2013 Early Ice. Chequamegon Bay.

New ice fishing shelter. 

Early ice fishing. Some are driving vehicles. I prefer a little more ice. For now this is my way on and off ice. If the cold weather holds out we should be driving by next week. It is shaping up to be a great season. For now the bay has 9 to 12" of ice with little or no snow cover.

Setup and fishing.

This was a great early ice fishing day.  It has been a couple of years since the "brothers-in-laws" have been ice fishing together. Hopefully we will get to do this more often. 

Ice fishing isn't only about catching fish. It's about enjoying the day and the company. Having fun is always in the cards.

A view to the Northwest. Looking toward Washburn Wisconsin.

Captured air bubbles in this early season black ice.

It doesn't get much better than this. A great way to end a day out on Chequamegon Bay. And yes we did catch some fish.

Yesterday was our 42nd wedding anniversary. We enjoyed the day at home. We ate at the our favorite restaurant (home). Enjoying our favorite menu selection. Sixth Street Market steak,shrimp, mushrooms pea pods and baked potato..

We prepared for the day and the treat (calories) by walking a 5K Run/Walk race.  Today we need to walk off the desert and get back on the better health program.

This young lady set an amazing record. She is the 5th generation of the family line to have shot a buck while hunting at the family hunting shack.

What a difference 12 hours makes. 62℉ @ 10:00 am. Snow @ 10:00 pm.

10:00 am - 62℉

10:00 pm (22:00) - SNOW!

We did out first 5K walk/run. Washburn's Turkey Trot

 Crossing the finish line.

Crossing the finish line.

The demolition of Ashland's Ore Dock continues.

We went for a walk today. We've been walking a lot. Today's walk brought our 60 day total to 105 miles.

West end beach looking NE over Chequamegon Bay. This was the west end of our 5 mile walk.

Ashland's new entrance sign. 

Crossing the bridge into Prentice Park.

We treated ourselves to shrimp and Lake Superior White Fish.

Jumbo shrimp & Lake Superior Whitefish seasoned and broiled with a brown rice and quinoa side dish.

A little fall color in the yard.

We always wait for this time of the year for the oak tree to display it's fall colors.

A new building on the lakeshore. On what the old timers call "Reiss Coal Dock"

C. Reiss Coal Co., 7th Avenue West Dock

This new building was built (assembled) several weeks ago. The word on the street is that it is being use to assemble large fiberglass tank parts (to large to truck as one piece). Once assembled the tanks are then load on barges and barged out through the Great Lakes to the Saint Lawrence Seaway to the U.S. East Coast 

Here are some of the pieces & tanks waiting for assembly and / or shipping.

Ore dock demolition update. September 26, 2012.

This photo was taken yesterday from west end beach. The upper one third is removed. Notice the equipment on the right side of the photo sitting on top of the structure. It is this equipment that "chews" up the concrete.

This photo is an enlargement of the right side of the photo above. This equipment is a large backhoe with "chewing jaws" on the end of the arm.

A little more fall crops color.

Colorful .... and yet somewhat ugly. I heard the term "wart" something to describe one of these. You decide. Although once between two layers of pie crust I would use the term "yummy".

Day break in Mason / Grandview Wi. Visiting with friends.

Most mornings when camping I'm up at first light. It is a peaceful time. 

Sunrise and the start of a beautiful day. It was very cool when this photo was taken. The rear window of the truck had a hard frost.

Fall seems to be closing in. Woke up to much cooler temperatures. 43℉. Evidence of a hard frost. Time to put up food.

Well the good news is we did get an Apple crop. The bad news is the apples were not the best of quality. There was a fair amount of insect / disease / cold weather damage. These five apple were better than most.

Picked and ready to process.

Last batch waiting to be processed later this week.

This is our food dehydrator. It does a great job dehydrating fruits and vegetables.  Notice that it has 10 stackable trays.

Here is one of the stackable trays with apple slices dehydrating.

Apple chips nearly ready for storage.

This will be the next crop we will pick and process. Maybe later this week or the beginning of next week.

This is what a nice bunch of grapes looks like. Although they all tend to start out this way many  unfortunately don't end up looking like this.  Between the birds, squirrels, and raccoons we loose a lot of the best fruit to the wildlife.  

Some get away with it.

SOME DO NOT and GET A TRIP TO THE COUNTRY

This guy is waiting for transportation. Heading out to "the summer home" to spend time with the first two that took the trip earlier in the week. Three trapped this year 4 trapped last year.

This how I found him early in the morning. Just lounging around waiting for someone to show up. Although they might look cute and friendly they are NOT.

This guy just charged me as I approached. Snarling, growling and baring his teeth. NOT friendly NOT friendly at all.

We spent the day on our favorite beach.

We spent the day on the beach. Watching the world go by. Reading, photographing wildlife, and playing with a new waterproof underwater camera.

The new underwater (WATERPROOF!) camera works great.
It's a Canon Powershot D20. IMO it's a great point and shoot style camera.

The D20 has lots of features including, an AUTO mode for simple no brainer pictures, P(rogram) mode, two underwater modes, HD video mode and lots of options for special photos modes (sun, snow, fireworks, night, low light, monochrome, etc.).

Did I mention it's WATERPROOF and has IS (image stabilization).

On a five star scale I would rate it 4.5. My minus 0.5 is because it is really easy to get your finger or thumb in front of the lens. Canon's suggested method of holding the camera is unpractical IMO.

Otherwise if you are an outdoor person around water or cold temperatures it is worth the price. $285-$349 is the range I have seen.

One warning IT DOES NOT FLOAT. 

Here is the view toward the beach. Cute right?

Here the view from the beach. Wet right?

Camera in hand.

Ready.....? Smile...!

Here is a view just at water level. Look close you can see the photographer in the bubble.

Camera held just under the surface.

This underwater photo was taken in 3-4 feet deep water. The camera was held just under the surface of the water and pointed straight down.

This photo was taken with the Canon Powershot D20.

Canon 7D w/ Canon 100-400mm 5.6 IS lens

Canon 7D w/ Canon 100-400mm 5.6 IS lens

Canon 7D w/ Canon 100-400mm 5.6 IS lens