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April 27-
Boy, hard to believe
that April is almost over. Seems like it just started a few days ago and
looking outside at the weather, one might think it is March sometime rather
than the end of April. Cold and snowy for the past 24 hours or so. Not
a lot of snow, but enough to whiten the ground. Our temp has also been
below freezing for about the past 24 hours or so. We did have a taste of
spring weather up here this past week, hitting the 60's last Sunday and
Monday and even 70 degrees on Wednesday. However, as has been the case
with this spring, the warmer temps are just not lasting long. We cooled
off on Thursday and then really cooled off later yesterday. The next few
days look to keep us well below average and then we look to gradually warm.
I suppose the cold temps are a bit of a good thing though as they will
slow the snow melt a bit and allow the rivers and creeks to go down a bit.
There was some minor flooding up here this past week, with all the snow
melt and the rain we picked up. No major flooding and really nothing too
out of the ordinary- it could have been worse.
As I mentioned in the previous
journal, we are at a time of the year when outdoor activity is a bit curtailed.
There is not enough snow to snowmobile on, but enough snow and wetness
exists in the woods to keep us from getting into them to hike or do other
activities. The one exception is taking a wet and messy ATV ride, which
parts of our snowmobile gang and I took yesterday. For years they have
been having the annual "spring ride" and last year I was fortunate enough
to borrow one of Dave's ATV's and partake in it. With the arrival of an
ATV of our own last summer, I was looking forward to this springs ride.
They are always tried to be taken on the weekend where there is still some
snow left, but also lots of puddles from the snow melt.
Lots of debate was done this
year as to if this weekend or next would be the best. I told Dave that
this weekend would probably provide the best chances for getting into some
snow and that by next weekend, we might have to look pretty hard to find
it. Based on how much snow we encountered in some of the higher terrain
of Keweenaw County and looking at the forecast for next week, it looks
like finding snow up there next weekend would not have been much of a challenge
at all. In fact, we hit so much snow at one point yesterday that we had
to end the trip there and turn around and head back. More on that in a
bit, but we could have actually had fun on the sleds in some spots we tried
to ATV in yesterday.
There ended up being 8 of us
in all. Dave, Al and Matt and then another Dave, Ed, Mark, Jeremy and myself.
We took off from Dave's house like we did last year and did not even get
out of his backyard and into his woods before finding the first huge water
hole. I have to apologize at this point as the batteries in my camera were
dead and I did not realize it when I grabbed the camera to go yesterday.
I had not used the camera much at all, so I thought the batteries had plenty
of juice, but when I went to take the first picture, it would not even
turn on. The only thing I can think of is that I left it on when I was
downloading pictures off of it for the last journal and it went dead then.
Anyway, I was really upset that I would not be able to take any pics of
the ride as there are really some great moments to capture.
Anyway, as mentioned, we found
the first water hole at the edge of Dave's yard and it pretty much set
the trend for the rest of the day. There are some deep mud holes in his
woods too and even a cedar swamp or two that we found our way through.
I have to say that I was extremely pleased by the way our ATV and it's
new tires and rims performed. I did end up getting stuck a few times, but
the bike seemed to pull me through a lot of sticky situations that others
were either not able to get through or had severe difficulties. At one
point, Jeremy and I blazed a trail through a foot or more of snow so that
others could get through. So thanks to the ATV, I looked like I knew what
I was doing yesterday!
The weather yesterday was OK.
A bit on the cold side, especially late in the trip. We headed out from
Dave's place at about 9:30 and did not get back until after 8 in the evening.
I actually wore some snowmobile gear that has gortex in it. I had the marketing
director from Scott/Remia send me some of their gear this season and tried
out it's water shedding capabilities on the trip. I am pleased to report
that the gortex in the gear he sent worked fine. I stayed perfectly dry
the whole ride and also warm up until the very end. Even the gloves kept
my hands dry the entire trip. The boots that Nora got me this past Christmas
also worked perfectly. Kept my feet perfectly warm and dry the whole trip.
Here is a shot of
me taken right when I got home. It's kind of hard to see in that picture,
but I was coated in mud from head to toe. We put the gear in the washing
machine last night and ran it through two cycles and it is looking like
new again. So I think I am done wearing the rubber coated rain suits and
from here on out it's gortex.
I am also thankful to report
that there were no injuries or breakdowns in yesterday's ride. A tire started
to go flat on Ed's bike as we were nearing Dave's house at the end of the
ride, but we pumped it up and made it back safe and sound. There was not
much snow around Dave's place and really we did not encounter much snow
through mid afternoon. We stopped to enjoy a little cookout on one of the
guy's families land and I have to admit that with snowflakes starting to
fly, it was nice to sit by a fire for a while- even if it was a pretty
small one. After making sure that the fire was completely out, we hopped
back on the bikes and headed north in search of some snow to play in. It
did not take us too long to find the snow and the snow got deep very quickly.
As mentioned, we basically hit a spot where we could travel no longer via
ATV's and could have taken over on sleds very nicely had we had them. This
was an ATV ride, so we turned around and headed back south and into some
lower terrain, but not before having to blaze our way up a gradual hill
for around 1000 feet (the trail up hill was about 1000 feet, not gaining
1000 feet in elevation). This is where Jeremy and I spent some time blazing
a trail to the top. While working on our trail I looked over and saw that
some of the other guys might be able to make it up on the other side of
the logging road as there was not as much snow and many of them did make
it up that way. We all ended up making it to the top of the hill and soon
after we were starting to encounter less and less snow and more and more
puddles.
The trip home is always full
of attempts to splash the other guy. This is done by hanging back a bit
from the rider in front of you and then when you see a large puddle ahead
with enough room to ride side by side, you accelerate so that you are passing
the other guy just as he is going through the puddle. This results in a
pretty good dousing of the other rider. I have seen some pretty good battles
in my two years on these trips and Dave and I had a pretty good one ourselves.
All the puddles actually helped to wash some of the mud off the ATV's,
but by the time I got home, it was still pretty
well caked in mud from the trip. I know it seems hard to believe, but
that was a big improvement in the bikes condition from earlier in the day.
Here is a shot of the
front of the ATV. Here is a shot of my
helmet, the goggles were cleaned no less than a dozen times during
the ride.
I would like nothing better
than to have some nice warm weather to get the bike and other objects muddied
in yesterday's ride all cleaned up, but as mentioned that will have to
wait for quite some time as it looks like we will struggle to hit even
50 degrees in the next 5-7 days. We were melting the snow and the woods
even had quiet a few bare patches in them, but right now all
is white again. There is some bare ground up here, the heat from the
septic field melted the snow off this afternoon and as you can see, the
grass is even trying to green up there.
All this cold weather will delay
the firming up of the ground and thus the removal of the weight restrictions
on the roads, so it will take even longer for me to be able to start my
project in adding onto the shop. Because of that, I have decided to swap
around the order of my projects. I am going to build the deck onto the
front of the cabin first and then move onto the shop project. I have the
bags of concrete mix ready for the footings for the posts for the deck
and the materials for the deck itself will be delivered Tuesday morning.
As long as it is not snowing or raining, I will be able to work on it,
so hopefully in a week or so I will be done with that project and we will
have a nice new deck to enjoy once it finally warms up!
I have just one more thing I
want to cover in this entry and that is to finally get around to thanking
the businesses that supplied items for the ride in. Nora and I made every
effort to make sure that we did not leave anyone out and if we did, my
sincerest apologies. Also there were many individuals who made donations
to the ride in and since I do not know who want's to have their name mentioned
and who does not, I will not mention anyone by name, but a huge thanks
to everyone that came and/or supported the event. This week I will be trying
to get the date and location for next years event finalized. For now, have
a look at this list and next time you are in the area, try to patronize
these generous businesses:
Alticity, AmericInn - Calumet, Applebee's, Ash
Trail Lodge, Best Western Copper Crown, Carmilitas, Castle, Centennial
Cottages, Chance's Hardware, Cliff View, Copper Country Ford, Copper Country
Rental, Copper Crown, Copperland, Copper World, Country Inn Suites, Dan's
Polaris, Dobson Entertainment, Dreamland, Everts, Greenland Pit Stop, Keweenaw
Motor Sports, Keweenaw Snow Expeditions, Keweenaw Tourism, KLIM, Krupps
Mini Mart, Krupps Resort, Lac La Belle Lodge - Bear Belly Bar and Grill,
Library Bar, North Shore Grille, Parkview Lodge, Pats Yamaha. Pepsi of
Houghton, Polaris Industries, Ramada Inn, Salon 1281, Scortchers, Sled
Heads, Sled Solutions, SledNecks, Sounds in Motion, Superior Snowmobile
Club, Superior Sport and Rental, Superior Travel, Thunder Struck Films,
Toivola Lunch, Travelodge, USI Skis, Vansville Bar, Wildlife Refuge Cabins,
Wyondotte Hills, Yooper Lodge, Zik's
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
| This business directly sponsors
johndee.com |
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April 20-
I would like to start out by
offering our sincerest things to everyone that has sent letters and made
postings of encouragement and condolences to Nora and I in the loss of
Burt. They have played a huge role in us being able to work our way through
the grieving process these past several days. It really is a testament
to the quality in the character of the persons coming to this site. Even
though I have not met many of you, I do consider you my friends and is
why I share so much of my life with you all. So thank you again for all
your kind words. Burt will be missed, but never fogtotten.
The healing process is under
way and has been almost from the moment we had to say our final good byes.
This has been a slightly different experience than the loss of Baileys.
I think initially the loss was harder for me to deal with, but after a
few days has become easier than it was for Baileys. I believe it was harder
initially because even though we knew that Burt did not have a long time
to live, the actual circumstances that brought about us having to put him
down did come about very quickly. With Baileys, we were given the bad news
that she had terminal cancer and while the Dr could not give a specific
amount of time she had left with us, we knew it was imminent. So I know
I did a lot of grieving while she was still around. Strange as that may
sound, I did try and come to terms as best I could with things before she
even passed away. I did not let it ruin my time left with her, but I was
able to reconsile a bit before hand. In addition, when Baileys passed,
we were able to throw ourselves upon Burt and that helped us get through
the loss. With Burt we have each other and that has been huge, but no other
pup to be able to shower with the kind of attention and affection that
we did with Burt and Baileys.
However, since about Thursday,
I believe that the grieving process with Burt has become easier than with
Baileys. The reason being is that while Burt was still in good health right
up to the day of his passing, he did not get around so well. We had stopped
taking our morning walks close to 2 years ago and back in early January,
we stopped taking our afternoon walks. So our time together was spent mainly
resting here at the cabin. We thus did not have too much different going
on in our lives, so when each day comes and passes now, I think back to
what we were doing a week ago and it is pretty much the same, whereas with
Baileys we had memories of each day's activity right up to the end, which
was nice in a way, but also made it difficult for that first week or two
to try and not be sad about not being able to do those fun things with
her. If that made sense at all.
I guess the bottom line is that
they both were my Angels and will be missed, but never forgotten. A huge
chaper in my life has come to a close, but there is a lot more of the book
yet to write.
It was suggested that I write
about how they came into my life and I thought that was a great idea. Perhaps
one final tribute to them. I was with someone other than Nora at the time
and we had just moved into our first home in Lake in the Hills IL. She
suggested we go and get a dog to help fill the house. I was initially a
little reluctant because I know all the work that it takes to have a dog
and how they can tie you down. I was still in my 20's and feeling like
I wanted to be able to remain foot loose and fancy free, but I gave into
the idea to get a dog, but offered up the idea to get two so that they
would have each other to play with and keep each other company while we
were away at work. That idea stuck, so after only living in our house for
2 days we were off to Dixon IL to look at a liter of labradors that were
born 6 week earlier.
Upon arrival, we were brought
into the basement of this farmhouse to see the mother and the 10 little
labrador puppies. It's amazing how you can really get a good idea of what
the dog will be like personality wise, just by paying close attention to
how they act while they are puppies. Baileys was picked because of the
way that she wanted to have all the attention and becase of all of the
attention that she gave back. Plus, she was a little cutie. I got to pick
Burt and picked him out of his 6 black brothers because he was doing exactly
what I would have been doing if I were in his predicament. Out of the 6
black males that were all in a pen, 3 of them were jumping all over each
other to try and get to see, smell and touch me. Two others were off in
the far corner of the pen and it seemed like the house could have been
on fire and they would not have noticed. Then there was Burt. He sat quietly
in the middle of the pen, paying close attention to what was going on around
him, but not being all hyperactive and what I thought was a bit annoying
like the three others.
So we paid the family and got
their "papers" and were on our way home. The naming game took place on
the two hour drive home. Burt got his name first. I had initially wanted
to get a yellow male and call him Burt. Not sure why, but I just thought
that a big old yellow lab named Burt would be cool. The name seemed to
fit him well, so that is the name we gave to him. In retrospect, I think
that it was perfect for him. Perhaps not the most noble name for such a
noble dog, but the name really did seem to fit him like a glove and he
seemed to enjoy it as well. Baileys name took a little more doing. We seemed
to be trying to come up with a name that fit her look. Her fur was nearly
white as snow and soft as down, but names like snowy or honey just did
not seem right. I was not too far removed from my years as a bartender
and I threw out the name Baileys, after the Irish Creme. The more that
I said it, the more it seemed to stick, so that is what I decided to call
them.
Over the course of their decade
with me, they gained lots of nicknames. The hounds is one thing I called
them for a long time. I made sure to accentuate the "ou" in the word, so
it would come out sounding more like hOOOWnds. All I need to do was say
that word and they both would come a running. For a long time I called
Burt "Hubba Bubba" and Baileys "Beez". Towards the later stages of their
lives, I would call Burt "Buddie" or just "Bud" as much as I would his
given name. Especially once Baileys was gone, he just became my right hand
man and Buddy seemed to fit very well. Nora started calling Bailey "Missy",
which turned into Missy-Lu. She loved it and we loved calling her it, so
that is what she got called by many a time. Missy-Lu.
We lived in Lake in the Hills
for about a year and a half and then I shared time with them due to a divorice
and then I was asked if I wanted to take them full time. Not much of a
struggle to answer that one!!! I was living the big city at that point
and it was a lot of work to take care of them and balance my full time
job, but I lived only a few blocks away from my office, so I went home
during the day to let them out to go potty and get a snack and then walked
back to work. That did not go on for too long when things happened that
allowed us to leave the big city and move up here. We did spend a few months
at my folks place in southern WI. They were in FL and I had just lost my
main client and I just wanted to get the heck out of Chicago since I did
not need to be in their offices anymore, so we made that brief say in WI
before heading north to the Keweenaw. I believe the rest is pretty much
history that is covered in past journals, so can leave off here, but it
was one heck of a journey with them. Over a quarter of my life was spent
with them. For those of you with children that are in grade school, I was
with them before you children were born. It was a nice long time (4443
days with Burt to be exact)- although it could never have been long enough.
As mentioned, Nora and I are
going to fly solo for a while. Not that we will never get another dog (or
dogs as the case may be) again, but we have been given a chance to be able
to life a life that we were not able to when we cared for them and want
to take advantage of those opportunities while we can. Some might have
read between the lines- "while we can". Children? Yes, but that is for
another journal in the not too distant future.
The opportunities I am talking
about is being able to be gone all day long and not worry about the dogs
being alone. Nora and I can take a trip TOGETHER and not have it have to
be one that will accomodate dogs. So we have some adventures planned and
I think you all will benefit from these opportunities as well. I know when
I first started writing these journal entries they were filled with the
adventures of the hounds and I and then Nora when we became blessed with
her company. Then they started to slow down a bit and as mentioned, between
building the cabin 2 summers ago and Burt's arthritus limiting us to pretty
much the same activity (swimming) all last summer, I felt like I really
did not have all that much new to talk about the past two summers. That
should all change this summer as Nora and I plan to do a lot of exploring-
sort of like the old days I guess you could say.
Only now we will have some help
in getting around to all of the spots we want to explore. We got that ATV
last summer and took some trips on it, but did not enjoy being away from
Burt for too long, so we never strayed too far. Well, we can now go out
and be gone all day if we want, so that should allow us to get some good
pics and have some fun stories to tell. Speaking of the ATV, I did work
on it this week and transformed it from winter
mode to summer
mode by removing the plow, putting on the other winch cable, removing
the windshield and putting on the new "27's" I got for it this spring.
Those tires sure do make a difference! With the old ones, you could not
really go through the snow at all and it did not even do too well in the
really thick mud. I have not had it out in much mud, but I can report it
goes through the snow just fine! Now we just need to get rid of a bit more
snow and we can start tooling around the back country.
Speaking of snow, we have been
getting rid of that too. In fact when you look at the AL Cam, it looks
like we have lost just about all of it. However, looks can be deceiving.
The AL Cam is in the vicinity of the septic field and just
about all the snow is gone from that area around the cabin. However,
away from the "heat" of the septic area, the
woods up here still have a foot to foot and a half of snow in them.
That is down over a foot from just a week ago, but I figure we still have
10-14 days before all the snow is gone from our woods and it may even be
longer than that before all the snow is gone from areas further up the
peninsula and up a bit higher. The big
pile of snow next to the shop is down quite a bit from just a week
ago. If you remember, just last week that pile was right up to the edge
of the roof.
A lot of it depends on what
our weather is like in the next 2 weeks. I do not see any real snow to
fly in the next 2 weeks, other than a few flurries by later this week or
next weekend. However, I also do not see a ton of warm temps. There will
be a few fingers of warmth that pop up here from time to time, but there
also looks to be some colder temps by later next week and into the following
weekend. Today is a nice day with lots of sunshine and temps in the 50's,
but yesterday was just nasty, nasty, nasty. Temps in the 30's, with a heavy
overcast, areas of fog and it rained all day. At times it was more of a
sprinkle, but it really did not stop for most of the day. Nora and I shot
down to Twin Lakes to pick up the two donation buckets that I had out for
the Ride-In. I had wanted to pick them up in mid March, but then my health
issues delayed that and then Burt's health issues delayed it a bit more.
We had a nice lunch at the Parkview and then headed home in the fog
and rain. This really is the ONLY time of the year when I think I might
be happier to be somewhere else for about 2 weeks. It is called the "mud
month", but thank goodness it only usually lasts about 2 weeks.
Our
wood pile is down to the last couple of dozen logs. In reality we probably
had about 2 weeks of wood still left in that pile and that would have taken
us almost out of the heating season and most likely into the time of the
year when we could have gone out and picked some more to get us through
the rest of the heating season, but Matt was kind enough to let us come
down and make a load of wood at his place. He has a lot of timber on the
ground at his place that needs to be used up before it rots and so was
nice enough to lend me a hand in cutting up a tree that actually fell in
the past month or so. So we filled
up Old Blue and headed home. That load will for sure extend our burning
time through the next 3 to maybe 4 weeks, which should pretty much get
us through the heating season up here.
I have no idea what the next
week will bring as far as adventures. As mentioned we are really in the
"in between time" right now, where riding a snowmobile is a bit of a challenge
(although not impossible) and riding an ATV or walking in the woods needs
to wait for the snow to leave. Perhaps Nora and I can take a waterfall
tour and snap some shots of those. I know it was always a tradition to
take the spring waterfall tour with the hounds, so it may sting a bit at
first, but we will have many of those moments for a while and I know they
would never want us to not have fun. So stay tuned... There are lots of
exciting times ahead for all of us!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
April 16-
The journal that I dreaded to have
to write, but was starting to fear was approaching, is finally here. Nora
and I had to lay Burt to rest yesterday. He had another flare up with his
arthritis on Monday and it was more severe and longer lasting than the
one he had Monday of last week. It got so bad that he could not walk and
could barely even stand. I called around to see if we could have him put
down on Monday, but all of the Vet's offices were booked with appointments
and the earliest we could get in was on Tuesday. I suppose if we had just
showed up with him and insisted on it taking place Monday they probably
would have been able to accommodate us.
Thankfully on our visit to the
vet last week, he gave us some pretty strong pain pills and when the flare
up hit this past Monday and it became obvious that we would be putting
him down, I called the vet to find out the maximum dosage he could be on,
knowing that we did not have to worry about any long term side effects
and immediately put him on that dosage. That seemed to relax him pretty
good, but he still did not have much usage out of his rear legs. His right
rear leg was totally lame and because his left leg was also in a very weakened
state, he just could not support his weight on it. So I had to carry him
where ever he needed to go all day Monday and even into Monday night. Nora
helped Monday night by getting the door for us as I carried him from the
bed out to where he went potty. At about 10 pm Monday Burt just wanted
to sit outside. I think the cold evening air helped to make him feel better.
So Nora and I both got bundled up and sat outside under the stars with
him for around an hour. It was pretty chilly to be sitting out there, with
temps in the low 30's, but it was also very peaceful and will be a memory
of him that both Nora and I will carry forever.
Yesterday he remained comfortable
and even started to get around on his own, but still struggled and even
fell a few times, so there was no question that putting him down was the
best thing to do. I was happy that he was pretty comfortable yesterday
and had a good day. I laid on the bed with him from around 8:30 to 10:30
and then we went outside for around an hour. It was sunny and the temps
were climbing through the 40's, so it was very comfortable to be out there.
He even got up and walked around a bit, finding some clean snow to eat
a bit. Nora came home from work early and we spent some more time on the
bed with him and outside in the sunny and warm air (was in the upper 50's
by the afternoon). I was glad that he also retained his appetite too. That
was the one thing that saddened me about the final day and a half with
Baileys that she did not want to eat much at all. They both loved to eat,
so being able to give him some turkey for breakfast was nice and I cooked
him up a nice big steak for this early dinner yesterday. He loved both
of them, which only added to the nice day he had yesterday.
So far the loss of Burt has
been harder on me than it was for Baileys. Not because I loved him any
more, but I think that when Baileys passed, I was able to lean on Nora
and Burt for support and really just throw all of the attention I paid
to Baileys into Burt. It still hurt a ton loosing Baileys, but my final
good bye to Burt at the vet was THE HARDEST thing I have ever had to do
in my life. He was already put to sleep, so it was just his body laying
there, but I just could not leave him. I must have turned to leave at least
a half dozen times and then dropped to my knees to lay with him one last
time. I was actually having a hard time breathing, it felt like my heart
was barely able to pump blood through my body and my legs could barely
hold me up. It has been 17 hours since I last saw him, but the memory of
him laying there is still etched in my mind and I still crave to be laying
next to him.
The one thing that Baileys passing
showed to Nora and I is that time will heal everything and make all good
again. I do feel better now than when we got home yesterday and I do know
that things will get better day by day, so I am not depressed or void of
hope. In fact, I do have lots to be thankful for. First and foremost I
am grateful to have Nora in my life. I honestly do not know how I would
get through this without her. She is just as deeply impacted by the loss
of Burt as I am and we will be a perfect support team for each other. Secondly
I am grateful for the chance to spend the last 12+ years with Burt. He
and Baileys changed my life profoundly in ways that I know no others could.
They taught me to live life one moment at a time. Not even one day at a
time, but one moment at a time. They also gave unconditional love, which
I tried my best to return to them. Many have told us that when they die,
if they come back to this world, they want to come back as a dog in our
house. That is a wonderful compliment, but the truth is, for as much as
we did for them, they paid it back 10 fold. That is what makes their loss
so hard. Our time with them was so special.
I am also grateful that Burt
and Baileys had such a wonderful life- especially once we moved up here.
We all lived the dream life of being able to explore all the wonders this
area has to offer. They got to swim all summer long, then take to the woods
to explore when it cooled off and once the snows started to pile up, we
could ski or hike the woods. Nora and I made a lot of sacrifices for them,
but it joys me to no end to know that they had the best life that we could
offer. I can sit back and recall all the fun time we had and do not wish
things were different at all. I am grateful that we have tons of pictures
and hours and hours of video to watch of them, so the memories will always
be able to kept alive. I am grateful that Burt did not suffer much in the
end. He did have some discomfort with the two flare ups, but the first
one only lasted about 6 hours and then the second we were able to ease
the pain with the medication in just a few hours as well. His last day
was actually spent in relative comfort as he did get around better- even
walking all around the vets office while we waited. He also got to do some
of his favorite things with us on his last day and it was even warm enough
that we could have the window rolled down all the way to the vets, so he
could have one last ride with his head out the window.
I am grateful that this all
did not happen when I was in Wyoming. I would have come home immediately,
but the stress that it would have put on all of us would have been very
bad. I am grateful that this did not happen when we were sick. I physically
would not have had the strength to carry him around for one and the combined
effects of how the illness made me feel and the sadness of his loss would
have compounded on each other to make life as miserable as it gets. So
although there is never a good time for this to happen, we really did luck
out that we were all physically and emotionally at full strength to handle
it.
There is likely lots more that
I could list that I/we are grateful for, but the last one is that we were
able to be at his side holding him and telling him how special he is and
how much we love him when he passed. We can only all pray to be so lucky
when it is our time. As with Baileys, it was very special to be able to
spend those last moments with him. It is very difficult for us, but for
him I can picture no better way. I know that the last feelings he felt
were the full force of all the love Nora and I could give him. The process
is also very peaceful. It would have been great to have had the process
take place at home like it did for Baileys, but that was an extra special
gift given to us by an extra special Dr that is no longer in the area.
I can say that the vet's office did have the room nicely set up, with a
big blanket on the floor for us to lay on with Burt. They did sedate him
a bit and he was fully relaxed when the time came. The actually process
is very quick. His heart stopped beating and he stopped breathing even
before all the drugs had been injected into his body.
I am sure that many of you feel
like you knew Burt through these writings, but many of you never met him
and althoug it would be an impossible thing to do completly, I feel the
need to try and share with you all what a wonderful dog he was. I know
every parent thinks their child is the best and most special and that goes
for pet owners as well, but Burt really was a special guy. Baileys was
the most outwardly loving dog I have ever known and Burt was the most gentile,
kind and caring dog I have ever known. Most persons that had the pleasure
to get to know him would all say the same thing that he seemed to be human.
He could understand most of what was being said and he always knew the
right thing to do. He came to the rescue of Baileys many a times and even
to the rescue (or thought she needed a rescue) of Nora. He never put himself
first, always giving way to Baileys and also giving way to Nora and I.
In his entire life, I think I can count the number of times I ever got
mad a him on one hand. He was really just that good and that special. It
might have taken a little longer for him to fully warm up to someone, but
he was never cold to anyone and once he let you into his inner circle,
you were treated with the up most respect and love. He genuinely cared
for us more than I think is humanly possible. If I would get upset at something,
he would come running to find out what and to calm me down and say everything
would be just fine. I think that had he known that he was about to be laid
to rest yesterday, he would have been very upset, wondering who would take
care of us once he was gone. He was just that smart and that caring of
a being.
He is missed and it will take
some time for the pain to wear off and only the good memories to be left
behind, but that is what will happen. It stings to look around and see
some of his items still lying around in the house and to see his paw prints
made in the snow over the past few days brings shortness of breath to me.
But I know I feel this way because he was so special and such a huge part
of my life and for that I am actually grateful. So the pain is hard, but
the root of the pain actually brings joy.
I am sure that there are those
out there that would like to recommend a new dog for us, we had some very
generous offers when Baileys passed away, but for now Nora and I are going
to swing it alone. To be selfish about it all, there are now things that
we can do with each other that we could not do when the dogs were around.
Things like take an all day ATV or snowmobile ride together, head to the
beach to spend all day there. The dogs loved the beach, but would just
not relax, especially Burt. We had to throw a stick into the water the
whole time we were there, or he would go nuts! We can go to dinner and
not worry about being gone too long. We can take a short vacation somewhere
that does not have to include the dogs. Heck, we will even sleep the entire
night without having to let them out. These are all things that I do not
regret not being able to do for the past 12+ years, but things that we
will look forward to doing now that we have the opportunity. So for now,
no new dogs. I am sure the day will come and if we need assistance in that
department, then I will be sure to ask for it.
So he is now with his sister
and they are having a blast to be sure. Someday Nora and I will be reunited
with them as well, but we still have a whole lot more living to do before
that happens! They taught us to live life to the fullest, each and every
day and each and every moment. To play with reckless abandon and sleep
with the same intensity. I do not know all that the future has in store
for us and am not all that concerned about it either. We have today and
we have this moment and that is all that really matters.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
April 13-
Well, winter is not going
down without a fight this year. Sort of like last year, but instead of
one giant storm, we are getting the snows in several installments. On Tuesday
we picked up about 4" of snow and then Thursday night through Saturday
morning we picked up about 11". That on top of the snows we had the week
before and this April will go down as a very snowy one. The good news for
the kids, the teachers and others that work at the schools is that this
latest storm provided a 3 day weekend for them, with schools canceled on
Friday. Nora being one that works at the schools had Friday off to hang
out with Burt and I.
It really came down for most
of the day on Friday. We had about 3-4" on the ground at daybreak and picked
up another 6" during the day on Friday and then another 2" overnight Friday
night. It was a pretty wet and heavy snow and so I had to use the snow
thrower to clear the driveway. It ended up taking me about a hour to clear
the driveway and I was pretty well soaked by the time I was done. Plus
I ended up breaking one of the shear pins for the front auger of the snow
thrower. They are there to break rather than put all that stress on the
gear box and engine, but that is the first one that I sheared all winter
this year. Thankfully it happened as I was just finishing up and I was
able to finish up the last little bit with only one side of the front auger
spinning.
Once I finished clearing the
driveway, I took a
front of the house shot. The roof had already cleared once for the
day, but the snows piled back up on it and later in the day another big
blob came off. The wet and heavy snow stuck to everything. Here is a
shot of the back yard, with the trees all frosted as well as the satellite
dish and the corner of the snow station. Good old Burt actually seemed
to enjoy the storm. He has always enjoyed rolling around in the snow and
when the driveway went from being bare to having snow back on it, he took
the opportunity to do some rolling
in the snow.
Burt actually gave us a bit
of a scare on Monday. We were going to Marquette because I had a dermatologist
and cardiologist appointment and also set up a visit to the vet for Burt's
annual vaccinations. Early Monday morning he suddenly became very restless,
was panting a lot and seemed very agitated. He was also not able to stand
up on his own. We called and got an earlier appointment at the vet. The
vet told us that his arthritis had gotten so bad that he could no longer
get up and was in pain. That seemed kind of weird to me as it seemed like
it was a very sudden thing that hit Burt, not something like arthritis
that seems a bit more gradual. However he did say that it is possible for
things to just change like that. I was not able to stay for Burt's appointment
as I had to go to the dermatologist, but he gave Nora some stronger pain
medication for Burt to see if it would help. Well, when I returned to pick
them up, they were outside in the parking lot and he was all relaxed. I
told Nora that at least it was good that the pain meds helped him out and
she said he had not even had any yet. They said to take with some food,
so we went and got some submarine sandwiches and gave Burt a bit of the
meat on mine and then a few pills. He was fine the rest of the day, even
being able to get up and around all by himself. We gave him some more pain
meds for another day or so, but then stopped them and he has been his regular
old self. He is still on some pain medication for his joints, but it is
the same stuff he has been on for years (something similar to Rymidal).
So I am wondering if he had a mini stroke or something, because the Dr
said his heart was fine at his visit and seemed to think his arthritis
was so bad that he had a very short time left before we would be forced
to put him down and that just does not seem to be happening (knock on wood).
He gets around as well as he was before- which is not all that good, but
at least he can stand up on his own and walk around outside for 5-10 minutes
and show no signs of fatigue. So really not sure what happened on Monday,
but we are glad that he is back to being his old self. We have been living
life one moment at a time with him for a long time now, but it was still
pretty sickening to be in that mode where we thought we would have to say
good by shortly.
The shop roof cleared itself
as well, as it has done all winter long. I always wondered how big the
snow pile would get from the snow sliding off the shop roof in a decent
winter. I'd say we are having a pretty decent winter when you add up all
the snow that has fallen since it started and here is my answer to how
big the snow pile would get. Right up to the eaves of the roof. That
is about 10 feet of snow there. I suppose I could call that the Allouez
Township Glacier and hold a contest to see when it would melt. It sure
would be a whole lot easier to keep an eye on! I meant to take a picture
of the Laurium Glacier when Nora and I went to town today, but forgot to
bring the camera. I will be heading down that way tomorrow, so will try
and remember the camera to take a shot of the current status. Although
because we now live about 20 minutes away vs. the 5 minutes away we were
before, do not count on the updates to be as frequent as they were before.
I had really thought that last
Saturday's ride would be the last ride of the season and I guess in a way
you can say it was- especially if you call the ride that I took yesterday,
the last, last ride of the season. I got a call from Brian Friday night
asking me if I wanted to go for a ride on Saturday and with all the snow
I figured it would be silly to say no. So I met up with him and Chico at
Brian's house and we took off from there. It was snowing, windy and a bit
chilly when I woke up on Saturday, but by the time we took off on our sleds,
the snows had stopped and the sun was even beginning to pop it's head out,
making for a nice
day for a ride. It's fun to ride when it is snowing heavily and there
is fresh powder coming over the hood, but it is also very nice to ride
when it is sunny and not too cold out. That is what we had on Saturday.
The temp climbed into the low 30's, but with the strong April sun, we were
able to stop and chat and never get cold. Plus the fresh snow allowed us
to make first tracks in
conditions like this all day.
The snow is still deep in the
woods up this way. Brian took us on some less traveled routes that proved
to get us into some of that deep snow. Here we are making
our way through a river bottom, with about 3 feet of snow still in
it. It looks like Brian was stuck there, but he actually stopped to help
Chico out and was able to get out of that spot he was in. We played around
back in the woods behind Brian's house for about 2 hours and then headed
over to Dave's house to pick him up. He had to stick around until about
12:30. We got there at a little after noon, hung out with him and then
headed out with our
group now a foursome.
The plan was to head to Gay
and then up to Gratiot Lake and then eventually work our way back down
into the valley. On the way to Gay we passed some hills that we will play
on from time to time and Dave took the opportunity to have a go at them.
The snow was not only still deep out there, but pretty sticky too and Dave
did not quite make it to the top. Here he is stuck
on his second attempt at the hill. The funny thing is he thought I
did not take a shot of him stuck here, because he did not see me get the
camera out, but this camera is smaller and easier to break out, take a
shot and then put a way, so I was able to get that all done without his
even knowing. To be fair to Dave, we all got stuck at least once yesterday,
some several times. My stuck was purely operator error and had nothing
to do with the equipment or conditions. My had just came off the throttle
on accident and by the time I was able to get back on the throttle, it
was too late.
As the day wore on, the sunshine
became more crisp and stronger and the snow started to get more and more
like mashed potatoes, but it was still pretty awesome to be riding in conditions
like this on April 12th. The fresh snow was deep enough in many places
to be able to carve around the corners and plenty deep enough to jump off
the snow pillows and have a soft landing. We made our way to Gay, but did
not even stop for gas or refreshments, but rather continued on our way
up towards Gratiot Lake. Matt had gone up there to plow snow and was going
to ride down and meet up with us. I was wondering if we would actually
meet up with him on the first attempt as there are a few different ways
to go along the route that we were taking. On our way up, we passed some
hills that Dave and Chico decided to stop and play on. Brian and I circled
back and played on them, which is were I proceeded to get stuck as did
Chico and Brian, but I do not believe Dave got stuck on those hills. While
we were all stopped and digging ourselves out, we heard Matt's sled off
in the distance, so once dug out we headed up to meet up with him. We actually
came upon his tracks, but they turned around about 200 yards from where
Brian and I circled back to go meet up with Dave and Chico on the hills.
We followed Matt's tracks through
the woods and in about 5-10 minutes met
up with him. It was great to see him again. I had actually not seen
him since Wyoming. I got sick soon after we got back and missed all the
rides the gang took in the weeks after we got back. I had seen Brian, Dave,
Al and Kenny at Al's shop on several occasions since being back and getting
feeling better. So now the riding group was up to 5 and of the regulars
in our group, only Al and Kenny were missing. It was too bad that they
could not be with us as it was a fun ride. Plus I think it is really neat
how our gang really enjoys riding with each other. Not to sound sappy or
anything, but we really have a lot of fun when we are out with each other.
We will poke fun at each other a bit, but it is all in jest and there are
never any arguments or negative feelings that occur. That make's all the
more fun to be with all of these guys and speaks a lot about the character
of each one of them as well.
Anyway, we had fun the rest
of the afternoon and early evening riding logging roads, playing on some
hills and in one of the jumping spots. After my near disaster of nearly
face planting it out in Wyoming on a jump, I have pretty much gone back
to taking only baby jumps off things like berms on logging roads or stumps
buried under a few feet of snow. So when we got to this jumping spot, I
just shut off the sled, replaced my helmet with a hat and grabbed my camera
for some action shots. It was a good thing I did because the jumping spot
we were at can be good some days and not so good for jumping others. Yesterday
it was good. Here is a shot of Matt
"stretching out" and getting ready to catch some air. As any good athlete
will tell you it is always a good thing to go through a stretching routine
before partaking in the real deal. Here is a shot of Matt
partaking in the real deal. The others also did some jumping at that
spot and here is a pic of Dave
catching some pretty good air. I don't put too many videos in the journal
because the use up a ton of bandwidth, but I did capture one of Matt jumping
and it is really worth giving up the bandwidth for and worth downloading
if you enjoy jumping shots. Anyway here is the
video of Matt jumping.
Soon after that we parted ways
with Matt as he had parked up that way and we still needed to make it back
down to the valley. We found our way to the main trail and took it down
to Phoenix, got some gas at the Vanesville and then I decided to just head
home from there rather than ride the bush all the way back to the valley.
It was already about 6:15 and I had been riding for over 8 hours and I
figured I could get home in about 15 minutes. Have dinner with Nora and
then we could drive down to Brian's and pick up Old Blue. So that is what
I did. On the way back I snapped a shot of the
main trail just south of Phoenix. Grooming has been over for a week
now, but the trail was still in very good shape. There looked to have been
a handful of sleds down the trail already, although other than one group
of sleds we passed just north of Phoenix, we did not see a single sled
or even another track from a sled all day.
So the last, last ride of the
season is over and it was a good one. Will there be a last, last, last
ride? Who knows. Like I felt after the last ride, I am content and do not
need to ride again. There will still be enough snow to ride on in the backcountry
next weekend. Up where we were yesterday north of here, there is still
3-4 feet on the ground and depending on the weather in the next 2 weeks,
there might even be enough snow left up there to ride on the weekend of
the 26th/27th. The trails will likely be shot in many areas before we get
to next weekend. I think our gang has had it's fill of riding. That is
unless next weekend provides for some decent waterskipping, then there
may be that last, last, last ride for the season next weekend. Only time
will tell. It has been a great season and with some genuine spring weather
coming this week, it will be nice to start getting ready for the warm season
activities.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
April 6-
Welcome to April everyone.
Not one of my favorite months, but so far I am in pretty good spirits about
it's arrival and the pending departure of winter. Actually, spring has
sprung around here. We have been warming into the 40's and even low 50's
just about every day and have lost about a foot of snow since last Wednesday
morning. How do I know that? Well, we have a vent for the septic field
and on Wednesday morning, it was still completely buried under the snow,
but as of right now, there is at least a
foot of it showing above the snow. There is probably still close to
2 feet of snow on the ground, but is is going. We have entire sections
of our driveway that are snow free and there is no snow above the septic
tank and snow is missing from where the water line runs. That last one
is pretty amazing to me as the water line is buried 6 feet below the surface
and it should not be putting out that much heat in the first place, but
it does, at least enough to melt the snow some. That is also the reason
why the snow by the snow stick on the AL Cam is not as deep. The snow stick
is sitting right on top of the water line! I thought the lack of depth
was because of the trees behind the snow station, but it is actually a
combination of the trees and the water line. In this shot you can actually
see where there is bare
ground where the water line runs behind the snow stick.
It is always a little weird
to see the first patches of bare ground. It has been 137 days since we
last had bare ground around here and it will likely be another 10-14 before
the majority of the snow is gone and could be another 3 weeks or more before
all the snow around the cabin is gone. There is a pretty large pile of
snow on the north side of the shop where it came off the roof. This past
Tuesday it was all the way up to the eaves of the roof so that means it
was about 9 feet deep. It has settled and melted some and is down about
a foot and a half right now, but that means there is still 7 1/2 feet of
snow to be melted there and that area does sit in the shade for a good
portion of the day.
The one thing that will be nice
about this spring as opposed to last spring is that once the snow melts,
we will have a lawn to green up. Last spring the snow melted and we had
mud to deal with. Both Nora and I are looking forward to being able to
sit outside with Burt in the evenings again and he is probably not thinking
about it but if he knew we were probably less than 2 weeks away from him
being able to sit outside with us, Burt would be very excited for the snow
to melt. That was one of his favorite things to do in the autumn and I
am sure it will be this spring too.
I am still chomping at the bit
to get going on building out the rest of the shop, but that will have to
wait even longer than for the snow to melt off. The road restrictions need
to come down so that the contractor can come in with the truck loads of
sand and the machinery to create the pad for the slab that the rest of
the shop will sit on. I am right at the top of the list to get that work
done. Typically the road restrictions come off the second or third week
of May, so we still have over a month to go before work will be starting.
In
the mean time I guess we will just have to rest up and maybe play around
on the ATV.
I had a pretty quiet week. I
did that on purpose so that I could play this weekend. I did go to the
doctor's on Monday and had some tests done just to make sure I was on the
road to recovery, but I could already tell that I was. Being able to lay
all the way down to sleep and being done with my fever and any body aches
pretty much spelled it out for me. Even so it is always nice to have the
medical tests confirm that my lungs were clearing up and other ailments
were getting better.
My resting all week did pay
off as I felt ready to play by Thursday. I still took it easy on Thursday
and most of the day Friday, but then Friday evening Skylar and his brother
arrived up here and we went out for an evening ride. That is one of the
unique things about still being able to ride at this time of the year.
We took off to go riding at 6:30 in the evening and still had a few hours
of daylight to be able to ride in. Here is a shot of me getting
ready to unload the 800 off of Old Blue at 6:30 in the evening. We
could have just ridden from the cabin, but they already had their sleds
on the trailer and the 800 was also loaded because I wanted to fuel it
up before they arrived, so we just decided to head up to a drop off spot
and then ride from there. Here we are taking
a break at about 7:30 in the evening. Still plenty of sun and still
pretty warm. I think it was about 50 degrees when that pic was taken. However,
by the time we finished riding the temp had fallen into the 30's and when
we got home the snow was already starting to be crunchy under foot.
There is still plenty of snow
to ride in up here, especially off trail. Baring some major meltdown this
week, I would imagine that even next weekend will provide the opportunity
to ride. I doubt that I will be heading out as I feel like I have gotten
my fill of riding for the season, but I never say never until all the snow
is completely gone, so we'll see. In any case, there was about 3 feet on
the ground where we rode Friday evening and that was enough to
get stuck in while trying to climb through the trees in the steep stuff.
Actually most of the reasons I got stuck this weekend were because of my
track slipping on the drivers. The track is plenty tight and I even tightened
it up after Friday's ride. Skylar's track was ratcheting too, so we figured
it must have been the thicker snow that was causing it to happen. In any
case, a stuck is a stuck and I have more than a handful this weekend!
On Saturday we trailered up
to Lac La Belle to ride with Troy and his son Zach. It was a beautiful
day for riding, with temps in the upper 30's to low 40's and lots of sunshine.
We headed off from the lodge at around 10 am and made a b-line to go play
on some hills up that way. My first run up did not turn out like I had
planned. I reached a large rock out cropping that still had some snow on
it, but not enough for me to climb. The track spun out on the rock and
the sled just sort of bunny
hopped to the right about 6 feet. Zach came next and got his sled stuck
about 10 feet from mine. Next came Skylar and he made it all the way to
the top. He stopped on the way down to help Zach and I get our sleds unstuck.
I made a second run of the hill and made it to the top that time.
After that we headed over to
some other play spots including some hills and Lake Addie and Lost Lake.
The hills again proved to be too much for some of us. Here is a shot of
Skylar
helping out Zach from a stuck. Riding in that mashed potato snow can
be a real challenge sometimes. You are riding along on top of the snow
and all of the sudden your sled sinks up past it's bumper in wet heavy
snow. It also seems to be an extra work out when you do get stuck because
the snow is so wet and heavy as well as sticky. Still a lot of fun to ride
in though.
After playing on enough hills
we stuck to some logging roads and even played on a few of the lakes. Here
is a shot of the gang
taking a break at Lost Lake. The lakes still had plenty of ice on the,
but were starting to get a little slushy on top, so we did not play on
them too much. No fun getting your sled stuck in deep slush on a lake.
Actually that has never happened to me, but I have heard some real horror
stories from others and it does not take too much imagination to picture
what it would be like to get your sled stuck in knee deep (or deeper) slush
on a lake. We also ventured our way to the big lake and spent about a half
hour sitting and relaxing
on the beach Saturday afternoon. Not too many places where you can
ride your sled down to the beach and sit and relax, catch some rays and
have a little snack.
We did not ride any trails on
Friday and did not ride a lot of trails on Saturday. However, the trails
we did ride on Saturday were in really
good shape. They had not been groomed in almost a week, but were still
flat and completely snow covered. The snow did get soft in the afternoon,
but that really did not make that much of a difference, other than you
wanted to put a few more feet between you and the sled in front of you
so that you would stay out of their spray. Now I cannot speak for all of
the trails up here, just those that we rode, but I would venture to guess
that from around Mohawk north, most of the trails were in the same shape
as those we rode on Saturday. I can say that the trail that runs through
Hancock is completely bare where it follows the road near the Citgo station.
That is about a 4-5 block stretch and it has been bare for over a week.
Not sure how the trail is holding up on the Houghton side and we did cross
the lift bridge today and I would strongly suggest persons stay off the
lake (most folks call it the "canal") between Houghton and Hancock. There
is already some open water starting to appear on it.
So I got my "final" ride of
the season in. It was a fun one and even better than no one was hurt and
no sleds were damaged. I can honestly say that I feel very content in my
riding season and would be perfectly fine with all the snow being gone
when I wake up tomorrow morning. That is not going to happen in fact there
are some ideas of us getting some fresh snow Tuesday of this week and then
again by later Friday into Saturday. I have not reached the point where
I am sick of snow and probably never will as long as I live, but at this
point I do not need to see any more and am ready for it to be all gone.
I hope that everyone has that same feeling of contentment and if not, then
I guess you could still get up here this week and play in the snow. The
trails may be closing though and you would need to make sure that you can
ride where you are riding, but there will be snow to play in up here for
at least another week.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
