Off The Beaten Path

We have freedom from a corded phone! Yesterday we purchased a Dock and Talk, a cell phone docking station that connects to a cordless phone and turns your cell phone into the cordless! I stopped at Buck’s Radio Shack today to upgrade Mark’s phone and saw they had one on the shelf. Manager Brad said he had ordered one for a customer and one to have for sale on the shelf and they came in on Monday. Well, they didn’t have the one on the shelf for long. While it’s not cheap ($250), it’s great to have a cordless phone again, which we haven’t had at home for almost four years! It’s almost as exciting as getting our batteries hooked up and having real lights. As I have said before, simple life/simple pleasures.

The number that we have been using on the website will now be our “home phone” and will be kept hooked up. Mark will keep his cell number and I have a new phone and number. Don’t ask me what it is right now, all I know is that it starts with “370″. We are still at the mercy of a cell signal so we may not always be available and we will shut the power off to the units at night and while we are not home.

The first phone call was to Julie just to see if it worked and the second one was to Duane Ege. One of our cable connections from the antenna to the cell phone went bad and one phone call to Duane on his way home from work. A  half hour of watching him work and viola, we were fixed. I had to call him to say “thank you, thank you, thank you”. Duane is almost like having a dad; if you need something and he’s around, he’ll drop what he’s doing and help you out. So for the second time in four days, thank you Duane, you sure turned a gray, wet, rainy, all-around dreary day into a sunny one for us!

Off The Beaten Path Weather Report, 7:30 a.m.: 38 degrees, 79% humidity, overcast, calm winds.

To those of you that are die-hard fisherpeople, you might need your ice auger for a few lakes around here. As of yesterday, Chester, Ester, Devilfish and Tom were still socked inwith ice. The only lake that we’ve been by that was open is No Name. We didn’t get our license renewed yet, so we won’t be wetting a line this weekend. This might be one of the last chances to go moose shed hunting so if the rain holds off you will find us in the woods this afternoon.

I was incorrect in what I heard about the Ester Lake Road being closed to boat hauling. I spoke with Ranger Bob yesterday and he said they are restricting pulp hauling from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. beginning May 15th. What that means is that anyone traveling on the Ester Lake Road should be aware of logging trucks on the road during those times. They are also not going to be allowed to haul on the weekends. So the restriction is for the truck drivers not someone towing a boat! Sorry. Ranger Bob did say that they are adding additional pull-outs and clearing brush on the corners for added visibility to make it safer. He stressed that everyone should be careful and to obey the 20 mph speed limit that will be posted.

Time to get some work done inside so I can get outside later. Now that I am working Fridays, I have less home time to get the domestic duties done. Have a great opener everyone!

Mark better get his butt into the woods moose shed hunting. Last night we talked to Brian Silence and he and another guy took the day and went “hunting” and and holy crap, found 16 today!!! It sounded like they were pretty far off the road and only brought 11 of the good ones out including a skull with the horns still attached. We figured we best get out there soon because if we get some more rain and warm weather it’s going to green-up fast. Mark also mentioned to Brian that he wants to get out there before the wood ticks come out and unfortunately, it sounds like it’s too late. Brian found two of them on himself when he got home. Yuck.

Mark wasn’t able to go moose shed hunting yesterday because he moved all the dogs around the yard. I tried to take a photo of the Varsity Team playing with their new neighbors tonight, but since my flash doesn’t work, the photo turned out too fuzzy. A new digital camera is on the list of things to purchase this summer (along with a new laptop, new truck, and hopefully a real floor in the cabin.

Something tells me Mark will be in the woods today. A couple of “The Yahoos” are in the area getting ready for fishing opener so they might have a few minutes to start looking themselves before Saturday. If the lakes don’t open up, they might have time to start hunting this weekend and may find “our” sheds. We can’t have that!

It’s with a heavy heart I write today. We received news yesterday that Joe Cocquyt, one of the founding brothers of Eagle Pack Pet Foods passed away on Sunday. We have been feeding Eagle since 1992 and in 1993, we took a road trip to Mishawaka, Indiana to tour the Eagle plant. After dinner, Joe’s treat, Joe and his wife, Jodee, graciously invited us to their home for dinner and to watch the Indiana basketball game on their big screen TV. In case you have been asleep for the last half-century basketball is big in Indiana. I don’t remember who they played against, or if they won, but we have felt like family ever since. In 1996 and 2002, the years that Mark ran the Iditarod, Joe personally paid for my round-trip flight from Anchorage to Nome, both times paying over $600! (In 2002, I paid $400 for a round-trip flight from Duluth to Anchorage). While in Nome both years, Joe would take me around and introduce me to everyone he knew in the mushing world, which was alot, and treat me like family. One of my best memories was having lunch at Fat Freddie’s Cafe in Nome with Joe and Charlie Boulding. Charlie is now retired from sled dogs, but if you have ever seen Charlie in an Iditarod news report, you know that he was quite the character. Another favorite memory is dancing with Joe at the Bering Sea Saloon to Hobo Jim’s “I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail” and “The Rodeo Song” by Chris LeDoux. Joe would request that song a couple of times a night and since this is a family blog I won’t post his favorite line of that song.

On our first trip to Alaska in 1994, we were Iditarod spectators, traveling with the Eagle Pack entourage. We were able to go to Iditarod champion Martin Buser’s house with the crew and while there a crew was filming a commercial for Timberland boots. They wanted Martin to stand on a dog sled being towed by a snowmobile to film just his boots standing and peddling on the runners. Joe had introduced us to Martin earlier so Martin looked at Mark and said “you’re from Minnesota so you know how to drive a snowmobile”, so if you have a 1994 Iditarod update in your video collection and see the Timberland boot commercial, thanks to Joe, Mark was driving the snowmobile for the commercial. Altough the check must have been lost in the mail!

Also thanks to Joe in 2002 I was able to fly to the Iditarod checkpoint of Nikoli with Joe’s brother Maury. Joe had introduced Mark and I to Maury a couple of days earlier at the pre-race banquet and he new I had never been “on the trail”. While we were only in Nikoli for a couple of hours and I was there about 12 hours ahead of Mark’s arrival, it is another thing I will never forget.

Joe you will be sorely missed by your “family” in northern Minnesota. Joe was one of the first phone calls Mark received congratulating him the year that he won the Beargrease. You were one of our strongest supporters and we will miss the yearly after-race phone calls telling Mark how well he did , even the years he didn’t finish.

Joe is survived by his wife, Jodee, daughter Kirsten, son Kevin and their spouses and children.

Happy Trails Joe.