The Hunt Is On

Hunting season is approaching rapidly in Wisconsin. Gun hunting that is, bow hunting season is long underway. I joined my husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law in the woods for the first time in 2011. From sunrise on Saturday morning until sunset on Sunday evening, I would sit in a tiny deer blind with my gun and a little heater, fighting off boredom, trying to stay warm. Some years it was easier than others. But despite diligently going out every year, I have yet to see a buck, let alone shoot one.

This means the question whether or not I can actually shoot a deer has remained unanswered. We hunted in Forest County, where the bucks are few and far between. We saw plenty of does the last couple of years, but nothing with horns. One year I saw a little buck with spikes at dawn, but not worth shooting, even if I could have gotten off a shot.

The buckless hunting frustrated my husband to no end. So last year he embarked on a search for better hunting grounds. Armed with a spreadsheet filled with DNR data, he located the Walhalla of Wisconsin deer hunting land: Buffalo County, where the bucks are plentiful and the racks worthy of mounting. The eighty acres and cabin in Forest County were sold, and the search for new land began. 

We found a beautiful forty acres tucked in between Durand and Mondovi, and spent the summer creating a spot for the future cabin, a driveway, and hunting stands for everyone. Mine is the last one to be built. I have a platform but will be spending my ten-year-sitting-in-the-woods-with-a-gun anniversary in a tent. And it looks like this year might actually be THE year. Bow hunting season was off to a good start as you can see.

Leaf Peepers

We were in the UP last weekend, prepping for the winter. Large quantities of wood were cut, split, and stacked. The new sliding door was sealed, and the source of the water leak was repaired. We were just a smidge too late for peak colors, so you get last year's pictures instead. Complete with pre-braces and pre-pink-haired Lola.

Hanneke

Yooper Update June 2020

It occurred to me that I haven't shared an update on our Yooper project in quite a while. To be honest, we haven't done much. For the remainder of the summer of 2018 we continued peeling off layers of paneling, lath and plaster, and the likes, only to come across issue after issue. A car went off the road about thirty years ago, for instance, and ended up in the living room. The resulting broken studs were never properly repaired. The foundation was seriously bowed inward due to decades of heavy snow pushing against it. The kitchen floor and joists were rotted through.

So, somewhere in August we decided to temporarily throw in the towel on the one house and focus on the other for a little bit. We cleaned it out, painted the downstairs, and moved in. And that's where we have stayed for the past two years. We did put a new roof on the first home because we feared it would not last another Michigan winter without better protection, but that was about it.

For the past eighteen months we didn't do much more than hang out, enjoy the area, and putz a little bit in the woods. We paddle boarded on the Montreal River, swam in Lac La Belle, encountered a wolf on the way there, and enjoyed the summer weather with family and friends.

But the houses won't fix themselves. And so we've made a plan, along with a budget, for everything that needs to be done. We are currently looking at financing because there is a lot on that to-do list. If we go the bank route, we'll be done at the end of the summer - I remain ever the optimist - and can rent out the houses during the winter sports season. They're perfectly situated for that; right on the snowmobile trail, a few miles from Mt. Bohemia.

If we decide not to finance this endeavor, it will be a ten-year plan with one large project every (other) year. This year's projects, regardless of financing, are putting in a driveway and fixing the foundation. We made a very solid start with the driveway last week, and the foundation repair is done. Onward!

New Adventures In The UP

Hey there! Yes, it’s been awhile. Almost four years in fact. The three of us are well. New jobs, new address, new school--the usual. I recommend using pencil to write down our address. Tempting as it is, I am not going to sum up the past four years. The only thing I will tell you is that Sandman died. We knew it was coming but it was still heartbreaking when it became clear his time had come. He died on November 29, 2017 at the ripe old age of seventeen years, eight months, and an unknown number of days. I miss him. He was such a cool cat.

Of course a new location means a new blog name is in order since our adventures are no longer taking place on the southside of Milwaukee. I have decided to take the location out of the name and go neutral: The Dutch Girl’s Adventures. Nice and simple, and it can follow me everywhere we go. I did run into a Blogger issue when I tried to make the changes on the blog itself. I am able to change the sidebar items but not the theme or the header, and I cannot add a new post, nor edit existing ones. This is a problem, obviously. Hence my move to Wordpress and the new domain: thedutchgirlsadventures dot COM. Dot NET with all my previous posts will remain active until I figure out how to transfer them. (ETA: the Wordpress blog is not working out for me and since I was able to figure out the Blogger issues, I am going to continue working at Dot NET.)

So why pick up my virtual pen again? Well, we purchased some land in the UP. We started small with eight acres back in 2015. But last year our neighbor put his land up for sale and we were able to buy it from him. His acreage came with two cabins. Two very old, very dilapidated mine workers’ homes which we will be fixing up this year. The two houses were part of a row of ten or twelve miners’ homes when the Delaware mine across the road was still in operation, and the only ones left standing.

I am looking forward to posting about our progress. We're going up this weekend to do some more cleaning. The cabins have acted as a deer camp for Yooper dudes for the past twenty-odd years. The left house is also home to a mouse family while a squirrel, or two, resides in the house on the right. And then there's the flies. Oh God, the flies..., so, so many. Evidently they hibernate. All they need is a little heat to awaken. They huddle together on the walls behind posters and such. The higher the paper content, they better they seem to like it. When I started taking down the decor in the makeshift bar, I was surprised by hundreds of live flies. [Shudder.]

Before I host a tour of the inside in the coming days, it's good to remind everyone, ourselves perhaps most of all, that Ryan and I are no strangers to fixing up hovels. Once upon a time we turned this:

into this:

We can do this. And this time around, we have a contractor. More to come soon.

Butt Hurt

Sunday was a glorious day. Sunny, blue sky, not too warm, not too cold. My kind of outdoor sports weather. So Ryan and I gave Lola away to my cousin and the two of us went cross country skiing together. We had never done it but had always wanted to. Whitnall Park, just south of Milwaukee, rents skis and snow shoes for the afternoon.

It’s not as easy as it looks. Those skinny skis are mighty slippery and the forward walking motion is a little awkward. Without proper trails –and what trails there are have been destroyed by people walking dogs, snow shoers, sleds, and butts- it’s even more difficult. I fell within seconds of taking off, and again the first time the trail went downhill. But after a while we got the hang of it and found it a most enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

Until I fell for the third time. It was a flat surface, and I wasn’t even moving. But somehow I lost my balance and fell on my butt. And this time, there was no layer of fresh powder snow to cushion the fall. It hurt. A lot. But I got up and continued on my way, telling myself to ski it off. Not that there was a choice about it, we were on the far end of the park.

I did take off my skis to go down a particularly steep bit since I hadn’t made it downhill at all without falling, and I didn’t want to risk my tailbone again. Especially after Ryan flew into the trees in a most spectacular way there. When we got to the end of the trail however, I found I was not able to bend over to take off my skis. Not good.



And so, after dropping Lola off at school Monday morning, I continued on to St. Francis to ascertain whether or not my tailbone was broken. It wasn’t, merely severely bruised. The pain should go away in a day or ten. I can’t take any good drugs for the pain since they cause constipation and that is the last thing you want in my situation. Ibuprofen it is then.
Bummer. At least I am not a broke ass, just butt hurt.

Winter Sports

Like every self respecting big city, Milwaukee has a downtown outdoor ice rink. Much ice skating fun there is to be had, with upbeat music blasting from the speakers and hot chocolates provided by the local Starbucks.







Unlike other big cities, Milwaukee also has an indoor Olympic training oval, the Pettit Center. Also a great place to go ice skating, sans hip drinks and tunes. With, however, real live Olympians running about.



When the Olympians leave the ice, ordinary people can skate there, too. We signed Lola and her cousins up for skating lessons this winter. Every week, they learn the basics of gliding on ice.





Under the watchful eyes of their dads, Lola, M. and C. are learning to balance on skates, fall and get up, glide, and skate backwards. With varying success, I must say. But they are having a lot of fun.



We also signed Lola up for six weeks of skiing lessons, another winter pastime she loves. And while she has not yet set her sights on Mt. Bohemia, her father’s favorite spot, she is getting to be quite good.

Putzing In The Woods

It's November and that means deer season is rapidly approaching. Ryan is getting in the mood and will be spending every single weekend this month up north. This past weekend Lola and I joined him. It was fun putzing around in the woods and prepping for Opening Day. On Sunday we even woke up to a dusting of snow. Lola was beyond excited, jumping up and down on the bed.

When I say "dusting," I mean dusting

What's different this year is that my father-in-law has purchased an acre or two, three, eighty across the road. Instead of just finding a good spot to put up the deer stands, Ryan and he were talking about clearing some popple trees, as aspen trees are often referred to, developing food plots, and building deer stands to last.

She does not hunt, but tree stands she likes

We found all sorts of goodies while we tromped around the woods. Empty nests, funky fungi, even a few deer!

I picked a nice spot for me on the south west corner of the land, amid a triangle of pine trees. This spot is known hence forth as Hanneke's Pine Bowl. Ryan liked it too. In fact, after we finished playing around there, he moved his tree stand over to my spot and will continue to bow hunt in my bowl. He better not get my buck!

A good spot indeed

My stand in progress