I’ve been pretty quiet the past couple weeks and that has been with good reason, I haven’t had much to say. Oh maybe that is an exaggeration, as I feel I always have something to say regardless whether I should or not. I’ve just been wrapped up in the dreaded tax time. Owning our own small business, and I mean small, which means taxes are astronomical because we don’t have all the big corporate write offs and tax breaks, tax time is just about the most stressful time of year for me. So I typically lock myself up for a week to two weeks for that dreaded period and between doing the taxes and coping with taxes I just “hide”.
Coming out of hiding this past Tuesday, the last day the taxes could be mailed out (at least I made the deadline) I needed a few days of solitude, debriefing if you will. It was a needed time of refocusing, reevaluating and communing with the Lord and my family. We decided to take a drive Sunday (yesterday) further into the mountain, something we had been wanting to do for weeks. In our area we average a whopping 277 inches of snow a year but just a mere 20 to 30 minutes from us they average 377 inches a year. I know, it’s like temperatures, once it hits 1 degrees, who really cares if the thermometer says it is -15? It is all cold after 1 degrees!
The same with 277 inches of snow or 377, it is a lot of snow! Whats another hundred inches after the first almost 300 inches? We are still surrounded by snow! It was almost 70 degrees today. The children were out playing in their t shirts, the windows where all open in the cabin and there is snow everywhere, I mean everywhere.
So what would cause us to drive up further into more snow? First off to put everyone’s mind at ease, surprisingly they really didn’t have anymore snow then us, at least right now. But even if they had, what lures us up to that part of the world is its isolation and it’s beauty, so more snow or not we would have went. There is something captivating about this whole area, about the whole Upper Peninsula of Michigan for that matter but when you cross the Portage Bridge from Houghton and enter into the Keweenaw Peninsula God’s creations goes from “WOW” to not having any words to describe it as it leaves you speechless. The further you go into this peninsula, the more it becomes that way.
Lake Superior of course surrounds all of the Keweenaw Peninsula but at the very tip of it, at “the end of the road” (yes there really is a sign that says that and it is being totally honest) Lake Superior rules, without questions. The wilderness meets it’s soul mate on those shores in Copper Harbor. My camera can’t even begin to do it justices but hopefully you can catch a glimpse of what takes most peoples breath away.
There are several “ridges” here in Copper Country. Each beautiful and alluring, but none so as those that meet the shores of Lake Superior. This is, after all, the largest fresh water lake in the world. It is the ocean of the midwest.
They were still ice fishing up here yesterday.
We could’t get close enough to the cove to get a decent picture of the two out there near their shanty still ice fishing.
It is a water wonderland up here, on the shores as well as inland. This is Jacob’s Falls. We have been here several times but never with snow.
While we were cruising around Eagle Harbor we kept seeing deer, all over. We saw this one with a friend eating in a yard under an apple tree. 
He/she was curious and came about 6 ft from us and stayed their for the longest time. We found that odd until we stumble upon this seen later……………………….
This area is a migration course for the deer up here. This is a “deer yard”, or where deer “yard up” at. The pictures do not show the number of deer here, there were probably close to 200 when we came by. The deer photoed were the largest grouping of them in one place.
We mustn’t forget, the things that leave you pondering…
It was a beautiful drive, blessed with many of God’s wonders and refocused for sure.
Lea
Missed hearing from you, but understandable. Thanks for the beautiful pictures. My older sister was born in the UP and my parents (both Okies born and bred) still speak fondly of the area. That was 50 years ago. 😉
Gorgeous photos…thanks for sharing!!!
Blessings,
Cindy
Glad you and family had time to recharge and enjoyed your down time. 🙂 The deer look in good shape, our mule deer here are in rough condition, we have one fawn who was orphaned and another doe let it tag along with her fawn, but did not let it nurse, so she’s smaller and this winter she found refuge in our barn, where we keep the straw stacked. Every evening around 5pm she’d come with the doe and other fawn and she’d bed down in the barn. The doe and her fawn would move on but come day break they can back for this little fawn. We started leaving the tailings of hay in a pile for this fawn, the doe and her fawn, it helped but they still look rough. It’s been a long winter and although Spring has peeked through a few days, yesterday it was snowing again, flakes as large as half dollars. None of it stuck, the ground was warm and wet from the previous rain the evening before. This morning the sun is shining and the sky that Montana blue with a few wispy clouds and the snow is on the rims to the west of us and on the hills and Pryor Mountains to the east, it makes a beautiful picture in one’s mind. 🙂 Glad you posted, we all missed your family and your happenings.
I find this same thing, that when doing things that are stressful (like taxes), the outdoors is where we like to venture into after. You live in some beautiful countryside! Thank you for sharing! It’s always neat to learn about other parts of the country. XX
Welcome back! 🙂 Taxes are indeed a pain! :/ I am glad you took time to recoup and spend time with the family 🙂
Now I want to visit all parts of the UP even more! *insert sad sigh*
What a lovely park! And so many deer! We have white tail deer around my house. Our local heard seems to have wintered well 🙂
God Bless!