new blog~

I'm moving my blog to Up North w/ Mel.

today not tomorrow not yesterday but today~

We have been busy working at getting the woodshed filled up for the upcoming winter months. Right now we are just about at the half way point. All together, we plan on putting in about 30 firewood cords in the shed and another 30 firewood cords stacked up on the outside of the shed.
A firewood cord measures 4 feet long X 4 feet high and is 16" wide.

Why burn wood? Because it is so much more economical than burning fuel oil or gas. Plus, it's readily available for free (a perk of living in the north woods); all we need to do is provide the labor that it takes to put in up. It is a LOT of labor; but also great exercise. Whenever I'm throwing wood I just keep saying to myself, "there's a calorie burned, there's another calorie burned." hmmm.... maybe we don't put up enough wood???

Another perk to burning wood besides the heat ~ all the hot water I want to use ... for free!! We circulate the water from our wood boiler that is set up in the little shed to our house and the shop. We run it through our hot water heater; being able to turn the electricity on that right off. It then runs to the duct work of our hot air furnace and circulates back to the woodshed. So we ALWAYS have hot water on demand. Cool... huh?

~~~~~
Just thought I'd share a picture of my back yard. Don't ask me why ... just thought I would. haha



Here's Sam and Slim's latest project:
Making an ice fishing shack for this winter. It's far from done. The framework is done; but now the fun stuff needs to be put in it. Such as a folding down card table, a bunk bed, rod holders, a gas heater, binocular holder, beer holder, gas stove, etc... all the necessities of ice fishing.

~~~~~~~~
My elderberry bush is getting ripe. Maybe next year it'll be big enough to harvest the berries for some homemade wine.


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It's a rainy day today ~ time to play around in the kitchen.

Here's my attempt at some homemade lemon sherbert. This isn't the best picture (sorry, a bit blurry). It still needs to be frozen and stirred a few more times before it's done. But let me tell you.... I licked the spoon and it was YUM!



I also made a mock pecan pie ~

I can't wait for it to cool down to cut. Hurry up... come over... I'll share.


Well ... I suppose I better get off the computer and go do something else constructive ~ like a mid-day nap. lol

Hubby said not to bother making supper because we're heading down to the Oxbo Resort for something to eat. Yeah!!!!!!! I love their Oxbo burgers and veggie combo baskets. More YUM.

~~~~~~~~
That's all for now.
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

the wally whiteface nightmare~

If you're going to read this whole post you may as well go and fill up your coffee cup now; because I have a feeling it's going to be a long one.

Last night I had another Wally the Whiteface Nightmare as I like to call them. I hate it ... HATE IT when I get them. I've gotten them since around the age of 12. I don't have them near as much as I use to; but every once in awhile one will sneak into my dream and turn it into a full blown nightmare.

Why does one dream? What is it about your brain that holds memories good and bad from years gone by that conjures them up into a dream or nightmare?

Now... to tell this properly, I suppose I better regress back to the days when I first started getting these nightmares.

I was raised on a farm. My folks raised all kinds of animals; including the breed of Whiteface cattle. I was never afraid of the cows; but I did hold a respect for them. They were big critters and some of them had horns on their heads that were very intimidating. As with all animals, Dad always preached it into our heads to show them the respect they deserved ... and... most importantly ~ no matter how tame an animal may seem... any animal... it still had inbreded in it a wild streak. Especially true of this "wild streak" would have to be the whiteface cows when they had their calves. The most docile cow could become very aggressive and protective with her baby.

I remember one cow in particular; her name was Wanda. She had a set of horns on her that scared the begeebees out of me. She was a very quiet mannered cow; but when she had a calf ... look out! She would charge after you if you got too close. Most of the time her charges were a short distance and more of a scare tactic because she wouldn't seperate herself from her calf. But she made her point ... don't mess with me and my baby.

One time I was walking out to the pasture to get the horses ~ this was just a few days after Wanda had a calf. Dad knew I was going to go after the horses and suggested I throw down some hay for the cows to keep them by the barn. Just to be on the safe side.

Well I'm walking out in the middle of the field and the cows are by the barn ~ everything seems okay. I let my guard down some and quit looking back for that dang cow. I'm sure she's staying by her calf and the hay and I don't have to worry.

All of a sudden I hear my Dad bellowing ""get out of there!"" Here comes Wanda ~ running full bore across that field right at me! You never seen a little girl run so fast... with a cow on her ass. I was across that field and rolled under the barb wired fence just as she was about to hit me with her big old horns!

But . . . it was just another day on the farm and I shook it off ~ I didn't have any nightmares about it or anything like that.

Then came Wally.

Wally was a big old impressive looking critter. He was again as big as the cows and had a set of horns on him that made the cows horns look quite small. Wally had a temper ~ and we kids were told, under NO CIRCUMSTANCE were we to intimidate him. Well gosh... that's just the thing to tell some little farm kids, 'don't tease the bull'. That just made us want to tease him more if we could get away with it.

Tease we did; my brother Randy and I ... we always had a fence between us and we would chuck rocks at him or toss a stick his way on ocassion. I know... I know... but we were kids... and I had a naughty streak about me and so did Randy; but he always got away it (another story about that at another time). Besides that... when we would be walking down our long driveway for the bus and he would come over by the fenceline walking on the otherside of the barbwire rolling his eyes at you; wouldn't you of tried to scare him off??

One day ... I'm around 12 years old at the time. I was on the outside side of the corral fence playing with the cat. (significant to the story because I saw what happened just feet away from me; even though I was defenseless in helping).

Wally was in the barn behind the big closed doors on the end of the barn and the cows were in the corral adjacent to the barn. The corral was made of cedar post set apart every 8 feet with 4 poles high between them. It was a very nice set up.

Mom and Dad had gone down to do the morning chores. There were no calves at the time with the cows. Wally had been put in the barn because Dad wanted him seperated from the cows until it was time to get them bred. Wally didn't like this idea ... he wanted to be with his ladies.

Anyways...

Dad went in the barn to tend to those chores and Mom was out in the corral tossing hay for the cows. Wally was in the barn bellowing because his ladies were so close ... yet so far away. All of a sudden there was a HUGE loud CRASH!! Wally busted down the barn door!!

He came out of that barn and he was mad!! Mad at humans I imagine for keeping him away from his cows. Who was the first human he saw ... Mom.

Mom was heading for the corral fence and he and Wally both got there at the same time. He had her pinned up against the fence with a horn on each side of her waist. He kept ramming and grinding into her; but fortunately for Mom she was miraculously situated right smack dab in the center of his head and he couldn't stick a horn into her.

At the same time Wally had Mom up against the fence my Dad came out of barn just as protective for his Lady. He had a pitch fork in his hands and he sunk it into the rear end of that bull. The tines were buried deep.

Now Wally is REALLY ticked off!! He turns his attention to Dad and charges after him. Dad runs back into the barn and the bull follows. Dad manages to run through the barn and closes the other door behind him ~ leaving Wally on the other side. Wally gives up on the chase and goes to see his ladies.

In the meantime... Mom is able to get on to the safe side of the corral fence. How that bull didn't kill her is beyond me. She certainly had her guardian angels looking out for her. She was bruised up; but still alive. No broken ribs or anything.

A few days later, I remember seeing my Dad and my Uncle Merlin in the barn with Wally. They had him in a stanchion and had his head tied tight up against the wall or something. They had a saw and were cutting off his horns. I was horiffied!

I recall Dad telling me that cutting off a cows horns was no different than cutting your fingernails. Only, they didn't make big clippers for cows horns and you had to use a hand saw to take them off. Okay... so it goes with farm life. Things like this go on.

Well... you know how it is with your fingernails if you cut them too short? If you cut all the way back into the bed of the nail it's going to bleed.

Well... once again to make a long story short ~ Wally's horns got cut off too short. I'm sure it wasn't intentional on my Dad or Uncles part; but Wally was bleeding and he was bleeding bad.

Needless to say more ... the cattle truck was in the yard the next morning and Wally was shipped off to hamburger heaven.

Now back to the origin of this post. The Wally Nightmares.

I started getting nightmares after the horn cutting incident of Wally. In my nightmares Wally was always chasing after me and I would narrowly escape him every time.

THEN... in my nightmares Wally started to talk. He would talk to me just like a human being. He had a very low, angry, gruff voice. He was always telling me that I would be sorry for what I did to him. What I did to him? I didn't cut his horns off and damn near make him bleed to death, I just chucked a few rocks at him... and with his tough hide and the small size of the pebbles I tossed his way ... geeze. It wasn't even close to what he did to my Momma!!

Oh how I hated that bull!! and his lady friend Wanda.

... and

Still after all these years ~ every once in awhile I still get a 'Wally Nightmare'.

Last night Wally was in the machine shed over at the farm. I was the age I am right now. I walked in there and he was on the other side of the wall between the shop and the garage part. There was a big knot hole in the wall. I peeked through the knot hole and what do I see but Wally's eye looking back at me. He's rolling his eye in his head and he says, "You think this little wall is going to stop me from getting you? Think again little girl."

Then he starts to ram into the wall. I go running for the house and he is right behind me. He busted down the wall! I just get through the house door and close it and he's ramming into the door bellowing at me that he's going to get me.

I wake up.... literally out of breath and shaking. It's four o'clock in the morning and my night is shot ~ once again ~ thanks to Wally.

I swear... I need therapy.

Damn cows.

another chapter~

After much deliberation (on Dear Hubby's part and a little on mine) we have come to the conclusion that it is time for us to close yet another chapter of our lives.

We are keeping our fishing bait and tackle shop open through Labor Day weekend ~ then we are closing the door.

It will be a bittersweet moment. We have met some very wonderful people over the years; and some real characters that still have us wondering. All in all ... it has been a very interesting experience.

Even after six years we still had the occasional (most the time drunk) guy knocking at our door after midnight looking for bait; thinking that we were the 24 hour a day bait shop. I won't miss him.

Nor will I miss the guy that called us on a weekly basis asking what our prices were on musky suckers ~ when the price on them hasn't changed in over 2 years. Then every time that I told him our price he would then tell me that he could go to Phillips and buy them for half that price. I won't miss him.

I also won't miss the headache that the bait shop caused whenever it was bait delivery day. After we were no longer able to go out and trap our own live bait (which went into effect last summer) and we were literally FORCED to buy from the wholesaler ~~ and had to deal with his price increases on a weekly basis. Not being able to trap our own bait, as we did when we first opened, hurt us bad. No longer were we offering to our customers the quality of bait that we wanted to carry in our shop; nor were we able to offer the prices to our customers that we wanted and to still be able to sustain an income from the business. So ... to you guys that put the knife in our backs ... you know who you are ... thanks alot!

What I will fondly remember though are you people who always had a story to share . . . and some of them were doosies! I would love listening to the excitement in your voices and seeing that glimmer in your eyes. Especially, you little ones!! All of you would just melt my heart when you would be telling me about your first fish or the biggest fish yet that you ever caught. You ~ I will miss.

To all you people who petted my dog ~ You I will miss.

I will miss seeing the "Oxbo Guys" every fall when they would come for a week long stay ~ fishing the river and using 300 musky suckers in that week. I loved your competive nature and it was always so obvious that you were "up north" to have fun. You ~ I will miss.

I will miss the "cabin people" ~ and the summer rental people who have been patronizing our shop. All of you are just wonderful people and it has been a real pleasure being able to provide you with our services over the years and getting to know you and watching your families grow. You ~ I will miss.

To all the bikini clad women that came into the shop ~ Slim will miss you!

To the 3 pastors ~ whom I affectionately referred to as "the Holy Rower's" ~ you I will miss.

To Mr. Hank Williams Jr. ~ when you came into our bait shop I can honestly state, "YOU are the only man who ever rendered me speechless."

and to Mr. Obnoxious Arrogant Man ~ when I told you to go to the grocery store and buy a chicken and put a treble hook up it's ass and throw it in the river ~ I don't apologize for that ~ I won't miss you either.

BUT ...

To ALL the local customers ~~~ you have always been so loyal ~ you I will really miss!

Because of you is the reason that we started this business in the first place. ALL of you have helped us keep things going over the years and it is with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to you. We really are sorry that we are no longer going to be available as your local bait shop; but now that we'll have some free time on our hands beware ... the competition on the water just got kicked up a notch.

Fish quiver at the mere mention of my name!

~keep on fishin'~
the Baitlady

canning and Today's Flowers ~

It was a long day in the kitchen yesterday; but well worth my time. I managed to can up another 21 quarts of pickles and 9 quarts of peaches. My shelves are filling up.



It was cold out this morning!

I took this picture at 7:00 a.m. ~ at 5:00 a.m. when I woke up it was 6 degrees colder!! I think I better bring my houseplants back into the house off of the deck today.



Also... because of the cold weather coming on so fast; it's just a matter of time and my flowerbeds will freeze and that'll be the end of them for the year. So... off I go with my camera this morning for a few more shots.

Here's Today's Flowers:

need I say more~

Sweden's Got Talent ~dancing naked guys

http://www.youtube.com/v/PlDn1auRmy4&autoplay=1&fs=1&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&rel=0&autoplay=&fs=1&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&rel=0&hl=fr&fs=1

you won't hurt my feelings~

Last night we had a very successful, informative meeting for the JPD Warrior Project

As I stated yesterday, the members were bringing a dish to pass for a little meal after the meeting.

Well ...

All the food was excellent except for the cake I brought and NO ONE ... NO ONE told me how horrible it tasted. They ate it and didn't say a word. Please people... you won't hurt my feelings. My apologies!! There is a limit to kindness.

I didn't taste the cake until we came home last night after the meeting. Yuck! I truly believe that was the worse cake I ever made or ate.

Even with the thick layer of chocolate frosting on it; it was drier than a popcorn fart and you could hardly swallow it.

Here's what happened:

It was a cake from scratch ~ a yellow marble cake.
I mixed the cake up ...
put it in the oven for the required amount of time to bake ... which was 35 minutes.

A customer pulls into the yard and I go out to the bait shop to tend to business.

My timer on the oven goes off. I didn't hear it because I am out of the house.

What's worse ... with this new stove I have the timer only beeps once... it doesn't buzz continually until it's shut off; like my old stove did.

So...

I come into the house. umm.... smells good in here ...
I'm dillydalling around ~ when it dawns on me that my cake is still in the oven. Now it's been in there for almost an hour! It was only suppose to be in there half an hour.

Eeeeegaddddsssss.....

I take it out and it actuallly doesn't look that bad. I press it with my finger and it's firm; but still looks okay. It was in a glass pan and I look at the bottom of the cake and it doesn't look burnt ~ just pulled away from the sides a bit.

It was a very moist batter when I put it in ~ so now I'm thinking... with a nice thick layer of frosting I think the cake might just be okay.

Well...

Stupid me...

So... once again... if you were one of the unfortunates who ate my cake... I'm sorry!!

On my shopping list: a new oven timer

sweet dreams~

It's a very cloudy, misty, rainy, foggy, dreary, you get the point, kind of day. This doesn't seem to help my disposition ~ which is slumpy. Slumpy is a word ~ isn't it? Well it is in my vocabulary.

I made a scrapbook page this morning of Brandy sleeping on the deck.

"sweet dreams"

Now I have to go and figure out a dish to take to our meeting tonight up at Donner's Bay for the JPD Warrior Project. How time flies ~ our 5th annual fisheree is coming up already this January. Time to start putting plans in motion. I spent the better half of yesterday tweaking up the JPD website. Talk about frustration! Check it out and let me know what you think???
JPD Warrior Project

Well... I suppose I better make this a quick post ~ I have laundry to do, dishes and all those other domestic housewifey things. Is housewifey a word? Well it is in my vocabulary.

Have a great day all my cyberspace friends who wander on to my blog and take the time to read my blah blah blah ...

the fest~

If there was ever a place that I wanted to be at, in the worse way, it was Woodstock! What a stir that gathering caused.


I remember being glued to the television set just waiting for Walter Cronkite to give his "we interrupt this broadcast to bring you updates of the happening of Woodstock." By the way my parents were talking you'd of thought the world was coming to an end ... or heading straight to hell.

I also recall Mom saying something on the line of all that loving couldn't be good ~ that was for sure . . . and I was thinking . . . are you nuts woman! That's what this world needs is more love. But I wouldn't of dared expressed myself like that to my mother! I do remember telling my parents that if I was just a few years older there was no way they would be able to stop me from going. That was when I was sent to my room to think about it... and was told that I couldn't watch the news anymore.

I was 11.

The early beginning of my radical years.

Oh the good ol' days...

It's still so funny to this day how my nieces and nephews call me the "hippie aunt". LOL

I hate when that happens~

I'm home again, after 2 more days in the hospital.

I was getting a LOT of swelling in my arms and legs over the last few weeks. Then on Tuesday things started to get confusing for me. I was so goofed up that I thought the year was 2007, that Bill O'Reilley was the president and when I went in the bathroom to brush my teeth I just stood there with a toothbrush in my hand and was rubbing it across a bar of soap! My vision also was impaired. I couldn't drive. The center yellow line on the highway ~ there were 3 of them.

Come to find out... I was having a reaction to one of the meds that I started taking in June. It just took that long for my body to react to it. Well, actually I was having a drug reaction with the beginning of the swelling so bad in my hands and feet but I ignored my symptoms and just blamed them on the heat.


I'm still not feeling 100% but then again... it's been so long since I've felt 100% I don't even know what that feeling would be anymore.

I hate when that happens.

Other than that...

it really hasn't been the best of weeks around here.

Tuesday was also the Commital Service for my sister and her husband. She passed away in February and he six months prior. They both were cremated and their kids wanted to have their urns buried together in one plot at the cemetery. So finally, after all this time that was finally accomplished. It would have been their 36 wedding anniversary on Tuesday.

Then yesterday, we find out that my brother inlaw was flown down to the Marshfield Hospital for his heart. He had to have 3 stents put in and is awaiting another stent placement on Monday. hmmm... Bill and I finally have something in common ... 3 stents . I'll have to tell him he could of found something else to have in common with me besides that! You're in my prayers Bill... I know first hand that it's no picnic going through this.

In about an hour from now this morning I have to go into the eye doctor and have another exam done. I just had one done in January but now because of all this double vision crap I have to go and have it done again. Just how I wanted to spend my morning ... sigh.

Oh well...

It can only get better.

His Eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

So it goes in my neck of the woods.