The Ditchboat Gets a Name and Onto The Water.

The internet is a glorious thing. Besides cat videos, one thing you can locate there are various boat naming ceremonies. Well, we took one, and we named her. Meet Fiskeørn, the Osprey.

 

 

We’ve had her on the two biggest lakes in Madison, with great success, and the weekend before the wedding, Matt took her on Lake Michigan for a trial salmon fishing run, and a trip to the canal bars in Milwaukee. As the video says, with just the two of us in the boat, we clock about 37mph according to the GPS. When Matt took out my dad, brother-in-law, and one of his Marine buddies, they only hit about 32. She floats and she runs. We have a salmon boat.

Improvements for next year include a new carburetor (we can’t go quite slow enough to really troll- the carburetor’s jets are worn, and it won’t idle that low),  better planer boards, and a stenciled nameplate. Also, a kit so that we can reverse with the big engine, a small kicker motor, and a new interrupter switch. Possibly a new alternator.

The Epic of the Ditchboat Continues

Matt got new tires on the trailer yesterday, and last night we put the rest of the lower unit on. Today was the day.

Various, Sundry, Etc.

So I’ve been remiss in posting lately. Reticent, reluctant, reclusive. Turkey season has even come and gone with nary a peep. So what’s up?

Urban Sugaring part II

The weekend of the 20th, we began boiling down our maple sap. Our first set up was a simple stock pot over our propane turkey fryer, and it stayed that way for another week

30 gall food-grade barrel in the foreground.

Updates.

I was excited enough about two things to post an update.

Urban Sugaring + Taxidermy News

With the way Matt’s work is going lately, we had to find something close to home to do this past weekend. And this time, we took that very literally.

Wild Food: Wisconsin Caviar

Ahead of a weekend of Not Much, Really, I figured I’d leave a post of what became of our walleye earlier this week. 

In my groggy haze this morning, I forgot to set up a Monday post. Long story short, we didn’t even see any teal during the early season, except for maybe one group at some distance. Lots of geese, and we even got two to circle, but none close enough to shoot. 

Labor Day Weekend

Late Saturday evening, Matt and I drove up north to get to work on improving our duck hunting site, as well as hanging trail cams and various other odds and ends. We turned around and came back Sunday afternoon, hoping to hunt the opener Monday morning for early goose and teal, so we weren’t there long, and packed a lot of activity into a few hours.

Rubber Backing and Carpet Glue

We had a wedding to go to on Saturday, so we didn’t do a whole bunch besides more boatwork. Not that fishing would have been productive- it’s been hovering near 90F the last week or so, but with humidity well over 70%, you could swim about as easily as you could walk. However, I’m not complaining. I was desperately trying to remember this weather last winter, to give myself hope and a reason to keep going. At least my feet are warm and sweaty, and I can feel my extremities burning in the sun.