My father was a superintendent of schools in rural Minnesota for 25 years. Calling school off for cold or snowing versus not calling it off, he got the same number of calls from complaining parents.

If you call off school then you get parents complaining that now they have to miss a day of work and spend it with their kids. In some cases the way they complained you’d think it was a fate worse than death. You also get the sports crazy parents complaining that now there’s no practice or games are canceled and this is going to put us behind the competition. We’ll never win a championship with wusses like you in charge.

And if you don’t call off school you get complaints from the safety parents. What are you thinking not calling off school. My kids almost died at the bus stop. They were surrounded by wolves. Etc etc.

You can’t win. It’s never the right call.

I’ve used the brass Master padlocks for over 30 years. Great locks. As others have said, the main problem with padlocks is water getting in them and freezing. A couple of shots of WD-40 every once in awhile really keeps things moving well.

The one that horrifies me is people that drink a lot of these high-powered energy drinks. Yikes.

My kids found some video that detailed industrial uses for ingredients commonly found in energy drinks. Paint stripper, degreaser, etchant, etc.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

humans are the only species that drink the milk of another species. kind of weird if you really think about it

Humans are also the only species that has domesticated other animals. Unless you have conquered this step accessing milk from another species is quite challenging.

For young children, a favorite adventure book of ours was:

Paddle to the Sea
by Hilling C. Holling

JoeMX1825 wrote:

… it’s Dire straits right now…

Well I don’t know what this has to do with hockey, but I’m down for some Dire Straits anytime.

But now that I think of it, Money for Nothing is kind of the wild’s theme song right now.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
So they are getting ready to peak. That’s a bit of guess don’t you think.
I think there are ton of question marks there at this point. KK obviously being the biggest one.

I don’t think they are ready, I think they are 2-3 years away from peaking and that’s assuming Kirill re-signs…that aligns with GMBG’s 5 year plan that we’re in year 2 of…

Don’t forget Mr. 5 Year Plan also has to make goaltender moves and they need to work out. Flower is retiring. Gus is doing well. The heir apparent down in Iowa is not.

Obviously the hope is Wallstadt settles in as an apprentice and becomes a 1a goaltender next season. Awesome. But the problem here is obvious so what is plan B?

There’s nothing in the pipeline with tremendous promise.

Matt Moen wrote:

I reread this book for the first time in about 25 years. If anyone is looking for a good read I’d highly recommend it. I assume alot of the folks on this site know the story but it’s worth another read.

Absolutely a terrific book. It is difficult to imagine the mindset of boys of that era, the confidence (and sometimes overconfidence) they had, and of just how little was known about the far north in 1930.

This book gives a vivid picture of Minnesota in the 1930s, the description the headwaters of the Minnesota river at Brown’s Valley were especially interesting to me having grown up in this area.

BTW, the author of Canoeing with the Cree was Eric Sevareid. He went on to a fascinating career in journalism. Only 10 years after the canoeing adventure, Sevareid was the last American journalist broadcasting from Paris as the Nazis stormed the city. He had a harrowing escape from Paris to England with his wife and newborn twin sons. In London he joined Edward R. Murrow and many of the movie newsreel clips you see of England during the war have Sevareid’s voice.

lindyrig79 wrote:

And… there is something effed with the camera. Starting to hurt my eyes!

I had to quit watching and turn on the radio broadcast. I couldn’t put my finger on what TNT had effed up, but the whole effect gave me a headache. It was like ever time the camera moved, there was a slight blurring or focus shift. It was just awful.

It’s the same story, the Wild just cannot compete against top teams with so many players missing.

IMO the story of the nights that if that’s all Edmonton can do against a team that’s as depleted as the Wild are, there ain’t going to be any second bite at the cup this year. And I thought that in watching other Edmonton games as well, there just is not the sharpness to their game. I mean considering how bad the Wild’s PP is, the Wild freaking owned the Oilers on the PP. Extended periods of zone time and 2 PP goals in one period? Man, the oilers are absolutely going to get spanked against any top 15 PP team if they look like they did last night against the lowly Wild.

Best bright spot for the Wild is Hartman’s continued resurgence. If he somehow comes out of this run of injuries as anything like a consistent producer, then we’ve really GOT something.

I totally agree with Joe, given the fact that Jo Jo and Freddy are both hopeless cases, it’s time to look at Liam.

Also, Buium. Will he or won’t he? Imagine putting Brodin, Spurgeon, Faber, Middleton, AND Buium on the ice last night. Totally different result.

The problem these days is there are SO many cartridge choices and so much overlap between them. And since most of us target mostly whitetail, once you get to .243/6 MM and larger, they all will kill a whitetail with authority.

I will tell you, there is a LOT to be said for keeping it simple once you have kids and spouses that hunt. Because I’m a rifle guy, I have a lot of rifles of various calibers and once the kids started hunting, what a cluster#### keeping all the ammo straight and making sure nobody picks up a magazine that doesn’t belong with their rifle, or extra cartridges that won’t fit because a .243 looks a lot like a 6.5 CM, etc, etc, etc.

I’ve started standardizing on the 6.5 CM so now both boys and I all have rifles that use that round. So as much fun as it is to get new rifles in new-to-you cartridges, there’s a lot to be said for simplicity. The two deer I shot with the 6.5 CM were hammered like lightning hit them.

I have noticed a recent trend that I knew was inevitable when it comes to the 6.5 CM. It’s being criticized for being a deer wounder. Well of course it is, now that everybody and their dog has one–surprise!–we’re going to see some wounded deer. That has nothing to do with the 6.5 being a bad choice in and of itself.

Guys, I work at the gun club during sight-in and have you guys REALLY watched Mr. Average MN/WI hunter shoot? I mean, seriously observed their skills? In total honesty, off of a field-typical rest like a shooting rail, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt the average MN and WI rifle deer hunter could put 10 shots on a paper plate. Yes, yes, of course they’re better than that off of a cement bench and a stack of sandbags, but NOT that much better. The hardest part of helping these guys figure out what to do is that they SO inconsistent due to a lack of trigger time.

Anyway…6.5 CM vs 7 MM-08 vs 270 Win. Hardly a practical lick of difference between them for whitetail IMO. Any “advantage” one has over the other is purely situational and, of course, depends entirely on how often you expect to encounter that situation. Bullet weights also offer a lot of overlap between these cartridges, so it’s hard to point to one of these and say it won’t do something.

IMO, I think the inclination to standardize is the way to go. I would NOT dismiss the idea of more 6.5 CM. There is nothing wrong with the .270 Win either and there never will be.

Does anyone else think the TNT video is weird? Like the main cam is not high def?

When there are good garden tomatoes available, I eat caprese every night. Somewhere in Italy there’s a buffalo saying, “I’m making milk as fast as I can.”. I have a row of the world’s most harassed basil plants.

At Christmas I’m a total fiend for Včelí úly, a Bohemian cookie that looks like a little beehive.

Steven Krapfl wrote:

Apparently the counties were originally part of the Iowa territory prior to statehood.

Good luck to him pushing that line of thinking.

Here’s a map of the Minnesota Territory prior to statehood. I don’t think the “they were part of us at one time” argument is going to hold any water because almost every territory once included more than was granted once statehood was obtained.

I give him an A for creative thinking, though.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Our most important player has been out how many weeks now and they have won how many games?

The ability to beat teams in the regular season while missing key players isn’t the same as the ability to win a best of 7 game playoff series without key players. With our so-so PK and meh PP, we don’t have any margin for error when it comes to even R1.

We don’t need this kind of risk for a no-gain PR stunt that does nothing for the Minnesota Wild.

I don’t know if anywhere except the far north of MN and the north shore can get enough snow soon enough to have even a decent riding season.

My son had his MN DNR safety certification class last weekend. Good thing it snowed the night before so there was at least wet grass to do the driving test on. Ironic thing is that the instructor’s sleds probably got more miles on them than most other sleds in the metro area will this year.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

here’s a month of hockey before the league shuts down for 10 days in mid-February for the 4 Nations Tourney…

Can I just say now how unenthusiastic I am about the idea of Brodin, Ek, Faber, and Gus playing multiple games in a meaningless PR stunt? Only bad things can happen. Having just 1 of these players get injured could easily cost us the playoffs.

There’s no fat on this team, no players we don’t need to win. The must-do this year was not just to get to the playoffs but to WIN R1 at a bare minimum. Anything less is a fail and could well cost us the best player the franchise has ever had. There’s no game-changer coming in the pipeline that would cause KK to make a stick around and see decision. If the Wild can’t win an R1 with this team, IMO nothing’s going to convince him that 2 more years would be any different.

Now that the shock has worn off, I have to say that I’m still somewhat stunned that Hartman didn’t sail his 2 on 1 shot 18 inches high last night. I don’t want to jinx it, but could it be that…

Just to add ACE 4 strokes can also be started using the emergency starting rope that Ski Doo provides.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’ve seen it called a few times in other games when surfing through ESPN+ games, only thing I can think of is that one of the Refs “think” they see a defending puck possession and blow the whistle…otherwise there’s no other explanation…

Last night’s call was especially bizarre because the Wild had possession of the puck in the neutral zone with no defending player anywhere near it and “tweet”. The whistle blows.

The last time it happened, the opposing player hit the puck out of the air with a high stick, but the Wild recovered the puck. Clearly this high stick play does not qualify as gaining possession, but the ref blew the whistle.

Interesting you’ve seen it on other games because I can’t recall seeing this call blown this badly in any Wild game, much less 3 times in a season. That’s what makes me suspect that the officials received some “league guidance” on this call and it’s got it all muddled in their minds now.

tswoboda wrote:

Emergency pull rope will do nothing if the battery is stone dead like that

Had the battery been “stone dead” there’s no way a handwarmer would have brought it back enough to start the sled using e-start. So it wasn’t “stone dead” in the first place. And rarely is a battery actually stone dead if the sled has been running that day which will likely be the case if you need an emergency pull rope.

Also, if it does nothing, why does Ski Doo include the pull rope in the tool kit? I have no idea what the minimum voltage required is. But the point is the pull rope can still work and it’s a trick worth knowing.

So a 3 second search produced this video of the pull rope starting an Ski Doo 800 e-tec.

BrianF wrote:

We decided to pack up and go. I hopped on my 2022 Ski Doo and my heart sank – the battery was stone cold dead.

I believe there is an emergency starter rope that is included in the tool kit with Ski Doos. If not, you can certainly make one out of a simple length of small diameter rope.

By wrapping the rope around the primary clutch outer a few ties, you can pull start the sled. I’m sure there are videos on how to do it. Obviously, care is needed to do this and do NOT wrap the rope around your hand, hold the rope flat in your hand so it can pull free if the rope “wraps” somehow.

I’m sure there are videos on how to do this.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

yeah, no idea on those 2 Ref “calls”

The 2nd one I thought they were calling a 2nd Vegas penalty for tripping Boldy after the first call was made… Hynes said he got no explanation on either… NHL Refs do get graded on their game performance, so this group will likely get docked for last night…it ultimately results in them reffing playoff games or not…

Understanding that by so posting this, I am placing myself at grave risk of turning this into one of the much-loathed “narratives” , what the hell is happening here?

No calls are one thing, but what in the hell is with these botched calls blowing the play dead when there’s a delayed penalty? I can’t recall ever seeing this before, much less three times in a season?

Has anyone else seen this blown call in any other NHL games? It’s almost like the league tried to clarify something about the delayed penalty call and caused even more confusion in the process.

Glad everyone came out wiser and only slightly the worse for wear.

My oldest son got his license a couple of weeks ago. He hasn’t really driven much because of a busy schedule.

Yesterday he says he wants to go skiing in the morning. I guess they have to learn to drive with snow on the road sometime. So we let him go.

BUT… For those of you parents of young drivers out there, I can tell you there is tremendous peace of mind in these teen location apps. So much peace of mind to be able to check in and see that the kids made it safe or where they are.

sand-burr wrote:

Not sure what happened to my first post or if both will show up…

I ran into these people at the Duluth Ice show the last couple years. I purchased hunting knifes for my 3 kids and father. All still working as advertised. They will etch anything into the blade. See there facebook and Etsy site.

Etched – Facebook

IMO this ^^^^. I think laser engraving looks better and more options are available.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

when Jiricek was hit from behind…

And once again, no penalty. How? The Wild would get called on that hit 12 out of 10 times. The fact that he tried to back off the hit is no more relevant than a player saying he tried to minimize the contact when he high-sticked someone.

And the Officiating Baffoonery wasn’t done there. The Wild finally do get a call and freaking moron referee blows the play dead with the Wild in possession of the puck and no Vegas player within 30 feet of it. What the ####? This is the second time this season this has happened to the Wild. What in the hell is wrong with these officials? I’ve never even seen this call botched in youth hockey.

There should be some remedy for this. It’s no different than letting a player out of the penalty box early. There should be an offensive zone faceoff for the team that was robbed of the man advantage time.

I know Wild fans that will be saying the game last night is a sign that the end is neigh. Realistically, we have 3 of our 4 best defensive players out with injuries. I wasn’t at all surprised last night was a gong show against a team like Colorado that had a stupid loss the night before and was now playing a team that they absolutely want to catch.

Depending on what you’re looking for and what you consider high, IMO some freaking awesome deals DO come up. It’s not as good as it used to be but these are collectors sleds now so the bottom end of the price range has been reached.

I’m a total fan of the greasy triples and love the Polaris XLTs. Just in the last week 2 beautiful original condition machines came up for $1200 each. Help me. Must resist.

I get the flu shot every year and have for decades. 3 times I’ve been sick enough that I thought I’ve had the flu so I got tested, negative every time. Conclusion is to me it’s worth it.

This year I have to get the Shingles vaccine. Not looking forward to that has a lot of people say it really wipes you out for about 3 days. However…

I have an uncle who is very, ummm, politically active. He has strong views on vaccines and concluded that the shingles vaccine was Chinese mind control medicine.

He got shingles two years ago on his neck head and face. Guys I’m telling you it was absolutely gruesome. His face looked like he had been badly burned. Unfortunately that wasn’t the only place he got it. He also got it, err, in the rectal region. It probably wouldn’t have been as bad as it was except he got a nasty secondary infection down there.

The bottom (!) line is sign me up for that vaccine.

reddog wrote:

Were planning a trip mid Feb to Iron River. They have no snow at this time either.:(

It’s looking like you’re going to have to go a lot further than that to get into any significant snow. The UP reports I’m seeing are not terrible, but areas are still hit/miss and man are the trails up there getting pounded.

As I said in another thread, I sold my 2-up because the kids want their own machines now. I was going to buy this winter/spring, but now I just can’t see doing it. IMO it’s game over for MN riding this year, there is no way that on average we can catch up to get groomed open trails by the end of season.

Also, used prices are still just silly high as so many guys bought both new/used during the big price runups. It doesn’t matter what you paid, current value is what you can SELL for.

Where in the warranty is it WRITTEN that it can’t be left outside, has to be covered, etc?

Sounds like Battery Boy is full of s#it.