Northwoods News

Short on photos but long on news!!

Yikes!! Fire in the pumphouse!! Not the firefighters pumphouse, THE PUMPHOUSE!! Ivan returned from a sit in a tree to find smoke and flames breaking out of the north wall of the famed Northwoods shrine. He checked for occupants of the lodge, sent a call to the fire department and started in with a fire extinguisher. With the help of Julie and Nick, the flames were extinguished about the time the fire department went sailing past their driveway..... No damage to the interior, and some minor damage to the wall. A big mess though. Chuck happened to stop by and he helped Ivan get it all closed over with insulation and plastic (I think).
Apparently, there was contact between a wire in the wall and a screw used during some construction or other. Finally shorted the wire and caused a blaze. Good thing that didn't happen while they were at work.

Got a photo from Jenny showing "a barrel ceiling wine cellar" that my nephew Paul has constructed. He is a masonry contractor around the West Bend area and does some excellent work. Ivan, if you get around to that below grade sauna, you might want to check this technique. Here it is.



Ridiculously cold for this time of year. Below zero at night, hight of 7° today. Good grief! Archie used to call California "the land of the fruits and the nuts", but you have to admit that the weather is a notch or two warmer than here. The big snow we got early melted almost entirely. We have had a few dustings since, so it is white around here again. Hunting is getting to be less than comfy. The last time I sat I got really cold watching the light snow building up on the fletchings of my arrow. I did see the red bellied woodpecker that night.... last Saturday, I believe. The Thursday before that, Ivan and I sat out in the Otter woods. It was only about 10° with a breeze. After about 1.5 hours of almost being O.K., I watched two turkeys fly up into a big white pine tree a little ways down the hill. I watched them walk around on the limbs and finally settle down to motionless bliss. They were high enough to be above the surrounding woods, right in the wind. I realized that they were going to SPEND THE NIGHT LIKE THAT!!!! At that point I got really chilled and bailed out of that tree. I headed for the lodge (which had no fire in the stove) as fast as I could and marched around the lilac hedge about 10 or so times as I waited for Ivan to return. Hey, guess what? He got a deer with his black powder gun!! So I fourwheeled out to get it, and then we had a couple of ice cold beers on an unheated palace. Do we know how to live, or what?



Went flying last Wednesday. In the twenties with calm winds. Not as nice as the weather in the photo, but O.K. We just stayed in the airport traffic pattern and did touch and go's, 14 in all. We talked about different things to watch for during landing,how to correct them and when to decide to nail the throttle and just go around again. Take off procedure I feel very comfortable with. Steve doesn't pay attention during take off anymore. Most landings were this week were quite good, after getting the plane lined up. I went wide a couple of times, which requires a little throttle while making corrections. Had a great time and only got a little bit cold. When I got home, Peggy and Rosie were there. Rose was in the area visiting her ma and she stopped up for a few hours that evening. I tested the car Liz gave to Bryn. It's a Celica GTS, 1990 model. After driving it to Merril and back to fly, I decided that Bryn would get my truck and I would keep the car. Well that didn't go over very well, so Bryn came up to get the car on Friday night. I haven't heard from her since?????

Speakin of Bryn, I do believe she has gotten her hands out of the casts and can type again......

I got the tractor back today. The lifting mechanism in the back had quit working and I could not use the plow blade for snow removal. Actually, I haven't had to do snow yet, but it's inevitable. So Ken Bubenic from Phillips fixed it for me. Some part of the hydraulic pump was cracked from moisture freezing in the pump. Bummer. With part, labor and getting Don DeLasky to haul it, I'm now $500 behind schedule. Hmm... "the land of the fruits and the nuts" passes again through my consciousness...

Flying this afternoon was cancelled by me, as it was only 7° and windy....

Sometime in the next few weeks Peg and I will be going to visit her son and wife and BABY. Not sure if it will include the infamous "shopping trip" to Rapids, or not. I do really well shopping, don't I Peg? As long as it's Gander Mountain or Fleet Farm. I need to work on that, I guess.

That's all the news that is news, here in the hinterlands of Northern Wisconsin. Eat your hearts out, all youse dat lives in some dumb climate what cant' live up too da wun hear.

I gotta go, Carlo