Valentine's Day at the Bear Paw Cafe

Last July we were all pleased to see that our little restaurant in town was opening up again.   Under new management it is now called the Bear Paw Cafe, and it's become such an important addition to our town.  

They began with a breakfast and lunch menu, but have since began offering some daily specials, including chicken dinner on Sundays!  Monday mornings at the Bear Paw are especially busy, complete with a cribbage game in the corner.

Today Valentine's Day provided a reason to add something special to the usual fare--a choice of shrimp or prime rib, along with a salad, smashed baby red potatoes, a sparkling drink (no alcohol at the Bear Paw), and a perfect ending with a brownie, ice cream and fancy cookie.  And...only eating half of it gave me leftovers for tomorrow.  It was delicious. We hear they may decide to do this once a month!  (Shrimp was good, too.)

I'm not always a fan of posting pictures of meals;  sometimes they really don't look that great.  But they did such a great job today and I wanted to share.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bleak, but even bleak is okay.

Today could only be described as "bleak."  Dark and cloudy, and not even any big weather conditions leading to any big excitement--no snow to speak of and even the temperature at right around 32˚ was kind of boring.  The only conversation it inspired was comparisons with the FREEZING cold from last year.

Bleak, right?  And that's open water out there.

In fact, even the ice in the channel has broken up.  It's the kind of day when the ice s-l-o-w-l-y moves back and forth, kind of undulates underneath, it could make you a little queasy! 

So we checked the Flagg River (or Flag River--you can see it spelled both ways) and it also had open water.  This is just up our road but the river flows down to The Lake.

 More bleakness...

So, to add to the bleakness, I was organizing papers in preparation for doing income taxes, both for our business and my own.  That process always leads me to going through stored boxes of old "important" papers and documents, and attempting to get rid of old paperwork!  It's getting easier now that so many things are online, but I still have that "keep for 7 years" rule in my head.  So still too much stuff!

But then there are the boxes of sentimental things--cards, letters, old job-related document, fun stuff.  And there I found this little newspaper article that had been in my mother's "sentimental" things from years ago.  In her handwriting on the top, it says it's "taken from the Hayward paper written by the Postmaster's daughter."  There is no date referenced on it--all I know is that it was printed around Valentine's Day, I think from back in the early 1980's.  I don't know who the postmaster would have been back then, but I'm sure some people reading this might know.

But it sums up life in Port Wing pretty well, so I wanted to pass it along to Port Wing Passages readers.

Yes, Port Wing hasn't died yet for sure and those of us who stay here all winter share a special connection with each other as we keep the home fires burning for those who escape to the south until spring!

Photo shoot at Quarry Beach

We say many times during the summers we've lived here that we need to get down to the Lake and enjoy the beach more.   But then work and other distractions get in the way.  Today we remedied that by going to the beach, but we had another motivation...taking pictures of our neighbor, Dave, on his stand up paddleboard.

Dave moved here a few years ago and in his semi-retirement he has discovered the benefits of paddleboarding.  I don't think I have permission to "tell all" here, but I think he would say that this activity has given him a new lease on life, as well as better balance and a way to "sail" his way into some of the nooks and crannies of most of the waterways around here.  In the shot below, Dave is heading around the point to see what the wind conditions are over there.  He didn't come back while we were there, so it must have been okay.

I talked Dave into doing this photo shoot so I'd have some possible shots for later when we update the Port Wing brochure for next summer.  This year's current brochure also has a picture of Quarry Beach but shows friends of ours who visited a couple years ago.  When we got down here today, at first it was just Dave and us.  Then right away two other couples, each with a dog, appeared and so my shot below has one of the visitors out on the rock.  Dave wasn't standing up yet, so having "extras" in my shot was fine.  These visitors were from Owen-Withee, down in central Wisconsin, and were up here enjoying the sites.

I'm Facebook friends with Dave, so I've been able to enjoy the pictures he takes when he is out on his voyages.  From a blogger's point-of-view (mine), I think he should start a blog himself so more people can see his pictures and read his posts.  He could even cash in on his blogging by targeting the paddleboarding crowd!  I'll let you know if he does!

Today he posted about a Lake Superior tidal wave.  Really!  This phenomenon that occurs on the Great Lakes is called a seiche and is caused by dramatic weather changes from storms.  We noticed last week that the water was much higher by the marina, and I guess this was the reason.

 Thanks, Dave!  You make it look really easy, but I think I'd spend more time IN the lake than ON the board!

On the way home we stopped on the bridge on Quarry Road.  This is looking north where the Lake is just around that last bend.

And this looks south and it leads to a larger area called Bibon Lake.  Everything looked so nice on this beautiful day!

AND, in other news...we found out that they might start moving our old house this week.  We thought it was going to be in October, but schedules have changed.  Get the cameras ready!

Taking the long way to the garlic farm

Today we got the call that we could pick up our garlic.  This is from our neighbors who have been raising garlic here for probably twenty years or more.  We thought they had ended their garlic business two years ago, but it turns out the weather ended their garlic business for those two years--especially 2013 when we got 53 inches of snow in April.  Not good for garlic!  But this year they had a bumper crop and it was time to pick up our order.

Since they live just around the corner and up the road, we decided to take the back way...the REALLY back way...back through our woods.  This is a trail we haven't attempted since sometime early this spring because it's been so wet.  But today would be the day.

This is what it looks like at the start:

Even when it's really grown up--like it is now--you can usually tell where the trail is, or at least Leann can.  Today there was one point where she asked ME where the trail was.  She should have known better!

When several weeks/months have passed without going through on these trails, we often run into places with branches and logs crossing the trail.  Some are small and just require a clippers like the ones below.

And some are bigger and need to be dealt with in a major way or we need to back up and turn around.  Luckily we had the right equipment with us.

 This giant mushroom was right in the middle of the trail.  I placed the saw next to it for some perspective.

The rest of the trail was pretty uneventful, but she put the pedal to the metal so we could get through the swampy parts without getting stuck.  And then on to the garlic farm.

But first, here are some of their onions!  We got to go upstairs in their barn where they have already dried all the garlic--and onions--and have them all organized by kinds.

She had all her garlic orders arranged in boxes like this, all categorized by numbers according to the varieties she's planted this year.

And here's her list of kinds of garlic for this year--22 kinds!  And she still has more left after all her orders, so if you'd like some garlic, I'll let her know!  And the sad part is that she says this is absolutely her last year of doing garlic.

She wants to have more time to do/plant more of what she wants to do.  Their gardens--flower, succulent and vegetable--are all beautiful.  We love going there to see what's growing.  She has two climbing bean plants that must be 10 feet high!  Below are some of her dried beans--this one is the yin yang bean.

 And here are some more beautiful beans.  Don't you love the colors?  So we went home with our garlic and two eggplants--a variety that grows up in this climate...unlike the ones we planted that DON'T grow in this climate.  As with all things garden, live and learn from others!

Sometime around 7:30 we went for a ride down to the lake.  It seemed almost too dark at our house to catch the sunset, but we made it in time.  This is the marina area looking west.

And this is the slough or backwaters looking east toward tonight's showy full moon!

Wow!  Just, wow!

Retirement...again, and picts around the farm

It's all I can do NOT to begin these blog posts in a Keillor-esque manner..."It's been a quiet week in Lake...," and while I think it, so far I haven't actually done it.  But during most weeks, it actually is REALLY quiet!  Several of our recent guests have commented on it--quiet, serene, restful--so if that's the product we're selling, I guess we're doing our job!

Today we had the privilege of celebrating the [second] retirement of our friend and mechanic, Carri, down at the Town Hall with all of her friends.  Carri retired several years ago from teaching auto mechanics at two of the area technical colleges, and since that retirement has gone on to be our go-to person for ALL engine repairs--cars, boats, mowers, ATVs, whatever you've got, she can repair it!  

A year ago at this time, she announced that she was retiring from doing repairs; she even put an announcement in the newspaper.  She wanted to spend more time with the things and people she loves--daughters, granddaughters, friends, and airplanes! That was last year, but why was her yard still full of everyone's cars, boats, etc. etc?  (The word "no" is missing from her vocabulary!)

So THIS TIME her daughters held a surprise retirement party for her, hoping that will help make this retirement thing stick the second time around.  It was a great celebration with lots of her loyal friends from town, and we feel blessed to be a part of that group.  Of course, I pulled my phone/camera out of my pocket and it was dead, so I'm borrowing her Facebook picture.  Hope she doesn't mind!

Carri in the cockpit of an airplane - what she wants to do more of!

And on the homefront, we've been celebrating August with our gardens.  Yesterday for the Saturday Market we had beans, three kinds of onions, basil, parsley, kale, and carrots!  Really nice carrots!

This garden is on the south side of our red shed where we cook off maple syrup in the winter.  Look at those cute sunflowers!  Also in this bed, tomatoes & Roma tomatoes, yellow squash, and onions.  It's starting to look kind of wild now...hard to get through the rows to find the produce!

This vine with the pretty white blossom is growing out of one of our compost bins.  The leaves and stems are so soft compared to those prickly cucumber vines, and we didn't know what it might be that was growing from something that had been composted!  But now that we saw the first little object growing, we know...birdhouse gourds from when Leann was making birdhouses and had reamed out all the seeds and fibers from inside the dried gourds.  Unfortunately we don't have a growing season long enough to fully ripen these gourds, so we'll settle for vines!

This are our new raised beds--tomatoes in the back left, cucumbers and carrots back right, beets, peppers, eggplant (still with no sign of an eggplant) and carrots bottom left and a jungle of green beans bottom right.

This is me, scissors in hand, trying to get control of our giant tomato plants!  I'm trying to clear away a little green so the tomatoes can show through!  Finally our first red-(dish) tomato is almost ready.

And here is our silo pit garden with more jungly tomatoes and our monarch waystation flowers--milkweed, zinnias, others I've forgotten the names--and cucumbers.  We also have a bunch of volunteer petunias growing that came from seeds from last summer's petunias!  Leann dumped the old pots in there last fall and they sprouted from seeds this summer.  Now, if you planned for that to happen, it never would have worked!

August is such fun...maybe even September, too, as long as the frost stays away!

June Port Wing Community Band Concert - chilly to watch but warmly received

Tonight we put on the first of our Port Wing Community Band summer band concerts & ice cream socials.  When Tom--one of the charter members & tuba player--gave the introduction tonight, I learned that this group first got together to play for a school talent show.  That was ten or more (I think) years ago, and they've been going ever since.  I started playing my French Horn with the band about four years ago.  It's definitely more fun now that we are living here and don't have to wonder if we'll be here for the August concert or not!

I'm not sure how many players participated those first few years, but usually there is at least one person for each instrument...so that wasn't a very big band back then.  Someone counted chairs tonight and we are up to 21 with the director, Jody (who is also the school band director...we are so lucky to have her!)  We are also fortunate to have five students playing with us, and most have been there every year for the last four or more years.  UNfortunately, four of those students will be going off to college in the fall.  In honor of them, we played Pomp and Circumstance as one of our pieces tonight. They don't seem to mind playing with the old(er) folks and they add so much to the group.  We are excited to have several new people this year--another French horn player (yay!), another trumpet player (and Port Wing student), and you might be able to see the oboe (that looks like a violin) in the front row.  And we can already hear what having the oboe part adds to the sound of the group!

But it was chilly tonight--49˚!  They set up the chairs so most of us could be in the sun when the concert started at 7, but by the time it was over, everyone was feeling the chill!  Especially after the ice cream sundaes!  It brought me back to marching band season in the fall in high school and those cold early morning practices out on the football field.

We ended the concert with our traditional last song.  Yes, you guessed it--Stars and Stripes Forever with Beth playing the piccolo part.  Love it!

Home in time for the Kiln-Opening!

Just home from another quick trip to central Minnesota, this time for a more joyous event--Leann's nephew's wedding.  The rain held off long enough for the wedding to take place in her brother's beautifully landscaped back yard.  And the reception in town was a great opportunity for her siblings' kids, and their kids, to be together and have a great time making more wedding memories.

Today we arrived back home in to go to one of my favorite places around here--the home and gardens of Gregory & Terese Melis.  Gregory & Terese create beautiful pottery together and several times a year they hold "kiln openings" where they invite people to their home for a party to celebrate their newly fired pottery.  Gregory stands by the kiln that has had time to cool, and guests line up to receive pieces of pottery from him to put out on display.

If you happen to be handed a piece you really like, you may set that aside for purchase later and then see what else should appear.  We weren't there today in time to see items as they came out of the kiln, but these pictures show some of what was left on display.

Gregory is the potter and Terese does the painting on some of the pieces.  They experiment with different kinds of glazes for different effects, so there is always something new to see.  That is their dog enjoying a nice June afternoon.

Below are some of the pieces, showing the artwork up close, that we have purchased at kiln-opening events.  We use them all the time for our B&B breakfasts. 

Besides pottery, Gregory also sells books and always has an enticing collection of books to choose from--probably another reason I like to go there!  And then there are their beautiful gardens!  I love the meandering paths and all of the interesting flowers, berries and vegetables that they have growing.

  

The gardens still look like very early spring/summer but there will be all kinds of good things coming from those beds!

Mostly I like going there just to visit with Gregory & Terese.  They do so many interesting things around their home and gardens, and we always learn about something to try out at our house.  

Beautiful pottery, books, gardens and good conversation - what a great afternoon!

The Gallery is open, now bring on summer!

Port Wing is usually a pretty quiet place in the winter.  This year was the exception during January, February & March when we had all the ice cave visitors passing through our town. But in a typical year, it's a good sign that summer is coming when the summer businesses start opening up.  And today was opening day for the Hoth-Lee Art Gallery.

The Hoth-Lee Art Gallery is run by our friends, Sandy & Nancy, and back in 1999 they came up here from Iowa and bought this building that was once a church.  They put in a lot of work to fix it up into a beautiful showplace for the art created by various artists living in our area.  I'm not sure if it was intentional, but deciding to make it yellow with a blue roof fits in perfectly with this community settled by Swedish immigrants.

Sandy and Nancy are both artists themselves.  Nancy does beautiful work with fused glass and she also paints with water colors.  Sandy is the photographer and is always finding new ways to reproduce her photos, most of area scenes, in everything from greeting cards to beautifully mounted artwork for your walls.  

Nancy is standing by one of their jewelry displays, but you can also see some pottery by Gregory & Terese Melis and one of the new infinity scarves by an area weaver.

The old church windows let in some cheery light on a sunny day.  Add to that some soothing background music sung by folksinger Sara Thomsen of Duluth, and you have a perfect shopping experience.

On this shelf are several smaller metal scultpure pieces by Sara Balbin who has a studio nearby in Drummond, Wisconsin, as well as pottery from a couple different potters.  Also on the top is a new line of photos that Sandy started last year, "The World According to Emily," featuring their little cat, Emily...of course.  Very cute and so timely with the current Internet cat fascination.

This is their library corner where they feature books by area authors or authors of books about our area and Lake Superior.  New this year in the library corner are jigsaw puzzles with a lake theme.  And notice all of Sandy's photographs!

Greeting cards, wood carvings, pottery and more

One of the larger Sara Balbin metal sculptures

More mounted photographs & metal sculptures occupy what used to be the altar area of the church.  And once a year in the fall, they move everything out of the way, set up chairs for about 50 guests, and put on a house concert featuring Sara Thomsen and her guitar.

They have a beautiful gallery and their success shows in all of the customers who come back year after year to see what's new in the Hoth-Lee Art Gallery.  Come and visit the Gallery!