Spring Snow

Did you know the Norwegians have 3 different names for snow?   The names translate into:  Snow, Uffda Snow and Uffda Snow yah sure ya betcha!  
Well this morning at 6:30 I heard rain or snow pelting the roof just above me in the sleeping loft.  It brought me back from a pleasant dream of sitting in the maple shack cooking maple syrup, basking in the warmth of the wood fire.  Actually, the electric blanket was turned up, and the cabin was cold, the fire having gone out. 
  When Margo isn't here, I fire a little a night, and let it go out when the temps are freezing or above, and then start a pine slab fire in the morning to warm it up.  No need to go down and throw in wood in the middle of the night with the electric blanket still not turned all the way up.  
   It was 34 outside and 42 inside.  The ground was bare, except for a little sugar snow on the toilet walk, the scenic stroll from cabin to bathroom.  

Sugar snow at 6:30 this morning at the cabin

Looking out over the lake, the ice was still wet looking, the woods still brown.  

Most of the snow is gone at the cabin, the lake is still frozen over, but is open where the creek comes in and leaves.  A hint of white in the brown grass at 6:40 am from the sugar snow and a touch of rain. 

By 7:40, the snow had started coming down.  

By 8 am the ground was getting white

By 9 am it was snowing hard with about an inch on the ground
and by 9:30 the snow was easing off, bigger flakes though.  Temp had dropped to 29 degrees.

  Yesterday and the day before, I collected about 15 gallons of sap off of about 100 buckets. Most of the hillside trees haven't run at all yet.  I have about 50 gallons of sap on hand, but don't start cooking until I have 150 gallons.  I need that much so when it boils down the whole bottom of the 8 foot x 2 foot pan is covered.  Less sap, and I can't cook it all the way down.  

So my strategy this morning: build up the cabin woodstove fire to bring the cabin up to 60 degrees. slice and fry some baked potatoes left over from last night with mushrooms and tube steak sliced, add some toast and coffee and read the morning newspapers (I subscribe to the Star Tribune and New York Times online).  The rest of the morning is to work on the Sterling Settler's picnic 75th anniversary book.  I am stalling working on that right now;-)

I cleaned out the 1987 Ford F150 4x4 truck yesterday.  If it passes the "frame not in terrible shape" check, plan to have neighbor Chuck take it to his garage in Coon Rapids and put in a new clutch.  Chuck farms our cropland, and some of rent is by barter.  A 1987 vehicle driven in WI and MN during the winters, gets the full salt effect, so even though the engine works fine, the body looks about like a 1946 model person feels.   Parked it right by the driveway entrance so if the snow gets deep, can put it in 4-wheel drive and slip out to Cushing for emergency supplies.  The clutch only slips in 4th gear going up a hill or flooring the gas pedal--so lower gears are OK.  I think oil is leaking from the rear bearing onto the clutch causing the problem.  
   My myasthenia gravis has been in remission for a few months, so I  am able to do most anything I need to with maple syruping.  Am finally fully off of prednisone waiting for either the MG to come back, or find out I am in a true drug-free remission (15% chance). In the meantime it is good to feel mostly normal again.  My 1 year old new knee is working pretty good too.  Now if my memory would kick in that would be helpful.  Keep meeting folks I should know and I can't remember them or their names until they remind me. I always had a problem with names and faces anyway, and it has gotten worse, at least according to my friends.   Last one I forgot was a lovely lady who seemed very familiar--her name was Margo, but just couldn't place her.  Must have been the new short hair style she has. 

Update on Margo

Margo had cancer surgery March 12, and has been recovering well.  However, this week, at her checkup, the doctor said that there is still some fluid buildup under the flap of skin covering the removed breast.  They put in a drainage tube, and drained it out, and decided to leave it in for a few days.
 Friday, she goes in for a minor surgery to inject something into the area where the skin flap is loose that will make it so the lymph leakage or bleeding into the area will stop, and the skin will grow fast.  She goes in early and will be home later in the day. This happens to something like 1/3 of women who have Margo's type of surgery.   It is a nuisance, but needs to be done to allow radiation to work in May.

Otherwise she has been doing good.  She has to work on raising her left arm high to stretch out the muscle where the lymph nodes were removed.  She also continues to have her arm and hand wrapped 24 hours a day. It hasn't gotten worse, but doesn't improve either. However, she can use the arm and hand OK with the elastic glove and sleeve she has during the day.  At night it is a bulkier and tighter wrapping of elastic and padding.

Scott is back to Pine Island to help with the Friday appointment and surgery.  I am still up at the cabin watching for maple sap to drip.  Not really running much yet--half of the trees on the west slopes have not run at all--late to thaw out I guess.

Wildlife at the Cabin

Sap hasn't been running since Saturday, so been doing some odd jobs.  Our son Scott is up for the maple season to help out.  He has been taking some highly zoomed photos on the frozen lake.  

The pictures here are highly compressed, so the originals are better.  This is at 42 optical zoom plus some digital zoom --the birds are at least 1/8 mile away.  

Pair of Trumpeter Swans have been doing their head bobbing spring dance.  Brother Everett says if the collar is green, then it is a very old bird.  Couldn't quite tell the color at the distance and with the overcast day. 

An otter popped up through a hole in the ice and did some sliding around.  He (or she) made a short run and then slid on his belly for his own entertainment and ours too.  Scott is going to try a video next time.

Two pairs of sandhill cranes were screeching around the lake.  I think it must be mating, although the call was not the mating version where one chimes in after the other.

Generally speaking, I am pleased with the camera.  However, it is a little grainy at the max zoom and max resolution.  Have to see if I am using the right settings.  There are about 2 million different settings I can use--but so far I have done the automatic where the camera makes its own decision as to what it thinks I want.  

   Not pictured yet, the black squirrel who gnaws son the porch each day; the owl that hoots in the evening; the deer that I spook up as I walk over the hill to check the pails; the ducks in the small open ponds throughout my woods and fields; and the woodcock who entertains us in the evening with his mating rituals.  

   Although the robins showed up in Pine Island 2 weeks ago, not a one has appeared at the cabin.  Sunday at Mom's place, the big pople tree had a cluster of singing redwing blackbirds (a cluster, a cloud, or a merie are also names for a flock of blackbirds).  Brother Marv claims to have seen a single robin about Easter.  Pine Island is about 125 miles south of Cushing.  

   The rain and frost coming out of the ground has made the woods muddy and the footing poor.  I expect the otter to some out on the shore and watch Scott and I slide through the woods for his entertainment. 

  Today looks like a no-sap day too.  So it is off to the laundraumat to catch up on clothes; over to Mom's to deliver some yeast from the Luck Natural Alternatives Co-op (Mom, age 91, says their yeast is the freshest when you want to bake bread) and to fill the water containers (can't start the shallow pipe water system until the frost goes out of the ground), and maybe to the Library to do some research for the Sterling 75th Old Settler's Picnic Book (need grocery advertisements from each decade 1930s-2010s).   We are doing part of the book by decades, and part by family histories contributed by the families (not enough in yet!)

    Have been reading up on property mineral rights to explain it to the Polk Men's group a week from Wednesday.  It appears you can sell off different rights to your land--including the right to mine the minerals, conservation easements, and so on.  I am thinking about selling the pocket gopher rights to our sand land along the River Road.  With conservation, the 50 acres there should produce 100 gophers worth $300 per year.  Probably sell the rights to trap for $100 a year or maybe $10000 in perpetuity!

   When I sold 10 acres to my nephew, I added a right to the deed that says "Everett and Russell Hanson have the right to access and use the sawmill on this land."   It turns out that not only allowed us to run the sawmill when we wanted to, but obligated us to keep it in running condition according to my nephew;-)  Last time I worked on it, fell off the roof and broke my leg ending up with a 2 year problem that needed a new knee.  Not that I am back OK, have to tackle it again this year.  I miss those fresh boards from our own trees. So Ev and Bryce, we better take another expedition over there and see if we can't get it going, or we may never get the ambition and crew again!
   Margo is resting up before radiation next month.  She is feeling good, working on stretching her arm to reach straight up--something that is difficult after the surgery.  She sent Scott and me up to the cabin so she can have a break from us for a couple of weeks.  Today she and her neighbor, Nancy, are headed to town for medical appointments, lunch and shopping.  Both have been fighting cancer, Margo since last August, and Nancy for nearly 3 years (chemo every three weeks).   Both are doing well.  

First Maple Syrup!

Finished cooking the first batch of syrup--about 3.5 gallons.  Good flavor, light amber, and passed along to Dick and Jeremy for their help.   Rained for several hours, and not much sap ran today.

Dick and Jeremy came over in the morning to empty the buckets before the rain--only 25 gallons of sap.    We started cooking yesterday morning and kept it going all yesterday, and last night ( filled the pan and firebox at 10:30 pm. 3:30 am and again at 6:30 am and finished it at 5 pm.  Cooked 125 gallons in about 30 hours.  If I would have fired more often overnight could have done it faster.  Four gallons an hour isn't too bad.  I think my maximum level is 5 with my cooking setup.

It was a lot of work, but everything is cleaned up and ready for the next batch.  I don't have lids on the pails, so tomorrow morning I need to go dump out the water.   Now, I am resting up after a lot of work!

The trumpeter swans are on the ice again.  Had a couple of visitors this afternoon, Scott D-R and son.  They are getting ready for turkey hunting season in the woods north of my piece of land and asked permission to come onto my land if needed.   Scott used to work for my brother, Byron.  He hadn't seen making syrup before, so was interested in how it was done.   Might try his aunt's land to the north next year.

Pretty much tired out.  I haven't been very active for a couple of years due to knee and Myasthenia, so need to get used to hard work again!   Nothing like a few aspirn or ibuprofen to ease the muscles!

Maple Syrup Day 2

This morning was cold--20 degrees.   Sap doesn't run until it warms up, so the morning looked like a good time to get the battery for the Cub Cadet.   Hit McDonalds for the senior coffee and a buck shrinkwrap.   Then got a lawnmower battery at Walmart--went for the best one $28 vs the $25 or $26.  None of these last more than three years--but the cub is hard to start--so the more cranky hours it has the better.

Also picked up a hack saw (can't seem to find mine) and a chain link.  The Cub has 12 inch carlike treds on the back tires--very little traction, so I hunted around Mom's garage for the old car chains Dad saved from when he used them on the 1938 Chev (drove until Marv and I "filled" the gas tank with sand  visiting Grandpa).   The hacksaw was to saw off the extra chain, and the links just in case I needed them to attach the chains.  When I got back it was sunny and 36, so spent two hours putting the chains on.  They went on surprisingly well--not a harsh word needed.

With the new battery in, the engine turned over fine.   Wouldn't start--would run if I sprayed ether into the carb, so guess the rusted gas tank has stuck the needle valve with the float down--no gas running through it.  Not quite ambitious enough to tear that apart today, as I probably need to add a gas filter to the gas line too.

After a sandwich and hot chocolate lunch, headed back out and took the chainsaw out for the first time. Had a little gas in it and a little oil, so before filling, decided to see if it would start up after sitting since October.  Normally the old Stihl takes 7 pulls and then it starts.   This time after 12, it fired up and ran smoothly, so I attacked the pile of 4 cords of sawmill slabs.   The chain was dull, but I sawed a few minutes and ran it out of gas to get enough cut to start cooking sap.   Cummings Lumber, Frederic Wisconsin delivered 10 bundles of pine slabs 3 years ago -- 8 foot long.  I saw them in half and use them in the sap cooker.  I didn't cook last year, but the year before had used about half of them.

About 2:30 pm, neighbors Dick and Jeremy pulled in pulling a trailer with a 4-wheeler.  They were here to collect sap.  I hadn't planned on being here this year, so they and my nephew and others tapped the trees last Saturday and planned to try to cook it at my shed.   Of course, hearing that someone else was going to help with the work--collecting sap in the woods is a lot of work--I came up to help out too.   It is really too much fun to let them have all the enjoyment!

We collected almost 70 gallons of sap (not so much considering I think they must have 100 pails out). Maybe 1/3 of the pails had some sap--a few almost full.   I had the tank on the Ford tractor and they roamed around with the 4-wheeler emptying buckets.   I think it would probably have worked better with the tank on the 4-wheeler, but I am not sure if it could carry the 50 gallon tank full.

Before they came, I had started cooking the 30 gallons from yesterday to check things out.   The pan isn't quite level, so before the next time, we will level it.  The smoke didn't go out the stovepipes, so we took them down and cleared out a bunch of soot that had come down the pipe to the 90 degree angle--then it drew fine.

I am headed to Classic Movie night at the Luck Museum tonight  (7 pm) to get free popcorn and watch "An American in Paris."   I help out a little too--have been away all winter, so my turn is coming up now.   Dick and Jeremy and spouses are coming back to feed the fire while I am gallivanting about.

Tomorrow have to get some more gas and saw some more slabs and watch the fire.   It is a pleasant job!  Mark stopped in this afternoon, before I had the fire going, so the sap shed wasn't sweet smelling and warm--wasn't ready for visitors!  It should be from now on if the sap keeps running.

Two trumpeter swans on the lake this morning, a bald eagle came by, 3 deer, and lots of geese honking overhead and the sand hill crane still at it.  Came back from St Croix Falls up the River Road.  Ice is still at the dam, but just north at the Lions Park, partially broken up and open, and fully open about a mile north of the dam.  

Margo says she is feeling good.  Guess it must be true as she is hard at cleaning and organizing the Pine Island home after having been out of commission for a half year.   With all of April off, and feeling better, I think we might see her at the cabin for a week or so later in sap season.

Maple Season Day 1

   I threw a few medium chunks of wood into the cabin stove at 11:00 pm last night -- temperature outside was still 40 degrees.   I don’t like to get up, go down stairs and throw another chunk in 4 hours unless I wake up cold.  Heat with just wood here. 
  
  Woke up warm at 6:30am without the electric blanket and just the normal light blanket and spread--figured it must have stayed warm outside overnight.  Got up and checked--41 on the outdoor porch thermometer and 61 in the cabin.  The wood stove was cold.   However I heard a fan running--the electric space heater was running.  Thought I shut if off, but on closer inspection, I had set it at 60 degrees and it ran enough to keep the cabin warm!   Rather amazing as it is only a $15 1500 watt heater bought to replace the one the burglar took in March. 

   The goals for the day:  get the two tractors started and checked out both having set in the garage since November, put the sap tank on the back of the Ford, get the 1987 F150 Ford started and checked out (this one has a failing clutch--slips), and take a tour of the woods with the Ford to see where Neil and Bryce and friends had set out the buckets. 

   As I had not planned to be up for maple season, the two decided to try doing it at the cabin.   Bryce has equipment and so do I, so I think they put out about 100 buckets.  

   With a shot of starting fluid, the 1947 Ford 2n started right up.   Let it idle a while and then took it out and hooked on the 3-point back carrier.  The sap tank looked like it needed a wash, and as I don’t hook my water system up until late April (after the freezing nights), it looked like a good reason to start the truck and take the tank, some gas cans, and a few dirtly pails out to the car wash.  

   Checked the 1952? Farmall Super C.  The starter barely works on it, so I usually crank it up.  It starts easily with the crank.  Turn on the gas, put it in neutral, pull the switch on, and pull the choke all the way out.  Quarter turn it two times so gas is leaking from the carburetor, then shove the choke in almost all the way, and two more quarter turns and it starts.   Only it didn’t start.   Checked and it was out of gas.  Sometimes if I forget to turn off the gas, the carburetor float lets it all leak out.  Took out the crank, turned off the switch and headed to town with the gas cans. 


   The truck started up immediately--also sat since last November.   We bought it new in 1987 when Scott was in Boy Scouts and I was the Scoutmaster.  The troop needed parents with vans or trucks to haul boys and equipment.   We planned to buy a van until my friend Gene, who had a truck and boy in scouts said, “You know Russ, lots of parents have vans already, so two of us with trucks would be nice.  And, remember, with the truck you have two scouts riding along and the van 7 or 8.  It is much calmer in the truck!”   

It is 4-wheel drive, very rusty, but the 300 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine seems to be indestructable (190,000 miles).   The rear main engine seal is leaking and has leaked onto the clutch and soaked it up so it slips in high gear going up hills (my diagnosis with advice from brother Ev).  Don’t know if it worth fixing.   I would like to get it fixed, because I probably would never buy a truck again--just can’t justify having one with the little use I give it.  Probably the 16 mpg makes me leave it at home most of the time. 

An open spot in the lake
below the cabin where the
spring runs in. No dead
fish--means probably no
fish freeze out this winter!

   Filled the rear tank with gas (front one leaks) and the gauge doesn’t work so I reset the trip indicator and when it gets to 200 miles fill it again. I replaced the rusted out floor on the driver’s side with doubled flashing tin, so my feet are secure again! 

   Every spring when I start it up, I have to drive it a few trips with the windows open.  Mice crawl into the engine compartment and leave droppings that are smelly as they burn up.   Was 43 degrees by the time I went to Cushing. Filled the gas cans and tank and pretty much blew $100.  Only $2 for 4 minutes to spray out the sap tank and pails, and gave the truck a squirt too, being very careful not to wash off the patina that old vehicles sitting outside get.   Very hard to duplicate it without 25 years of neglect. 

   Got back and mounted the sap tank and drove through the 38 acres following the 4-wheeler tracks from Saturday’s tapping.   You could see they had difficulty wallowing through the snow then, but today it was soft and fine.   Never even spun either back wheel.  

Spring runs year round into the lake

   Thinking there might be some sap, I brought the old milk strainer and stuck a filter pad into it to collect any buckets that were running. I think 10 buckets had sap, one almost full, a couple half full, and a few with a gallon or so in the white plastic 5 gallon buckets.  Altogether got about 30 gallons of sap.  Takes me about 35-40 gallons to make a gallon of syrup.  I usually don’t start cooking until I get 150 gallons on hand.  The big cooking pan needs that much to boil it down and still cover the whole pan bottom. 
  
   Having been successful starting the two Fords, I put 5 gallons of gas in the Super C, turned on the switch and went to the front to crank it.  No crank!   I must have taken it out when I tried earlier and then went to town for gas.   Must be nearby.  I hunted and hunted around and around the inside of the shed and the outside.   No where to be found!

   Stymied with the Farmall, I decided to try starting the 1973 (?) Cub Cadet.   Pulled it out of the garage into daylight with the Ford and put the battery charger on the small 12 volt lawn mower battery.  Wouldn’t take a charge, and only spun the starter without engaging with the charger in boost mode.  Battery was from October 2010, so I suppose it is shot.  Added some oil and checked the gas tank.   Rusty inside.   Last year I used muriatic acid to clean it out as rust flakes were plugging the needle valve.  Back to that problem again.  I guess I have to coat the inside with some kind of tank sealer.   Brother Ev tells me that some tanks rust with gas that has alcohol in it. 

    When I had come back with the Ford tractor from pulling out the Cub, I parked it in a different spot. Walking back to the sap shed, stepped on the crank--I had parked the Ford over it!   So, cranked the Super C up--started right up. I have a front truck snowplow blade on it, so drug it back and forth over my muddy driveway.  10 acres of hillsides to the east all melt and flow through and down the driveway making it more of a creek in the spring. 

The spring starts oozing out of the ground

   By then it was 3 pm and I was pretty much tired out.   I am still not the man I used to be--Myasthenia seems slow me down.  Although, I have been idling for almost 3 years with a broken leg, knee surgeries and Myasthenia, so it may be that I am out of shape just a little.

   Sap has just started, so we are hopeful that it will gush the next few days and weeks.  We have a large crew that helped set out the buckets and are promising to help collect and cook sap, so hopefully we will get a few gallons for each of us by the end of the season.
   No robins here; no red wing blackbirds; no other spring birds yet.  I did hear the call of a sandhill crane in the fields to the south. It wasn't the mating call, it was the "I'm available" call. 
Sandhill Crane mating call from youtube 

Rambling the St Croix above the Falls

The yard in Pine Island is half melted

Squirrels are busy cleaning the left over birdseed

The ice hasn't gone out in St Croix Falls at the power dam

Looking up river from the dam -- ice extends about 2 miles

North of St Croix Falls at the Lion's Park ice is still solid, although
some water on the top

Along the Old River Road 2 miles up the river is half open
No chunks of ice this year so far

Just south of Wild Mountain the river is fully open--and still open at Nevers Dam.  

View from the cabin overlooking the lake
Doesn't look like melting yet

Orr Creek has opened a narrow channel from the north into the lake.  I expect to see geese, swans soon taking advantage of the
open water.  Most years, a pair of trumpeter swans show up
this time of the year to claim the lake for nesting.  

Maple Syrup Season Begins!

Drove from SE MN three hours north to our NW Wisconsin cabin on the lake.   Nephew and friends tapped the maples Saturday and put out 200 buckets.   Margo sent me off to enjoy a few weeks away from helping with her cancer treatments as she is feeling fine and taking a month before starting radiation.  If I get the cabin opened, cleaned, the water started and everything ready, she may join me for a week or two later in April. She has to work on getting her arm range of motion back after the surgery.  



  We built the cabin from trees we cut and sawed into lumber (we have a 100 year old sawmill on the farm) back in 1975.  Down the hill a few hundred yards is the 30 acre lake with a creek running through.  It is rustic, but rather fun to get to.   Of course, I had the high speed internet turned on before I got up here--can't be too rustic;-)

 This is a test of my physical condition.  For the last 150 years my family has been making maple syrup in Wisconsin (and before that in NY, and CT).   Last year I skipped the season as I had a brand new right knee  as of March and couldn't do the carrying buckets and work (my nephew did it that year).  This year I will be testing my wonderful new knee that had just got functional when I got MG and was mostly inactive for the summer and fall.   MG seems to be fine; my knee quite functional, and so I am hopeful that I can have a normal season.  Nephew Bryce and his friend Neil are the sparkplugs this year and I am the sage advisor!


When my cabin was broken into last month, the item that I missed most was my Roku box that turns my old clunker cabin TV into a smart TV.   I stopped at Walmart on the way up and bought a D-Link replacement streaming video player ($48) because it has a youtube channel--Roku doesn't.  Got is set up in a few minutes and it works fine--quite nice to have netflix, youtube, etc on an old tv. 

If you want to see a maple tree dripping this afternoon check out my exciting video at 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4911892514871&set=vb.1224894731&type=2&theater

I will be blogging maple syrup season at the cabin.  

I get this feeling that I am normal again--quite wonderful although I keep waiting for Myasthenia Gravis to return as I taper prednisone and it wears off and the bad antibodies return.   I intend to enjoy it while I can.  I think it is due to my special diet of potato chips, red meat with lots of fat, hot dogs, and of course drinking a pint of pure maple syrup each morning straight!

Maple Syrup Season!

Neighbors helped with tapping
the maples in rural Cushing on Saturday

Maple sap should be running by mid week--hasn't really got started yet--so I am headed to the cabin tomorrow to help out.  Nephew Bryce and his friend Neil and some other neighbors put out a couple hundred buckets on Saturday, and although I wasn't there, just couldn't overcome the urge to go up and help out!  Have plenty of wood on hand, just have to clear out the huge paper wasp nest in the cooking shed--probably all wasps are dead -- I think they start new from a queen each spring. 

Margo is healing nicely from the mastectomy and lymph node surgery and doesn't start radiation until May, so I have a few weeks to catch the syrup season.   We drove up to Cushing Sunday for the Easter dinner at brother Marv and Sheila's home.  Margo's arm was a little uncomfortable with the 3 hour trip each way, but not too bad.  Yesterday, she drove the car for the first time in a few months.  She plans to stay in Pine Island during April while I am at the cabin.  Scott lives here too, so she has help if she wants it.  I think she is OK, as she was puttering around cleaning the kitchen and had the vacuum out going over the rug ;-)

Have a bunch of things coming up to help with including Luck and Cushing's history societies, the Polk Genealogy society, and the Sterling Picnic book.  Also have to work on a soldier to honor with some research for the Wolf Creek Memorial Day program.  

Black Diamond

Crimson Sweet

My health is pretty good, and Margo is quickly getting back to normal again so spring is looking good for us.  Margo went online yesterday to order the garden seeds from Gurney's.   Melons for the sand include Crimson Sweet and Black Diamond.   Probably plant some lettuce and peas in a couple of weeks (sometimes we have planted them by April 1st--but not this year). 


I bought a new camera--a Nikon P510 with a 42power zoom lens.   I want to get some photos from the cabin porch out on the lake.  I tried a few from inside the house here in Pine Island out through the window to the bird feeders 100 feet away--holding the camera by hand at max zoom auto mode.   Not quite as sharp as I would like, but pretty good for $299.  With a tripod and no window it should be better. Just go it yesterday afternoon--so haven't tried it out much yet.  My share of the fed tax refund.    

It has a GPS built in that is supposed to stamp each photo with the GPS coordinates so every photo has built into it the location it was taken along with the date, time and other miscellaneous information. Hopefully, if I take it with me, and take photos as I canoe through the boundary waters, or the trackless wilderness north of Grantsburg,  it will keep track of my journey, and if I am ever lost, I will be able to follow the coordinates from the photos back to my starting place, like Hansel and Gretel did with bread crumbs.

 I tried out a 26x Nikon from the Luck Museum last summer--and liked it.  This type of camera is much cheaper than the digital single lens reflex with the big attachable lenses, and the image quality is not as good, but it doubles as a regular camera, and when I get the urge, can zoom in amazingly fast and easily and take a snapshot.   A toy once in a while is great fun--it is a sign you aren't dead yet.   Hopefully I will get some good wildlife shots.   Now, if I just had a new digital movie camera that didn't use tapes like my old one.....

I think this is a red bellied woodpecker.
Hand held 42 power zoom through 
a glass window--100 feet away, on
automatic mode. I cropped it to just the birdie. 

Carpe Die-um

Late May days on the farm were busy ones getting the fields prepared for crops, the pasture fences fixed, hunting the elusive morel, planting and hoeing in Mom's great garden while finishing the last days of school -- that included taking the standardized tests to see if we met the right grade levels. 

While early May brought the suckers down Wolf Creek at Grandpa's, to be speared with pitchforks, sacked and brought to Grandpa to be smoked and enjoyed, late May was when the carp came down from Roger Lake into the slow moving channel below that widened into Lily Lake and then sluggishly moved on towards the St. Croix through wild rice bed and then down to the crossing--where the old road had forded the creek.  

Some years beavers chose to build a dam at the crossing and maintain it until they were either trapped out by neighbors or had eaten all the nearby brush and trees and moved on.  Those years when the dams were in, the water backed up nearly a half mile from the crossing to Roger Lake, allowing us to put in a boat on Grandpa's and row up to the Lake to fish, passing through the 80 acres owned by neighbor Bert, and then where Dad owned one side of the creek and Uncle Maurice the other side through the shallow weed filled Lily lake and the next channel into Roger, a small good fishing lake. 

One late May day, after the suckers were finished, Grandpa "Wish't I had a few carp to smoke. They don't come down the creek anymore past the beaver dam and I'm to old to put in a boat and row up the channel -- and wouldn't I look bad, a good Christian man getting arrested for spearing in a trout stream."  

Byron, who liked to do something different, talked me into going along with him with the Jon boat to get Grandpa his carp.   I can't remember if on this trip, brother Everett went along, but as he often did, I will throw him in the boat too.  Seems right as that will let two of us spear while one rows the boat. 

To spear a fish at night, you need a narrow beam bright flashlight that penetrates into the water to see the fish and you need a spear.   A pitch fork will work, but it lacks barbs, so you can't spear and then bring the fish up without it slipping off the smooth tines.   

Grandpa had an old hand black-smithed spear with a 10 foot handle left from the days when he lived just south of Nevers Dam on the St. Croix and often went spearing with Dad or one of his other nephews, usually Channy or Lloyd.  

The trouble with a flashlight is the beam not only penetrates into the water, but reflects off of it giving away your illegal activity to those on shore, often showing moving beams of light in the sky that, for game wardens, are dead giveaways to nefarious activity on the water.  The Native Americans used pine knots and birch torches to do light their spearing -- thus the name Lac du Flambeau (lake of the flames). 

Grandpa had his own invention,  a 6 volt car battery in the boat wired through a metal pipe soldered into a fruit jar holding a 6 volt car light that clamped to the front side of the boat--lighting the water 2 feet down while invisible above the surface.  

Anyway, Wolf Creek was isolated--half mile from the nearest road through rugged cow pastures with no neighbors who lived anywhere near the creek or lakes north of Grandpa.  We always figured that rather than getting arrested, if we were picked up by a game warden with a sack of suckers or carp, we probably would get an award from the sportsmen's club for ridding the trout stream and lake of rough and undesirable fish (undesirable to anyone but Grandpa and 
Grandma who relished anything that had fins).  

We put in the boat at dusk, and after rowing up the sluggish stream through the narrow rice bed, came to the open channel as it got dark.  The game fish, northerns, bass and panfish were through spawning, or so we thought as they were not in the channel.  Carp came down during spawning season.  

During the previous summer, often when we walked to the back of the cow pasture to get the cows, we walked down the hill to Lily Lake.  Schools of carp were always swimming in the shallow weeds, their back fins out of the water, often splashing around in the weeds.  Carp are bad in a lake as they root up the weeds and make it undesirable for game fish-at least that was the local view from most fishermen who wouldn't eat a carp or bullhead.  

Grandpa's family, although living most of their time in NW Wisconsin, had spent a few years in northern Iowa and Western MN and probably had gotten used to fish other than walleyes, northerns, bass and panfish, and Grandma came from Iowa too--that is my reason for excusing them for liking carp.  Great great grandpa, Olaus, from Sweden, even tried to find eels in the local creeks --a delicacy back in Sweden where they Hanssons lived on "The Stream" that went on into the ocean 10 kilometers from the farm at Stromstad.   Cousin Arne lives there still, and tells me that he remembers they used to have eels in the creek.  

As we rowed into the wider and deeper channel, Byron and I stood on each end of the 12 foot aluminum boat that we had mail ordered from Sears ($75 with the four boys coming up with $50 from hauling hay for neighbor Raymond, and Dad kicking in the other $25).   We could see several big carp along the shore. 

Ev manuevered us over to the edge barely rippling the water as we drifted in and stopped.   I with Grandpa's old spear readied myself, light shining on the tail end of a big one, barely moving at all.  The water was maybe a foot and a half deep. Shining the light near the eyes got the fish spooked, so when the boat was quiet I slowly positioned the spear to strike just behind the head. 

You know, I wonder if it was only Byron with me on this trip.  Or maybe it was only Everett and I.  If it was Byron and Everett, Byron would have been spearing right and left leaving me no time to spear--just have to keep the boat steady.  Yep, it had to be Ev and I, because on this trip I got the try at a  fish.  Byron and I, now that I think of it, went up later in the summer and tried to get a few game fish--but they are just too wary in summer to stay still when you shine a light on them. 

So, Ev steadied the boat, Byron was home watching TV, and I readied the spear and at the perfect moment struck hard and fast a few inches back of the head. 

"Whoa--Ev, my spear just bounced off!" I exclaimed.   

"Carp have a real boney head and shoulders," he replied, "you need to try back a little further."

The carp in getting away had stirred the muddy bottom and scared off any other fish nearby.  So Ev (or maybe it was Byron) eased us upstream a littler further and we lined up on another big carp near the shore.  This time I struck him right in the middle of the back--straight down the spear went burying the 6 inch narrow tines completely.  I pulled the spear up, and got him just over the boat when he fell off the spear onto the boat bottom. 

"Boy, just barely kept him on--too heavy for the barbs I suppose," commented Ev.  

So for then next hour or so we eased around the channel taking turns spearing a few carp and enjoying the beautiful star filled sky.  With evening, down in the low swampy creek bottoms the air cools rapidly and with no breeze, the swamp odors, familiar, strong, and strangely pleasant added to the enjoyment of an evening out in nature, with the thrill of being lawbreakers adding spice. 

Finally, we drifted back down stream and pulled the boat onto the old roadbed at the crossing and took two sacks with a half dozen carp, carrying them over the big hill to Grandpa's house.  The cow path along the creek bank would have been easier to take, but was narrow in places, easy to step off the edge and slide down to the creek. 

Grandpa was awake waiting for us.  "What a great mess of fish!" he chortled as we dumped them out on the picnic table!  Grandma and I will clean them tonight and get them soaking in brine and put them in the smoker tomorrow."

A few days later we visited Grandpa.  "I weighed those carp--one was 20 lbs!  Several were full of eggs--we fried them for breakfast.  Just as good as caviar!   Do you want some of the smoked carp?" Grandpa knew about caviar, as he had caught one or two big sturgeon on the St Croix back in the 40s.  
   
We politely turned him down, remembering the hippie joke "Heard smoked carp were pretty good." "Yeah, I tried one, but couldn't keep it lit."  And the old fisherman's joke on how to prepare a carp,"fillet it on a newly sawn basswood board, season it on the board, then cook it in the oven on the board, take it out, throw away the carp and eat the board." 
  
Grandpa, 5 foot 6 inches, 260 lbs most of his life, lived to be 87 years old and Grandma, also somewhat overweight, made 100.  Probably due to having fish every other meal in lean times and every meal when it was available!  

Nowadays with the mercury in most midwest fish, we are told to eat only one meal of home-caught fish per week or suffer from mercury poisoning.  However, there is a secret to getting the mercury out of a fish. Freeze the cleaned fish with the tail left on standing tail to the bottom in a very cold freezer until you are ready to eat it.  Then take it out and cut off the tail.  The cold will have caused the mercury to drop to the bottom!
  Read about sand carp, sand terns, sand alligators and more at 
Strange water beasts of the St Croix River Sand Barrens