WI in January

We have been at our place in WI for a week now and plan to be here yet another week. There is very little snow so far, and the locals are very concerned about the effects on the economy and spring lake levels. Usually, there is a significant influx of tourists who enjoy snowmobiling, ice fishing, and cross-country skiing. There is some ice fishing going on, but we haven't seen the adventurous driving of cars onto the ice that we have seen in other years. Still, it is pretty and quiet here. With the lake frozen and a bit of snow, the view from our place is quite nice.

I forgot to bring my camera along, but I rigged up the iSight camera on my Macintosh computer and took a few shots. They aren't the highest quality, but I thought you would like to see what we are doing.

We have done lots of relaxing, including reading books (I finished two so far), completing a picture puzzle, and watching a few movies. Kathie bought me the first season of Six Feet Under for Christmas, and we have been watching one episode of that each evening. (What an interesting show. I highly recommend it.)

A few days ago, we trekked into Hayward so that I could get a haircut and check on how to install a different chain sprocket in one of my chainsaws. We also made the mandatory stop at the bakery and the local coffee shop, and Kathie bought a pair of gloves to replace the ones we seem to have lost on our way up here.

We brought some new wall hangings along with us and have put those up, including two very nice fishing-theme needlepoints that Mom did for us. There has been some pinball playing, and we plan to play some ping-pong today. Hunkered down in a cabin in the woods like this, it is also easy to overdo the snacking and eating, but we are enjoying that too. I've been working on a DVD project for my kids, and Kathie has been working on an afghan.


Josey has been lounging on the deck and chases squirrels every once in awhile. We have also taken her for walks on the frozen lake, where she can run and run (and slide). She seems very at home here. We think she has begun to know "go to the lake" and "go home" as two important phrases in her limited vocabulary.


We spent quite a lot of time the last few days clearing out a couple of dead trees (which I had worried might fall on parked cars sometime). That wood was tootsie-rolled (this is what you call cutting up a long tree into short fire logs) and stacked, and the limbs and some other brush we had cleared up has been burned. I also got around to trying my hand at some chainsaw carving. This is something I've been contemplating for some time. I have the right equipment, but I don't have very good technique yet. I started with a little bear, which is the usual subject matter for carving. The only books I could find with which to get started all concentrate on this basic carving. They claim that once you master this, you can branch out into other things. We shall see. Anyway, here are my results so far. Clearly, this one will have to be scrapped as a first experience!!

Christmas, 2006

The major snowstorms in Denver interfered with Travis's travels home for Christmas. He was supposed to fly home on the 20th, the day over 2000 flights were canceled. However, he did eventually make it home on Christmas Eve. Jessica had arrived on the 20th from Providence as planned. Both had to return to their respective homes on the 26th, but we did get to enjoy Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and part of the 26th together.


Josey was the first to dig into her presents. She worked on her stocking for awhile and then moved on to the devouring of unwrapped goodies. She even dressed up for the occasion with a gold ribbon.



Jessica modeled some new undies and also the scarf that was picked out for her during our recent trip to Italy. In one of the shots below, Jessica and her Mom both model their new Italian accessories.




Travis loved his new audio mixer and immediately began to delve into the owner's manual.



Kathie and I also did well on the gift front. She received a new Palm Pilot, and I received a new high-accuracy miter guage and crosscut sled for my table saw.



Later, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and then Jessica taught Kathie and me how to do an official wine tasting. It turned out that Jessica had to miss one session of her wine tasting class back at Johnson & Wales. Her instructor said that would be OK if she would do this make-up work with us, even offering extra credit! Because Kathie and I were still recovering from seasonal coughs and colds, we weren't sure that our aroma-detectors or taste-sensors were fully up to the job, but we had fun anyway. The process is quite involved.

Expanded Shop

For those of you who care...my sweet wife was kind enough to allow me to expand the size of my shop. Previously, I occupied about 1/4 of the basement, and now I have essentially the entire west end of the basement as my shop. This has allowed me to arrange my power tools better, as well as my benches. Part of this was necessitated by my acquisition of a couple of new power tools as well as an expansion of the size of the table on my table saw. I can now work more efficiently, I think. I also gained the ability to more easily work with larger pieces of wood. My lathe is much more accessible too, and I improved the dust collection system layout.

I'm sure this is all as thrilling to you as it is to me, so here are some pictures.