Here is the proof!!

Here is what we've all been waiting for!! Go to this link and watch the slide show.....

Big news from Milwaukee!!!

Ok, check THIS out!!!

Bayfield II

As always, double clicking a picture will get you a larger view.....


Continuing with the Bayfield trip story, we pick up with Sunday morning. We awoke quite early and we got to Bayfield about 1/2 hour before our reservation at The Old Rittenhouse. So we parked near the marina and had a look around. There's a nice little gazebo near the harbor and we sat there for a while.



Here's a view of the boats to the south of us. There were still quite a few boats in the water, but there was a boat lift near the south pier that looked like it had been busy lifting some craft out of the lake.



This view is straight out of the harbor by the central pier. It was quite overcast and the rising sun looked like a sunset in the east, only a silvery color instead of the reds and yellows of a normal sunset. It was quite nice.




Soon it was time to get to breakfast, and I caught Lucy and Peg goofing off on the front lawn of the Rittenhouse!! It is a huge old house perched on a very steep hillside overlooking Bayfield and Madeline Island.




Here is proof that I actually did this! We were unsure about setting off flashes in the place, it looks so serious and elegant in there. But we tried it anyway and nothing happened to us.....




Not a very good picture but it shows what the dining areas are like. They occupy three rooms and they were mostly full when we got there. The waiter was very into his job, and they had about 5 different entrees and choices of side dishes, etc. And this was just breakfast!



Some people at the next table were taking some pictures of their group, so Peg offered to take a picture for them of the whole group. A while later Peg asked them to do one of us, so we managed to get a pic of us all.



As it was late Sunday morning, most guests at the Inn were already checked out. The waiter said we should take a tour of the upper floors to see what it was like. We headed upstairs and this is the second floor landing. Lots of wood and old furniture throughout the place.



This room has a nice whirlpool tub near a window looking out on some pretty spectacular scenery. Most rooms had a spacious main area with a tub or whirlpool bath in it.







This is one of two HUGE suites on the third floor. Really beautiful with wood paneling, angles and nooks and crannies. A fireplace and a large whirlpool. I think they get more than a sandwich for this room's rent.



After the Rittenhouse, we stopped at Eckel's pottery shop just south of Bayfield. This would be of the same family as Steve Ekles who is married to Barb Rhody, and Jeff Eckels who played bass for years on "What do ya know?". Interesting stop.



We headed south and stopped in at the Great Lakes Visitor Center just off highway 2 near where highway 13 heads north. It's a really interesting place with all kinds of info about the lake, past and present, maps, displays, and of course a gift shop.There was an upper level observation deck, which is where these pictures were taken. After this stop we headed south, took a right turn on 77 and went to Clam Lake. Decided to keep on going to Hayward where we toured main street and had lunch at an open air cafe on the street. We could hear people in the bar next door. They were yelling and screaming while watching the Packers..... good grief.



We drove home on highway 70 and took a shortcut on F down to Lugerville. We were going to show Lucy the sign by the turn-off to Camp Flambeau, the wedding site. We found that some mental midget had pulled most of the sign nearly over! What morons live in this world.




I took some detailed photos of the damage, the tire spinning marks, etc. Note the imprint of the logging chain. Turns out the Scoutmaster had been informed of the sign a few days before. He was hoping the cops found out who it was so they could have the sign fixed by the offending genius while 30 or so scouts and parents stood by to watch. That would be fun to do!!

Anyway, that's what we did last weekend.

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I nearly forgot!! Would someone please carve the melon???

Off to Bayfield

Last Saturday Lucy, Peg and I headed off for destinations North. We had a motel in Washburn and had made reservations at Old Rittenhouse Inn for breakfast on Sunday morning.
When we got nearly to Ashland we decided to visit Duluth first. So we headed up there and started looking for Skyline Drive. I swear, it's one of the most poorly marked roads in the U S of A!! We did find Hawk Ridge, where these bird watchers were checking the annual migration of

hawks. It seems as though the West winds bring them to the edge of Lake Superior and then they follow the shore South. These folks have a wonderful view of the entire area and it seemed to be a big deal up there. Someone was even selling brats......
Above you see Lucy and Peg when we got to the port area of Duluth. We all wanted to see the lift bridge and the museum next to the canal.


In the museum is this tugboat engine, steam operated and quite large!! I should have had someone stand next to it as a comparison. This thing had a boiler which generated steam which pushed the pistons down, similar to gasoline engine in shape and action.


This is looking down to the floor level below where the bottom of the engine sits. REALLY big connecting rods attached to a huge crankshaft. You need to see this in person.


Here is the East end of the lift bridge. It's a huge structure with the biggest lumps of concrete I have ever seen that act as counter-weights for the bridge. We watched it go up and saw one grain boat go through, as well as a number of smaller craft.


I know that Lucy and Peg timed how long it was up, and then counted how many cars went over the bridge after it went back down. I don't remember the numbers, but if I would have been one of the drivers waiting..... well, we won't go there.


This is the area just outside the museum, where lots of people sit and watch the bridge, boats, seagulls and eat icecream cones from Grandma's down the street. Come to think of it, we did all of the above.


Here we are heading back up the bridge to head into Wisconsin and go back to our motel in Washburn. We then drove up to Bayfield where we looked around a little and then had supper at a restaruant just south of Bayfield. We hit the IGA in Washburn for a few necessaries, then went back to the motel to sleep.

More soon..............

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___I nearly forgot!! Would someone please carve the melon???___

Jen needs your help!!!

Please go here and help Jen by casting your vote for her!!!!!!


By the way, that link by the monkey, where it says the name and then (yes, click it)???? Don't do it!!! It takes you to some stupid email site and you can't get back from by clicking your back button. People who set up sites like that should have their hard drives turned into downrigger weights for lake fishing.......

Then and now.....

Here we have 4 pairs of "before and after" pictures. The first pair is not exactly from the same spot, but I think you get the idea of the comparison. I spent about 5 hours today clearing the brush and limbs that had ended up on the north side of the fence line. I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate that.











There are quite a few huge brush piles in the field and they will have to be burned at some point. Perhaps I can arrange a burning party this winter and have anyone interested come up, down or over for the weekend and have at it????









I sure hope this project works out, cause it's been a ton of work so far. And there is a lot to do yet!! Picking up roots, rocks and junk from the surrounding areas, getting the main strip leveled, worked up and seeded, etc..... I'm tired thinking about it.

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I nearly forgot!! Would someone please carve the melon???

Early September

O.K., so it's been a while. So sue me..... anyway, Peg and I went Madison August 17 to meet some people from our Madison office. We bussed over to Milwaukee to Miller park, where we tailgaited (in catered sort of way).



We saw this guy traveling to his tailgait spot on his motorized cooler!! Now that's traveling in style... or would that be on Style. Hmmm.. I guess it would have to be Miller.











Let's see. What would Tim say? "The house that Miller built"?? Anyway it a huge building with a ton of people pouring into it.... it looks even bigger


once you get inside! I mean this thing is big enough to play baseball inside, for cryin' out loud! I went to a Brewers game in about 1972, again now in 2006 so I think I'm good for a few years now.




Hey, Tim, you're not the only one that can drink way expensive beer! I guess that to feel like you're at a game, you need to buy at least one from the vendor guy. I sure don't envy him his job.









And it's not like we didn't have access to pleny before we got there.... but what the heck. Seems like you can only get Miller products there. Go figure......













A friend from Ladysmith and I went to Wild Rose on August 25th and 26th for the light plane fly-in. Jim flew to Abbotsford to meet up with me there. We landed on a private turf strip and Jim used the guy's mowing tractor for a ladder. You can see him here pouring gas into his plane....







Next stop, Stevens Point. We landed there and Jim poured more gas into his plane. Then we went in and used the "rest"rooms before starting the final leg of the trip.




Wild Rose is a nice, quiet little airport with two turf runways. There were quite a few small planes there to look at, lots of folks to talk to, a good supper and a nice evening around the campfire.




Here is my instructor's son, Brian, flying in formation with us in his Dad's Mini-Max. He's a cool kid with one year of college done, his private pilot, multi-engine, commercial and instructor permits in place. I don't know why he's dragging his feet on this aviation stuff???




Here are the 'facilities' at Wild Rose. They are actual mobile military latrines that have been permanently installed there. They smell way worse than any County Park or wayside latrines and are to be avoided at all cost. I'm not kidding, either!





Here is the terminal at Wild Rose. It's kind of homey and not at all pretentious like some bigger airports, like Phillips International..




This 1930's vintage Stearman bi-plane flew in on Saturday evening. I have been seeing a few planes of this nature lately and wondered if I would ever be able to get a flight in one of them. Next morning the pilot and my friend Carl Greene were talking about giving a few rides. I chipped in for the trip for petrol....



and before I knew it, I was getting set for a trip aloft in this blue and yellow beauty!








A nice view out over the left wing. This plane was simply amazing to fly in.






These trainers all had a mirror mounted in the bottom of the upper wing so that the training guy could see the student and the other way aroung as well. I caught the pilot looking out the side instead of where we were going!!




Here is a good front view of the 7 cylinder Continental radial engine. It sounded even better than it looked!!







Now this guy just looks like he must drive around in a 1930's bi-plane, wouldn't you say???








Here I am practing my inner tube patching technique. Yes, it's from the plane again!!! But this is the last patching I anticipate, as I have installed a "rim strip" in each tire now.



Up on blocks..... not a good thing. But it's fixed and flyin' again!








The old Ford 9N tractor is getting a bit of a workout. Not to mention Carlo and Peg!! We have been trying to clear away tops and limbs left from the pulp cutting process. We managed to clear quite a lot of them....


but then Chuck showed up with the bulldozer and swept the rest of it into big piles of brush and limbs that will be burned sometime in the near future. I'll have to admit that the bulldozer approach was much easier.




This is how things looked from the mailbox area last week. I have since finished cutting all the small stuff in the area that will be cleared. Chuck has taken out and buried most of the stumps.


A few weeks ago I took Russ Mattson for a jaunt around Southern Price County. It was a nice evening, no bumps, and Russ had to get used to looking at all the usual things and places from a new perspective!! We had a good time.










The field to the north looks really different and I'll try to get a couple of comparison photos posted here soon.

I gotta go, Carlo

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I nearly forgot!! Would someone please carve the melon???