As Good As It Gets

There is nothing quite as satisfying, fun, and comforting as spending time with family. Some of you may have already learned about our family weekend here in WI by reading Betsy's blog, but I have more to add and some pics of my own to share. We wish the whole family could have been here, but it was great to have Will and Sandy, Pete and Betsy, and, of course, Henry here with us.

We had sort of built the long weekend around the Lumberjack Championships, but Henry had not been here since Thanksgiving of 2005 when he was only a year old, so there were lots of things he and his grandfather needed to experience together for the first time. The first couple of hours of Henry's visit were jam-packed with one thing after another.

One of Henry's first stops was our pinball machine. This is one that Uncle Will restored some time ago and sold to us. Later, when Uncle Will arrived, the two of them could frequently be found refining their skills. This is a "Monster Bash" pinball game, and Henry was quite intrigued by (and maybe a little apprehensive of) the various monsters in the game, though he knew them all by name.


Next, it was time to break in the sandbox. We had arranged for a sandbox to be built into our lower deck, but except for Josey finding it a cool place to sleep, the sandbox had not received a proper inauguration. Henry was the right person to do that. With the sand toys that Grandma had purchased last year all ready to go, Henry declared the sandbox to be a fine addition to our property.


Then, after spending a little time repairing Betsy's old Snoopy rod, Henry wanted to try his hand for the first time at fishing. Fortunately, we can often get some bluegill action just off the end of the dock, and this evening was no exception. Here are the results--Henry's first fish.




Grandma introduced Henry to wading and exploring along the shore line. Franklin loved to dig there too and was seen to be eating who-knows-what.


Later, he and his Dad caught frogs along the shore. Uncle Will even found a mudpuppy, which looks like the critter below (found this picture on the web--not a picture of the one Will found).


We also went for an evening boat ride.


Will and Sandy arrived the next day. We took in two evenings of the Lumberjack Championships, which include various events involving log rolling, pole climbing, and log cutting with both axes and different types of saws. Here are a few shots from the events, along with some shots of my favorite spectators.








Will and Betsy each fixed dinners for all of us, which we enjoyed on our screened-in porch.


One of my new toys is a radio-controlled helicopter, which I am still learning to fly. Henry wanted to see it, of course, and not unexpectedly, he wanted to try to fly it. Not wanting to put the helicopter at greater risk than I put it myself, I decided to let Henry fly simulated helicopters on my computer instead. He had very interesting approaches to this, mostly involving sending the helicopter straight up and then cutting its power so that it would drop and crash. His Uncle, Aunt, and Dad found this hilarious, as you can see below.




The new Harry Potter book was a topic of much discussion this weekend. Evidently, Will and Betsy have already polished it off. Another of us spent quite a few hours soaking it up.


Will and Sandy had to return home on Sunday, though not before some additional canoe rides. Later in the day, the rest of us took another boat ride, stopping to play on a sandy island for a bit, and then enjoying some dinner at a cafe that is near the midpoint of the Chippewa Flowage. It was a great weekend.

A Movie I Hope We Will See

For this posting, I step aside from my usual family and life events reporting.

Below is the trailer for an award-winning documentary that I am looking forward to seeing. I hope others of you who read this will also have an opportunity. This "war" in which we are engaged is an abomination and one which should never, never have been started. Though I know some of you may have different opinions from mine, this present US administration is a disaster. Among other things, I very much dislike the image of our nation as an unprovoked agressor. Global terrorism and Iraq did not belong in the same sentence at the outset of this conflict, and so there was not provocation for this so-called "war." For my childrens' and grandchildrens' sakes at least, I hope that our nation can and will recover from these terrible years.

Catching Up

I'm behind on my postings here. We have had a fun-filled several weeks. Since late June, we have spent most of our time at the lake, with one quick trip back to IC mixed in. Kathie's mother flew to IC the day before Eleanor Ruby was born, so she was able to share with us the joy of that darling little girl's arrival. Then the three of us drove to WI and spent about three weeks at the cabin. During that time, Kathie and Mom made a few trips to the hot tub.



We returned to IC in late July so that Mom could return to FL, but before she went back, we had a chance to catch up again with Eleanor and her parents. It had been awhile since we had seen them. She is getting to be quite the bright-eyed and aware little girl. She started life beautiful and is more beautiful every day. Below are a few shots of her with her parents. Dad is trying to get her to take a bottle for only the second time (with some success).


I love this one of her on her mom's lap.



Grandma has always been a champ at putting little ones to sleep.


And is there anything more precious than a sleeping baby? (You have to allow a grandfather to "go on" like this!!)

Getting With the Program

OK, I guess I'm supposed to get with the program related to this Golden Compass movie and book. Rob and Betsy have already posted information about their daemons, and now here is mine. I'd sure be interested to know what my kids think about how accurate a fit this is. For those of you who haven't read the book (like me), there is a new website for the movie, which comes out in December. There you can learn about the book, the movie, and this concept of daemons, which I take to be a kind of representative of who you are supposed to be in real life. This feels a little like astrology to me, which I think is generally a bunch of hooey, but these kinds of things can sometimes be fun. I might not have posted this, but I like the tiger!

Wisconsin Chainsaw Massacre

Readers of this blog may recall my prior reporting (January, 2007) of my interest in chainsaw carving. Back in January, I made my first attempt with a little bear. I decided to try again today, thinking I should continue to refine my technique by carving the same little bear again--hopefully better this time. Unbeknown to me, my dear wife was sneaking around with a camera while I carved. Her movements were unbeknown, because I have a new Husqvarna safety helmet with face screen and hearing protection. Between my intent focus on the carving and the forms of protection, I was pretty unaware of other things going on around me. Anyway, here are a few shots of me at work.



I didn't realize until I looked at these shots, that my saw was smoking so much. I've got to look into that! But, back to the carving...I think this iteration is coming out a little better than the first one. Some have said that my first attempt looks more like Miss Piggy than a little bear. I need to do some more work on this one, and I was disappointed to discover a crack in the wood which is interfering with the shape of the nose and mouth, but maybe I can work around that somehow.

Here are a couple of additional shots. By chance, I was wearing a T-shirt today that I was given a few years ago prior to a sailing excursion in New Zealand. The message on the shirt is probably apropos for anyone who might be nearby watching me carve.



This is a really fun thing to do. Like any carving, the trick is to remove everything that doesn't look like what you are trying to carve. Easier said than done. I don't have as good a sense of how to do this as my sister would, for example. And, I admit, for now I am working from some plans or guidelines in a couple of books. When I start branching out into my own designs, we will all see how really bad I can be. All I've got to say is that Pete and Betsy, and Rob and Carrie, better look out. Someday I might decide that Henry and Eleanor need cute little bears in their backyards instead of some unnecessary big ole tree that might happen to be there!

Ducks

I was working on my boat this afternoon. The anchor winch had jammed up when we were fishing last night, and I discovered a broken spool, which needed to be removed. With my attention completely focused on the boat, I did not notice that the following critters had quietly snuck up behind me. Josey came down to see what I was doing, and that caused a major fuss in the water. When I turned around to look, here is what I saw:


Surprisingly, they didn't go away and didn't seem much bothered by my presence or Josey's. I got Kathie to bring the camera down, and she also brought some stale bread to feed them. One wonders if others have been feeding them, since they seemed so unphased by our presence.


In the next shot, you will see that a second mother and young ones soon arrived. If you look closely, you may see that the two mothers are in something of a stare-down. Soon after I took this shot, a major fight ensued. I don't think there were any serious damages, but the end result was that the new arrival and her brood soon high-tailed it for another part of the lake.

Weeds

As we are now owners of lake property, we pay more attention to the problems associated with invasive species, including forms of vegetation. There are numerous plants that have invaded WI, and two have caught our attention. One is called Purple Loosestrife. This one is rather pretty.


However, it propagates rapidly and crowds out other species, having especially bad effects on cattails and other shoreline vegetation. We have been pulling it when we see it. Our property owners association has started a program of introducing a beetle that eats it, and this is having good success. (I wonder, though, if we humans ever truly understand the effects of such introductions. What other unintended consequences might there yet be from the beetle introduction?)

The other plant of interest to us is called Eurasian Milfoil.


Any of you who have owned aquariums would likely recognize the plant. They have sold it for years for use in aquariums. You can read more about it at a couple of sites. One is here, the Wisconsin DNR site, and another is here, a USDA site. The USDA site has an image that you can enlarge. If you do so, you will get a good sense of what we are dealing with near our property.

What are we dealing with here? Well, for some reason, this plant has decided to take over our little bay. The picture I mention above at the USDA site is fairly typical of what we see here. All of the six or so property owners on this bay are struggling with the Milfoil. It creates a distinct odor that hovers around. Though not terrible and though breezes keep it away, it can be unpleasant. The biggest problem is the way it crowds out the lily pads and reduces oxygen levels for the fish. In addition, it makes boat traffic very difficult, as it tangles in the propeller to the point where a boat will almost not move. Most of us have been working to create paths to open water in various ways, some by simply raising their propellers to be near the surface and then "chopping" their way through. The bad thing about this is that the pieces can float away and may root elsewhere. I wrote to the DNR but haven't gotten much reassuring information. They begin by saying that owners may pull weeds as much as they like, as far out as they like, and within the permitted 30 feet of cleared shoreline. This is a reasonable, though labor-intensive, short term approach. We are discussing other remediation approaches with the neighbors and may talk further to the DNR or to an area aquatic vegetation specialist.

In the meantime, I have acquired two new "lake rakes." Both have very long handles. One has a wide cutter blade, and the other is a somewhat more traditional rake equipped with floats and ropes to enable retrieval of materials from the surface or (with floats removed) from the lake bottom. So, I've been busy removing this Eurasian Milfoil from our dock area and well out into the bay. The results have been good, so far, but you might not believe the quantity of vegetation we've had to dispose of. My spouse has been successful at burning most of it so far, but we have to let it dry first, at least partially. (I can't help but think of the hay we used to cut and dry before bailing. These plants almost have that nature to them when they are spread to dry, and the skill I acquired with a pitch fork when younger is paying good dividends now.)

Kathie took a few pictures of me at work. I tie our canoe to the boat to use to transport the weeds I pull out with the rake. Then, I remove the boat seats so that I can stand in the boat and work with the rake. Yesterday, I just about sank the canoe by filling it so full of weeds.





So far, so good. We now have a very nice, clear area around our dock. And, we are able to do some fishing in the evenings. Even though the vegetation reduces oxygen levels, there still are lots of bass and pan fish lurking around under the weeds. With the areas I've cleared, we can now fish at the edges of weed patches. Kathie caught two nice bass last night from the dock.

Truck

Betsy recently updated everyone on what she is reading. I thought I should do the same, mainly because I want to encourage individuals to read the following book:


All my male friends and relatives should give this book serious consideration. I know that Will, Rob, Pete, Mike, and Travis would love it. Maybe Will, especially, would enjoy it, given his work on an old Scout. (Whatever happened to that old Scout, by the way?)