A View Of The Rooms

We awoke to a frosty morning and  your run-of-the-mill lakeside sunrise spectacular. (Yes, I know the blog is way behind*).

First frost and the first day since we arrived that we did not have any other family in the lake house. We have the Camp Lake House to ourselves for a few days. Just Dad and me and a tree service work crew.

There are some dead and dying birch that were a little too close to either the house or shed so they had to be converted to firewood. Joe, his "cherry picker" truck,  and his All American Tree Service crew made short work of the four trees of concern. It was fun watching the work from our terrace in the canopy.

 Even more fun, was commandeering the "cherry picker" for an otherwise near impossible maintenance task - applying sealer to the chimney masonry facade.  Sister Robyn suggested assigned me this opportunity to get it done.

We were ready with supplies and the weather cooperated. Joe manipulated the bucket into position from the ground while I rode and sprayed the chimney. Even better, when the job was done he took the bucket above the tree line to afford me some spectacular vistas and a unique photo opp using both my new Samsung 5 and GoPro Hero (I also shot some video clips which may or may not ever be added to this post).

click to bigify this unique bay panorama

A fun ride, but there is still some work to do. Lots of birch to split and brush to burn.

This is a job for a younger generation. I am looking at you Roy, Brian, Erik, Zach and Joel.

*[BLOGGERS NOTE: I am hopelessly behind on this blog, and paralyzed by the 10 or so posts that should be between here and the last post. So I have decided to ignore them and just start again from. Road to hell notwithstanding, my good intentions are to move backward and forward in time from here. For The Reader waiting breathlessly for prior posts - periodically check back and scroll backward in time. If I ever fill oin the gap I will delete this note. It'll be just like it never happened. That is all.]

Fall Visit to Shag Lake - Crew Three

Crew Three - Except for Zach and Maverick

Crew Two - Robyn and Katie - depart early Friday morning.

Crew Two - Except for Katie who refused to participate in the early morning Photo Op.

 Wendy, Dad and I do some fishing and manage to actually land a few pike under a dramatic fall sky.

[Click panorama to bigify]

 We find it helps to use a fishing net as opposed to a butterfly net when bringing fish on the boat.

Finally. A properly netted pike.

I guess I shouldn't make him hold the fish so long while I line up the shot.

Zach, Kristy and Maverick arrive around 1:00 AM early Saturday. Zach departs by 5:00 AM for the opening of the duck season.

Got one.

He was back in time for more fishing.

We stole his fishing pole and lures for the balance of the trip.

Zach's parents - Jake and Wendy - arrive Saturday evening for another family feast along with neighbors Larry, Cathy and Parker.

 [SPACE RESERVED FOR PICTURES NOT TAKEN BY WENDY KRISTY AND ZACH]

 I would have included more pictures here, however I was driving out to the Escanaba property when dinner was served (separate post - stay tuned) and apparently I was the only one to bother to snap a picture while they were here. This is it. I don't even have any pictures of Maverick.

In any case, we enjoyed Wendy (O's) stuffed pasta shells for dinner, accompanied by an extraordinary selection of deserts from Wendy (P) included frosted apple squares, cherry pie, blueberry pie, and selection of cookies.   It was all great.

Zach takes off duck hunting again early Sunday. Wendy and Kristy depart late morning. They leave me an enormous pile of dishes. But I am not complaining. I am not even going to mention it.

Dad and I have the cabin to ourselves for first time since we arrived.  We spend some quality time watching the Bears blow another game they should have won.

Shouldn't someone lose a job after this choke?

"Stupid or bad. No matter where you looked, the Bears played stupid or bad in Carolina on Sunday. Sometimes stupid and bad. The Bears could’ve walked through the beaten-up and badly beaten Panthers team Sunday. But no. They chose stupid and bad.

Jay Cutler threw two interceptions, both awful. One went into double-coverage, the other went high over the middle for itty-bitty Santonio Holmes. Matt Forte fumbled inside the Bears 25 in a tie game with less than five minutes to go. The offensive line gave up sacks on two of the last three plays, the latter causing a hope-killing fumble."

Why yes. Yes they should.  Two of the Bears three losses are against doormat teams where the Bears blew a lead.  I can't believe I am saying this, but Trestman is making me nostalgic for Lovie Smith.

Might as well go fishing.

Fall Visit to Shag Lake - The Second & Third Shift Overlap Over Dinner

Wendy arrives today.  Robyn and Katie leave in the morning. A good day to invite local cousins Mike, Chris, Emily, Matt and the ever adorable Olive for a family fest dinner.  Oh yeah. Also Bowser.

Bowser likes the bone Clover left behind.

Good thing we have a large spacious kitchen to accommodate all the chefs. 

Fresh tomato pasta red sauce locally sourced from Menominee, fruites de mer from the Pacific coast, Apple cake from Yooper apples, Salad and a selection of  Marquette breads.

Olive approves

Chris helps root in the Thursday Night NFL wagers

Several matters of great import was discussed.

Matt asked me to explain the very cool GoPro app.

Chris asked me to explain the very cool GoPro app.

Olive asked me to explain the very cool GoPro app.

Time to go

A good time was had by all.

Fall Shag Lake Visit - Crew Two

Crew Two

 On Monday Harlan and Clover depart, Robyn and Katie arrive. They pass each other somewhere near Fischer Creek.  I don't know where that is.

Robyn and Katie do not bring Delilah in direct violation of the mandatory dog policy, but we decide to let them stay anyway.

The weather takes a turn to cold and rain.  That does not dampen our spirits and we continue to fish between the showers.  For reasons that are unclear to me, we have almost no pictures of our various fishing expeditions. This despite having a professional quality photographer in the boat (I am looking at your Katie.).  Probably for the best. We hook three more good sized pike and lose them all while attempting to bring them in with a butterfly net.

Katie was apparently reserving her artistic and photographic for the fall color. I cannot fault her for that.  As impressive as the fall color is from space, it is much better on the ground. Some of Katie's work ripped from FB since she refused to send me her pictures: