor, and many of the birds prefer to feed from the ground rather than a perch.  I saw a beautiful male cardinal yesterday, the first I have seen this winter. He flew past the window but did not alight on the feeder.  Sometimes they stay the winter, sometimes not.

THE TREE PLANTER

BRUTAL MORNING

DAVID DOESN'T POSE FOR PHOTOS

Saturday, 7:30 AM.  -5 degrees F.  Wind NNW, moderate with strong gusts. The sky is overcast and it is  foggy, with blowing snow.  The humidity is 71% and the barometer is rising, now at 30.36".  It is a brutal morning, as we are sliding into a prolonged deep freeze.
   Anyone can be a tree hugger.  It's the tree planters  that do the environmental work of the world.  
   David Burst is a tree planter.  I looked in vain for a photo of his face in my thousands-of-photos archives.  I have plenty of pictures of David wrestling a B & B tree into a planting hole, or of him wielding a shovel in that hole. The focus was always on the tree, or the shovel, or the hole. My camera evidently never caught his facial features, as he was always busy working, mostly with his head down.  This is the best I could find;  David up to his British arse in the mud, planting.
   David is one of my favorite people; always concerned about others, never himself. "Art, let me lift that pot, it's heavy." "Art, let me wheel that barrow, you're not getting any younger."
   Work, work, work. Mud encrusted boots, ripped jeans, hands gnarled and cracked.  David has ensured more oxygen for the planet, sequestered more carbon dioxide, provided more shade for unknown people on hot summer days than a whole University department of forestry professors, or a gaggle of Prius-driving garden club ladies.
   David is a tree planter.  He works diligently for what most would not,  with fresh air and personal satisfaction the main benefit of the job.
   David has cancer, bad.  I last saw him in late fall, when we were wrapping up a tree-planting job.  "See you next spring," he said, and I sincerely hope I do, as I do not wish to plant trees without him.
   If you have a passion for trees, for the "environment," let a little of it rub off on David with a couple of bucks, donated to:
   David Burst's Brain Cancer Fundraiser, at:  w.w.w.GiveForward.com

 
 
   

NOT GOING TO START NOW

FISH TAIL CLOUDS YESTERDAY EVENING...

... STORM THIS MORNING

Friday, 10:00 AM.  13 degrees F at the ferry dock, 11 on the back porch.  Wind WSW, bringing with it a rather vigorous snow storm.  The sky has a low overcast and there is a lot of fog over the channel.  The rather heavy snowfall looks like it might accumulate.  The humidity is 85 % and the barometer is beginning to rise, now standing at 30.08".
   Yesterday late-afternoon one could see a front coming in from the SW, led by a large phalanx of fish-scale clouds.  The temperature is due to drop precipitously, with a very cold, below-zero Saturday and Sunday predicted.
   Saturday night is the annual library fund raiser, the "Book Across The Bay," a six-mile, candle-lit trek across the ice on skis or snowshoes from Ashland to Washburn.  I must admit I have never done it.
   Not going to start now.

I DOUBT IT

OVERCAST AND SNOW

ADAPTATION

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  2 degrees F, wind NNW,calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is overcast, there is fog over the lake, and I just finished shoveling several inches of lake effect snow from driveway and walks.  This last snow was a bit of a surprise, as it had cleared up nicely yesterday afternoon.
   It was a cold walk this morning but the husky up the street loves the cold and snow, his breed is adapted to it .
   Well, well...the State Department sends an order to marine guards to surrender their personal weapons to Huthi  rebels at the US embassy in Yemen.
   Would Secretary of State John Kerry have the personal guts to look one of those Marines in the eye and order him to turn over his weapon to an enemy fighter?
   I doubt it.

DULUTH (AGAIN)

ANOTHER OVERCAST, SNOWY DAY

MALE DOWNY WOODPECKER ON THE SUET LOG

Wednesday, 7:15 AM. 25 degrees F at the ferry dock, several degrees cooler on the back porch.  The sky is again filled with a low overcast.  We got several inches of powdery snow overnight.  The humidity is 77% and the barometer  is on the rise, now at 30.01".  We have another, back-to-back trip to Duluth today with a stop to look at a landscape project in Iron River on the way back in the afternoon.
   The birds have been very busy at the feeders, which need to be filled daily.  The downy woodpeckers are regular visitors at the suet log.
   Yesterday's trip to Duluth turned kind of ugly on the afternoon return trip when a snow storm came in from the SSW and we drove all the way home in it.  We have another trip to Duluth today (it sure would be nice if some of these trips could be coordinated).  We can report that the open water outside of the Duluth harbor has now iced over and there is no open water in sight on the west end of Lake Superior.

MR. PRESIDENT, DO US ALL A FAVOR, AND RESIGN

DARK MORNING

Tuesday, 7:30 AM,  25 degrees F, wind SSE, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is mostly filled with low clouds.The humidity is 89% and the barometer is falling rapidly, now at 30.27".
   We have a trip to Duluth today, for a post-operative check of Joan's eyes.  We are likely to run into heavy snow on the way home this afternoon.
   If no one else will initiate the following proposal, I will:
   Mr. President, it's time for you to resign.  A majority of the American people no longer trust your judgement or your character.  You have been the Great Divider, pitting class against class, race against race, religion against religion, creating chasms out of cracks, and mountains out of molehills.  You have apologized to the world for our proud history and our self-evident accomplishments, and created a new and uncharacteristic national policy, that of "leading from behind."You did not grow up in America, and are not attuned to the national character.
   Your remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, dredging up things that happened a thousand years ago in Christian history and equating that history with modern Jihadi terrorism, was the absolute limit.
   When you resign you can find an Ivory Tower to reside in that will be glad to have you and your like-minded associates. You will be much happier there, I am sure, than in this very messy and very real world.
   President Nixon resigned over Watergate, a bungled, two-bit burglary that had no lasting effect on the  body politic or our history, once it's shock effect wore off. He did it for the good of the country.  How much better would it be for you to relinquish your awesome power to those more attuned to its proper uses.
   When you resign you will go down in history as a heroic and principled figure.  Maintaining your present course will gain you little more than a tragicomic footnote in the history books.
   Do us all a great favor, and resign.  The country cannot afford two more years of your flagrant, diffident  misrule.

WE DIDN''T STAY LONG

OVERCAST WITH SOME CLEARING THIS MORNING

FROZEN

Monday, 8:30 AM.  18 degrees F, wind NE, light with somewhat stronger gusts  The sky is mostly overcast but is clearing some.  The humidity is 84% and the barometer more or less steady, now standing at 30.39".  It is a repeat of yesterday's weather, without the strong winds, which makes it tolerable,
   Yesterday afternoon Buddy wanted to run, so I took him down to the beach.  It was 19 degrees with a strong NE wind.  We didn't stay long

BAYFIELD'S SLED DOG RACES

Sunday, 8:30 AM. 19 degrees F, wind NE with strong gusts.  The sky has a moderately low overcast and ice pellets are falling.  The humidity is 90% and the barometer has started to rise, now standing at 30.01".
   The first thing that I noticed this morning was what I will call the "boat music," a constant low humming and thrumming emanating from the downtown area and climbing the hills on the constant northeast wind.  One does not hear it often but it is particularly loud this morning.  It is caused by the wind rushing through the rigging of the boats stored at the City Marina for the winter. It sounds almost as though some mad musician is drawing a bow across a giant bass viol.
   Yesterday late morning we went out to Star Route and Butterfield Road to watch some snipets of Bayfield's sled dog races, which did not disappoint.  Many spectators watch at the road crossing, where there is usually a lot of action, but it is perfectly feasible to watch from the comfort of one's vehicle when parked on Star Route and facing east (the direction the racers come from along a portion of the trail that parallels the road).  It was a little warm for the dogs but snow conditions were good and everyone seemed to be making very good time.