February 2025

Random Strangers

by Barb LaFond Omarzu Introducing Brett McDonnell. I met him when my curiosity got the best of me. I pulled over to the side of… Login to continue reading Login…

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Isabella Christmas Bird Count recounted

The Isabella Christmas Bird Count’s calling card is nasty, brutishly-cold weather, and this year’s Jan 4th count lived up to the billing. Winds gusted over 20 mph, the early counters were greeted by a temperature of -14°F, and the high temp for the day only reached 0°. Only five other count days in our 43-year history have been as cold. It was so cold, rumor has it that upon stepping outside that morning, Will Steger commented that “there was a chill in the air.”

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Storm Nordic Ski team perseveres despite lack of snow

The Two Harbors Storm Ski team has had to travel to find snow this winter. However the team of about 30 skiers competed well on January 15 at Giants Ridge in a meet against Mesabi East and Grand Rapids (called the Tri-angular meet) in 15°F temperatures and partly man-made snow. The boys varsity team, made up exclusively of 9th and 10th graders, placed 1st (Gunny Skadberg), 3rd (Erik Gishia), 9th (Mason Linn), 11th (Steinar Anderson), 15th (Eli Dean) and 16th (Alex Teeter). On the girls varsity team, seniors Signe Myers and Amelia Saamanen placed 6th and 7th, respectively, with younger skiers, 8th grader Grace Dean, placing 9th and 10th grader Harper Smith coming in 10th. This meet is a new tradition for the Storm and pits three approximately equally sized teams against each other for fun competition.

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