X'mas Eve-Eve

After our yakitori season really ended, we've been enjoying Japanese hot pot dinners regularly. At least twice a week. It's been a lifesaver for me to come home from work after 5 and manage putting together a meal. A tasty warm meal. 

It's now time for "A Christmas Story" with a drink. Cheers! Hoping for a relaxing next couple of days off from work. Merry Christmas to you all.

That Time of Year

Joe's deer season is over. He hunted 10 days of the season this year, and the picture above shows his accomplishment. He got his reading done. Even though he saw deer every day, including quite a few bucks, he didn't take a shot at any. His big 6-pointer never showed. A smaller 6-pointer did come, only to his brother Mark. That's life.... The good thing about Joe not shooting a deer this year is that we have enough room in our freezer for me to make homemade ice cream! Life always has a bright side.
And it's December already! I managed to design our holiday card image this past week. No time to waste before printing all the cards.

Today we had a balmy 45-degree weather, so we decided it called for yakitori dinner, one last time this season. Well, by then it was dark out and the temperature down to 35. I put a pair of long johns and a knitted hat! It was still fun and tasty. Now our yakitori grill can go into hibernation.  

Day 2

Thursday, Day 2 of Deer Season, I spent my day off with Joe in his deer blind, vacationing. Not a typical vacation though. Getting up at 5:30 a.m., throwing on every winter clothes you own, walking into woods in a pitch dark, then spending the rest of day sitting in a chair you had to bring in. I say this every season, but deer hunting is work. 
We sure had spectacular views from our window. We even saw several deer, mostly in the morning. Not much happened after lunch, probably because I snored. Yes, I did catch some z's. 

Then right at dusk, a mama deer and a junior came back before a pencil-point spike showed up briefly. I couldn't even see his spikes in the fading light, they were so skinny. Joe wasn't to take him anyway. He is really hoping for this beautiful 6-point that had been on his camera. Up until the night before opening day.... Joe's buck fever is setting in. 

Deer Season, Already!

Today was the opening day of deer season, Joe's sacred holiday. Out the door he went in the dark before 6 a.m. A couple of weeks ago a strong wind storm went through and, of course, took down a few trees in Joe's trail to his deer blind. He had to chop and move them. 

Not related to the subject, but every deer season I seem to crave rice and miso soup breakfast. I have much more alone time in the morning, and miso soup isn't exactly Joe's kind of breakfast. Maybe because I only have this once a year, it tasted darn good.

When Joe came home from a long cold wet day of hunting, we had sukiyaki for dinner. To celebrate the first day of hunting and seeing 3 doe, 1 spike, and 1 buck who was 4-point but now 2-point (apparently he lost a fight with a bigger buck). A pretty exciting day. I am crazy enough to plan on going out with Joe tomorrow. Wish me luck for catching lots of Z's.

A White Halloween

Our fishing season, even for Joe, is officially over. Joe went back to catch a fresh salmon several more times with no luck. This Saturday he bated his deer hunting spot (yes, it is that time again already) then went fishing. When he lost his favorite lure, he called it a quit. Nonetheless, we had a few good-sized trout in the freezer. So we had a sushi roll dinner to celebrate our mostly successful trout season. 
And our weather turned to winter last week, the temps dropping to low 30s. On this Halloween we woke up to a white wonderland outside. We had a few inches of snow over night.

We carved our pumpkins last night. It's going to be a chilly night for trick-or-treating up here. Happy Halloween!

Some Catch

Fall is in full swing now. After our getaway last Sunday we had to try to catch salmon again. Only to stay till dark and Kayo managed to catch a touch of cold. No salmon.

Yesterday afternoon after stormy weather, the sun came out. Well, guess what? We went chasing salmon again. Finally, Joe hooked on a good sized salmon!

An almost 30" female salmon. Except she was so close to spawning that her body dark colored and her tail decaying. We had to let her go. Still exciting though.

For my birthday (a day early) Joe grilled BBQ ribs last night. Only Joe is still wanting to go back to catch one fresh (edible) salmon to bring home. To be continued....

A Little Getaway

Last weekend we took a little getaway to Green Bay. Honestly we needed a break from our salmon fishing obsession. More importantly Kayo needed to stock up on Japanese rice and soy sauce. It was time for a little road trip to a bigger city! Unfortunately the Murphys were out of town, but we stayed at their home on Lake Michigan, which gave us plenty of vacation feel. Thank you!

The highlight was a sushi dinner, as part of Kayo's early birthday present. 

And a dessert drink (alcoholic) to finish the excellent dining experience.

The End of Trout Season

This last week of trout season has been a blur. Especially since we learned that fall salmon were in the river and the fact that there were only a few days of trout season left, our fishing fever got worse. Joe's boss even let him leave work 1 hour early to go fishing on Tuesday. 
Thursday we both got to go to Apple Creek. There were indeed large fish in Big Hole. We just couldn't catch them! Joe managed to pull out this beautiful Brookie. The highlight of the day was our lunch on the river bank. I (Kayo) had a rough day: I fell and bruised my shin in a shallow water, got water inside my chest waders, and lost three lures! All on one outing, and all I got was this dark long shadow of a big fish slowly swim after my lure almost to the shore, which became a haunting image in my dream.

Friday was our work day with no fishing plan. At 4pm Joe called and asked if I wanted to go fishing after 5. Well, we couldn't resist. We took a quick trip to the big pool below water falls where large salmon could easily be hanging out. In the setting sun light we did see dark large shadows swimming around. Joe missed one, and my lure once bounced off the back of a salmon! We stayed till DARK, too dark for us to see and tie fish hooks. 

Early next morning (frosty and chilly), the last day of trout season, Joe's cousin Al joined us to go back to the falls. As much as we wanted a big fish for ourselves, we hoped the same for Al who could only fish for a few hours. So Fish God granted our wish. Al landed a very nice 16" Brown earlier on. Then, Nothing. 

After seeing Al off, we took our serious battle to Apple Creek. At this point we were counting down the hours left to catch salmon. Our hope to catch one became our wish just to see one in the river. 

We even went back to the falls where we thought we could see one for sure. Well, we could never prove it. Thank Fish God for letting Joe catch another Brookie, the very first fish of the day, just before 5pm. We could finally call it a quit. Defeated, but hopeful and satisfying sorts. A good fight. We certainly had our wins earlier in the season. And regardless of wins and losses, we look forward to the next season.

P.S. Dear Fish God: the last lure you took away from me (or I lost) was totally unnecessary. I'd like to negotiate.
P.P.S. Fishing has indeed taught me a life lesson that we can't always get what we want!

Fishing Fever, Not Cured

Last Thursday we both had a day off to fish Apple Creek, hoping to catch a salmon. At one point I dropped my waterproof camera in the water, so I decided to take a couple of underwater pictures. And it confirmed that there were no salmon. It was another slow day fishing. Oh well.
The Saturday morning was not any better fishing/catching. It got very warm, almost 90! We went to beach to cool off in the afternoon. Too hot for anything else!

We just kept hoping to see our first salmon. Sunday was forecasted to be just as warm, so we took an even earlier start to go back to Apple Creek. The morning mist was very pretty, though it only lasted a short while.

My first cast into the dark water caught a 13" Brown. Maybe, maybe a sign for the bigger salmon....

But then, Nothing! Fish weren't even after Joe's crawlers. That's pretty bad. We fished downstream with not much success. We just wanted to see the salmon were up, even if they weren't biting. So we walked back to the first Big Hole now that the sun was starting to shine into the water to illuminate for us to see underwater. After a little while Joe spotted two sets of fins moving around above the water. Just like shark fins. Salmon are up, and those two were heading up the stream. So we chased after them. We got to watch them splash and chase each other. They were so close. Joe missed one of them once. They wanted nothing to do with a spinner, or a crawler. All in all we ended up staying on the river extra two hours. Fish won. 

We are fully intending to fish for salmon as much as we can till the end of the month. Joe went out this evening after work and saw one salmon and caught a bunch of small rainbow trout. Fall salmon have just started coming up the rivers. 

Almost There!

With small signs of autumn popping, we started to check on the grapes in our backyard. This past week they really started to turn color. Maybe in a week or so Joe can pick his first batch. It looks like we won't have as many grapes as previous years.... We will see. It's almost grape jelly making time again.
And tomorrow is the last day of my 9 days straight working. Phew, almost there! We both have Thursday off to go fishing. Can't wait!

SKUNKED!

For about a month already the Nature has been showing the signs of fall. Any time now we could have a burst of fall color and fall salmon. The anticipation is killing us. Not so much the fall color, but the salmon. This weekend it seemed all fish were gone on vacation, if not on strike. Joe caught a couple of trout right at the beginning on Saturday, but then nothing after that. Yesterday we didn't see a single fish during 2 hours we fished. Not even a tiny minnow!

That's life. Fishing is as unpredictable and unexplainable sometimes. So we tried (really had to try) to enjoy the beautiful nature, not wondering where the fish were. Afterwards Joe treated us both to Big Creek Burgers on our way home. A tasty consolation prize!

Our First Bite at North Shore

We took a 3-day weekend and visited Ironwood before summer is over. Though the wet weather felt more like fall, it was a wonderful getaway. The highlight was the day trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior. Even through our rainy car windows, we could see the rugged lakeshores, much more grandeur than most along the South Shore. We would love to go back to explore the wilderness for sure, but also to have an excuse to have another mind-blowing meal at New Scenic Café.

Everything was amazing! The whole experience was just so perfect. Thanks to Phil and Judy for treating us to our belated anniversary gift, one of the best meals of all times!

Not that we didn't eat enough the day before, but Judy fixed a wonderful meal at home before our departure. Fresh Wisconsin corn, garden tomatoes and basil were not to be missed. As always we ate our way on this trip to the west, only this time to have our first taste of the North Shore.

P.S.

The first frost advisory last night. (I don't think we actually had frost though.) The low temp this morning was 40 degrees F. Chilly!

The End of Summer

August is fast approaching its end, and we had our first beach outing on Sunday. The high temperature reached 85 with balmy south breeze. We closed our eyes, imagining we were in Hawaii.

Earlier that day Joe had to take me fishing, a quick trip, to confirm that catching was indeed bad. The river was absolutely gorgeous in the morning sun. Fish were almost non existing. We caught only a few, all smaller than 6". Oh well. Even on the trout stream, you could see signs of early fall. Ferns are starting to brown. That means fall salmon season! Though we still have about a month before we actually catch them.

Another event for the end of summer was the State Fair last week. We went there on Thursday (my day off), when thunder storms were predicted all day long. We somehow missed the rain and stayed dry. Joe also missed his annual Elephant Ear because he was too full from all other foods. He probably has to wait till next year....

Who Said I Can't Complain!

Fishing had been rather slow... so many bugs out there for fish to feed on and high waters from rain. On some occasions we couldn't prove there were any fish at all! Joe keeps reminding me that's why it's called "Fishing" not "Catching." 
But this Sunday I learned that complaining does sometimes help. We took a trip out to Apple Creek, and the first Big Hole was almost a bust. So as we waded downstream, I complained about not having seen any decent fish out loud, purposefully audible to Fish God. Then, right there, I hooked on this 14" Brown. Thank you, Fish God! You do listen. You can just imagine how shocked I was. Later Joe caught his 13" Brown. 

The truth is that when we are on Apple Creek, the natural beauty, almost undisturbed, reminds us of the good life we live. With or without big fish. Of course, we admit a can of Miller High Life tastes much better after catching a big one. That's what we live and fish for. 

The day before we attended Joe's cousin's wedding. Joe wore his new cool Aloha shirt. It has skulls, flowers, serpent, and geisha.