• Thursday-What'sUP December 13 - 05:36 pm

For some reason this top picture here today, by Scott Mitchell, brings to mind the song: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". Must be the pine needles amidst the snowy jacket on that tree. I bet that tune will be in more than a few heads today now, after mentioning it here. Hopefully the picture will stick in your mind too.
The second shot was taken along the banks of the Tobacco River, out near the town of Gay, by Marv and Ellie Hopf. Quite the picturesque scene and it looks like the river is still open and running, although the edges are beginning to freeze over. Just another day in the snowy Keweenaw!

Great pics!

Good morning, I do enjoy the snow pictures, have quite a few of them stored on the computer from the WOW listings so I can switch snow pix at will. Both of these are winners, though the first has caught my attention just a bit more.

well, I must say that those pictures are beautiful! It really is making me miss "home" this year for some reason. I guess I'm feeling a little more nostalgic this year. Again, don't tell Mr. Deb. Thanks for the pictures that take me back to yesteryear.

Excellent winter scenes. The first shot looks like the snow from the branches is ready to fall down the back of someone's neck as soon as they brush against it. I can almost feel the chill. The second shot, well it's just plain nice.

Those are great, the best part of winter is seeing the snow on the limbs.

SIMPLY SERENE AND BEAUTIFUL..GREAT PHOTOS AND CAPTION!!!

The top shot would make a great puzzle

Nice

Sure enjoy the snow scenes that have appeared here in the past week. There is an article in todays FREE PRESS covering the pristine forests in the U.P. It should be a item for local discussion before much of the timber is removed and access blocked to hikers, campers, fishermen etc. Click Here

Top photo, near center, the clump of snow most rounded, gives the appearance of a porcupine egg. ;-)

Heikke...I did not realize that porcupine's layed eggs. Learn something new every day.

1) I hope you don't believe everything you read.

2) We have had too much snow in Calumet. I have
never cleaned off a roof this early in the year before
now. It's going to be a long, long winter!

Hi all! It's a lovely (that is, not too windy, not too cold, not too snowy) day down here in "the Valley."

Has anyone gone past Cliff Drive lately? Is it drivable in compact car? I sure could stand getting out for a hike... er... snowshoe.

Dcclark: I was by Cliff Drive yesterday, and they are keeping it open this winter. Apparently there are a number of people living out there now. It was snow-covered but looked quite driveable.

(UP-Goldwinger)

I've heard they do, but very, very carefully. lol.
I once saw a gag display of "porcupine eggs" made up of styrofoam balls with hundreds of stick burrs (I think)in them. I don't know the proper name for the burrs, but they are the ones that stick to woolen clothing by the hundreds. Very common in the Great Northwoods. I usually encounter them during deer season while walking through hardwoods.

Ignorant question of the day: Are porcupines born with stickers?

Heikki, they will also stick to bare feet (that hurts).

Thanks, Sharon!

I do medieval recreation, and a friend of mine has been feast-o-crat (ie, cook) at several events. One time they served a period dish called Hedgehogs, which are basically meatballs with almond slivers inserted in them to look like quills. For head table, they made a special version of the dish where they shaped a four pound hunk of hamburger into something resembling a sleeping four-legged critter, with almond slivers all over the back for quills, larger slivers for claws and teeth, maybe cherries for eyes, and raisins for nostrils. It was kinda cute!

I also read that once their young are old enough, they all fly south for the winter.

Brooke: When porcupines are born, their quills are soft. They harden about an hour after birth. Would you believe my husband very carefully plucked quills from a dead porcupine after a moose-hunt to Covington in October. Yup, that was him you all saw beside the highway with an embarrassed wife in the minivan. He put them in a CD case, taped shut with packing tape, for our granddaughter to take to show and tell in first grade. They actually look like an objet d'art you could mount on the wall with the white quills against the black background.

I think I will start saving all the cotton balls I can find so I can make a fur tree look like the first picture here in the yard. I just love it,and miss the simple things like that. I am getting homesick too all of a sudden.

Barbie is making Porkypine meat-ball's for supper today.No Porcupine's were injured in the process.
Do folks from the U.P. call the evening meal Dinner or Supper? Supper kind of stuck with me.

Hi all
We got our pasty order yesterday and promptly dug into some for dinner!! Mmmmmm. They are so tasty!! I sure do miss the Toivo and Eino's pasty sauce though. Anyone know of anything similar I can get or order??
Best wishes all!
Renee in AL

I have made different bags for reenacting using the porcupine quills for decorations on the bags. The native Americans used the quills to decorate clothes also. By the way porky doesn't taste like chicken more like pork or bear. Or so I think.

Save the porcupine quills for when you are finished eating your "Porkypine" meat balls, you can use them to clean your teeth.

I hear you David. That first picture really got to me too.

We still call it supper around here.

Davidcorryton: I don't believe you actually admit it! (we are heading back north in less then 2 weeks!)

Dinner was at noon and supper at four thirty in our house. Then there was dinner on Sunday that was at four thirty, my dads rules. One of the people who I graduated here in Royal Oak just called and told me he has terminal cancer and that hospice is taking over. He is single and alone. This really bothers me. I guess I should be used to friends and family passing on, but it still bothers me. His name is Ron Phiney and has always been a good guy.

A 'rule of the woods' told to me by elderly woodsmen, was one should never put a porky to death without good reason. The purpose of this rule is because the porcupine is an easy animal to dispatch with nothing more than a club, making it valuable as a source of food for someone lost.

Russ it happens afew times, I become homesick. With the Christmas cards comming in from family and friends from back home,with pictures of nephews and niece's in them, seeing how much they have grown, I realize it has been six years since I been in Dollar Bay. The Fourth Of July is another time I wish to be home.I have no good reason not to go up..

MIKIE: Nothing worse than being alone; even a lot of people with families end up alone because they don't live near other family members.

Heikki----I was told those stickers were called Burdock David H-----Growing up in the 30s dinner was at noon and supper was the third meal of the day

In my house we have lunch at 12 or so ans aupper around six but now since it is John and me we more or less eat when we are hungry. I love the pictures today!

Save all those Porky quills and send them to Sharon for knitting needles.

Oooh,this is a friendly reminder to raise my hood BEFORE I venture out on the old snowshoes with my new Sorels. I've been pegged by these "eggs" more times than I care to admit. My bare head hasn't suffered as much as my sense of common sense.

(Dickingrayling)

That is possible, but burdock as I know it, has round burrs. I use Round Up on those on the perimeter of my property almost every summer. The burrs referred to above are 3/8" - 5/8" long, stick-shaped, smooth sides, with very sharp pointed ends, hence my description as 'stick burrs'. The plants don't grow very high either,
maybe only knee high, whereas the burdock around my property can easily get to be 4'-5'. But, it's still possible they could be of the burdock family. There are many subspecies. Something good to research when nothing else to do.

My son Justin was with his grandma on the north forty, and told her he didn't like the velcro that was on his pants. He is sophisticated now and doesn't think his description of the burdock is funny.

Velcro was invented by a Hunter I read somewhere for that same reason of the burdock sticking to his pants. I had a red woolen plaid snow suit that the pickers stuck to. Picked many off of the dog too after rabbit hunting back in the good old days.