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Morning!

I love pictures of the bridge. I had the bridge as my Messenger picture for a couple of weeks. It makes me homesick, but I just love it. Growing up on an island, separated from the rest of the world it seemed. My cousins used to think we lived too far from them because we were across the bridge and they were in Houghton. As if that made them better than us or something. Anyway, good morning and have a great day. Thinking of those who have gone before us at the end of the month is a very good idea. I lost a couple of good friends in January. I'll do that right now.

Very good this day to all..

http://blog.fotokala.ee/resources/etom/kirves.jpg

Good morning everyone :) So Marc, how many hours left in your count down?
Love the night pic of the bridge. What a sign that definately says, "welcome home", eh...and what I wouldn't give to be headed north over the bridge right now. Sigh.

Been trying to send good morning greetings since 5:00a.m. and it's 7:25 now, Texas time. Will I ever figure it out? Not likely. So..."top of the morning" to all from Rockpot, Texas. A lovely day today to you.

Sur5er,
Weren't you and your hubby planning to come up here during the winter instead of last Thanksgiving? We could use a few visitors, it seems so quiet this year..

Happyooper, Yep...hubby and I had planned on coming up during Thanksgiving...but I was in the middle of this court case.Then we were going to try and make it up there, in January...but that fell through, because I was still in the middle of this court case. Then, I had told Maija that we were planning on heading up there for the winter fest in February...if she wanted head up there when we did. But wouldn't you know it, a court decision on this case the first week of January, put me more up to my ying yang in court paperwork, that I am still trying to dig out of. So, a trip up there in February is out of the question.
Today, the state of Michigan is supposed to contact me...and if they pursue the case, then hubby and I will be headed up there, to watch the eagles migrate, in the spring.
But what I wouldn't give to be up there right now...enjoying the quiteness...and the snow :)

What a bummer, Sur5er. Hopefully you can make it in time to watch all the ice melt from the lake. ;) And, hopefully I'll be on the west coast this spring, catching up with my ole chums. :)

From a forever Yooper now in St. Paul
I sent the following a couple of weeks back in response to some old chat on "Jukkari"s ,Finn-am name for those home made tractors of yesteryear
hoping to get feedback and maybe some pics.
At that time Lorilee had posted a message saying that she thought the term Jukkari came derived from a "joker" in finnglish.
Since I did not get any feedback on this old chat,
I am copying it for today to see what response it gets. I enjoyed the Heikinpaiva events recently at Hancock (was there with the Finn Hall dance band)

By ralph tuttila (Rauli) on Friday, January 13, 2006 - 11:20 am:

Lorelie, I grew up in the UP ,rural, Ishpeming and recall that all of the little Finnish American farms had a "jukkari" . It simply referred to a home made tracktor as few of those raising annual crops of mostly rocks could afford a factory made farm tractor such as Ford produced. I am not sure where the name came from but it is Finn-Am and not found in Finland. I find nothing that would indicate it means joker. And Jokes these marvels were not. These homemade contrtaptions were the creations of Finns who were quite independent and self reliant as well as inventive types.
They could be made from any vehicle but something a bit more heavy duty such as a Model B ford truck was best.
It was stripped down , cab removed, with only the essentials on a reinforced frame which was shortened . A final gear ration or "heavy duty rear end" (referring to the differential not ones posterier) was typical. Two speed was ideal as was a "creeper or crawler" gear in the transmission. I recall that our neighbors even had a "power take-off" source so they could run other equipment from the extra driveshaft , such as a saw-rig.
If available larger wheels and tires were installed. All of this required much skill and ability to weld , imporvise and a lot of knowledge of mechanics without the technical specs as there were no manuals in this venture.
They were versatile ,powerful and of course replaced many horses as did other tractors.
Fun to drive and very loud as exhaust system mufflers were a bother and though to rob power.
I follows that folks then applied the name Jukkari to factory made tractors as well.
I would like to see a few pics of those old creations. Kip Peltoniemi humorist and accordionist and I do Finn and other music together and go by the name of "Jukkari Veljet"
or tractor brothers. (actually we are not brothers and just went to different schools together maybe at different times too)Well we both grew up in Finn-Am communities in Minnesota and Michigans UP.
Would be nice to see some old photos of "jukkaris"
Rauli T.


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Very nice picture Japei, seems like the gentleman is enjoying his leisurely nap during his break! I do enjoy your pictures when I get a chance to get on here!