The packages were technically delivered to my front stoop which is attached to my yard so this counts for a “Meet My Yard,” I think. As long as we’re all on the same page. That’s what matters here.
I get dorky about things.
One of those things is the mail. How can you get dorky with the mail? Well, let me tell you.
Most days, I know what’s gonna be in the mailbox before it even arrives. That’s thanks to USPS Informed Delivery. I do not recall signing up for it but that doesn’t matter because it has become the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning.
Like, I don’t know if y’all know this or not, but I’m basically a hermit nowadays. I get out of the house once a week for ceramics, where I see three or four other humans. After the two hours of class where I alternatively bite my tongue or talk about food, I am deposited back to the Professor Haus to work and clean and write and make candy and art and watch TV and movies and jangly limb dance, where the only other human I’ll see for a full week is Mickey.
Sometimes I’ll get a virtual Aubz or I’ll have a virtual meeting for work, but other than that I’m flying solo.
So it’s exciting to get mail! And even more exciting to look forward to it. Messages from the outside world and all that.
I hope you do not think this makes me sound like a sad old person because that is not at all how I feel.
So last week, when I woke up and perused my USPS Informed Delivery and saw that I had two packages on the way that I wasn’t aware of, the mystery section of my brain was immediately activated. What were these two surprise packages arriving to the Professor Haus?!
Okay, look, I hyped up the title a bit, if I’m being honest. I knew who one of the packages was from, just not what it was.
A friend of mine messaged me with a tracking number and not much else in the way of information. I checked it against the tracking numbers in my email – it matched! So I knew WHO one of ‘em was coming from. But I didn’t know WHAT it was until it arrived on Tuesday.
LOOK:
They are handmade capybara’s and they are the CUTEST. See, earlier this year I fell in love with the Latvian animated film Flow and the instant I finished watching it I slapped a post up in my ValleyOfOh Facebook Group. In that post, I expressed my sadness that there were not stuffed animals based on the movie – especially the Capybara, because I really loved his vibe.
This surprise treat delighted me to tears, which feels right because that is exactly what the movie did.
My brain cannot fathom making things of this nature, so I am amazed when someone CAN. Thank you, friend, who is the completion of the Jacki/KPerks/EMulls Triplets.
The Triplets of NOT FROM FUCKING FLORIDA is what we should call ourselves, I think.
We’ve named the Capybara’s Cap (the smol one) and Barry (the big one.)
The second package was a much bigger mystery. I looked deeper into where it came from but couldn’t science out who I knew that lived in that area. It was from a city in the up north part of Michigan. Not the Yoop, but more like the fingertip area. The curiousty of this mystery package played in the background of my thoughts, resurfacing whenever my brain took a rest of the other one million streams of consciousness running through it at all time.
The only thing I could figure that it could be was my quarterly Vault from Third Man Records. But it was probably not that, because they send a tracking number well in advance and that comes from either Nashville or Detroit. Not some unkown city near a fingertip of the Mitten State!
Then, the package in question arrived. And opening it brought about even more questions. This is what was in it:
A letter and a piece of metal and springs that I couldn’t even begin to determine what it was.
The letter, while not addressed to me, was helpful.
Here is what it says:
Hi Steven Evans, I found this tip-up while fishing on the Ausable River. It was in the Cook Dam section, in what the locals call “Goose Shit Bay.” My buddy snagged the line that was attached to it. This was two summers ago. Well, this winter has been a great season for ice fishing, so I thought it might be a fun thing to send it back to you! I’ve never actually ice fished in that bay before and have wondered if it’s good ice fishing there? Anyways, I hope that this gets delivered to you safely.
Sincerely,
A Stanger’s Name
(a stranger’s phone number)
Now, first question:
WTF is a Tip Up?!
How does this thing work?
To Duck Duck Go, I went (google’s insistence on AI and Ads has me exploring other search engines – I’m open to recommendations)!
Here is what Wikipedia had to say:
A tip-up is a device used while ice fishing to suspend live or frozen bait at a set depth through a hole drilled in the ice with an auger, and detect when a fish strikes, without having to be in contact with this piece of gear. When a fish does take the bait, a flag “tips up” or the flag can “tip down” to signal the angler that a fish has taken the bait. Anglers can see the flag from a distance and can thus manage multiple holes at once, covering a larger area than with just an ice fishing rod.
To me this means, like, a more passive way of fishing? That might have a bigger payout in the way of being able to monitor multiple “poles” at a time? Hmm, this is interesting.
Does this also mean that a really big fish chomped on the bait and then swam so hard and so fast that the Tip Up tipped IN the frozen Ausable River?
This is what it looks like, by the way:
I’m telling y’all, Michigan is GORGEOUS.
Wikipedia also said that there are different types of Tip Ups, so I’m gonna try to figure out which one ours is.
- Cross-stick design: As the name says, two sticks cross to make an “X”, while another stick holds the line spool submerged in the water. A long narrow piece of spring metal is attached to the opposite end of this third stick and a piece of bright fabric (flag) is attached to the free end of the spring metal. The flag is set by inserting the free end of the spring metal in to a curved metal wire which makes contact with the spool. When a fish takes the bait and pulls out line, the spool rotates, and tabs on the spool rotate the wire, releasing the flag and alerting the angler that a fish has taken the bait.
- Flat-board design: In this design, a flat board rests on the ice. A shaft runs perpendicular to the board with a spool of line on one end and a trip bar on the other. A spring is mounted to one end of the board, and a metal “flag pole” is attached to the spring. The flag is set by placing the flag pole under the trip bar. When a fish bites, pulling the line spins the spool, therefore the shaft, and therefore the trip bar. With nothing to hold the flag down, it springs up and alerts the angler to a strike.
- Thermal tip-ups: The setting and trip mechanism is the same as a flat-board design, but the base covers the entire hole. This slows how quickly the hole will re-freeze and prevent spooking especially wary fish by blocking the path for sunlight which is created by clearing snow and cutting the hole.
- Wind tip-ups: The setting and trip mechanism on these can be the same as any of the other tip-ups listed, but they are unique in that the spool is ABOVE water and a small sail uses the wind to gently jig the bait up and down.
Things like this really fuck with my Aphantasia brain. I can’t picture these to compare them to the piece of equipment that was surprise dropped on my door this week.
I think it’s number one, though? What do y’all think?
Oh, and also – wasn’t that letter so PURE? Like, there is something so whole about a snal mail letter chain between two men about ice fishing.
You may be wondering how he knew to ship this ice fishing tool to the Professor Haus. That is because there is a BRIGHT ORANGE VERY BIG plastic tag attached to it with the name of someone who doesn’t live here and our address!
Now, I have two big questions:
- Do I text this stranger and tell him that an old lady got his Tip Up and not a professional ice fisherperson? (No, I will not use my voice to call them)
- Do we try ice fishing in our river? (It’s too shallow at the moment, I know, but a girl can dream.)
kthxbai
