In my “blogger frogging” adventures, I get so envious of all those who are blogging about beautiful spring weather & all the pictures of the flowers & green grass and all!

Well, I took a few of my own pictures yesterday! I snapped a couple in the back yard.

The black spot in the middle is the accumulation of the hulls from the black oil sunflower seeds that we put out for the birds. Last year we raked up 2 & 1/2 - 5 gal. buckets of them, just in the spring alone! You can imagine how much seed we go through in a year!

MPK put metal roofs on both the garage to the left & the pole barn in the background. As yoou can see, all the schrubs next to the garage are being damaged every year by the snow that slides off the roof. And I really wanted to plant roses along the side of the pole barn, but there is a whole lot more snow that comes down off that roof!

We're still holding on to the cold & snow....but not by any choice of our own.

And I really would much rather look on the bright side of things than have it bring me down! So, when I downloaded the pictures from my camera, I found a couple that I’d taken a few weeks ago that I’d forgotten about. I took them from the upstairs bedroom window of the fox tracks that went across the front yard & out on the ice that was still there at that time.

You can just barely see them. In the middle of the picture...coming in from the right. The ropes are the railings that lead down the steps to our boat dock & the frozen river.

The tracks lead from the front yard , down the hill & out on the snow-covered icy river.Two days later, there were tracks going from the side yard, to the front & also down to the river.

When I thought about all those tacks, they reminded me of the time when I was about to turn in the driveway one night & a fox darted out of the drive, across the road & into the bush. He’d been checking out the suet we'd saved from our venison that we’d processed last hunting season. We put it out for the birds every winter & get some awesome woodpeckers & the chick-a-dees love it.

A few years ago, I used to rent a small house just down the road from KFC. Quite often I’d be standing at the kitchen sink & look out & see one come out of the bush & run across the yard in broad daylight. And one winter I did manage to get one on our video camera as he was crossing the ice to go over to Squirrel Island. I see quite a few of them on my way to work. I’m not sure if it’s the same one or not, but two different times I’ve had to brake for a cat running across the street….and both times they were being chased by a fox! It was amazing! And I'll never forget the sight of them! This was just down the street from where my supervisor lives. I knew she has a small dog so I told her that she might want to keep an eye on him when she lets him out. And, yeah - it's inside the city limits!!!

Those aren't the only "fox sitings' that I've had since I moved up here & I hope it isn't close to my last!

I chose to live here in this frozen north country...I'd only been here a couple of times in my life when I was very young. But, it made a lasting impression on me. I'd tried a couple of times to talk my ex into moving up here (unsuccessfully) while I was still married...but to no avail.

But, I'm up here now & I'm absolutely LOVING every minute of it!

Next, I'll have pictures of a rare white moose in Timmins, Ont., Canada which isn't too far north of the Soo. And my own "close encounter of the moose kind".

IS IT A SNOW BUNNY OR A WILD HARE?

I work at a hotel that’s attached to a casino. I’m a reservations agent & receptionist. Although I do get to talk to a lot of people - I really don’t see many of them because our office is in a location where we’re surrounded by other offices. In fact, the only window that we have a view from is in the front desk manager’s office. And when she’s not there & the door’s closed - half the time we don’t know if the sun’s shining or we’re in the middle of a blizzard.
There are times when we do have to venture out of our “dungeon” to the other offices or the Hotel front desk. One situation came up today where I needed to talk to the supervisor who happened to be working the front desk.
When I came out the door, there was a woman standing at the counter in front of her. She was apparently checking in. As I came out the door, I heard the woman saying to the supervisor, “Well, we came up here to play in the snow, but there isn’t any snow!” Gotta tell ya, I’ve worked at my job for 14 years & I could tell by the tone of her voice…..nope, I didn’t need to hear “No Mo”!!! So, I merely turned on my heal & headed right back out the door!

I swear, after this many years - just when I think “I’ve heard ’em all!”…..another person opens their mouth & proves just how wrong I am!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I really do like my job & I love talking to all kinds of people all day long! But, there seems to be a chosen few who kind of “deviate from the norm”, if ya know what I mean. And lately I’ve given in to fantasizing about what I would REALLY like to say to some of them! And while I’m thinking about it - I find that I also tend to make up my own names for them too. I pegged her as a “Snow Bunny”. For instance, since this gal was young, blond (Yep! Sorry!) and clearly not dressed to “play in the snow”. At least not in the UP. She wasn’t wearing either a snowmobile suit or sub-zero Carhartts. She really didn’t look like the type to be pushing a snow-blower, or using a snow shovel. And I wouldn't have pegged her as a “musher” either. She looked more like a cat-lover to me.
In the 16 years since I’ve lived in the UP, I’ve seen a lot of snow. But in the middle of March, the weather has fluctuated to such extremes that whatever snow we have left is striated with layers alternating between a mixture of melted snow, salt, sand & plain dirt.
At this point I’m thinking she must have been misdirected when she booked her reservations on-line. Maybe when she clicked on the “snow” icon - she accidentally clicked on the “Sault Ste. Marie” site, when she really meant to choose the “Vail” one instead! And - I really wanted to scream at her - “What do ya mean - No Snow?!!! Where’s your sense of adventure?! Just get out there, scrape off the top inch or so of dirt, hop on that Polaris & open her up! Come on - there’s still at least 1 ½ to 2 feet of the stuff out there!” I could even have told her about my trip in to work when I passed the snowmobile trail & there were about 7 or 8 snowmobiles still trying to get the most out of it. Of course I would have left out the fact that, as I passed by the college (Lake Superior State University), I noticed a male student at the cross-walk in shorts & wearing FLIP FLOPS!!!!!!! I just figured that since the temps. were still in the low 30’s - he was still caught up in his Spring Break fantasy!
Here I was hoping for some really warm weather to melt the (four-letter-word) stuff….hey - I was gonna say SNOW!!! And Ms. Hare comes along & expects the Hotel management to comp her whole stay, including meals. Then - after she found out that the Casino has a free shuttle to & from the airport (which is 30 miles away) , she tried to find a way to get the rental car company to issue a credit to her credit card & pick up the vehicle which she’d parked in the hotel lot.
Hmm….at this point, I’m thinking about some really old TV, cop, whodonit show that used to be on when I was a kid. They had a classic saying at the start of each episode that went -

“There are a thousand stories in the naked city. And this…. is just one of them.”

Closet Blogger Frogger

So, OK.....I'm coming out of the closet. I'm a "Blogger Frogger"! It's the reason that I really don't get much posted myself, I'm just too busy jumping around reading everyone else's blogs! It's not that my own life isn't fascinating, funny, amusing or in the least bit interesting or entertaining. In fact, several times during the day I have occasion to think - "hmmm, that would be a good topic for a blog". But when I finally get home from work & turn on my computer, I find that it takes so long for me to do anything on it that by the time I get through checking out all my favorite sites & 3 or 4 or 5 new ones - it's so late that I just have to shut down & go to bed!
Guess I should explain why navigating should take so long for me. It's because I have the out-dated "dial-up" connection to the Internet. I won't go into the complicated details as to the "why-for's". Just to say that it's complicated, impractical & way too expensive to have either cable or satellite. Suffice it to say....."it's as slow as molasses in January"!
By the time I've read, answered & sent my e-mails, checked out what's going on in "facebook", done a little research, checked out the blogging world, etc.......
I'm thinking that maybe if I just start off with composing the blog BEFORE checking out everything else, I could be a Happy Blogger Frogger!

WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE, GRANDMA!!!!!

This is a copy of a picture that was on the front page our local newspaper last winter. It was taken by MPK's neighbors. It was only a couple hundred yards from his house on Sugar Island! There was a short article saying that "it is one of a pair that have apparently taken up residence on the northeast end of Sugar Island." The neighbors who had sent in the picture said that "the wolves have been showing an iterest in the local ducks that gather near the old shipping channel."
We've seen them quite often, mostly in the winter when they venture out on the ice on the river & travel over to Squirrel Island. (A Canadian Island between Sugar Island & Canadian mainland) And either we or our neighbors can tell several stories about the wolves, moose, bear, fox & alot of other animals that we see either crossing the ice or swimming the river! I've even found prints that a wolf left after a rain - under the clothes line. I had a brainstorm of an idea & took a couple of buckets out & flipped them upside down on top of them (to preserve the) & drove into town & bought some plaster mix. I really didn't think it would work, but the casts that I took of them turned out great! And I gave them to my grandsons.
The most memorable experience that I've had since I moved up here (that involves animals!) was about this time of year. MPK happened to be home from work & so was I. At the time we had a black Lab. about a year old by the name of Uno. It was a beautiful, rare, sunshiny day with the temp. around the mid 30's.
I was in the house & MPK was outside splitting wood. He had Uno out with him. He opened the door & hollered at me to grab the camera & hurry outside. When I got out there - he showed me where a wolf was traveling across the ice & was almost to Squirrel Island. I took some pictures - but wouldn’t you know that I had my old 35 mm camera & didn’t have my zoom lens on & he turned out looking like a tiny speck!? But - in the meantime, Uno had found the wolve’s tracks going across the yard & down the hill to the river. And the wolf must have stopped & “marked his territory” on one of the pilings of the boat dock - because when Uno got to that spot - he went ballistic!!!
MPK & I were at the top of the hill watching the wolf & when the wolf heard Uno barking……. I had the most EERIE feeling that I have had in my entire life! (You know - like when the hair stands up on the back of your neck?!) I had also grabbed the binoculars & was looking through them & I could tell when that wolf heard Uno bark - he was about 2/3 of the way across the ice & stopped & turned around & just stood there & watched. Since Uno was still just a pup & was still in the “I love everybody & especially doggies & I want to play” stage….. we knew that if he found the wolf’s tracks & started to follow them or even saw the wolf - he would have headed across that ice on a dead run & he would have been that night’s dinner for that wolf! But - MPK managed to get Uno back up & had to put him in the house. And in the meantime, I was watching the wolf through the binoculars. He had decided to lay down on the ice to watch what was happening with the noisy appetizer on the US side of the river!
Oh, yeah! That wolf stayed right there for about a good hour AFTER we went back in the house! We could still see him from the front window.
I wouldn’t have then, & still won’t to this day - trade that experience “for all the money in the world”!!!!!

Dirty Jobs

I gotta confess, I don’t watch much TV. I do like most of the programs on the Discovery channel. My favorite is “Dirty Jobs” with Mike Rowe. Well, guess who happens to be in our neck of the woods this week? Oh, yeah! It’s the man himself! He’s been up this way before a couple of times, but I didn’t get a chance to see those episodes. He did one where he changed a burnt out light bulb on the Mackinac Bridge and the other one was where he was on a horse-poo patrol on Mackinaw Island.
Guess I should explain that the state of Michigan consists of two peninsulas. We refer to them as the “lower” & “upper” peninsulas. They’re connected by the awesome 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge.
Mackinaw Island lies a couple of miles East of the bridge. Travel to the island is done by ferries or airplane. There are no motorized vehicles on the island during the tourist season. The only mode of transportation is either by walking, bicycle, or horse. Hence the “poo patrol” mission.

Besides being steeped in Native American, French, English as well as American history, the island is home to the most species of lilacs in one area in the world. And in these parts it’s also famous for having been where the movie, “Somewhere In Time” with Christopher Reed & Jane Seymour was filmed. The last time I was on the island - you couldn’t even walk down the road in front of that hotel without paying a charge of $5. A cup of coffee anywhere in town cost $2.50 & a hamburger was over $5!!! Sorry - I can get off on a tangent when it comes to things like over-inflated flavored water & a simple hamburger!
I can’t wait to find out when this episode of “Dirty Jobs” is going to air - I sure don’t want to miss this one!

Baby Steps

Spent some time cruising around the opions on this site. Not only am I the nearest thing to "computer illiterate" - but I'm cursed with the antiquated "dial-up" internet! Neither cable, nor satellite are options for me here.
I've resigned myself to the fact that, if I really do need the faster option - I'll just have to take a drive down to the local library!
It's just going to take a while to get things going. I just hope I have the patience for it!
I still have much to think about that I want to do with & accomplish with this project. But it will just have to wait til later. I have to be at work really early in the morning - better to give it a shot later.

~*Sugar Islalnd Fairy*~

I’m CDS, a single Mom of two grown children & three terrific grandchildren. I moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 16 years ago. I live in Sault Sainte Marie, but own property on Sugar Island & used to live there when I first came here.
Shortly after I moved here, I hit the “Boyfriend Lottery”! He goes by MPK & also lives on Sugar Island. We refer to his place as KFC & when I first met him he was just building his house. I helped him with what I could during the last phases of construction & most of the decorating, landscaping & gardening.
Because I work on the mainland, it’s more economical to live in my apartment in town. But, I spend as much of my free time as I can at KFC.
The island is named for the sugar maple trees that grow in abundance there. The original name was in the Ojibwa language but was changed by the British. It’s one of several islands in a chain between Canada & the U.S. It is one of the U.S. island’s, but we’re about a stone’s throw away from Canada! And we have the most beautiful views of Canada & the Laurentian mountains.
This area is one of the richest……in history, beauty & wildlife
And yes…….the only way to get there from here is the “Sugar Island Ferry”!