What music are you listening to?
- Thread starter Tudo
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CharlesU Farley
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I've been reading a long podcast, and I know that won't make sense to anyone, but saw a reference to this song and it brought back great memories from when I was a kid:
"Lamb's Bread" and its dub "Smoke It"
From UB40
From UB40
moose eater
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moose eater
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moose eater
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moose eater
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moose eater
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Ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon sitting on a bar stool in the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, Michigan in 1976; old enough to work in the woods and live on my own at that age (16), so getting served in such places in that region was 'normal' by the view of the locals. Old enough to work and live like a man, old enough to order a beer or drink at the bar.
Worked and lived on an off-grid homestead farm 5-miles north of Big Bay, with property boundaries on the 40-acre parcel butting up against the Huron Mountain Club and State land.
My father's buried in South Range, up toward Houghton and Hancock.
No Lyme tick disease back then, so the woods posed no health risks other than for intense spruce, pine and hemlock pitch in my then-very long, thick ponytail and young man's beard.
We still make pasties on occasion; used to be almost exclusively made from our moose meat and homegrown potatoes, though I haven't had a moose in the freezers in about 3 years now.
In 1976 we'd buy day-old pasties from the Marquette Bakery for about .75 cents/each and put them in the freezer. Mmmmm.
moose eater
Well-known member
My older son was planning on heading to the bush with me, and I'd just picked up one of my freight machines that he was going to be operating (my V-800 wide-track) that I'd had some deficiencies addressed.
He had his older male dog operated on yesterday morning, and brought him home, putting him in a kennel to rest, and every hour or so, going back home from his job to check on him and put a bowl of water near him in case he woke up and needed to clear his mouth of the blood from part of the surgery.
He was home with his pup last night at 10 PM and had moved him out of the kennel to clean post-op blood out of the kennel when his long-time friend and companion stopped breathing.
The dog never fully woke up after surgery, and he'd paid nearly $700 for the 2 visits, including the surgery.
I encouraged him to have the (other) veterinarian's office do a toxicology report on his departed friend before cremation, and maybe a necropsy as well.
My best guess from a distance, based on his reports, the dog's behavior (or lack of) post-op, never regaining consciousness, etc., is that the vet who did the work OD'ed the pup on pain meds and anesthesia.
I'm pissed off and sad for him. My son is heart broken. There were times that dog was what kept him going and remaining on the planet, years ago when he was more down than today.
All of that said, he's now determined that for the moment, and perhaps for good, he doesn't want to go on the trip. He's BUMMED.
That might change, but I doubt it.
So I may be doing another solo trip into the bush at a time that my body/spine, etc., is not in tune with the potential exertion or demands, but probably going to do it anyway... following a steroid epidural into my lower lumbar early Tuesday afternoon, and maybe a long-lasting local anesthetic at that general site, so that when the pain from the administration of the epidural kicks in a couple days after the injection, there's some buffering there.
I know I'll never be going to that vet again for anything serious. My son plans to speak with him in person on Monday. My son's a nicer guy than I am when someone hurts him badly.
We'll see if I get to my destination in the bush. The fishing is supposed to be good about now, and there was no overflow on the lakes as of 4-5 days ago.
moose eater
Well-known member
I'm not surprised to hear that. That's the UP I know and remember when I was a kid. I wasn't working in the woods like you, but I would have been if my mom hadn't moved us south. I drank my first beer in a bar in Gay when I was 15, I mean I think they just didn't care.
I'm in Portage Township, about 8 miles from South Range and Houghton. I moved back here in 2021. My folks are from E Kentucky, but I was born in Traverse City. My father was USAF, and following a tour in West Germany, we came here to the Keweenaw in 1975. We lived around Mohawk. For whatever, I always considered the Keweenaw home.
I love living here, I love the north country, always have. It's remote. People are friendly. It somehow feels more free. It feels like stepping back in time after so many years in other places. I really need to see Alaska before I get too old.
moose eater
Well-known member
Other than for the prison near Marquette, what used to be a psych facility out near Newberry, Houghton Tech and NMU, aside from tourism, the UP's been 'the land that time and the economy forgot.' The open spaces are a result of the poverty that ensues when the economy is bottomed out for decades. A good thing in my opinion, if a person can find a way to subsist.
Open spaces often mean more freedom; the law can't be in too many places at one time.
KI Sawyer Air Base is likely where your father was stationed back then, I'd assume, and as you are likely more than aware, that place has been shut down for decades as well.
Lots of dirt roads up that way, and still some very reasonable property/real estate if one knows where to look.
Northern Wisconsin and the UP both suffered the rather noteworthy influx of yuppie money from Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, etc., buying up lake-front property as retirement or vacation homes and increasing those values dramatically in a short period of time. But like I said, if a person knows where to look, there's still places back there where a person can score a real bargain compared to other places.
The old logging roads that led up to Skanee are now a bit wider, still probably dirt, and the old, abandoned orchards and farmhouses up that way, near the lighthouse on the Island, once empty and rotting, sporting hundreds if not thousands of acres of old apple orchards, are now becoming inhabited again.
I used to find apple trees in the middle of nowhere, planted in rows in the woods off the Yellow Dog Plains, and eat apples to my heart's content while deer hunting up there.
Lots of stories, though most of my surrogate family from back then are deceased now.
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dramamine
Well-known member
Awful about your son's dog. I haven't ever had my older dog operated on for that exact reason. I don't know how I'd handle it if something like that happened due to a careless vet. That's fuckin tough. I hope your son can get through it ok.
I hope your trip goes well. Wish your son would change his mind about going. You know what you're doing out there though. Hope you get some nice ones...and let's see some pictures when you get back.
@moose eater
its freezing cold outside but for some reason im sweating through my eyes
that could be f'd up about the dog and there is a reason why they keep people in the hospital a while after surgery like that
but if he is willing to let by gones be by gones...
i feel for you brother
its freezing cold outside but for some reason im sweating through my eyes
that could be f'd up about the dog and there is a reason why they keep people in the hospital a while after surgery like that
but if he is willing to let by gones be by gones...
i feel for you brother
