11/20/06 – Sunny days this November have thus far proved elusive. However for the past two days, we’ve been treated to clear, sunny skies and temperatures hovering around freezing. I’ve been routinely taking the dogs down to the landing to check the condition of the lake, anticipating late-season skating or early skiing. Today was the first day that Sawbill’s ice looked solid enough to test. Using an axe, I chopped a few holes to test for thickness in different areas. 4″ near the shore and 3″ further out was more than enough to hold my body weight. Skis are propped up outside of all the Sawbill dwellings in preparation for winter to get underway.

Jessa surveys the ice being made.
The bird-feeders have also been a flurry of pre-winter activity. Pine and evening grosbeaks, blue and grey jays, and the common black-capped and boreal chickadees are out in force. We’ve been filling the bird-feeders just about everyday. For the chickadees, supplemental sunflower seeds found at feeders can raise their insulating fat deposits by 4%.

Chickadees regularly cache food sources in spruce trees and visit each feeder with marked regularity. To maintain their body temperature at its normal level of 108 degrees Fahrenheit, the chickadees must consume amazing quantities of food. Their wings beat at 30 strokes per second and their nestlings require feedings anywhere from 6 to 14 times per hour. Thus searching for food burns almost as many calories: a catch-22 for the little guys. – Frosty

11/13/06 – Winter has returned after a brief hiatus. We awoke to four inches of fresh snow this morning. – Bill

Homer and Izzy love a fresh snowfall.

Snow on top of thin lake ice creates slush on top of the ice. Here the slush describes a graceful curve along the shore of Sawbill Lake.

11/6/06 – Skating! We enjoyed a good morning of lake skating yesterday on nearby White Pine Lake off the Honeymoon Trail. Most of the lakes in the area are either open or have very thin ice, but White Pine is a shallow lake and was sporting a solid three inches of ice. It was a one day experience though. The ice was melting quickly even as we skated. The forecasted warm spell should melt the ice completely. Sawbill Lake has frozen over and melted twice already this season. – Bill

Kathy O’Neill, Cindy Hansen, Greg Tofte, and John (OB) Oberholtzer prepare to skate.

OB, Patience (Kathy’s dog), Kathy, Cindy, and Izzy cruise the shoreline on White Pine Lake.

OB’s reflection is almost perfect in the wet ice.

11/03/06- Even though the calendar still says it’s fall, signs of winter are cropping up everywhere on an afternoon walk along the lake trail. While the dogs chased squirrels and experimented with just how much weight the shore ice could bear, Frosty and I snapped a few photos. Although most of Sawbill Lake is still open water, ice is creating intruiging formations along the shores, as well as in the back bays. Bright sunny skies and calm winds today were a pleasant change from the cloudy, gusty days of the past week. The high winds of late have been breaking up any large ice formations, but today’s weather is giving the ice a chance to reach across the bay near the landing. – Jessa

Ice beginning to form along a downed tree

Though the ice will inevitably win this battle, small holes emerge here and there along the shore.

We took this photo looking up the Sawbill Creek as it empties into the lake; note the frozen bay in the distance.

10/26/06 – John Bigg and his friends, Darrel and Pete, came all the way from the United Kingdom for a canoe trip out of Sawbill. This morning he sent the link to a website he created to document the trip. They struck a beautiful stretch of weather at the end of September, 2005 and took a long trip. They were great fun to work with. – Bill

10/25/06 – Thomas Hill was kind enough to send along a summertime photo that he snapped from the shore of Sawbill Lake just below the campground. Beautiful.

Summer sunset on Sawbill Lake.

10/24/06 – Persistent cold temperatures have brought the canoeing season to an early end. All the small ponds, shallow bays, and slow moving streams are frozen. Rick Kollath, from Duluth, was out over the weekend and sent these pictures.

The channel to Rick’s campsite on Ella as viewed from the far side of the lake.

Paddling into Phoebe Lake, weekend of October 21st, 2006.

10/20/06 – Izzy is our newest Sawbill dog. She’s the small, black dust mop you saw running around here this summer. She turned one year old today and celebrated with a radical haircut. Apparently, her puppy fur was too matted to comb through so she is getting a fresh start with a near shave. – Bill

Izzy strikes a pose with her new hair style.

10/17/06 – Well known Minnesota photographer Richard Hamilton Smith took a trip up to the Cherokee/Long Island area a few weeks ago. He was kind enough to share a few of his pictures with us. Every time I see his photos, I want to throw my camera in the lake! – Bill

10/13/06 – Whoops, we spoke too soon about the depth of the snow! We received 10″ of snow from this storm (so far). The National Weather Service called us this morning because they saw what was happening here on the radar and they wanted a report from the ground. They told us that we have the most snow in Minnesota, it is a record for the date, and this storm is recording one of the lowest barometric readings in history. They said pressure readings like this usually are associated with tornados.

Frosty documents the snowiest Friday, the October 13th in history.

Carl Geving shovels snow into a pile on the deck. What is he up to?

Ahhh…, he’s made a snow cave for Homer and Izzy.

Welcome to Sawbill! Canoeing anyone?