Alex poses in front of our fishing house with a cisco caught at the annual Lake of Woods fishing trip.

ANNUAL LAKE OF WOODS FISHING TRIP A SUCCESS!
Alex and I headed for Baudette on Sunday, March 3, 2013 leaving about 8:30 am.  We arrived at Sportsmen's Lodge about 2 pm, loaded our stuff into the snow cat and headed out 10 miles onto the big lake.  We arrived at our happy home for the next 3 days, Otter House.  Alex not only caught many nice sized walleyes, but a bourbot, 3 ciscos, and 3 keeper saugers.  Last year was a bust with 40-50 degree temps and melting snow leaving deep puddles everywhere on the lake.  This year was more seasonable and in fact, we were treated to a nice 8" snowstorm on our last day.  Driving home was a chore, with heavy snow on the highway, but thank the Lord, we made it home safely about 5:15 pm.  The trip festivities ended with a fish cleaning marathon in grandpa's basement. 

One of the several dandy walleyes caught by Al in the Otter House.  All his fish were caught on jigs tipped with minnow heads.

Alex catches some dandy walleyes

Grandpa was 2nd best fisherman

Typical catch on my side of the fish shack.

There I was, sitting just 6 feet away from Alex, staring down two black holes.  It was fun watching Al pull in the fish.  I had a lot of time to do Suduko and I did catch a few walleyes.  My biggest fish was when Al had two on at once and requested my assistance.  I got to crank in a beauty while Al was pulling in another keeper. 

Zosel's Invade Hawaii

JoAnn Bauer welcomes Zosel's to Hawaii

Chuck and Eve Zosel crossed the Pacific Ocean to visit the 50th state.  Why? because the year 2013 is the 50th year of their wedded bliss.

Long time friend, JoAnn Bauer former resident of the Town of Timberland in Wisconsin was there at the Kona airport to greet the Z's with orchid lais.  

Chuck and Eve made a thorough exploration of the Island of Hawaii.  More reports will follow.

Canoe For Sale

My handcrafted cedar strip canoe is for sale.  Note the inlaid spruce design of western red cedar

Several years ago, I purchased a used cedar strip canoe from a friend.  My original interest was to procure a light-weight canoe and this one weighs 48 pounds.  The beauty of the craft was a bonus.  Where ever I stop with the canoe on my pickup, people gather around, admire it and ask if I built it.  The canoe was actually built by Dusty Waters Canoe Works, Iowa City, IA in 1980 with western red cedar hull and ash thwarts. The wood core lies between 2 layers of fiberglass, so it is plenty durable. The hull is designed for racing.  The stern and bow seats are of caning material.  The friend who sold this to me specially built the ash portaging yoke. 

The reason I am selling it is because I like to canoe on the Brule River which is somewhat rocky and though this canoe is no whimp, I can't bear the thought of banging up this work of art.  I am asking $1200 with which I hope to buy a tough and lightweight canoe which is more appropriate for use on the Brule.

Obama Administration Pro-Abortion

I wrote the following article for the Superior Telegram in August 2012.

Everyone knows we have crucial state and national elections coming up this fall.  Our current president claims to be a Christian, but his polices demonstrate the opposite.  Jesus came that we might have life.  Contrarily, our President has demonstrated his willingness to promote death as the most pro-abortion president in history.  According to the newsletter of Wisconsin Right to Life,  “Obama supports the Roe v. Wade decision which legalizes abortion for any reason throughout pregnancy; taxpayer funding of abortions here and overseas; taxpayer funding of abortion providers; sex-selective abortion; partial-birth abortions; no conscience rights for medical professionals; pro-abortion judges; Obamacare which funds abortions and rations care; and much more.”

What will Americans do?  If we persist in defending abortion as “a woman’s right to her own body”, we will be opposing God, the Creator of life.  Abortion is just one tip of the “iceberg” called sin.  It is because of our rebellion against God that we find ourselves in the mess America is in right now with political rancor, materialism, greed, deliberate unhealthy behaviors and general discontent. 

The terms, Christian and Church have lost their original meaning.  Christian was first applied to those in a first century church in Turkey and literally means “little Christs” or Christ followers.  A Church was an assembly of those Christ followers.  Today, in our culture, those terms popularly apply to anything vaguely related to historic Christianity.  We often hide behind the façade of institutionalized religion, which blinds the masses.

To save our selves, let alone our country, there must be a turning back to the foundations of true Christianity - Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible.  Those who agree should pray for all men and those in authority that righteousness will reign in America. 

Brenda's "Boys"

Riley at left and Reggie on the right in the back yard

Riley and Reggie are Brenda's "boys".  They sleep in the house at night, but live and play in the back yard during the day.  Riley is the lead dog.  Reggie is mild mannered and will do whatever Riley says.  One day, I made the mistake of leaving the yard fence gate open for a minute . . . too long.  Riley looks at Reggie and says, "Now's our chance, lets go for it!"  Off they went into the neighborhood.  I spotted them right away, but it was too late.
I knew I was in trouble with Brenda, so I immediately set about rounding them up.  It didn't take long to herd Reggie back to the security of the fenced-in backyard.  Riley was not so easily subdued.  Up and down the street I went talking kindly, "come on Riley, I just want to pet you and scratch under your chin.  I won't grab you, honest, I won't make you go back into the confinement of the back yard.  Really Riley; pretty please, won't you just come to old Grandpa?"

So went the humiliating pursuit.  Up the street and back again. Neighbors stood at their windows, chuckling to themselves as this old geezer approached Riley to almost within reach and then scampered way, enjoying the 'game'.  As we went by Brenda's one more time, Eve stood outside with the gate open.  For some unknown reason Riley took off for the home gate as if to say, "finally, why didn't you ask me before?"   The dog hunt was over.  Riley was home once again in the backyard haunt with ol' buddy Reggie.

Helping Brenda in Post Falls, ID

Brenda and her Dad plant shrubs in the front yard.

Brenda is a busy gal, so Chuck and Eve decided to head out west to see if we could lend a hand getting her new house shaped up.  We spend a week there doing odd jobs around the house and a variety of fun activities.  Some of the jobs we did were, wash windows, plant some new shrubs, help organize the garage, mow the lawn, fix a couple of screens, fix a leaking toilet, fix a door latch and just general fun stuff.  Brenda was working every day, but we cooked out, ate out, geocached, took our day trip, attended her softball game, attended her Rotary luncheon, etc.  By the way, Brenda was the 2010 Rotarian of the Year in Coeur d'Alene and we are proud of her!  I also was able to cruise around town on Rachel's bike which is stored in Brenda's garage.  Every morning, I went for a short walk in the neighborhood and would pick a fresh bouquet of flowers from the vacant lots in the area. (No wonder my allergies were fussing all week.)

Side Trip to Priest Lake Area

Priest Lake in Northern Idaho

Our little 'vacation within a vacation' consisted of a day trip to Priest Lake, about 60 miles north of Post Falls.  We rented a car for the day and Eve and I headed north.  We had heard that this was a premier mountain and lake paradise of Idaho.  Much of the area is National Forest and Woodchuck was in his glory with trees and wild flowers in abundance.  We visited the cedar grove (next post), several spots along the lake, a US Forest Service museum, ate lunch at a resort along the lake, drove up the west side of the lake, the east side of the lake and made many stops along the way to look at and photograph wild flowers.  Perhaps Woodchuck will feature more posts in the future featuring some of the flowers.  On the way home, we stopped for supper at a restaurant at Old Town, ID on the border with Washington State with a view overlooking the snow melt-filled Ponderay River.

Saw the Cedars

300 year old western red cedars make up a remnant grove that survived a 1926 forest fire

One of the stops that was on our 'must see' list was the Hanna Grove of old growth cedars.  Even though this was in an area of ponderosa, white and lodgepole pine, it was a springy damp area and so was spared a devastating forest fire in 1926.  This was on a tract of land that a family by the name of Hanna had claimed, but when they saw the sized of the trees, they moved on to find a claim with less daunting-sized trees to use to build their cabin.  Some of these trees were 4 feet in diameter and over 100 feet tall.  Loggers were only interested in white pine at this time. 

Geocaching in Post Falls

Woodchuck demonstrates his gps technique as Brenda and John look on.

Some of our fun times in Post Falls were spent geocaching with Brenda and her friend, John.  There were oodles of caches right around their neighborhood and all over the city.  We found quite a few, but there were some real "stumpers".  Once, John sniffed one out that the rest of us had walked by.  Another that we had made a second trip to look for, old Woodchuck bungled into.  Some had to be chalked up to: "must have been muggled", "the coordinates must be off" and just plain "lets give this one up". 

Caching at the Hot Rod Cafe

One of the caches we found was at this "California Surfer" type cafe.

We found a cache on the shady boulevard alongside this unusual cafe in Post Falls.

A Walk In The Park

Eve, Me and Brenda along the Spokane River in Post Falls Photo by John.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Brenda, John, Eve and I stopped by the Post Falls Pita Pit.  We picked up our pitas and headed for the Kiwanis Park on the Spokane River.  Sitting at a picnic table in the shade of magnificent aromatic pines we enjoyed our healthy and delicious lunch.  Then, gps's in hand, we strolled toward the river searching for 2 geocaches along the way.  No luck - "muggled", but it was great just being there together. 

Back to Eagle River

On Thursday morning in Seward we were greeted with sunny skies.

Our third floor motel room opened on a view of the harbor and mountain range directly east.  We headed out to Historic Seward downtown and a hippyish coffee internet cafe where we had a coupon for a free Belgian waffle.  It was a pretty good and reasonable place to eat with just one hippy doing the cooking, cash register and serving. 

We then hit the road over the pass and to the wildlife conservation center near the end of Turn Again Arm. There we saw woodland bison, moose, caribou, brown bears, black bears and more. 
We stopped in Girdwood for lunch.  Logan had an exotic meal of macaroni and cheese.  Then on north to Anchorage and Eagle River, arriving home about 3:30, the end of a stupendous trip. 

Our Visit to Seward, Alaska

On Wednesday morning we left Logan's house in Eagle River to head for the Kenai Peninsula.  Driving through Anchorage and along the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, we then mounted Turnagain pass and down to Seward.  The 150 mile trip took us about 3 hours.  Logan was an excellent traveler only asking 'when we would get there' a time or two along the way.  We stopped for gas at Gridwood and then again for a few minutes at the top of the pass.  Roads were good, traffic was light and scenery was top notch.  Seward is a coastal town on the east side of the kenai Peninsula.  Tourism is a major industry here, with cruise ships, whale watching tours, charter fishing, the Sea Life Center and visits to the Exit Glacier.  We arrived in Seward about 12:30 and went directly to the Sea Life Center.  We ate a small lunch in the parking lot which Grandma had prepared for us and then embarked on our sea life adventure.

The Sea Life Center

Logan and Grandma just inches away from a passing sea lion

Logan along with several other school children are allowed to actually touch sea urchins, anemones and other small sea creatures.

I believe the Sea Life Center in Seward must be the finest display of ocean life anywhere.  They have live seals, fish, birds and invertebrates of all kinds, displayed in a simulated natural environment.  You can observe them from the surface or underwater.  It is very interesting and entertaining.  Many of the sea birds are extremely colorful and unusual from a midwestern viewpoint.  Like a loon they are also expert swimmers and may be viewed underwater pursueing their prey of small fish.  There were many school children on class trips at the aquarium as well. 

Off to Exit Glacier

View as close as we could get to Exit Glacier

After our visit to the Sea Life Center, we drove the ten miles out to Exit Glacier.  In summer you can drive almost up to the end of the glacier and then walk the rest of the way.  However, this time of year the road is closed about two miles short of it's end.  Still, an impressive sight. 

Waterfront Playground

Logan and friends having big time at the playground

After the glacier visit, Grandpa wanted to check out the shore for seashells.  There was a park and playground at the waterfront, so while Grandma watched, Logan burned off some energy along with the local kids at the playground.  Not a great variety of shells there just some barnacles and mussels, but fun just to walk along the shore and look.  By then it was getting towards supper time, so we looked for a place to eat.  We finally settled on a Mexican shop where Eve and I had halibut tacos and Logan had a cheese Quesedilla.  After supper, we walked to a nearby geocache, which we found and then to the motel. 

Easter with the Calivas'

Brian and Rachel with Alexis 2 mo and Logan 6 yrs

On Easter morning we  went to Sunday services at a nearby Assembly of God Church.  The people were friendly there and the worship music and message was good.  Afterwards, we hid some (real) eggs in the backyard for Logan to find.  Later, Logan and I flew his Buzz Lightyear around the back yard  while Brian cooked a good ham dinner. After dinner while we were waiting for Grandma's luscious layer cake to be served, we sat in a circle and played the Easter Egg Game where we each drew a numbered plastic egg out of a basket.  Opening them in chronological order, the item inside (cross, rock, etc.) tell the Biblical story of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.  Appropriately, the last egg is EMPTY!  HE IS RISEN! 

flying High

Logan's kite flies high toward the mountains.

Friday we went out to the Lion's Park to fly Logan's kite.  There was a goodly breeze, so the kite flew high in the sky.  As you can see Eagle River is nestled in the mountains.  The weather here is similar to what we left in Wisconsin.  However, there are still stubborn patches of snow in shady spots.  The lakes remain iced over and snow lingers in higher elevations.  Logan's dad Brian being an Air Force Sargent was able to offer technical assistance in flying the kite.