We arrived in the northwoods just as the sun set on Friday. After a few tasks and a few drinks, an early night was called. Many of us had to get up early to ride the lifts at Brule.
The lift rides, all 32 of them, were most fun. During one, we got to see a snowboarder crash on the "Spillway" run. Did you ever see Charlie Brown get smacked by a baseball while pitching in the old "Peanuts" comic strip? Where all his equipment flies off along with his clothes, leaving him laying on the mound in his underwear? The crash we witnessed was like that without the pitchers mound and I think he had on one sock in addition to his underwear at the end. Ouch.
We got back to behold a beautiful sunset over the lake. While finishing a lite bit of supper and some of the older beer abandoned at the bar last fall, we finished cleaning up the waterless bar for the upcoming bar night.
Nemo: *makes sour face* "Bad burp."
Mrs Nemo: "Bad burp, eah? Did it taste of Bud Lite and Death?"
Nemo: "No, more like Dinty Moore Beef Stew and Death."
Just after sunset a full-ish moon popped up over the pines to the east. It was time to begin one of the better attended bar nights of the year.
As Saturday got closer to Sunday the Bailey's Comet was sighted on the north end of Lucerne. A few shots of "Hog Master" were also "enjoyed".
Nemo: "xxLt, try some Hog Master."
Joe: "Yeah, heh, heh, try some Hog!"
xxlt: *gives me a wary look* "What does it taste like?"
Nemo: *pouring lite shot* "Hard to say." *xxLt Drinks shot* "Sort of like Jagermeister, but better".
Joe: "Yeah, it's good, heh, heh!"
xxLt: *Slams empty shot down* "Auggg! I hate Jagermeister!" *attempts to get taste out of his mouth with soft drink that Joe has added more than a little rum to when he wasn't looking*.
Joe "Heh, Heh, Heh!"
The bar night had it all. Beer, carefully layered shots, carefully layered flaming shots, pool, bar-rail bowling*, and Joe. Truly it was a night, and early morning, to remember.
*All time high score of 221 seen this very bar night.
The condition of Knott lane is bad. It was slushy on Saturday, frozen and lumpy on Sunday.
I'm told that the old stack, parts of which are seen here, had issues with containing smoke that were not getting any better.
The sap shack got a new stack on Sunday.
Under increasingly cloudy skies, the last task before we left was to check the ice thickness.
The new stack will be thoroughly tested in the next few weeks.
As we were pulling away, some of the sap buckets had awakened and were watching us through a window. The newly arisen buckets can be quite demanding this time of year. Demanding to be hung on a spile under a maple tree, demanding to be covered, demanding to be emptied daily, and finally demanding to be gathered up, washed, rinsed, and put back to sleep for ten and a half months. I'll strive to post the entire season.
There is currently 23.5 inches of ice. The first 6 inches are pretty "airy".
