How You Know Your Living in the U.P.

You know your a yooper when . . . the day before deer season opens (saturday), standing outside on a ladder painting trim on the house, and you feel like your in a war zone because of all the gun fire. Now this isn't just people "sighting" their guns, or there would be more than just a single shot from the same location. There were single shots every 10 -15 minutes from different places all around me. We live on a hill and have well over a mile view to the south, and the shots were singular and from various distances from different directions. It was obvious that deer were dropping . . . a day early. Standing outside painting on saturday morning, and I felt like I was in the middle of a combat zone, I have to say was an interesting experience. No buck has a chance from here to Milwaukee. I was just hoping that everyone was a good shot and that no stray bullets would make their way to the house. You also know your a yooper in deer season when you go to a school to see some kids for O.T. (Baraga School) and it's closed for the "holiday" (opening of deer season). Oh boy. So with the free 1/2 hour I had before my next appointment . . . I fished. I was going to take the tackle box and pole out of the trunk of my car, but with these decent days, they are still there. In the U.P. I don't think your considered a real man unless you hunt and fish. Hey, at least I have 1 of 2, right?

Late Halloween Post

Here is a picture of Bella at Grandma's house before we went out trick-or-treating. Ruby shoes and all. We went Friday night, the 3oth, to downtown Houghton to walk around with the community trick-or-treating to the businesses and had a riot. The local paper had a photographer taking pictures of all the costumes, and when we walked by he snapped a picture and said that Breanna's costume was "the best I've seen all night". She is so funny. The week I was in Chicago, the family watched the Wizard of Oz and I guess Breanna was glued to her chair for the entire movie. She has since watched the Wizard of Oz certainly 20 times, maybe more. The first time someone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, her response was exactly this "I'm going to be Dorothy Gale, from Kansas". Now how does a 2 year old know Dorothy's last name and where she's from? I guess it comes from multiple viewings of her favorite movie, especially when Glenda, the good witch is asking if Dorothy is a good witch, or a bad witch. I have had Wizard of Oz songs stuck in my head for over a month. All day long I'm humming or singing a different show tune from the movie. I have to listen to other music in order for it to go away. Sometime soon, I even might need medicine to "make the songs stop". I suppose there is worse things to have stuck in my head, that is for sure.

We have been relatively healthy. They have at one point closed most of the local schools for a few days related to the virus. Everyone in the family has now had the vaccine so hopefully we will be spared from the dreaded H1N1. Kameron caught pneumonia after a soccer game in which he stood in the snow/rain mix for an hour. He plays defense, and his team seems to always be on offense, so he stood in the freezing precip for an hour. Every once in a while the ball will come to him, just past mid-field, he'll kick the ball almost up and into the other goal and again, he stands waiting for the ball to come back to him. It isn't too often the ball will get by Kam. Sure enough though, he had pneumonia several days later, and he is just now clearing the rest of the crud out of his lungs and sinuses. Breanna had an ear infection at the same time, but nothing too major. Kellen has been the healthiest one among us and has been spared anything at all. Not even a sniffle (better knock on wood for that one).

The weather has been really weird. While the rest of the country is getting pounded by snow and freezing temps, we have been having the greatest Indian Summer I can ever remember in the 7 years of being in the U.P. Last Saturday, we were in the mid 60's and without a breeze it sure felt like 70. We got a lot of work done saturday in preparing for the pending winter. My feet were killing me Sunday and Monday. Just now getting over the 15 hours of chores on my feet Saturday. I know . . . poor, poor jonny! There still is a lot left to do before winter finally takes hold. I hope that we can get it all done. I would love to get the canoe out one more time before it is too cold and do some northern pike/muskie fishing, but taking the time away from all that needs to be done makes it difficult to justify the play. All work and no play makes for a very dull day. . . . indeed.