As the free fishing weekend continues for non-die hard fishers, the true Wisconsinite already would have a license as hunting, fishing and watching football are all part of life. And it shows when the ice fishing shack is painted in the Packer colors and today they will be cheering their team on in the playoff game.
Packer Ice Fishing Shack
This weekend is Wisconsin’s Winter Free Fishing so you can fish anywhere in Wisconsin without a license or trout stamp. This includes all inland waters and Wisconsin’s side of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. And this year, the weather will actually be fairly nice with temperatures around the freezing mark.
But I never been much of an ice fishing person as sitting around a hole on a hunk of ice waiting for a fish to swim by your line doesn’t overly thrill me. Half the fun of fishing is seeing if you can throw your line in the spot you want (without getting snagged in the tree behind you or the stump in the water), but I also like see other critters swimming about or spotting wildflowers along the path to the fishing spot and where I can sit on a warm sunny bank so I think I will wait until the free summer fishing weekend in June instead.
Fishing Weekend
During the winter, about the only things you see around here flying in the air are birds, stray oak leaves and snowflakes (not counting leaping squirrels or kittens) and definitely not any butterflies. So any sightings of butterflies and wildflowers will have to wait for several more months. This butterfly may be a Red-spotted Purple which are found in Wisconsin.
Waiting for the Butterflies Return
Having the sun out and temperatures above 20, it feels like a heat wave even if it is below freezing yet and you feel like kicking up your heels like these goats. They won’t be able to find green grass to chew on this time of year though. And the birdhouse probably is setting empty as the summer residents haven’t returned.
Playful Goats
On the side of the Wisconsin’s Rustic Road #4, there is a cave into the limestone cliff which had been converted into a garage in 1938. Time has deposited soil in front of the opening and the rusty hinge marks are all that is left from the doors, but I imagine it could tell some stories. I wonder if an old Model A was ever parked in it or if a house once stood nearby but maybe it was just one very large root cellar or cheese cooler. In time, the front might be completely covered over but for now maybe a bear takes a nap in the cave.
A Hillside Structure
“Farming wasn’t going too well for three families…we could hold up a mirror and watch ourselves starve to death.” A statement from Florence Hokenson on why her husband and his two brothers started fishing for a living in the late 1920’s when at first the fishing only supplemented their diet but after several unsuccessful years of dairy farming they purchased pond nets and eventually pursued fishing full-time which they did for more than thirty years on Lake Superior.
The Herring Shed was a busy place during herring season where the wives, children, and hired hands awaited the arrival of the Hokenson brothers boat called the Twilite, loaded with fish in gill nets. The fish were untangled from the net, rinsed in the wooden tank, gutted and beheaded, rinsed again in the other tank, drip-dried on the rack, salted, and stacked in a barrel.
The Herring Shed
From the look on this kitten’s face, I don’t think he is overly happy about setting his paws on the cold snow and I hate to tell him that he will have to for a few more months.
Frosty Kitten
In some churches, such as the Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic churches, today is the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The pictures often show them standing in water during the baptism but it would be an extremely short service and a definitely a chilly one if it occurred in January in Wisconsin. And a baptism by immersion would definitely take your breath away, assuming you find a river with open water.
A Chilly January Stream
It is finally above zero this morning, still not above freezing, but at least the wind isn’t howling causing the extreme wind chills so I imagine there will be people out skiing today. I still rather take a walk in the woods when the trees aren’t bare as they seem so lifeless during the winter dominant phase. Autumn signifies the bare stage of winter is approaching but I love the last hurrah the colored leaves give before making their way to the ground.
A Walk on an Autumn Road
The sun was out today but by the time I finished the chores outside, I had enough of the cold wind chills that a walk through the woods did not appeal to me, especially since there wouldn’t be any wildflowers to stumble upon in the fields or woods. Other than a few stray oak leaves with a slight hint of orange, there is not a lot of color in the snowy landscape so I just have to count down the days until the first spring wildflower appears but I will have a longer wait before the late summer flowers, like the wild bergamot to brighten the road ditches.
Purple Color in the Road Ditches
