Back from Up North

I made it back from the wilds of Bear Country intact and a day early, the latter thanks mostly to some highly uncooperative maple trees. We managed to get some sap on Thursday, and boiled away, but Friday the durn trees had gone on strike, so we took down the buckets (195 of them), pulled the taps, finished boiling what we already had, and headed home today.

The weather up there (near Three Lakes, WI) was wonderful, so we had a couple days of warm sun in the woods, punctuated by skimming sap, pouring in some more, ladling it from one evaporating pan to the next, feeding the fire, sitting around pondering a catalog for the decoy auction coming at the end of the month, checking out an eagle nest to see if anyone was home (there wasn't), some more grueling skimming and ladling and sitting in the sun, agonizing over whethor to drink a beer or a diet Coke, and similarly stressful stuff. We finished with a little under four gallons of syrup, which may have disappointed my host, but I had a good time.

Last night we went into Three Lakes for dinner at the Black Forest Pub & Grill, where I had a grilled cod fillet which went down awfully well. After we sat down I was informed by a usually reliable source that actor Ben Kingsley had been espied in the very same chair the week before. I hope he enjoyed his cole slaw as much as I did.

Back at the cabin I was put on alert about one of the more disreputable neighbors, a porcupine who had been trying to chew off the corner of the cabin. It was the corner into my room, as a matter of fact. It was alleged that he was just trying to eat the house, but pretty clearly he was a bloodthirsty carnivorous predator, and an ambitious one at that, willing to chew through a tough shell to get at the tender morsel inside, namely yours truly. Nonetheless, while the logs showed considerable evidence of his previous efforts, I didn't awake with his fangs in my throat. Possibly my stern attitude warned him away.

Up early this AM and saw an American Merganser drake paddling along. There are worse ways to start the day.

On the way home I stopped at a couple of antique malls, not expecting much, and wasn't disappointed. However, this was the first time I have ever cased an antique mall and discovered a shelf full of used toilet plungers. I hadn't realized that such are now a hot collectible, and perhaps they aren't. This might be the last chance for a canny reader to corner the market before prices go wild.