Columnists

The local music world is going to miss Earl Bulinski, who passed away suddenly on April 3, 2021.
We talked on the phone the other day and Earl said he would be playing with a band in South Padre and that I could tune in on Facebook.
“I’ll be sure to listen,” I said.
“These guys are really good,” said Earl. “They even make me look good!”
That was Earl, self-deprecating, always with a joke and a smile. Our conversations were marked by laughter.
During his March 30 set in South Padre at Lobo Del Mar Cafe, Earl told the story of being born in Chicago in 1948 and his dad, Emery, buying Snowbank Lodge in Ely in 1956.
“We went back and forth to Ely, Minnesota which is eight miles from the Canadian border,” said Earl. “It’s a little woodsy up there.
“After four years my dad bought a house and that’s where I actually grew up. And started our first band, The Electras, in 1962 in Ely, Minnesota.

Being a grandparent of a soon to be five year-old girl brings with it a flurry of emotions with every visit.
Out in Moorhead last weekend Kinlee was a non-stop bundle of energy.
She served us meals from her toy kitchen and even had McDonald’s items to choose from. Based on our stop in Chisholm on the way over, I’m thinking Kinlee’s pretend food was as good or better.
She even wrote down our orders with an apron around her waist - first class service, no doubt.
On Saturday she had a play date at Sky Zone, a trampoline park in Fargo.
We got there at 9 a.m., which is a time set aside for the younger kids. After putting on special socks, Kinlee and her two friends were off and running.
First they climbed up several steps under the watchful eye of a teenage worker and jumped to a large trampoline below.

by Muffin Nelson
The Annual Ely Children’s Summer Art Camp run under the auspices of the Ely Arts & Heritage Center at Ely’s historic Miners Dry is scheduled for 2021.
It will begin Monday, June 7 and end Wednesday, June 9 from 9 - Noon each day. Mark your calendars now.
A community Art Show showcasing student art work is featured at the end of camp at noon on Wednesday.
Up to 50 children in grades one through sixth are welcomed to new projects each year for a fee of $50 each. We are looking for new teachers and projects in any medium.
Teachers are paid and all supply costs are covered. Do you have a hobby, craft, or skill you’d enjoy sharing with young students?
There are four 40 minute class sessions each day with students rotating in groups to each teacher. Projects can be completed in one day or might require two or three days. You may bring a helper or Art Camp can supply adult assistants.

Arrests/Citations:
• Medical- Individual arrested for Domestic Assault.
• Traffic Stop- Individual issued a citation for Driving After Suspension.

From the perspective of a four-year old there can’t be too many slides at a park. Mary and I took our granddaughter Kinlee to both playgrounds on Saturday while her parents were out snowmobiling on the North Shore.
We went to the school playground first and Kinlee was bound and determined to try every slide, no matter what the obstacle was to get to the top. In the old days, there was just a steep ladder and a metal slide for kids. Today there are slides with a rope climb to get to the top.
Kinlee has no fear. Heights? Forget about it. She’s fearless which can leave grandma and grandpa fretting she would tumble and we would have to explain a trip to the emergency room. Instead there were tons of smiles and giggles, and not just from the four year-old.
At the school Kinlee liked the units that ran on a rail and she could ride back and forth with the help of a push. And, of course, the slides.

Vermilion Community College sure has been an asset to Ely since its founding in 1922. In my parents’ day, tuition for local kids was free and paid for by the Oliver Mining Company. By the time my turn came in the early 80’s, it was no longer free but still quite a bargain and I was able to pay for it with two year’s work as a janitor at the high school.
All these years later, I still have the “stop acid rain” button I was given as a VCC freshman. The whole campus was on a crusade to fight that environmental problem. According to a BBC article titled “The Bittersweet Story of How We Stopped Acid Rain”, joint efforts between the U.S. and Canada have put a big dent in the trouble.

Warning - the state legislature is in session so keep an eye on what’s going on in St. Paul. Here’s a nugget that popped up this past week.
The DNR would like to require that you have blaze orange on your ground blinds.
Here’s the proposed language:
“… during the open season where deer may be taken by​ firearms under applicable laws and ordinances, a person in a fabric or synthetic ground​ blind on public land must have:​
(1) a blaze orange or blaze pink safety covering on the top of the blind visible for 360​ degrees around the blind; or​
(2) at least 144 square inches of blaze orange or blaze pink material on each side of the​ blind.​”
Companies that sell pop-up blinds were selling the blaze orange tops last year, so apparently this rule is already in place in other states.
Safety must be the reason and we will go along with it.

An old poacher lived on the north shore of a remote lake, and the game warden assigned to the district was getting ready to retire, so he didn’t care to chase the criminal trapper.
A young new warden, sent to fill the vacancy, heard of the mountain man and his serious lack of ethics, and he said to himself, he was gonna catch that rascal.
All summer - canoeing, hiking, glassing, checking rumors, traipsing the boreal forest, he never even got a look at the guy and then that winter the lake froze over and the new warden said to himself, I will wake early, I’ll snowshoe in, and when he leaves his cabin, I’ll be on him.
Sure enough, 44 below zero, he slugged his way in, sunk down in the snow and sat glassing at the cabin well before sunrise and he was soon semi frozen, but he remained, and when he saw a smoke plume erupt from the cabin’s chimney it gave him hope that, ok, at least I know he is in there. It steeled his resolve as frigid as it was, and he waited.

Snippets
I had a recent phone visit from the Trout Whisperer. He’s recovering from knee surgery at home.
He suggested that I ask the Echo readers to send me (thepub@elyecho.com) snippets from their life stories. Why you live here, What you do here, what you like here - food or anything else.
Tom Mischke wrote to me about the book he plans to self-publish. He previously worked for 20 years on the air at KSTP and WCCO radio and City Pages.

A few weeks ago it was finally time to take the old 2001 sled out for a ride down the trail.
This was after going down to see Larry and Penny for a sticker to make it legal, stopping at Joe’s Marine and picking up a battery for the electric start, and finding a grease gun to make sure everything was in working order.
The battery was actually difficult to find. I had checked at J&L as well but Cathy told me that the one I was looking for was on backorder for quite awhile. She did have one the exact same size but the posts were reversed.
I decided I could make that battery work and after some curse words were uttered the wires were connected and I didn’t have to throw out my shoulder trying to start it. Did I mention this sled also has reverse? All the comforts of home.