Lac Du Flambeau

I have always known my Great Uncle and respected him, but until recently, I never quite knew him.  He is an amazing person who has done so much in life and accomplished so much.  He is a role model to many people, and to me also.  Uncle Dave, my Grandmother's younger brother and big brother to my Uncle Bill.  I knew him long ago when I would occasionally see him and his children: Dave Jr, Douggie, Dale, Donnie, and then there was Mike.  He and I were around the same age and looked somewhat similar.  I guess that was from the Christensen bloodline.  Early in the summer, my mother asked if my family wanted to stay the weekend at Uncle Dave's house.  We said yes but didn't quite know what to expect.  We know some things about him, but not much.  I hadn't seen him in a few years since attending a Torsk dinner (a Danish tradition).  This past weekend is a weekend I'll never forget thanks to his and Sharon's generosity and hospitality.

They live on White Sand Lake near Lac Du Flambeau.  He designed his house and finished it himself.  It's in (s he describes it) God's Country.  There were a lot of Eagles flying around, as common as Turkey Vultures are around my neck of the woods.  I've always been in awe of Eagles; their iconic white head and tail, their huge size, their stiff and bold stature... They are the perfect reason of why they are the patriotic symbol of this great country of ours.

Our trip started on Friday morning.  We packed up the Subaru and headed to our first stop before arriving at Uncle Dave's, the appropriately named Dave's Falls.

 Looking at the bridge

 One of the upper falls

Evelyn lost in the moment

After a few hours of hiking, climbing and shooting pictures, we were back on our way.  We said we'd be there around 3, but when we showed up at 3:15, Uncle Dave opened the door, said "Your late!" and closed the door on us!  That set the mood right away.  It's always been fun hanging out with them, their very witty!  We went out for a very tasty fish fry and kinda settled down for the evening.  Of course, Uncle Dave and I finished off the evening having a few drinks and shooting a few games of pool, which he won 2 out of 3.

We woke every morning early to take pictures of the sunrise overlooking the lake from their dock.  Here is the first morning's sunrise.

 We saw a lot of eagles every morning passing right over us and landing in trees across the lake from us.  This was also on the first morning, like he was welcoming us to this area.

 We got a chance to kayak on the lake

 Manda was very happy to kayak, she loves to paddle around without a care in the world

 Even Grace got to paddle a bit, although she did like the paddle board better

 In the afternoon, after a Badger football win, we toured the lake in the pontoon boat, captained by Uncle Dave.

 Funny Uncle Bill told stories, jokes, and shared memories of days past.  Apparently, he likes shopping at "nice" stores...

 Guess who got to drive the boat around for a little while?

 Even Granny was having a really good time, or was that the wine talking...?

 After a great beef tip dinner, we went outside to enjoy the cool night air around a warm fire.

Mom was the evening DJ, like she has done so many nights before, taking requests

 And I got out the camera... "How come there's more stars that show up on your camera than I can see?" asks Uncle Bill.  I said "The camera's younger and has better eyes!"

 Sunrise on Sunday morning.

There weren't many eagles, but an otter did make an appearance and talked to us a bit.

 A red squirrel that we saw while driving around town on Sunday.

 Later, we took a walk.  Look at the colors starting to turn!  It won't be long now before the rest of the state is glowing with fall colors!

 I cooked dinner later that evening before the Packer game (WIN).  We had grilled Salmon, grilled Italian chicken, Italian spiced red potatoes, and grilled green beans and asparagus.  We teamed that up with a red wine which I don't normally drink, but went well with the dinner.  SKOAL!!!

 Sunrise on Monday morning

And about 15 minutes later, the sky is really starting to glow!

I really loved staying here and would really like to thank Uncle Dave and Sharon for opening up their home to us and being such great hosts.  I hope to come back again, sometime maybe a little warmer to take full advantage of the water.

Fun with Outhouses?

Yes.  You read the title right.  Fun.  They sure can be.  Not many people have them anymore.  It's a pain in the um... nose to even get close to public pit toilets.  But to those who still have the pleasure to have an outhouse, it's not just an extra bathroom, it so much more than that.  It's peace of mind to know you'll never have a plumbing problem there.  You'll never have a clogged toilet that won't flush, and you'll always have an excellent backdrop for a photo shoot!

It all started one day last year when we were goofing around and took a picture...

We went for a hike and when we came back, this is what happened.  Manda still has her backpack on!  Ev picked up the BB gun and we quickly choreographed a shot.

The key is in the details.  That's why it's fun, just plain goofy.  We went to a thrift store before this and picked up a martini glass and an assortment of costume ideas.

Even Grace got into the spirit (reluctantly).  I told her to pretend that there was someone chasing her!

Bail!!!

These two just make for the best partnering, mostly because they're both free willing.

Cheers with Charlie!  (Val Ewing and Charlie the adorable puppy are the models in this one.  After all, it is her outhouse, she's had a lot of practice sitting on it!)

That damn Clog!  Note the clothes pin on my nose as an added prop.

CHARGE!!!

Shootin' a turd burgler!

I like that the kid is driving and the adult is shooting.

I couldn't figure out which one of these I liked better.  Of course, both of these pictures, the boat is firmly on the trailer and on the land.  I think that's what makes it work well.  The outhouse isn't in some of these pictures, but it's the humor tat we're sticking with here.

It appears that the kid is catching a big one and the adult could care less while she's taking a pull off the ol' bottle.

Of  course, these are all staged, but we thought they'd be really fun.  They were fun to shoot.  We'll be adding to these as the  seasons change, which will make these more challenging, but equally as fun.  I've got a lot of ideas to play around with!

A different kind of adventure...

Anka-what?

About 10 years ago, when I was an apprentice Ironworker, I was working on the Froedhert Cancer center expansion and I developed something called Iritis.  After going to the doctor with partial blindness in my eye, painful pressure, and abnormal discomfort to light, I was diagnosed with an irritation of the iris in my eye.  It's not uncommon to get this once or twice, especially if you did something to irritate it.  But then I started getting it about 3 times a year.  Every damn year.  Sometimes it would be so bad that I'd have to keep my eye dilated for up to a month, would lose most of my vision in whatever eye it was at the time, and use a steroid eye drop up to 6 times a day for up to 2 months!

Chronic Iritis is not common at all.  it's very rare to get it all on it's own.  It is common though with any auto-immune disease.  So I went to my regular doctor to have it checked out.  I went through all sorts of tests including the standard blood tests.  That's when they caught my NAFLD.  That's Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.  It turns out, eating staight out of the trough of ice cream and devouring a bag of popcorn every night by myself wasn't healthy.  All that fat had to go somewhere, and it did.  as it turns out, your liver is a fat magnet.  it sucks it up and doesn't let it go.  But after a small diet change, that has been under control for some time now.  But that doesn't explain the Iritis.

But back to the topic at hand, for many years I have had a really sore back.  My sciatic nerve would end up bothering my for a week at a time almost every month.  It was really getting bad.  Back to the doctor I would go and was diagnosed with a generic "lower back arthritis" condition called degenerative joint disease.  Ok, I've got something for an answer, but what can I do about it?  How can I treat the pain?  I was taking far too many ibuprofen for it to do any good for my stomach lining, but it was partially helping the pain.

I would wake up every morning for a few years with back pain.  I never slept in, I couldn't.  The pain was too much.  After a few ibuprofen, my back would loosen up and I would be fine.  After longer drives, my back would hurt.  After sitting and watching TV for a few hours, my back would hurt.  This isn't normal and I was not accepting this current diagnosis.

After my doctor left the practice, I got a new one.  She listened very well and decided to refer me to a rhumatologist.  After talking with him and explaining my symptoms, it was pretty evident what I had to him.  I took another blood test and then another.  He wanted to cover all the bases and leave nothing out.  Although my blood doesn't have the typical HLA-B27 protein marker, it is possible to have my condition without it.  It's called a symptomatic diagnosis.  I had a name for it that I suspected all along.

Ankylosing-Spondylitis.  It is a potentially debilitating disease that could, at worse, leave me with a condition commonly known as Bamboo Spine where the lower spine fuses itself together.  There is no cure.  It affects younger people usually between the ages of 18 and 45.  It's somewhat similar to Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or even psoriasis.  My system that is used to fight off viruses is attacking my back thinking it is a virus itself.  My sacroiliac joint is always inflamed and that is what is causing the pain.

The treatments?  Now that's was what I was waiting for.  Exercise.  That's a big one.  A body in motion stays in motion.  That makes sense.  Also, for those dormant periods, I've been taking a different anti inflammatory called Diclofenac.  Also, as of tomorrow (7/02/18) I will be on Humira.  It's a shot that I have to take every 2 weeks.  It's early, so I'm not sure how I'll feel or the effects this will have on my, but I guess that'll have to be another story sometime.  I do know that it reduces my chance to fight other infections, so that part is pretty scary.  It'll help my condition, but it could make me sicker or make it harder to fight off the common cold or the flu.  It could make it last longer than normal.  I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.

All I know is that I'm going to continue life as I know it.  Keep moving.  Keep hiking.  Keep photographing.  Keep laughing and loving.  It could be worse.  So I'm looking at this as just another adventure that we're going through.  Stay positive, I got this!



Here's some reference sites if you would like to learn more:

https://www.spondylitis.org/Ankylosing-Spondylitis

https://www.arthritis-health.com/types/general/sacroiliac-joint-pain-and-inflammation

https://www.humira.com/ankylosing-spondylitis

Point Beach State Forest and Door County Wisconsin

We took another trip.  We wanted to see more of Wisconsin.  Where do we want to go?  We knew that sometime we wanted to camp at Point Beach State Forest, just North of Two Rivers Wisconsin.  Once we were there, do we stay there, or explore the area?  As it turned out, we didn't spend much time there at all.  Sure, we were there every night to enjoy a campfire, but we barely hiked there or enjoyed the 6 miles of bike trails.

We checked in on Saturday around 3 and spent the rest of the day there setting up camp and relaxing.

Base camp consisted of 3 tents.  One for  Amanda and I, one for the girls and the dog, and the other for supplies.  We also had the canopy over the picnic table that had LED lights in it for a little light on the site.

An American Redstart.  Remember, we're bird nerds.

The girls spent some time catching frogs.  This one was the smallest one they saw.

On Sunday, we headed over to Door County to see a few of the 5 State parks that are there.  We ended up visiting Newport State Park, Whitefish Dunes State Park, and Cave Point County Park.

 Newport State Park.  The water was very clear and there was great views along the lake edge.

 Inside the canopy offered a very different environment.  It was much quieter and lush with mosses, ferns, mushrooms, and flowers growing in abundance.

This is a popular diving spot in Cave Point County Park.  The weather was in the upper 60's with very chilly water temps, so there wasn't much activity in the water this day.

The rest of the drive was very scenic with curvy roads, forests of trees, big fancy houses, and some old farms sprinkled in here and there.

An old barn in serious need of some repairs

A famous curvy road in Northern Door County, especially in the fall during peak color season.  One of the funnest roads to drive.  I took this one through the windshield of the van.

On Monday, we got up early for a day of island hopping.  Our destination was Washington Island and Rock Island State Park.  We knew little about each place, but it sounded interesting and fun.  A place that we should definitely check out.  We had to drive to the tip of Door County and drive aboard a ferry with the van to get to Washington Island.  We only had one destination in mind here for our first visit, Schoolhouse beach.  Home of one of the worlds very few stone beaches, this one was very unique.  As most people know, we love rocks!  But there was a problem, there was a $250 fine for taking a rock from this beach so we could only look (and skip a few which was allowed).

 A sailboat near the ferry landing

 Not sure what type of boat this is, but I'd like to explore it.

Pilot Island with an abandoned lighthouse and fog building in ruin.  Everything on this island is dead, except for the birds that are always hovering around it.

 The "thumbs up" sign after sucessfully skipping a stone.

A longer exposure of the stone beach.

After this, we headed to the Northern most point of Washington Island, grabbed our backpacks, locked the van, and headed over to the passenger ferry to Rock Island.  There's no wheels allowed on the island, not even bicycles.  No power or running water.  No modern conveniences.  And more importantly, very poor cell service!  Rustic and mostly untamed.  They allow primitive camping which we will look forward to doing in the near future.

 The passenger ferry dock at the old boathouse.

 The fireplace in this old Viking Boathouse

 The view from upstairs looking down (obviously)

 Another out building in the background while Amanda and Evelyn hike up to the Pottawatomi Lighthouse

The Pottawatomi Lighthouse

 A happy Grace!

Pelicans in flight

We only spent a few hours on each island which wasn't long enough to see much, but just long enough to wet our appetite to come back for more.  There's so much more to see in Door County, from the lavender farm on Washington Island, the rocky shores of Rock Island, the darkness of Newport State Park at night (certified a dark sky area), to the goats eating on top of the Al Johnson's Swedish Resteraunt.  Looks like another round of trip planning is in our future!