SIMPLER TIMES!

I got the first batch of the year rolling Friday night.   No big sap run yet but enough to get things rollin.

 With Susie in Milwaukee taking care of family matters.  The dogs and I have been making many treks back and forth from the bush the the house.





A quick bite of polish and back at it.

I had a few visitors today.  Mike and Conner stopped by for a juice box.



Later,  my snagging buddies Rich, Jerry his mom and sister came by to give me the report on the ice conditions below lock and dam 12.  Then they ran down to Clinton to check things down South.

The plan was to snag this am but 20* with some howling winds nixed that plan.

 I did another late night burn down in the bush.

 I tarped the stove area and  covered up the pan to prepare for the predicted inch of snow.

 As I spend time down in the timber I often think my childhood and of the time we spent at our family cabin.  I couldn't have been happier, being with my mom, dad and often other family and friends at our cabin.
What a great place that was. According to the back of the photo.  Mom wrote, "Backbone Hideout, Good times in this place.  From 1956 to 1973, grandpa John and dad built this"!
This cabin sat on 3 acres, surrounded on three sides by Backbone State Park.  All materials were brought in by boat or over the ice on the Maquoketa river.  Then carried  about a half mile overland down a foot trail.  The floor plan was wide open with the kitchen and wood stove on the West end,  dining table near the large south window with the beds and sleeping loft on the East end.  To the North the cabin butted up to the hillside at the base of a small bluff.
 Although we never tapped maples, we hunted the surrounding  hills, fished and swam in the Maquoketa river.




Here's a shot of dad with some nice fish from the Maquoketa.

As I put on my Green, gearing up for a Council meeting at Council Hill Station.  I think of my mother, Joyce who passed peacefully, three years ago after an afternoon of card playing and celebrating St. Patrick's Day.








  I would like to make a toast to lying, stealing, cheating and drinking.  If you're going to lie, lie for a friend.  If you're going to steal, steal a heart.  If you're going to cheat, cheat death.  And if you're going to drink, drink with me.
       
To Joyce and simpler times!