Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma - delayed edition

Well - this will be a little catch up on our game.  The next state that we will describe is a very large state that has the largest freshwater lake in the world on one of its borders.  The name of the state was taken from a native american word meaning, "sky tinted water."  One of its other borders has the largest river in the United States washing by.  This state has 10,000 inland lakes.  Its capital is named after my brother and Bing's brother..........There are some very large cities but the tall grass prairie where the Prairie Indians hunted bison covers acres and acres beyond the cities.............This state entered the union on May 11, 1858.............A few square miles in the north of this state produce 75% of the nation's iron ore and one of its cities is the largest inland harbor for  the international shipping trade.  A fun nonsense fact:  The mascot for its nickname is an underground rodent..............Can you name this state?????

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma?

We're on our way, Great God, we're on our way!  We're thinking of a state that entered the union on May 29th, 1848.  That made thirty states here in America.  The explorers from France poked around and poked around and found quite an exciting new territory.  There were borders with two of the five Great Lakes.  There were 14000 lakes,  so we're  hopeful they knew how to swim.  The early settlers found hills and valleys and rivers and dells.  Some of the land was agriculturally rich and some was glacially rugged with rocks.  Nowadays this state is a leader in the production of paper, dairy products and cranberries.  An interesting nonsense fact is that many times you may see people of this state wearing large yellow triangles on their heads. What state is this??           P.S.  5,686,986 people live in this state and some of them are among your favorite people!

The Rain is Helping

Oh Good!  The rain is helping dissolve the snow.

A Frozen April Shower

It snowed again last night.  We're hoping it turns to rain and washes these little critters away!

A Trapped Camper

Oh, woe is us!  Here's a couple of pictures of our camper.  We'd like to put the camper on our pickup and hit the road.  I wonder if a hair dryer would help melt the snow piles which impede us.  Bing sprinkled the wood ashes on the snow this morning hoping that the darkness would absorb instead of reflect the sunlight.
Today we're finally going to go above forty degrees, so we're hopeful!

Angels in the Snow

All little children born in the northern states are introduced to making snow angels.  A person just flops to one's back and waves one's arms and legs on the snow covered ground, back and forth in nice large arcs.  Then, as a child can do,  one hops up and admires the large snow angel left behind.  It's fun but Bing and I had occasion to have real angels help us in the snow.  It was about ten days ago.  We were all lined up to make our annual trek to the nearby maple woods to tap, (drill holes), in the chosen trees so that we could insert the spiles and hang the bags to collect the sap to produce some maple syrup.  Last year was a devastating one for maple syrup production because of record setting warmth and we hoped to make up for it this year.  The trouble was that this spring is setting records in the opposite direction and we still have about 24 to 30 inches of snow in the woods. It's hard to walk in deep snow and we weren't sure we'd get all 65 spiles in, even if we divided the task into a few separate events.  Then, the heavenly intervention occurred.  Bernie, our son, Jamie, our grandson and Matthew, Jamie's friend, offered to help.  Wow, what a gift.  The boys ran through the snow like it wasn't there, they stomped the paths and climbed trees in between assignments.  Bernie helped Bing with the drilling and placement of bags and all 65 spiles were inserted with paths stomped from tree to tree and out to the ATV trail.  We are so grateful for this angelic help and when the tasty sweet treat comes to fruition we'l be sure to share with them.  Thanks, angel guys!!

Top o the Mornin'

It's nearly noon so I'd better get this going or I won't be able to use the Irish greeting!  Tis a lovely day here in Crescent Flats.  The sun is shining brightly and the temp has climbed to 14.  Last year on St. patty's day, we had 78 degrees and today, we started out at 13 below zero!  Our hardy Irish ancestors would probably put a little more peat on the fire and raise a glass of stout to the unpredictability of our weather.  So do we, but Bing will have the stout and I'll settle for Diet Dr. O'Pepper..........I'm in green but my fair Hungarian spouse is donned in red so that we can cheer our beloved Badger Men's basketball team to a victory in the Big Ten Championship tournament.  I think even non basketball fans would get a kick out of the UW team because our coach Bo Ryan, is quite unique in the world of college basketball powerhouses.  He doesn't go after the tallest, strongest super high school standouts.  He seems to want intelligent, persevering, team minded individuals who have the tenacity to learn and grow and graduate.  If these individuals also have great athletic ability and super skills, all the better because by the time they get to be seniors, they've reached a high degree of capability and they provide great entertainment for their loyal fans.  Here's to the Badgers!!!!!