What I did over Thanksgiving vacation:
So first of all Rob, Carrie, Sarah, Mike, Zach, Kathie and my Dad came up the weekend of the 18th and 19th for the end of the futility that has been Iowa’s football season. That week we lost to a very mediocre Minnesota team. It remains to bee seen who we will lose to in the Alamo bowl but that should be settled this weekend.
Other than the football game there was lots of fun activity, going to woodworking stores, eating and seeing the new James Bond movie. We had a chocolate cake from the ‘50s grill to celebrate all the Novemberish birthdays, even if everyone couldn’t be present.

Sunday after everyone cleared out Sandy and I loaded up our rented truck and I headed up to our property for a week of working on what is now referred to as the cabin (formerly the sauna). Sandy had to work Monday-Wednesday so I was on my own until Thursday.
I arrived well after dark (it gets dark just after 4pm up there) unpacked the truck and arranged a place to sleep in the cabin. It was a cold night, six degrees but Lucy and I managed ok. The next morning the lake had frozen over completely and as the sun came up the ice started expanding and there were about two hours worth of interesting sounds coming from the ice. I wish I had a recording of it.
After the cold night my goal was to get the wood burning stove installed so I’d have a heat source for the remaining nights. Of course the rest of the week the temperatures were in the 30s and 40s for the most part even at night. Most of the work revolved around installing the chimney and stove pipe and then insulating the attic area. It was a long day but I managed to get through it all.
Much of the next two days were spent installing the pine tongue and groove paneling we had bought at Menard’s back in October. Wednesday and Thursday I built and installed framing for the windows and door. In the early afternoon on Thursday I took a “shower” which consisted of a five-gallon bucket of water I had warmed on the woodstove. I stood out on the deck in the sun and washed up as well as I could, it was chilly.
After the shower I drove out to the gate and unlocked it so Sandy and my Mom could get in when they arrived. I saw lots of wolf tracks along the road on the way out to the gate, I’m pretty sure most of them were less than 24 hours old.
After that I went back and removed and reinstalled the windows since they had just been temporarily mounted in October and then finished up some of the trim stuff inside. Sandy and Mom arrived around 7pm I think, I had been hoping they’d show up with a nice Thanksgiving feast but no one had the energy to do much cooking at that point. So Sandy whipped up some pasta and we saved the grilled turkey breast for the next night.
Friday and Saturday were spent putting the “siding” back on the outside, this was a big job and I didn’t really expect to finish it but Sandy became kind of fixated on getting it done. She yelled at me a few times to get back to work, and with a few additional hours Sunday morning we managed to get through it.


Here's a bit of what the inside looks like now.

This is the finished product outside.
We did manage to have some fun while we were there, Sunday morning my Mom and I (accompanied by Lucy) went skating for about an hour. The ice was thinner than I would’ve preferred but was at least two inches thick everywhere we went and it was nice and smooth.

Saturday morning Sandy and I walked over to visit our neighbor Mr. Nelson. He directed his nephew to give us a tour of the place which was interesting. He has two cabins a workshop a sauna and an outhouse. One of the cabins was his original building on the lot. It originally came from a resort on Brule lake that closed in the ‘60s Jim purchased it at a government auction, disassembled it and hauled it by hand into his lot where he put it back together. It’s always kind of an interesting lesson in local history being around Jim.

Sandy and I have new email addresses.
I don't want to print the whole thing here on account of the spambots. But if you use the the beginning of our old addresses followed by @comcast.net you should be able to get either one of us.

11/5/06
OK so obviously it's not a good idea to make a post like the previous one and then not follow up in a timely fashion.
There has been a lot of concern and questions about Lucy. Let me state for the record that she is fine. Well she seems to be fine anyway. It's been almost two weeks since her little episode and we haven't seen any similar symptoms since. If anything she seems a little perkier than she was before our week up there. She's been going out for runs with Sandy and has actually been running (as opposed to exploring and rolling around on her itchy back). We're hopeful that the whole thing was caused by something she ate or drank and that it won't happen again.
Also if anyone has been avoiding calling us our phone is working again. It turned out that the problem was in the wire that goes from the phone pole to our house.
Here's an update on what we did during our week up on our property:
The goal was to turn the "sauna" into a well insulated small cabin that we can use year 'round but particularly in the winter if we want to ski in and spend a weekend. Here's what it looked like before we started

It looks cute (especially with the little icicles along the edge of the roof) but trust me it was a total dump. I bet there were at least two pounds of mouse crap in there plus you could see right through the walls in a lot of places.
So we made a trip to Menards which Sandy hated (she claims we were there for 3 hours) bought a bunch of supplies and rented a truck and headed north.

The weather was very cooperative most of the week, it did snow a few times but never very much and it did rain one afternoon which was kind of frustrating. Here's what the tent looked like our first morning.

We stripped the sauna down to the framing cleaning out all the poop infested insulation and the junky stuff inside it. One of our main goals was to install a regular exterior door because we wanted it to be airtight and well insulated. The problem was that the thing was only 77 inches floor to ceiling and a standard door is 81.5 inches tall. So to make the door fit we had to raise up the roof. We accomplished this by bracing up all the framing and then lifting the whole thing up by 11.5 inches and then re-attaching the corners. You can see in this picture that it's in the process of being lifted and that the 4x4s on the corners have been cut and are lifted away from the floor.

Once the lift was done we removed all the studs (except the corners) and replaced them with full length studs. Originally it was my plan to take the full length studs out of the house, but after looking I decided there wasn't anything in that place that could be removed without causing the whole thing to collapse. So I made a trip to town and got some new studs and other supplies.
We had bought a door at Menards and saved the windows when we remodeled the kitchen. Here's some of the new framing in place and more in progress. Sandy was beginning to work on the foam insulation

We were really getting tight for time at this point so everything was a big rush and kind of stressful. But with a good boost of help from my Mom and Dan we managed to get the fiberglass insulation up on the inside and the tyvek on and the windows in place. Then on Sunday morning we got the door installed and the Sandy got the tyvek finished and taped on the seams. So this is what it looks like right now

I'm hoping to go back up the week of Thanksgiving to finish up some things like installing the woodstove and the paneling inside.

10/24/06
As I write this I’m sitting in our tent on our deck at Kemo lake. It’s 7pm and quite dark, there are lots of stars out. I’m eating some cold Pagliai’s sausage pizza and just got done reading some articles about the Iowa Michigan game the other day (downloaded before we came up here.) Lucy is here with me, curled up in a little ball with her tail over her nose trying to keep warm. It’s 28.4 degrees and there’s some snow on the ground and some ice on the lake, neither an appreciable amount.
Sandy left for town about two hours ago, she’s got a birdwatching thing tomorrow and Thursday so it’s just me and the dog until then.
We took vacation this week to come up here and try to convert our “sauna” that came with our property into a small, well insulated, wood stove heated cabin that we can ski to in the winter and spend a few days enjoying the alternating quiet and snowmobiles. We really only enjoy the quiet.
We came up Sunday morning hauling a bunch of building materials and tools in a rented Dodge pickup truck, it handles the “driveway” much better than our Jettas do.
The temperature got down into the upper teens Sunday night so it was chilly in the tent. Sandy slept with her new hat on which looked funny (too dark to get a picture) but we were warm enough in our sleeping bags and Lucy just curled up against my legs for a little extra warmth.
We got a fair amount of work done Sunday and Monday, I’ll do a separate post about the process of rehabbing this thing. I’m trying to do step by step photos as we go.
In the early afternoon on Monday Sandy noticed that Lucy was acting strangely. At first it seemed like she was frightened about something. She’d be walking along and suddenly stop like she saw something in her way and then take a few steps back. My first thought was there might be wolves in the area, out of sight but close enough for Lucy to smell. This had me a little alarmed for about 10 seconds until I remembered that wolves are a lot more scared of us than we are of them. It also quickly became clear that Lucy was not actually seeing or smelling anything but rather that she was disoriented and confused.
She kept doing this thing that Sandy called stopping short as she walked aimlessly around the driveway. She had trouble going up and down even one or two steps and would walk very close to some things like bushes and the house and shy away from other things.
We observed this for about ten minutes while we discussed what was wrong with her and what our options were. Our theories were vision problems, hallucinations, stroke, aneurism etc…
We finally decided we needed to get her some medical attention so we loaded up the truck and headed for Grand Marais. After 45 minutes on the road we were at Obie and Kathleen’s house in town. Kathleen let us use the phone to try to find a vet. There’s only one in Grand Marais and she doesn’t deal with emergencies, she suggested we go to Two Harbors or Duluth and wished us luck. We called Cindy Hansen to see if she had any suggestions, she said the Grand Marais vet was good but kind of difficult and if she was being uncooperative the alternatives in Two Harbors and Duluth were good too. We also called my Mom on her cell phone, she’s in Grand Marais with Dan on a weeks vacation, being a nurse and former resident of Grand marais we thought she might be helpful.
She suggested we meet her at their cabin which we did. The dog’s behavior wasn’t getting any better. My Mom made some calls to some local friends but came up with the same result we had already gotten. We decided to make the drive to the emergency pet clinic in Duluth.
Lucy was relatively calm in the car I think because she couldn’t move around much. It was a long drive and was after 6pm when we got there.
I just went out to take a look at the stars before getting in my sleeping bag, it’s 7:45 and totally dark. The sky is full of stars and it’s totally silent. Much different than a Spring or Summer night when there are lots of frogs and insects making noise. The only thing I can hear right now are noises I’m making and the dog breathing. If I stop typing I can hear a sound which I assume has something to do with blood circulating through my ears or something. It’s also feeling much colder although the thermometer says 27.5, I suppose it’s because I’ve been sitting still for so long.
Anyway, back to Lucy’s condition. We got checked in and the assistant did an interview with us and took Lucy’s temperature then the vet came in. He was quite nice and as helpful as he could be under the circumstances. He checked her vision, looked in her ears all the usual stuff and couldn’t fine a visible external cause. We had a lot of talk about things she could’ve ingested, rat poison and anti-freeze in particular. We brought up the rat poison because there is some in the cabin but we aren’t aware of any that she could get at, it’s all on the 2nd floor and she can’t get up there. He didn’t feel her symptoms were indicative of rat poison anyway. Anti-freeze seemed more likely from her behavior but we can’t figure out a way that she could’ve gotten into anything like that up here.
The vet felt that the two most likely causes were some toxin that we weren’t aware of and we all agreed that that wasn’t very likely or some sort of neurological problem, probably a tumor of some sort in her brain. He felt like it was probably a tumor and suggested several diagnostic things we could do but pointed out that unless we were willing to have brain surgery done on her there wasn’t a lot to be gained by things like x-rays and cat scans. He further pointed out that brain surgery on a 12 year old dog is pretty traumatic and might not be any more humane than letting things run their course.
We asked lots of questions and had lots of discussion about possible toxins, ran a blood screen to rule out liver problems/enzyme imbalances (negative) and after some more thought talked about what happens if it is a brain tumor. Sounds like we could expect her condition to deteriorate fairly quickly possibly over a few months and have some things like seizures to deal with as well. Basically all we can do is wait to see how things progress.
The last thing the vet said was that we should hope for it to be a toxin of some kind in which case she might recover relatively quickly but that we should be prepared for the more likely probability of it being a tumor, and that we should get her looked at again by our regular vet in a couple weeks.
With that we got back in the car, hit a Quiznos (which I can never go to without thinking of that weird commercial with the Furby looking things singing the weird songs) and headed back to Grand Marais.
Dan had arranged a cabin for us at Anderson’s cabins in Croftville so we didn’t have to drive all the way back up to the lake that night. We put Lucy on the bed with us so she’d be more comfortable, she was very alert and edgy constantly looking around at things in the dark, but after a couple of hours of that she fell asleep around midnight as did Sandy finally. She was kind of twitchy during the night but seemed to sleep soundly.
This morning I got up took a shower and took the Lucy outside while Sandy took a shower. She (Lucy) seemed much more together after a good night’s sleep the stopping short and drunken wandering had vanished. She was still pretty unsure of her ability to go up and down steps and it took a lot of coaxing to get her down the rocky hill to the beach along Lake Superior to go for a walk. But once we were down on the gravel she semed pretty sure of herself. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and hopeful after the dire feelings the night before, but still apprehensive of how things might go over time.
We had breakfast at the South of the Border café and then after a quick trip to Joyne’s drove back up here to try to get back on track with the sauna projct.
Lucy has been good the rest of the day today, eating and drinking normally and resting a lot. She even jumped into and out of the truck a couple of times which is a pretty hefty jump, it sits up really high.
So at this point I’m hopeful and worried at the same time about her. Trying to watch her behavior for signs of a problem and probably overanalyzing everything she does. We checked the house again for rat poison and Sandy checked Lucy’s poop (with a stick) for any evidence.
It was a pretty rough afternoon and evening for all three of us, and my Mom as well, hopefully everything will work out for the best.
OK, now it’s 8:34 and my fingers are totally numb, it’s really difficult to type and I’m starting to shiver. I’m going to get in my sleeping bag and try to warm up and get some sleep. 26.8 outside.

Our phone seems to be squirrely, when someone calls it only rings about a half ring then it's done. If we answer it everything seems fine but if not the caller just seems to get one ring and then static. If we're here and we hear it ring we'll answer, but if we're not it won't let you leave a message.
It might be best to email.
We're going to be up at our property this week (the 22nd-29th) so we won't be reachable anyway. We're going to try to turn our "sauna" into a winter worthy cabin. Think warm thoughts, we'll be sleeping in a tent all week.

Betsy left a comment to the last post about junk in the scout. I didn't take a picture of the junk but rest assured that there's a bunch of junk in there. Most of the junk is used parts but there are some interesting things like RCA cables and some plastic bases (like a cheap version of the bases they used to use in gym class for kickball.)
Today I managed to get the thing running for a bit. I don't have the fuel system totally finished yet but if you run a hose from a gas can to the fuel pump you can make things work as long as you don't try to drive anywhere. The battery is shot so I had to jump it from the TDI but it ran under it's own power for about 5 minutes. I had to keep the choke engaged about half way or it would die. Looks like I'll have to figure out how to tune an engine.
Here's a picture of the carburetor before I put it back together:


Here's a picture of the wonderwife running the TC's marathon on her 35th birthday. Her sister Sarah is in there somewhere too...

Her time was 4:31 or something like that, you can probably find it on the internet if you want. It wasn't her best ever but she seemed happy with it. After the race we had a big party with beer and homemade pizza.
All the activity helped me get over the football loss last Saturday.

OK, Pete has asked for more pictures.


I'll put on one of the carburetor on after I get back from the football game.
Go Hawks!

Old projects:

New projects:

So here's the quick version of the rest of the trip.
Went to Tomsonite beach, showered.
Went to Naniboujou for dinner, Henry threw 4337 rocks into lake Superior while we waited.
Went back and slept at Tomsonite beach.
Got up the next day, went to Grand Marais. Had donuts, went to Sivertson's etc...
Drove up to our property, everyone agreed that it was a dump with a nice view. Had a cookout and camped there that night.
I accidently scared the crap out of Henry that night while he was in the tent, hopefully he won't be scarred for life.
The next day we got up and drove back to Minneapolis with a quick stop at Gooseberry falls to see the sights.
We had some chocolate cake from the 50's Grill. Henry learned how to get people with the squirt bottle:

The next day everyone went home.
That's what we did on our summer vacation.
The end.

Thursday, day five.
So this was our last morning and another short travel day so I was planning on sleeping in. I woke up at dawn and was feeling very comfortable and relaxed in my sleeping bag. Just as I was dozing off there was a rumble of thunder in the distance. Then I started worrying about the food and equipment packs getting all wet and was unable to go back to sleep. I decided I'd go out quick and gather everything up and put it under the tarp so it would stay dry. And then I could get back in the tent and sleep until the storm blew over. Just then it started sprinkling so I decided I better hurry. Running out in my underwear I started grabbing stuff and throwing it under the tarp, the mosquitoes had not decided to sleep in and were happily searching for places to bite that I couldn't reach. Soon I was back in the tent only slightly damp and moderately bitten up. I got back in my sleeping bag and was just getting my heart rate slowed down when I heard Rob and Carrie moving around in their tent. Pretty soon it became apparent that they were packing up. I told them to go back to sleep but they were having none of it. So rather than sleeping in we started packing up our stuff too.

We ate our oatmeal under the tarp trying to stay out of the light rain. Soon we were packed up and heading east toward the portage, the rain stopped before we started the portage. The air was warm and incredibly humid as we started hiking, throw in all the water dripping off the trees and brush and a few dozen mosquitoes and it was kind of unpleasant. But after a portage or two the wind started picking up and that helped a lot, it was still warm though. We had a 300 rod portage for a warm up and then the 480 from Zenith down to Lujenida Lake, it's a killer no matter what the conditions.

There's nothing worse (on a canoe trip) than carrying a canoe while hot, tired, uncomfortable with about 12 mosquitoes buzzing your arms, head and neck and knowing that you still have 20 minutes or so before you get to the end of the portage. At one point Rob stumbled and almost fell, that probably would have been worse… Even Lucy was having a hard time with her pack, it was heavier on one side than the other so it was hanging crooked. Every once in a while she'd stop and give me a look but I was just as irritated so she eventually stopped to wait for Sandy, maybe hoping that she'd fix it.

By the time we got to Lujenida the sun was coming out and there was a nice breeze and all the frustration was immediately forgotten. We stopped to look at the "Viking dolmen" which Rob and Carrie seemed unimpressed by. As we left Rob and Carrie managed to get their canoe stuck on a rock he got a little testy while trying to get them unstuck, Carrie just said "serenity now" and ignored him. Here's a picture of Rob trying to peel out to get them off the rock.


As we cruised down Kelso there were suddenly people everywhere, we must've seen five or six groups on Kelso alone. With the wind coming out of the south Alton was kind of rough which seemed to make Rob and Carrie a little edgy but once we got across to the east side of the lake it was a little more sheltered. We pulled into the portage and decided to have one last wilderness meal so we parked all our stuff and hiked up to the big rock next to the Alton side of the portage.

It was a very leisurely lunch, we had to finish off the Skittles, Peanut M&Ms and jerky among other things. We were entertained by 3 people in pith helmets paddling around near the portage. It seemed that they were nervous about the wind and waves out past the peninsula that protects the portage so they just went back and forth randomly. It doesn't sound that amusing now, maybe we had been away from civilization too long.…

Anyway, we portaged across to Sawbill and fought the wind all the way down to the landing then made the last portage up to the store. Where we found Betsy and Pete in the bathroom changing Henry's diaper.

They had just picked up my car from Kawishiwi and transported it to Sawbill and were getting ready to go out for Henry's first canoe paddle. We sent them out on their adventure and unpacked our stuff, took the obligatory end of trip picture and then headed down to Thomsonite Beach to take some showers.