Fish House Review

We headed back out on the lake (Millpond) to check out the fish houses again..it was a short Sunday drive.

We drove in the vehicle out on the ice..yes that is a normal practice this time of the winter in Minnesota.  Everyone does it..sure you could walk..but if you can ride well that is all the better and Chance can hang his head out the window.  There is a road of sorts ..an ice road.

The driver has to be on the lookout for sticks sticking out of the snow..where previous holes have been.  You wouldn’t want to drive into a hole…or hit a big ice chunk which is sometimes on top of the snow next to an old hole.

A  angling fish house was here earlier this winter..you can see the four holes.  Fisherman sit inside their house near these holes and drop their bait down the hole..and hope to catch something..like a Walleye.  Angling in my opinion is boring.

Now take a dark house..one with no windows.  That is where the action is.  A large hole about 3 feet by 2 feet is cut through the ice.  Then you put on a decoy and sit next to the hole and move the decoy up and down and wait for a big hungry Northern to come it to snatch your bait..and then you spear him and drag him out of the water and throw him out on the ice to slowly die..and still be refrigerated..because it is cold outside and it is warm inside your fish house because you have a small stove of some kind ..wood or propane to keep you warm as toast whilst you wait for the next fish to attack your decoy.  Sometimes you drink coffee and eat cookies..or have your lunch. ( Some people have been known to drink alcoholic beverages most of the day and then spend all night in the bathtub because it was close to the toilet after skipping lunch and cookies with coffee…it was not me..I do not like Blackberry Brandy.)

Anyways I have fished in dark houses since I was little..we used to go with Dad during the winter.  Far Guy went with his Dad to the dark house too.  We in turn took our girls when they were small..small kids get a rope around their waist..so you can fish them back out if they fall in. No they never fell in, but if they had we could have pulled them out.  Some parents tie their small kids to the chairs.

Fish houses have changed over the years.

Here is a typical one.

This is a dark house or spearing house..it is called a dark house..because it is dark inside except for the hole..the sunlight filters through the snow and ice, you can see the bottom of the lake and weeds and fish as they swim around. It is much like a lit up TV screen! 

This is a angling house. Small holes like in the second photo..where you watch your bobber go up and down when you get a bite.   Ho—hum.

This one just happens to be made out of a semi sleeper.

This is a angling house.

Made from tin and a old pickup topper.

It is interesting to see all the different houses that are built and what is recycled.  It also brings up many memories of days whiled away in the fish house:)

Snirt

Snirt is a mixture of snow and dirt.  It mainly comes from North Dakota..perhaps they get their snirt from Montana ..who knows.

Someone..not pointing fingers or anything..is not practicing soil erosion practices very well.  What’s a few inches of topsoil anyway..Minnesota can use that.

On snirty days..you can go outside and feel that gritty dirt on your teeth, and when you blow your nose..well you know.

Gone is our winter wonderland of sparkling newly fallen snow..what we are left with is this..

Oh well it will be 60 degrees warmer this week than last week..remember that –31 F night or –35 C ??  We are supposed to be 34 F or 1C today by 4 PM.  I am sure the germs will like that..it will most likely rain again too..so what wasn’t slippery after the last rain will have another go at being slicker than snot on a doorknob:)

Camera Shopping

I hate in store shopping..but I had a list..checked it twice and wrote down what I thought I needed and the sale prices if I would have ordered off the Internet.

Next stop Best Buy..I was searching for a new point and shoot.  I have been researching them. So many choices. If you have to shop..then shop..I tried every Canon camera out..I even set off one of their alarms..I knew almost as much about their cameras as they did.  Far Guy paced around..he knew I needed a little time to try them all out.   Some were scrawny..some were too heavy..some had awkward pop up flashes…up and down the row I went.  None were exactly like my old sticky button point and shoot.

My old point and shoot a Canon SX 110 IS is temperamental..sometimes the on /off switch works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Then I gently shake it and it works again for awhile. I have loved that camera…I think it is about four years old and it has served me well.

I do not like to take my other fancy smancy new camera out when it is cold..it is heavy and just not what I need on a walk in the winter..one slip and fall and the camera and I would be upset.  All the lenses and the huge camera bag are sometimes a pain in the butt.

I  needed a little camera to stick in my pocket. A fit in your hand comfortable camera.

I chose a Canon  (of course) a SX160 IS  and I think I will like it. The cover for the SD card and batteries is a little stiff for arthritic fingers..I swear every camera they design has a different cover and mode of operation…( a woman did not design them.)

Far Guy is the lucky recipient of my old point and shoot…I can borrow it back any time.

Anyways..I wanted to share with you that when I was shopping at Best Buy..I told the salesman that I could order it off the Internet for $10.00 less..he said tell the cashier..so I did and I got the 10 bucks off.  Everything else was as priced as advertised..Flash drives and SD cards.

The only thing I didn’t get was a new camera case.  I like a case with a strap so I can sling it over my shoulder or hide it under my parka in the winter. 

It takes good photos of Chance.  He wasn’t very impressed..but at least his eyes are mostly open…he wanted to ignore me.

Time will tell.  I ordered some extensions tubes for my fancy smancy camera and haven’t had time to try them out yet..but I am done camera shopping for awhile:)

Dogs and Halos

Okay..this is the scoop on the Sun Dogs.  Sun Dogs usually show up in cold weather and when the sun is low on the horizon.  

You can have sun dogs with halos or without.

This is without. 

A sundog is a bright area on either side of the sun.  They can look like mock suns, bright spots or little rainbows.  They are caused by hexagonal shaped ice crystals high in the frigid air catching the light.  When all the ice crystals are organized vertically and marching like soldiers through the air they make sundogs.

Can you see the halo now?  Halos often called Ice Halos are caused by refraction of light off of ice crystals that are willy nilly and unorganized marchers..so the light is refracted in all directions from the sun.  

These photos were taken out the car window yesterday January 25.  Far Guy had an appointment and Chance and I rode shotgun.

Have you seen sun dogs before?

These dogs were the highlight of our day..other than the one next to us at the gas station where Chance rolled down his window and barked his head off at some fluffy little man eating dog:) 

Day at the beach

Sometimes it is a tad chilly at the beach.

There is plenty of room in the parking lot on the hill, the benches are empty, the diving platform looks frozen in time and water.

Chance and I open our windows to see if we can catch a whiff of summery air.

Children laughing and splashing are a distant memory..did the sun ever shine?

The lake is frozen, the ice road snakes out amongst the fish houses all colors and shapes. Chance and I are like kids in a candy shop..the trip around the mill pond at Osage was the high point of our week.

Someone was cutting a new hole for his fish house. He was using a gas powered ice auger.  His ice house looks brand spanking new to me.

We were sad when our icy voyage was over.

It was a great way to end our trip out for supplies..tomorrow we hope to go off on another adventure:)

Just hanging out

Waiting for the weather to warm up.  It was warmer yesterday, the HIGH all day was –2F or -18C but the wind was so very cold.  It has not been fit for man or beast. The  birds are busy at the feeders.

The little Red Polls are eating us out of house and home.  A ten pound bag of Niger thistle seed disappears every week.  Oh well..once you start feeding it is unfair to stop.

How many can fit on the thistle feeder?

Sometimes there are so many feeding at once that it is impossible to count them.

One day I sat out on the bench. Just like that I could feel the air currents as hundreds of wings took flight, in a few seconds the air was filled with birds and the whoosh whoosh of their wings flapping away, then it was quiet. Very quiet.   Out of nowhere a Hawk appeared high up in a tree.  He surveyed the area, saw I was way to large to eat and flew off, just as I raised my camera ..darn.  That day the Redpolls didn’t return for a long time.

We usually have a few “slow birds” you know the ones.  The ones left behind when everyone else flies away..and they have the feeder all to themselves.  One day we worried about one for a long time..then he finally flew away.

Someone along the river in town has a Cardinal..I am very jealous..and if the guy wasn’t a pain in the butt I would ask if I could get some photos.

We are just hanging out..this is day five at home..I am going to see if a vehicle will start and go to town and buy some more birdseed.

Our HIGH today is supposed to be +2 F or –16C ..woohoo…almost summerlike compared to the last week:)

Wistful Wednesday: Pasture Friends

A long time ago when I was a teenager I belonged to 4-H.  It was an activity that I really enjoyed.  The first club I belonged to was the Ponsford Panthers, they got too many members and some of us were siphoned off and began our own club called The Thrifty 39er’s. ( I have no idea how we came up with that name.)

One year I took photography as a project.  Photography was an easy project, you had goals and filled out your project paperwork, took pictures and put them on a piece of tag board to display at the fair.

I took a number of photos in the pasture.

I was kinda close to the cattle with my Mom’s Brownie Flash Camera.   Of course I could run faster back then..and our Mama cows were quite tame..except if you got too close to their calves.

1967 that was the year that I was a Sophomore in High School.  We had a good crop of calves that year.

That was the summer I learned about persistence.

One of the bred heifers ( first time Mama) had a complicated birth.  I think the calf was too big and died.  The cow was a mess..the birth did something to her spinal cord or nerves…she couldn’t stand or walk on her own.  We took her food and water and cleaned her area..she wasn’t in the pasture.. we  moved her over by some piece of equipment where she would have some daytime shade in the farm yard.  Every day sometimes twice a day my Mom would get out the tractor and we would hook up to the makeshift sling around the cow and lift her in the air until her feet touched the ground.  Little by little she gained use of her legs, it wasn’t a pretty sight but she learned how to walk again..then I think she was shipped off. Back then it was bad enough to lose a calf..you didn’t want to lose a cow too.

I always liked to watch the calves in the pasture..they would kick up their heels and run like the wind..and then return to their Mamas.  If they were gone for too long the Mamas would start bawling and the calves would usually come a running.

 

The old pasture January 14 2013.

The old pasture has changed over the years..it is primarily Oaks now..back in the 1960’s there were a number of pines in the pasture:)

Cold

It is just cold.

I have thoughts of warmer times. 

When the roses were in bloom and when everything was green instead of

cold and white..yes that is a frosty grass in front of the wheels.

Family history, reading and scanning old obituaries has kept me occupied.

AND work..I had office work to catch up on for one of the huge mailings. Scheduling authors is a nightmare…fitting our schedule to their schedule is proving to be harder than I anticipated.   I scheduled speakers/programs for 2013 meetings a long time ago, the Board added a series on Minnesota local authors..we have four that they would like to feature…some time or another over the summer. I still need a catchy name for the series..got any ideas?  If I schedule everything for Monday evenings I could call it Monday’s at the Museum.  Since Mondays are one of my days off I am shuddering at the thought of giving up four of my Mondays over the summer.

The low Monday morning was –28F or –33C.  I took this photo at 9PM on Monday evening and it is –20 F or –28C.

There are wind chill warnings for bitterly cold..imagine that:)

Deep Freeze

Oh, it is cold here.  Yesterday morning we had –21 F or –29C .  This morning we are headed to –30F or -34C if the forecasters are correct.  We won’t get above zero for a few days.

We feed the birds, Chance does his duties quickly and we will hunker in for the duration.  We have no need to go out..except to take photographs.

I have a multitude of projects that I am working on.  Some for the museum and some for me.  I am slowly making progress on my list.

We had a fun weekend with Jen, Andy and the boys here to visit.  We went out for ice cream..Jen said “ Why is it that we go out for ice cream in the middle of winter…then she answered herself..because we can!”  Chance always loves the company..Adam played “search” with him, Miney and Little Elvis tried to join in the game too. 

The boys were playing some kind of a game together…each on their own device.  Adam and I played “From Cheese” a game on my Kindle Fire…I was stuck on a level..he showed me how to get unstuck..then we got to a level that neither of us could figure out.  Adam said  “Gee Grandma you sure do have lots of books on your Kindle..you must have at least 50 books to read.”  ( I think perhaps my book hoarding has been discovered.)

The cold front came through on Saturday morning.

Jen and I made a quick trip out to take some photos on Saturday morning.   In the afternoon we walked down to my other brothers house for a baby shower for Teddy.

We talked about going into town to see the movie Lincoln..but it was too stormy, snowing, blowing and cold to venture out on Saturday evening.

Andy and Jen took over cooking on Saturday night and Sunday morning..so it was like a vacation for me! :)

Meeting Ava

My niece Stacey and her husband welcomed their fourth daughter into the world earlier this month.

My daughter Jen enjoys taking photos of newborns..our home became the studio.

I was an assistant..and took a few photos myself.

Jen calms Ava.

Getting little hands “just right.”

I thought this hat was so cute.

My niece Stacey and her newest daughter.

What a fun afternoon:)

Chance: Sharing My Yard

Hiya!  It is finally me, Chance the wonder Bored Border Collie.

What a winter!  I have learned to share my yard. It ain’t easy.

I am supposed to lay silently on the landing and watch the Turkeys eat.  They come almost everyday.  They stay about fifteen minutes and then they move on.  Do you have any idea how hard it is not to bark?  It is very difficult.

Didyaknow they can fly?  If Far Guy isn’t paying attention and he lets me outside before they have left the yard..yes they can fly.

I get lectures about them, “Chance, don’t you be chasing turkeys..especially that Tom he has spurs on his feet and he will rip your eyeballs right out of your head.” Sounds serious.

Then there are the wild parties that the squirrels have..and that bunny.

That bunny keeps Far Side entertained every morning.  She says he can leap two feet straight up in the air.. I have never noticed that..I have  noticed he can run like the wind. I can tell when he leaps in the air..Far Side giggles..then she goes on and on about when she used to raise rabbits. I am not supposed to chase him either. Far Side has a soft spot for that bunny..and so far the fox and the coyotes haven’t got him.

We have a thief.  Yessiree right here in the yard..he is not happy with what the birds and Far Guy spill on the ground..he wants to help himself.

I share my yard with a host of creatures..yesterday there were nine turkeys, eight squirrels and one bunny rabbit.  I tried to herd those thieving squirrels..not chasing..herding.. there is a difference:)

Cancel Winter

I wish I could cancel winter.

Over half of this cold, dreary month is over.  January is one of my least favorite months, it runs a close second to December the other month I am not so thrilled with.

February comes in as my third least favorite, one of it’s redeeming qualities is that Far Guy celebrates his birthday and the month is short. What is not to like about a month that is almost over before it starts..and then March my fourth least favorite month..March is always a surprise and Spring can rear its head a time or two to keep things interesting.

I put up the January flag.

We rarely see Cardinals..and this is one of my favorite flags…even if we don’t have holly or holly berries in Minnesota..I still like the bright colors in this flag.

Sometimes I wish I could cancel winter..go into hibernation after a great Thanksgiving dinner and wake up when the snow begins to melt in late March:)

News

Good news..I DO Not have Glaucoma..all the extra tests were for naught.  I was not worried…much.

I got my $10.00 gift card reinstated by the people from the Corporate offices of the corner of Happy and Healthy.  I have not used it yet, I will use it one day soon.

We are headed into the Deep Freeze early next week..possibly on the weekend. I will take a photo of some obscenely low temperature and you will all shake your heads and say “Tsk Tsk..she is nuts.”  I look forward to that every winter and I don’t want to disappoint y’all.  Us born and raised Minnesnowdains can take it..we have lots of body fat that will help protect us.  Once I get my three or four layers on..I find it difficult to walk..and I am exhausted..reminiscent of when I was a little kid getting my snowsuit on..If I fall down I will probably just roll.

Bad News..there have been many deaths lately. I will have to make up more cards one day soon.   Recently I was in the Detroit Lakes Mall getting more card supplies, I walked right past the Hallmark store..they were going out of business…another one bites the dust.  

How about American Idol ..Randy is the only one I recognize..who are those other people..someone so famous I have never heard of them before.  The chick with the blonde hair drives me nuts.  That show will be going down the tubes..oh well.

Our grocery store in town was bought by a chain store that is located in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota.  You can sure tell a difference.   Supposedly the same employees are working for the new store.  There were carts willy nilly all over the parking lot, the entry was filthy, there was product knocked from the shelves on the floor, the produce department is different and they were out of several of our usual items.  Perhaps it will take some time for the new manager to get everything on an even keel again.  I left them one of my famous notes, if they are out of something or have moved something to some obscure spot..I write a friendly note signed with my name and phone number..I am sure the former owners looked forward to my little notes with great anticipation. It took the new manager four days to return my call to answer my question.

The hospital in town is full up with flu patients.  It seems to be hitting some people really hard.  So far so good our flu shot seems to be working! 

Our yard and walkway will soon be covered in corn kernels.  One of my old friends suggested it as a way to combat the icy conditions after it rained.  The turkeys and squirrels think it is a fine idea.  Whole kernels work the best versus cracked corn.  It gives you some traction…Chance kinda likes it for a quick snack too.

The soft sunset colors were quite beautiful January 16 2013:)

Wistful Wednesday: Do you see it..yet?

I am busy scanning all of the newspaper clippings that Far Guy’s Grandma Tracie tucked and glued into a 1915 Agricultural Yearbook.  In essence she made her own scrapbook.

I call it Grandmas Purple book.  It has weddings, engagements and obituary newspaper clippings and other “stuff” important to Grandma.

I have scanned the entire book ..now I am dating all the clippings..if possible.  Sometimes it takes a bit of research to come up with a date..and sometimes it is just impossible.  I will present them in a timeline on the private family blog when I get them all dated.

I  crop the articles..Far Guy sits next to me and often looks over at my monitor.  I got his attention with this clipping.

Far Guy said “I remember that!  Grandma showed me that years and years ago!  I couldn’t ever see anything.”  He still cannot.  I tried and tried to point it out..nothing..he said “I guess I am never meant to see it.” He remembers his Grandmother pointing it out to him many times..to no avail.

I can see it just fine..how about you? :)

The Bored Border Collie

Nothing worse than a bored Border Collie.  Chance has been in a funk.  Miney was here for one day and since then he seems lonely and bored.

He loves to go for rides..so we do that.  He loves to play ball but quits..I think the ice and ice crystals are hard on his feet.  He plays a bit and then he quits.  He has done that before when it has been icy in the spring.  If we get some fluffy snow perhaps he will play ball again outside.

We play ball in the house.  We have discovered a new game..which he really likes.  I take him into the kitchen and put him in  a “sit stay” and leave him there. Then I take his favorite ball and hide it in the living room.  I hide it under pillows, in the crock near the fireplace, inside the old boiler that holds magazines, hidden under the stuffed Sheltie in a basket, under blankets.  He finds it in short order when I call him to “Come” and then tell him to “Search”..then we repeat until he is tired of that game.

The evening that Adam, Jen and Miney were here, Adam liked playing the search game with Chance.  He tried to involve Miney but her “sit stay” needs some work. 

During the evening Chance roots around in his old enamel toy pan looking for what I am not sure but he drags his toys all over the house.  I have found that stepping on one ball isn’t so bad, but I wouldn’t want to step on two of them.

He watches the squirrels..Far Guy puts corn on the ground for them..sometimes he will lay in front of the door outside and just watch the squirrels..sometimes he chases them away..and sometimes he lets them eat.  Perhaps it is entertainment for him.

He quietly watches the turkeys from inside..the turkeys seem to know when he is in the house. After 15 to 20 minutes he has had it watching and barks at them so they run away.

Far Guy and Chance walk through the woods everyday..sometimes I walk with them..they even walk on the rainy icy days.  When a Border Collie is ready for his walk..he is ready for his walk:)