Skipper at Christmas

Skipper, all decked out for Christmas

This boat is the Skipper.  It was owned buy two of the Weborg brothers of the older generation.  Howard and Emery fished together until Emery became unable to go on the boat.  Then, Rick took Howard (when he was 91!) along with him for another couple years because everyone knows a fisherman’s life is no good lived out on dry land.

They were so sweet and seeing their boat has resurfaced lots and lots of memories  of them and commercial fishing.  They were old school, no EPIRB, GPS, or even a cell-phone in those last years of fishing.  They did things the way they had done them for well over 50 years.

Howard and Emery had those beautiful blue eyes and the weathered faces of men who had exposed themselves to the elements of nature far to many times.  But each wrinkle told a story, unfortunately un-kept for the most part.   The best wrinkles were around their eyes as they had the sweetest smiles which would cause crow’s feet to appear, telling the observer that they had laughed much in their life.  I think I mean more like a chuckle as I do not remember ever hearing loud laughter from them, just chuckles with blue eyes twinkling.  I can imagine those faces at the portholes in the picture, checking the winds, looking for buoys and watching for the dock as they headed home.

The Skipper is in the process of being put into our local fishing museum and she sits now in our neighbors field.  Mark, a second generation fisherman himself decorated the boat for Christmas.  It is beautiful and poetic.  It fits well that this little fishing village should have an old-time boat decorated for the holidays.

I can’t help but smile when I think what Howard and Emery would think if they were still alive.  I think they would stand their together and chuckle, eyes twinkling, shaking their head at this foolish waste of money to run those “expensive” lights.  But down deep I think they would like it, a boat is a fisherman’s pride and maybe, just maybe, the hearts of these plain men would be warmed at the beauty of their boat decked out for Christmas.

Twas the Night before Opening Season……

Well, the off season of fishing has come to a close.  We call it the “off” season but in reality it is a crazy time of playing catch-up on all the other projects in life left un-done since Spring.  We accomplished many things on our list but as always did not complete the dreaded list.  With Rick’s mom being hospitalized much of the last two weeks he has had many other issues to contend with beside our home.   On top of it all Rick also came down with a serious eye infection.  After a week of drops to the eye every two hours, or when I could get him to come home and do the drops, his eye is much better.  We are thankful.  Not only does he need his eye sight as we all do, but he has the most beautiful blue eyes on the planet…….. I am not prejudice, just stating a fact!   I would hate to see them damaged in any way!

So yesterday Rick got the good news on his eye and then set to making plans for opening day of fishing which is Dec. 1st, today.   I could hear him discussing the weather with other fisherman and then making plans to do the midnight run to set nets.  This is a normal event and proving of one’s being a die-hard manly fisherman, kind of like the ice-breaking in April.  I didn’t think twice about it until at supper the winds started to pick up and roar.  It sounded terrible and so I started hoping that they would not go out and set.  But no………  the winds did not seem to concern Rick at all.

I went to bed after 10 and listened to the wind shake the house and thought to myself that certainly Rick would not head out in this storm.  It was even snowing, much to the delight of our girls, winter arriving with a blast.  Rick came in at 11 to wake me and tell me he was heading out.  I tried to talk him out of it, telling him it was too dangerous, blah, blah blah.   He told me he would be fine and left.   I prayed for him, imagined the worse and thought about being the good fisherman’s wife and staying up to wait for him.  Then I decided I was way to tired for that and fell asleep.

He got back in safely at two in the morning!   The alarm went off at 5 and over coffee he told me that other guys were out there, it was a full moon, wasn’t to bad for seas, and that it all went just fine.  I just glared at him and told him how scared I was when he left.  He just shrugged his shoulders.  Fear is a choice at times and I should have known better!  Life of a fisherman’s wife.

Blessed in this crazy life,

Joyce

 

 

I have a love-affair with fish boats. I will admit it. I stand in awe of steel and wood, of shapes of bows and sterns, of roaring engines whether Cummins or Volvo-Penta, of these machines which are made to transport brave men over miles of seas whether smooth or rolling, open or ice-covered. I also adore a God Who created sea-gulls to all stand facing the same direction– without exception! And how about those beautiful fall colors He created! Praise Him, for boats and men and creation to enjoy!

This is Rick with our favorite hired man of all time, Andy! You can see Rick is smirking in the picture because Andy is trying to convince me that if he and Rick were arguing I would take his side over Rick!! He cracks me up! I told him that I love him like a son but that Rick wins hands down! We always enjoy being with Andy.

Oct. 24th 2009. This was the last day before the fishing season closed. As you can see, there were lots of fish, thousands of pounds to deal with. Many hands make light work and a few of these guys only work the weeks of October. We are thankful for another good and safe season despite incredible winds. God is so good!

Some days ……..

Yesterday started out beautifully.  Rick headed out to work at the usual time with full lunch-pail and having had coffee and oatmeal.

I have to explain the oatmeal because I KNOW you are all wondering????

The other night, just as I was falling asleep, Rick asked me if I could make him oatmeal to have with his coffee in the morning.  This was an unusual request because oatmeal is healthy and my man will eat the healthy food that I put in front of him (well, most of the time ), but he NEVER requests it.  I have never heard him ask me to make that healthy chicken with roasted mushrooms and garlic or request the whole wheat pasta instead of white.  Just saying. This startled me so badly that I sat right up in bed and asked him WHY?   In my mind were only thoughts of him having suffered chest pains recently, his blood pressure rising, concerns of some kind that made him think eating healthy would alleviate the problem.    He rolled his eyes at me, well I was facing his back so I can not verify this but I am pretty sure  ;).  He responded by telling me that lately the new vitamins I have him taking are upsetting his stomach and he thought a little cereal would help!   I was so relieved.  I offered him my home made granola but he declined. That’s hippy food and one hippy (guess who) in this family is enough!  So making oatmeal has been added to our morning routine.

After Rick left for work my dear friend Kari came in and we had coffee by the fire and had a prayer time together.  She has eight children and we now have seven  so you can see how we need time for prayer!  :)

Bible was wonderful with the girls.

Took Melody to the dentist…  no cavities!  Only child of ours to reach 11 and not have had a cavity.  I think we may have to buy her a car….  just kidding sisters.

School was wonderful.

Then we started to do our cleaning chores.  I decided to do all toilets and our tub with Rust-Out.  I cannot do it often because it is toxic and bothers my lungs but with the breeze through the windows I thought it would be a good day for this job.    We got all the bathrooms looking beautiful and then I left for a cleaning job.

I came back from the cleaning job to find Rick digging a trench from our well casing along the side of the house.  We had had water pouring out of the well for weeks but had recently thought that maybe something else was the problem.   Sure enough, about two feet down it was evident there was a crack in the pipe between the well casing and the house.

Thankfully Rick is a man of may trades and talents.  He went and got his dad’s back-hoe and started the process of digging to find the pipe.   That is when he called me out to help.  This is when I started to wish that  I had paid more attention to plumbing things when we have built the addition.

Rick told me to watch as he dug so that he did not snag the pipe with the bucket’s teeth.

I panicked because I had no clue to what size pipe he was talking about, and I wanted to ask if it was a certain color which would have make it more visible, like bright yellow, or hot pink?  I didn’t ask, I just started praying.   Being in Gills Rock with the key work being ROCK, you can only imagine the scraping and jerks as huge rocks were dragged out of the hole.  My heart would lurch as I hoped that the grating sound was not the pipe being yanked from the well.  Rick would dig with the back-hoe, dig with the shovel, dig with the back hoe, dig with the shovel,  I think you get the picture.  I would watch, forcing my eyes to stay open as I usually shut them when I am nervous, then run down into our creepy crawl-space to give Rick other info that he needed.  You can be proud of me because I refrained from giving any advice during the whole procedure, none what-so-ever.  I think Rick appreciated it but I can’t verify that either.  :)

At one point, a thin tubing came up and Rick thought it was the gas-line.  He yelled to me to go shut the propane off at the tank.  My blank stare told him that I knew nothing about propane tanks.  They are on my list with chain-saws, weed-wackers, battery cables and steering a fish tug straight.  Sorry, no-can-do.   It ended up being a strange ground wire.    60 years ago they did things differently.

Rick found the leak with the pipe intact, isn’t God good?   He called his good friend Paul to discus what to do only to find out that it was Paul’s anniversary and so he was not able to come over, good man!

So I then figured out I was through being Rick’s right-hand-woman and went into scrounge around for something to cook for supper that would not use water.  It was an assortment of items, all good and basically Mexican.  The bummer was going into the house to bathrooms which were spotless but unusable and a kitchen that did not get cleaned and so the sink was full of dishes.  Oh well.

We survived the night with no water, minimum flushes and using toilettes on our hands.

This morning Rick and I sat in the dark coffee-less, I offered hot-chocolate but Rick has never been real fond of that drink.  I could have offered granola and milk but, you know how he feels about that!

So another adventure with living with Rick, Commercial fishermen by day, plumber by night!

Blessed, to have electricity even without water because my man does not do electricity.  Everyone has their own No-can-do!

Joyce

Mighty winds. We have had gales winds for the last four days. On Monday Rick came running in the house saying that the dock was giving way to the waves. Annie and I bundled up and went down to the dock to see what was happening. The waves had collapsed the dock corner between two slips. The fear was that the dock could completely collapse on the boat, pinning it in the slip and damaging the side. Annie and I watched as the men discussed how best to back out into the waves to move the Freitag to the ferry boat landing about 1500 feet north on the shore. My stomach sickened as I heard them discuss timing the waves so backing into a wave would not roll the boat. After much discussion it was decided that the trip to the dock in 10-12 foot waves was not worth the risk. Better to let the boat be banged then risk lives. I was relieved even though they were still talking moving it in the night if the winds stilled. The life of being married to a Commercial Fisherman! I can see little Ruby Weborg shaking her head at the guys when they would head out into the waves. She would shrug her shoulders and say that we need to pray for them. We did indeed pray! Wisest words a Commercial Fisherman’s wife could share.

Good friends. Fishermen came to check the boats and then gathered around Rick weighing out the issues with the dock and the risk of heading to the ferry dock. I am always blessed to see these guys work together, one heading over to tie a line while being beaten by a wave, four of them down on their knees working to brace the boat with wenches. They are so brave and calm at the same time, working quickly as a team instinctively knowing what ropes and chains to get to solve the problem. Quite the group these men are! Love them all.

Labor Day fishboil. Lots of fun with neighbors and summer friends. The view was beautiful and the sun warm. Jeff and Mark did the fish boil. I always enjoy seeing the guys hanging out together on the truck, and we all wonder what they are talking about and laughing at when we watch them! We brought a salad that was completely from our garden other then the fetta cheese as Rick won’t let me have milking animals………….. yet! Wonderful time!

Ellison Bay Beach fun with Annie, Gracie, Sammy and Melody

Sun setting on fishing village of Gills Rock

This is what we do…..

It is spring in Door County, well according to the calendar!
It does not mean Daffodils, or warm sunny days, or lack of snow. That will all come in time.
Spring to Gills Rock means keeping the snowplows off the truck, but in the driveway, just in case.
It means mud.
It means fewer and fewer fish shanties out on the ice as the DNR monitor the conditions.
It means seeing snowmobiles sitting on lawns until the good sons
( Matthew) come home and get them up on trailers until next winter.
It means sapping, seeing white buckets on trees and afternoons spent gathering, and days of sitting by the fire watching the sap cook down into beautiful rich syrup. It means conversation around the pans, laughter and fellowship, celebrating another rite of spring.
Spring also means ice-breaking to the fishermen.
There is always a question each spring as to who will be the first to bring their boats around from the winter docks on Lake Michigan to the docks on the Green Bay waters. Who will be the “man” is always the joke.
Tuesday was the day. I was teaching Bible study here in our living room when I first heard the familiar grinding of engines that usually means someone is breaking in. I have to admit I at first wondered why I had not had a phone call letting us know what was happening as is tradition. Bible study went on with no phone call.
It was about 2 o’clock that Rick called and said they were going to be breaking in later and that the ferry would actually be coming around the point to help.
The girls and I kicked it into high gear, and when Rick called saying the boats were coming in, we headed to the docks, cameras and hot tea in hand
We watched as the fish tugs broke in to the ferry dock and then as the Ranger started to break ice heading toward the fishing docks.
Although the ferry had little trouble moving slowly through the ice, the fish tug put on the show that we all enjoy watching.
Jeff would back the tug up and then full steam ahead drive the tug up onto the ice. The thinner ice breaks easy, but the thick hard ice doesn’t give and so the tug ends up bow in the air on top of the ice. There is usually a moment of wait where at times the tug can list to the side, sometimes dangerously, before the weight of the boat causes the ice to give and the boat sinks into the caving ice.
Over and over this is repeated until a path is broken around the harbor. The wind then takes over and usually within 24 hours the harbor is clear.
We walked the dock taking pictures, drinking tea, filming. The men gathered and discussed the scene. Constructions workers who were working on homes around the harbor made their way down to the dock to watch. A few cars held tourists, up visiting this barren land for a change of pace from their city life. They were enthralled by what they saw. Old timers stayed in their trucks where it was warm, remembering their adventures of ice breaking, some even done in wooden boats in years gone by.
This is what we do in spring.
The ferry and the Ranger got the job done. Multiple runs broke the ice up to Jeff’s satisfaction.
As we sat in the car watching the last pass of the fish tug I was struck with how much we are tied to this lake as a fisherman’s family. Tied to the traditions, the seasons, the weather, the people. This is what we do.
As we drove away I commented to the girls that this is a part of their lives. They may never live here as adults, but they cannot remove these memories from their minds. They will always be Gills Rock fisherman’s daughters, Gills Rock girls, Matthew will always be a fisherman’s son. They smiled and agreed, knowing where you come from brings great satisfaction.
This is what we do….

Folks lined up to watch the ice breaking. Some went down to the water and a few stayed up on the hill. Some drawn by tradition, some by curiosity.

The Washington Island Ferry. This is the first time in history that the ferry helped break ice! The ferry has a shape that cuts through the ice, making the job easier for the fish tugs.

Jeff Weborg’s boat, the Ranger

Opinions…… I wish I could have caught on film the voices of each of these men as they gave their opinions on the ice breaking. The naive carpenters who had stopped to watch, wondering why the fish tug went a certain way into the ice. The experienced fishermen explaining the reasons and recalling their exploits on the ice. And the older retired fishermen, sitting in their trucks, jovially remarking on the spring escapades of fishermen, recalling their hardest dealings with the breaking of the ice.

Ice

Blessed Day

Today was wonderful. From the beauty of our worship at church and the family celebration afterwards, to the hinting of spring in the air, just beautiful.

The worship service was a delight this morning, lots of voices loving on God.  I do wish that the hymns were not SO stinking high because I do not want to transpose them every Sunday.  Our family sang the special music, including Rick.  It was fun to worship God together as a family.

Came home from church to celebrate Matthew’s birthday.  He invited his long time friend, James, to have an Irish meal.  I did 4 pieces of meat because the boys can eat and it is one of our favorite annual treats.

The carrot cake turned out well and we all enjoyed it.  I packaged up meat, potatoes, carrots and cabbage for Matthew, James and Mandy to take home with them.  

Matthew was a joy to be with as always.  He is loved by his sisters.

At 4:30 Mandy left with all her sister to head back to her apartment for the night.  They were going to do a girls night out together and then I will pick up the girls tomorrow morning after my endocrinologist appointment.  It was fun to surprise Kristi, Annie and Melly with the news of this get way, a special treat for our girls.  I am thrilled that Mandy and Jeni are such great big sisters to the younger three.  I have always wanted our daughters to love each other and be close as sisters, and they are.

So, there was supposed to be a dinner at church at 6:00.  I was to bring food and help with my serving circle.  The problem is that I laid down as soon as the girls left………  and I woke up at 6:15!   OOPS   I guess I was more worn down than I thought…….  sometimes sleep is more important  :)

Rick and I are alone for the night…….  I was reading in the living room, all by myself, in perfect peace and quiet.    It was strange…….  I am sure I could get used to it in about 20 years!

I am going to get a cup of tea and read some more of the book I bought about the Dugger Family who are on TLC Tuesday nights.  Very good book, encouraging and a testimony in doing things God’s way.  They are very transparent in the book.  What a beautiful family.  

Then I will stare into my sweety’s eyes and have a heart to heart time,   that is, unless I fall asleep first.  This sinus infection is dragging me down.

Blessed 

Joyce

Fall is here, the pleasure boats are gone, only the die-hard fish tug is left in the dock. The skies are grey and the Lake colder as hints of winter start to show in nature.

I love this verse as it is so applicable to our lives, see following post.