Is it still January??

We spent last Saturday in Wausau, going to a Christmas party of the North Central Wisconsin Light Flyers (Chapter of EAA's ultralight assoc.) and then to meet Rosie at Hereford and Hops before she started work there that afternoon.
Above we see Sid Cohen's Ercoup plane. It's a light sport aircraft (small) with fabric covered wings and an aluminum fuselage that he obviously keeps REALLY shiny!!
Sid hosted the party at his hangar at the Wausau downtown airport.

I guess there were about sixty people there, some from Wild Rose, Phillips and points in-between. A far flung group of people with a common interest in, and a passion for, light flying.


It was a nice, sunny day with temps in the 30's. Some folks rolled their planes out of the hangars, some flew to the event.


The yellow plane in the background was especially nice. But then I'm partial toward bright yellow paint jobs!! This plane is called a Kitfox and was built by Paul S. They come as a kit, bags of rivets, boxes of parts, etc. He did an exceptional job on it and it has amphibious floats!! Maybe someday......

After the party we headed for H&H. Bryn had met us at the hangar and she went to H&H with us. We met up with Rosie about an hour before her shift. She gave me the mug from the Mug Club (mentioned in last post) and a handful of wooden nickel tokens for refills...... The sign above is over the backbar and list all their brewed-in-house offerings.


Yes, I probably had more than one 20oz mug-full... does that make me a bad person??? And this is yet another reason cameras should not be allowed around me. Oh, well, I still have a bunch of wooden nickels left for next time. They do brew some excellent beers there!!


They also have this nifty wood fired pizza oven built into one of the kitchen walls. One of those big masonry heat sinks that work really well for bread, pizzas and the like.

I just got home from flying session in Merrill. Sunny day with the highs in the low 40's!! Not bad for January in the Far Nort. Today was the first day in many fly sessions that had any wind. We have been anticipating some windy days so that I could work on crosswind landings. Sounds fairly innocuous, said like that. Well let me tell you, in a small light plane, 8mph of wind at your side can do amazing things to you! For starters there is all the mechanical turbulence created by buildings, trees, etc upwind of the runway. This stuff bounces you around pretty good, like you need some other diversion!!!! Anywho, if you are going to land a plane in a crosswind, you need to do something about the crabbing issue.... plane flies at an angle facing into the wind a bit. Now you can't hit the runway with the plane at an angle, or you would immediately be going off the side of the pavement. So to get the planes lengthwise axis parallel to the runway, you need to push the stick toward the windward side. This causes the plane to bank toward the wind, but it also makes it try to turn toward the wind, so you have to apply opposite direction rudder pedal. This overcomes the plane's tendency to turn and keeps it going straight down the runway. So in effect, it's like walking along and leaning your body into a strong wind. Kinda.... So now you're flying along with the plane rolled in the direction of the wind, coming down to the runway at 45mph, fighting the pesky blasts of air from the mech. turbulence. All you have to do at this point is gently set the plane down. Well, the first try was a bit of panic and wonder and exhilaration all at once. We made it O.K., a little bumpy, but O.K. Most of the landings after that got some better, one was quite shaky, but it was really interesting and fun!! For the final landing, I was allowed to come in on the runway facing the wind, like normal people would do. That was nice after the others. What a great night it was. Next time we fly I have requested that we revisit practicing stalls and recoveries from them, and also do some more of the forward slip to land, another exciting technique. Well, more later as it develops.


Did I mention that Westwood, my used-to-be favorite watering hole has burned down?? Bummer........

Christmas 2

Greetings. I've been slow to post lately. I've had a busy month so far, with and average of 53 hours a week at work, trying to leave work early a few times to get in a flying session, etc. Also had a few social outings with friends in the area.


With various Christmas get-togethers in the works every year, it gets tricky to plan a immediate family celebrating when everyone can get there. This year we did it on January 14th at Peg's house. Here is great grandma Gabrielsen with the youngest of the family.

And, of course, here is Grandma Straight with the little nipper. Peg is seriously enjoying the young 'un! She also prepared a super day for us all. With good food, good company and a Christmas tree, we couldn't go wrong....


Here we have mom and dad and Hailee busy with opening a few gifts. The baby spent the day sleeping in various peoples arms, grinning, crying and sleeping. I think the day was enjoyed by her, too.


Rosie somehow managed to get a Saturday off work. She scored a really super gift for her dad.... a membership in the "Mug Club" at Hereford and Hops, where she works. They brew their own excellent beer there and I now have mug #80 reserved for me there. Yummm.....


Ashlee seems to be enjoying a break from "mom" duties, as you can see that Grandma has the babe again.


Bryn seems satisfied with her play in the games. She always does well at those things, but her gift to her dad was the best... see below.


It was apparent that Id and Hailee made a serious friendship that day. Somewhere in my computer is a video someone did with my camera that day featuring these two. I'll have to see if I can get it on here sometime.


Carlo got a couple of ducks!! They are made of cattail reeds bundled up and then shaped with a wood head attached. They are super cool looking.


Bryn saved the day by giving Carlo "four" bottles of Samuels Smith's famous Oatmeal Stout. This stuff is made in England and is one of the best brews that I know of.


Here are a few pics from an early morning session viewing major hoarfrost on the trees around the lodge. They looked better in person, so use your imagination.











I'll try this again in a few days and report on a couple of events from this weekend that took place in Wausau.

Look at this news article. Quite amazing!

So until next time, good night, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite.....

Carlo

Aarrrghhhh!!!!!!

Greetings. For this post we will have to revisit a couple of items. First, we all remember the trip to Mountain earlier this year???
We did a little motorcycle cruise and pulled our camper to the FSMism northern epicenter. We set up camp in Liz and Dennis' yard, and of all

strange things, we received a visit from the elusive Yram!!! Here she can be seen leering at us from our camper...... The site is a natural for FSMism, as there is already a pirate flag flying in the yard.



Here it is, and Carlo is brandishing the sword icon that resides at the site. Now we all know that pirates have their rum and grog, and FSM devotees have their wine (sulfite free, of course). The common problem with all these corked items is that upon re-corking the partial bottles for later, the bottle should be inverted so that the cork does not dry and deteriorate, thusly degrading the valuable liquids. So to that end, Carlo has done some investigating and after spending several days perusing estabalishments like the one below (remember this?),
the following items have been located. Here we see a nice likeness of a swabbie ready to receive the important task of keeping a cork wet.....



And here we see him fulfilling his duties......



And here we see that the boss is also likely to try his hand at this worthy work.


And here we see that even captains can do this work, and do it well.....

Yes, folks, these precocious pirates prevent premature palate problems. Plus, they are pretty cute.












Now we must change direction a little and I'll tell you of the "Great Fish, Venison, Mystery Food Item, and Lucy's Christmas Presents Caper". Some of you may know about the begging that Yram did to coerce me into sending fish to her. I painstakingly wrapped and packed walleye fillets, venison tenderloin and one other mystery item in a cooler to send West. I froze water in several plastic milk jugs and loaded the cooler just before Margaret headed south before Christmas. She has been dragging that cooler around with her for a little over two weeks now, I hope things are still O.K. in there. I'll let Yram reveal the mystery item.....

Here is what the whole thing looked like, ready for pickup at the Ottertail.


Here you see the contents, ice jugs and all. I told Mag that the two boxes on the cooler were Lucy's Christmas presents and would she give them to Ma when they get to California????
Any news from out there folks?
Please, let us know what Ma got!!


Here we see Liz in an official pirate salute, clutching her new cork saver. I will forward photos of Liz' new pirate boots, if she ever sends the pix.



Well that's about it, I didn't fly this week because of the extremely humid and cold weather. Not good conditions for carburetors and planes in general. Hoping to get out one day this coming week. Maybe the sun will acutally show through the clouds one day soon. I think we're going on 15 days in the cloudy dark. At east it's not really cold and the heating oil is holding out fairly well.

Aye, maties, have yerselves a bloody good year!!! Aaarrghhh!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, Litchfield!!!
Founded in 1721 Litchfield was designated the county seat in 1751, and by the 1790's the town had become the leading commercial, social, cultural and legal center of Northwestern Connecticut. This is the only photo from Litchfield that I could find in under 5 minutes.







Happy New Year, Menlo Park!!!Menlo Park’s first permanent settlers arrived in 1853. From Menlough on the outskirts of Galway, Ireland, came two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law D.C. McGlynn. They found the tree-studded pasture land reminiscent of their homeland and purchased a 1700-acre tract
An interesting history of Menlo Park.


Happy New Year, Milwaukee and Cudahy!!!
Here's a New Years pic that covers Milwaukee and Cudahy!! "Dorothy Gerczak and Marvin Lange, both of Milwaukee, enjoy dancing Saturday to the music of the Gary Frank Band at the Pulaski Inn in Cudahy."
Found this on the Milwaukee website..... hmmm..


Happy New Year, Wisconsin!!!
Packers 23, Seahawks 17
Go figure, hey??? But it's looking like we may have seen the end of the "Farrve" era. But don't worry, I'm sure his bank accounts are sufficient to see him through.....




Happy New Year, Ottertail!!! If you remember, I posted some pics of the wasp nest in our front yard. Here is in the Lodge! As we had no guests, Peg and I decided to welcome in the new year at the Ottertail.


We appropriated the front desk for a major cribbage tournament. We also had some candles for ambience, chips, pickled herring, shrimp and some bubbly. We played as many games of cribbage as we could stand and it was still only 8:00! We saw a few deer outside and we listened to some nice jazz on the public radio station.


About 9:00 we got the shrimp and bubbly ready and decided that maybe we should just go ahead with the festivities-


...even though it was 3 hours til midnight.... So I opened the bottle without incident and we dived into the shrimp. Who says we don't know how to have fun in the Northwoods??????
By the time we had finished the shrimp, everyone had to visit the bathroom so we decided to just move the 'party' to the main building. We packed up and headed to the house.


We ended the evening with several issues of "Law and Order", as they had a New Years marathon on channel 245. We saw the new year in just as they convicted a multiple murderer.


Here is one of the reasons you don't see too many photos of Carlo on this sight.... I just don't get along with still images! Oh, well.

Tomorrow I go to fly at Merrill. Should be fun, and not to cold. Supposed to be 34° and light winds. That's balmy compared to a few of the days we flew. Then on Tuesday we have to return to work. That should be fun.

Tomorrow is also Lucy's birthday!!! She is reaching the 80 mark tomorrow, so call her at Liz's and wish her a happy day!!

That's all from the North. Have a good year and don't do anything I wouldn't do!


Happy New Year!!!