I Know What a Freezy Pop Feels Like....

BRRRRRRR.... that's how I will remember today's fishing trip! Me sitting in the bottom of the boat with 10 layers of clothes on trying to stay warm while we drive around the lake trying to find out where the perch are hanging out.... We decided to go out fishing early this morning and the temperature was a balmy 41 degrees that doesn't count the windchill factor - by 3:00 p.m. when we quit fishing - it was a balmy 42 degrees! So, I now know what a freezy popsicle feels like...
Nevertheless, the smallmouth didn't mind the cold, they were starving and our lures were on the menu... and we are constantly amazed at how big and how many there are... we of course gave up looking for the perch because we couldn't pull ourselves away from catching the smallmouth long enough to look anymore.
I have lots more of pictures from today but for some reason can't upload them now. I will try again later this evening.... stay tuned....

Slabbers in Grand Marais

Happy Memorial Day from Beautiful Grand Marais MI. Bill & I just returned from our best day yet of fishing and I had to find an Internet connection so I could share some pictures with all of you. (I won’t tell you how I found the Internet connection, but let me just say I hope you enjoy this blog…)

Here's the rundown so far. We got here on Friday and I was all about a nap, but Bill couldn’t wait to catch some slabbers, so off we go to his favorite lake in search of the biggest Smallmouth we can find. We weren't disappointed... the weather was beautiful (sunny but a little cold as you can see we have our fishing clothes on…) and the fish were plentiful…

Day 2 Daryl and Victor joined us because after seeing the pictures of day 1 they decided to stay an extra day and try a little fishing with us.... they weren't disappointed either but Bill & I forgot the camera that day and all we had was Victors camera (Thank goodness he brought his)... I caught the biggest Smallmouth of my life.... Bill had hooked a nice smallmouth and I paused my retreival to wait for him to get the fish in and BANG huge smallmouth hits my lure... can you say DOUBLE! So Bill gets his fish in and I calmly say GET THE NET IT'S HUGE - I'm sure I said please... and after we get it in the boat (not a small feat) I tell Bill we should keep it so I can get it weighed... to which Bill responds, "It's not Bass season..." to which I respond by throwing the my fish and his fish back in the lake...

Of course later when I consult the fishing rule book it in fact was bass season and I could have kept the fish (I will leave it up to you blog readers to decide if Bill knew that or not) Victor – don’t lose the pictures, I’m counting on you! (I will add it to the blog when I get the picture)

Day 3 was a little bit disappointing as we decided to venture over to a new lake (if I told you about the nature trail you have to go down to get to that lake, you wouldn’t believe me… let’s just summarize it by saying you drive around the entire lake (only you can’t see it) on the worst road you have ever seen in your life… to get to this godforsaken lake that you are seriously wondering if it even exists) so after that trip we were ready to get some walleye and unfortunately we struck out (not due to lack of trying).... We did however go to Lake Superior Brewing Company and have the best whitefish in the world which made up for the lack of Walleye catching that day...
Day 4 (today) was AWESOME! The smallmouth were everywhere, we caught so many we gave up taking pictures and just kept fishing... Bill caught a really nice Pike, but has still come up short on beating me in the race for the biggest smallmouth... I wonder… if he catches one – can I tell him it isn’t in season?

More to come soon… hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

Gone Fishin'

Hey All you blog readers out there - Just wanted to let you know Bill & I will be leaving today for the Great White North - we will be back in June sometime (depends on how good the fishing is I guess...)
I would love to tell you I will update the blog with all the great stories about Bill catching my fish - ha oh wait he can't do that, well maybe he can 1 time we caught the same fish....
But in Grand Marais where we are going, I don't think they have invented the Internet yet and I am not holding my breath that they will, so I guess I will have to remember the stories, bring home the pictures and tell you all the tales when I get back.
Unfortunatly, the sad part about this trip is we are going to be missing Cole's 7th Birthday party... hopefully mom and dad will take pictures for me to post here when I get back and.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!
~Bill & Traci

T-Ball

Yesterday was Cole's second T-ball game of the season and although it was a little chilly, it was a great game!

Cole, our 3-11" 50lb home run hitter wears the #2 jersey this year, so at his last game he was second in the hitting line-up. Well this game the coach switched up the line-up and Cole was going to be 2nd to last, however... as it turns out player #1 wasn't at the game so from the dug-out we hear "Who is number 1, I can't be the last hitter"

Well as it turns out the last hitter in the lineup runs the bases so Cole was able to get 3 in the park homerun's - the last of which he was trying to catch his friend Corbin who hit before him....

Although he didn't quite catch Corbin, we think he may like being the last hitter in the line-up after all.

We also had to chuckle when Cole was playing short-stop and the coach told the defense to be ready to which Cole responded - "My name isn't defense"

The coach teaching the team an important lesson about Sportsmanship and how to treat the other team the way they would want to be treated. Great job coach!

And of course - Lexi cheering for her favorite brother Cole and chowin down on some Mc'D's

How do City Folk Pick Mushrooms?

If you ever wondered how City Folk pick mushrooms, read on.... Mr. & Mrs. City took litte city mushroom hunting this week in the Schug woods around Schoolcraft.

In case you missed the first installment, little city is Jen & Joel's son Jadyn (look City I can spell) and Mr & Mrs. City are yours truely.

It's a long story but it went something like this (Bill:"look at those crazy city folk" Jadyn: "What's a city folk look like?" Bill: "you" Jaydn:"no, you!" and hence we have Little City and Mr & Mrs. City...

It was a productive trip, here is a picture of Mr. City teaching Little City what Poison Ivy looks like so that he would try to avoid it - hopefully that lesson worked - haven't heard about any poison ivy outbreaks....

We also learned about the secret to finding mushrooms in the woods (if you are asking right now, what is the secret.... good luck, you will need to take that up with Mr City unless you can get little city to tell)

Oh and to top it all off, we found some mushrooms!

The Pond - Remix

As I mentioned before, the pond is in the rebuild stage. Bill has been working hard to get it back in action (because as we know when it comes to ponds it's all about the action - just ask Joel)... here are some of the in progress pictures... I will add the final pic when it is totally done.

Dad, if you are reading this post, look at these little tiny rocks that the farmers "pick" in schoolcraft, HA - pretty funny stuff...

The Great Mushroom Hunt

It was a beautiful day for a mushroom hunt, so as Bill & I were leaving the farm for the day on Sunday - Trevor decided to convince us that if we didn't go find mushrooms with them, he would have to find them all.... of course we couldn't turn down this challenge so off to the woods we went. This was Lexi's second year of mushroom hunting, but last year she was uninterested and fell asleep as mom carried her through the woods. This year though, her favorite uncle Bill was convinced that he would teach her to find more mushrooms than her dad, and I think he succeeded.

As it turned out we were not the first ones to decide that it was a beautiful day for mushroom hunting, so we found a few stumps where others had beaten us to the sacred spots, but don't worry - Uncle Bill was up to the challenge, and soon Lexi had found her first mushroom with a little assistance...

The best part was Lexi asking Uncle Bill where the rest of the mushrooms where and telling him she wanted to find more... and screaming Unnnnnncllllllllleeeeeeee Biiiiiiiilllllllllll through the woods when he got too far away from her :-) It must suck to be the favorite uncle.