Ice Racing on Shawano Lake 2009

On Sunday, January 18, Mona and I stopped in at the Fire On Ice races on Shawano Lake on our way to drop of the computer at the computer place in Green Bay. (Our computer is sick again.)

The easiest access to the races is by the public boat launch in Cecil. The landing appeared to be in better shape this week than last week. There were all kinds of cars, trucks, ATV's and snowmobiles out there. Although I don't know much about them, the races have been held on Sunday afternoons again this year. This race was later in the afternoon and appears to only have four cars in it however, earlier races had more participants.

It's a good place to join the crowd and spend a Sunday afternoon. You can even get yourself a brat or hot dog as well as something to drink on the ice. You could even tune in on your car FM radio and keep up with what was going on as well as lap by lap information.

Toward the end of the video you can hear a lot of extra noise. There was a kid on a four wheeler next to me. Another lesson learned for in the future.

John Clearing Snow with the 4-Wheeler

Although Mona had a quick trigger finger on the camera, this is John in the process of doing some of the finishing touches with the snow removal in the driveway with the 4-wheeler yesterday. (If we don't get a chance to try doing it again this year, neither one of us are going to complain about it.)

For the first couple of snow storms this year we couldn't get the 4-wheeler started until John charged the battery and changed the plugs. About three snowfalls later we broke the cable on the winch that raises and lowers the blade on the front. Naturally when you finally get time on the weekend to fix it, that's when the temperatures decide to plunge.

Footnote: The videos on this site so far have been taken with a fairly inexpensive Pentax digital camera that also has movie taking capabilities. The camera fits in my shirt pocket and is easy to operate. Hopefully the quality will improve with a little practice.

Mona clears a path to the Bird Feeder

Here is Mona clearing a path to the bird feeder in the front yard so she can get the little guys something to eat. We've already surpassed our normal annual snowfall for the season and we've only past the half-way point in January. This is the most we've used the snowblower in several years.

Start off the New Year Right!

There is a place we know that runs a sign-in and every week you go to physically sign in you have a chance to win half of the pot collected since the last winner. In the last 4 1/2 years or so we probably didn't miss more than what you can count on both hands. The day of the drawing, Mona asked if I wanted to go sign in and I said something like: "It doesn't really pay does it?" The Packers last game of the season was about to begin and I didn't feel like taking a ride and missing some of this important game. We went in to the place on the following Saturday for lunch and saw this sign. This was half of the kitty. Happy New Year!