Black's Cliff Birch Bark Blog

Excerpt: It was a beautiful weekend at the resort for campfires. I have to say that the above picture is only allowed if you are over 80 and our wood chairs are too hard for old muscles. The lady in the chair was sitting on the porch instead of joining her family by the fire due to her sore muscles... Read more

Excerpt: The lake has finally just about completely gone out. By weekend we are supposed to be 70 degrees. We have several cabins open at low spring rates if you want to come up starting at 125/night. Give a call if interested 715 356 3018. I took this picture the other day before our snow melted. Steve cutting the boards... Read more

Excerpt: The lake froze back over last night and we got 5 inches of snow. By next weekend we are supposed to be almost 70 degrees and we can't wait! Swimming area once again a sheet of ice temporarily While it is cold outside we are boiling down 1/2 of our sap today into maple syrup. We expect the trees... Read more

Excerpt: More of that white stuff came down the last couple of days. It is pretty in October, November, December, January and February but today...... not so much..... Happily it should be melting by this weekend No docks are going in when it is this cold. Summer soon? With the white stuff outside in the late afternoons I have been... Read more

Excerpt: The lake is slowly... slowly getting darker and darker Cliff sinking deeper and deeper into the ice. Temps are dipping back down on Wednesday for awhile so his plunge is going to take a little longer Boats will be floating soon In the meantime the guys have been working on the new dock pallets. I hear there is a... Read more

Excerpt: I took this picture of Cliff this morning and did not think today would be the day. Usually the ice goes out more but..... Warm sun today and I looked over the hill at 2pm and Cliff had disappeared. So the official day of sinking in March 29th. Jimmy and Tommy Cikowski brothers picked March 29 and March 31st... Read more

Excerpt: Warm day in the Northwoods. Cliff is feeling the melting going on under his feet. What day will he sink is the question? Warm weather has the maple trees running full time. We had to pull out our outside evaporation pan and get it boiling over a fire to keep up with the trees. Nice thing is the fire... Read more

Excerpt: Steve has started a new project. Our triangle on our gate is rotting and needing replacement. This is one of the new poles that will be going up. How it goes up and how the old one comes down I am sure will be an entire blog entry. Hopefully no trips to the ER are needed as well Getting... Read more

Excerpt: We had such a warm up last week and made it to 60 degrees one day. The maple trees were sluggish in the warm weather only making nominal sap. I started fearing for our pancake breakfasts thinking we were going to get skunked this year for maple syrup. I should have known better because the trees did. The temps... Read more

Excerpt: https://youtu.be/SgUKHIC2GVw?list=PL-jggHuebA1kWtqr89PMfmHxjLLRb_KBb This last summer we were asked by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism to be a part of a special project. They wanted to do a video telling the story of a family that has come to the resort for generations. We have many families that fit this request coming for 30, 40 and even 60 plus years. I talked... Read more

Excerpt: I took these neat pictures of the mist on the lake on the way home last night. The ice is quickly fading. We are expecting colder temps and snow through the weekend. That will delay the lake going out. Snow started coming down last night and we have more in the forecast for tonight. Cliff is looking a little... Read more

Excerpt: All the endorsements of this candidate or that candidate in the news, I think they would love to have the above endorsement that I found in Shamrock's log book. It made me smile today It is a nice warm day to day and tomorrow. There is going to be a lot of ice melting in the next 2 days... Read more