Work, Weather, Wind, Winter is Coming

With the fish smoked, and weather taking a turn, it was time to get a little work done. After all winter is coming. We needed wood...

.. and our favorite Yoopers delivered a couple of face cords.

We cleaned up the grounds and collected enough wood for a bonfire...

And most importantly, before Brian took off, we needed to get the dock out. Did I mention weather coming in? It was a little more weather than we were expecting:

Gale whips area -Storm churns waves, closes schools, causes power outages

“We have a very intense fall storm affecting the upper Great Lakes and obviously producing significant strong winds and very high waves out on the lake,” Zika said. “We probably have to go back six or seven years to (find) the last time we’ve had a full-blown fall storm, high-wind storm, affecting such a large area.” Winds have been recorded up to 70 mph over the lake and 50-60 mph on the coast and inland, Zika said. Winds will continue throughout the morning and start to subside in the early afternoon, with a total of one to three inches of rain expected... 

UPPCO spokesman Brett French said in a statement that about 6,000 UPPCO customers were without power in Marquette, Alger, Delta, Houghton and Keweenaw counties as of 10:30 this morning. Hardest hit areas include Gwinn, K.I. Sawyer, AuTrain, Calumet and Hancock."

But wind or no wind, we had work to do...
We lost power and a bunch of tree branches came down around camp. Worst was the top third of a tree fell on the shed, but fortunately hit low enough that it caused minimal damage to Harlan's recently repaired roof.

The branch did take out an ATT phone cable..

... which we don't use anymore, so no problem. 

After sweeping off the debris, it was almost good as new.

Called Craig and arranged to get the pontoon boat on bricks.

Found enough debris out of the storm for another bonfire.

After that, we continue to survive on whatever leftovers we could find in the freezer.

All Harlan left us was a marinated skirt steak.

Another day for final cleanup, and we were ready to depart.

There are a few more details, but I'll save that for my traditional eagerly anticipated Annual Review Camp Close Family e-mail. Time to go.

Fish Food

The best antidote for watching the Cubs season end is to get in the car and drive to Shag Lake. The next morning Dad and I did exactly that. This would be a much shorter trip than our usual excursions North. Katie's wedding is scheduled for about 10 days hence, which would only give us about a week at the lake.

 Brian arrived a day earlier, so we were welcomed by a warm fire and open door at Camp. Brian also brought his smoker and that set the agenda for the next few days. If we were to get enough fish to make the smoking effort worthwhile, we had to catch a bunch of fish over the next couple of days. We were past the bass season, so fishing for pike was the order of the day.

Generally speaking, the fish gods do not respond well to deadlines and mandatory catch size. But they were smiling on us this trip.  Our first day brought 70 degrees, blue skies, and plenty of pike.

I got the first fish and biggest fish with a 26 inch beauty minutes into the first excursion. It was a preview of coming attractions.

Brian's custom fish hotel was given a proper test. 

Over the two days, we caught 12 pike. Dad caught the most fish with 7, Brian got 3 and I got 2 (but I was driving the boat most of the time).

One pike was sacrificed as an offering to the Eagle and Turtle Gods. Four of the fish were filleted for a "Tasty Northern Pike" dinner preparation.

The remainder went into a brine preparation and smoked.

The culmination...

Yooper Surf and Turf
Smoked pike, venison sausage, country rye and "Big Mac" IPA

Definitely turned out better than last time. 

The Last Cubs Game

After the Cubs finally won a game in the NLCS against the Dodgers at Wrigley, hope sprung eternal in this Cubs fan. Sure the odds of coming back from a 3-1 deficit was daunting, but I had to get to Wrigley for game 5.  This would either be the Cubs last game of the season, last game at Wrigley, and last game  as defending World Champions, or it would give us momentum and a more realistic hope at 3-2 to fight our way back to the World Series. I mean, after that crazy game 5 against the Nats, anything seems possible.

The commute was a little tough, as noted in my Facebook post:


My brother Harlan found us a great deal on tickets...

 ... and my sister Wendy picked me up at Ohare.

 I needed some basic sustenance and grabbed a Chicago Dog at the airport  to maintain my strength as Wendy fought through traffic.

We got to Wrigley by game time, but Quintana was already pitching as we waited in line to get through the gate.

The seats on row four of the right field line were great ...

...but by the time we sat down, the Cubs were losing. By the time I finished my first beer, Quintana was out of the game. By the time I located the Italian beef stand, the game was out of hand.  On the plus side, we found cousins Daniel and Hannah at the game.

We had a fun time chatting and generally ignoring the on-going disaster on the field. Look,  I spent a lot of years watching terrible Cubs teams lose while still enjoying the ambiance of Wrigley Field, so I cannot say this feeling was unfamiliar to me.  I'd like to say it is more tolerable to watch a very good team like this lose, but I'm not so sure. In the old days, my expectations going into the park were quite a bit lower.

I guess I need to wrap this up with the game itself, and lets give the Dodgers their due with coverage from the LA Times:

"Dodgers crush Cubs in Game 5 to advance to the World Series for first time since 1988

Kershaw looked formidable from the start. He snapped a pair of curveballs to fan Cubs outfielder Albert Almora, Jr. His fastball touched 96 mph. He ended the inning with groundouts from third baseman Kris Bryant and first baseman Anthony Rizzo, the neutralized heart of the opposing lineup. 

When Kershaw retook the mound in the second, his lead had doubled. Hernandez blitzed Quintana for a first-pitch, solo homer. An inning later, the Dodgers forced Quintana off the mound with the bases loaded. Maddon opened up his bullpen, a group of relievers as volatile as nitroglycerine in the sun, and watched Hector Rondon hang a slider to Hernandez, who pumped his fist as the baseball landed in the basket above the ivy 

The slam freed Kershaw to attack the Cubs. A seven-run lead expanded to nine in the fourth, after Logan Forsythe stroked a two-run double. Kershaw’s bid for a no-hitter ended when Bryant hit a solo homer in the fourth. He did not permit another Cub to reach second base."

So it goes. I attended two Cub games this year, one at ATT Park, and this game at Wrigley. I am 0-2 on the season. Still, I can't complain. This was the best 3 year streak of my life as Cubs fan. Three division championships. three National League Championship Series, and a World Series.  I am sure there will be changes to the team before Spring Training but at this point I am happy to #TrustTheo. We'll see a familiar but different team on the field again in 2018. We can expect some of our favorites will be playing in other uniforms, and we'll have some new stars on the field. With this front office, we can also expect to see another contender playing quality baseball. 

Wait'll next year.