Fair Maps

Noon rally at the clock for an end to gerrymandering. Similar gatherings all around the state. Nice turnout (more than in the photo) and nice short speeches. Cold and windy.

Even colder and windier when later in the afternoon we met Bri at Pewaukee to remove the iceboats from the ice. The area around the ramp still mostly open water, in spite of the low temps, so we had to carry the boats off and then finagle the trailer around a narrow ice shelf all the while working to keep it from sliding sideways into the deep. A bit of work, but otherwise a piece of (ice cream) cake.

Mostly Inside…

…because single digits outside are not very appealing. It’s so cold outside, in fact, that compost won’t.

Good day to turn from model building to bookshelf manufacturing. The remediation folks left behind several beautiful pine boards, and since I have several unsightly book piles in the bedroom, the project seemed to suggest itself. The case has to fit over a vent, hence the holes. Of course, I blew it on the blind dadoes. The top shelf still needs its edges routed.

On a Warmer Note…

…seed catalogs. Hmmmn…what to grow this year?

And…a couple of mysteries today: The upper section of Katy’s clarinet seems to have been replaced by an imposter. Who done it? And…in spite of very cold temperatures a big puddle of water was discovered in front the the ramp on Pewaukee, making the planned removal of the boats problematic. (Yesterday’s big south wind and warmer temps caused a big downward heave right at the ramp, and that, of course, filled with liquid.
Bri and I surveilled it this aft, and, knowing that every problem wants to be solved, and that the the boats are safe, decided to let Mother Nature take care of it. It’s cold and getting colder, and the ramp will almost certainly repair itself.

Wombat Weady

Boat and trailer de-bird-pooped, cleaned up, checked over; tool bag updated; trailer tires topped up. Now snuggled into Vi’s side yard (very kind of Vi to accommodate). I’m hoping for a chance to show off this ancient, classic beauty as she swoops across perfect ice on a perfect wind on a perfectly warm and perfectly sunny day.

Otherwise, made a little more progress on the skipjack model. I continue to plug away, and, so far, although many mistakes, no catastrophic, project-ending failures.

Haumerson Pond…

…where the Crawfish meets the Rock. Skating pond, beautiful timber frame warming house, ski trails—all built and maintained by volunteers.

Sue is making chop suey for dinner. Haven’t had that, if memory serves, since I can remember. On rice, with chow mein noodles. This ought to be good.

Iceboating...

…back in the day...

Somehow, this photo ended up on the dresser in my bedroom and has remained there for well over a decade. I look at it every night, but can’t begin to figure out who is who. I know the boat is the famed Arrow, and the lake is Crystal Lake.

In other news, the Wombat is back! Sue and I got her out of Roger’s barn this afternoon, after an idleness of what, three years? With the weather pattern we are now experiencing—deep cold and little precipitation—I’m betting there will be lots of thick ice in lots of places, at least until the first of April. I’m imagining more than a few days with a fair breeze, bright sun, and the thermometer over the freezing mark. That could be fun.

Troubleshooting and Technical Consulting

Neighbor Bill had his TV go out this morning. And Bill gets up early.
So, early this morning we got a call (he has Sue’s number) asking if I might be able to look at a malfunctioning TV.
I walked over in my slippers, and, through a process of elimination, determined that the old semi-flat screen was more than semi defunct. I suggested buying a new one, and volunteered to help set it up.
Not long after I had shuffled home, we (Sue) got another call saying that a new TV had been acquired and wondering if I might I be available to set it up.
In case anyone is tempted to do something like this, I would advise looking behind an old TV console before you begin. Besides dust bunnies, you will find a rat’s nest of wires and cables.
But, in this case, in spite of the tangle, and in spite of password problems, and in spite the need to re-scan channels and make the remote universal, Bill got to the point where he could actually watch a football game. And, it only took two hours.

The rest of the day was tame by comparison.

Tuneup Races

on Pewaukee Lake. Very windy, very cold, with very hard ice, which means very fast.

Actually, too fast for me. Though I had Nite 165, I sat out the races. (Tony otherwise engaged.) I’m no longer strong enough, flexible enough, and crazy enough for this sort of thing. One probably shouldn’t be racing if if one has difficulty getting into and out of the boat.
Still—hard to beat just being outside, on the ice, experiencing winter at its finest.

In The Basement and On The Hill

Basement almost completely reassembled, and actually looking better than before the flood, in my opinion.

And then later in the afternoon, I removed all 50 temporary white tape tree tags in the area of the Arboretum where we had set up for a pair of University students to do a GIS tree ID project. I removed all the staples, too, although some of them were reluctant to come loose. It only seemed respectful, especially if some of these are mother trees. I’m withholding comment on the value of the student work.

Mostly Carpet

Too cold to do much outside, and carpet installers getting in the way of doing much inside.

Made progress on Suzanne Simard’s book Finding The Mother Tree, a personalized account of her research on what goes on underground in the forest. She discovered that an amazing amount does go on, thanks to mycorrhizal networks connecting trees of many species into what has come to be known as the the “wood-wide-web." Mycorrhiza are various species of fungi that intertwine and sometime interpenetrate the roots of plants helping them obtain minerals and other nutrients. Simard discovered that without the fungus trees have little hope of surviving. She also found out that trees don’t just compete with each other for light and water but actually cooperate, sending nutrients and and medicines back and forth. The forest, she found, is a highly interconnected place, and as a result, can prosper. Clearcuts are bad.

Coldness

High of 10.

Above, the gas-fired peaker plant north east of Town. Lots of CO2 and lots of steam. On the upside, the plant practices cogeneration, and supplies heat to the university.

In other news, ice is thickening on all the local lakes, and sailing looks likely this weekend.

Winter Weather…

…chilly all day, with a dusting of snow, and down below zero tonight. Just what’s needed to make basement work enjoyable. Or would tolerable be a better word? Anyway, almost done, now that perfection has been deemed improbable. Below, shots from a winterized yard.

While paint was drying I signed up for a “Great Courses” course on Ancient Civilizations of North America, and sat through the first two lectures. While lectures are not the learning style I find most effective, I have acquired some knowledge, and will not walk out of the classroom.

Object d’Art

Not an August Rodin or a Henry Moore, but, nonetheless, a piece of fine, if utilitarian, sculpture, fit for a throne room.

In that room, BTW, the repainted walls have been repainted and the replaced molding has been replaced, and things are starting to look good, even better than in their antediluvian state.

Sometimes when you want things done right you have to do them yourself.

Furthermore, TP rolls remind me of Jonathan Swift’s Big-Endians and Little-Endians (in Gulliver’s Travels). Are you an Over-Roller or and Under-Roller?

And…just an update…the red velvet cake came close to the Katy exemplar……………but not quite.

Skip The Skipjack

Too busy redoing the basement to work on the model boat. A hard day’s work down there, with countless trips up and down the stairs. (We are putting all that in the “exercise” column.) And, progress is being made.

The model boat, meanwhile, while being ignored today, is coming along, and so far has suffered no major failures. Getting close to the painting and rigging stages. Beginning to think that the project might actually make it all the way to completion.

For dinner tonight, Tourtiere, and afterward, red velvet cake—fingers crossed that it will be a good as the one Katy made up north.

Fixing The Fixed

Now that the basement remediation has wrapped up, the two of us are down there fixing everything that was done wrong, or at least not up to our standards. We hope to have all the repairs to the repairs done this week, before the new carpet arrives. There’s nothing like a good project.

In other news, a very large hawk needed shooing from the garage today, which for everyone was a bit scary. We think it swooped in in pursuit of a bird but then got disoriented. Fortunately for it and us, it was, unlike a cardinal several years ago, smart enough to finally swoop out. Many birds won’t go down in order to fly up, to freedom.