Life between the lakes, Part 45, special edition

 

The last couple of weeks have been tough. First there was my bout of bronchitis that slowed me down considerably. After a week of treatment, I felt better but not cured. Then I found myself making the trip to the clinic again and returning with a new diagnosis; Pneumonia, which knocked me out of the writing game for the better part of the week . This time I came home armed with new steroids, antibiotics and inhalers to combat it.

I'm not gonna croak, so there is no need to make a fuss.

Taking care of Jack and Needa is my immediate priority each day. While some days I would prefer to sleep past 5AM and skip our daily 2 miles, it has not been possible. They have adjusted well since moving into the wilderness and we have not missed our daily walks in five months.

Deer Park provides a beautiful backdrop for our walks and plenty of fresh air for my dogs. But they do not get the same socialization as they had in Royal Oak.

Needa especially craves attention. She will stop and turn around when she hears a car a half mile down the road, hoping someone is coming to see her. She did the same with snowmobiles this winter.

When I lived in Royal Oak, people always stopped me in the street to ask me about my greys.

“Got a minute?” they’d ask.

“I’ve got all day,” I’d reply and invite them out of their car to come and meet my lovelies.

Even in Deer Park, strangers continue to marvel at their beauty and temperament. If they get out to pet them nearly every person has commented on how Needa is the softest dog they’ve ever touched.

People usually ask about their racing careers and speed. In their prime, they’d race 550 yards (five and a half football fields) in about 31 seconds.

Let that sink in.

Jack and Needa are always anxious to see Aunt Carla when she’s outside and we are returning from a walk or when we meet in the breezeway that connects the living quarters.

I can count on one hand the number of visitors I’ve had since the move and it’s hard for me not to feel guilty. While this change of lifestyle has brought so much to me, it has also taken something away from my dogs.

Needa turns 12 today and Jack is 18 months ahead of her, going on 14 this fall. I’ve taken them on some journeys during our life together, sometimes out of my comfort zone. But they have adapted well as long as we were together.

There are few things I love more than the sight and feel of tired dogs in a room after a walk and a satisfying meal. Tonight I sat down to read and Needa assumed the greyhound “roach pose;” lying on her back, four legs fully extended in different directions with her soft white belly exposed. I rubbed it for about five minutes and could hear her low grumble of bliss, signifying happiness and comfort.

She doesn’t know it is her birthday or why I make so much fuss over her. If you are a dog owner and a friend of mine, you already know that treating everyday like a special day is something that comes easily.

These days she eats less and walks a little slower. But I’ve never felt such adoration from any of my dogs as I have with Needa. She remains the silly yet elegant lady of the house while a less refined Tiger Jack Burke rides on her coat tails of sweetness and beauty.

"What I would do for wisdom!" I cried out as a young man.

Evidently not much. Or so it seems.

Even on walks I follow the dog.”

-Jim Harrison  

Life between the Lakes, part 43

 

My good friend Kevin Collard passed away last night. And though I am here, still full of life, I feel a profound emptiness inside.

 

His illness came on rapidly and he quickly found himself accepting the inevitable. He had guts and courage, knowing his time was short and he approached death the only way he knew how; through his faith.

 

Kevin was the guy behind the scenes talk radio on WJR and Christian radio, going back to his high school days. He was a brilliant guy, full of great ideas and an incredible sense of humor.

In a world of friendship through social media, he was a true go-to friend to me, because our friendship was genuine. 

 

While I mourn his loss I take joy in his deliverance. Please keep Kevin's family in your prayers.

 

Kevin was a graduate of Waterford Kettering High School (1985) and the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts (1986). He was a well-known radio producer in the Detroit metro area getting his start as the executive producer for Foster Braun’s “Love Talks” program at WWCM-Ypsilanti (1986-1993). He worked at WJR-Detroit from 1993 to 2009. He produced programs for Jimmy Barrett, Fat Bob Taylor, Larry Patton, Mike Whorf and Mitch Albom’s Sunday Sports Album. He was the executive producer for Ken Calvert, Paul W. Smith, David Newman, and Frank Beckman.

 

He later was the executive producer for Paul Edwards at WLQV-Detroit, Music Director and Morning Host at Proclaim FM in Toledo, Ohio, and Executive Producer for Stephen Clark & Joanne Purtan at WOMC-Detroit. He wrote the “Sounds of Faith” weekend column for the Oakland Press (1994-1996). In recent years he hosted a podcast, “A Soul Encountered,” interviewing guests about their Christian faith.

Life between the lakes, part 24

 

Life between the lakes, part 24

I am currently afforded the time to enjoy simple things in the north woods. It is not every day people can literally watch the sun rise minute by minute over the horizon directly in front of them, but it happens daily with me when the weather cooperates.

And I do not take it for granted.

I count the birds along my walks with Jack and Needa. I watch the trees twitch and see snow ghosts’ fall out of them in the yard. I keep track of the ice shelf on Lake Superior, look for fresh animal tracks, watch the sunset and marvel at the ghostly imaginary figures I see in the maverick snow squalls that race across the lake.

The one thing I learned from the great writer, Jim Harrison, is that in order to be a writer, one needs to have a dedication to awareness and be immersed in it all the time. I know I will never attain greatness like Harrison, but I know I would be content being remembered as a writer people enjoyed reading.

This morning it was bleak and windy. The only bird I saw was Mr. Evermore, the local raven who is still looking for the scraps I used to set out for the coyote I was feeding. Sadly, he is gone.

Late in the evening an amazing thing happens. I stargaze at night and everything is different from what I am used to seeing in the summer. I love the alignments of the stars in winter because they are so different.

As I looked at Orion’s belt this week and gazed south-west in the sky, I see the suspenders that hold up the belt, yet no astronomer has ever mentioned them. The big dipper is spilling the other way and after the light show we had at Christmas, other planets are away, making their rotation.

I am an ear to the forest and it will remain an unsolved mystery. I don’t want anything to pass me bye; especially life.

Tomorrow holds no promises. But tonight, light from ancient stars illuminate the big beautiful sky in a way I have not seen before and never will again.

Life between the lakes, part 22

 

 

 

Life between the lakes, part 22

For the last three days, snow has been falling in Deer Park in in almost every variation possible. It’s been wet and heavy and light and fluffy. There have been flurries, blizzards and whiteout conditions. It has been blowing sideways in each direction, swirling in slow, vast circles and even moving upward back toward the clouds.

The snow drifts in the dog run are already up and over the fence while the drift against the house is almost up to my kitchen window. Jack and Needa have surprised me; going the distance in our morning and afternoon miles in this bitter cold. I’ve always known they enjoy the low temps and with this arctic blast, they are champions at getting their steps in every day.

This afternoon was unusual. Visibility on the road was only about 100 yards but the sun would occasionally win the battle and stick around for small pockets of time as small wisps of blue sky struggled to do the same.

I went down to the big lake yesterday. The waves pounding the shore were big enough to rival all of Hawaii and the ice shelf was about neck high and growing from the beating it was taking.

Lake Superior still has a lot of open water and will continue to freeze in a big way over the next week. When it happens it creates amazing sights with ice cover on everything along the shoreline.

This is a rare photo of a family or Arctic Flavins I saw on Lake Superior. About every ten years they make their way through this area on their way to Whitefish Bay. Lake Superior is only at about a 10% freeze right now, so many hard shelled land/water mammals/reptiles and amphibians are able to travel long distances when conditions permit.

They eventually make it into the ocean if they survive the rough conditions in the St. Lawrence Seaway, after using their suction cup appendages to catch free rides on freighters as they work their way down the Great Lakes.

They have sensitive eyes and run for cover if they see you. This is why their faces are rarely seen. On rare occasions when the weather is warm, these fascinating, docile and gregarious creatures often come right up to rock hunters who work the shoreline of Deer Park on Lake Superior.  In the summer they beg for food, giggle like a grandkid, enjoy rum and love listening to Steely Dan.

Reporting live from Deer Park, I am Peter Wurdock, your suave, northern reporter who never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.

 

I’ve had a trail-cam out for about ten days, trying to get some shots of the coyote down the road.  I’ve seen him a few times and routinely saw his tracks as he came for some scraps I was leaving for him.

 

The first couple nights with the camera were a bust. I got a poor photo of him looking around for what was left after this huge raven had cleaned out the pile. The next day I left some more as we took our afternoon walk and I wasn’t more than 400 yards down the road before I saw the raven flying with the bread in his mouth.

 

I now call him Mr. Evermore.

 

I have never seen a Raven as big as this one. He could be a meal for a hungry woodsman with some leftover for his hungry friend.

 

I changed the location of the camera and that didn’t work.  Now I see Mr. Evermore waiting for us up in the tree as we depart on our 3:05 walk down the road to Cranberry Lake so I need to devise a new plan.

 

Since we haven’t had any fresh snow in about two weeks it is hard to tell old tracks from new tracks coming out of the woods. Tomorrow that will change with the expected snow.

 

I usually drive to town for groceries, errands and supplies on Fridays but my travel plans changed today after hearing about the storm that was coming. The wind has picked up within the last couple of hours. Right now it is raining but will change soon, making the snow we are in for, heavy and wet.  

 

The forecast is also predicting significant wind, so if we lose power and internet, you might not hear from me for a couple of days.  We do have a generator so we will be fine if it gets that bad.

 

I have prepared the little jugs of brandy for Jack and Needa to hang around their necks if we have to go out and find a lost hiker, wayward snowmobiler, ice fisherman or musician who got lost looking for a gig.

 

They are sleeping soundly but are standing by.

 

I can think of no other place I’d rather be stranded in a snowstorm than Deer Park, MI.  Now we are going to have to wait and see what happens.