Down and down

July 17, 2006 (3:49pm)
88º F, Big drop rain, NNW wind 5 mph.

Good afternoon,

Finally some rain and the temperature dropped about 5º in 5 minutes. Hope it will continue to come down - the rain and the temperature! It has been a boiler for the past few days. Feels like living in a sauna, but with high humidity. Not too sure what the temperature topped at so far today, but am pretty sure it was close to 100º F - very close, with the humidity about the same. Yesterday was also hot, actually hotter than today, but the church was reasonably cool. There was a pretty stiff breeze before and during the service, but almost as soon as it was over, so was the wind. The afternoon was exceedingly hot!

Our little garden is really taking a beating in this hot weather. I think the peas are over with, as the all dried out an fell to the ground yesterday. The broccoli has also bolted, so don’t think we will get any from that, unless a "second" crop after I cut the blossoms off. Lettuce is really looking puny too. The old rose is blooming (very pretty) and that really surprised me. It looks for all the world to be on it’s dying legs, and has for several years, but just will not give up.

We are very grateful for the rain. Hope it has the long slow rain we need so badly. At the moment, the raindrops are huge and far apart. That would be good to continue for a couple of hours at least. If there was a stronger wind, to keep the mosquitoes off, I would be out standing in the rain and getting cooled off. Don’t think I would even worry about taking a bar of soap out with me. Rain water is soft - right?

I mentioned the old courthouse in Crystal Falls when we stopped to get some stamps. Here is one of the pictures Margriet took of it. On both, the top of the "steeple" was cut off of the photograph for some reason. The two new additions are on either side of the building. It really looks nice and much nicer than in the picture taken in 1904 we found on the web. It really is a cool building and really good to see the powers that be, didn’t tear it down to put up a new one would have been nice to stay there and do a bit of investigation of the building and the area. Maybe next time!

While we were up in the U.P., we both said it would be a nice place to live, given the lack of really big cities and their associated problems. There is a pretty good influx of folks for the snow skiing season. Just for the heck of it, I did some searching on the web to see what is for sale in that area. What I found was that the properties in the western part are rather reasonable, for the most part. It seems the farther east and the closer to Wisconsin you get, the higher the prices. I have been primarily looking at rural real estate, now wanting to land in a town or city again. There are some interesting properties near Crystal Falls along the Iron River. Some of the places don’t have electricity or phone to the properties yet! Interesting! Guess that is why they call it "up nort’!" Do wish we were 20 or 30 years younger though.

In the process of looking, we have discovered a couple of really interesting websites. One it the U. S. Geological Survey site with topographical maps and corresponding aerial photographs. It is really cool to look at a map, then switch to see what the actual photograph looks like. By in large, the topographical maps were make in 1975 and the photos were taken in 1998. Often there is some difference, especially when folks are building and adding roads, &c. Also discovered there are many mines in the area, some are still visible in the photos. Most have not been in operation for many years. We drove through the area, so it is even more fun to look at properties and maps/photos of the area. Margriet has also been busy looking up some of the things we saw, as well as the history of the area. It is interesting for sure. At least to us.

The searching is also a good diversion from the heat. Doesn’t take a lot of sweat to accomplish. The temperature has dropped about 25º F since starting this and the severe storm warnings are starting to go up. Feels a bunch better now too. Maybe we will have a reasonably good night's sleep for a change.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,


Chris <><