Shawano Lake on New Year's Eve

Picture of the Lake and a few shacks while standing on the ice in the boat landing area at Swan Acres. (Left)

View from the landing at Swan Acres. (Right)

Here are a few of the shacks out on Cecil Bay. The picture was taken from the BP gas station on the corner of 22 and 117. (Left)

Hot Time on the Old Grill Tonight!

We like to Grill out year around. Most of the time we use the gas grill, but once in a while when we have extra time and want a different flavor we use the charcoal grill. We don't get into a lot of fancy dishes or anything like that. Most of the time we just like a big greasy hamburger on a toasted bun smothered in butter. Now isn't that healthy?

Other times we'll stick with "beer can chicken" or brats. "Beer Can Chicken" is the one where you stick the can of beer up the chicken's butt. Once in a while we like to enjoy a good porterhouse or tenderloin steak but the hamburger is #1.

Picutred above: John fires up the old grill as Mona and Brew look on. Brew likes to watch pretty close... just in case something would happen to roll of the grill. He doesn't believe in the old five-second rule either. (Where if the food is on the ground for less than 5-seconds it's still good for human consumption.)

The Christmas Dog

Brew The Christmas Party Dog poses under our Christmas Tree this year.

He just got a haircut the week before the Holidays and he thinks he looks pretty cool.

Brew likes to try to crawl under the tree to check out his gifts. "Jack the Cat" and Brew both received their repective treats this year from the guy in the "Red Suit" and the "White Beard".

The dog received a few toys and "Rawhides" too... it looks like he got more than the cat.

Christmas Day

We definitely have a "White Christmas" this year. There's four to five inches of snow on the ground and more in front of the garage doors blocking the vehicles of course. The lake is full of ice fishing shanties and there are a few die-hards out there on this holiday trying to catch a few fish for the freezer or frying pan.

We had Christmas at our house last night and expect to leave for Manitowoc and Valders shortly where we will spend most of the day. (Poor Brew will be here by himself in his kennel.)

Merry Christmas!

(After further review... the Bears still suck!)

Happy Anniversary

37 Years Today!

Merry Christmas - Happy New Year

This may not be politically correct but that's that. Mona and I would like to wish all of our visitors a "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" It's Christmas and I won't say Happy Holidays!

We're still working on our Christmas Cards because time has gotten away from us again. (Please Be patient!)

Hopefully we'll be able to post some items regarding the Holidays in the next few weeks.

That's a Fact Jack!!!

"Jack the Cat" is a new member to our family. He was dropped off by his owners on Sunday, July 16th as they were trying to get rid of a kitten litter and Mona was looking for a cat at the right price (free!). We found we had a mouse problem in our garage last winter when we were storing grass seed and our bird seed in there.

"Jack's" job will be to hunt down and eliminate the unwanted rodents. He just turned 8 weeks old and he got his first mouse that we know of last night (Friday). Mona was in the garage while getting some canning jars because we were canning green beans and heard some noise in the bird seed and decided to get our "attack cat" over there to check it out. The little guy leaped (or fell) into the plastic garbage can where we store the bags of bird seed and took care of business.

Mona said he had the pest in his mouth and he was growling like a Lion. (Well I kind of exaggerated there. But he was growling like a kitten.) I can attest to the fact the little guy has sharp claws because he likes to jump up and grap your pants leg and crawl right up - leaving small holes in your skin as he's coming up your back.

Right now his home is in the garage and he is welcome as long as he is a good mouser. Mona said she gave him his name because if we run into problems in the future, she can always say: "Hit the road - Jack!"

Oh - by the way, after getting home from work after 5:00 pm, we canned 34 pints of green beans and got to bed shortly after midnight when the second pressure cooker full of jars finally got done.