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We’ve had a few events in the last couple days that have broke the norm in our neighborhood of Beaver Grove. A few days ago a big spruce tree in our yard snapped at the base and left a big mess. Luckily the wind was blowing from the north so it didn’t land on our house. On Saturday night I was about to go to bed when I heard some sirens. I looked out the window and the neighbor’s garage was up in flames! They managed to get it put out before the whole building was destroyed. Not really sure how it ignited. Hopefully, no more events.

We are sad to announce that Arthur James, our albino gerbil, has died. We’re not certain of the cause, but he was looking a little down last night and when we woke up this morning, he had died. Gilbert seems a bit confused by Arthur not being there, so we’ll have to see how he does. Gerbils on their own can become depressed, especially if they’ve lost a partner. The lifespan of a gerbil is 2-4 years, and Arthur was 2 1/2. He was a good gerbil and we’ll miss him very much.

Tonight was the start of the U.P. 200 dog sled race in downtown Marquette. The weather was comfortable compared to last year’s negative temperatures. The crowd was definitely bigger too. We were both armed with cameras, so we took a few pictures and Leah did some video as well. The race ends on Sunday afternoon and you can see the current leader by visiting their website.

Most everything we did this past weekend involved Leah freezing. Saturday we headed up to Houghton to visit Justin and see the statues at Winter Carnival. There were a lot of cool statues, but it was so cold out there. We also went to dinner at a place called Quincy’s in Dollar Bay, which had a really neat mural in the men’s room, so Greg took a picture of it. Just to clarify, Justin is washing his hands in the photo. That night, there was some fun Wii playing. Leah whooped on the guys at bowling. See more pictures of Winter Carnival.

Sunday, we headed home and then out to Big Shag Lake (nice name, hey?) for some ice fishing in Greg’s new shanty. We had a small heater, so it wasn’t too cold until the sun went down. We did catch four Northerns, but all on the tip-ups. Leah’s new camera has a video feature, so we took some video along with the pictures.

We now have a second home, well at least I do. I bought a used portable ice shanty over the weekend but it’s been way to cold to use it. The previous owner modified it with a bench so two people can sit. The picture on their website makes it look really small but you can get an idea. I also bought a little single burner propane stove to heat it. Leah is actually looking forward to going ice fishing now! We’ll see how it works, maybe this weekend.

As for the weather around here, C-O-L-D (like everywhere else in the Midwest). The daytime temperature gets up to around 4 degrees and the night temp drops to -10. Both of our vehicles have been starting and I’m actually getting used to it.