Wisconsin With Kids ~ Ice Fishing Up North

If you can remember back to the sunny days of summer, I started a series of posts:  Wisconsin With Kids.  It's been a while since the last addition to that series and since ice fishing and Wisconsin winters go together like.....say, bread and butter, and the winter free fishing weekend is fast approaching, I figured it'd be the perfect time to highlight one of our favorite winter activities - ice fishing.  And because central Wisconsin isn't wintry enough for us, we usually head Up North for our ice fishing fun.

This has been a crazy winter.  We had rain in December, the pond froze over and then opened up again to finally freeze up the last couple of days in December.  That's definitely not normal.  We prayed and wished really hard that Up North would get enough cold to freeze up Blockhouse Lake, and sure enough there was just enough ice for fishing when we got there.

I'm going to share with you our way of ice fishing with small children.  It works great for us, and truthfully, it's the only way I'll ice fish with youngsters in tow.

This here is The Green Tree Getaway.  It's located just a few steps from the lake and is the warmest, coziest, ice shack I've ever experienced.  It's only a few steps from the lake and has great patio doors for watching tip-ups.  We're able to watch our tip-ups from the comfort of a cabin, complete with gas fireplace, satellite TV, playing cards, and Pillsbury cookies in the oven.  

The night before, adjustments are made to the tip-ups in the cozy cabin.  The gas fireplace adds plenty of warmth even on the coldest nights.

Some of the necessary supplies for our little getaway:  an ax, an ice scoop, and lots of 5 gallon pails.  I wish I would've taken a picture of all the pails lined up; it was a lot.

Here's what it looks like in the morning.  Everyone is out drilling holes and setting tip-ups.

Nick likes to jig fish, too.  He's hoping to catch a panfish.  No luck this time.

And what everyone is waiting for......the catch.  Looks like Joe got a nice Northern this time.

We had a weekend of wind trips (that's when the flag goes up, but only due to the wind and not a fish).  What a bummer.  Lot's of running out to the tip-up for nothing.  But, since you can't tell, the minnow buck has to go along anyway.

Amber got a flag, but it looks to be another pesky wind trip.

Emily caught a nice fish.  As you can tell it wasn't that cold; Peter and Joe were willing to wait outside without wearing any jackets for Emily to bring the fish up.

Maria loves traipsing behind on tip-up runs.  5-10 minutes outside, multiple times, is just right for her.  In the past, we've done the ice fishing all day with only an ice shanty to keep warm thing and, um, no thanks.  The kids (and me) like it so much more with a warm cabin close by.  See that smile on Maria's face, it wouldn't be there if she was cold, wet, and miserable.  Just sayin'.

Another benefit of staying at the Green Tree Getaway is that, come dusk and the tip-ups are brought in for the night, we get to hang around doing basically nothing other than watching Fast and Loud and playing cards.

Sometimes even 11 year old boys get sick of watching TV and pull out a book to read.

And husbands who don't get much time to read at home, still don't get much time to read, but that's not the cozy, cabin's fault.

Trying to read his something to read Christmas present - The Jesus Cow.

Everyday is a good day for a little nature study.  Peter and Maria and I followed these crow tracks across the ice.  Peter was amazed that they look just like turkey tracks.

And just in case you're thinking I holed up in the cabin and snapped pictures from inside (which I did), that's not all I did.  I really did spend time out on the ice in the cold and I have a selfie to prove it.

Ice fishing with kids.  It can be done, even with the littlest ones if done right.  If I've peaked your interest you can check out the Wisconsin DNR website for info on the free fishing weekend.  There are a few events throughout the state where equipment will be provided.  All you do is show up.  Check out their website for details.

Green Tree Getaway Facebook page

I feel a cold one coming on - stay warm!

How to Patch Insulated Carhartt Bib Overalls

We're finally getting the snow we've been waiting for and that means the Carhartt bibs were dragged out.  Last winter Nick spearheaded a campout which ended up being the coldest couple days of the entire winter.  Night temps were -10 F.  Day temps weren't much better.  In an attempt to keep warm the boys huddled around a giant fire they built in an old silo base.  Nick didn't realize just how close he was until someone pointed out that his bibs were burnt to a crisp.  It seemed every time the bibs were dry I didn't have time to repair the damage so here we are a year later and I finally took time to patch the burn holes.

I've made patches this way before and they're working well and holding up to the demands of boys.  Last year I patched the knees of Sam's Carhartt bibs - he loves the patches.  In case you find yourself in need of patching insulated bibs, here's my method for heavy duty, long lasting quilted patches.

This is what I had to work with.

First I measured the damaged area.  Then I added a couple of inches to my measurements.

I chose a heavyweight twill because I want these patches to be tough.  I cut a piece twice the width needed.  Then I cut a piece of batting and laid it inside the patch fabric.

I made a fabric/batting/fabric sandwich.

Using a long straight stitch, I quilted the patch in straight rows about 1 inch apart.

This is the quilted patch.  

I like patches to have rounded edges, so I folded the patch lengthwise and rounded the edge with sharp shears.

Then I laid it out to make sure it was going to work well.

I pinned it in place and used a heavy duty trade show clip to secure the bottom.  Since the bottom of overalls take a beating, I planned on folding the patch over the hem, but once I started sewing, I found it was just too thick.  I made an adjustment by trimming the bottom of the patch even with the hemline.  I double stitched along the lower edge and I think it turned out great.

Once pinned in place, set your machine to a wide zigzag, medium stitch length and stitch the patch in place, sewing about a 1/4 inch from the edge of patch.  This was kind of tricky because of the bulk of the overalls, but working slowly and pushing the extra pant leg through the sewing machine throat I was able to get it done.

Stitch a 2nd time all the way around the patch making sure the needle comes down right at the edge of the fabric.  Stitch a 3rd time along the bottom edge/hemline.  Trim any loose threads and you're done.....if your son only burned one leg, which mine didn't.  He burned them both so I did this process again making a quilted patch for the other leg.

Happy Patching!  And now he's ready for some serious sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing, whatever the winter brings.

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December Happenings

Here's a little peek into our December.  

Some pictures don't lend themselves to their own post so for those of you interested in what we do other than grow cranberries and homeschool, here you are, a pile of pictures.

Amber danced to Michael Buble's "Jingle Bells".

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.

Sam played Christmas songs at Walmart with his Suzuki group.

Emily played, too.  This is her last time playing this gig; it's bittersweet.

Peter celebrated #4 with chocolate, chocolate cupcakes.

It was time for a new, clean, indoor ride-on toy and this has turned out to be a real winner.  Even Joseph at 7 can comfortably ride.

This activity was born from the famous saying, "necessity is the mother of invention".  Any normal year you'd find the kids pulling sleds behind the 4-wheeler or snowmobile, but this isn't a normal year.  Far from it.  Amber and Emily decided it was high time Pearl learn to pull.  And it had to be something that if destructed didn't matter.  Amber scrounged up this pallet and the fun began.  PALLET PULLING has become the newest outdoor fun.

Strolling through the rotary lights has become a tradition for us.  

Christmas is for kids.........and husbands.

Cookie baking has begun and Amber spearheaded most of it.  Maria "helped" me with the Brown Sugar Cut-outs (because I'm passionate about involving kids in the kitchen).  We used the star cookie cutter I bought on our trip to Pepin.  It was fun to reminisce a bit about that trip and the sunny, warm weather and the fact that it was just WARREN AND ME.

Happy Monday to you all!  And to all a good night.

Our Christmas Gift and Wrapping Tradition...(still going strong)

Having 7 kids in the house makes for a wild, exciting, exhausting, yet fun Christmas Eve.  For years we've followed the same tradition of 3 packages to unwrap on Christmas Eve and a stocking Christmas morning.  Back in 2010 I shared the details of how we choose gifts, wrap presents, and how we keep track of whose is whose without name tags.  It's really a lot of fun and the teenagers still enjoy the tradition.  The only thing that's changed since then is we've added two more kids to the clan and now most of the presents are on top of the TV cabinet instead of under the tree.

Actually, just last night I placed a few of the larger gifts under the tree (just to see if the little kids would leave them alone).  It didn't take long before I heard the sound of ripping paper.  Joseph was the culprit; I taped it back together while Peter scolded him and so far so good, no more unwrapping.

What Christmas traditions do you have? 

Please share in the comments.

*just a note about the pictures in the 2010 blog post, for some reason they are turned and blogger will not let me rotate them to an upright position, sorry for the disruption

Homemade Musical Instruments.....(on the cheap)

I've been using the Mother Goose Time pre-school curriculum for two years now.  It's really a fun program; sometime mid-month FedEx delivers a school bus box filled with 20 days worth of pre-school materials.  Each day is bagged and ready for use.  Specific items not always found in the junk/art closet are included in the package.  Other supplies like:  markers, scissors, glue.....the basics need to be provided by you.  Detailed lesson plans with objectives are provided; however, I follow the teacher plans very loosely.  I've found that some of the activities are best done with larger groups of children.  Anyway, December's theme is Sights and Sounds of Winter and today's bag contained cardboard pieces and yarn to make a paper violin, which was a real hit around here seeing that three of us play violin.  Then I played A Classical Kids Christmas cd and Peter and Maria took turns (and if taking turns means screaming at one another and grabbing at the paper violin, then that's what they did) playing the violin to the beat of the music.

Playing along to O Come Little Children.

 I had to think fast because Maria WAS NOT happy one bit that Peter had this cool violin and she had nothing.  Looking around I saw a pile of X-large rubberbands and knew that would do the trick.  I grabbed a small box from the basement and stretched the rubberbands around the box.  Voila!  A second instrument for her.  And this one actually makes music when strummed.  It was a hit!  So easy, so cheap and fun to play with.

Once she started strumming away, Peter was more than happy to trade off the paper violin.  This activity kept them busy for quite some time, which gave me an opportunity to read with Joseph.

After the rubberband box did its time as an instrument, I found these two using it as a zoo cage for their small stuffed animals.  What do you get two kids for Christmas whose favorite "toys" are plastic bags, rubberbands, and boxes?

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