It’s Christmas Eve… and we have way too much snow!

John out plowing snow again.  It’s the third time already this year that he’s had to clear the driveway. We have over three months to go yet!

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Above left – Shawano Lake in the background; also snow covered with about12 inches of ice and 4 inches of slush for the fishermen that are driving out there.

John & Mona’s 40th Anniversary

Tracy, Corey and Miranda took us out for our 40th Wedding Anniversary. We went to the Washington Inn in Cecil. Miranda likes those Cheeseburgers.

Cory Durben

CHRISTMAS AT ARLINGTON CEMETERY

Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell, the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell...

Readers may be interested to know that these wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest parts of the state.

There’s One Born Every Minute… (Swan Acre Boat Landing)

Two days after Thanksgiving and there were two groups of guys out on Shawano Lake on the ice fishing already. By the landing down from our house we saw two guys walking out on the ice with a piece of galvanized pipe which one of them used to punch a hole in the ice.  It took about two or three blows and he had his hole ready to start fishing. As he scooped the ice out of the hole with his bare hand, you could see it was only an inch to an inch and a half thick. The guy wasn’t very small and he moved about rather gingerly as not to go through the ice the way it appeared. Mona said they didn’t stay out there long so I assume he could have fallen through? (only three to four feet of water by the dock) or they got sick of it real quick. I know they didn’t catch their limit of fish there that soon.

A second vehicle parked down there later on in the afternoon into the evening.  I couldn’t see where he was fishing but I think these guys are really pushing it too soon.

Note: The photo was taken about a half an hour ago from our activity room. There were also three Bald Eagles out on the ice yesterday.

HERE'S A TIP FROM A FRIEND ----

Much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc. now comes from companies outside of America. Even the most expensive stores sell clothing from China, Indonesia, etc. The bed bugs are coming in on the clothing from these and other foreign countries.

Professionals recommend that if you buy any new clothing, even underwear and socks, sheets, towels, etc., that you put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes. The heat will kill the bugs and their eggs. DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN THE CLOSET without first washing, or at least putting in the dryer.

It doesn't matter what the price range is of the clothes, or if the outfit comes from the most expensive store in your town. They still get shipments from foreign countries and the bugs can come in any new clothes.

(P.S. We didn't have that problem when clothes were made in America.)

Last Day Fishing in 2010–Shawano Lake

 

We went fishing on Shawano Lake one last time this year on Sunday, November 7. The fish didn’t cooperate but we had fun anyway. (Plus we didn’t have any boat problems this trip for a change.) Mona decided to take it a little easy this day so she brought along a book to keep her busy. Weather was in the 50’s and wasn’t to bad unless we were running the boat at 45 to 50 mph.

 

John takes a break from casting just to enjoy the last outing of the year. It’s going to be a long cold winter until we can get the boat out again. Monday night the boat went in to get winterized and we picked it up and put it back in the garage for storage on Tuesday night. Note the BP Station in Cecil over John’s left shoulder. That’s the corner of Highway 117 and 22.

 

 

Photo of the boat landing and Camp Grounds in Cecil. All of the seasonal campers have been pulled out and put in storage as well. There’s a few seagulls sitting in the calm lake in the foreground. The Washington Inn can be seen on the right side of the photo.

 

 

With a sad feeling within us, we decided to hang ‘er up around 3:00 pm or so. We didn’t even see one sign of a fish that day. No strikes at all, and normally you can see the little ones swimming around the boat, especially on a nice sunny day like today. This photo was taken by John as we started pulling up to the Swan Acre Boat Landing. You can make out our house in the background just over the cars and trailers in the center.