Open Water is Just Around the Corner!

Collecting Maple sap

With some of the lakes around home already ice free, and the temperatures in the 60's last weekend, fishing was not in the cards.  I spent the weekend helping my friend John Matthews help rewire my sister -in-laws house as I figured he may have bit off more than he could chew! She lives in Hudson, WI so both Saturday and Sunday were spent pulling wires.  We must be at least 3 weeks ahead of what I would call a normal weather schedule as my neighbor Brandon Larsen is already been tapping the trees for maple syruping,  I have a couple of nice maples in my yard so I let him tap them and in return I get a nice bottle of homemade Maple Syrup which is exceptionally good!  The sap has been really flowing lately because of the warm days and nights below freezing, I have to believe that he has collected over 500 gallons to date from the neighbors and I.  Brandon also has an osmosis filter that essentially removes 1/2 the water when ran through the filter, making it so it does not take forever to boil off the water to get the syrup to the right stage.  Apparently he can run it through up to 4 times so 400 gallons of sap at 2% sugar content get reduced to  50 gallons at about 16%.  This saves boiling away 350 gallons of water in the original sap, a huge reduction in wood needed to fuel the boiler.  It still takes a fair amount of processing to get real Maple Syrup but the end product is definitely worth it!  Brandon has a large tray that is separated into a number of compartments.  By magic the finished syrup makes it's way to one end with a spigot and thermometer to monitor the whether it is ready.  For all practical purposes finished maple syrup boils at 219F give or take a few adjustments for altitude.  Once it hit that temperature it can be drawn off as syrup.  Brandon's neighbor Jake was over helping on Monday night as they were boiling and I stopped over.  We poured a little brandy into a cup then added some hot syrup from the spigot.....Uffda that was good, (not particularly good for my diabetes!)  One interesting thing the Brandon has been doing is finishing his syrup off in used bourbon barrels.  Het reheats the syrup then pours it in the barrel and let's it sit for 8 weeks.  the syrup picks up the bourbon flavor and it's pretty good.  The used barrels are expensive so he obviously gets more for it but it is definitely an interesting twist to his craft.

Wild Turkeys in the Garden

So this warm weather has me thinking about the garden this year.  I have quite a bit of work to do however I did order my onion sets from Dixondale Farms out of Texas again with my friend Andy.  They are great onions and much better than the ones one buys up north.  Onions are classified by Long Day, Moderate Day, and Short Day onions, a term that describes their bulbing properties.  Long day Onions need more than 15 hours of daylight to trigger them to start growing the onion.  It definitely makes a big difference as I get larger onions that last a lot longer.  One thing that has hung around my property this year has been wild Turkeys.  At some time there can be as many as 18 in a bunch and trust me, they can eat! If you look closely at the picture of them you will see a white bucket that I fill with corn. They can really clean it out and I am not sure who's worse.....the deer of the turkeys.  I compare them to a good vacuum cleaner as nothing in their path is safe.  If there is no more for them in the garden they will strut up to my deck and eat all the bird seed out of my ground feeder.  Never the less they are an impressive bird for sure and I am half tempted to enjoy a wild turkey dinner some day but that would not be the nicest thing to do and could end me up in trouble!

I have promised to take my friends the Grants out ice fishing this weekend, I am planning on heading up to the Battle Lake area and try for some crappies.  If there is any issue in walking out I have plan B, we will hit the outdoor stores of Scheels and Cabela's for David Grant, a new up and coming fisherman!  Hopefully I will have something to report next week.  I am definitely afraid this will probably be my last adventure on the ice for this year.  The next big trip is back to Naples for some great grouper fishing on March 26th.

Back from Toronto

Westin Harbour in Toronto

This week was our annual Spring TTA meeting and for 2016 we decided to host it in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  We have a few members from that area and thought it would be good to support our northern members.  Toronto is a big city, actually the 4th largest in North America with only Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City being larger.  It's a very clean city and I was amazed at all the high rise building and condominiums that were around.  We got to stay right on the water front on the 21st floor of the Westin Hotel.  Although the rate was @199/night in Canadian, is US Dollars that's only about $150 an a pretty good deal for a room right in the heart of the town. It had fabulous views from the room and on the top floor (38th) was a nice bar and restaurant where we stopped and had one on the last night.  Absolutely beautiful.  I took a picture but it didn't turn out so good. Of course Toronto can be expensive, however as my friends from Canada state, you get used to it.  Apparently housing is quite high and they have a 13% Provincial sales tax on everything!  When you come back through the airport, you do go through US Customs right there so once through, the concourse is considered United States soil therefore you can simply get off your plane and head out as though you were flying from Chicago to Minneapolis.  They did have a duty free shop on the US side of the security and their Crown Royal was pretty cheap, $37 US Dollars for two one liter bottles (about half price) so I did get a couple for my friends.  In addition I got some ice wine and a bottle of perfume for my wife.  I would have bought more but I had enough to carry already!

Onions Arrived

Arriving home it was raining and I was thinking about picking some night crawlers but it was pretty cold out and I was tired.  This weekend is time to plant my onions as the ones we ordered from Texas came in.  Along with the right fertilizer it's a perfect time to plant potatoes and the onions.  I use to get the big Texas sized onions but they don't last very long after you dig them up, maybe only a few weeks.  Like last year I buy the long storage onions, they still don't seem to last very long but better than the other ones.  I use them for pickling fish, making my salsa, and just plain eating.  The Texas onions are fabulous as I have 4 varieties this year, 2 white types, a yellow, and a red type.  Along with the right fertilizer I should be set for planting as you saw last week, Ricky Shermer came over and tilled up my garden so it's ready to go.  Besides planting a few things my asparagus is starting to really sprout.  I love it as it is so good and sweet and is great on the grill.  The raspberries still need some work which hopefully I can get finished this weekend.  With 2 weeks before opener I need to mount my 3rd depthfinder in the boat.  I have a new Structure Scan 3D module however I am somewhat nervous about mounting the transducer and am still waiting for the flush mount to be shipped.  Maybe that will just have to wait.  Next week I am planning on going to my cousin Greg's place as well, reports are that Mom is going to be released from the rehab center to go back home.  She hasn't stayed there since March 6th so I am sure she's looking forward to it.  So much to do, so little time!  Looks like I might even have to mow the grass this weekend.  I did go to a fishing garage sale and found a couple of items worth buying, a Abu Garcia Zmax 2 casting reel and a couple of packages of Northland Tackle 1/8th ounce Fireball Jigs for opener.  At $1.00 for a pack of 12, it was a good deal.

Biding My Time

In preparation for possibly participating in Wisconsin's fishing opener next weekend, I decided to take my boat out on Sunday afternoon, the better of the two days.  We got a nice rain on Friday/Saturday and although Sunday was somewhat windy, I found a small lake west of town that had a nice landing, making it easier for me to test my strength.  My Ranger has a 115 hp Suzuki Four Stroke outboard.  I am constantly amazed by these motors and their unbelievable ability to sit all winter with nothing more than Sea foam added to the gas, and start within one or two revolutions of the engine.  My previous 115 Susy did this and my new one came through the winter storage as though I had just shut the motor off 5 minutes ago.  One thing about the new boat is it doesn't idle as slow as the old boat, which consistently trolled down to 1.9 mph.  The new one is about 1/2 mph faster, which is not a big deal and may be related to the fact that the motor is still tight and needs a few more hours to loosen up more.  This also gave me a chance to test my new Lowrance HDS5 sonar/GPS for use with my front trolling motor with the built in transducer.   The GPS worked very well however the sonar took too long to lock onto the bottom and in a 3 foot weedy bottom, it did not even acquire. This was pretty frustrating and reading the manual did not offer much help.   Later that evening I posted the problem on Walleye Central's Electronics Forum and on Monday I had some great replies, including one from Lowrance's customer tech service.  Apparently there are setup selections you have to make in the main system's menu for your specific installation.  Changing to the suggested settings, I attempted to get a reading off my concrete floor and it worked great.  My 2010 maiden voyage was a success as I solved some issues that required some outside help.  I am ready to hit the big water.   Although casting for crappies yielded nothing admittedly I did not try too hard.

 The weather in Minneapolis continues to be about 2 1/2 weeks ahead of schedule.  The lilacs are coming into full bloom and my fruit trees have exploded with blossoms.  Luckily my good friend Bruce got his 4 honeybee hives in place on the back part of my land just at the perfect time.   With 5 acres of land, a large garden and a small orchard, the bees are a welcome addition.  I remember a few years back a neighbor (and not the most congenial) challenged me with a sense of displeasure "Dave, I understand you have bee hives on your property, I have to say that we have noticed a considerable increase in bees around our house".  Responding, I asked her if they were about 3/4 of an inch long, big and fat.  "Yes, that describes them perfectly, they are all over my flowers."  Without even flinching I stated that she really has a problem with bumble bees as my honeybees look almost like flies and she was obviously mistaken and misinformed .  Having just been outmaneuvered, she left without saying another word.  Most of the other neighbors find it fascinating and a side bonus is Bruce brings me enough honey to last for a whole year.  It tastes especially good knowing it came from my property and surrounding area.

The bees perform a very important function of pollinating all the fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season.  My yields on raspberries, apples, pears, cucumbers, and blueberries are second to none and I always have a bumper crop.  The middle picture is of a honey gold apple tree and the white blossoms are of a pear tree.   Feeling better I planted my potatoes and onions in the garden today.  This year I went with an interesting variety of potatos including Yukon Golds, Kennebec, Norland Red, All Blue (a blueish purple fleshed type), and Cal White.  Could make and interesting looking potato salad!  Along with the potatoes I put in onions.  Using plants instead of bulbs gets me larger and better keeping onions.  I know last year most of my onions averaged over 4 inched in diameter.   My garden center had some 8-10-42 ferilizer, which is a great for starter and root crops.  Time will tell. 

Hopefully I will have a great report from Wisconsin next week.