A day to remember, We got to see Bill's tractor! And Dar too.

Another exciting day for us up here in Wisconsin. This morning I actually cooked breakfast and was about to tell Sherry it was time to rise and shine when Mel saved me the trouble and Got Sherry moving. This is honestly a little unusual, I am usually the one in bed late. But I did make a veggie omelet and grits and toast and ate some Strawberry/Rubarb Jelly and Carmel apple homemade from Mel. Then we went down the road to see the concrete park. That will be a later entry. We enjoyed the trip and returned in time to go to Dar's who surprised us with a invite to supper. This didn't come out great But Dar gives me a kiss with a great plastic false face. After sitting around and talking a little, playing a little with Sy we headed out on our guided tour...
First Stop down the road an exciting intro to An indoor archery range, "Northern Archery", DArs sons run this. The area in the back of the byuilding houses an outlet for precision machine lathe parts.

Inside the archery range is all kinds of targets that also have targets you cannot see from the shooting area, one is supposed to know where to aim.

The left side is the snack area while meeting or waiting for your turn to shoot.

Then, of course the pride of Bill and Dar, their hunting cabin. This cabin is in the forest and near a beautiful creek. A picture book sitting for a picture book hunting cabin. I have never seen so many trophies. Everything up to and including a Caribou. This cabin is built to last. It will last hundreds of years if the world lasts. A lot of care, talent, labor and love went into building this place to 'get away from it all'. I enjoyed my talks with Bill, a very knowlegeable man and talented. I thorughly enjoyed the story of how they built the cabin. The things they bought were the sheeting for the roof and the flooring for he second floor and of course the slab for the floor. The rest came directly off the land.

It has a great balcony or second floor. They even built a bed.



Mr Caribou stands sentry watch beside the turkey.

Dar proudly displays two draw knives. These are used for many things mainly in the project it was to skin the logs, every one of them. Dar shows her knive is worn down twice as much as Bills, she skinned all but three of the logs herself.

I asked specifically how they lifted the higher logs, and bill is explaining it here. Folks this cabin has a 14" x 30foot Ridge pole. ONE HUGE LOG. They did have the neighbor come over and set the log which Bill had already prenotched with his chainsaw. All the notching was done with his chain saw.

Now I am sure some of you have heard of the Jackalope out west. That is a cross with a jack rabbit and and antelope. Well you are looking at the upper mid west answer to that, the BEER, obviously a cross between a deer and a bear. They are very rare and like the Jackalope, are now on the endangered species list. LOL

Sherry got a shot of the creek with the log bridge.

This is the back of the cabin, facing the creek.

Look close and you can see Andy and his son Syrus walking a log. It is good to see up here a son being paid attention to on the simple things, remember walking a log? or a Rail road track? What simple fun.

Here Syrus has found a tree frog, daddy Andy is showing me and Syrus, how to rub his belly very gently and put it to sleep.

Sy tried it and actually did it also before reluctantly turning the frog loose.

The inside of the cabin displays Dar's handy work. This tree section is burned with a beautiful animal scene.

Another of Dars paintings, She and Mel are so proud of their abilities, inherited from their Dad and Mom. They have every right to be.

The ride out and back was enjoyable. I mean this cabin is out in the boonies!!! But now we are back and Mel is there to greet us and say good by. But first we visited a little more These folks are such a joy to be around, and the food sure smelled delicious. Mel left and did not stay for supper.

The meal, pork roast, with onions and potatoes, sour kraut, Gravy, homemade applesauce, and something new to even Dar and Bill, Corn salad (Paula's recipe). The roast melted in my mouth, the gravy and potatoes were delicious. I had never had homemade sourkraut or apple sauce both were great. The corn salad which we had never had was scrumptius (is that a word?).

Topping it off with a chocolate cake with chocolate/peanutbutter icing. I thought it was great. Mel kept fussing about it being too dry. (Cooks are never satisfied.)

After visiting a little longer we said our good byes before Bill done the dishes. I knew I should leave and not embarrass him. Sherry said I could have offered to dry the dishes, but I did not know where they went, so I didn't! LOL Seriously I did half way offer Sherry to help with dishes, but Dar assured me her dishwasher would do the job.

We really hated to leave and will hate to leave the area but these folks work and have things to do. We just appreciated them taking the time out of their busy lives to share their wonderful lives with us. Life up here is tough sometimes, but these tough people are up to the task.

God bless Slim, Bill, and Wynette (MOM) they were such a JOY to meet. NOOOOO We could never for get MEL & DAR, the reasons we came this way. Like the other folks we have met from the Blogging world, These are special ladies, doing special things, handling problems and heartaches like the rest of the world, and taking JOY where they can find it. The world is a better place because of them.

NIte Shipslog

PS:

Heading South to see the House on the Rock!!!! Located at Spring Green, WI.