Temperatures above zero, sunny, little wind... where else would a person spend his day?

January 21, 2016 - Thursday

14 degrees/snow flurries/calm winds

Pentoga Road

And that's exactly how Wednesday was spent, on the ice. With moderate temperatures and little wind, it seemed like the perfect thing to do.

I began the day at the ice shack. Whatever could go wrong did. A rod tip broke. Why, I'm not sure. I went to set the hook into a fish and it simply broke off. That will be going back to the store to exchange for a new one. The rod was used for less than two minutes. 

The propane heater wouldn't start, then I almost lost the ice strainer down the hole. A line broke and it took almost an hour to get a spare rod ready. By that time, I didn't need the propane heater. There was already enough smoke coming from the ice shack.

What to do? Fishing and my mood were one and the same, lousy. A corporate decision was made to move the ice shack... not just move it, but to take it off the lake until fish could be found.

Thankfully, a road was plowed on Tuesday and pulling it to shore was easy.

The light-weight structure was tipped over on its side and the skis scraped clean of ice. Two trips were made, the first with the sled containing all the equipment, the second, pulling the shack. 

I did a few chores around the house and by early afternoon was fishing on another nearby lake. The fish were hitting. Unfortunately, most were small. 

Sargie had put ribs in the slow cooker yesterday morning. Once home, I baked a couple of potatoes from last summer's garden and we feasted like royalty last night. Along with winter squash, the meal was to-die-for good. For certain, no one is going to starve around here for the next few days.

Sargie opens this morning. I think I'm going to begin browsing seed catalogues, maybe make an order or two. I ordered some giant cabbage seeds last night and have decided that last year's 27 lb cabbage simply wasn't big enough. I'm going for a 50 lb head this coming summer. Years ago, I grew one in Maine that weighed 47 lbs. The boys and I named it "Big Betty" after a neighbor. Don't ask.

Time to move along here and get the day started. Sargie's in the shower and the maid hasn't yet arrived to fix breakfast. Guess I might as well get it started.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...