THE PRESSURE RIDGE

  

ICE PRESSURE RIDGE, BASSWOOD ISLAND IN DISTANCE..

ICE PRESSURE RIDGE, BASSWOOD ISLAND LEFT BACKGROUND, MADELINE ISLAND RIGHT...

ICE PRESSURE RIDGE, MADELINE ISLAND IN BACKGROUND

Sunday, 8:15 AM. Wind W, very gusty and chill.  The sky is mostly cloudy but clearing, the humidity 68%.  The barometer is climbing steeply, now at 30.01".  The week ahead is forecast to be mostly partly cloudy to clear, with temperatures in the high twenties into the thirties.  It looks like an early spring, but we are bound to still get lots of winter weather. March is usually our heaviest snow month.
   An ice pressure ridge has developed from the ferry path in the channel in an arc north to to the mainland shore.  This pressure ridge, which occurs in about the same location each winter as the channel ice freezes, thaws, refreezes and heaves, often interferes with snowmobile and ATV traffic, and even with wind sled movement, and that is what is happening now.
   Neighbor Tina, who commutes to the Island daily by snowmobile says the ridge, which is up to about three feet high in places, is blocking her snowmobile and she will switch to an ATV, which should be able to negotiate it.  Complications occur when gaps of open water suddenly appear along the ridge.
   It has been announced that the ferry will run all winter, and that being the case we will probably not see the wind sleds at all.
   A few brave souls are going out around the islands to ice fish, but they seem few and far between.

BEECH TREES: PERFECT FOR VALENTINES DAY

EUROPEAN BEECH WITH COPPER COLORED LEAVES (Google photo)

EUROPEAN BEECH, LEAVES AND EDIBLE NUTS (Google photo)

EUROPEAN BEECH TREES CLIPPED AS A HEDGE...

...WINTER LEAVES

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  27 degrees F at the ferry dock, 26 on the back porch.  Wind NE, calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is overcast (as it was yesterday but cleared by mid-morning).  The humidity is 85%, the barometer 29,97" and rising slightly.  The week ahead is predicted to have temperatures in the twenties and thirties with partly cloudy skies and no snow.
   The Madeline Island Ferry will run all winter, it was announced yesterday, and pretty obviously there is little likelihood of there being an ice road, although ATV's and snowmobiles are crossing the channel.
   Bayfield's premier bed and breakfast, Chateau Boutin, has a charming gazebo used for weddings and other receptions.  About five years ago young European beech trees were planted around it, which have been kept trimmed as a hedge.  The hedge has done well, and is now about twelve feet high and perhaps half that wide.  It makes an excellent privacy hedge, as the young shoots, when kept clipped,  retain dried leaves all winter.  The Chateau is only a block from the lake, so it provides good habitat for the European beech, which needs high humidity to do well.
   The European beech, Fagus sylvatica, in the Beech Family (Fagaceae), is native to continental Europe as far east as the Balkans, north to Sweden and south in Spain.  It also occurs in the British isles.  It requires high humidity and ample  moisture, and a woodland soil with good drainage.  It is shade tolerant, and produces heavy shade.  It becomes a massive tree with age, and in its native habitat can grow to 160' in height and 5' in diameter.  It is very wide spreading and takes up so much room in the landscape it is suitable at maturity only for large parks and estates, but is a spectacular tree when properly situated.  There are numerous horticultural varieties of the species, including many with weeping habits and copper, purple and tri-colored leaves. Beech nuts are edible and highly valued.  A wide spreading, copper-leaved beech tree is the crowning attraction of many a grand old estate or landscape park in the eastern US.
   The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, (larger leaves) is native to the eastern US and southern Canada. It is a somewhat smaller tree than its European counterpart. It has outlier populations in northeastern Wisconsin, but needs higher humidity than is found to the west and south.  It grows in association with sugar maple and hemlock, and is a very shade tolerant, climax forest tree.  Like the European beech, it prefers rich bottom land soils, with ample moisture and good drainage.  Its smooth gray bark, dark green leaves and edible nuts render it an attractive, useful tree in locations where it will grow well. A more southern variety,  Fagus grandifolia mexicana, extends further south but is not usually considered a separate species.
  Beech wood is very dense, almost impossible to split by hand, and burns in the fireplace like anthracite coal.
  Beech tree bark is mostly smooth and light colored, and therefore a favorite surface, or canvas if you will, for inscriptions, such as a heart pierced with an arrow and the words "I love you" carved into it. Perfect for Valentine's Day.

CATCH AND RELEASE

MONUMENTAL  ROADSIDE ART ON US HWY. 2...

BUT THE FISH ON THE END OF THE LINE...

... IS NOW MISSING

Friday, 8:00 AM.  22 degrees F at the ferry dock, 18 on the back porch.  Wind SW, mostly calm at present, with moderate gusts.  The sky is overcast; it cleared beautifully yesterday but doesn't look as though it will do so today.  Ice pellets are falling presently.  The humidity is 71%, and the barometer has bottomed out at 29.68" and is steady for now.  The forecast for the next week calls for temperatures around 30 and partly sunny skies.  Maybe we are headed for an early spring.
   A coyote ran at full speed across the road in front of us on Hwy. 2 yesterday, tail low, looking like he was being chased, but we saw nothing behind him.  Perhaps wolves?

   As I have noted before, there is a fun display of monumental roadside art on US Hwy. 2 just east of Brule, Wisconsin. I very much appreciate such roadside displays, as they are original, usually humorous, and often quite good artistry, costing the viewer nothing at all and relieving the tedium of a trip.

   There are several good pieces in this display, but Joan noticed that the fish that had been on the end of the fishing pole line was missing.  

   I really hope it was taken down for refurbishing or something by the artist, and was not stolen or vandalized.  If the later, it is a real affront to all of us, not just to the artist (and a violation of his property rights).  I hope the fish is back on the line the next time we pass by.

   Or maybe it was just a case of catch and release.

"RESIST" HAS COME TO MEAN "OBSTRUCT" EVERYTHING

LAWN SIGN IN WASHBUJRN

Thursday (posted Wednesday night because of earl morning travel).

   The small cities of Bayfield, Washburn and Ashland are ultra-liberal outliers of Madison and the Twin Cities in their politics.  So ultra-liberal that the last time Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker visited Washburn for a Lincoln Day Dinner, the streets were clogged with sign waving, chanting protesters blocking traffic. Nice welcome.

   So it is not surprising to see the one word "RESIST" sign, particularly since that lawn has been the site of numerous other signs and commentary, including life-sized caricatures of the Governor and Donald Trump with Hitler mustaches, etc.

   My question is simply: resist what?  Why? For how long?  Resist... change? Resist...temptation?  Resist...progress?  Resist a second helping of mashed potatoes and gravy?

   I think it is pretty clear that "RESIST" has simply come to mean "OBSTRUCT" everything.

ANOTHER WINTER DRIVING ADVENTURE

SEEN IN DULUTH...

A NEW KIND OF PLOW AND SALTER...

ESSENTIALLY A PLOW TRUCK PULLING A  SALTER TRAILER WITH A WING PLOW

Wednesday, 8:30 AM.  9 degrees F at the ferry dock, 8 on the back porch.  Wind NNW, light with slightly stronger gusts. The sky is overcast and the humidity 73%.  The barometer is more or less steady, now at 30.13".  The forecast calls for cold temperatures today and tomorrow, then a week long warming trend with highs in the high twenties and thirties.  Weather will be a mix of overcast skies and snow flurries, with a few partly cloudy or sunny days.  The snow storm is over, having given us four or five inches of new snow, drifted heavier in many places.  I would characterize it as a wannabe blizzard.

   The roads were awful yesterday for both directions of our trip to Duluth; heavy snow, blowing, blizzard- like conditions, and temperatures in the twenties, creating slick roads and poor visibility. Had I been able to follow a plow truck all the way I would have done so, but not if it were the type of rig we saw in Duluth, a plow and salter truck pulling a trailer loaded with salt and a wing plow, all of which swung  back and forth to plow and salt a double lane.  

   We had never seen this apparatus before. I suppose it has been used on freeways but was not in our experience.  It would be very difficult, I think very dangerous, to follow it down the roads as it swung in and out behind the lead truck.  The driver needs terrific peripheral vision, that's for sure, and a great deal of driving skill.

   We witnessed a series of accidents in Duluth, which is at the end of the big lake where the storms seem to always be exaggerated by ice, fog and steep bluffs.  A very large SUV spun out right in front of us, doing a 180 degree spin and stopped only by its hitting a curb.  Luckily all were low speed accidents that didn't look too serous.  On the return trip it was often difficult to locate the proper lane on unplowed three lane sections of US Hwy. 2 .  

   Two hundred miles of white-knuckle driving will satisfy my desire for winter adventure for a couple of days at least.

A BIT MORE SUBDUED THAN THE COYOTES

THE FERRY APPROACHING BAYFIELD DOCK...

...LEAVING A TRAIL THROUGH THE ICE ALL THE WAY TO LAPOINTE ON MADELINE ISLAND...

...STILL CARRYING CARS, TRUCKS AND PASSENGERS

Tuesday, 8:00 AM  26 degrees F at the ferry dock, 24 on the back porch.  Wind W, very gusty at times.  Serious snow today, about 4" fallen already.  Overcast and foggy with blowing and drifting snow.  Humidity 94%, barometer 29.68" and rising.  Cooler tomorrow, then warming, with snow on Friday and a wintry mix of weather and skies for the week ahead.  Have to go to Duluth in this mess.

   Several nights ago I was awakened by a pack of coyotes coursing down the street, evidently chasing a rabbit or some other quarry.  They howled, yipped and squealed like demons, and in the morning their tracks were evident in the fresh snow.  

   The ferry from LaPointe on Madeline Island to Bayfield is leaving an evident track these days as well, as it churns through the new ice frozen over its route each morning.  

   It's usually a bit more subdued than the coyotes.  I don't even hear it sounding its fog horn these days, since there is no other traffic out in the channel.

AN AMERICAN MADE TV, AND CABIN FEVER TIME

32" ELEMENT TV, ASSEMBLED IN USA...

...EVEN A GREAT PRICE

ASHLAND  ICE RACE DAY

Monday, 8:15 AM: 17 degrees F at the ferry dock, 15 on the back porch.  Wind variable and mostly calm, the sky overcast and the humidity 89%.  The barometer is falling, currently at 30.03".  Snow is forecast tomorrow, then a dip in temperature, followed by highs in the twenties and a wintry mix of overcast and partly cloudy skies, and occasional snow showers.  It has been a rather dull winter so far weather-wise, but winter none the less.  I don't need any more drama in my life.

   I have taken to indoor walking at the Ashland Walmart.  The roads have been slippery for walking, and I am a bit paranoid about falling on my still healing shoulder, which would be disastrous, as would a mishap on the treadmill down at the Rec Center.  So I will schlepp myself to Walmart three times a week or so.  I figure it's about a quarter of a mile around the inside perimeter, so if I get up to three or four laps I should be doing myself some good.

   That also gives me a chance to check a few things out, and I can report they have a 32" Element TV on sale for $133, "Assembled in America," whatever that actually means.  Well, it's a start. Nobody ever said it would be easy.

   I also checked out the ice track on the lower Chequamegon Bay. Things were pretty dubious there as well; trucks, cars, snowmobiles and ATV's all sliding around playing bumper cars.  

   It is getting to be cabin fever time, I guess.