Snap it Up

Today our neighbors came over and asked us if we knew what to do about snapping turtles. Apparently they had one living in their yard that was a potential threat to their dog, Pal. We didn't know what to do, but we headed over there to check it out.

It was the largest wild turtle I have ever seen. His shell was the diameter off a basketball, his head was as big as a 330ml bottle of Perrier, and his tail had 1/2 inch spikes along the top. I keep calling it a he, but it could be a girl, I guess. We tried to herd it towards a marshy area, and it moved fast. I wish I had my camera. But this is a good example.

Any ideas on how to handle a bully snapping turtle?

Reading Now: The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende.

Blog Born Today

Well, I finally broke down and did it. I created my own blog at the encouragement of my friend Brian. I will use this forum to continue my Duluth updates. I am still trying to get the thing properly formated and organized, so expect changes on a regular basis. For your reading enjoyment, I have posted the old e-mails I sent last winter.

Reasons Why Spring Has Sprung

Since the first day of spring, I have been noticing things around here that seem really....well....spring like. Here are the reasons why I think spring has sprung:

1. The birds are back in town. And no, I don't mean robins or ducks. I mean seagulls. I have been seeing them everywhere and their sounds remind me of the ocean. Also, I have seen evidence of other animals out and about. There are plenty of squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and deer around. When Bates and I go outside we rush to the top plateau (to get an idea of the lay of our land, we are about 50 feet from the road, with a slight incline and then another 50 feet (inclined) from that we have a clearing with a pond. Behind that we have lots of woods. We are basically one football field wide and three deep) and have a contest of who can spot the deer first. It's not a question of if, but where. Bates usually wins. Sometimes we see 3-4 but lately we have been seeing upwards of 10.

2. The ships are back. The harbor is closed for about 2 months of the year and I saw my first ship in the lake approaching the harbor. I almost went down and watched it glide through the canal (for a nice webcam of the canal, visit http://www.lsmma.com/camfs.html). Watching the ships is a hobby for some and all the expected departure and arrival times are printed in the newspaper daily.

3. My dog is shedding. And we aren't talking strands of hairs. It is coming out in clumps as if he were a sheep. I could vacuum everyday (do I, no) and it wouldn't be enough. I have been brushing him everyday and it doesn't seem to help. We went down to the lake two weekends ago and walked on the beach (okay, it is covered in little stones, but it is a beach all the same) and he got horribly muddy. I can tell 'mud season' (unfortunately what everyone calls it here) will be fun.

4. The temperature has been above freezing during the day. Yesterday the high was 54 and the breeze felt...gulp...nice. Also, this means the pot-hole crews have been on our street twice already. They have two pot-hole crews that started in mid-February. One crew heads east, the other west. They fill up with 2000 pounds of warm patch and go until they run out. We had this really visious pot hole about 1 mile from our house. It was so bad we warned people who were visiting to look out for it. It wasn't very big, but the shape of it was such that it could change the trajectory of your travel. It was fixed in late Feb. We saw the crews out again on our street last week.

5. Dairy Queen opened. Enough said.

6. The snow is melting. The driveway is completely melted and it is full of mud and gravel. I took the dog yesterday down to our mailbox and he got completely filthy. All the natives say I am very lucky to be leaving during the worst time of year...mud season. Apparently this is much less desirable than winter. I am sad I don't get to see the first leaves and grass or the bears coming out of hibernation. After 90.5" of snow this year (yeah....just go ahead and think how much snow that is), we have 18" on the ground still. They say we are losing about 1" per day in the shade, so if the weather stays above freezing we should at least have the snow gone by middle of April. ..........Speaking of bears, we also hear we aren't supposed to feed the birds once the bears come out of hibernation. Unless you are like us and have a bear proof feeder (built by the previous owners). It is a steel pole over 8 feet tall posted deep in the ground with a bird feeder on top and hooks for suet. Our neighbors said it was bear proof because they once saw a black bear standing on its hind legs pushing and pushing on the pole and it didn't give out. I don't know if I am comforted or frightened by this.

8. People are wearing less clothing. I washed our winter coats and we are now wearing our spring coats. I see lots of young people wearing shorts, sandals, Capri’s, even tank tops. I think it is a little soon for that. The weather forecasters aren't even wearing their coats anymore. Why, you ask, does a weather forecaster wear their coats during broadcasts? Well, in Duluth the weather forecasters on television give their forecast outside. Yup...Outside. By the way, Sven Sundgaard (http://www.kbjr.com/anchor/anchor-story.asp?n=6) is one of the cutest meteorologists and probably one of the youngest to be chief. And yes Clay knows why we watch NBC news.

Well, my three months in Duluth are up tomorrow as I fly back to CA for my last quarter at UCLA. I hope you have enjoyed my tales. I won't be writing again until July when I am back in Duluth. I am sure there will be plenty to write as I share my first seasonal year in Duluth with you. I am sending another e-mail after this one with a couple of pictures of our snowbound house. I hope all is well with everyone!!!!

Winter Activities

Well, much has happened since I last wrote you. Where to begin?
First, I did sign up for the John Beargrease Dog Sled Race. Of course, I am not running a team in the race (some of you guys cracked me up), but I am working at headquarters answering phones and taking down times off the ham radios. Check out their website if you want to find out more about the race (http://www.beargrease.com/). Basically, the race is over 300 miles along the north shore of Lake Superior. There are checkpoints along the way where the time is radioed into HQ. Should be interesting. I wish I could watch the beginning of the race, as I hear it is very moving and emotional, but I will be at HQ, which is nowhere near the beginning of the race. I will let you know how it all goes.
Early in Feb, we went to our first University men's hockey game. Actually two of them. It was great. The place is packed, and the stadium has very steep seating, so it seems like everyone has a good view. And they are FAST. Their skating skills are amazing. My favorite player is the goalie (must stem from my obsession with Ray LeBlanc from the 1992 Olympic Games...he was the first goalie to wear the highly decorative ITech masks...(http://www.wrightmask.com/rayleblancusathumb.jpg)). How they know where the puck is boggles my mind. I don't even know where the puck is half the time, which explains why they have a light and horn to indicate a goal.
I did my first winter sport this past weekend.....ice skating. My sister-in-law, niece and I went to Play It Again Sports, a used sporting goods store and bought used ice skates. Then we went down to Bayfront Park, right along Lake Superior. Unfortunately, we had a heat wave that day, about 40, so the ice was horrible. Super horrible. Funny enough, the warming house was "Closed due to extreme weather" (extreme?????). You would skate smoothly, and then jerk to a stop on a rough patch. Funnier yet was the water that would shoot out from the ice as you skated over it. We had a hard time explaining to my niece, Maddi, who is 3 years old that we weren't on a lake, just a flooded field. She would panic when the water would shoot out. To put it mildly, I am a horrible skater. I haven't skated in 20 years and it shows. Again, another reason to be impressed by ice skaters and hockey players.
While we were out skating, Clay and his brothers were snowmobiling. While Kari, Maddi and I were having dinner, we got a call from them on the trail requesting a pick up in Tower, MN (about 90 miles north of Duluth). Clay had broken his collar bone and they were 10 miles out of Tower. So we ran around, checked mapquest and drove up there. They were able to ride to Benchwarmers, an eatery/bar (with about 50 snowmobiles parked outside), which is where we found them. They left the sleds there and we all made the trip back to Duluth and St. Luke's Hospital. Clay is okay, but he is very sore and it is hard to move around much. He is still teaching his classes, which is a good sign. They just gave him a sling which he has to wear for 4 weeks.
Well, I wanted to leave you with some information about Lake Superior. This lake is amazing. It really has so many stories to tell. It is the second largest lake in the world and the deepest of the Great Lakes. What fascinates me is the number of shipwrecks found in Lake Superior. One in particular is the Edmund Fitzgerald, which went down on November 10, 1975. There is a great song by Gordon Lightfoot about the disaster. Check out http://home.europa.com/~random7/fitz.htm to see the lyrics and annotation. If you have the time, try and listen to it (you will need 6 minutes of your time...its a long one), but if not, just sing every two lines, and drawl out the last word of every two lines. He kind of speaks it instead of singing, so you can get the idea. Apparently, the water is so cold that those who are lost at sea never surface to the top. The last four lines are spooky:
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior they said never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early
This is why they say Lake Superior is haunted, and there are lots of books out there on the topic.
Well, I hope all is well wherever you're at.
Take care,