Queasy Cocoa at Kozy Quincy

Just a brief update tonight. We traveled to lower Michigan last Tuesday and returned on Saturday evening. It was a safe and successful trip.

Cocoa stayed at the doggie motel (aka - doggie prison) while we were away. They love her and treat her very well at the Kozy Quincy Kennel, but there's no place like home! Cocoa had issues with her digestive tract during her stay there. They were very concerned and gave her a special homemade diet, but she was still having issues before Steve picked her up early yesterday morning. She didn't seem completely normal last night, but she seems just fine today. Daddy spent a lot of time outside with her while he was cleaning up about 10 inches of new snow. It could have been the different food at the kennel or the stress of being away from home. When we tried a new food once last summer, she didn't react well either. We'll keep a close eye on her again tomorrow, but we're pretty sure she's fine now.

Here's photographic evidence of her good mood and spunk today.

Yep, that's Cocoa looking in the window above the kitchen sink when Steve came in for a brief rest. She climbed on top of the snow before he finished removing it from the deck.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Satisfied Saturday & Super Sunday

I was going to write a quick blog last night, but I got distracted with other things. Steve spent the majority of yesterday afternoon cleaning up outside again. It snows here, you know! He enjoys the exercise, and Cocoa enjoys it, too. 

As long as they were outside, I decided it was a good day to work on Ellen. Ellen Esther Devoll Hoyt (1854-1940) was my great, great grandmother. We discovered her portrait in my grandmother's closet when we were cleaning out her house in September. We have photographs of Ellen, but I especially love this color portrait we found of her as a young woman. A complete cleaning was necessary, as it was with the other old portrait I wrote about in a previous blog. You can see how dirty it was.

I carefully removed the portrait and convex glass from the frame. Here's a photo of the frame before I cleaned it.

Even after cleaning the frame, you can see that I had a lot of touch up work to do on it with stain and a Sharpie marker.

After cleaning the glass and the portrait itself, I put it all back together and attached a new hanger. Again, here's the before photo.

Here's the after photo of the completed project.

That made for a Satisfying Saturday. Steve and I felt good about our accomplishments.

It's still unusually cold today.

We had another 6" of snow overnight, and it has continued to snow lightly most of the day. Steve dug out the BBQ grill yesterday, but he had to clean it off again this afternoon.

That was after he cleaned it off. I hope you remember why he had to clean off the grill. It's Super Bowl Sunday, and that means steaks on the grill! Steve isn't going to let a little snow stop him from grilling.

I'm sorry that photo was a little blurry. I was inside the warm kitchen - steaming the broccoli and working on the rest of the meal.

Steve was hoping Baltimore would win the Super Bowl. Right before the lights went out during the 2nd half in New Orleans, Steve was saying that the game was a little boring. That sure changed after the power was restored. San Francisco came alive, and the game got exciting - although the last 2 minutes were a bit dull. Steve was happy with the outcome, however, so we have definitely had a Super Sunday.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

P.S. The steaks were delicious!

Covered Road

It's still snowing - with no sign of stopping until sometime on Monday. Here's the snow hanging over the edge of the roof again.

That may be normal for this time of year, but the temperature is another story. Our high temperature today was 4°, and it's currently -1°. That's definitely not typical. The historical average high temperature on February 1 is 22°. I had to check the computer for the temperature today, because I couldn't read the thermometer.

I've included a short video in this post. I've previously written about driving on the "covered road" on the way to Copper Harbor. It's actually a curvy section of Hwy 41 where some of the tree branches extend over the road. If you look at the map below, the "covered road" is in the area of Hwy 41 that's outlined in purple and highlighted in yellow.

The only video I've ever taken on this road was at night, so the quality wasn't blog worthy. There's a local website that I check out each day (www.pasty.com), and they added a video of the "covered road" that was taken on January 24. Keep in mind that Keweenaw County has had about 2 more feet of snow since the video was recorded.

Click on the following link to watch the video:

Covered Road (Hwy 41)

I don't think the video was shot on the most dramatic portion of the drive, but it's still pretty. If you've never been to the Keweenaw, it will give you a little taste of it.

We're staying warm on this first evening in February. All is well in the Keweenaw.

Backsliding

Yikes! The temperature is backsliding!

I snapped a photo yesterday of the unusual icicles created during our brief warmup.

I also noticed the snow is getting deep on the roof of our backyard storage shed.

We had another 4 or 5 inches of snow overnight, and it continued to snow lightly all day today. Steve did a little cleanup work outside, ran an errand and retreated to the basement. He's deeply involved in his winter projects down there. He painted all but one corner of the exterior walls last year, so he's now finishing that project.

He also cleared off the storage shelves, cleaned them thoroughly, and painted them.

I wish I had a photo of how they looked before he started, but the difference was remarkable. Then, he started stocking them with our pantry items.

That shot was taken when he was still in the process of stocking. Can you tell he worked in a grocery store when he was young? Nice and neat with all the labels facing forward - just the way we both like it! Next, it was time to restack some of the bins we have stored in the basement.

Steve is good at keeping himself busy. I'm thankful he's not a couch potato. Speaking of potatoes, yesterday was a perfect day to make a big pot of ham and potato soup. I think I've told you that we're "soup people."

When the cold wind is blowing, it's also a good day to get out the breadmaker.

Steve likes to get on a "healthier-eating" kick during the first part of every year, so we try to stay away from bread until the end of April (about the time of our birthdays). However, I wanted to make some bread for my mother, so we were still able to enjoy the heavenly scent.

I know what you're thinking. "Ham and potato soup on a healthy eating plan?" Portion control! We have a small bowl of soup with a spectacular salad. No seconds on the soup either. Steve pushes himself away from the table feeling happy and satisfied. If the meal is enjoyable, it's easy for him to eat healthier.

That's it for tonight. Goodbye to January. All is well in the cold and snowy Keweenaw!

Double the Fun

From Saturday, January 12, to Saturday, January 26, we went from 56 to 117 inches of snow. That's the total number of inches we've had since October, not the snow depth. Did you get that? We doubled our total in just 2 weeks! As of today, we're up to about 124.5 inches. We have also been experiencing double-digit temperatures since Friday. Here's yesterday's shot of the outdoor thermometer.

The higher temperature caused the precipitation we had last night and today to arrive in the form of freezing drizzle and mist. It doesn't look like we lost much snow, however.

The heavy snows of the last 2 weeks made it necessary for Steve to rake the roof. Here's the result.

I shot that photo from inside our office. Steve is standing right next to the snow pile created from raking that section of the roof. Here's a shot from the exterior. The pile in the above photo is on the right side of the back door in following photo.

Can you also see the huge mound of snow on the deck in the above shot? Here's how it looked from inside.

Yep, that's taken through the window above the kitchen sink. The piles had to wait until the next day to be moved, as Steve had already put in a full day outside by the time the last shot was taken. The next day was bright and beautiful, and the temps had finally hit those double digits - a good day to be outside. He headed back out to finish the job, but he figured he might as well have a little fun at the same time. This was the result.

I pulled back the curtain to give you a better look. Cocoa really enjoyed that tunnel. It gave her access to the window again!

A boy and his dog - It's a beautiful thing!

You can tell they're buddies, can't you? Steve finished moving the pile off the deck just in time for another fresh coating the next morning.

Here's a shot of the pile that was moved off the deck. You can see it between the trees - topped with the fresh snow.

Uh oh! It looks like he has more work to do before Super Bowl Sunday.

The BBQ grill is covered again, and he's going to need it!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Cleaning Up

(Scroll down to the bottom of this post for updates written on January 27 and 28.)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 - We made it into the double digits!

We also went from 56" of snow to 117" of snow in 2 weeks - with the last 3-4" during the night. Steve spent most of the afternoon cleaning up outside. It's getting late, so I'll attach some new photos of the accumulation tomorrow.  

While he was cleaning up outside, I was inside - cleaning up this old portrait discovered inside a closet at my grandma's house. Here's the before shot.

What a mess! It's one of those old frames with convex glass. I’m still working on determining who the man and woman are. Before I took it apart, I was hoping the names would be found on the backing cardboard or even on the old convex portrait itself, but no such luck.  It looks like the frame is made out of some terrific wood, but upon closer inspection, I realized the grain is actually a painted design, and it had a lot of chips in the paint. I cleaned it thoroughly, conditioned the wood on the back and “fixed” the bad spots on the frame using scratch cover stain and a Sharpie marker. The glass was filthy, of course, but the portrait itself wasn't too dirty. I just wiped it very carefully with a dry microfiber cloth. Here's the after shot.

Much better, right? I have one more portrait to clean, but I know the subject, my 2nd great grandmother, Ellen Esther Hoyt. Wish me luck on my detective work on this one.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

UPDATE:
SUNDAY, JANUARY 27 - Sorry, time has gotten away from us today. We have some errands to run tomorrow. I'll try to update you on the snow situation with photos of the cleanup tomorrow night. It looks like another significant and prolonged snow event is on the way! All is well in the Keweenaw. (11:19 p.m.)

MONDAY, JANUARY 28 - Sorry again. Too busy running errands today to write a blog post. Had another 5 inches overnight. Here's a teaser. I'll tell you all about the next photo tomorrow.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Accumulation

We've been having very cold temperatures, and it's starting to get a little deep around here. Remember, we could see patches of grass through the snow on January 12. I've been noticing that the house has seemed a little darker every day. Maybe this is why?

That was the view when I opened the curtains in the office this morning. Yep, the snow accumulating on the roof is now hanging in front of the window. This was the exterior view of that part of the house.

Steve decided it was time to rake the roof.

He also went down the block to Mom's place, and Cocoa tagged along. She loves going to see Grandma; Grandma gives her treats! Here's a shot of the neat drift on Mom's car.

OK, time to go home. Cocoa's was leading the way back down 7th Street.

Here's a shot of the front of the house today. I believe our house is underneath the snow - somewhere.

The snow total was 106.5" as of this morning, and it's still cold and snowing. The temperature may make it back to double digits on Friday - heat wave!

One more shot tonight. Here's some visitors we had at the bird feeder on Monday.

All is well in the Keweenaw!

P.S. Remember to click on any photo to see a larger version of that photo.

Back to Normal

I don't have a lot to report tonight. Things are returning to normal around here. That means it's snowing. We're likely to have at least another foot or two of LES by Wednesday evening.  

I guess I should give you some idea of what our driveway looks like in order to document future snowbanks. I took this photo on Tuesday afternoon. I haven't taken the camera outside since then.

OK, the snowbanks are a bit higher now, but they're not out of control yet.  However, it does look like Steve may have to rake the roof soon!

Here's the shot I took out the office window on Monday afternoon. It shows the snow accumulating on the roof at the back of the house.

The next shot is from this morning.

Yep, almost time for a roof rake!

By the way, I walked into the kitchen yesterday morning, and I saw the biggest Blue Jay I've ever seen in my entire life. He was sitting on our bird feeder eating seeds. He was HUGE! I grabbed the camera and lifted the curtain to take his picture. I guess he was camera shy, as he hightailed it out of there before I could snap his photo.

All is well in the Keweenaw.