Here's the latest map. Click on it to make it bigger and you should be able to see some more detail.
They're calling it 20% contained but that's all in the US so it's really 50% on our side of the border. They're saying they'll have it fully contained by this weekend.
They've gotten more rain than was expected and the wind has been cooperative as well. They're actually talking about sending some of the firefighters home and others to help on the Canadian side.
Lightning from one of the thunderstorms started two fires near Two Harbors. It doesn't sound like they're too concerned about those but it's scary to think about lightning starting more fires in the area.

OK, so here are some thoughts about the fire.
Thursday gets the award for worst day so far. The fire grew from 22,000 acres to ~55,000. It was hot, dry and windy. Most of that expansion was in Canada, across the north side of Gunflint lake. It traveled around 13 miles that day and was advancing at more than 1 mph for much of the day. One firefighting official said 80% of the airborne embers blowing ahead of the fire were starting their own fires. Not sure how scientific that is but it's interesting.
Friday morning when I got to work and opened the car door i could smell smoke. I thought that smells like a fire, I wonder if it could be from the fire? Then I decided that was impossible. Later that afternoon the NPR weather guy was saying that the fire was "smellable" all over this part of the state and over in Eau Claire Wisconsin as well. We're ~250 miles away from where the fire is.
All BWCA entry points from Sawbill east to the end of the Gunflint trail are closed.
The fire is about 15 miles from Sawbill and from our property. Another bad day like last Thursday could put the fire very close to either location. The general trend seems to be for it to expand to the north and east, if that trend holds up it won't get significantly closer to either of us.
Since Thursday the weather has been relatively cooperative albeit without any rain. Tonight there is an 80% chance of scattered thundershowers, hopefully it'll be heavy on the showers and light on the thunder. It's dry enough up there that lightening could start a lot of other fires.
There are close to 700 people fighting the fire, that number has been going up by about 100 a day for the past several days.
Containment is now 15%, not good but much better than the 5% they were announcing all last week. I think if they get some rain tonight the percentage could jump up quickly.
There have been 133 structures destroyed, 61 residences and 17 businesses, the rest were "outbuildings".
It seems like every time they talk to a firefighter on the radio they talk about these rooftop sprinkler systems that lots of people up there have. Apparently they're very effective, here's a photo I found of one in action:

Here's another interesting shot I found:

I can't think of much else to write now.

I'm posting this so people can get an idea of where the fire is right now. I'll put up some more detail and statistics about it soon but I wanted to get the map up now.

Hola amigos. I know it's been a while since I've blogged at you...
So Sandy and I were up at the lake last weekend for our first visit of the Spring.
We got a bunch of stuff done for such a short visit.
We removed all the fiberglass insulation from the "house" and 25% of the stuff under the house. Sandy relocated a giant brush pile to a location where we can burn it next winter. Here's where the brush used to be:

Everything in front of the rocks was piled about 5 feet deep with brush and rotten logs and stumps.
I spent most of the day Saturday building a little enclosure under the deck to keep the generator in. It's insulated to keep in as much of the noise as possible. The problem is it retains all the heat and exhaust as well, so I need to figure out a way to ventilate it without letting all the sound out.
Saturday evening I noticed that there was a mature Aspen tree leaning toward the cabin.

It's the big tree on the right that looks like it's falling over.
Left to it's own devices this tree will eventually fall and hit our cabin. It couldn't be better aimed if someone had planned it. Given the size and positioning of the tree and the relative quality of our cabin I'm pretty sure this would make my Dad's tree woes look like nothing. This thing would oblierate our cabin.
So last night Sandy called and introduced herself to our neighbors to the West, the tree is on their property. We explained the situation and Betsy (the neighbor) said she was familar with the tree in question and had been hoping that it would fall and smash the house on our lot. We assured her that we intend to tear the house down this Summer but wanted to keep the cabin and she gladly agreed that we should cut the tree down.
So now I'm in the market for a chainsaw.
Lastly here's a picture of the burn pile Sandy built.

The truck is a rental and the bags in the back of it are full of fiberglass from the house. We brought them back here and are throwing them out one or two at a time.
As we were driving down the Gunflint we passed a firetruck headed north and then later a convoy of about 6 forest service pickups with fire crews. Closer to Duluth we heard on the radio that there was a fire burning near Ham lake on the East border of the BWCA. It was really windy, warm and dry all weekend so we were pretty sure this wasn't going to be an easy fire to deal with.
It started on Saturday and spread rapidly with the wind to the North West, that was taking it toward the Cavity Lake fire which I wrote about a lot last Fall. That would have been good because it would have run out of fuel, but Monday the wind turned to the East and the long fireline from the day before started moving straight East toward the Gunflint trail.
As it stands now it's burned over 17,000 acres and between 30 and 40 buildings have been destroyed many of them houses or cabins. It's enveloped the entire north end of the Gunflint trail and has now spread across the border into Canada.
It's about 20 miles from our property so there's no imminent danger for us although the conditions are so bad that we could have other serious fires in the area if it stays dry this Spring and Summer.

So I'm watching Iowa crush Purdue in basketball. At the end of the game Iowa will be 8-6 in the Big 10 and Pete will officially have won our bet. Oh well.
So Betsy has committed me to a 'blog entry on their visit last weekend, here it is.
They came in on the train, scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm but the train was an hour late. I left the house at 11:30 to pick them up. The temperature was about 6°f.
After I had driven about 3 miles on the highway my car conked out. Fortunately I had a flashlight with me. I could see that there was a bunch of air in the fuel line which is transparent (clever German engineering) after a few minutes of messing around I managed to get it going again and decided to see if I could get to the train station.
I could not. Another 3-4 miles was all I could manage. I got it started again and pulled off at the first exit hoping to find a gas station. The car died again so I got out and walked until I found a pay phone. I called Sandy (sleeping) and didn't get an answer, then called Betsy. They hadn't arrived yet so I had a little time. I ran back to the car and tried to push it to the gas station, that proved to be especially difficult so I tried to start it again and got it to go long enough to get me to the gas station.
I filled it up hoping that I either was out of fuel or that the cold had jelled what little fuel I had and that warmer fuel from the pump would help. Not the case.
I pushed the car into a parking spot and called Betsy back. They were at the station now and waiting. I called Sandy again and asked her to come pick us all up which she did.
Betsy, Pete and Henry were about to be evicted from the train station when we arrived. I think it was about 1:30 or so when we finally got back to the house. Henry was quite cheerful for such a late night.
We all went straight to bed but I lay awake for quite a while thinking about what might be wrong with my car. I decided it was probably a crapped up fuel filter.
The next morning Pete and I drove Sandy to work and then went to work on my car. I put in a new fuel filter which I carry in case all the biodiesel gunks it up (which may be what happened even though I don't use it in the winter). But then the battery died before we could get all the air purged out of the fuel system. So we had to drive home to get the jumper cables. Eventually we got the thing going and drove it back to the house. By this time it was 11am so we showered and went to the 50's grill for some lunch. Henry and I both had hot turkey sandwiches. His was off the kid's menu but appeared to be the same quantity of food as mine and it included a glass of milk all for a dollar less than mine cost. I may order off the kid's menu next time I go there.
We went back home and played trains for a little bit.

That afternoon Pete and I went and got stuff to make beer and Betsy and I went to the grocery store and picked up Sandy from work. We had chicken for dinner and pretty much went straight to bed because we were all so tired.
The next morning Pete and I made beer and then watched the Iowa MSU game. Sandy and Betsy went to the Yarn Cafe and knitted. We had delusions of watching a movie that night but again we were tired and Henry wouldn't go to bed without Pete or Betsy.
Sunday morning Betsy, Pete and Henry had to go back to the train station for the trip home.

We took several pictures outside the station with the train in the background and for some reason in every one Henry has his tongue sticking out. In this particular picture it looks like he's sticking it out at me, but really it was just out all the time and he happened to be pointed at me when I clicked this shot.
Here's the last picture before they boarded the train:

After they got on the train I drove East a couple of miles and staked out a spot along the tracks and waited for them to come by. I thought Henry would like a picture in which you can actually see the train they were on.

So two weeks ago we skied into the cabin for the weekend. It ended up being kind of an adventure.
We drove up Thursday night and spent the night at Obie and Kathleen's new house, it was the first time we had been there and it made us envious. It's an actual house (reasonably sized) on Deeryard lake with electricity and heat and running water.

Friday morning we got up and drove up to a snowmobilier parking lot near our lake. It was cold, I think about -10°f but we were expecting that so we were well dressed including Lucy with her new boots.
We packed up a bunch of food and gear on a sled and then realized that one of my skis was messed up.

The leading edge of one ski (for about 16") was delaminating, the bottom layer of it was completly detached. I managed to tie it in place with a piece of rope around the tip of the ski. After that we set off toward the cabin.
It's about 2 miles to ski in there which isn't too bad but it was a lot of work pulling that sled. It was a little difficult for Lucy too, it seemed like she was having some joint pain probably from arthritis combined with the weird stride because of the snow and boots. But we all made it ok.
We spent the rest of the day Friday hanging out in the cabin because it kept getting colder. Sandy kept rearranging things trying to create more room and I read a book.
Saturday morning it was -24°f but we wanted to get something done so we went out and burned one of the brush piles we had accumulated in the Fall. I also pulled down a bunch of insulation in the upstairs of the house some of which we melted in the fire. It's remarkable how such a big piece of insulation can melt down into such a small glob. The high for the day was -17°f.
Sunday morning we had to get up and get home so we could see all the Superbowl commercials. I was interested in the game as well. It was -32°f which I guarantee will make any trip to the outhouse as short as possible. It was also windy, but it was out of the North so would be at our backs for all the sking. We gave Lucy an Aleve so the arthritis wouldn't be such a bother. I also made her a little jacket out of some duct tape and a plastic bag, I used the duct tape to better repair my ski as well.
The trip out took almost exactly an hour which was a lot shorter than the trip in. Unfortunately when we got to the car it wouldn't start. The battery was just too cold to get the thing going. I messed around for about an hour trying to start it while Sandy and Lucy stayed in the car out of the wind. We debated our options for a while and eventually decided to ski down the road toward Grand Marais to find someone who would drive us back and jump the car. We left Lucy in the car which was actually not too bad in the bright sunlight. After about 5 miles of sking we came to a house with smoke coming out of the chimney. A nice retired guy answered the door and after hearing our story agreed to drive us back up there. It took a little effort but we eventually got the car going and he followed us back down the road to make sure we didn't have any other problems.
The fan for the heater was apparently frozen up because we drove about 40 miles before it started working which made for kind of a cold ride since we were all sweaty. But in the end it came on and we warmed up/dried out, and eventually made it home in time for the football game.

Wow, impressive response to the last post.
Here are some more Christmas photos:

Henry playing trains. Or in his own words "Henry play trains." He really likes playing trains, but in this picture he looks even more giddy than normal.

Henry playing "if I shoot this bright light through that big camera lens straight into your eyeball what will happen. (fortunately nothing)

Henry goes "Grateful Dead" on us with his new tambourine.

In further interest of full disclosure (see previous entry) I just noticed that I also have a Huey Lewis & the News album.

Sandy is up at Sawbill for the annual Sawbill babes ski weekend. There will probably be some sort of entry on the Sawbill newsletter if you care to check there...
http://sawbill.com/www/news/newsletter/index.cfm
I've been working on some projects, mostly trying to finish up several things that I've been working for months or years. Over the past couple of weeks I've gone from one mostly functional pinball machine (Medieval Madness) to four fully functional and one being refurbished. Twilight Zone, Medieval Madness, Star Trek the Next Generation and Medusa are 100% and Fathom is the one being restored. Black Hole is the only other machine I have and it's playable but kind of messed up.
One of my Christmas presents (from Pete and Betsy) was a turntable, which is something I've been wanting for a while so I can play my 78's without wearing them out on the Victrola. The turntable can also play 33 1/3 and 45rpm (in addition to 16?!?) so we got out our LPs and have been listening to them as well. I'm glad that Sandy's taste in music has evolved over the last 20 years because she's got some real stinkers, a quick look shows the Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, three Duran Duran albums and one by the Monkees. She likes better stuff now although she seems to harbor fond feelings toward this old stuff.
In the interest of full disclosure I should probably tell you that I seem to have two J. Geils Band albums. How those managed to avoid the purge that eliminated Joan Jett and the Go Gos I'm not totally sure.
Here's a Christmas picture of Henry:

It's not a great picture, but it's funny in context. This was taken at the heart of Christmas day present opening time. There were about 10 people at the house and a million presents to open, most of them for Henry. He opened a few but then became enthralled with the headlamp that my Mom got from Sandy and I. After playing with the headlamp for a few minutes he disappeared to the back room. After we noticed he was gone I went looking for him, he was laying on the couch under a blanket it appeared that he was either pretending or actually trying to take a nap. He had his eyes closed and the light was pointed at the ceiling, he was obviously not sleeping.
I guess he just felt like he needed a little quiet time, not something he inherited from his Decker side.

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.