Summer Vacation with Dad

I spent a week up in Wisconsin's Rusk county this summer, with my father. We were fishing lake Amacoy and staying at the Wonderspot resort.

The weather was wonderful. Highs were in the 70s, and the nights were cool. A cold front on our first day killed the fishing a bit, but by the end of the week we had caught plenty.

There were certainly some memorable experiences, and maybe someday I'll write them out:

--Dad's first step into the boat
--The day I got to "sleep in"
--getting hit on by a drunk woman at the bar (don't ask!)
--the dumpster filled with fish refuse
--the mayfly hatch and crappie feeding frenzy, mosquitoes included

Yep, it was a great trip. Rusk county is really an odd place, in ways. I mean there are beautiful lakes there like Amacoy that are not very busy--good fishing lakes, in other words (leave the jet-ski at home, please). It really was like taking a trip back in time. I had no internet access--nor did I miss it much. I read a lot. Played games. Told stories. Caught fish. Listened to the radio.

Speaking of the radio--I was amazed at how good the djs were on the local Ladysmith station that played just the right blend of old country--70s and 80s country, mostly. Anyway, the djs were spectacular! Nowadays I don't even listen to djs anymore, and I'd forgotton how nice it can be to have a good dj say a thing or two between songs. Bits of trivia. Weather info. Sports updates.

When I got back to Colorado, I did some searching and found the station (WLDY) online. Now I can listen to it over the net whenever I want to.

Nature is cruel.

Okay, this one bothers me.

Earlier this year a robin tried to make a nest above our security lights next to our main entrance. I discouraged her by temporarily taping a plastic bag up there and eventually she chose a pine tree that overhangs our (never-used) dog kennel. But the nest was made at a bad angle and when the wind blew you'd think it would fall out. Despite our trying to help stabilize the nest with a wooden support, the four baby robins in there ended up falling out, one after the next and my standard poodle killed them. I know, my dog isn't part of nature, per se, but the robin insisted in building in our yard rather than in the wooded open space that borders our property. I'm assuming she lost out some territorial battle and our yard was the best she could get.

For her second clutch of the season, the robin once again insisted on the security light location. This would not work, as it's two feet above our door and not a stable location. So, one rainy day she decided to build her nest above the southern drain pipe that leads from our roof gutter. It wasn't going to work. As soon as her nest got to a certain size, it would start falling off, bit by bit. So I went out in the rain and nailed up an impromptu wind shield and two supports for her. She watched me do it and seemed very pleased.

The only problem was the second set of chicks. We were out of town when they hatched and happy to see two of them when we returned. Soon, however, one of them fell out (or was pushed out) of the nest. We made sure our dogs didn't get it and put it back in the nest, as it was pretty immature. Nope. Ten minutes later it was out again. To make sure our dogs didn't get it, we put it over the fence into the open space woods behind our property. We don't know what happened to it.

That left one baby. I figured this was her last chance this year. For a week it seemed fine, although at times the chick did look like it was going to go jumping out of the nest prematurely. Overall, however, we were optimistic: this one might make it.

We found it dead in the yard this morning. Dammit.