2/15/12 – It’s a beautiful, sunny day here at Sawbill. Due to the wide temperature swings that we are seeing now-a-days, the trees are covered with heavy frost every morning. When the sun hits them and the morning breeze stirs, the frost falls like shining diamonds from a clear blue sky. – Bill

Morning frost on aspens.

Morning frost on white pine.

Roy inspects the Sawbill ski trail, maintained mainly for our personal use, but getting a lot of public use in this low snow year.

2/14/12 – Here is a good Valentine’s Day song from our friend, Jerry Vandiver. – Bill

You can follow this link for more information on Jerry’s “Paddlesongs” project.
Here is last week’s Cook County West End News from WTIP North Shore Community Radio.

2/9/12 – There are a number of new mining projects proposed near the BWCA Wilderness. In the past, mining has caused serious pollution problems and the companies have faded away, leaving the mess for the locals to live with. This has become a big issue around here. The Friends of the Boundary Waters, the long time wilderness advocacy group, has a lot of information on their website. In the interest of fairness, here is a link to Polymet, the company that is farthest along in it’s effort to begin a new type of mining in Minnesota.

Former Sawbill crew, Dave and Amy Freeman, are teaming up with former state legislator and Grand Marais-area dogsled racer Frank Moe for an epic trip from Northern Minnesota to the State Capitol in St. Paul in early March. They are calling for the protection of the region’s natural heritage, including clean water and wilderness. Dave and Amy will be delivering petitions from Ely to Finland, Minnesota by dogsled. Frank will continue with those petitions and many more on to the State Capitol.

You have seen the lakes, rivers, and forests of Northern Minnesota first hand and understand how special this area is. Please join Dave, Amy, Frank, and thousands of others by signing the petition that will be delivered to the State Capitol by dogsled.

Please, watch the videos below to learn more about the Sulfide Mining that is proposed near Ely and sign the petition below.

1/31/12 – It continues to be winter here – if an odd winter. Instead of the usual snowfalls, we’ve been getting an inch or two every few days. We’ll take what we can get. – Bill
Here is the latest edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP North Shore Community Radio.

Clare and I found this moose antler a few weeks ago while grooming the ski trail. We had high hopes for finding the other one, but no luck.

1/25/12 – The U.S. Forest Service is accepting reservations for BWCA Wilderness entry permits starting today. The permit gives your group, of up to nine people, permission to enter the wilderness on a certain day at a particular entry point. Each wilderness entry point has a daily quota for how many parties are allowed in. Once enough reservations are received to fill the quota, no more permits are allowed for that day and entry point.
It’s a good idea to reserve the permit as soon as your entry date and entry point are firm. The length of the trip, where you go once you are in the wilderness and how many people you have, can remain flexible.
You can reserve your permit at: www.recreation.gov or by calling toll free 1-877-550-6777. Or, if you prefer, just call us and we will reserve the permit for you. – Bill

1/19/12 – We woke up this morning to find that the thermometer was reading -20 F. This is the coldest temperature we’ve had in awhile. It was quite windy overnight too, so it’s chilly this morning. Right after sunrise, we had an interesting phenomenon. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but a light snow was falling. When the temperature is this low, the snow can condense right out of the air. It only lasted for an hour or so, but it added to an already beautiful outdoor scene, with the tiny snow flakes glinting like a million diamonds in the air.
Here is the latest edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio. – Bill

1/13/12 – Here is the latest edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio.

1/12/12 – Former Sawbill crew member, Max Wilson, became the father of a lovely baby boy early this morning. His name is Graham Hudson Wilson. He is 20″ long and weighs 7 lbs 2 oz. Mother Marie, baby and father are healthy and doing fine. – Bill

Sawbill crew in 2030.

1/11/12 – Our friend, Jerry Vandiver, is a Nashville based songwriter who is working on a new CD that will be all canoeing related songs. He sent us a link today to his latest song along with a slide show from some of his past BWCA Wilderness canoe trips. – Bill

1/9/12 – We are getting quite a few calls from people wondering how much snow and ice we have here at Sawbill. We officially have 12″ of snow on the ground. The lake ice is 16 – 18″ thick. I re-groomed our 7.5K classic cross country ski trail yesterday and it is in pretty good condition.
Our daughter, Clare Hansen, has been home for a holiday visit. She headed back to Missoula, Montana today. Last night, as an end-of-visit treat, we walked out to the middle of Sawbill Lake and howled like wolves in the hope of getting real wolves to howl back. Cindy has a particular knack for this activity and more often than not can provoke a response. No luck last night though. We had a good time anyway and it was nice just to be out on the lake in the bright moonlight. This morning, however, there were fresh wolf tracks all around our house. I guess our wolf howling worked after all. – Bill