Freeze Up

We had our first blast of cold this week (think highs in the teens).  Thursday the lake was mostly open water; Friday the bay was frozen over and covered with light snow (we have about 3" on the ground).  Today the entire lake is frozen over.

View from the beach on Thursday.



View from the deck on Friday




We're glad to see the lagoon freeze over.  By the time we get back from visiting Lucas, Renee, and Scott it should be frozen solid enough for the certain curious puppy.



Right of Way Dispute

We visited my Mom a week ago and brought back the Lionel train to put around the tree this year.  I set it up downstairs to make sure it still was operating.  The train ran fine but as the photos show right-of-way may be an issue.

Logging

One of my favorite yardwork tasks is creating firewood (painting is at the bottom of the list).  Sawing, splitting, stacking, all backbreaking work; but it's very satisfying when the woodshed is full at the end of the day.  Tuesday was a beautiful day and we split and stacked the logs I had sawed up last week.

Still dealing with the timber from the trees taken down when the house was built.  When I do get the logs all cut up the plan is to use this area for parking the camping trailer



I used some of the synthetic wood Doug and I salvaged from the cottage deck to build a sawbuck to hold the logs as I cut them up.  It's a real time saver.




Splitting goes pretty fast, lots of bending and lifting.  We created about a cord of wood this effort.




The stacking crew.  Baily has mixed emotions about filling the woodshed as it creates more hiding places for the Red Squirrels.



Spreading Out

This Fall's main project has been reclaiming the area to the left of the bridge as you walk out to the lake.  Through the years it has become overgrown and subject to a lot of erosion, mostly due to our beaver and otter friends.  One of our neighbors added a basement and has a huge pile of sand which is free for the taking.  So I decided to fill in the low spots, clean up the brush and expand the beach area.  Still have a lot of work to do, which will now have to wait for the Spring.  Here's some pics of the progress to date.

Here's the area I'm reclaiming

View from the foot of the bridge.  Couldn't do this without the Gator and its bed dump.  Started dumping sand in the foreground and have slowly moved inward.  Probably close to a hundred loads of sand to this point.

The Gator just fits between these two trees.

The critters have dug this channel, it's about 3 feet deep.  Winter access to the lake from the lagoon I guess.  I will fill it in.

The area in the foreground will be filled in.

View back to the rest of the beach area.

Ready for winter

Sitting Pretty

Milwaukee TrainFest

Beckett, Macy, and I attended the Milwaukee TrainFest this past Saturday, the largest annual model railroad show in the world.  All the manufacturers and retailers are there, and all the southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois model railroading clubs set up layouts.



The show is held at the main exhibition hall at State Fair Park.  It is very popular and well attended.




Beckett was fascinated.  There's so much activity it's a bit overwhelming.




Most of the layouts are placed at a height that allows smaller kids to enjoy without needing a boost.  The railroaders roll out their best equipment.  Some of these model trains are worth thousands of dollars.



There was a kid size train as well.



Kids of all ages!



This layout was for kids to operate, two adjacent dog bones.(model railroader term)  Needless to say the kids operated the trains at full speed and roll overs were frequent on the curves.

Delaney and Beckett



A camera shy Delaney hiding behind Grandma




Cheese!




Grandma loaded some new games onto her iPad



Historic London Pubs

Doug found a historic London pub walk on the Internet and it turned out to be the highlight of our visit.  Our guide was excellent, and we not only learned about, and drank in, 5 historic pubs, but learned alot about London as well.

Our first stop was The George.  Shakespere drank here and before the Globe Theater was built his plays were performed here.  The balcony served as inspiration for the design of the Globe.

Some of the brews on tap, all hand pumped

One of the seating areas at The George

It was a walking tour, we covered a lot of ground.  Here we are crossing the Thames on the Millenium Foot Bridge towards St. Paul's

Blackfriar's Pub, long and narrow

The bar at Blackfriar's

On our walk we passed the site of Samuel Pepys birth.  He's buried right outside our hotel window in the churchyard.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of the oldest pubs in London, the hangout of Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens among others.  We had visited this pub our last trip here along with Macy, Laura, and her friend Sarah.

We walked past the London court house an area where most of the law firms have their offices.  If Frank practiced law in the UK he'd shop here for his wigs.

The Seven Stars.  Fortunately our guide mentioned their speciality drink, the gin martini!  The gin is kept in the freezer, no ice is involved.  We were all in and it was the best martini we had by far while in London.

Southwark Borough Market

Borough Market lies just south of London Bridge, walking distance from our hotel.  Open Monday through Friday, it was a fascinating place as hopefully these pictures show.  We discoverd it on a Harry Potter walking tour we went on with Doug's management team from Erwin & Smith.  The market was closed when we passed through on the tour but we knew we wanted to return.



Lettuce, we didn't see any Iceburg





The market covered several city blocks, mostly under an overhead rail platform.




A bread vendor




Lots of choices, but London is a very expensive city to live in.  When we were there the exchange rate was about $1.60 per pound.




Huge wheels of cheese




These girls were French, I'm pretty sure the vendor wasn't understanding a word they said.




No thanks!



Well, if you like your pork fresh, this was the place to go.



This florist shop was used for a scene in one of the Harry Potter movies.