• Tuesday-What'sUP November 25 - 08:23 am

Amy Kleine was at her Rice Lake home when the snow arrived here UP North and with camera in hand, headed out to capture the beginnings of winter around the lake. Her morning shot is quite the beauty, you can almost hear the quiet as the day begins with the blanket of snow on the ground.

Rewind a few days, before the snow arrived and we're treated to the USCG Alder on her mission removing the buoys around Lake Superior's Keweenaw shores. Our own Jon Hopper, lives on the shores of the Portage Canal and was able to snap these shots of her when she passed under the Portage Lake Lift Bridge making her way with a load of buoys on board. Then a day later, when the Alder was on her way back through again, he captured a couple close up shots, with one showing a buoy laying there on deck and the other giving us a better look at the stern of the boat. I'm not quite sure where they store the buoys for the winter, perhaps someone in our viewing audience can fill us in on that.

Of course if you were to snap these same photos today, you'd be seeing a white background on the hills of Mont Ripley, which makes me wonder how long it will be before the ski hill will open up for the winter season, too.

Then we finish off the pictures today with another Rice Lake shot from Amy, just so you remember that winter is on the ground here in the Keweenaw. This shot was snapped after the sun was up and shining bright that day. Thus begins the time of year when everyone has to learn how to drive on snow-covered and slippery roads again.

Cool pictures!! It's been a chilly week here as
well. Feels a little like winter.

Hope you all have a great day!

WOW, what ideal locations do Amy Kleine and Jon Hopper have in which to reside. There can't possibly be a dull moment at their homes. These photos are outstanding, and thank you, Mary, for choosing them to share with us all.

I like your front yard, Jon and perhaps the buoys are being sent to their room for time out. :-)

LOVE the Rice Lake pics...the old "stomping grounds"
esp on the weekends, eh Amy?? ;)

Nice, I like the white!

Wondering what the letters DEE on the side of the ship stand for.

The first photo brought the word"foreboding"to my
mind. All of the photos are very interesting today!

The D E E are decals where each one signifies a
certain award the ship and crew have earned. I think
it started in the Navy as what was called a Battle
Effectiveness award. It has since grown into a larger
award program.

This is a Navy website description, so the
definitions are most likely a bit different for the
Coast Guard:

http:/
/navysite.de/what/bridgewing.htm

The buoy showing on her deck is a green CAN buoy. Red
buoys are called NUN buoys and are typically conical
in shape instead of rectangular. Their location (left
or right side of the channel) is important to know,
so you can stay in the channel of course. A simple
way to remember is the phrase “Red, Right,
Returning”. When returning to port, or going up
river, the red NUN buoys are on the right. For island
waterways (as the Keweenaw is an island) it can be a
little trickier. For the Great Lakes, the returning
path would always be the general direction that takes
one away from the Atlantic Ocean to the furthest most
destination, in this case Duluth. But there are
instances where each entry might be considered going
into port. The problem then becomes at what point in
the Portage Waters does the standard reverse. i.e.
where would the center point be designated?

Thanks for the info D.A.

Back in 1970-71 when I was at the old Portage CG station, some of the buoys were left onshore at the dock at the "lily pond", that area owned by the Corps of Engineers. Some of them went back to Duluth by the buoy tender Woodrush, brought indoors, and scraped down and repainted. Not fun chores for sure.

Great photos!

The DEE on the Alder as explained by someone on the Boatnerd site (don't know his name): "Stands for excellence in Deck Dept. and Engineering Dept. (twice) from when the Alder went through testing by the USCG Refresher Training Team. The D should be black and the EEs should be red."
Pretty much in line with what you said, D.A., about the U.S. Navy.

I have fond memories of Rice Lake when my Uncle Alvin & Aunt Hilma came UP from down state & would rent a cabin there in Rice Lake & have me stay with them when I was a Kid, & we fished for Pike back in the day.