A SHORT MORNING JEEP RIDE AROUND BAYFIELD

IN ABOUT 6 WEEKS THESE SAILBOATS WILL BE MAKING THEIR WAY BACK TO THE BAYFIELD RIVER

Seeing a bit of pink in the early morning sky I was optimistic we may have some more sunshine today.  And so it came to pass although the temperature barely got above freezing.  Thought maybe I would try staying in and not going anywhere so stretched out in my recliner savoring the warmth of our cozy little abode.  Five minutes later I unstretched myself and with an exuberant Pheebs right behind me headed out the door into this mornings 31F temps.  Cranked up the Jeep's heater and slid ourselves into Bayfield for a slow shuffle around town.

THIS IS WHAT A FISHING BOAT LOOKS LIKE OUT OF WATER

AND THIS IS WHAT A SAILBOAT LOOKS LIKE WRAPPED FOR THE WINTER

INSTEAD OF WRAPPING THIS SAILBOAT IS COVERED

ONE OF THREE SMALL INNER HARBORS AND THIS ONE IS STILL FROZEN OVER

THE BAYFIELD RIVER ITSELF IS  NOW FREE OF ICE ALL THE WAY TO LAKE HURON

The Jeep had picked up some road salt Saturday so we stopped at the car wash and hosed all that off.  I think the last time I washed the Jeep may have been last December sometime.  Not feeling any great desire to go too far we puddled around town for another half hour then headed home.  It was not quite 10 o'clock yet.

SOMETHING DEFINITELY GOING ON WITH BAYFIELD'S SMALL BEACH

HEAVY EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN MOVING AROUND ON THE BEACH

STILL LOTS OF ICE OUT ON THE LAKE

LAKE ICE AS SEEN FROM THE BLUFFS AT PIONEER PARK

YESSIREEEE THE SPRING CLEAN UP HAS BEGUN IN BAYFIELD ALRIGHT

Although our air felt cold today it was the sunshine that later drew me out of the house again to putter around with the bird feeders.  A wee bit of melting going on.  Other than that it was a quiet day.  Looking forward to sunnier warm days ahead and getting myself outside on the end of my gardening tools starting the Spring clean-up.  Always a nice feeling cleaning up things in the Spring and having the outside looking nice again.  And of course the added bonus is the much needed exercise it takes to do all that.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A duck walks into a store and asks the guy behind the counter for duck food."Don't have any duck food. Just dog food and cat food.""Okay, thanks," the duck says, and leaves.The next day the duck comes back. Got any duck food? he asks."I told you -- only dog food and cat food.""Okay, thanks."The next day the duck shows up again, asking for duck food.Now the man behind the counter is annoyed. I've told you for three days running, we don't carry duck food."Okay, thanks."The fourth day, here comes the duck. "I'm looking for the duck food section."The counterman blows his stack. You come in here one more time and ask for duck food, and I'll nail your webbed feet to the floor. You got that?Next day the duck shows up again."What do you want?" the counterman asks threateningly. "Um, got any nails?" the duck says."No, no nails.""Okay, got any duck food?" 
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Did you hear about the very intelligent monster? He was called Frank Einstein.
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A guy in Paris steals several paintings from the Louvre Museum. But after he gets them out past security, his van runs out of gas two blocks away from the museum and he gets caught. The police ask how he could mastermind such a complex crime and then make such a moronic error. The thief replies, "I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the van Gogh."

I MAY HAVE SURVIVED THE GREAT GOOGLE BLOG KER-FUFFLE

A PAIR OF GEESE ON A COLD SATURDAY MORNING

Oh Dear this Google-Picasa-Open Live Writer-Blogger thing is all so confusing for me and no matter what I can't seem to even get to first base on understanding who's doing what to whom and whom's doing what to what.  I thought Google was going to throw a monkey wrench into Picasa on the 15th and when my post wouldn't at first publish Friday night I thought I was finally down the tubes.  Anyway it's the 16th now and Picasa still seems to be working at least for now with Blogger and I guess Blogger is better than nothing if I want to keep my blog going.  Okay, that's about enough of all this confusing stuff again......well at least until the next annoying techno fly lands in the proverbial blog ointment for me that is.  Update:: We may try another 'Open Live Writer' fix tomorrow...…………..

PAVED ROADS HAD A SKIFF OF ICE BUT NOTHING SERIOUS

GRAVEL ROADS HAD LOTS OF TRACTION

It was a cloudy cold start to the morning with a dusting of overnight snow on the ground and southerly winds blowing it around a bit.  Pheebs and I had already covered two of our three usual morning routes so today we set out to have a look at number three.  Tim Hortons coffee to go in Clinton then out around the Hullett Marsh.  

A NICE BUT COLD DRIVE THROUGH OUR RURAL COUNTRYSIDE

YES I HAD THOUGHTS OF CHRISTMAS DRIVING BY HERE

With brisk winds making it too cold to even get out of the Jeep for a leg stretch we weren't long in heading for home again.

I SPOTTED A COUPLE DOTS OUT THERE THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION

CANADA GEESE

YAY A SUNSPLASH:))

FROZEN CORNSTOCKS

Kelly installed a new thermostat thingy for our Vermont Castings free standing stove in the sunroom today.  Sure is nice having a handy person with a lot of patience around the house. 

THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB

Despite Friday's weatherman calling for a blowing snow day skies partially cleared by late morning and we had us a sunny bright afternoon for awhile until clouds thickened up again and dumped a few more puffy snow flakes on us.  At the time of publishing this tonight we have a jingle bells snowfall drifting slowly down.

IT'S BACK

I see a few fellow Canadian RV'ers are beginning their long journeys home from the Southwest.  I'm sure glad our tiring trek is over and not just beginning.  I wonder if Arizona would consider trading places with Michigan then we wouldn't have to drive so far to get there and back twice a year.

'YA SO WHAT'!!!!

GROANER'S CORNER:(( This guy goes to a costume party with a girl on his back. "What the heck are you?" asks the host. "I'm a snail" says the guy. "But... you have a girl on your back" replied the host. "Yeah," he says, "that's Michelle!" 
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Q: How many witches does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Into what?
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Sunday after church, a Mom asked her very young daughter what the lesson was about. The daughter answered, *'Don't be scared, you'll get your quilt.'  Needless to say, the Mom was perplexed. Later in the day, the pastor stopped by for tea and the Mom asked him what that morning's Sunday school lesson was about. He said, 'Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming.'
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OH-OH GOOGLE HAS GONE AND DONE IT....COULD THIS BE MY FINAL POST??

SNOW IS GONE AND WATER HAS DRAINED AWAY LEAVING HARD COLD PATCHES OF ICE IN OUR FRONT YARD

Thunder, lightning and short heavy bursts of rain rumbled through our neighborhood about 10 o'clock Thursday night and looking out this morning it really put a dent in the ice and snow outside.  Long range forecast calls for blowing snow Saturday then a steady warm-up as temperatures slowly rise with lots of sunshine.  We'll keep our fingers crossed the forecast is accurate.  No matter what the weather does we are still glad to be home.  Spring is officially less than a week away:))

BIG CHANGE IN OUR DRIVEWAY THIS MORNING WITH ALL THE SURFACE WATER FINALLY DRAINED AWAY

Nice surprise when I stopped into Bayfield's Shopbike Coffee Roasters .  My coffee and multi-berry muffin were free as well as other folks orders.  Apparently someone had paid for everybody's stuff this morning.  I think that is the second time that has happened to me in there.

LOCAL GOOSE TRAFFIC WAS LIGHT ON AREA ROADS EARLIER TODAY

Very overcast with a cold wind from the south but no matter, Pheebs and I cranked the heater up and put the front windows down.  Country roads were a bit soupy south of Bayfield but I figured we might as well get the Jeep good and muddied up because when we go to the car wash I will at least get my money's worth washing it.

SOME ROADS ARE MUDDIER THAN OHTERS

Couldn't help think this morning how nice it was putt-putting along in a small peppy and maneuverable vehicle on

quiet back roads with little to no traffic.  A big contrast from last week wrestling a big 37' Motorhome with a tow vehicle on behind punching our way through big city traffic and long stretches of Interstates with narrow construction zones.  And the general state of many Interstates is absolutely terrible with all their broken pavement, potholes and ruts.  I think Michigan wins first prize for having the worst roads in America.  I figure tire and front end suspension companies must be paying off State Governments purposely not to fix the roads.  What an absolute shambles some of those Interstates are in and it just beats the absolute hell out of everybody's vehicle.

FIGURED I HAD BETTER NOT TRY GOING DOWN THIS ICY STRETCH OF ROAD WITH A HILL AT THE OTHER END

GOOD THING THEY PAINTED THAT SIGN ON THERE OR I WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN IT WAS A BARN EH

TURNED OURSELVES AROUND AND HEADED BACK THE WAY WE CAME

A FEW SNOWY PATCHES ALONG THE WAY Pheebs and I were back home about an hour and a half after we left.  Nothing too exiting going on anywhere and with a rather bland looking landscape it was difficult to find many photos.  Oh well it was just nice being out and about in our rural countryside again.  It's home for me.

SPOTTED US A WILD BUNCH OF TURKEYS ALONG THE BUSH LINE

With recent milder temperatures and last night’s heavy rains the ground finally thawed out enough overnight to drain all the surface water that had being lying on top of the ice underneath.  Big change in our driveway this morning and it was actually walkable without slipping and flying upside down.

Don’t know what exactly will happen when I hit the ‘Publish’ button on Open Liver Writer tonight.  It’s March 15th and that’s when things are supposed to go all ka-fluey with Picasa, Google Photos, OLW, Blogger, etc. etc. etc.  Update::  Okay, here's what happened.  Open Live Writer threw an error message and it looks like Google, true to it's promise has knocked out Picasa so I'm trying this in Blogger which may or may not work.  If this works I at least have a chance of continuing the blog although I'll be stuck with clunky Blogger again.  If it doesn't work and if Picasa is truly dead don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for awhile.  Without my easy to use Picasa program I am totally dead in the water.  Sure I could still write and publish a post but without photos I have no interest in doing that just as I would have no interest in publishing photos without my usual daily banter.  Okay, here I go to hit the 'Publish' button.  Wish me luck...…..((Picasa is my photo editing program)

Despite the cold dampness I decided to work on emptying some of the rig’s bins.  It’s just the beginning of a long haul major clean-up again.  I’m tired just thinking about that.

I LIKE MY COMFY COZY LITTLE COMPUTER STATION IN THE SUNROOM:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  This preacher was looking for a good used lawnmower one day. He found one at a yard sale that Little Johnny happened to be manning."This mower work, son?" the preacher asked.Little Johnny said, "Sure does...just pull on the cord hard, though."The preacher took the mower home and when he got ready to mow he yanked and pulled and tugged on that cord. Nothing worked. It wouldn't start.  Thinking he'd been swindled, he took the mower back to Little Johnny's house. "You said this would work if I pulled on the cord hard enough.""Well," Johnny said, "you need to cuss at it sometimes."The preacher was aghast. "I've not done that in years!""Just keep yanking on that cord, Preacher. It'll come back to you."

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