11/26/05 – We often have pine martens (a large member of the weasel family) visiting our bird feeders. Yesterday, a new marten appeared, probably attracted by the remains of the Thanksgiving turkey that we hung for the grey jays to feast on. This marten was unique in that he was missing most of his tail and had white feet.

The tail-less marten camps under our bird feeder and snacks on sunflower seeds.

11/21/05 – Many of you remember Beth (Rolf) Rehfus, who was our year ’round employee for several years. She returned this past weekend for a visit with her husband Bill and two good friends, Erin and Kim.

(L – R) Kim, Erin, Cindy, Bill, and Beth ready for sliding from the sled’s point of view.

What is wrong with this picture? The dogs look on as the human pulls the sled!

11/17/05 – Sawbill Lake froze over today.

11/16/05 – Winter has arrived in earnest today. Although it has been snowing occasionally for more than a month, today’s snow has the feeling of permanence. A cold north wind has temperatures plunging as snow falls persistently. Single digits above zero are predicted for tonight.

The lake hasn’t frozen yet, but almost certainly will when the wind stops.
Last weekend was our annual cookie party when Cindy, her mom, Arline, sister, Sherrie, neice, Anna, and daughter Clare lay in an unhealthy supply of cookies for the holiday season. Innocent bystanders (like me and Clare’s boyfriend Derek) get recruited for the decorating assembly line.

Clare and Derek admire the cookie artistry.

Cindy, Sherrie, and Arline show the effects of cookie overdosing.

11/9/05 – The gales of November have arrived in northeastern Minnesota. As I write this the wind is howling and wet snow is driving in sideways. We are having sustained winds of 35 mph with gusts near 50 mph. Twenty foot waves are predicted on Lake Superior today.

No canoeists have ventured into the BWCA Wilderness for over a week. When there is a risk of Sawbill Lake looking like this, is there any wonder why?

Horizontal wet snow plastered to the trees at the Sawbill Lake canoe landing.

Homer and Sunnie enjoy the bracing wind in their faces.

11/1/05 – We were shocked last week when Dave mildly commented, “I just saw something I’ve never seen at Sawbill before – a raccoon on the back deck.” Indeed, a raccoon has never been seen in the 49 years that we’ve been here, nor had we heard of one previous to that. Raccoons have been moving steadily northward for the last twenty years or so. They have been seen along Lake Superior’s north shore and near Ely. Our raccoon proved to be small and extremely docile. The leading theory is that he/she hitched a ride to Sawbill stowed away in a vehicle, or was live trapped elsewhere and released here.
After a few nights of emptied bird feeders and violated dumpsters, we invested in a raccoon sized live trap. Alison and I used all our trapping wiles (obtained mostly over the internet) to fool the little guy into capture. We were a little disappointed by how easy it was. He watched us bait the trap with marshmallows (a raccoon favorite) and was caught almost before we got back in the house. Following our internet advice, we delivered the masked marauder more than ten miles away and released her/him near a stream. – Bill

Rocky looks at us reproachfully after paying the price for his stale marshmallow cravings.

Rocky ambles to freedom at an undisclosed location within the Superior National Forest.

10/27/05 – One of our favorite people, Abby Tofte, stopped by today with ten of her classmates from Macalester College in St. Paul. Abby is a direct descendent of the Tofte family that founded the town of Tofte. The group enjoyed a couple of hours of wilderness canoeing.

Abby is the second from the left in the back row.

10/23/05 – Halloween is just around the corner, and Sawbill prepared for the annual celebration of witches and warlocks by carving pumpkins and consuming copious amounts of food and drink.
Every year over Minnesota’s teacher’s holiday long weekend, a group of Sawbillians, past and present, gather to celebrate the end of another season. Carving pumpkins is the cornerstone of this fun-filled weekend and each year people spend hours planning their designs, selecting their pumpkins, and carving them into a wide range of things. This year’s creations ranged from a pumpkin carved into a pumpkin, Bob Marley, a University of Minnesota “M”, Discoman, Fennel the sled dog, several cats, a sailing ship, a stand of trees, a sunflower, and a man standing on a giant wave. Below are a few photos of last nights fun, and the pumpkins that were created.

We would like to introduce Sawbill’s Halloween 2005 pumpkin corps.

Tess and Kirk Dornfeld carved a beautiful cat, and a majestic set of pine trees.

Cindy, Dan, and Shannon could barely carve their pumpkins because they were laughing so hard.

Clare and Derek hard at work on their masterpiece.

Carl and Jeff recreated Discoman, a piece of artwork that Frank traded for an Alumacraft many years ago.

Jeff assists Carl as they craft their “Discoman”.

One groovy Discoman.

Bill carved this great rendition of Bob Marley.

10/21/05 – This morning Joe Hansen (Sonya Hansen’s brother), Darryl Newfeld, and Jason Carpp returned from a very interesting canoe trip. It was raining when they left on Tuesday afternoon, but their spirits were not dampened by the current weather or the stormy forecast. They had their minds set on making it to Canada and back by Friday and they were not going to let a little rain get in their way. Tuesday afternoon they made it as far as Kelso Lake where they were stopped by a snowstorm. It was snowing so hard that they could not see ten feet in front of the canoe.
On Wednesday the weather improved, and they were able to travel from Kelso to Gabimichigami Lake placing them more than halfway to Canada. Thursday dawned calm and clear, and the party new they would have to really make some miles if they were going to make it to Canada. Around 2PM yesterday they reached Knife Lake and paddled into Ontario. Already tired, they turned around and began retracing their steps back to Sawbill. They traveled straight through the night under the guidance of a bright moon. Exhausted, wet, and cold, they crawled into their tent after reaching Kelso Bay just after sunrise this morning. After a few hours of sleep they packed up camp, and paddled the last two miles down Sawbill Lake. Now they are headed back home. Joe will return to Stillwater, Minnesota, Darryl flies to Boulder, Colorado in the morning, and Jason is driving back to Grinnell, Iowa.

Joe, Darryl, and Jason point to the spot on Knife Lake where they reached Canada.

10/19/05 – A big cold prickly to Sonya Hansen for leaving without painting the paddle rack. I hate to sling mud at my child bride when she is not around, but I am compelled to use her as an example in an attempt to dissuade future crew members from leaving the fall crew with extra little jobs that they were assigned during the summer. Painting the paddle rack sounds like a fairly benign job, but as the photos below demonstrate it is a pretty heinous undertaking. Sonya received 15 credits (10 to 15 hours worth of work) to paint the paddle rack, but the majority of the rack remained unpainted for most of the summer, and before we knew it Sonya was off to college studying to become the next Jane Goodall.*
As you may have guessed the paddle rack remained unpainted. I contacted Madagascar’s embassy in Washington to request that they hold Sonya’s visa until she has returned to Sawbill and completed the paddle rack, but the woman I talked with seemed very confused by my request, and said that they were unable to help. Sonya plans to spend next semester in Madagascar studying lemurs, and I thought that stopping her visa would be a good way to get her attention. However, since Madagascar’s government was unwilling to cooperate we were forced to reassign the job of painting the paddle rack to Alison.
Yesterday Alison got all suited up and ready to paint. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and shortly after she began painting it started pouring. Today’s forecast looks more favorable, and sources tell me that Alison plans to resume painting shortly. Will Alison finish the paddle rack before she leaves? Well, it is hard to say, but hopefully a little voice in the back of her head is saying,” if you don’t finish the paddle rack your work record will be tarnished forever on the Sawbill newsletter.”
In all fairness, I should also mention that Pat Nash should hang his head in shame for stashing a dirty cookkit in the dome and leaving without cleaning it. Pat, your cookkit was found and Jeff Green is going to wash it for you. I think you owe him a nice pint of homebrewed beer for his efforts, but you can negotiate the terms with him later.
*Sonya and Pat are good employees, and we miss them very much. Hopefully they will see the humor in this entry.