| November 1st |
The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July. -- Henry David Thoreau (circa 1854) Well.......I suppose I can accept that, but one has to be in the right mood for it. Except for a few nuisances, July is a darned nice month, whereas November has a lot of nuisances but her pleasures, though few, are very nice indeed (again, if you're in the right mood). Yesterday the pontoons were put on shore and cabin 4 was shut down for the winter. Cabin 4 has, on rare occasions, been open much later than this, but getting the pontoons out of the water is a different story. That usually happens in early to mid October; All Hallows' Eve this year is the second latest date that it has ever occurred.......the latest was November 6th in 2013. |
| November 2nd | Yesterday was Wednesday. Last Monday the weatherman started telling us that it was going to start snowing on Wednesday morning about 7:00 and that we would get 1 to 3 inches. Yesterday morning at about 7:15 the snow started falling and it looks like we got 2 to 3 inches. Normally the weatherman can't tell you, with any accuracy, what the weather will be 4 hours from now, but this time he predicted it correctly almost 2 days in advance. Amazing!!! |
| November 3rd | Tomorrow is the opening day of deer hunting so this afternoon Ron E and his group arrived to use LBLR as their deer camp. This will be there 26th consecutive year.......that's a long tradition!!! Good luck you guys! |
| November 4th | Aha! Yesterday the rest of the stuff in the lake (namely a fishing boat, a paddle boat, and the swimming raft) were put on shore for the winter. It's now officially DONE!!!!!! Better late than never, right? |
| November 5th |
Remember, remember, The Fifth of November Gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. -- English Folk Verse (circa 1870) Tonight is Bonfire Night in Britain. The fires are to commemorate events that occurred on this day in 1605 that nearly changed the course of their nation's history. It's called Guy Fawkes Night, and these days it's celebrated with fireworks as well as bonfires. |
| November 6th | The temperature was 13 degrees when the sun rose this morning and the next few nights look to be about the same. In fact, the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing this whole week. It would really be something if the lake froze in November this year, which would be quite a change from the mid-December freezes of the last two years. And it would be even nicer if it froze before Thanksgiving, which it has done on several occasions since the modern era began. But with this year's Thanksgiving being the seconded earliest it can ever be, that seems rather unlikely. I'll keep you posted. |
| November 7th | Ron E and his group of deer hunters left yesterday afternoon, and for only the second time that I can remember, none of them got a deer. Of course, like every hunter for the last ten years who didn't get a deer, they blamed it on the overabundance of wolves. They said that the area of the Chippewa National Forest where they hunt was full of wolf tracks and that they had wolf pictures on their trail cam.......so unless they're exaggerating, maybe it's true in this case. |
| November 8th | There's a little ice on LBL, which about typical for early November. It's difficult to see, but click HERE. And the south bay of Bass Lake is completely frozen over; it's anybody's guess if it'll stay that way, but it's frozen over at the moment. |
| November 9th | Due to the wind for the last 36 hours, as of this afternoon there was no ice on LBL or on the South Bay of Bass Lake. It's all gone!!! |
| November 10th | As we speak (6:45 AM), the temperature is 4 below zero and it was in the single digits below zero all last night. To see the result, click HERE (that's a view from cabin 6, by the way). Although you can't see it in the picture, off in the distance there is steam rising from the surface indicating that there's open water out there yet, but it's very close to being frozen. If it were to freeze today it would be earliest ever (in the modern era, that is), but with higher temperatures and stronger winds predicted for the next few days, the rate of freeze will probably be set back a bit. In fact, with a high of 42 predicted for early next week a lot of it will probably open up again. |
| November 11th | There is a lot less ice on the lake this morning than there was last night, even though the temperature didn't get above freezing last night and the wind was calmer than it was all day yesterday. Click HERE. |
| November 12th | Good-bye to my Granddaughter Nattie and her fiance Dan; they spent the weekend in cabin 5. They spent most of yesterday shopping in Grand Rapids but apparently they didn't buy anything. Thanks for coming you guys, and I'll see you up here for Thanksgiving!!! |
| November 13th | Click HERE........and it's not the writer's block. |
| November 14th | It's 7:00 AM and the temp is 35 degrees; no doubt it was above freezing all last night. The ice on the lake is rapidly receding so that there's a lot of open water out there, the snow is melting, and the resort is covered with slush. It feels a lot more like Spring than Autumn. Darn!!!! What's it doing down state? |
| November 15th | The 23.5 pound turkey went out of the freezer and into the refrigerator today to begin thawing for Thanksgiving Day. |
| November 16th | Vote NO! |
| November 17th | Two of my next door neighbors shot a deer last week. Click HERE to see see John's deer (he's 12 years old) and click HERE to see Em's deer (she's 10 years old). You guys should have plenty of venison for the winter now. Congratulations to both of you! [Aside to readers -- I know I have two missed placed modifiers in this short paragraph, but you know what I mean. -- End of aside] |
| November 18th | How angry do you suppose the Dryads (Tree Nymphs in Greek mythology) are with me for all the wood that I've burned in my fireplace over the years? And since I've burned mostly Ash I'm particularly wondering about the Meliais, who are the Dryads of Ash trees. Some Dryads are associated with an individual tree, so if their tree dies, they die, and if their tree grows or blossoms, so does the Dryad living in that particular tree. I don't believe that's the case with the Meliasis so at least I haven't been responsible for the death any particular ones.......but I still suspect that they're not happy with me. On the other hand, the Hamadryads are an integral part of their trees, which are Oak trees, and since I've also burned a fair amount of Oak over the years, I've been responsible for the death of many a Hamadryad. Alas. |
| November 19th | Today is WORLD TOILET DAY but I'm not sure how a person should celebrate it. |
| November 20th | I have nothing to say! |
| November 21st | At this time last year we had significant snow on the ground so we had Thanksgiving the old-fashioned way......."Over the river and through the woods", etc. Click HERE. Unfortunately that's not the case this year. We've had some snow already but it's gone, so it looks like we'll have a green TGD weekend. Sigh....... |
| November 22nd | Last year Deb and I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago but my kids and grandkids celebrated it here at LBLR without us. They will be here again this year (arriving later today) and Deb and I will be with them. |
| Thanksgiving Day | Oops! We did get some snow for Thanksgiving Day; not a lot, but some. Click HERE. How about you down-staters? |
| Black Friday | There's still open water out there (click HERE) and considering the weather report it's not going to close up anytime soon. |
| November 25th | Oops, I was wrong again!!!!!! The lake is frozen.......and it's still five days earlier than the median. Click HERE to see the history. The string of December freezes has been broken! |
| November 26th | The Southdale Mall in Edina Minnesota, which opened in 1956, is the oldest fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States (as per Wikipedia). The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota contains roughly the same number of square feet as 78 football fields. (I know this is a dumb entry, but it's better than the Writer's Block isn't it?) |
| November 27th | I was in IGH the last couple of days and it was during that time that the lake froze (as mentioned above). Thanks to my Son-in-law Jim for keeping me up to date on the status of the ice. |
| November 28th | As you know, if you want to look at some entries for the months earlier in the year, just look down below this entry (or above the first entry of the month) and click on the month you want to see. But do you see what it says? It says "Click HERE to see the other months in 2016", and it has been like that (and still is like that) for all of the months in this entire year. Didn't anyone (including me) notice that all year long???? The problem will be corrected for all pages on December 1st. |
| November 29th | Oddly enough, the center of the lake (but a little to the south) opened up again last night. This is the first time that I've even seen it freeze completely and then open up again. Weird!!! |
| November 30th | And so ends November! |
