• Monday-What'sUP December 21 - 08:26 pm

Rod Burdick sent in these recent photos from Marquette's Upper Harbor, showing the Lake Superior shipping lanes are still active, even with the snowy and icy weather lately. In Rod's first shot, you can see the James R. Barker at the docks, unloading coal. Check out the icy coating on the trees and rocks along the lakeshore, too. I'm guessing that was from some rough waters during one of our windy storms.

In the second photo, we get to see the Canadian Motor Vessel Saginaw, just arriving at the Upper Harbor ore dock. I like how Rod captured the harbor light just off the stern of the big boat, too. It won't be too much longer and these boats will be taking their winter break from the shipping season here UP North.

Good morning All!

Happy First Day of Winter!

Winter officially starts 12:47 pm. I love all the seasons but today is very special to me. It marks the birthday of my now passed brother Michael who was born in 1947 and passed Christmas Day 2005. "Play the Pipes of Peace." Paul McCarthy

The daily Pasty Cam a little late again this morning, as your worn-out webmaster straggled home after another all-nighter at the Pasty Central kitchen. Unbelievable volume of orders this year. The web cams pretty much tell the story of the drive home this morning:

Hey Charlie! My wife always "says busy hands are happy hands"!
It's about the end of the 2009 fall. I'm really not looking forward to winter. By the way every one; my second cataract surgery went well. Thank you for your support and good wishes.

Charlie: Your efforts in the pasty kitchen are paying off, and much
appreciated. We send them to friends and family here in Oregon
and California, and they always enjoy them tremendously! As do
we, due to the supply we keep on hand here ourselves.

My favorite kind of Christmas gift -- food. It doesn't need to be
moved, dusted, or stored; it's not made in China; and it always fits.

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

Hi Mary and Charlie: "Unbelievable pasty orders this year..." How wonderful! I know it makes for some really long nights for a while and it probably means you're also not getting your Christmas preparations done, but it's refreshing to hear about business success in an area that is otherwise struggling in this sad economy. Congratulations and happy Winter Solstice to all!

One day last week (Dec 19 on Boatnerd) Rod had pictures of the iron ore dock in Marquette with 3 freighters tied up and loading one at a time. Seems some of the steel mills orders have picked up and now getting in the last of the season loads of taconite.
Merry Christmas to all and we have finally recieved about 2" of Christmas snow.

Oops, forgot the I before E except after C rule learned at St. Cecelia grade school.

Eddyfitz (Eddyfitz):
"Oops, forgot the I before E except after C rule …"
I give up, I don't see where that could be, or did you fix it?
P.S. "freighters" is correct!

FRNash - it's in received... deceiving if you (like most people) read through recognition of the first and last letters of words, rather than focusing on each letter.

Cheers!

Upper Harbor- Beautiful anytime of year! I miss my ol college town.

Wonderful photos, including the cam photos. I like the type of Great Lakes freighter with the pilot house at the bow.

Wonderful photos, including the cam photos. I like that type of Great Lakes freighter with the pilot house at the bow.

Looks like Barker was getting some good spray herself crossing the "Big Pond". Big Bertha ( Duluth's, WDIO weatherman names winter storms like hurricans,) is on its way. It could be a repeat of the storm that rolled through about 2 weeks ago. Can't go wrong with boat pictures. Soo Locks close Jan.15, 2010 for maintenance. Vessel traffic through the Locks restarts again towards the end of March. I'll need pictures to get me through the lay-up season. Winter seems to drag on between this time for us BoatNerds.

Been down that road a few times, watching the boats load & unload. A lot of times - as you can easily tell - you can't even make it along that stretch when the waves are crashing!

Happy first day of Winter - now the days start getting longer!

Mel, MN (Mehollop):
"FRNash - it's in received..."
Ahh so it is, I guess I just looked right past it, on a hasty read after a nasty Internet connectivity battle (I won!) just before leaving for my cardiac therapy session.

Oh, and I saw my cardiologist's report of my last follow up, after a second heart cath/stent emplacement in October:

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Quote:

"EKG shows normal sinus rhythm with ventricular rate of 61 bpm. This is a normal EKG, showing no evidence of a prior infarction.

Mr. Nash is doing very well from a cardiovascular standpoint. It is astonishing that he had such a myocardial infarction and has recovered so well with a normal ejection fraction."

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Congrats, truly a miracle to have that kind of ej after heart attack, absolutely normal.....