Muskie Fest - Part II

I now have the correct spelling of Muskie Fest.  There were two days of vendor booths.  It stretched for 4 blocks with vendors back to back in the middle of Main Street so you could go in the stores as well.  I partook of a couple of delicacies with the hand cut French Fries with the potato skin left on as one of them.  Several contests were at the temporary grandstand - dilly bars, watermelon, hula hoop and a few more.  I decided to go all out and attended the Muskie Queen Pageant for college scholarships.  There were 6 girls who just graduated from Hayward High School.  It was fun to watch even though I didn't know anyone.  The best part was the talent portion where one girl came out in camo from head to toe and demonstrated how to shoot a hunting bow and arrow...only in the Northwoods. 

It's Musky Fest Time!

I have been busy with Musky Fest activities.  MF is the second largest event of the year. (The cross country ski race is the biggest.)  I attended the Musky Queen pageant.  Shopped 6 blocks of vendor booths.  Ate brats. Rode in the Musky Fest parade.  Musky is short for the largest game fish in the US - the Muskellunge - that is prevalent around here and the fest is for it and celebrating fishing in general. 

The Lions Club that we are in award college scholarships to 2 high school seniors each year.  So the Lions Club president and I drove the current winners in the parade in a bright yellow Jeep Wrangler.  It was a huge parade because every fire department and organization from miles around were here.  Nobody else has a parade the last Sunday in June!  In the civilized Northwoods there is no throwing of candy or spraying from Super Soakers like in suburban parades.  It was great fun.  Highlight at the beginning of the parade was the introduction of 77 local members of the military that just returned from Afghanistan.  A proud day indeed!

More Musky Fest info later...

Tick Talk

I hate to say it, but I have become a tick expert.  The larger ones (dog ticks) are about the size of the end of a pencil eraser - easy to see (dark brown/black) and easy to remove with tweezers.  (There is NO burning them off with a match unless you want to burn them for fun after removal.)  Then there are the smaller ones (deer ticks) that more often than not - carry Lyme disease.  Let's just say that you don't want to contract Lyme disease.  Deer ticks are harder to see because they are smaller and are more brown than black. (My doctor has given me - and Case, too even though he is not her patient -  open prescriptions to take if the tick is on our body more than 24 hours.  That is suppose to stop any Lyme disease before it starts.)

The goal is to remove any ticks as soon as possible.  This portion of the blog is titled:  KEEPING YOUR MARRIAGE FRESH.  When we come in from being outside, we immediately walk to the shower stall. One of us strips down and steps inside.  Water is not turned on.  The other one inspects every nook and cranny of the one in the stall.  (At 56 and 63 there are nooks and crannies galore.)  Then we change places.  Located ticks are removed and flushed.  We put on clean clothes and go about our day.  There is a Brad Paisley country song, "I want to check you for ticks."  Now I know what the song means. 

Hometown Not Pleasures

Not pleasures can be answered in two words: mosquitoes and ticks. 

If a mosquito landed on my thumbnail, its legs would reach both sides of the nail.  However, one good thing is that they are slow.  Case has the one-overhanded grab technique.  He is quite good.  I am still perfecting my two-handed clap and rub style.  You can't just clap because they fly away when you open your hands so rubbing your hands once after clapping is necessary.  Yes, we do spray on the maximum % amount of DEET allowed, but they always find a spot we missed.  And they are annoying even if they don't land. 

That's all I can take of this...tick talk tomorrow. 

Hometown Pleasures

One of the pleasures of hometown living is the close proximity of everything. 

I left work driving a 1/2 mile to my haircut appointment.  I parked in front of the store.  On the way in I walked 10 feet to the edge of the Post Office property where I could mail my letters. After my haircut I walked across the street to drop off something at church.  I am enjoying all of this Mayberry stuff. 

The 30 minute ride home is a beautiful drive - State Route 77 - which is designated as The Great Divide Scenic Highway.  Doesn't get much better than this.

(The Great Divide that Route 77 follows is the watershed boundary between the Great Lakes (emptying into the Atlantic Ocean) and the Mississippi River (emptying into the Gulf of Mexico).

Tight Circles

I worked as a Dumpster Diva this morning for the Rummage Sale in August.  In the middle of the morning one gentleman dropped off some items to donate.  As he was handing me his boxes, he asked me,  "You aren't from Round Lake Township, are you?"  (The dump is located in that township.)  I reply, "No, I am from Spider Lake Township (the closest one to there) and I belong to the Chequamegon Lions (that take in both areas).  He seemed satisfied with my answer.  Yes, they run in tight circles in the Northwoods. 

I'm alive!

Yesterday at walking group we logged in 4 brisk miles and 1 hour of kayaking on a warm day.  I came home and rested.  I am not sore this morning which is good.  However, the tops of my thighs are quite sunburned.  I forgot to put sunblock there before sitting in the kayak.  This group is pushing me to be active and to be happy.  What a great thing!  Today is a beautifully cool day.  This house has a wonderful cross breeze that the Mt. Prospect house never had. 

It's good day to be alive.

Ah...retirement

Both of us have been quite busy the last few days so we took a three hour nap this afternoon. 

Ah...retirement...

I have arrived...

One of the organizations that we have joined is Lions Club International.  The local club is almost all retirees with 60 or so active members.  The major fundraiser of the year is the Moose Lake Festival held in August.  I have worked on the publicity committee since January.  Remember the 10 am meetings in local bars?  Well, now I know that I have arrived because I have been asked to work on the rummage sale part of the Festival.  They call it a White Elephant sale here.  That group has a name: Dumpster Divas.  The township has allowed us to use a garage on the recycling/garbage collection property.  We gather, sort and price items that are dropped off every Wednesday and Saturday mornings to get ready for the August event.  What fun!  We play several games:  what is it?   which one of us is going to open that awful-looking box?   what are we to do with this broken object that the donor wants us to sell? 

There you go...the exciting life of a retiree. 

On the road to...

Last Sunday Case and I decided to use back roads to get to another part of the county.  They were definitely driveable with the truck.  Along the way there were large stacks of recently cut trees so that means that these roads are currently used for logging roads - big trucks filled with heavy trees going very fast or at the least not giving way on these one and a half lane thoroughfare.We did decide to turn around when there were more ruts and puddles than road.  Probably wise not to drive this way during the week anyway. 

All in an afternoon's adventure.

I am fitting in when...

I know that I am fitting in when...eating lunch at a restaurant with the walking group, a local fishing guide comes in with his client for the day.  All of us, including me, wave and shout out, "Hi, Jerry!" 

It's a good feeling to fit in.

Speaking of clothing...

In our 8 months of retirement I have been noticing the Northwoods uniform in the different seasons.  Fall, of course, is flannel with a heavy dose of camouflage: shirts, sweatshirts, coats, hats, pants and shoes.  It goes without saying that these are in addition to Packer green and gold.  For deer season in November everyone wears bright orange because you have been hunting or are a hunting wannabe.  Winter brings out down and wool in great quantities.  Sweaters with designs across the upper arms and chest never went out of vogue here.  (I've bought myself one.)  Boots of all types are seen, usually untied.  Late winter/early spring is vest season.  After the very first day of warm weather...you know the day... a fluke of 55 degrees when there is still snow on the ground.  After that day the locals go to shirts only no matter what the temp is.  When all the snow has melted, it goes to short sleeves.  Don't think that I am just looking at teenagers.  They wear flip flops year round in both Wisconsin and Illinois. 

I am eager to view summer attire in the Northwoods.

The Changing of the Seasonal Clothes

Today we put away our winter clothes and got out our summer weather ones.  I think we almost shed a tear when we said good-bye to our long-sleeved flannel shirts until Fall.  We'll be alright because we said hello to our short-sleeved flannel shirts.  (A little Northwoods humor...) 

Children's Nursery Rhyme

1, 2 - Buckle my shoe              Lace up work boots
3, 4 - Shut the door              Head outside
5, 6 - Pick up sticks           Chainsaw logs
7, 8 - Lay them straight    In the woodpile for next winter
9, 10 - A big, fat hen.     No chickens...yet.
 
We have had much rain (gully washers) and 40+ mph winds in the past few days.  So today we are picking up sticks.  Some of the sticks are full grown birch trees that are dead.  Three downed trees can be seen from the windows.  We were planning to remove these trees on our timetable, but Mother Nature had different ideas.  Wood that isn't too rotten is cut and put in the woodpile.  Rotten wood and small limbs, branches and sticks are burned.  (A s'more lunch, anyone?)  Retirement affords us the time to stop doing nothing and to do something that needs to be done.

Life is like a children's nursery rhyme.