40 Years Together.....

It was 18 below 40 years ago tonight when Glenda and I were married. I was, and still am, a very lucky man. It's hard to imagine anybody putting up with me that long, but through all the good times and some very bad ones, we've always been a team. Yeah I know that's a cliche but that's the way it is.
So, to celebrate, Johnny threw us a little party and invited 15 or so of our very good friends. It was so cold but everybody came. From all over the cities to some very good friends who drove down from northern Wisconsin just to spend a couple of hours with us.
When we got home, there was an email card from our good friends in Texas.
Like I said, I'm a lucky man..... Thanks guys...

Ice, Ice, Ice, Ice Baby!!

No, I haven't decided to become "The Norwegian Rapper" though I'm sure I'd be quite good at it. It's just that I've had ice on the brain this past week.
"The Great Indoorsman" and I got The Hotel California off the ice Monday night. Things had froze up real good so I was able to yank her out with my ATV. I walked away from her and only went back this weekend to see what was inside. Well, there was a couple of ice covered splitting malls, a cribbage board and cards, assorted pieces of ice covered wood, seat cushions, chairs, tackle, a frozen beer and an open bag of Skittles. You notice I used the word "open". There were green ones, red ones, yellow ones, purple ones and god only knows how many more colors of the little buggers all over the floor. It took forever to pick up all those little ^*(*(@#^%$#$* guys. I did try a couple, however, and they are quite good... But I digress.
Once I dragged all this stuff home to unthaw I noticed that the underside of my ATV was totally incased in ice. I had been told that is not good so decided to unthaw the green machine. I got a little electric heater and it took me about an hour to get the back side unfroze. I took a break and went in the house to warm up and eat some fresh, warm banana bread that I knew was a cookin'
I told Glenda what I was up to and she suggested a hair dryer. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so armed with one I headed back to the garage. Actually it worked quite well and when I was done I decided to blow comb my hair. Yes I do have hair left under my baseball cap!
So now everything is unthawed. We did walk down to the boat landing early this morning. Heck it was 10 degrees and no wind. It seemed almost balmy. But once again I digress. Dang I gotta quit doing that...
At any rate, I wanted to check out the landing and any plowed roads leading west. After all, there are still crappies to catch and I do have "The Voodoo Lounge" all ready to go.....

Livin' it up at "The Hotel California"??

Ah, once again the intrepid walleye fishermen hit the ice. We actually caught four this year. Stone and Uwe stepped up and caught two each. Nothing big, but better than our last couple of years. Of course, the weather cooperated and dumped a bunch of snow on us Saturday when this picture was taken.
Sunday morning when I first headed out to start chipping the hotel loose it was 17 below. Three hours later we dang near got it to shore before getting hopelessly stuck. Later Glenda, Conley and I shoveled a path from the lake to his driveway so we could get my atv unstuck. We had our plow guy plow a bigger swath to the lakes edge (he got stuck too), so we can try to winch the hotel off the lake tomorrow night. I'm still not sure how that is gonna go.... We just gotta try.
This will be the last year I launch "The Hotel California". It's getting to be too much work for me and Glenda and I can't, and won't, rely on our friends to kill themselves hauling my stuff on and off the lake. It's been a good ride with the hotel but all things must pass.
Thanks to Johnny, Stone, Uwe, Tommy B. Brian and Conley. Of course, a special thanks to Glenda for putting up with all of us. It's been a good ride.....

Christmas, Ness Style

Ok, so a dew rag and a pink guitar may not be part of your Christmas but it works for us. Grandma took this picture. I think grandpa was makin' a highball and who knows where John was....
Fishin' report: The nice walleyes still elude us. Picked up two small ones Friday night and Johnny lost a hog Saturday night. For you non-fisherman, a "hog" is a big, @^%#^&!!*# walleye!
I went out tonight and picked up a small walleye at 5:00. I settled in, reading my book, and expected great things. At 5:30 I decided to head in for some dinner. I pulled up both lines and there wasn't a minnow on either... Oh well, at least I was enjoying my new book on John Lennon.
Next weekend we've got some "real" fishermen coming up. Maybe Stone and Uwe will catch something for a change....

For What It's Worth.....

Ice fishin' has been slow as usual. I think we've caught 5 or 6 little walleyes and one keeper. Haven't put out a tip up yet this year. It's either been too cold or those lovely 25 mph NW winds kinda take the fun out of trying to man a tip up.
It hit 27 below last week and there's so much snow on the lake, I haven't the foggiest idea how I'll ever get "The Hotel" off the lake. A problem for another day...
Now that I'm through complaining, I got a Christmas card from an old compadre of mine who I worked with in the cities. She had told me a while back that she had terminal lung cancer. Well, in her card she wrote that she was almost through with her latest rounds of treatments and the doctors think she can live one to two more years. She was all pumped up about that.
And I'm worried about getting an ice house off the lake.....

The Hotel California!

Ok, Ok, I haven't been posting lately but I have been staying busy.
Deer hunting was fun as always. We only got 1 deer but the fun is being in the woods and hanging out with a great group of guys. It's just too bad it's just for a few days...
We did our annual Thanksgiving weekend grouse hunt. I've discovered where the grouse like to hang out but they still don't like to fly in the direction I'm shooting. Johnny dumped one but we couldn't find it. One for the coyotes I guess. What we need is "InstantDog". Just add water...
So, yesterday broke with 25 mph winds and a temperature of 8 degrees. T'was a fine day to launch "The Hotel California"! To say it was cold was an understatement but I wanted to be ready to fish by evening. I caught the obligatory 2 northerns so decided to sleep in this morning. Tonight I was joined by "The Great Indoorsman". We caught those same 2 northerns and 3 small walleyes. Too small to keep but it beat looking at northern teeth.
Last year I caught 5 little walleyes and that was it. Hope springs eternal so may this year??? This is the earliest I've ever got the hotel out so maybe, just maybe...
We'll be out there again tomorrow night. If nothing else, I'm stubborn, or so I'm told.....

Black Ice, Deer Hunting and Pvt. Malone

Thought I might not make it to deer camp this year...
I took today off as my aunt passed away and I was planning on driving down to Howard Lake for the funeral. Weather wasn't so hot but figured it was worth the drive. I got on 94, the road looked good so I put a cd in the Trailblazer and headed on down the freeway. I had just passed the Evansville exit, doing 60 mph when I hit the black ice. I hit the center ditch, doing 60, sideways. I went down through the ditch, up the other side and then back down and up the other side. I was turning the wheel every which way trying to keep from flipping the truck. I ended up down in the middle. I gunned the truck, threw it in all wheel drive, cattails and mud flying everywhere and started to climb up to the freeway. That's when I saw the rental truck bearing down on me. Fortunately, he had seen my predicament and some how managed to slow down enough to allow me to whip up back onto the freeway. I somehow managed to slide over to the right lane so he could get by me. He did a good job just to miss me. Thanks guy...
I saw people sliding around in the west bound lane as well so decided to get off the freeway at the next exit (6 miles down the road). I put the Trailblazer in 4 wheel drive and crawled home on the back roads. Took an hour to go 20 miles.
It's true what they say. Everthing was in slow motion. I remember thinking that Trailblazers are top heavy and that I had to get the truck out of two wheel drive to get out of that water.
Looking back, that truck should have flipped over at least three different times. Why it didn't I'll never know. Maybe it wasn't my time. Maybe I had a co-pilot.....
Guess I'll be deer hunting in a couple weeks....