Greeting from the frozen white north! Another balmy -12 degree morning here on the Au Sable. About a hundred Pine Siskins on the rail having breakfast. The irruption in their normal food source has these birds much farther south than their traditional winter range.

There is good news to report. The second chemo treatment is now in the books, and those doctors figured out that I needed a supplemental shot in the arm so my white blood cell counts stayed in line. I haven't been sick at all compared to the effects of the first treatment.

Actually the only side effect has been sleep deprivation. Kind of like feeling like a high school kid caught on a Friday night in the back of a Chevy catching a buzz.... Just can't find time to slow down enough to actually sleep. Compared to having a sledge hammer take my knees out... I'll take it.

And my body is responding. The fluid build up that was putting pressure on my lung is gone. Well certainly diminished in size.. as there is no pain period in laying down. It means those bad cells have been zapped by the chemo... and my body is responding to the 'Paint Thinner' they are putting through me.

The first solid look inside will be the 19th, CT Scan now scheduled here in Grayling. Just as long as they burn me a disc upon walking out the door. It'll save six hours of windshield time. We have a wonderful little hospital here in town, with a view of a pretty good trout stream just out the window, the East Branch of the Au Sable.

We're about ten days away from turning on water and getting serious about spring duties around here. So tying flies is still the routine of the day. I've tied a whole box of early black stones, which will appear the first day we see temperatures above 50 degrees.

These are new styles yet to see H2O in any version... which might be my forte this season if my immune system won't allow much social contact with customers. I'll be down around the bend in my 'Home Pool' field testing new patterns. We've been refining these patterns for almost forty years, but this year might just get some special afternoon attention to detail.

We still have two feet of snow on the ground. But spring is in the air, longer days are noticed and it can't be long till we are wearing rubber pants every afternoon, seeking the tell tale snout of a trout sipping flies in slack water. Or smashing em in the middle of the stream.

All is good up north. I'm young, have half the angling community praying for me so how can we lose! We'll keep you posted as events change.

With wet waders soon...

Lov you all.



(Thanks to Bruce Johnson for keeping us up to date!)