An Affair

I fell in love tonight.

With Aurora

I'd heard about her.

I knew she was beautiful, but so elusive.

I've been looking for her.

And this morning, she found ME.

I woke up at 1:30  and looked out my window.  And there she was.

A few days ago, I really didn't know what the Aurora Borealis looks like to the naked eye.  We all see those beautiful, colorful waves of COLOR in the videos and photos people are able to shoot of Aurora. What I didn't realize is that a human's rods, or cones, I forget which one, don't work very well for color at night. Your camera, if it's a smarter one that MINE, can capture the colors more than your naked eye.

What I saw tonight was this:

When I look to the north, normally, since there are no towns or cities directly north of me, it's usually just a starry sky.  Tonight, it looked like there was a huge city of lights, just hidden over the hill. It started with a huge glow covering the whole of the north. I tried to wake Bob up, but he is less than impressed by the fact that Aurora is not a Neon Princess like they show her on TV.  So I watched her for a while, and then invited Jordan (night owl) to come and watch. I found out he has a slow shutter speed app on his iPhone, and he was able to capture this:

 What was amazing is that I had always heard that you had to get far away from every light source (like the big street light right in front of my neighbor's house, and a second one right across the road) or else you might not see the Aurora.  Surprise.  I could see it with my naked, near-sighted-contacts-in-the-case-for-the-night eyes.  It was bright.  And I was thrilled to see the green show up in Jordan's picture.

After that, I tried to go to bed.  I really did.  But, I kept having to check one more time.

Finally, 3:00 AM, I looked and

Aurora. was. DANCING!

Long ripples from the horizon to the top of the Big Dipper and sometimes higher.  Flashes like lightning.  And pillars of light like hidden spotlights over the hill, shining up into the sky for miles and miles!

Okay.

If you are a Yooper, or a random reader who somehow found your way to this blog from Norway or Reykjavik, you may be stifling a little yawn listening to me go on and on about something you see out your back door every night or so.

But if you haven't seen what I am talking about,

Get in your car.

Point it north.

Drive until you almost hit Lake Superior or so.

I dragged a bleary-eyed, but otherwise perfect husband out of bed to see what I saw.

He tottered right back off to bed, without REALLY seeing what I saw.

And Aurora kept dancing.

So I had no choice.

I got dressed.

Went outside.

Scared a deer, who was also watching Aurora.

And danced with her.

Actually, I stood, shivering, on the back patio, in awe.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In the midst of all the dancing, right in the middle of all the lights, there was a fireball from the Taurid meteor shower that is currently the OTHER thing to be watching in the night sky these days.

It made me laugh. And then I clapped for God.

And the dance continued.

Finally, when she showed no sign of stopping, I came inside and tried to download a program onto my phone that would allow me to capture SOMETHING.  The only one I found so far (my only consultant and resident iPhone expert was sleeping) was able to show me colors, but also lots of NOISE in my shots.

Siggghhhh.

You either get it, because you have seen it, or

Well...

Just drive north, please.

Anyway, 3:49, and Aurora is sleeping.

I should be too.  And I will.  After I think about the dance just a little more.

The Road WAY less Traveled

I took the longcut to work today.

Why isn't that a word?  It should be.

After dropping Bob off at E-TC school this morning (he's subbing for music, and I am an evil woman, because that makes me smile....forgive me please, O love of my life?), I took the truck (my car has alternator problems), into the forest.  There is a longcut (yes, I'm going to use this non-word, because I LIKE IT), from the Ewen Cemetery (Cemetery Road) that connects to Forest Road 730, which comes out on M45, which is the highway I take to work.

I am so glad that daylight savings time is over.  That means I can stand to get up earlier, because it won't seem like the middle of the night.

I am not a morning person.

I am NOT a morning person.

But, if I can get up and drive through a forest as the sun rises, well, I may just have a change of heart.

Because. Wow.

Here it is, November 4.  The sun up here is tracking way farther south already, hinting at some seriously short days to come.  In spite of that, and the lack of foliage, the forest is beautiful.

It was just a little foggy this morning.

Cemetery Road is paved at first, then goes to gravel (read clay, mud, or sharp rocks that eat your tires).  Before it becomes the forest road, there are quite a few camps.

I would love to show you some more of the cute little cabins and well loved (pick one or more) toys, tools, big sheds, outhouses and other buildings, funny signs, garden gnomes, little fishing dudes sitting on wishing wells, and other doodads, but I don't want to seem snoopy by stopping and taking pictures (I just drive slow and stare...duh).  Some people (like me) would appreciate complete privacy at camp; others would probably invite everyone in for a beer (even at 8 AM), and I don't know who is which.

Once you cross into the Ottawa, there are roads but no camps, logged and unlogged areas, and nature, nature, nature.   I was completely alone on the road this morning.  So I could take my time (and I did...soooo late for work), and see what there was to see.

even naked trees are beautiful

it's for sure not endive....I don't KNOW what it is!

more mossy stuff (unidentified)

I could see this hole a long ways away.  It looks STRANGE in the center.

At least some of it.

I KNOW there are so many critters I don't see, even driving slow.  It was warm enough to keep my windows down and listen.  I heard a Red Squirrel cheeping at me.  I looked and looked for said Red Squirrel, and here is my best picture:

No, I don't see him, either.  If you spot him, PLEASE let me know.  He was RIGHT THERE.

I also got several BAD pictures of birds.

bad chickadee....he taunted me and then wouldn't sit still for his portrait

bad woodpecker....he had things to do and places to be

Worthless, but noisy, and fun to watch.  This is why you need to drive over and join me some morning, or any other time (Work?  Who needs it!), for a falk in the worest. or a frive in the dorest...either one...I'm game.

Anyway, all good things must come to an end, and I came to the beginning of the forest road (I know that seems backwards, but that's where the signs are), and onto highway 45 for my drive north.

don't worry...I stayed on the road

I was north of Rockland this morning when one more thing slowed me (to a complete stop, actually) down.

Rumble in the Jungle!

can you see eagle number two?

Five or six eagles, plus one crow (brave soul) fighting over some roadkill.  I see that a lot here.  If a deer dies, sometimes it takes days, but the scavengers will make it disappear.  In the summer it's mostly Turkey Vultures, but now, the Bald Eagles are the supreme beings. I have seen a fox, ravens and crows, and a Rough-legged Hawk fighting over their yummies in this manner, too.  Thank God there are no hyenas in the UP!  Anyway, the eagles posed nicely for me, at least when they took a break from fighting.

just minding their own business, feaking their beaks (Look it up.  It's a thing.), when....

vicious surprise attack!

What did I tell you?  Rumble!

temporary truce (and more feaking)

even more

gorgeous 

am I right?

Anyway...today's Rumble even topped the reason I was late YESTERDAY.  Even though yesterday's distraction was cuter, I think.

don't wake me, can't you see I'm mostly NOCTURNAL?!!!

getting ready to attack!

or slay me with cuteness

I even made a movie, as the porcupine started to move.  But then I felt guilty, because either I scared him, and he was coming down the tree to hide, or he was a vicious attack porcupine, rushing (at .00005 mph) to get me.  You decide.

Anyway.

I am in awe.

Quite often, actually.

I hope wherever you are, you are able take time to be late for work sometimes, just so you can see the stuff God put out there for everybody to see.

PS:  I got to work (late) and was supposed to meet some guys about the heat in our shop.  They came in twenty minutes later than me, something like an hour late.  I am beginning to think it's the way things work around here.  I call it Yooper time.  And can you blame anyone?  Too much distraction (porcupine!!!!). It's good to live in the UP!

Turning the Corner--Four Months Later

If I go up the road to the north, and turn left at the first intersection, I am on Blacksmith Road.

There is no blacksmith.

I need to find someone to tell me the story on a lot of things around here. Like where the blacksmith lived, when there was a blacksmith, and where he

So much time has past.

For us, it's only been four months.

You can tell when you drive around here that a lot of things have changed.  Many, many people have moved on, in one way or another.  The original settlers built beautiful homesteads.  Lots of buildings, big and small.  So many of them still stand...some but barely.

The going is tough.  If you check the demographics, people here are working hard and not making a very good living.  But they keep on trying.  They are creative about how to make money, and how to feed their families. They have gardens, raise many kinds of livestock, horses,

and Jesus donkeys....

ducks, geese, guineas, and have beehives.   I suspect that people around here have helped restart the pheasant and turkey populations.

girl pheasant sneaking up to our bird feeder--she has camouflage

he thinks he has good camouflage

or if he stands still, I won't see him

 People feed deer, sometimes so they can look at them,

boy deer

girl deer

they spend most of the night in our yard, mom and baby

but mostly so they have a healthy population to hunt.  There is one farm I enjoy driving by that has lots of fenced in areas that they move around, almost daily, in order to get fresh grazing areas for pigs, chickens and goats, and various other small animals.  They also have a big white dog, who, I assume, protects everything from the various predators that roam the area.  I think she is a Maremma, like our friend Sadie, here.

I would love to have chickens someday, and a big white dog like Sadie.  But that is down the road a ways, and around a few corners, too.  I have many many acres I could use for growing stuff at our camp, and also a smallish fenced in garden here in Paynesville, that has been totally taken over by the prairie.  We planted some asparagus plants at our camp, because that's a crop that seems to take time to establish.

We have time.

I guess.

If you know me, or have read this blog, you know I'm not patient. And even though we've accomplished a lot in four months, we have a lot to do.

But I think we've turned a corner.  This has been a good week.

Bob even felt lucky enough to buy a lottery ticket.  

Some of the happy things that have occurred this week is that Bob is now, finally, a real attorney in the state of Michigan.  The judge who swore him in yesterday even gave him his first case here.

I have a new piano student.  He is 60-something. His name is Ed. I can't wait to work with him.

Bob has been subbing at Ewen-Trout Creek.  Really.  Today he was the PE teacher. Unfortunately, he only got to work with the older kids today, not the costume-wearing-amped-on-Halloween-candy little ones I saw running about.

I have been working in the shop.  I have composed three piano pieces inspired by the weather. Really.

I've also stocked up on my favorite to make, quirky crocheted item, my soon-to-be-famous-and-worn -by-EVERYONE-who-is-SOMEONE-armwarmers.

I have four kinds of soap for sale, that I think smell DELICIOUS.

cucumber oak, chocolate coffee, macintosh apple, shave and a haircut

I've started printing greeting cards with my favorite bird characters on them.

find the non-bird

AND, this week, I became a professional author.  Really.  Check out http://pioneersettler.com/how-to-crochet-scarf-no-pattern/  If you want.  I even got paid (which I know you know, since I said professional).

I also got two checks in the mail this week I didn't expect.

And I bought new boots, so I can make it through the drifts this winter. Because I LOVE winter :)

I should have other good news to report in my next post as well.

Whew.  I feel better.

Hopefully, turning this corner means things will get a little easier around here. Or else I may just have to start raising chickens.  Or become a blacksmith, if Bob doesn't beat me to it.

Oh, How I Wish You Were Here

I wish you were here.

I do. Every day.

I want you to see where I live now, to understand what it is about this place that every day makes me exclaim out loud about its ever-changing beauty.

I want to show you my new home, my little house in the middle of the old Finnish farmlands of Paynesville, surrounded by ancient tree-covered mountains.  I want to cook a meal together in my funny green kitchen, sit on my new comfy (green) couch and talk about anything and everything until everyone else goes to bed.

I want you to drive to work with me and see what I see every day, the breath-taking valley, the Ontonagon River, or just north of Rockland, my first view of Lake Superior, whose shade indicates the weather for that day, gray and stormy, or clear, clear blue.

I want to take you bird-watching with me, so we can see the white crows by Bruce Crossing, or look for early Snow Buntings, or maybe a Snowy Owl.  I want you to help me find the blue pheasant that Bob saw, and drive the forest roads and show you all the different types of forests.

I want to count the eagles with you.

I want to show you the clear white of the Aspens in Aspen Meadow.

I want to show you the mother deer (birdseed eater), who watches me with huge calm (but guilty) brown eyes through my kitchen window as I make supper.

I want to show you our shop in Ontonagon, which has already inspired me so much to get in touch with my creative side, which has remained dormant for so long.

Mostly, I want to see your face, and know that you are fine and happy, and growing more and more into your own self, into the wonderful, loving person I know you are.

And I want to tell you that I think about you every day, and wonder if you are truly happy in your world, which is very different than mine.

I want to talk to you about things that you and I love and dream about and are inspired by.

And I want to give you my blessings to go wherever and be whatever makes you feel as happy and fulfilled as you can be.

And I hope that in the midst of your life sometime, you will find the time to want to see and know this place where I am now...so far away from you.


Oh, how I wish you were here.

Every day.