Family Outing

Yesterday we went out for a nice family day for the first time since we've been here. We drove across the ice and had lunch at Sportsman's, another resort that is on Oak Island. You can see the dock in front of our car as we're parked on the lake. I did not like driving on the ice any better this day than I did before.

I love this little bar, lots of animals on the wall and rustic furniture. It's like a big log cabin. Very homey.

After lunch we headed to Tony's fishhouse for the ice fishing. The main event! Call it optimism or foolishness-they each shed some light at times-but we took our baby and our 2 year-old with us. It won't be happening again. Besides having the boy in a small space with a bunch of stuff that wasn't ours, he screamed and cried everytime he saw a fish come out of the water. Hey, we gave it a shot.

Rick and I each had 2 poles going, they are little short poles. So cute. Another thing that makes perfect sense that I didn't know about. Minnows are the bait, poor little critters. Tyson liked the tiny little minnows and had fun catching them from the bait pail. I can see the attraction to this sport, just the anticipation of pulling up the big one could have kept me there all day if not for the Typhoon Tyson.

Sometimes you just have to get right down there and take a closer look.

Here I am feeding the baby while ice fishing. I can check that off my bucket list. If I'd of had a fish bite? I would have reeled it up while I kept right on feeding that baby. I'm the momma, damn it!

Once I downloaded these pictures and saw the demon eyes of the Walleye, I understood my son's fear a little bit. They look evil.

This guy still has the minnow in his mouth. Sick.

So this was the beginning of Rick putting on a fishing display for me while I sat and caught nothing. As he put it, I was Fishing and he was Catching. This one measured at 17 inches. I think you always round up on fish, so we'll call it 22 inches.

Andie was snug in her little seat and napped most of the time. I'm sure she's not the first person to pass out in a fishhouse, just the most sober one.


The holes in the ice. You can see my bobber on the left, silent and still. Not a single movement. The ice creaked while we sat there, which I find creepy. I had to ask Rick, maybe more than once, if that was normal. "Is it creaking because we're on it in a structure? With the car right beside it, all heavy?" Think of the creaking in the Titanic movie while the ship sank. Eerily similar for me. But perhaps a slight difference in size.

Here is the big Walleye catch of the day. His tail is back behind him, so he is even longer than he appears. He was a big ugly menace of a thing, but he was tasty and sat well in my belly later.

Totals: Rick 4.........Lisa 0

This doesn't sit well with me. There must be a handicap for a first-timer.

This is just a little fishhouse that I think is adorable. I don't know who it belongs to and I hope they aren't offended that I called it adorable.

Collective Favorites

I took a survey with the clan to see what everyone likes best about life at the Angle. These are the unedited answers and your chance to hear from someone besides me.





Pat--The Veteran

1. It's where my family, and consequently, my heart is.



2. Lack of social strata, but lots of social life.



3. Mother Nature is right outside your door.



4. We have enough area and resources to be more self-sufficient than city dwellers.



5. Going to work in a golf cart.

Jenny- The Pro

1. In the off seasons (spring and fall) you know everyone in the Angle. There are no tourists and you can do whatever you want. We always have raging bonfires in our driveway because we can.
2. The small town-ness of it all. Not coming from a small town, I was wary of not having any privacy. I actually don't have much privacy but that's alright with me. Small town life has grown on me. I like sitting at the bar and knowing everyone in there. I like being able to identify people by thier trucks, golf carts, snowcats and other various machinery.
3. The wilderness. I like looking at a map and realizing there are hundreds of miles of woods and lakes and swamps surrounding us. It's a little frightening in a good way.
4. The chance to live exactly the way I want to.

Lisa- The Rookie

1. Simplicity- Living with what we need. We don't have half the things in our house that we moved here with. Downsizing forced us to store what we don't actually use, even half my clothes are in storage.

2. Sheltered- I don't have a clue what is happening in the world unless I get online and read it. We are guarded from the sometimes sad and cruel ways of the world. We don't worry about someone breaking in to our cars at night. If I have a house key, I have no clue where it is.

3. Novelty- There is no other place like this. They can try, but the people here are friendly and welcoming. It's a different world here.

4. Big Rick stories.

5. The fact that living here has made my husband happier than I've ever seen him. He smiles on his way to work becuase he is "home". This helps me through my sad homesick days.

Rick- The Comeback Kid

Gravel Roads

No Commute

Family

Almost No Schedule

All Friendly People

The Lake

Snowmobile From Home

Cold

Tyson Jayce- The Clueless Wonder

1. Tony

2. Happy Fish

3. Breakfast

4. My Birdhouse

5. Snowmobile

My Maiden Voyage

Today was my first trip out on the ice. We went in the late afternoon, so the pictures aren't great, but I'll get more through the winter. I did not love driving out there, I found it creepy. In time, I'm sure I'll like it better. I envisioned smooth sprawling ice, maybe with snow glistening on top. I was wrong. The ice road is bumpy (where it froze in windy conditions or had snow drifts) and black where the wind has blown the snow off. It didn't help me that it was a gray day and the sky seemed dark and sinister. Dramatic much?

I never realized they put road signs out there, but it makes sense. There are markers showing you where the road goes and helping you see it in the dark. Plus signs marking the turns to different islands and stores.

It's legal for 2-year-olds to drive on the ice.

An island.

The road developed a crack in it and had to be re-routed. But you still have to cross the crack.

Rick got out to check that these do-hickey's were set right. They are there to make sure your vehicle weight is distributed evenly as you cross over the ridge. There may be technical name for them, but I don't know it.

This is driving over that crack, but you may not be able to see the mounds of snow as you would in person.

We visited Rick's friend, Tony, at his fishhouse. His Dad, Dewayne, maintains the road and plows it. Tony had a few fish in his bucket. Tyson didn't like the fish and said they were scary. He may have a problem living here if he continues to feel that way.

This is right before he panicked at such close proximity to the scary fish.

I left one out...........

So Jenny took a tumble while on the snowshoe excursion and I was being polite and left it out. But she said post it! We left her lay there while we photographed it. We're good friends like that. Tyson was very concerned when he saw it. At least I've instilled empathy in my son, even if I don't possess it.

Snowshoes

Yesterday I went snowshoeing with Jenny and Nikki. The trailhead is just a couple miles from home and we ended up going just over 3 miles. It was around 20 degrees and windy, but we were sheltered in the woods. We didn't even needs snowpants or bibs to stay warm.

Here are the girls at the beginning of the expedition.

This is Nikki as we headed into the woods. The girls know the animal tracks and fun facts about the area. We saw tracks from deer, bunnies, mice etc.

This is a "hill". So big you can't even tell. I miss the mountains so much I have my Washington license plate hanging in my bedroom so I can look at Mt. Rainier. Pathetic, but comforting.

This picture is from Jenny's iPhone. It could be a Christmas card.

As we walked along in the snow, we were loud and I felt like I AM WOMAN! But if we stood still and listened to the wind in the trees and the birds, I felt like a speck on the face of the earth, small and unknown. You can't beat the feeling you get in the deep of the woods. Serenity.

These are woodpecker holes. My camera was having a hard time staying charged with the cold so I missed an even better tree right across the trail from this one. It had holes from top to bottom.

This is Blueberry Rock, it spans a big area on this "ridge". There was a man that lived around here who became saddened by the way the Angle was changing and committed suicide up here by blowing himself up with dynamite. Big Rick actually heard the bang when it happened, some years ago I think. This area is full of history and stories, I just love that. I know every little place has it's stories and history, it just seems more charming here somehow. ( Don't ever expect me to get the facts all right. If you know something is wrong that I write, just call me a liar behind my back and let me enjoy things the way I remember them being told.)

When we got home I went straight to the bar to check our mail, knowing there was a package for me. I thought it was some coffee and fun stuff from my girlfriends. It SO was not that. Introducing the newest member of our family, Kindle Fire. My sweet friend, Heather in Wenatchee, sent this to me as a surprise. I actually teared up when I opened it and realized what it was. My kindle died a couple months ago and I am lost without things to read. This little bundle of joy has all my books, plus the web and I can stream movies and TV. We don't have any TV hooked up, so this is VERY exciting. It also allows me to play games with my friends back home. IT IS AMAZING. Do I deserve such a nice friend and such a lovely gift? Probably not. Do I intend to use the hell out of it and neglect my children while I play Angry Birds? You bet.

Last night Tyson had a bad dream and came to sleep in our bed. Not much later, Andie woke up and needed to eat. As I sat up in bed I looked over my family as they slept with thier sweet little faces, my Kindle Fire on my nightstand. Pure satisfaction. I love my family. But Kindle Fire, you complete me.

Blogs of Yore

It got down to -28 last night. There is frost inside my house. Not even on a window, it's on a wall! I haven't left the house since Monday and they will declare me an official shut-in if I don't leave the house soon. Must be brave and leave home to go to town tomorrow. Jenny and I are getting our hair cut and doing the grocery shopping. Watch out Warroad, cabin girls on the loose!

I hope you can read this newspaper article. I had to scan it in and my talents in scanning leave something to be desired. Warroad is a rural area with lots of farmland and townships surrounding it. No big cities around here or through Canada when you are driving to the Angle. In fact, Sprague is the only town in Canada that you will pass through on the voyage north. I would compare Sprague to Monitor--for those of you back at home in WA. (Last week when I came through Sprague, someone was having a garage sale. It was 1 degree. I'm telling myself they owe some money to thier bookie. Otherwise it leaves the feeling that the summer isn't warm enough to make it worth waiting to have your yardsale then, and that is no good for me.) So Moranville is a township by Warroad and this lady writes an article about it for the Warroad newspaper. I love that this is actually printed up and people read it. It's a "blog", probably started years ago. It's really just chitchat about who did what this week, right down to what they ate. I love that she doesn't even print her first name, just Mrs. Alfred H. ( The last names are there but I blacked them out. I don't need a lawsuit for some kind of public harassment in the township of Moranville. What would Grandma Norma say!) My question is does she get paid for this idle chatter and where do I sign up?! If you have read a single post of mine, you know I have the gift of random gab. Please no hate-mail from the Mrs. Alfred family. It's a lovely column, it really is.


In case you can't read it, or it's giving you a migraine, an example of one paragraph reads: Frank and LaVonne were afternoon visitors of Melvin and Joyce last Friday afternoon and she had brought banana bread to share.

Snowcat Trails

Last week Brian and Rick went out to mark snowcat trails on the lake. (They call snowmobiles "snowcats" here. It took me awhile to figure that out and I thought they were talking about a bigger machine with tracks on it.) The trails are marked on the lake for snowmobilers to follow since the shore can't be seen in some places, and especially at night. They are also necessary in a storm where visibility is low. The stakes they put out have reflectors on them and are set every tenth of a mile. The markers are also used to groom the trails. Rick figures they marked around 6 miles of trail, though there is much more to do. The following pictures are all taken on the lake.
Here he is putting snow on his machine. There wasn't enough snow on the lake to take keep it
cool and he didn't want to overheat.

You can see the black generator on the back of the snowcat that powers the drill, and the sled that has the markers.

The brown on the snow is sand that has blown off the beach. It is really windy here and that seems to be what makes the cold less tolerable.

There is water over the ice because there is a crack near by. I find this cause for alarm, but Rick says it is normal.

They also put up signs marking cracks in the ice. The pressure ridges come from the ice expanding and contracting with the temperature changes.

Rick standing at the crack in the ice.

Here is Rick drilling a hole in the ice for the markers, then Brian would come along behind and put the post in. Dave, a guy from the snowmobile club, was ahead mapping out the trail.

They had to stop early because there was only 4 inches of ice towards the end. A snowmobile could ride on this, but the ice can change so quickly it isn't safe to chance it. 8 inches is much better. A car needs 12 inches of ice. I haven't been out on the ice yet. I don't feel that 8 or 12 are big enough numbers to coax me out there. I'll venture out at some point, but it's hard to say how soon that will be. It has been warmer this year and the ice isn't as thick as it should be. This calls out to me and says STAY ON LAND NEWCOMER!

So Remember, this is all information my husband told me about the ice on the lake and thier trip. I'm sorry if it is choppy and out of order. You might check back in a day and find corrections on everything I have written if I wrote it out wrong. It's all new to me!

**They left at 9:30 in the morning and I asked Rick to check in with me a few times so I'd know they were safe. There have already been people that have fallen through the ice. The first message came in at 5:27 that night saying, "We're safe, be home soon". Then he pulled in the driveway at 5:31. Now tell me, do you think it's more dangerous to drive on 4 inches of ice OR to make your wife worry when she specifically asked you to check and you neglected to do so?