Black’s Cliff Resort’s Birch Bark Blog

I warned ya, the conversion and swearing has commenced.  I do like the new Mac, just figuring out all the bells and whistles plus Christmas Shopping and getting cabins ready for Christmas has been a challenge.  I will have more time tomorrow, Thursday, to figure out my pictures on to the Mac to do some uploads.  In the end the conversion is a good thing but I do not recommend doing it during the Christmas rush.  The old PC is headed off to internet land to have some hardware fixed under warranty.  Good news is after it comes back we will have 2 computers and having one down will not handicap the Birchbark Blog and my email abilities.

Til then I need to get all my websites favorites on to the Mac and how in the world do I move my address book in Outlook Express over to a Mac.  Do not tell me I have to enter each one individually or my head may pop off and spin around

The Black’s Cliff 2010 Calendar can still be ordered in time for Christmas.  It is 25 % off this week.  They are regularly 19.99 plus shipping and handling through Walgreens.  If you are interested give me a call with your credit card.  I can make this order anytime even into January as I do it on an individual basis with each order

sample month, this is June’s layout

the Dog Days of summer in August

Always a layout of Loons

Back page showing the layout of each month.  If you have someone hard to buy for, for Christmas they make great gifts but time is running out to get them under the tree by Christmas give a call

My favorite pic of the day.  We got an additional 5 inches of snow last night and this morning.  The trees were loaded and it was beautiful to look out off the hill at the snow still coming down through the pines.  Good news is our problems with our plow truck are on the way to being fixed.  Truck has a new exhaust system which was planned for maintence.  The plow on the other hand is a different story.  Troy and Steve spent an entire day last week getting the plow off the truck and up to the shop.  We are at the mercy of the mechanic at the plow shop who is swamped at the moment.  Good thing the folks coming today have 4 wheel drive, as it is going to be a few days yet before the resort gets plowed out.  Maybe we can bribe him with Christmas cookies or cranberry bread

Digging out the old fashioned way.  Between last week and this weeks storm snow is definitely pilling up.  I had skiers out at Winter Park last weekend reporting good conditions.  Vilas County snowmobile trails open on Wednesday and Oneida’s trails open on Thursday.  Looks like it will be a good Christmas to New Years conditions for playing in the snow.  I also saw my first crazy Ice Fishermen on Lake Katherine this last weekend

More pics off the hill

Bows and Bells are up now if we could just get the driveway plowed we will be ready for Christmas

Holding up the world by one finger

Steve holding up the world.  Bit of frost between the logs kept them in place as well

I have confidence the pile in back of me will not move

Ready to break up the pile

Get out of the way!

The new back drop for the Christmas concert at the local school.  Notice anything interesting in the back drop?

Only in Northern Wisconsin do we mix guns and Christmas.

You should know better when things are going along well there is always a snafoo waiting in wings.  Big storm caused us all to stay in yesterday and get things done like end of the year books, christmas presents ordered on line and a batch of Christmas cookies with bored kids.

Today was to be the clean up day behind the storm, getting the last of the snow banks cleaned up.  Took 3 kids to school in the plow truck so Steve could use it at Life Spring to clean up his entrances.  Got everyone dropped off, gas in the truck, coffee in hand at Life Spring while Steve takes the first swipe at snow…..  and….  Plow on the plow truck will not go up.  Good News Steve had the plow headed into the driveway and parked it by a snowbank off the highway.  Bad News, how do you get a truck with a 1/2 ton plow dragging on the ground to the shop to get fixed.  I have heard solutions of winching the plow up with a come along to changing the toggle switch on the control.  All of the above are being discussed between Troy and Steve in the cold of Life Spring.  Will the truck make it to the garage…. tune back in

In the meantime, time is short this morning and I ran into this interesting blog about skiing with the local wildlife out west that I thought was interesting, Enjoy

http://garrottkuzzy.com/?p=299

The first half of the big storm came through.  Public Enemy number one ventured out to my bird feeders this morning between the continuing snowflakes

Muskie Inn pelted in snow

Forgot to put my loon in the garden away and it got buried in the snow.  Looking a little pathetic this morning

My birdhouse snow report.  Under the drift somewhere the house is.

Headed up to get coffee to find Life Spring snow encrusted.  Only a true coffee addict would head out in this weather just to get a cup of good coffee from Steve

Steve plowing out the Spring this morning, this afternoon he gets to plow out the resort.  Just another day at the office

This is one turkey with attitude.  I had these pictures emailed to me from our neighbor who bow hunted across the road from the resort.  He sent up this animal cam and caught the deer and bear pics I posted a few weeks ago.  Wade caught these pics the end of October and just sent them to me to share.  Hope you enjoy more of the neighbors across the road.  This turkey definitly is not a friendly neighbor

I have seen up to 2o or so turkeys in the resort and on Lower Kaubashine this fall.  The wild turkey is definitely making a come back in the Northwoods.  They are not afraid of chasing a larger deer off.  These 2 were fighting over who got to eat Wade’s bait pile in the woods

I also stole this picture from my brother in law Bryon.  He took it on The Raven Trail looking out at Clear Lake last weekend.   I thought it was a cool pic showing snowballs on the lake

Tonight we are under a winter storm warning with 9 – 13 inches of snow expected.  Snow in the Pines pics should be awesome tomorrow for those who need a dose of them.

Side Note:  I am not sure what jinx it is I have on PC’s  2 years ago I dropped my lap top destroying it, last year I had a bad hard drive and lost another one.  This year my newest computer is acting up.  The prognosis is it is a hardware problem and it is going to be sent away for warranty work for 1 – 2 weeks.  I have decided Black’s Cliff needs a back up computer and am looking into a Mac, I hear they are more durable and have a great photo editing program.  If I happen to not post for a couple of days in the next week it means I am doing the transition to the Mac world and trying to figure it out.  It might involve a few swear words and some spiked holiday egg nog.  Before the new one arrives I am limping the old one through that locks up and crashes a couple of times a day

Clear night and temps dipped enough to freeze the lake over last night

Couldn’t resist to chop some of the ice and see how thick it had become

You need at the least 3 inches I have heard to walk on.  I feel much better when there is a full foot of ice on the lake.  I know however, somewhere in the Northwoods there is a crazy icefisherman who has ventured out on the lake to be the first one this weekend

Plate Techtonics already at work with cracks and stress

Poe and his ice report.  Like the ground hog, what day does Poe deem the lake safe.  Today he did head out without hesitation

Old dog knows best…. I am still waiting awhile yet before sharpening up the skates and getting the hockey puck out for the boys

Headed down to the lake this morning to see if it froze over.  I saw that a rabbit had beat me to the lake down the steps

Icebergs were spread all over the lake.  It will not be long before it is all the way across

One of our long time guests Charles Hebert (married to Amy Tempel) has started an online fishing blog and fishing tackle shop on line

www.selecttacklecompany.com

Charles has some great stuff in his store and has channeled all his fishing ideas into a blog called The Arm Chair Fisherman.  I figured there were quite a few other arm chair fishermen and women out there who would appreciate Charles’ site and blog.  Congrats to Charles on the site