Super Bowl Weekend

With the Superbowl coming up this weekend. I was wondering what everyone is doing for the big game. Let us know how you spend it and who you will be cheering for.

I will be at my friends house on the Indiana border ice fishing this weekend. This is something we do every Super Bowl. I will be cheering for the Steelers. I have been a Steelers fan since the days of Terry Bradshaw and the Steel Curtain.

Denise will be going up to the cabin for the weekend. She is not a football fan at all. She will probably watch the game but only for the commercials.

Take care and Go Steelers!!!
Bill

The weekend

Well, were back from the frozen up north cabin. It was great weekend. One of the rare weekends where Denise and I get to spend time together at the cabin. I got to the cabin on Friday night. Denise had fried up some bluegill bites as a snack. They were really good. I had a couple of adult beverages and it was bedtime.

Saturday we got up and it was cold. I got up on the roof to shovel some of the snow off. The ice on the edge of the roof in places was about 10 inches thick. This would explain the leak in the utility room from the ice dam.After shoveling, Denise wanted to go to Tip Up Town up in Houghton Lake. So off we went. Tip up Town is an annual two weekend festival in Houghton Lake. It started years ago as an ice fishing tournament and over the years has grown into a major event with carnival rides, games and helicopter rides. One of the big attractions is the polar bear dip. A bunch of crazy people get into their favorite summer swimwear and dive, belly flop or cannon ball ino the frigid waters of Houghton Lake. There were probably three hundred people in line to take part in this event.

This is a pic of the rescue divers who check out the area for foreign objects or ice shards. There was also a paramedic team standing by.

This is a pic of the first participant getting ready to take the plunge. Her skin was bright red after standing in line in the single digit weather waiting for the event to begin.

Here is pic of me and Denise at Tip Up Town. Notice that we are dressed appropriately for the weather. Denise reminded me of Ralphie's little brother in the movie 'A Christmas Story'. We had a good time. Most of the fishing takes place farther down the lake. We would have taken more pics but the batteries died on the camera.

After leaving TIp Up Town we stopped at the crafts fair that is also part of Tip Up Town. Denise purchased some spices from a Mennonite woman then we headed back to our cabin for dinner and a nap. The events coordinator (Denise) got us tickets to a comedy show. The Irish Comedy Tour. They were three comedians who are Irish Americans and my gosh were they funny. I would tell some of their jokes but we do try to keep this blog family friendly.

Sunday, we slept in a little. It was -3 degrees outside. A good day to stay inside. I took some pics of some of our daily visitors.

A Pine Siskin, one of the 'winter' finches. We had some Common Redpolls, but too far away to get photo's.

One of the many squirrels that love Denise's suet feeders.

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

A male Downy Woodpecker on the no-no feeder.

This is a pic of the very rare orange and black chimney bird. OK , its just me cleaning the chimney flue. The chimney is nice and clean now. After this we headed home.

Hope all of you had a great weekend. Take care.

Bill

Heading North!

It has been far too long!

I am missing...

Standing in front of the window drinking a cup of hot coffee...

Filling my bird feeders...

Snuggling up with Cleo in our bed, with the feather bed, mattress warmer and down comforter...

The chill in the air early in the morning, until you can smell the pancakes and coffee...

The brisk feel and cleanliness of the air and my complete sense of peace when I escape to my heaven on earth...

I can't wait to get there tomorrow. I'll certainly be up an running with pics as soon as I get back on Sunday!

Denise

PS I like the new PC, but I'm not looking forward to changing over the files....including pics....I've been putting this task off.

New Computer and the weekend

Hello everyone,

Well we got the new computer up and running. It's great. We are still playing with it to find out what it can do. Denise will post more about the computer since she is the computer wizard in this house.

I went to a friends cottage this last weekend. Mark's cottage is about 2 hours west of of our house. It is on Dragon Lake in Kinderhook Michigan. It was a duel purpose weekend. Ice Fishing and drywalling. Mark had a pipe burst a while back, which pretty much wiped out the ceiling in his one bedroom. We got over to Mark's place Friday evening. There was Mark, Jeff, Rick, Tom and Myself. We had a couple adult beverages and relaxed.

Saturaday we got up and I got the shanty set up. I was the only one in the group who brought a shanty. I figured with as cold as it was that whoever wanted to use the shanty could to get out of the cold. Mark was really the only one who fished Saturday morning, the only one who was brave enough to fight the sub zero weather. When Mark came back in we started the drywall. We only had to do the ceiling as he is going to panelthe walls. We were done by 10:00 am. We had lunch and napped. Around three we all started to migrate outside to fish. We only stayed for a couple of hours We came back in and Mark cooked up steaks and we watched basketball.

We had tip up outs and Rick caught a pike. It looked like it was leagal but we put it back to grow bigger. Mark caught some bluegills and cleaned them up. That was the extent of the fishing on Saturday.

Sunday we got up and I headed out on the ice. I could not get the fish to bite. That is the way it goes sometimes. Just as we were getting ready to pull the tip ups out when the flag on my tip up went up. I caught a 30+ inch pike. We were not going to keep him for dinner and he is not big enough to put on the wall so back in the hole he went. So with that we packed up and headed for home. A quick weekend it was, not much fishing but a good time with good friends.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine.

Bill

New PC

Bear with us as we change over PC's. We bought an HP last night with 8GB, it will be ready for pick up in a couple of hours. This old PC will move downstairs into our living room where we will also (hopefully) have an internet connection. I don't have any CDRW's yet to changeover the pics from this PC to the new PC. Now the process of shutting this one down and putting the new one in....and all the cleaning involved in that process! Dust bunnies, here I come. In the meantime, enjoy some cabin pics!

Winter view looking to the northwest out the front window. That is our lake association swim dock, down at our shoreline.
Winter view looking west, that is our front dock.

Remember the dry well post? Well, I found a pic of the pipe that Bill took out, no wonder my kitchen sink wouldn't drain.

A winter walk around the lake

When I was at the cabin last weekend I took a walk around the lake. It was a good way to check the ice. Here are some pics. Hope you enjoy.

A veiw of our snow covered cabin.

Could be a little cold sitting around the camp fire unless of course you really like sitting in the snow.

Looking south on the lake from the ice in front of our cabin.

As I was walking I came across a couple of downed trees. I thought at first that maybe the wind had knocked them over on the ice. After taking a closer look I realized the beavers have infact been busy.

A close up of the stumps and the wood shavings left behind. The Beavers were coming up from under the ice right at the shore line were it was basically slush as opposed to solid ice.

The beavers started working on this one, I am sure they will be back to finsh the job.

Looking north from the south end of the lake. This end of the lake has this marsh area were these pine trees have flourished. I believe this marsh may have been created by our beavers over the years.



Our neighbor has found a way to beat the beavers. He has wrapped all the trees on his property with aluminum.

I saw this snag and thought it would be a cool pic. Then I saw something blue in at top of the snag.

The blue thing I saw was this fishing lure that one of my neighbors lost over the summer.

A pic of our neighbor Ron ice fishing in his usual spot.

The dogs got chance to come play on the ice at the end of my walk.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Bill

Ice Fishing

Hello Everyone,

Well, I finally have sometime to let you all know about last weekend at the cabin, after New Years Eve at the Elbow Lake Bar. I got up New Years Day, Denise cooked breakfast and I went out and set up the shanty.

Jimmy and I went out to fish after Denise left for home. Yes, we were in Denise's favorite fishing spot. We caught 13 fish in about an hour. We were both pretty tired, so we did not fish long. We headed back inside and had dinner. I fell asleep on the couch and Jimmy played his video game.

Here are the bluegill that we caught. Very nice 'pumpkinseed' in the middle.

Friday we ran up to Houghton Lake. I bought Jimmy a fishing rod and some tackle as he had lost his fishing equipment in a house fire last March at my brothers house. We then went over to Lyman's on the Lake. It is a little fishing store on the west side of Houghton Lake. We bought two dozen minnows, some maggots and waxworms for bait. We then headed back to the cabin. We had lunch and Jimmy wanted to play Uno. So, play Uno, we did. Not sure who won, but we finally went out to fish and caught several more. I cleaned them all up. We have to restock the freezer, don't you know? We came back in, had dinner and I went back out to fish. No luck at night, but I did take a nice nap in the shanty.

Saturday we fished and caught more. Jimmy out-fished me, but only because I gave in and let him have the side of the shanty that the fish were on (well thats my story and I'm sticking to it). Some of our cabin neighbors were out on the lake snowmobiling and playing with their kids. One of our neighbor's was pulling his kids on sleds. They were out there all day long having fun. Don't you love the 'mohawk' helmets?

When it was all said and done, we had caught about 40 fish. They are all cleaned up and in the freezer. Jimmy took some to give to his dad. We had a good time and I enjoyed the time with my nephew.

Fall and Winter

Bill took these identical shots standing precariously on a log in a wooded wetlands across our lake. We actually won a prize for the Fall photo over at Log Home U. It is a leaf blower and is on it's way to our home!

My favorite place to sit in summer.

Bill is home and took a few pics. He will blog tomorrow night (I hope).

This is my favorite spot to sit all spring and summer long. Ah, imagine...shorts, a good book with your barefeet feeling the warmth of the wood on the dock and the sun setting directly in front of you...and the glow of the dock tiki torches after dark.

We forgot to put the adirondack chairs away...oops.

Brrrrrrr! New Years

Well, as Bill said, I got to the cabin just fine on Monday....to no power. Not a big deal at the cabin, except the fire went out in the middle of the night. Brrrrr, down to 39.

When I got there, I got the fire started in the wood burner. Headed into Houghton Lake to get some lamp oil. Headed back to our place, where I stopped at Elbow Lake Bar, knowing they wouldn't have any power either. But, they have old propane lights and are able to cook with a generator. I had my choice of either a hamburger or chili. I opted for chili. The owner asked if we were going to be there for the New Year, I said yes. He said, bring a dish, we are having a party. He would be supplying the ham. So, I headed back to the cabin to come up with a couple of menu items...hoping that I would have power so that I can cook using the electric range, instead of the grill, which has about 12" of snow on it.

The power came on at approx. 1:30pm on Tuesday afternoon. I opened the fridge for the first time. We lost everything. Shucks. I had planned on making 'Bluegill cakes' for the New Year's party. We had a lot of bluegill in the freezer, that and melted ice cream make for a gagging good time cleaning out the fridge.

I ended up making Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts, a cold Crab Dip and Jalapeno Popper Dip for the party at Elbow Lake Bar. The party was a great time! Lots of great food and nice folks, we were stuffed.

I have to wait for Bill to come home to show pics from this week. He will be home on Sunday with our nephew Jimmy, they have been ice fishing. They have been using MY secret fishing spot! Hmmmmm, I'll have to get them back. In the mean time, here are some other pics.

Cabin mantle lit up with oil lamps.

Cleo, she's exhausted after opening gifts for Christmas.

This is what Bill made for me. It's a memory box for Brittany, my Standard Poodle, she passed away a couple of years ago. It has a couple of pics of her, her last collar, and her paw print. Bill usually makes me something for Christmas and my birthday. I'll share pics of those in future blogs.

Of course, I can't leave Bill out. This is him with a Journey CD that he wanted for Christmas.

This is an older picture. These are 2 of our nephews ice fishing at our place in one of Bill's shanty's. He has a couple of them. Jimmy is in the front, and Sean is in the back. Jimmy lives close by and comes up north quite a bit. Sean lives in Texas and doesn't get to come up as much. Sean LOVES fishing as much as his Uncle Bill.