"Three things cannot be long hidden; the sun, the moon, and the truth" ~Buddha

Ahhh Buddha, you're wrong.

I like lunar eclipses. I remember being little and my mom waking me up to go out to the kitchen and crawl into the east window to watch them. One of those spiffy earthy coincidences that doesn't occur all that often, the kind you should always stop and take a minute to enjoy.

I stayed up in order to catch the very cool lunar eclipse. Not that staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning is unusual, since I don't sleep worth a damn up here, but today I stayed up with a purpose- only to be foiled. Of course it is cloudy here in Baraga, and so I cannot see the eclipse- but I do get to listen to my friends back home who are currently watching the previously mentioned eclipse. Poo. Baraga gives me a glimmer of hope that I get to see something cool, then yanks it away. Double poo.

But alas, not all is lost. I did get to take some very cool pictures of the moon before its little event that I am missing...

There is in fact an I in quitter...

So my goal, while a noble attempt at saving my sanity, has failed. It has been absolutely terrifyingly cold up here (-11 when I left for work this morning...) and I am not sure that it is ever light out. Maybe it is, but it occurs during the hours where I am stuck inside a warm building. But there again I will trade heat for daylight, that's ok too. Did I mention it was bitter cold? I absolutely hate winter to begin with...maybe I was entirely too optimistic to think that I wouldn't have to be here the entire winter. I am wondering if I could deduct my monthly tanning package as the cost of treatment for seasonal depression?

Anywho, I got stuck in Frankfort this weekend since we got a ton of snow and there was no way that I was driving in that blizzard, so this time my trip back was in the daylight. So I stopped in Marquette on one of my regularly scheduled stops (I drink lots of Redbull and Mt. Dew on my drive back and forth) and took some pics.

 The lake was one angry lady on Monday...

 Ore dock

 Its an adorable fish sign...of course I took a pic of it!

Tonight I had to venture over to L'Anse, since the grocery store in Baraga doesn't really like to keep food in stock. I mean seriously, its not like people need chicken or milk...but I digress. L'Anse does a pretty fun job with the Christmas decorations, and I love Christmas so checking out all of the trees and lights was a little bit of a pick-me-up.

This is actually Baraga's one and only Christmas decoration.

Christmas vacation is coming up soon...

Toilet paper...

I remember being up here the second day, and buying an 18 pack of toilet paper. I looked at that thing and thought, shit- I will be packing that up and taking it home with me!

Today I took a roll off of the shelf and counted...6 left. What the hell...

It's been a rough couple of weeks. I am burnt out, tired of making the 8 + hour commute twice a week, my grades are suffering some, and I am neglecting my family. While this job is a good tool for me to broaden my scope of fisheries experience, I am beginning to wonder if the mental anguish is worth it. I feel like a failure. I am not meant to be living in the middle of nowhere- this relocation has proven to me that I most certainly am not a country girl. I may be outdoorsy, but I prefer an urban center...

Along these lines, I have just about given up on my goal to keep my sanity up here. Its been two weeks since I went out to do any exploring...its hard because when I get to work its dark and when I leave work 10 or 11 hours later- you guessed it, it's dark again. But about a month ago I did manage to stop at one of my favorite spots, Munising Falls- which I have never seen without snow on it! Its a very impressive waterfall when its snow covered and frozen- huge ice formations and the sound of rushing water underneath make it a very tranquil and pretty spot to walk into in the winter.

Now that I look at these it was more than a month ago- not only is there no snow, stuff is still green!

Its a pretty good drop, and while pretty this time of year, it really is a better winter spot!

eXpLoRiNg!!!

So my goal of visiting one cool new place per week is back on track. Today after writing up a report about an old mine pond/trout lake, getting sidetracked into researching mine history in the UP, and finding one nearby where I could potentially find some copper, I was geeked to go look. After all, who wouldn't want to find a piece of famed yooper copper?


From my office window in Baraga, it was an excellent day (well, as excellent as it gets living in Baraga...)- kinda sunny, sort of warm, and best of all no snow! Meaning that I could go climb around on the poor rock piles in search of my treasure...

So I went home and looked up directions, grabbed the camera, and headed towards Painesdale in search of the Champion #4 mine shaft/rockhouse. It was actually super easy to find, and as all mine shafts are, a combination of slightly spooky and impressive. This mine in particular is the oldest standing mine- built in 1902 it operated until 1962 mining native copper.

It was just outside of Chassell when I realized something wasn't right...the ground was gradually turning white. Yup, that's right, everything inland had snowcover. Onethegroundcoldwetturneverythingwhite snow. Ick. So I got some very cool pictures of the mine, but it was a little more difficult to search the poor rock for copper. Combine that with the impending darkness at 6pm and well lets just say I didn't get to look around as much as I wanted to. I did find 3 or 4 rocks that look to have some copper flaking and small deposits, but I won't be able to tell for sure until I clean them up with some acid...

 Even the rocks that are in the foundation are cool!

 Old train bridge where cars where loaded from the back of the rockhouse- one lone pine growing in the middle of the span.

 The construction of these buildings is awesome...

 Lots of ruins- luckily this mine is owned by a preservation society and some renovations have been completed.

 Poor rock piles

 Poor rock is basically the rocks that were brought up by miners, crushed on the rockhouse floor, then what ever didn't contain enough copper to extract was hauled outside and piled up.

 I followed a critter path up the rock pile :)

 Sunset on the horizon...time to go.

Slightly eerie! But a very cool spot to explore...

Is it May yet???

So I am in the home stretch of completing my master's degree in biology. Its been somewhat of a long and trying process- I have completed the entire thing online while working full time...ick. But at any rate I am scheduled to graduate in May and only one thing currently stands between me and that very expensive piece of paper- the completion of my research project and writing my dissertation.

For this project, I am looking to characterize the Betsie River fall run of Chinook salmon. This includes estimating how many adults return to the river, how many of those are hatchery fish or wild fish, and how many are male or female...plus a whole lot of other little aspects that I will figure out as I go. But right now what that means is one day every week, I drag my poor boyfriend out to the river and we paddle long reaches in search of dead salmon carcasses. We then pick the carcass up, measure it, see if it is all spawned out, and some we take tail samples off of- it is exceptionally gross. Some of the fish we have come across are what Chris likes to call "exceptionally snarfy".

So since you guys can't go out in the field to sample with us, I thought I would bring some of the fun to you!

 Chris searching for salmon...

 Very cool underwater shot!

 Carefully measuring...

 This is what many of them look like- you literally pick them up and they disintegrate.

 There was a little crayfish living in this coho salmon!

 Look a fresh one!

Not so fresh!

One would think I don't like the UP...

Why is that, you might ask? Well, I do dislike it...but that's beside the point. Once again I got to spend an ENTIRE week downstate- I got to visit my parents,saw my grandmother, visited my good friends Jerry and Sue, and I got to go to multiple days worth of dentist appointments and FINALLY have a tooth extracted- hence my use of sick leave for part of the week. Despite the immense amounts of pain I endured for two weeks until the tooth matter was figured out, it was a good time.

At any rate I was able to accomplish lots of good things- made some good food, watched some good movies, got the aquariums all set up, and made some good progress with the whole master's field work thing (next post is on that...) Chris had decided it was time to take his boat out for the year, so Saturday's big plan was to fish all the way down to Arcadia where we would be leaving the boat for her long winter's nap. Sounds good right? Nice peaceful trip, catch some fish, lake was going to be somewhat calm ( a must for me)...

It was cold. Fricking freezing cold! But still fun :)

 The back deck of the boat is actually wood. Not white...

 Beautiful Betsie Bay sunrise

Got one! The first fish of the last trip...

 Yup. Snow on the dunes.

 Note the bloody snow on the back deck. Steelhead are delicious...  :)

 Lots and lots of layers on!

 The Slide...complete with snow!

 It really was a super pretty day

 Crusting into Arcadia Lake~