Now This is More Like It

Remember a few days ago, when I posted a picture of the sauna and the canoes by it? I was looking for things colored red. Now, just a smidgen of red is still visible. (I�m trying to post a picture, but the program won�t let me right now. I�ll try again later.) Between the snow we got last Wednesday, and the new storm over the weekend, we have better than sixteen inches on the ground. That's the way it should be this time of year. We were remembering how just a few years ago, we still had bare ground in early December, and mild temperatures on top of it. Greg and Robert got a notion to take a boat out for a ride, which they did. I strongly discouraged that, given the temperature of the water. But sometimes I don't get my way. At any rate, I would much rather have the conditions today, as it really feels and looks like winter.

The mist is rising again on the lake, so perhaps we will have ice soon. I noticed as I drove to town on Saturday that most of the other lakes had frozen. Loon was mostly covered, and it often goes right around the same time as Gunflint. I heard that Seagull also froze sometime in the last few days. All signs so far are falling into place for a real winter.

We used the snow wisely yesterday by going out to bank it around the foundations of the cabins and lodge. It is a lot of work to shovel it all around like that, but it goes a long way towards insulating the crawl spaces. Greg spent most of the day plowing out roads and driveways with his new plow truck. It's working well, and he figures that he is the only plow operator that listened to an opera while he was working. Nice to have a modern convenience like a CD player. His old truck is a 1979 Ford---they hadn't even invented the CD technology when that truck was built.

In the Really Good News department, the ski trails are getting packed this week, and we are hopeful that they can be groomed and tracked by the weekend. This, too, is early compared to recent years. Addie and I are anxious to get out there. I totally missed last year, with my heel injury, so I am especially looking forward to hitting the trails again.

Also on the docket this week: printing up the Christmas cards. I'll take over the kitchen with my makeshift "printing press", and then will be busy printing, signing, and posting them. Maybe I can convince Addie to bake some cookies while I am working....Yum!