Black’s Cliff Resort’s Birch Bark Blog

Orange cone means one thing, either Craig is chopping down trees and hitting things or……

Troy is fixing something..  this time not something Craig crashed a tree into but something time has caught up on.  Of course, Craig has a line on best deal in town on cold pack filler…. top secret

Another erosion experiment is taking place by the fishhouse.  Over the last few years the undergrowth and top soil have eroded away from dry summers.  We are trying an experiment putting wood chips from the woodshed down.  They will hopefully break down for new top soil and keep erosion at bay.  Craig is rolling his eyes at this one and remaining silent.  We shall see if it works or not

The Hairy Wood Peckers have been giving quite a show at the new feeder.  We have had 3 of them swooping around at one time

Cleaning out my old feeder and making a mess

They had a agreement with the chipmunks to drop a certain percent of the seeds on the ground for the chipmunks.

I believe the lower bird is a baby and is being fed by the adult.  They repeatedly went back and forth from the feeder to this branch sharing the seed.  They have been repeating this for days and making a lot of chirping noises by the lower bird

Sneaking up on the new squirrel flipper feeder.  The woodpeckers did not get flipped off and have been having a good time with the new feeder safe from the squirrels

We have had a last minute cancellation this coming week July 31 – August 7th friday to Friday.  I will accept a 3 night minimum.  The opening is on Blackwood a private 2bdr cabin we own seperate from the resort on the lake with its own dock.  it has no neighbors and is a prefect quiet location for a last minute retreat.  Give a call if you are interested

I stole this pics of the wooden boat show this last weekend from Kelly at the Bayview Motel.  Kelly was thrilled to catch a ride on one of the old boats.  Thanks Kelly!

Expressions like this mean one thing…. time for a horseshoe tournament.  It brings out competition and facial expressions that make you see people in a whole new light.  Who knew that sweet Sam Scully had a horseshoe alter ego inside of him

Definitely a whole other side of Sam was brought out by horseshoes

Sam Frisch the youngest in the tournament put everything he had in each throw

Sam happily beat his uncle Dan, something nobody was going to let Dan forget

In the end it came down to brother against brother… Danny vs Jimmy

What form…. form would be better Danny if you pulled your shorts up… it almost got him disqualified by his grandma Char

Ya think the competition between brothers was intense?

At the other end of the pits it was Jeanine vs Jordan

Jordan with great form managed to throw the final shoe and it was a good one!!!

Ringer and extra point to score the throw

1st place was supposed to be the Buck Hunter Red Wine… with 3 of the winners being under 21 an adjustment had to be made

Jeanine was happy to receive the wine for 2nd place with Jimmy and Danny and Jordan were happy to get their prize of Bullshit Repellent and T shirts from Rollie and Helens Muskie Shop

What happened to our winners from last year Mike and Julie…  Lets just say better luck next year when Danny and Jordan defend their title

Special thanks to Karey Ross for the pictures of the horseshoe tournament and the last 3 entries.  Karey is always a joy to stay at the resort as she has a great eye for pictures and takes lots of them.  Thanks Karey!!

After a year of talking about a sign at jack’s Landing it finally happened.  There was much discussion about what the sign should look like and in the end I think I think it was done well.  There is a debate if the artist was looking at a Bass or Trout when doing the coloring of the fish.  Jack would have just smiled and said “Looks good guys”

Schmelzer family enjoying time at Jack’s landing

Good job Ken, you did good

Jimmy spent 2 weeks fishing all over the lake for the big fish.  He spent some time fishing off the docks and what happens?

25 inch Northern was caught just outside the swimming area.

Jimmy headed back to the lake to release the Northern to patrol the swimming area once again.  Grandpa jack is smiling from where ever he is, and is wondering if Jimmy has bought his fishing license along to show the warden or if he will need Grandma Char to defend him from the DNR warden.  I think I would rather face the Northern in the swimming area over Char and her red hair with her dander up.

Until you have spent a afternoon on a swinging bed on a screened in porch, on a 70 degree afternoon you do not know what paradise is.  Ken had his spot picked out and the picture speaks for itself

Complete relaxation who is more relaxes Ken or Lucy the dog.  Priceless

Thanks to Karey Ross for the pics today my guest photographer

Why would a hat like this be perfect for a vaction in the Northwoods when you are not a regular beach goer

It is the perfect vacation hat when you enjoy splitting wood on vacation over sitting behind a desk at work.  All firepit users can thank Ted and Troy for their split pine wood this summer.  Ted and Troy split enough to last through the fall for firepits

Finish one pile and another arrives.  With the recession it took some searching to find an excavator with wood lying around. lots are not being cleared, septics cleared and dug or drivewarys cut.   This is how we get most of our wood over the past few years from an excavator company, this year they have no jobs coming up to supply us with wood.  I had to make 10 phone calls to find this pile of popple.  Apparently we are the only firewood users in the Northwoods that like to burn popple.  Popple may not be the longest lasting wood, but it lights easy for folks that aren’t expert firestarters.  Try lighting oak on fire sometime and you will know the difference between popple and oak.  Just don’t steal oak from Troy’s secret winter wood supply in the other shed it earns you no points with him

Sometimes when you have lived for a long time in an area you get stuck only going to certain places or doing certain things.  I challenge everyone to take out the map of your area and find some places you have never been to close to home, or while you have been visiting the resort we have amazing areas around every corner.  In the Northwoods there are so many lakes, trails and historic spots that with our busy lives we never take the time to go to.  We decided to go on an adventure just 10 minutes from the resort to Hancock Lake.  We were geo caching with our entrepreneuring friend Grace

Shoving off the boat landing in to the unknown.   If you have never been in a kayak it is truly a fun experience being maneuverable in the water and close to it while staying nice and dry.  Kayak’s are also light weight and easy to paddle.  We were off on a multi stage Geo Cache

Our leader with the GPS, Grace.  This is the best thing about Geo Caching is the interesting out of the way places you are led to.  We were off in the Kayak’s after the cache

Destination was the stump on the shoreline, easy for Kayaks to get to

One thing that was discovered is the need for mud shoes.   I see a trip to Walmart soon before following Grace on the next adventure

Searching…. Searching and more Searching…. Where is the cache…..  We got skunked!  No cache

Only thing we found was these creepy looking skeletons….  We later learned the cache must have been muggled (stolen by nongeocachers)

No Cache but time to have fun in the Kayak’s paddling around the lake.  Grace in one of the inlets tried to see how deep it was.  I guarantee none of us were in any hurry to jump in no matter how hot it was

Certain people were more interested in what they could fish up with their paddle and dump on the back of their mom’s kayak……

The locals were happy to see us leave so they had the lilypads to themselves

Sidenote:  The lily pad flowers in the picture look pretty but are protected and there is a 500 dollar fine if you are caught picking them.  I highly recommend enjoying them from a distance.  They also are a bit stinky