Went up to help cut wood with my friend Bill in northwestern Wisconsin. His mother and father heat with wood to cut back their bills (they are in their late eighties), and since they are like family, I help whenever I can. Got to Wisconsin about 11pm, then woke up to snow at his sisters cabin that sits on a little lake about 15 miles from his parents house. Man do I miss this view. Grabbed some groceries for breakfast (my tradition is that I always cook breakfast when I come) Just to prove I was in the north land I grabbed a newspaper and looked over part of their beer selection Here is the stove they heat the cabin with. We used it each night. You can see my morning caffeine. More to come.
Since I was there, we decided to work on getting the heavy loads from the woods to the house. He lined up an area that had some trees downed by the power company, and some trees downed by wind. We soon found out the landowner let us at this stack about 2 years too late, as half of it was too punky. It was still nice since I could drive right up to the pile though. We still managed to pull 2 big loads of oak from it. We then moved into the woods and took down a snag, in a less than scientific way , and a fallen oak. He bucked them into 4' (or so) sections and I hauled them out to the truck. At this point I was pretty sure he wanted me there for my brawn and not my brain. We unloaded and headed out for lunch around 4pm. Pizza and 3 Summer Shandy Leinies from a local tavern hit the spot! Stack at the house. About half he gathered before I came up. Stack at his sister's cabin. After some good advice from Horkn, we grabbed a six pack of New Glarus and kicked back at the end of the day. I had more beer this weekend in Wisconsin than I typically have in a month. This morning I was greeted with this view. It was like a reward for my work.
Great post and great job helping out your good friends! Looks like a lot of hard work and good times! Beautiful area! Any black flies there? Cheers!
Thanks. Been going up to that area for 35 years, love it there. No black flies...sleeted half the day so they were hiding.
You bet. When we were cutting in the woods, we took a break and just sat, laughing and enjoying being outside.
Awesome post and pictures! My wife brought home a 12 pack of New Glarus spotted cow when we were up there. We keep the box up on a shelf in the downstairs tv room as a decoration now..lol..
Good work schlot ! So you found the new glarus. Sounds like you deserved it! Anyone traveling through or to Wisconsin should find a sixer at least of new glarus. It's that good. Although my favorite beer is now Fatty Boombalatty, brewed in Wisconsin, but not so easy to find.
Great that you help out schlot. Also great they can still heat with wood at their age. Sounds like a really nice weekend.
X2 on the New Glarus beer! Years ago when I did the ironman I took a field trip to the brewery. Met the owner and got to chatting about beer and brewing. Before I knew it my wife and I were getting a private tour. Great memories!
Where abouts in Wisconsin? You don't have to name a town, I guess I'm wondering just how far north/central (etc) did you get??? Nice easy picking and cutting! Good for them that they know you.
Near Hayward, about an hour south of Duluth. Beautiful country. Nah, I'm the lucky one. They believed in me and treated me like family through some rough times.
Thanks Chvymn99 . Talking about routes, I took a completely different one this time. Great scenery. Went through Wabasha MN, where the "Grumpy Old Men" movies took place, and on through Menomonie, WI. Took a little longer but it's so much better than having to drive through the Twin City traffic!
Very cool. I stay out of the LCO. I have better luck setting my money on fire. There's the "big fish" as my boys use to call it when they were tikes.
Wow. Nice job, nice wood, nice view, some good beverage, good pics, and a great deed you did there. I enjoyed the pics and narration.
