With a bit of fog just skimming the surface, you get a double dose of the colors that seem to be surrounding the pond, while also enclosed in the depths of the water. Quite the soothing sight, captured by Roger Kangas. A Keweenaw scene, so peaceful and still, it washes over you and takes you away from your everyday worries and cares. Underneath that serene exterior, the pond creatures are starting their fall ritual for hibernation until spring. Meaning that soon there will be no more croaking, no more heads peeking up above the waterline, no more worrying about getting your fingers snapped at when you go pond dipping!

Good morning everyone!

Good Morning

Thanks, I already didn't want to go to work today then I see this mornings pic...very beautiful...ought to be a golf hole.

Good morning from Mishawaka. Warming up today from our record low yesterday morning of 29 degrees.

Good morning from Mishawaka IN. Have a good day everyone.

Had to scrape my car windows yesterday morning - yuck!

Mornin', we're still this green too thanks to unusual rain. Cotton can't be harvested. Watch for the price to go up.

Top 'o the mornin'

Good Morning to all 'yoopers' and 'yooper-wanna-bee's'. When Mary mentioned the soothing sight in today's great pic by Roger, I could only think of this pic I took the other day at sunrise on an early morning excursion to Houghton. It is scenes like these that really allow you to take your mind off of the rediculous things that are sometimes happening in this world around us and make you think about what really is important in the grand scheme of things, ahhh yes, contemplation of the universe. Anyway, just had to share my pic...... Roger....great pic!! And yes it would make a great golf hole.......FFFFOOOOUUUURRRR!!!!

66: That's a beautiful, frameable picture! It even looks great on my office computer, where the screen is smaller, the color is poor, etc. Coming UP tomorrow!

I'll be right up! Maybe after a nap... That picture relaxed me so much. OH, DO I MISS THE U.P.

Good morning from Elkhart Indiana. I was the checking the Weather Channel this morning. Something is wrong. Its 36 here and 54 in Houghton. Must be the water keeping you warm.

Great picture Roger. Love the reflections. Very peaceful.

Great picture! Had frost on the car windows in Cleveland this morning. Luckily I'll have a garage to park in this winter!

Depending on which source, it's going to be either 61 or 70 degrees today here in Keweenaw County.The ponds may soon be devoid of any frogs, but the "sketters" are still out at Lac La Belle.

I'm putting the boat away this weekend, which should almost assure another month of ideal weather - almost never fails!

great pics as usual,,nothing better than the Keweenaw. Had to scrape windows this morning before I could leave. Has been cool here this week but warming to the high 70's by this weekend.
Should be a great ND weekend weather wise anyway. I think that our summer was the month of Septemeber here in Northern Indiana, Bristol to be exact.

33 degrees here in Rittman, south of Cleveland!! But, love that sunshine!!

Hey Sarah!

We had frost yesterday, but not today. Loved both the pictures today. Having a hard time deciding which to put on my desktop!

Still looking for the colors to start downstate here in Wixom and the metro area. Miss the Keweenau this time of year. Maybe next year.

morning all. love the pics. soooo sooothing.

Do any of you pasty central race fans know if Tony Stewart is married?

Good Morning All. Great Pics. I'm really bummed I cannot get the family up to the U.P. this fall to enjoy the colors. I keep hitting this site and the Michigan Tech cameras to keep in touch with the fall colors. Thanks for all the photos everyone.

The pond photo is now my desktop, replacing the one from a couple weeks ago of Cliff Drive.

Garrison Kieller read this poem a few days ago on the Writers' Almanac; I thought my fellow pasty.com fans would appreciate it, and go buy the author's book:

This Shining Moment in the Now" by David Budbill.

When I work outdoors all day, every day, as I do now, in the fall,
getting ready for winter, tearing up the garden, digging potatoes,
gathering the squash, cutting firewood, making kindling, repairing
bridges over the brook, clearing trails in the woods, doing the last of
the fall mowing, pruning apple trees, taking down the screens,
putting up the storm windows, banking the house - all these things,
as preparation for the coming cold...

when I am every day all day all body and no mind, when I am
physically, wholly and completely, in this world with the birds,
the deer, the sky, the wind, the trees...

when day after day I think of nothing but what the next chore is,
when I go from clearing woods roads, to sharpening a chain saw,
to changing the oil in a mower, to stacking wood, when I am
all body and no mind...

when I am only here and now and nowhere else - then, and only
then, do I see the crippling power of mind, the curse of thought,
and I pause and wonder why I so seldom find
this shining moment in the now.

Mr. K: Beautiful contemplative picture and on my saver this a.m. It was apple picking time last evening or should I say branch shaking and head booping time. The Expected frost didn't happen.
Dave: Great Picture as usual!

Good morning,
Has anyone ventured up to the Porkies lately? How's the color up there.

Teresa !!!

Been there and done that and had the same thought. Life is too short to miss the moment.

Good Morning from Houston!

Doug the Troll, Thats Keweenaw

are you coming home for lunch

Where is this picture taken? Anyone know?

Hey Mary/Charlie! We spent all day Monday touring around the Keewenaw and were in Copper Harbor Monday evening for dinner at the Harbor Haus, but we managed to make it back to Laurium before bedtime. Dinner was fantastic! What a great place! Thanks to everyone for suggesting it. The colors were pretty good in places, but not quite peak yet. If that wind keeps up it will strip the rest of the leaves before they change color! I was lucky enough to get some nice pictures to add to my gallery. My wife liked the U.P. so much she wants to find some land up there! Wahoo!

Good morning from Vegas!
As I was walking to my office this morning I thought to myself that it was a little chilly. Then I looked at the temperature... 70 degrees. I reckon I'll be in for a cool surprise when I get to Houghton tomorrow!

Kudos to Roger for ALL of his wonderful shots, especially the water ones.
Our house backs up on a wildlife preserve, whic is also beautiful and peaceful. Yesterday, we had a heron who stopped by for lunch. He's the small spot in the middle of "the swamp."

Guess this one is better:

Question Everyone.

How the blazes do you post a picture here.

Joe

What/where is the "Porkies"?

Jiggs,

Porkies=a movie from the early 80's. ;)

The "Porkies" are the Porcupine Mountains on the west end of Upper Michigan. BEAUTIFUL!!!

Hi Joe,

Thanks to Karla, I learned how to post pics. Use this to enter the location of a picture you have saved on your hard drive:




Upon posting, you are prompted for an image file to upload. Images must be either GIF or JPEG format. Images must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).
If this doesn't make sense, go to:

http://www.pasty.net/cgi-bin/discus4/discus.cgi?pg=formatting

and scroll down to Images, Attachments, and Clipart

OK, lets try again:

put a back slash, then the word "image" (no quotes) then the picture description in brackets {}

it will show you the "Your Image Here" link, which will become a picture when you are prompted to enter your information.

Hey all you Mishawaka folks, Hail Purdue!

My wife and I just got back from our annual Color Tour to the UP. Went all the way to Copper Harbor, had a great time, spent lots of money, only the colors weren't as full as I had hoped, but on top of Brockway Mountain...Who Cares!! Had 3 great days in the UP and now it's back to work...

Mike in SD, how was your week in the Copper Country?
Did you get to your camp, the farm, Big E's bridge, climb
the bluff, CH, EH? We heard about your pasty-buying spree
& it sounds like you caused a few customers to nearly faint
as they overheard your order-LOL

Duog the Troll!

It is spelled Keweenaw not Keweenau.Write Keweenaw 100 times and send it to Charlie..

I am still noticing that gerbil related comments are being deleted. I am not trying to be difficult, really, I don't think anyone has gotten nasty about anything, and I certainly have seen longer posts about movies and such and they were not deleted. Please let us know what we are doing wrong....

Editor's note: Let's just say the gerbil ran the course and has died. Let's lay him to a peaceful rest! Thanks! :-)

Have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM in Redford.

Yooperwannabe/In
Laugh now, It will be another 30 years before you win at ND again. ... But I wish the Irish had Joe Tiller as their coach.

Therese--Thanks for sharing that thought
about living in the moment. Aren't you the
person who took her mother out to enjoy the
stars and the Big Lake a few weeks ago?
Now, that was a moment. How is your mom?

What wonderful photographs today. I'm not
sure why, maybe the reflections, but they
make me think of Dan Urbanski and wonder
how his wife Patti is doing.

It was nice to come home from a staff meeting
and find such lovely pictures and sentiments.

Anyone missing him might have fun with trying to find the critters in a DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer -I was told the little images of animals on various map pages have got something to do with copyright protection or stuff, but I never quite understood how it was supposed to work - only know I was amazed on finding the first, had to laugh when the second one appeared, and decided to call DeLorme in ME and ask what they did that for. I think it was the NH-edition.

Prolly the best poem I've heard on Prairie Home Companion was "The Finn Who Would Not Take A Sauna"... you have to hear it in Garrison Keillor's voice to really appreciate it.

Sub teacher

Duog ?

Back to remedial spelling for you too!

Where's Elvira???

Has anyone noticed how beautiful the stars are this time of year? I would love to see a star photo. There is a big planet on the east horizon at about 4 am that glows brighter than anything else. Beautiful.

that's why I am a sub.Becau.. oh forget it ..

We just got back from Ironwood (my home town). We had to go for a funeral. It wasn't a fun event but thoroughly enjoyed driving through the UP. Usually, we go through Marquette but took US2 this time. It was wonderful. Have really enjoyed the pictures that are posted. My family is from Jacobsville and we enjoy the Keewanaw too.

First Job I can get my hooks into I will be copper country bound, the heck with waiting 15 years or more for retirement. If anyone needs a cad draftsman let me know.

Dam Guy:

You're right - that is the best! I think i have him reading it on one of my old tapes. Hilarious!

w.calumet, re: Stars

A good place to look for star-galaxy pics is

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

They have archives going back for nearly 10 years (and billions of light-years:), with lots of links.

Yooper66:

Elvira is on 32 west of Gaylord.

W. Calumet- Have you ever gone up to brockway mnt. to view the stars? We'd leave work at 3:00 am & drive up there to view the stars & relax after a hard night at The Michigan House on a Sat. nite. You can also see a grand sunrise also ! Really enjoyed the pictures today as always. Thank You all.

Is there a bonfire at the site of the future White House Bar and Grill on Thursday (tomorrow) to kick off the construction?? I think I read that it was at 5 p.m. but haven't seen anything in the newspaper.

That bright planet in the east, at 4:00 am, is the planet Venus. In the morning it's the 'morning star', in the evening it's the 'evening star.' But, yes, through a small telescope or bigger binoculars, it is beautimous! And Saturn (with the rings) is also visible to the naked eye but, is particularly wondermous through a 'scope.' Just got back from my auntie Lempi Jolgren's funeral in Pelkie. :>( She was my god-mother. She was 89, we will surely miss her.

Yooper66's pic is taken from either the scenic turn-out on Quincy Hill or from Kowsit Lats. Been dere, done dat. :>) Don't know where the pond in the top pic is. ?

Words to..
The Finn Who Would Not Take A sauna
at the bottom of the page.

http://fyderandeverhart.com/lyrics.htm#finn

Thanks for the words to "The Finn Who Would
Not Take a Sauna." Funny stuff.

I really did like the green picture this morning, but that second one has stolen my heart. I just love those shades of pink/mauve/purple whatever. Great shot and it is my desktop now. Thanks!!!!

In regard to stars, I think it has to do
with the High Pressure clearing the skies
and then the jetstream coming from Canada
instead of the Southwest or west? Lots
of dust and junk is in the sky when that happens.
Nothing but clear clean air this time of year?

Thoughts anybody?

I love being north when the air is fresh
and clean with a nice breeze across Lake Superior.
There are no alergies or anything but the fresh
smell of pines.

The simple things in life!
You don't have to make payments on those.

Hi, Kosk! Yes, that was me and my Mom watching the stars at 3AM, a moment to remember the rest of my life. Mom is doing well, blood pressure all the better for her time on the shores of the Big Lake. Mine also. Thanks for asking about her; she's pretty special.

I am getting in firewood against the winter and clearing out frost-bitten tomatoes, and watching Venus behind the trees in the morning. Venus and the star Regulus (the heart of Leo the Lion) were in conjunction a few mornings ago, so close they appeared almost as one. Of course Regulus is about a billion times farther away. Venus has already drifted eastwards away from Regulus, on her way to passing between us and the sun -- or on the other side of the sun, but I think she's too bright to be that far away -- and she will soon be gone from our morning sky, only to reappear in the evening when snow is on the ground and dusk comes early.

With all of the talk of colors here is a picture from today at Bond Falls.
|image{colors}

Yooper 66

If your looking for the town west of Gaylord, it's Elmira. It's in the middle of potato country; lots of farms.

Tomorrow at this time, I will be sleeping in Laurium on a nice short vacation to the Keweenaw........

I think Yooper66 might have been wondering where Elvira was from Knotts Berry Farm..

Don't throw your green tomatoes away. Wrap them in
newspaper and put them in a brown paper bag and
put them in a closet or pantry or even in the basement. They will ripen.

No, Elvira was a visitor to this site on numerous occasions not too long back, and she had some really weird ideas about different ways to make pasties.

try slicing, breading, and frying those green tomatoes-
yum!

Reference green tomatoes: I like to make a wonderful green tomato stew. If anyone would like the recipe, please let me know and I'll be happy to send it via e-mail.

To Yoopers with woodpiles: I have two loads of wood piled up for use in my glass front ergonomic woodburning stove on the lower level. Question: What kind of cover is appropriate to keep the wood dry? Comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

My two dogs shifted into high tomato-eaing gear, so I have no green ones left. And here I sit with recipes for green tomato relish, green tomato salsa, fried green tomatoes....

Don't dogs eat the strangest things? Our dog
loves tomatoes, peaches and all kinds of
other things. This summer we discovered that
he loves to eat berries. My dad took him
picking in one of the best (and of course,
never to be revealed!) berry patches
somewhere in Marquette County. My father
was surprised to check his berry bucket and
find it nearly empty. The culprit was nearby,
caught blue-mouthed, so to speak, grazing on
a nearby bush. Life was "the berries" during
August and September in the UP.

Therese--your mom does sound like a very
special lady, and it's pretty clear that the apple
didn't fall far from the tree.

Good Morning Copper Country
Cook and I experimented and came up with a great pasty recipe for you. Cook carmelized onions, added broccoli, portebello mushrooms, asparagus and then mixed this with cubed potatoes, cubed rutabagas and shredded carrots. Put this in the crust recipe that Joey sent and Taaaaa Daaaaa, a pasty to die for. An Elvira Pasty. Serve this with jalepeno salsa, or mango pineapple salsa, or maybe habaneros or chipothes or something hot. Who said I couldn't do it. What is a Kowsit Lats? Thank you Dave of Laurium and Joey.

I tink I know what your doing dere Ms. E. Dat's a meat substitute set of ingredients up there at da beginning of da list. As a meat substitute it tasted pretty good in hamburgers. Had a taste at a cooking class once. Am I on da rite track here?

To downstate don and all, wrapping tomatoes in newspaper is not a good thing. The tomatoes may absorb the ink which is not good for U,a brown bag in the basememt will do the trick,also ink from the news print on your fingers rubbed into eyes is bad for U ( medical fact) and no I did not stay in a Holiday Inn last night,good day to all.

Not sure but I think all U.S. papers use veg or soy ink now?

Welcome back, Elvira,

Except for the mushroom part, your pasty sounds yummy.

Kowsit Lats is Finglish for a flat place where cows once grazed (use your imagination). It's on Quincy Hill just north of Hancock, on US-41, just up from the turn out. Good parking and a short walk. Short trail to the site and this is a good spot to view Houghton and Hancock on the Portage Canel. The overlook is a catch basin made from old tailings from the Quincy Copper mine. Watch your step!

It also seems to be a favorite place for geocachers,as evidenced by this posting
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=49393bfa-2ff9-4aa4-86db-4494fc02425b

Here's the sign:



and this one:

my dog likes grapes and bananas

the gerbil ran its course, and is retired.

Candy, does that say what I think it says?

I'm not Candy, but as I remember the last mentioning of Kowsit Lats on this site, it does.

Thanks danbury, Have a good evening. :)

Elvira, Danbury is correct, although I'm not really convinced that cows ever grazed there -- it's pretty steep all around the flat part, and right on the edge of the Quincy mine area. Still, the sense of humor being what it is up there, and the old timers talking the way they do, it certainly could be...

Candy, is the Quincy Mine an open pit mine? That way they can just shovel it right in. :)

For more on Kowsit Lats, see Past-E-Mail: Cam Notes - 2004: April: Apr 24-04

The dropped initial letter is similar to the local Finnglish slang pronunciation of:
"'Ruces 'Rossing" (Bruce Crossing, MI) and "'Rout 'Rick" (Trout Creek, MI).

NO shaft in the Keweenaw is an open pit ...it is over a mile deep!

Quincy Mine's No. 2 Shaft extends 92 levels underground at an inclined distance of nearly two miles. See more about the Quincy Mine at the Quincy Mine Hoist Association web site.

Alright now, I am not understanding LATS??!!
I have heard that in some states they have Buffalo Chips that are used as Frisbies in tournament throwing. Would this be the same?

and if this is the same, is a mine shaft that is over a mile deep (how wide) deep enough to hold all these LATS?

"Lats" is how the word "Flats" sounds when pronounced by our dear old finnish locals.
So a ..Cowsit lats is cow**** flats OR cow pasture.

Before you ask, by "Finnish locals" I mean Those who were mostly born here... with parents born in Finland..Or who had grandparents born in Finland perhaps. These "finns" grew up often in the early part of the last century in small rural parts of our area near other Finn families.After often learning English only after starting school and still often speaking Finnish to the folks at home..they retained an accent that gave us phrases like "cowsit lats".I grew up listening to my Finnish relatives in the Keweenaw who were born in the early part of the last century ..I miss that.

FRNash/PHX,AZ, I now understand with your show and tell. How long have they been filling that mine shaft? :)
You deree Roudy, be on da rite track Ah huh, Ah huh! :)

Elvira,....
How long have they been filling that mine shaft?
There are very many, almost countless old mine shafts in the Copper Country/Keweenaw. Unless you were referring to filling the mine shafts with 'cow chips' — there's actually been hardly any filling of old mine shafts, although some may have been occasionally used as trash dumps in earlier years. In fact most of the old shafts are filled with water due to natural seepage of ground water. Some such old mines are actually still used as the source for the municipal water supply.

Some of the old shafts have been 'capped', some are fenced, and some are still neither fenced nor capped, and remain potentially hazardous. For more on the subject, enter the words "capped mine shaft" (without the quotes) in PastyCam's Power Search you should get about seven interesting hits. (More in next post.)

Elvira,....
Ooops, I gave you a bad link for PastyCam's Power Search in the last post, try this instead: For more on the subject, enter the words "capped mine shaft" (without the quotes) in PastyCam's Power Search you should get about seven interesting hits. (More in next post.)

Elvira,....
(Continued from above.)
To illustrate the hazard:
In my days at MTU I spent some significant time 'spelunking' — if that word applies to old abandoned mine shafts — with some friends in at least one old mine shaft above 7th Avenue within the city limits of Houghton. Narrow crawls … a maze of passageways, all different … a pair of 'tunnels' intersecting at a vertical shaft of seemingly endless depth, crossed by crawling along an old rotting plank … a nearly vertical 20 ft. climbable wall … a huge 'room' flooded to ankle depth, with other watery passages going off in various directions, and possibly unseen vertical shafts underfoot to fall into … hazardous beyond belief.

(Is this beginning to sound like the original text-only underground cave 'Adventure game'?)

Many of the early scenes in the Walt Disney made-for-TV movie "The Pennsylvania Miners' Story" about the Quecreek mine disaster of July 2002 brought back some vivid memories for me. Fortunately we did not experience either the 'trapped' or the 'rescue' aspects of the movie. Although we always did this in a group, and with plenty of fairly professional equipment, as the saying goes: "Don't try this at home!"

FRNash: And this would be your idea of fun? and if not, why do it? "Spelunking"???????!

Elvira.........
And this would be your idea of fun?
'Twas probably not among the brightest of my college era adventures, but at the time it was both fun and educational.
Who me, a 'daredevil'? No … although my then pilot-housemate also got me hooked on flying and I later got my license and my own aircraft, he never sold me on skydiving! J

From Merriam-Webster OnLine:
Spelunker: spe·lunk·er
Pronunciation: spi-'l&[ng]-k&r, 'spE-"
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin spelunca cave, from Greek spElynx; akin to Greek spElaion cave
: one who makes a hobby of exploring and studying caves

Spelunking spe·lunk·ing
Pronunciation: -ki[ng]
Function: noun
: the hobby or practice of exploring caves

FRNash and Mary Drew. Thank you for trying to educate me on this subject. I looked at Mary Drew's album of the closure of Shaft #17. It looks to me as though it goes right underneath that house. Why would anyone want to build above a dangerouos shaft? Does no one monitor the safty of these abandoned mines. My heart was beating way to fast just looking at the pictures. I believe I will let Sadie continue to click on to your website. (I still think you should fill these with cow chips.....you know fossil fuel.....methane gas and such...or would that cause to big of an explosion)

FRNash, how did you know I did "skydiving"?

By FRNash/PHX, AZ on Saturday, October 9, 2004 - 07:09 pm:

E:
So who's the "daredevil"? … I'd never jump out of a perfectly good aircraft!
(True, I'm an Elvira fan of long standing, but I can't give up all my secrets!)

Elvira, I'm glad Sadie will be able to "lurk" a little longer with us! I think lots of cow chips mixed together underground might be a little more explosive than would be good, but I'm not a chemical engineer. I can tell you I wouldn't want to be the one to gather them all up...