Babysitting...

When was the last time you totally jammed out to kids music? Played baby tigers? Spent a whole hour trying to get two kids to go to bed? Well, that's what I did this evening, plus some:) It was a nice change and totally different kind of challenge after spending all day studying ECG's in and out of class. Lunch included stimulating conversation with Sarah and Emily at a Greek restaurant, but other than that, it was a day of ECG overload. After walking by my old hospital floor and tying up some loose ends on this and that at work, I dropped by home barely in time to leave to babysit four kids, ages 7 1/2 to 1 1/2, three boys and little girl.

Spring is in the air! Everyone and their dog were out running today! Just walking the 4 or so blocks home, I must have seen 4-5 people running or walking with a dog. The grass is beginning to show in places in the front yard! Are you catching the excitement!!!

Melting

"Sunshine cannot bleach the snow

Nor time unmake what poets know."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

After class today, a friend and I went for a long walk and talk along the river. It was in the 40's today, and the coat became unnecessary as we trudged through the melting snow! See! Bits of grass are showing through and the ice on the river is cracking!
I have thoroughly enjoyed the winter, but it is exciting to have more sunshine, see some ground, and even hear the first few birds chirping. A few days ago, we had the fluffiest snow imaginable. I hated to brush it off of my car and wanted to take pictures instead, but alas, I had to go to work. Even with signs of warm weather, we will probably get a few more snows before Narnia completely melts into spring. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and snow! Here's how I feel about it:

"To appreciate the beauty

of a snow flake,

it is necessary to stand out in

the cold."

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old aquaintance among the pines." Henry David Thoreau
"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." John Ruskin

Note: only the first two photos are from today.

Winter Sea Caves

We debated as to whether it would be worth making the trip to Bayfield yet again simply on the hopes that the sea caves would be half as spectacular as the few pictures I had seen. Wow! It was well worth the time!
The picture above is a personal favorite. Fairyland? Is this real? Erin taking a picture, gloves and ski pole aside.No, Erin is NOT suspended, and no photo editing was done!

While there appear to be pools of water in some of these photos, its all ice, except in the photo below, where a stream did run into the lake.

Ice, ice, ice

I think the above ice formation looks like a mushroom.

Me with an ice shard. The lake ice sometimes shifts apart creating cracks. Other times, it crunches together creating upheavals and ice shards such as this one.

New meaning to black ice. It's interesting to stand on it and look down a foot into it. On the left is Erin on an ice slab.

Sea Caves

This is a sample of the over three hundred pictures that I took on our sea cave exploration day. Come back for more later!

Northern Wisconsin

Northern Wisconsin is a land of its own. There is nothing like the great waters of Lake Superior to invoke respect for the depth and force of water. The largest of the great lakes, it is also the coldest and deepest. However, the power it holds is of a totally different nature in the winter months. This hardly slows down the northern at heart, for winter brings ice fishing, dog sledding, snow mobiling, skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, running, you name it! http://www.wisconsinstories.org/2001season/cold/cotherman_essay.html

A bit of Bayfield, population 611, above.

In fact, this area is anything but dead and quiet, though the sail boats are hibernating and the town appears smothered with snow!Below is the first ice fisherman we saw on the lake.Necessary traits of an ice fisherman: patience, patience, patience. This fellow is on his third day and...

...his first fish. What person would be better to explain fishing than a retired Bayfield school teacher? His hands looked numb, but he gladly explained the technique to us. Using an auger, he drills a small hole through the 18" of ice. With his wire line, he lowers the bait to the bottom of the lake, which was 130 feet in that place. That's where he is most likely to find the lake trout. Other Lake Superior catches include salmon and whitefish. The flashlight looking instrument actually tells the lake depth and the presence and depth of a fish.
We figured it was worth the risk to drive the 2.5 miles from Bayfield to Madeline Island on the well established ice road that was opened about a month ago.
On Saturday the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce hosted the Apostle Islands Run on Water http://www.bayfield.org/pdf/2008ROW_RegistrationForm.pdf, a five mile run to and from Madeline Island.Below is Ice Angel IV, a windsled used for transportation to and from Madeline Island and Bayfield when the ferry can no longer run but the ice is not thick enough to drive. http://www.windsled.com/lpw.htm

For Madeline Island 8th-12th graders, this is the form of transporation for a while to school in Bayfield. The Husky is the handy rescue sled.