Birds and Fish

Before reporting on our fishing experiences, let me comment on the many bird sightings we have recently enjoyed. A pair of loons has been around our little bay for weeks. We have seen and heard these wonderful birds daily, and when we have been fishing, we have seen others all around our boat. At our bird feeders, our friends, the evening grosbeaks, are back, as are purple finches, chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, hairy woodpeckers, and others. In the last two or three days, rose-breasted grosbeaks and baltimore orioles have appeared. We are trying to temp the latter with grape jelly and oranges. When we were fishing yesterday, a pileated woodpecker landed in some nearby trees. They have good size and are quite colorful, but they aren't numerous or tend to stay hidden, so seeing one was lucky. You might have seen the photos Will took of one in his back yard some time ago. We have been seeing bald eagles quite frequently, and while fishing yesterday, we once saw three together and several times heard them chirping to each other as they flew. In fact, when we got home, there was another on the ground on the island across from us eating a fish and drinking from the lake. Kathie got the following amazing shot (given the distance and low lighting conditions).


Now, let me turn to fishing! We are making good progress in terms of learning how to fish this massive body of water called the Chippewa Flowage. Last year, Kathie did quite well for bass and a few northern pike by using artificial baits and casts along the shores of the upper parts of the river, but we haven't felt very sure of ourselves with regard to walleye and crappie (or other panfish) through the various parts of the season. Yesterday, we hired a guide, not so much to catch lots of fish as to learn more about rigging, technique, location, time of day, weather conditions, and the myriad of other issues that can affect fishing and results. The bottom line was that we learned much, saw some amazing things, and even caught quite a few fish--this on a day when fishing conditions were pretty poor (little or no wind to "chop" the surface, very bright conditions). We fished on both the east and west "halves" of the flowage and learned about the different water conditions and underwater structures in each part. If you go out with us sometime or if you want to hear some interesting stories, we can tell you, for example, about the floating bogs and the trees that will wave goodbye to you. There are also stories about river channels, integrated lakes, sunken bogs, and other things.

Our guide, Ron Bergman, was a 41-year veteran of guiding and fishing in the Flowage. We really enjoyed his stories and information, certainly about the fishing, but also about the region, wildlife, and history of the Flowage. We highly recommend him and will likely hire him again to learn more about fishing for other species (e.g. muskie) and in other times of the fishing season. He has a great boat, that is configured well for guiding. Heeeeere's Ron....


We spent most of the day fishing for walleye, but as I said earlier, conditions were not ideal. Still we caught five that were eating size and that we kept and a few others that we returned to fight another day. Kathie also caught a monster perch. Ron taught us to use jigs and minnows, and he showed us how to locate underwater structures in which the walleye tend to hide out. When the walleye fishing quieted down due to glassy water surfaces and bright conditions, we switched to panfishing. The action in this case was fast and fun. Each of us probably caught ten or more bluegill in a short time period, and some of them were keepers. We caught at least one true sunfish and some small, hungry bass as well, all of which we returned to the water. Here are Kathie and Ron working the panfish:


At the end of the day, we had the following "mess" of fish for our efforts. Ron cleaned them all, teaching us some filleting techniques along the way, and we have enough for at least two good meals, one of which will occur today.


Now, when we venture out, we can work on improving our technique as well as our ability to locate good spots.

First Visitor of the Season

We very much enjoyed hosting our first visitor of the season. Polly, an investment club friend of Kathie's, came to spend some time with us the past several days. Any of you who have visited know that our only rule for a visit is that a guest is obligated to prepare one meal. Well, we really hit the jackpot this time! Polly really treated us. Yesterday began with mint juleps prepared in true Kentucky Derby fashion. We sipped these delights throughout the pre-derby shows and then the race itself. Following this, we were treated to some outstanding lamb chops, mixed rice, and vegetables. Here are Polly and Kathie at the grill as the chops get underway. Thanks, Polly!! The food was outstanding!!


A few days ago, we tried our hands at golf at Teal Wing Golf Course, one of the most challenging of the local courses. (Will, Rob, and Pete may remember playing there with me some years ago.) The course is heavily wooded, and many of the fairways are quite narrow. There is lots of water too, and so between the woods and the water, a golfer like me has to count on losing a number of golf balls. On the other hand, when searching for lost balls, one frequently finds replacements. So, in the end, you can sometimes end up with more balls than when you began.

Here we are at the tee for hole #1. The pro was not busy and agreed to take this shot. Note the narrow fairway directly behind us, which is bordered by ball-eating trees.


Polly and Kathie show good form on the fairway. (Note: That is not Kathie's ball being left behind by her swing! That is my ball awaiting my turn at the approach to the green. You can see her ball in a blur, flying away from the club head!)



Finally, here I am lining up a putt. I know, I'm not quite on the green yet, but I figured a putt was as good as a short chip at this point. I've got the genuine golfers glove thing going. You've gotta look the part, even if you ain't the real thing!!


Following this outing (we are not reporting scores!!), we traveled to the Happy Hooker bait and tackle shop for some souvenirs and then to Schultz's Restaurant for a Friday night fish fry.

Trees

Stories about trees falling on our property and structures here in WI have appeared here before. Since those incidents, I have tried to be prudent about the removal of trees that might threaten the house, the garage, parked vehicles, or guests. Yesterday, I had a crew over to remove several dead trees and a couple of additional popples that were aimed squarely at the house and the parking area. The company I use is a very professional one. I watched the entire process and marveled at their professional, careful approach with each tree. They have amazing skill with riggings to pull trees, with sawing so as to drop trees exactly where desired, and with cutting trees down to size once dropped. They also do an excellent job with cleanup. As you might imagine, a dead tree makes something like a small explosion when it hits the ground, since its dry branches shatter and fly everywhere.

Here are a few shots of the men at work. There were two trees that had fallen in a storm in 2005. In fact, they had only almost fallen. They were leaning at a 45 degree angle against two other trees, and they spanned a pathway that we use regularly. Walking under these two trees was always a little spooky, and with them down so far, I was sure they would fall sometime in the near future. To remove these trees from the woods when unable to take much equipment into the woods, the crew rigged up lines from a tree near our house and then used a skid loader to pull cut sections onto the drive where they could be cut and hauled away.





Here are a before and an after shot of the space previously occupied by those two leaning trees.



I also got one shot of another tree just as it began to fall.


Finally, lest anyone believe we are eradicating the trees near us, here are some shots of two of the nine trees we have planted so far. The first is a mountain ash. The second is a red pine that I relocated from a very crowded spot in the woods. I am finding lots of red pine seedlings that are in places where they will struggle. My goal is to relocate as many of these as I can find to create a grove of new trees in the area between our house and the garage. The one in the shot below is hardly a seedling. This particular red pine was uncovered when the "leaning trees" were removed. It had been growing adjacent to the stumps of these trees and was crowded together with a number of balsams and other growth. When the leaning trees fell, it was pushed over. I have high hopes for its survival. When we have planted, we mix a batch of new soil, based on recommendations from a local nursery, to included lots of peat moss, composted cow manure, local soil, and root stimulators. With some judicious watering and attention, I hope we can get all of these trees to thrive. As you can tell, the mountain ash is already leafing out.

Hot Tubbing in the Woods

Since we bought this retreat in the woods in Wisconsin, we have talked about the possibility of a hot tub and where we might put one. Well, to coin a phrase, we finally "took the plunge."

Tubs weigh a bunch when filled with water--about the same as a mid-size car. We couldn't just plop a tub down on any of our existing decks. So, we had an extra sturdy one built just for this purpose off the east end of our main deck. Here are a few shots of the work in process on Monday. For those of you interested in the engineering requirements for the filled tub weight (my boys, perhaps??), the deck is built with 2x12 joists on 12" centers. There is a cantilever as well, and pads at 6' intervals. The entire deck is 12'x12'.




On Tuesday, our contractor (same great guy who finished the lower level and who built our garage) returned to finish the railing. That afternoon, Kathie and I bit the bullet and stained the entire thing, thinking it was our only chance before the tub was put into place. Here are Tuesday's results.



Today, the tub arrived on a flatbed trailer.



This was followed by installation of required electrical service, initial filling, chemical treatments (and related orientations for us on regular water treatments), installation of a cover and cover lift, steps, and replacement of deck railing, which had been temporarily removed to allow placement of the tub.




After hours and hours of filtering and water heatup, we took this baby for a test drive. (Please! No comments about the "farmer tan.") All we can say is, "Wow!" As before, our door is always open, and now you can look forward to cool, dark nights, under the stars, piney woods all around, views of the lake, refreshment in hand, while stimulating jets of water massage your tired selves.

Getting Ready for May 5th

Fishing season reopens here in WI on May 5th. We are getting ready, along with everyone else. Recently, folks we hired to put our roll-in dock and boat lift back into the lake appeared. We were glad not to do this ourselves. These guys were wearing chest waders, and I know from other projects I've done around here recently that the water is still quite chilly.





In addition to getting the dock ready, we must have our boat ready. This year we decided to trade in our old boat for one with a slightly bigger and more environmentally friendly motor, a steering console instead of the tiller bar (that old tiller bar was giving my shoulder fits last year), and a better seating configuration. We have a new 16' Smokercraft boat (made in Indiana) with a new 40HP Suzuki motor (4 stroke; hydraulic lift and trim). It is rated for up to five passengers, and there are four comfortable seats in it. There is a livewell and some nice equipment storage compartments, a trolling motor, and a depth finder/fish locator. The whole package came with a new trailer too, which has a simpler loading system and a collapsible tongue for better space use in the garage.

The boat was delivered to us today, and we have already taken it for a test drive or two. It is much quieter and moves quite nicely with the 40HP motor. There is quite a story associated with our getting it. When we went to pick it up on the promised delivery date (April 28th), the dealer "couldn't find it." This was embarrassing for us, as we had taken neighbors up on their offer to pull our trade-in to Minong and pull the new one home. The bottom line is that the salesman had not followed through on insuring that it was ready. So, he delivered it today free of charge. Here are a few shots of it already in the water.




We have hired a guide to take us out on May 8th so that we can learn how to properly fish this lake. Walleye and crappie are supposed to be good this time of year. Bass will be good in June and July, and we should be able to catch panfish and muskie most anytime. We hope to learn the proper riggings, how to use our depth finder properly, and more about the various areas of the lake. With luck, we will have stories to tell and fish pictures to share in the future.

P.S. We have another "toy" in process as well. Tune in here for information on that acquisition in a day or so.

Jessica's Bedroom Set

One of our recent projects has been a combination of refinishing an old bedroom set and adding to it with some woodworking projects. Daughter Jessica is graduating from Johnson & Wales University in May, and she has accepted a position with J. Alexander's in Nashville. So, she will need to outfit an apartment soon.

This old bedroom set of Kathie's was a little tired and it lacked a footboard for the bed and had no bedside nightstands. So, we stripped the finish from the old pieces (with one exception) and built the missing pieces from walnut. (The one exception is a chest of drawers that Jessica has in Providence. We intend to refinish it to match when we transport the new items to Nashville and meet Jessica there.) We succeeded in getting stains and varnishes on all of the pieces to match quite well.

Knowing that Jessica would want to see the finished product, and thinking that others of you would be interested as well, we present our results here. First, here is the original bed headboard and the new footboard we made to match it. In the process, we converted this to a queen size bed with sturdy side rails and cross braces.


Next, we built two bedside nightstands as you will see below. We tried to make them match the original furniture style as closely as possible.


Finally, here is the dresser and mirror, along with a closeup of the lower portion. I have no idea how the camera managed to capture the image in the mirror!!

About Green and Growing Things

That ice storm awhile back took quite a toll on the large white pine tree in our back yard. I estimate that we lost 20% of it in the form of broken and badly damaged limbs. It could have been worse, I suppose, but after sawing, trimming, and raking, we ended up with quite a pile of limbs that needed to be removed. I decided to haul them to the landfill, because they grind such yard waste into reusable mulch. Better than burning! It took two carefully packed truckloads to get rid of everything. Here was the first load, packed up one afternoon and ready for a trip to the landfill first thing the next morning. Ah, the joys of owning a pickup! Josey loves going along. She always assumes the people at the weigh-in window will give her dog treats. Little did she know that you can skip weigh-in when the load is yard waste.


With the warmer weather recently, our tulips started to show. This is always a signal to the deer that "lunch is being served." So, we have learned to quickly cover the tulips. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a chance of seeing any blooms. Over the years, I've tried all sorts of methods for covering. Eventually, I settled on the approach seen below, which is this years incarnation.


Finally, I have long enjoyed schefflera plants. When I was still working, I had a rather magnificent plant in my office. It was 4' tall and seemed to bush out more and more every time I trimmed it back. (When I retired, I left it for a future office occupant, rather than go to all the work of hauling that "tree" home.) Here at home, I have another plant that friends gave me when my mother passed away in 1979. It is starting to rival the one that I had in my office. The amazing thing is that it very recently decided to bloom. I've never seen a schefflera bloom before. Below are two shots of the blooms, one taken with flash and the other without. I don't know if they will open up more or what. Do any of you know? I'll post another photo if anything interesting develops.

Recent Happenings

Just because I haven't posted anything since Birkebeiner doesn't mean we have been sitting around idle. Here are a few of our recent activities.

I know that you have all seen one of those many movies where some little old lady or little old man is portrayed as "the bird lady", or "the dog man", or "the cat lady", or whatever. Well, Kathie recently did a stint as the dog lady, operating a dog hotel for dogs of friends who were away during spring break. Below you will see Sparky, Ginger, and Josey being entertained by the dog lady, although the second shot will prove that not all time was spent in play.



Last week, we traveled to Colorado to spend some time with Travis. (And to deliver that cedar-lined chest I made for him back in December. You can click here to refresh your memory about the chest.) While we were there, he took us to have lunch at the new restaurant where he is now cooking. It is called Maya Cove, and you will see a shot of all of us together there just below.


While we were there, he introduced us to his new girlfriend:


She is really thin.


Just kidding, Rachel! He loves you best. Just for the record, here are Travis and his real main squeeze.


When we planned our trip to see Travis, we decided to build in a side trip to Las Vegas. So, we spent a few days there as well, where we met good friends Cheryl and Gerry Stone. We stayed at the Monte Carlo Casino and saw a great show by Stevie Nicks and her band.