A little campfire to cap off the evening

Olive likes Shag Lake

The K's have arrived

Quite appropriately, Olive is dominating the conversation.

DOGGIEGATE - The Movie

A film by Jonah.

The third annual Big Shag Spring Chess Tournament is underway

MW is defending his championship against perennial contender Jonah.

Game 1 May 25, 2008
Game 2 May 27, 2007


BREAKING: Jonah defeats MW when he resigns an untenable position.

The series now stands at two victories for MW and one victory for Jonah - the reigning Shag Spring Opening Champion -

Said MW after the match: "I'll be back".

Spring 2009 Critter Challenge

Another year, and yet another mystery spider...

This brute was crawling on my waders as I put them in the car. Brushed him to the ground and took these pictures before he stomped off into the woods, knocking down trees and overturning cars along the way.

Any guesses on ID?

Fishing the Escanaba

First - some lessons among the rapids at the bend

Jonah is learning on a six foot custom glass rod.

Beautiful day on the river.

I was fishing down stream and roll casting into the banks.

Had half a dozen strikes, and caught two small brookies. Not being a particularly accomplished (or even competent) fly fisherman, I am always astonished and irrationally exuberant about catching any sized trout on a fly.

I used an HDW tied fly -The Silver Streak - a cone head white maribou muddler.

Olive's first Escanaba experience

Emily, Mike and Olive met us out at lil Camp. Since this is Olive's first visit, and the blog covered her first visit to Big Shag Lake, it was incumbent on us to document this historic event. Moreover, our loyal blog readership was clamoring more Olive pictures. Understandable, considering the adorableness factor. We aim to please.

It may be a little difficult to discern what is going on with the originally posted leadoff picture above(shot with the cell camera). Emily is wearing a mesh insect net to protect the two of them.

Following are some better pictures shot with a better camera of the two of them, both in and out of the spacesuit.

It is not all fun and games.

We have chores and projects too.

Above you see the three of us on the deck supervising Jonah as he attempts to locate and retrieve an escaped dog while chasing him through the mud.

He was not happy about losing a shoe in the process.

In a related picture, Jonah and HDW initiate a deck gate project. No telling if it will be completed this trip.

In the meantime, I dug a hole in the front yard...
fertilized it with fish guts...
and planted the gift hops vine...

We'll see if it takes.

Good fishing day.

Jonah caught an Escanaba River Brown Trout on a dry fly in Gwinn!

Papa's got a 14.5 inch bass and a whole mess of bluegills.

HDW filleted all the blue gill and bass. NO - really - he did.

Jonah's trout shares a frying pan with Papa's bass.

Served with brown rice and Papa's garden medley salad.

Fishing Mitchell

We've got about a dozen blugs, and one keeper bass. Papa caught him on a fly.Fish fry tonight.


Another bass, but not big enough to keep.

Sunset excursion at Carlson Point

Sunset in the bay.

Heeding RAC's advice - "Fish until dark"

Using the new rod and reel.


Papa got a nice undersized pike - 21"


I got a pike too. It was bigger than the Mepps lure.

Burgers on the grill for dinner

The Weber Sensei at work

We need a new grill.

BREAKING: After dinner HDW and Jonah go bluegill hunting - pictures at 11.

Papa and Jonah check out the new dock location.

It wasn't as easy as it looks.

More later.

Dock Relo Project.

Waterfront reinvented.

As noted in a previous post, the water level left both ends of the first section of the dock high and dry. This was so disheartening, I was forced to make an executive Shag Security Council decision and move the dock to a more boat friendly location.

For comparison to prior year water level pics

In other news - Hodr's bench has reached the end of its useful life, with split wood, dangerous exposed spikes, and rotting stumps.

The job begins. Made somewhat tougher by HDW's decision to leave one section installed over the winter.

Break time. In the waders. In the rain.

Back to work.

Floating the third section out.

To give us the best odds of having a dock that is actually usable for boats over the season, we started the dock a short swim from the shore, and need a temporary solution to bridge the gap.

Hodr's gift is repurposed to solve the problem.

Second catch

You know, if we count the chubs as the first catch.

Yikes. Wildfires in Baraga and Marquette counties

Just watched the news - there are several wildfires burning out of control in the UP. No idea at this point how close any of them are to our properties. We didn't see anything on the drive up, but I guess that makes sense since the fires are in the North and we came up from the South. If the forecast holds, the winds moderate, and some cooler wet weather arrive tomorrow, these things should be under control. In the meantime, it looks like at least 15-20 homes have been destroyed.

UPDATE: Wildfires break out in North Central U.P.
Homes have been evacuated and structures have been lost.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 7:19 p.m.

UPDATED Wednesday 5-20-09 at 10:42 PM

"NICE Community Schools have been closed due to the Black River Falls Fire. The 6th grade field trip to Mackinac Island will depart on schedule.

Visit our school closings page for the very latest.

UPDATED Wednesday 5-20-09 at 10:22 PM

- Black River Falls Fire (Marquette County)

The fire has charred 750 acres at this point.

DNR units have eight plow and nine water units on site.

Numerous fire departments are also assisting in the blaze.

This is a very agressive fire which started late afternoon Wednesday.

It burned through stands of jack pines and is west of County Road 581.

At this time, the fire has not jumped the road.

The fire is believed to have started around County Road CS and has since moved north to County Road CD.

Officials are saying the fire has not reached the Twin Pines area.

500 people have been evacuated and structures have been lost.

We're working to find more details at this time.

- Pinery Lake Fire (Baraga County)

This fire north of L'Anse has charred a couple hundred acres according to officials.

At this time, it's approximately 20 percent contained.

Two fire departments, L'Anse and Baraga, are battling the blaze while many others are on standby.

It is currently burning through hardwoods and has taken down a pine plantation.

Winds are currently out of the south-west and the fire is moving in a north-east direction.

Officials believe a windshift is expected with the arrival of a cold front.

Temps should drop and winds will shift from the west.

Stay with TV6 and upnorthlive.com for the very latest"