The Locks are open and a new shipping season starts.

The locks at the lakehead opened the other day and there has been a steady stream of traffic arriving into the Duluth Harbour the past couple of days.

I took a walk down to my favorite spot in Duluth last nite (in my esteemed opinion, the best view of the port area) and took a few pics of an incoming laker.

It was a beautiful evening with the sun shining behind me giving me a great view.

Nice aye?

Life is Good!

Hiking Lake County Demonstration Forest

Yesterday we drove up the north shore to Two Harbours and then a bit north of town to an area called demonstration forest.

The focus is on a variety of plant life found in a small area and how they are affected by the environment around them. Low land = pines and ferns... higher land = birch and poplar, clearings caused by previous inhabitants such as farmers etc, etc.

It was a nice walk and again, surprisingly dry except for a short area aside the Knife River which still has a lot of ice and results in overflow.. RIGHT ONTO OUR PATH ... Jewels looks a bit tentative in one pic that I took... but we managed to detour the wet spots and stay dry..

Going to do a short hike at Chester this afternoon...

Life is Good!!!!!!

Hiking Chester Bowl..

The weather has been super mild the past couple of weeks and pretty well all the snow from our early March storms has disappeared.

I thought I'd head out to Chester Bowl this morning and see what it was like on the hiking trail. It was a bit wet and messy in places but I was very pleasantly surprised at how dry it was. There is a LOT of water flowing in the creek. It always amazes me that we have this little wilderness setting in the heart of the city.

One of the many nice things about Duluth.

:) 198 morning pounds today.

Life is Good!

201 POUNDS... YIKES!!!!

OK... I'm putting myself out there!! I've known that I'm getting drastically overweight for some time now.

I wonder how I got to this stage.. perhaps the super huge servings of bacon and eggs for breakie at Uncle Louie's. Or perhaps my natural talents at swilling the multitude of great beers available here in Beer City Duluth.

Jewels and I picked up a scale yesterday. Just before we went out on the town and drank a whole bunch of green beer for St Patrick's Day. ... Well, green beer should be a bit healthier .. yes/no???

I understand this weight thing well.. after all I am a big boy... errr.. I guess that could be taken in a variety of ways.

But.. about a year ago I was sitting in these same 36 inch waist jeans saying I was going to loose weight and .. well.. it just didn't happen.

It's time.. I know it means a change in lifestyle.. Except for the hiking part that I enjoy so much.. More walking and change the diet..

Simple aye...

So let's go and do it Jimbobob..

Now!!!

Of course!!

Of course I had to toss in a few pics of my two special girls out in Courtenay.

Shaya took a header down the stairs a few days ago and judging by the photo, I would say that my girl is a little proud of her first shiner. She also figured a good way to disguise the injury with her Hollywood Shades look.

And Rylie... that's a mischievous look if I ever saw one. What are you up to kid...

I love you girls... Life is Wunderful!

Of course lots of snow also equals snowshoeing...

Saturday the whole day consisted of a gentle steady snowfall. And what's the best thing to do with all this fresh snow..

Well a snowshoeing party of course. Jewels, Annie, and I were invited out to a friends acreage for a day of snowshoeing followed by a fondue party...

This had to be one of the best days of the winter. Everything was covered with snow and the best part was that there was virtually no wind.

It was so nice and calm and peaceful and mild and wonderful..

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Our first winter storm.. or March comes in like a lion!!

Well, it had to happen. The ground around here was brown... no snow other that a few spots in the bushes and it looked like we might be in some kind of drought conditions this spring.

All that changed the other nite and in the matter of a couple of days, we've been hit with about 20 inches of snow.

The first storm was a blizzard with high winds whipping the snow around. We took a drive up to the beach on Park Pointe to check you the lake and the waves were just hammering into the shore. So rugged and beautiful..

When all had settled down, we took a couple of pics of the house. No more brown ground.. and lots of snow to shovel...

Life is good!