whitebirchvill, Author at White Birch Village

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Out with old in with the new

Getting ready for fall leaf pick-up meant some changes had to take place here at the resort.

This ford pick-up truck gave a lot of great years of service to the resort, but it was time to say good-bye. It no longer went into park, wasn’t charging the battery and the doors won’t open.

Hello new dump truck. We upgraded to a 1 ton truck with a built in dump. We are ready for any heavy work the resort has for us, including the 200 dump truck full of leaves that will begin next week.

Out with old in with the newwhitebirchvill2014-09-27T11:35:03+00:00

Illinois Outdoors Show and Carrie Z’s Podcast from our Resort

In May we hosted a sports writers event at the resort. Don Dziedzina and Roger Wright from Illinois Outdoors, Inc. were here. The White Birch Village TV Show that was taped while they were here is scheduled to air on Saturday July 19 at 8 AM on Comcast and Insight Cable systems on Channel 138 in all of Chicago, it’s suburbs as far west as the Rock River, the greater Rockford, Peoria, Champaign/Urbana, and Springfield area and NW Indiana and SW Michigan.

Roger’s 23 1/2 inch 6 pound small mouth bass was the success story of the weekend.

For our guests who do not live in these areas you can watch the YouTube copy of the show so you can view at your leisure and forward to family or friends if you wish. Here’s the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJgPLY9yfEo&feature=youtu.be.

Carrie Zilka was also here who has weekly podcasts. Her podcast was so much fun to listen to. Check out the latest CarrieZ’s Hunting, Fishing & Outdoor Podcast Episode 66…..featuring White Birch Village of course! Listen to the on demand radio episode here: http://wwocz.net/ep66/

Carrie had fun catching crappies.

We hope you enjoy these as much as we did. It was a great group of sports writers to have at the resort and we are thankful for their support of what we have to offer for a vacation experience in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

Illinois Outdoors Show and Carrie Z’s Podcast from our Resortwhitebirchvill2014-07-13T12:12:24+00:00

Rock Bass Contest 2014

Our rock bass contest is underway. It’s time to tackle the rock bass population in our lake and have some friendly fishing competition. Every Thursday this year is rock bass day. Guests can catch as many rock bass as they can on Thursdays and then bring them to the musky bell between 3 and 4 PM to have them weighed by John. The person with the highest weight of fish for the day will have their name entered into the “Rock Bass Pool”. At the end of the season we will have a drawing for the grand prize winner. The winner will receive a St. Croix rod and reel. The fish will be donated to the rehab center to feed the eagles. It’s open to all ages so get out and go fishing!

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Mason Peterson with a total of 9 1/2 pounds of rock bass.

Max and Brenton came in a close second with 8 1/2 pounds.

Rock Bass Contest 2014whitebirchvill2014-06-06T20:43:52+00:00

Sports Writers Weekend

We had a fun weekend enjoying several sports writers here at the resort. They arrived on Friday and we had a welcome reception for them and then gave them a tour of the resort. Thanks to the graciousness of Dick and Sue Govier we enjoyed a great dinner Friday night at Aqualand Ale House. Everyone enjoyed the two musky flights of craft beers. A total of 16 different beers were tasted. My personal favorite was the Buffalo Sweat.

On Saturday, thanks to the generousness of four of our fishing guides; Bob’s Manitowish Guide Service, Erv Keller’s Guide Service, Marty Clauson’s Guide Service and Mike Errington’s Guide Service, the writers enjoyed a day out on the water fishing our chain of lakes. Each guide took a species of fish and the writers did a 1/2 day with each guide. They fished for bass, walleye, crappies and muskies. They were very successful, hundreds of fish were caught and most released. A few walleye were kept for the writers to take home and enjoy eating. Thanks to the efforts and generousness of Jimmy Dean we ended the day with a wonderful meal at The Guides Inn.

Sunday morning a radio show was taped and a little more fishing was done, but the rain decided to change the fishing plans. The weekend was full of fish stories, comradery, and laughter. Everyone had a great time and we look forward to the stories the writers are going to tell.

Carrie Zilka loves the outdoors, everything hunting and fishing. She discovered the world of podcasts in 2007 and quickly realized there were not many that pertained to the outdoors. She will be doing a podcasts of her experience here at the resort. We look forward to seeing what she has to say. Carrie was very enthusiastic and fun to have here for the weekend. Carrie is part of AGLOW (Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers).

Carrie had fun catching crappies.

Don Dziedzina has been involved with the outdoor industry for over 35 years. He writes for the Chicago Tribune, produces and hosts Illinois Outdoors TV show, co-hosts The fishing and Outdoor radio show, and writes for Midwest Outdoors. Don is also an AGLOW writer. We enjoyed the depth of knowledge that he brought to the weekend. It was enjoyable having him here. Don taped a radio show while he was here with John and the fishing guides. Don was joined by his cameraman, Roger Wright, for the weekend. It didn’t take long for a friendly fishing competition to ensue. As you will see in the following picture Roger came out on top.

Roger’s 23 1/2 inch 6 pound small mouth bass was the success story of the weekend.

Pat Mayo from WBAY Sports came up from Green Bay with his teenage son Ian. It was truly an inter-generational weekend. Pat and Ian had so much fun meeting the guides and learning more about fishing. Ian was a trooper spending the weekend with all the adults. It was a pleasure having them join us. Pat took video footage while here and interviewed John and will be putting together a segment for their newscast. Pat and Ian caught fish, but no one shared the pictures with me so I can’t post them.

The writer from Midwest Outdoors had to cancel at the last minute, which meant there would be a guide without someone to fish with. John had the hard job of filling in. He spent Saturday morning with Bob, the afternoon with Erv and Sunday morning with Mike. He had a great time. Below are the photos of the fish he and Bob caught. I have to say I really enjoyed my walleye supper Sunday night. 🙂

Sports Writers Weekendwhitebirchvill2014-06-05T13:19:13+00:00

Timber!

The trees started coming down at 7AM today. Fifteen trees were cut down today before they came tumbling down on their own. Northern Tree Service out of Woodruff does a great job.

The first one to come down this morning was right next to the lodge deck.

The spider is a great machine.

For those who saw the pileated woodpecker hole studded tree it is now gone. All that remains in it’s place is a stump where a bench will be built by the shuffleboard court.

The back of the lodge looks a little bare with the birch and pine tree gone. Never fear we are going to plant lilac trees in their place.

Cleaning up.

We have decided that September is a great wedding month and are creating a spot along the flowage for ceremonies.

Trimming up the branches and then we’ll take down the fences.

Eventually there will be a gazebo over looking the flowage.

The large tree that came down along the creek in the wind storm this is how the center looked.

A big oak tree between Woodside and Hillcrest came down.

Only 3 inches of the tree was still alive.

Time to move the portable John Deer tractor canopy.

Many hands make for light work.

Timber!whitebirchvill2014-05-14T16:47:18+00:00

Docks are in!

The docks are in and ready for your arrival. The water is the deepest it’s been since John and I started managing the resort in 2006. Dock day always manages to be damp, cool and gloomy. One of these years they will hopefully have a beautiful sunny and warm day to put the docks in. They managed to get the log out from under the bridge, it took all of them to move it. Two other logs washed up on shore yesterday, the ice must have been thick this year to move such large logs.We are very fortunate to have a great group of guys help us put our docks in each year.

John giving orders.

Section of dock works great as a ramp.

Randy keeps track of the numbered posts….all 225 of them.

They sure stirred up the creek while getting the log out from under the bridge.

Discussing what to do next.

Heave Ho

Team Work

I missed it, right before I took this picture poor Aaron was knocked over and went completely under water. It filled up his waters with water and they still had 3 hours worth of work in the water.

I missed it, right before I took this picture poor Aaron was knocked over and went completely under water. It filled up his waders with water and they still had 3 hours worth of work in the water.

Tackling the stack of pier sections at the beach. there are a total of 84 sections in all.

It’s a good thing they float.

As you can see the water is deep this year. The deepest section is putting in the dock where we keep our pontoon boat. Normally the chest high waders are enough to keep you dry.

Not sure what Aaron is doing here. Maybe he wants to go for another swim.

I think John A. is getting the better part of the deal. Thanks John O. for braving the cold water to help us put our docks in.

More team work.

Enjoying a hot bowl of chili after 5 hours in the cold water.

Docks are in!whitebirchvill2014-05-13T17:21:50+00:00

A busy day at the Village

It’s been a busy day at the village. We started our day at 5:30 this morning getting ready for the 18th Journey’s Marathon. The starting line for this Boston Marathon Qualifier begins at the resort. There were 102 full marathon runners this year. It’s fun talking with everyone in the morning and seeing the excitement build as the race is about to start. They begin with reading the Irish blessing and singing America the Beautiful. It was a beautiful morning today with the sun shining and the temp around 46 degrees.

Warming up in the rec building.

More stretching going on in the fitness center.

Getting ready to line up for the start of the race.

The wheelers are the first to start.

And they are off.

Beautiful day for a race.

Later in the morning we found this huge log under the bridge at the beach. Should be interesting removing it. Our dock day crew has an added bonus waiting for them on Tuesday; getting the log unstuck from under the bridge.

In the late 1800’s there used to be a railroad bridge that went across the lake during the lumber years. There are still a few pilings on the bottom of the lake. Well there is one less as of today. One somehow made it’s way under the bridge.

It’s about 8 feet long. Should be interesting getting it out after a hundred years under water.

To round out the day the Friesema’s who are staying with us this weekend decided after participating in the 5K of the Journeys Marathon they also needed to be the first to swim in the lake!

Randy, Kelly and Katie Friesema our first guests of the season also decided to be the first guest to swim in the lake. Water temps are around 40 degrees since the ice just went out this week.

Brave!

Thankfully the sun was shining and not much breeze.

A busy day at the Villagewhitebirchvill2014-05-10T17:48:30+00:00

The ice is moving

With the high winds today and the warmer temps the ice has been moving at a pretty good clip across the lake. Charlie made it to shore just in time, he would have been crushed. Standing on the shore taking the following pictures it sounded like an amplified twisting of a plastic ice cube tray. It was really creaking and moaning. There shouldn’t be any ice left by morning.

Ice build up on the shoreline.

What the beach looks like right now.

Over half of the lake is free of ice.

The ice is movingwhitebirchvill2014-05-06T19:24:14+00:00

And the winner is………

Charlie finally took the plunge one day sooner than he did last year. May 5th is the official day for the 2014 Ice Out Contest.

We had three people who chose today as the day;

Peggy Pride – 9:06 AM who voted on Facebook. Thanks Peggy for your interest in our resort.

Susie Morter – 1PM – Susie has been vacationing here since 1988

Alyssa Heeringa – 3:28 PM – Alyssa’s mom won it last year and has been vacationing here since 2009

Drum roll please…..The winner is Peggy Pride as Charlie took the plunge early this morning.

Honorable mention goes to Susie and Alyssa.

Thank you to everyone who guessed this year. It’s always fun to see the dates people choose. In the five years we have been doing this we have had two ice outs in March, one in April and two in May.

As you can tell in the picture there is still a lot of ice to melt on the lake, but with the temps in the 60’s the next couple of days it will be gone soon!

Charlie floated to shore and made it easy to retrieve him. John pulled him out of the water before I could get a photo. He’ll sit here until tomorrow to do some drying out.

The geese are enjoying open water wherever they can find it.

And the winner is………whitebirchvill2014-05-05T19:42:26+00:00

Forces of Nature

Last Monday brought high winds to the Northwoods. We had 6 trees come down along the creek. Spring clean-up begins with cutting up trees. The warmer temps are arriving, but not soon enough for the spring fish opener. No boats out on the lakes. But as you will see the ice is starting to melt. Charlie will most likely take his plunge today or tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

Forces of Naturewhitebirchvill2014-05-03T15:52:32+00:00