December Snow

So big deal, it snowed.... but the first official snow is always a cool thing. It was very late, mid-December, and it was VERY wet and heavy. Here are the obligatory "snow photos".

Hey, I think this one is greeting card, or calendar quality?

Hmm, apple pie anyone?







No more haying this year....







Mock Orange looks cool in winter, too.




Every little branch had a two inch stack of snow on it.




A nice snaggly bunch of branches.... is that a legitimate adjective? Snaggly?




Here are a couple of pix of the sunset at Peggy's old house on Saturday evening.






And here are five pix from Yram from around their home on Green Bay..... I believe the sunset looking ones are actually sunrises, as their house is on the west side of the bay.

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____________Hey!! Scramble those eggs, would ya???_____________

Tree tales......

I like a big Christmas tree as well as anyone, but Peg was pushing the envelope to new limits. I finally convinced her to shut off the saw and look for a slightly smaller one!



And here the master woodsman, Carlo, has felled a mighty Balsam tree for display in the Ottertail homestead livingroom. These trees had not been sheared for many years and were growing kind of close together, so the lower limbs were all swooping up to get to the light. We kind of failed to see that initially, but as you will see, it all turned out O.K.



After much measuring, planning and maybe a few unnecessary choice words, the tree was standing upright and steady.



Here it is, in it's final position and ready for all the trimmings. This will be the first tree and decorating of the house for Peg and I. I hope we don't get into a fight during the decorating. I know that this event can be the start of a good argument......



So we made it through the light installation without incident. O.K., I did get a little testy when the lights kept going out for no apparent reason.....



Peg did the final trimming with a collection of things from each of our past trees, items that our kids had made when younger, and I'm thinking that it looks just great!! I suppose Hailee will be climbing it when she gets here....
Just for kicks I did a search on the world's tallest Christmas tree. The first hit was of this tree in Oregon. Claimed to be the tallest living Christmas Tree.
Further investigation reavealed this monster in Tasmania.
I looked some more and found the world's tallest artificial tree in Brazil!!
Then I find this story from Idaho.
Then this thing made from cables and such on a mountainside in Italy.
I'm not sure what this thing is, but it looks like it may be in Singapore?
And here is an interesting entry (no photo)from Chlorine Online!

So you'll have to sort it out on your own......


In this shot, you can see the red and white plates I mentioned last post. Peg is keeping the dining room set for action. It looks good.



This is a photo from a few years ago. Notice the trees at the upper right (that are not there anymore).



We just got some snow on Friday night. I'll throw a few of those in some other time.

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____________Hey!! Scramble those eggs, would ya???_____________

Have a holly, jolly Christmas!

O.K., we headed down to Milwaukee on Dec. 16th. We stopped in Wausau to drop off a bed frame for Rose and Bryn's new appartment. They weren't home so we left the stuff on the porch and continued our journey. As we started into Wausau, we hit a red light just at the right time for me to get a picture of this little section of road that is perched above the ground. It's all that's left of some of the old road and I've been meaning to get a picture of it for a while now. As always, clicking on one of these photos will get you a larger view.



We did a little gift exchange at Lucy's and here she is inspecting a calendar with a series of Renoir paintings on each page. We came away with some new plates and bowls, red and white, which you will see in a future post.....



You can tell that Yram has just arrived, as she is still clutching her broom.... and with her usual deadpan expression. Or is that "dustpan" expression? Oh, I kid the Yram.... but she did forget to bring that cooler with her, the one she said she would fill with a surprise. Claimed she filled it with Leinie's beer and I guess I can't prove her wrong without having seen it....



Here are a few pics of Lucy's appartment. The dining area is looking quite familiar with the table, chairs and artwork on the walls. Her furnishings fit the apartment quite nicely.



The davenport sort of divides the large living area into two areas, one of which contains the bookshelf and will have a chair (as soon as all the Christmas "goodies" are gone).




The larger of the two living areas contains the computer -china cabinet, that great flat screen TV, a chair or two and the davenport. You can see all the curtains that Liz has fixed up for Lucy. There are four windows in the living room and all have the new curtains. They fit the decor well.



In the foyer you find the old desk from the homestead living room. Another familiar painting and a few other items complete the look.




Peg and Kate discovered all Lucy's "villiage" stuff in some boxes in the living room closet!! They spent an hour or so setting it all up along the south wall of the living room. I'm not sure how that all went, as I kind of took a little nap during the football game....



Knowing that we would be traveling to Milwaukee, I contacted the FAA office at Mitchell Field and made an appointment to meet with Tim Durner on Monday morning. Turns out Tim has some land in Winter, Wi., and while talking with him we found out that he has a sister-in-law in Phillips who works at the school. We asked for names and it turns out it's the wife of one of the guys we've known at Marquip for many years. Go figure.....



Near the airport are some interesting food places. This one is called "The Final Approach" and had a cool little Cesna mounted on the roof! Same place in previous photo, just the other side of building. Anyway, the business at the FAA office was to get my operating limitations updated to the new standard that allows me to fly over populated or congested areas for take-offs and landings. That's a big improvement, for most airports are near populated areas!




And then there was "Amelia's Pizza". That little blue plane on the sign doesn't look much like her plane, but what the heck.....
The other FAA business was to finalize my Airplane Repairman permit. This will alow me to do my own annual inspections on my plane. Another hurdle for me, and hopefully the last one for the near future.




And of course one place offered both drive through and fly through pick up.....
We left the airport about 11:00 and headed homewards. We stopped in Watertown to visit an old friend of ours. We found Mona at work and were able to chat for a few minutes. Then we headed home and got to Ogema just at dark. Peg had a boy scout meeting to go to, she plays Santa every year complete with an official costume and all. I just sat in a chair for the evening and rested.........

In the air again......

On Saturday last, I fired up the plane and headed southeast to Merrill. Our local EAA ultralight chapter's monthly meeting and Christmas party was that day. Had a good tailwind on the way down and made it in 45 minutes. Here is that lovely little Ercoupe that Sid from Wausau flies. One of my favorite little birds, it's from the 40's, I think.



After the festivities, I headed West toward Goodrich. I climbed to 4500' and noticed that the wind was quite strong up there. Airspeed at 62, GPS indiciated ground speed of 23mph!!! Not minding the slow progress, I stayed at that altitude, and it took 45 min. to get to Goodrich! This is the view just Northwest of the Merrill airport where the Wisconsin River meanders down through the Council Ground area.


A nice view out the front windscreen. The blurry, black thing is the prop going by. It's nice to be able to see the oil tank, wiring, cables and gas lines as I'm flying along, only I don't look at them much so as not to get paranoid about what could go wrong.... Doh!!
It was quite hazy out there on Saturday but I could see quite a ways ahead. Everything sure looks different now that the snow is on the ground.



I flew kind of low over the Riblake/ Westboro area just to get a better look at some of my old stompin' grounds. Everytime I fly somewhere, things look different and I notice things I've never seen before. Kind of interesting. Here is Ogema as I went by. Kind of blurry, but you get the idea.




And here we are, safe and sound, back on the ground in Phillips. I spent three hours in the air on Saturday and wasn't cold at all. Had on the 800 gram hunting boots, long johns, fleece pants and a cap. That did the trick, as the weather was in the 20's and low 30's that day.






Anyhow, I gotta go, Carlo

Early December in Ottertail Country

Oh, tay!!! Here are some pics from Yram. You're getting them because my camera has not been too active lately. Anyone can send me pics to put on here, just try to reduce the file size a little so it doesn't take me an hour to download.... or, send whatever. This photo was labeled 'moon shadow', so I assumed it was a photo of a shadow made by moonlight. Maybe she's just a big Kat Stevens fan, I don't know. The next few pics are of their new house in Menomonee.



Muzzle-loader deer season just got done on Wednesday. No more getting to work at 6:00 in the A. of M. so as to get in a few hours hunting in the evenings. Ivan and I hunted Tuesday night near the Ottertail. It was quite nippy out and snowing. It was really quite nice out in the woods, considering. I saw two nuthatches, a grouse, a pair of Cardinals and a Cottontail rabbit.



As I gradually turned white under the steadily falling snow, the rabbit did the same. It was amazing to watch it turn slowly from dark gray/brown to lighter gray and finally to nearly white. As it transformed, it's eyes gradually became more distinct until they were two jet black dots on that ghostly pale body.



At one point, the bunny looked just like a 'rabbit slipper', with it's front paws tucked up underneath it, it's head pulled close to it's body and it sat looking straight ahead. A slipper........ I saw absolutely no deer. I did hear a 'big noise' from another area of the woods, however.



Turns out Ivan mangaged to get a buck with his trusty muzzleloader. He still uses the basic percussion model with the hammer and primer on the outside of the gun. It really is more of a challenge than the newer inline ignition models, but he persists and he met the challenge.

I just finished a plate of venison and mushrooms. Yum.....

Ivan, Jerry and I hunted again on Wednesday evening, north wind blowin in my face with about 10° when we went out. I managed to stay in the tree till dark, I saw a mouse, a nuthatch, a cardinal and a doe-fawn combo and a nubbin buck. No shooting, and the only thing we killed was several or so beers back at the lodge.......



Now in this pic, Yram is imperson- ating someone. She sent this out last week and said it was " 'a quiz', who am I?" Hmmm..... maybe she's loosing it? Anyway, if you guess correctly, or guess at all, you're a winner and will get a pass stating that you DO NOT have to watch "Show me the Money", "Deal or no deal", or any other annoying, dippy big-time game shows. Unless you want to.

Peg and I are planning a trip to Milwaukee on the weekend of Dec. 16th. If anyone wants a little venison, let me know and we'll bring a cooler along, probably the lousy one that Yram gave me back after I sent her the good one with all the fish, venison and apple pie last winter. Oh, well.



Here is Yram's Bay. What a nice sight! I can't wait to get over there with the plane and fly the shoreline. That will be good once the ice is on and I don't have to worry about landing in the water!! We'll just dress warm, like we're going hunting, and we'll have a ball.