If you would like to make a journal entry,
e-mail it to: kpfeifer@mcw.edu
June 22, 2008
The lake weeds are growing fast, and the fishing was very good last week. Tons of crappie in the fallen tree to the right of the pier and lots of big bluegill off the pier and in the innumerable species spot (bay just past the bridge in the Thousand Island Lake channel). The Ghost House didn’t disappoint except that we couldn’t land the biggest fish we had on, including what had to be at least a 20-24 inch smallie that Ryan got on my Ultralight and promptly handed to me to bring in. Jumped once and I knew I would have to take it easy to avoid breaking the line. Unfortunately, I was a little too ginger and let it swim under a log to snap my line. DOH!
As for renovations, check the pictures page to see Brenda’s nice decorating. I think we have made both Martha Stewart and Fred Bear proud by using birch branches from the property as our curtain rods in the living room. We plan to do the same in the bedrooms. Dad also got the new screen door on the finished trailer (my new term for the currently inhabited trailer. Calling one #1 or #2 or anything else seems to lessen the status of one of them. Am I not politically correct?) We cleaned up the remaining debris around the pier. Just left some cinder blocks down there to finalize any pier restorations. Also left the two old pier pieces up on the lower landing for use in lakefront stair repairs. We kept the old pier footings behind the tool shed in case we ever need them but sent the old rusted out pier frames to the Watersmeet dump. By the way, I highly suggest making a stop at the dump for an entertaining experience with its only denizen, a short man with big glasses and a wild paranoid look in his eyes. He clearly didn’t believe our trash actually came from Watersmeet, and in a passive-aggressive show of his disdain for us, wrote our name on the receipt as “Phier”.
The finished trailer has clearly “settled” more but is still better than it was when we first got it. Dad plans to try to jack it up and further stabilize it.
Dad put rope ties on the other side of the pier so boats can now be easily tied up on both sides. He also bought additional pier bumpers and a second anchor for the boat. The boat ran great, but I think I know what happened when it konked out on me last fall. Whenever you run it wide open, it starts to falter and lose power after 2-5 minutes. I only had it full throttle once when I had Dad, Alex and Josh in the boat with me. All of a sudden it started to slow down and threaten to quit. I backed off on the throttle, and no further problems. Same thing happened last fall except I didn’t ease up, and it died. Not sure what that means, but as long as it runs well I guess I don’t care. Trolling motor works great. The battery is impressive too. I didn’t use it much, but I never needed to recharge. When we left, I had recharged it overnight to full capacity and left it and the gas can in the tool shed. I also left the boat registration in the Ziploc on the table in the tool shed.
I’ve put some of our unused firewood in the outhouse – trying to use it as a woodshed for now.
Lastly, WE HAVE SATELLITE TV! [Brenda and Josh made me write it in all caps] After some issues with alignment, it is now up and running to appease those who are not as engaged with northwoods. Thanks to Scott's set up, you can still tune in to the best newscast in the greater Rhinelander area each night at 10. Just use the signal switcher on top of the TV to switch between antenna, satellite, DVD player and video games. Yes, I know. Those should be forbidden up north, but hey, it's the kids vacation too, ya know.
Kurt
June 20, 2010
Up north last week and despite the worst drought in decades had rain every day but one. Brenda was thrilled. Fishing was pretty good. First mess of panfish was eaten by something that got into the fish cage again. Dad thinks it was a mink. I think it was Becker. I was skunked by the ghost house but both Josh and Jacob had good luck there - Jacob got a 15 inch smallie that we are sending into Waters & Woods. Josh got a 12 incher. Went to the Children's Museum in Eagle River and were really impressed with it. Great rainy day trip. Same for Land O' Lakes library - they have kids activities most weekday mornings.
Kurt
June 18, 2013
Boy are the skeeters insane this year. Normally they come out at dusk up north, but last week, they were out at all times of day. It was a harbinger when we were getting eaten alive in the Tackle Box before getting to the trailers. Thankfully, only one tick sighting, and that one hadn't yet started burrowing. Ironically, it was on Josh...who spent probably 30 minutes total outside. The other two ran around the woods like natives in bare feet and shirtless and never had a tick on them.
Fishing was good. Best walleye fishing I've ever seen up there. And it was all from our dock. Lots of them in ~6 feet of water about 10 feet off the pier. Jacob caught two legal ones but we threw them back in an effort to one day have some respectable ones in the lake. The innumerable species spot came through again - literally caught our entire fish fry in one outing. Even Tim was impressed with the stringer of big 'gills we brought back.
Had a great time with Eric and his girls. Visited the Eagle River children's museum again and everyone had a blast.
Unfortunately, we had to bug out early again as we had almost the exact same situation as a couple of years ago. A late storm blew in and knocked out the power, so we loaded up the van and headed out at close to 7 pm. Jacob was so sad to leave early.
Kurt