A Weekend of Gopher WINS, Family, and SNOW!

We spent another great weekend in Detroit Lakes. Hattie, our beautiful niece is now nearly 2 weeks old and she is changing every time we see her. Check out her huge smile. On Saturday when we arrived we watched the Gopher Football team improve its record to 7-1. Then we spent the afternoon hitting some of the "hotspots" in DL, which include but are not limited to Norby's (clothing), Brewed Awakening (caffiene fix), and good ol JC Penney. Saturday night we went to a local favorite called Bleacher's for a great burger and a few pints. They also had shuffleboard there (not old person shuffleboard), the kind of shuffleboard my neighbor Brian has in his basement. It's a great game that despite having played many games of, I still found myself on the losing end to the Orlin/Nicole team. My partner Allison was very good for her 1st time playing, and we'll get them next time. Then Gopher Hockey took care of the rest of our evening as they waxed the Badgers 5-2 for a 3 point weekend. Really, does it get any better than a Gopher football/hockey win weekend.
Sunday we were treated to a great breakfast by the Chef of the Ritchie house, Dr. Ryan Ritchie. Then it was off to the dentist's chair for this guy. We spent 2 hours putting on braces and watching football. Ryan's assistant Megan came in on her day off to help and it was completely pain free. I am very appreciative of that, and also very appreciative of Ryan for taking the time to put my braces on. He is really a great dentist and I got to witness that this weekend. The worst part about braces is that I look hideous (tin grin, metal mouth, railroad tracks, I've heard em all), but my favorite reason for getting braces is this: "I wanted to look 15 years younger".
We also nearly got snowed in this weekend as DL picked up 3-5 inches on Sunday, but we made it home safely. Until next time.... Go Panthers! Enjoy the pictures and let the ridicule begin.

A Weekend in Detroit Lakes

We spent this past weekend visiting family in Detroit Lakes. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Biwabik. We were so excited to see our new niece, Hattie. She is so precious, just a little peanut. She is such a good baby. Her mom and dad are doing great and are so excited with her arrival. She was having a little trouble eating on Saturday (you can see in the picture with Jason and Ryan), but is doing well now. We also got to see our nephew, Zander who we haven't seen since Labor Day weekend when he joined us golfing. Zander is 27 months old. He is a very active and an entertaining little guy. I said to him, "Trick or Treat" and his reply was "smell my feet." I couldn't help it but laugh. We had a great time playing in the leaves together. He is also very into NEMO. Zander enjoyed meeting Hattie as well. He kept saying, "I love you baby Hattie" and "my cousin Hattie, she's my cousin." I think he was a bit worried when his mommie was holding Hattie for any amount of time, he didn't want her getting all the attention. Enjoy the pictures of Hattie and Zander!

We Have a New Niece!

We are both so excited. My sister Emily and her husband Ryan had a baby girl, Hattie Georgina Ritchie, last evening. Hattie weighed 7lbs 14 oz and is 22 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing well. We are very excited to go visit them this weekend and then we will post some pictures!

Nicole

Golf Weekend

This weekend we had our friends and neighbors from Troy Burne up to visit us at the Range. Our guest were Jeb and Kaylan Wilson, and Brian and Dina Gagne.
They arrived about 7:30 Friday evening after a stop along the way at The Black Bear Casino to satisfy Kaylan's "slot machine addiction". I guess she and Dina were the only winners.
Jeb and Kaylan just got back from California at 5:00 a.m. Friday morning, but were troopers enough to make the trip to visit us. That means that we had some great wines to drink from their trip, and let's just say, "they got drank".
On Friday night we visited the Lodge at Giants Ridge for dinner.
Saturday morning was a "Day at the Spa" for the ladies and a golf day for the men.
I hear the spa was nice, the women came back relaxed and beautiful from their facials, body scrubs, hot rock something or other and massages. Let's get to the good part. The Golf. We played the Legend at Giants Ridge. It was unbelievable, mostly because of the color. The leaves were in perfect color and with the water and woods it was hard to concentrate on golf, AND OUR SCORES PROVED THAT. At least that's our excuse anyway. I was beaten by both my guests, I shot a 95, and Brian and Jeb shot 94. Jeb and I nearly ran out of golf balls as our balls frequently found the woods, neither of us have ever hit the driver so badly. Brian handled the driver very well, but his chipping was another story. He is very good at a game we played as kids called Annie Annie OVER!
Oh yeah, another quick story. If you have been following our blog you will know that our grouse hunting was a shutout, well I am proud to say (well it was kind of sad) but ironic that the boys of Troy Burne got a grouse this weekend. As we drove into the parking lot at the clubhouse a grouse flew into the driver's side window of Brian's Jeep. It scared the crap out of us and killed the grouse. 3 days of hunting and no grouse, 1 day of golfing and we get a grouse.
The girls made some amazing food on Saturday afternoon and evening and everyone had a great time. Dina makes a Brie cheese caramel dish that is wonderful, Kaylan made artichoke dip that was also wonderful and then we had Nicole's "almost famous" Barbera Wine Roast.
On Sunday we went to Ely, MN to the Bear Center and to the International Wolf Center. Both were very interesting and fun to learn about 2 species that inhabit this beautiful part of the state.
Enjoy the pictures and thanks to our friends for coming to visit us. We had a great time.
Jason & Nicole

What a Beautiful Morning

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I happened to look outside and noticed the beautiful violet and pink sky. I quick grabbed the camera and went to take pictures. By the time I got back inside, the color was gone. I thought I would share the beauty with all of you. We don't get sunsets here because the ski hill blocks it, so I have to catch the beauty in the morning!

Iron World/Glen Mine

Last evening, Jason and I went to see a presentation at Iron World titled Crank: Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was about how Meth has taken over a small town in Tennesse. It is amazing and truthfully unbelievable how devestating this drug is to the user, their family, and the whole community. I have become very interested in the addiction of this drug in particular because I have met so many people through working at RMHC that have used Meth or have had family members addicted to Meth. The devistation it has caused these people is more than I can write in words. Many have lost their kids to foster care, lost siblings to murder, family members have died, torn families apart, involved in crimes, spent time in prison, people are homeless, have lost absolutely everything, have acquired Hepitiis C from sharing needles, and many more physical problems. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on cleaning up Meth labs, emergency room care from Meth seizures, chemical dependecy treatment, and prison time. My hope is that there can be more awareness about how destructive this drug is to not only the user, but their families and the whole community.

While we were at Iron World last night, we took some pictures of the Glen Mine surrounded by the beautiful gold leaves of the white birch.

Our Place

We thought we would post some pictures of the place we are staying in for the year. We have rented a "villa" within the Giant's Ridge Golf and Ski Resort. We have basically been the only people around during the week. It is so peaceful and calm. Even the lake (Wynne Lake) that our place is on has no traffic. This weekend when they were fishing, they were the only one's out there.

The pictures below are of the kitchen/dining/living room area. There are two bedrooms. The second bedroom is also Jason's office. It is like a studio with a mini kitchen it in.

Beautiful Weekend

It was a weekend of great weather and beautiful colors. My dad and uncle Joe ended up keeping 12 walleyes that they caught on Wynne Lake. They tried grouse hunting for the third day, but no luck. The leaves are so colorful, so we were outside as much as possible. On one of my walks, I saw a group of 6 geese swimming and then they saw me...It was fun running on the Mesabi Trail through the woods. It was like running through a tunnel of color. I hope the leaves stay around for a little while so we can continue to enjoy them.

We hope all of you are having a great fall and enjoying the colors and weather. Let us know what you are up to when you have time.

Nicole

Grouse Hunting and Walleye Fishing

Well, our 1st day of grouse hunting was interesting. First, I didn't carry a gun because a small game's license was $85.00 (out of state). I decided that I would rather spend my money on golf (and with the stock market action this week who knows if there's any $ left). Anyway, I walked along with George and Joe (avid, hell, pro hunters) in the Superior National Forest. We walked for 3 hours along old logging roads and the scenery was beautiful, the company wasn't bad either. The first chance we had was about 5 minutes into the trail and it flushed to our left, George spun and fired. The brush was heavy and "those suckers are fast". Joe yells, "did you get it", and George says, "I'm not sure". Well we looked around for about 5 minutes and decided he missed so we kept walking. We flushed out 3 more, all too fast for our two pro hunters. :)
3 hours later we decided walleye fishing was less work, but we tipped our cap to grouse hunters everywhere, because it is much tougher than we thought. We also decided that in about a month when there is less tree cover from the leaves that it would be slightly easier.
Walleye fishing was much more of a success. Anyway, that's all for now, it was another beautiful day in Northern, MN. We are now cooking our walleye and preparing for a men vs. women game of Pictionary. I don't like our chances.
Jason

We are looking forward to our first visitors at the "Range" tonight. Nicole's parents are coming and also her uncle Joe and his fiance Jess. We are going to do some sight seeing, but mainly they are coming up for "Grouse Hunting". This is something I have never done and as my friend Jeb says, "you don't have a prayer in hell of hitting one". In this case I have to agree with him because I am not much of a hunter, but I have some "secret" strategies that were given to me by grouse hunting pro Tim Carlson (my boss). He says the grouse at the range are particularly dumb and they won't fly very far if they are scared up. So, we'll see, I am actually looking forward to it and the weekend weather looks great.
Heck, anything will be better than getting killed in the markets all week long.
That's all for now, Jason