Grouse Hollow Journal for December 22, 2016 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal for December 22, 2016 by Greg Koelker

It is 5:30 Friday morning as I start this.  The kitchen smells of fresh coffee.  There is a covering of new snow on the patio and lots more predicted by Saturday night and bitter cold for the Packer/Bear game in Chicago.  Ah, December.

Later in the morning, Ellen and I were busy being cozy and warm in the house with Pandora on the computer playing Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s Holiday channel in the background - it is really good holiday music.  When the classic song started, Ellen smiled as she remembered that her dad used to sing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”  

Walt was a commercial fisherman, trapper, hunter, farmer, school board member and regular church goer.  Ellen reminisced, “I think he liked winter.  He enjoyed teaching a grandkid how to use a new sled, he liked making lanterns for us to sled and skate by at night, and he liked trapping on the ice.”  I am certain he liked that feeling one gets when coming in from the cold to the scent of wood smoke and fire in the furnace toasting the basement.  Anyway, he passed his love of winter on to Ellen and our sons.  Ellen likes to snowshoe and lucky for me, she likes to shovel snow.  The boys have been riding sleds, skis, and snowboards down hillsides since they were toddlers, graduating from “Suicide” behind our tobacco shed to skiing and snowboarding at Mt. La Crosse and then the Rockies.  

I agree that new snow is beautiful and a great backdrop for the big holiday week coming up (and when I was teaching, I used to love to see that school was closed on a blizzardy morning at least a couple times a winter.)  The downside: snow is also something to be dealt with, dressed for every time you go out, and moved - again and again - off the driveway and paths around the place and off the highways too.  (And one has to remember that snow days get made up in June.  Hmmm. . . )  Brother-in-law Jamie Scholl, plows snow for Grant County so I put him in charge of the weather for the upcoming Griswold Family Christmas at our house.  I don’t think he is a fan either.

One thing I like about winter is ice fishing.  The ice is firming up in the backwaters of the Mississippi.  I talked to some teenagers who showed me a picture of a huge mess of nice panfish laid out on the garage floor by the four young fishermen last week.  I plan to go out after breakfast this morning.

I am back.  When I got on the ice in Goose Island, there were half-a-dozen fishermen on the ice.  The first guy I came up to said simply, “Small.  I have two in the bag.”  Another guy walked out of a tent, tossed a yellow flag and used the NFL referee signal for “no catch.”  (Okay, I made up the yellow flag part.)  I set up a ways away from them, drilling two holes in the 7 inches of ice and setting my tent up against the wind.  After I lit my heater, I baited up an orange sparkly jig with a wax worm. I barely got a line down when I had a bouncing spring bobber and a keeper gill.  I dropped the line down again and got an even bigger one.  Hmmm . . .  I caught lots of panfish, 50 maybe, maybe more, and they were mostly small.  I had to put my second line and pole away and fish with one, the action was that steady.  I managed enough decent-sized bluegills for a small fish fry for El and I.  I got a text from Vince who asked about wetting a line on Saturday morning, depending on the blizzard.  That may be another story.  It was snowing steadily when I came off the ice.

Until next time, get out - it is Saturday morning and still snowing as I finish this.  We have four or five inches of new snow.  Ellen is making scrambled eggs with smoked venison sausage and peppers and onions.  Scout is bothering us to go out, but when she does go out, she waits by the door.  I am pretty sure she is bored by us.  Anyway, I found out that the “holiday” song, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" was written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in JULY 1945 in HOLLYWOOD - DURING A HEAT WAVE - and it never mentions any holiday.  No doubt, I’ll daydream about the heat wave idea while I am moving snow later this weekend.  Go Pack!  Enjoy.