That was a lot harder than I thought.

Cold and wet this morning. We are running well behind schedule.

Happy Birthday Roy!

This rainy day Shag Lake morning update is dedicated to nephew Roy C on the occasion of his 21st birthday! To help him commemorate the day, I gathered a selection of newspapers opened to random important stories this week. 21 is certainly an important number for Roy today. Another important number this week is 277 as Green Bay Packer fan Roy C knows very well. The biggest story of Roy's birthday week was when Brett Favre tied George Blanda's all time career interception record of 277 interceptions by throwing two more interceptions to the CHICAGO BEARS in the Packer's FIRST LOSS of the season on Sunday. In honor of this important day, this blog page will be available throughout Roy's entire life, so he will always remember what happened the week he reached this important milestone.

I am posting this a day early with a future date, so that this post will stay on the top of the blog to commemorate this milestone.

Contemplating the drive home tomorrow

Admiring my work

Some Yooper repair work in progress.

Repairing the pump power pole that Brian and his friends knocked down. Duck tape. Nine inch nails. Big hammer. Unstable ladder.

Good for another 10 years.

Clear skies and cooler temps in the forecast

Light rain at sunset and this...

... view from the deck. Not sure how well this panorama will work with blogger. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Dad monitoring his championship run

Off to a bad start with Romo throwing two piks.

unusual mushroom

This is unbelievable...

With only the Monday night Dallas/Buffalo game outstanding, the leader board for the weekly VIP NFL Gridiron contest:


Papa is locked in an 8 way tie for first with a record of 11-2 against the spread in week 5. Of the 8 players, Papa is one of 3 players to pick Dallas tonight and lay the 10.5 points. If Dallas covers the point spread, the tiebreaker is the predicted Buffalo score. Dad picked 10, Sluggo picked 13, hd picked 16. Net...net - if Dallas covers and Buffalo scores 10 or fewer points, Papa is the number one NFL handicapper in all of the VIP world for this week, and the winner of the weekly $300 contest. Astonishing. And what was the big victory that put Papa into this elite group? You know it baby!

The most satisfying Bear victory of the last 22 years.

UPDATE AFTER DALLAS GAME: nevermind.

Relaxing between fishing sessions

The NFL line picking genius prepares for his next move.

Another beautiful day - overlooking the Escanaba River

From the bridge outside of Gwinn. I don't know what it is, but air smells a little sweeter and sun is shining a little brighter today.

Enjoying our tropical holiday

At our Caribbean Shag Lagoon

HDW & Griff gone before sunrise

Fog burned off, sun is out, back to the quest for the Shag Grand Slam.

The dock is out

even though it was not neccesary. My younger brother yells louder than me, so he won. Fortunately for all concerned, the shotgun was nowhere to be found.

Flushed six birds

No shots fired in anger.

Griff - "I have had it guys..."

"...you go on without me."

Mike K has joined the hunting party

Sid & Anne's Norway Pine Plantation

Grif is looking for birds

We think.