First-time chili chef wins American Legion cook-off

Athol Post 149 American Legion had its annual chili cook-off last week with some new winners as well as old.

Heading the group was Taryn Hecker. A novice at making chili, she wasn’t an amateur at research. Taryn Googled prize-winning recipes looking for one that looked good, and she won hands-down with a chili that was outstanding and even contained peppered chocolate.

Coming in second was last year’s winner, Debbie “Dumptruck” VanScyoc. The hottest went to Chuck Richmond, who came up with his green chili verde, but the real winners were those who stayed around for dinner. Chili, of course, was the entrée. Accompanied by homemade corn bread, a great time was had by all.

•You can hear the proverbial pin drop in Scenic Bay today. Leaves are turning bright shades of gold, orange and red, as nature prepares for the winter to come.

The only activity this week was when Eric Musson fell off the roof of his float home’s second story, still clutching the ladder that had betrayed him. Fortunately, after the 30-foot drop, he wasn’t hurt. Asked how cold the water was, he replied, “It wasn’t that bad, just real wet.”

After pulling himself out of the water dripping wet, he sauntered over to the Captain’s Wheel for a drink, then headed for home for a change of clothes. The ladder recovered, too.

•Speaking of the Captain’s Wheel, the biggest holiday for this bar and restaurant is not the Bayview Daze celebration. It’s Halloween. A tradition born many years ago, then enhanced by the ownership of Jim and Jean Campbell and Sue and Norm Nordstrom, Halloween parties at the Wheel are unsurpassed. Hundreds of dollars in spooky decorations started to go up several weeks ago.

Management is once again preparing for an influx of even weirder characters than normally hang out in Bayview. People come from miles away dressed in the scariest costumes imaginable, vying for prizes and terrorizing the locals. Entertainment will be provided by the ever popular band The Keep.

•Next door in Athol, American Legion Post 149 is hosting a Halloween party, also Friday. Starting at 7 p.m., costumes will break out, vying for Best Costume and Scariest Costume. Designated drivers will be provided for those living locally, or even in Sprit Lake and Bayview. Finger foods will be served, and music will be provided by George and Jeannie.

•Farragut State Park is busy now. While the campers and other recreationists have departed, several projects are going full speed. The complete sewering of the park will see about one-third of the total finished this year. That will encompass the line from Beaver Bay to Gilmore Campground, the dump station, brig and back to the lagoon. Down at Eagle Landing, the long promised improvements are either in place or being installed currently.

Two 220-foot-long breakwater segments channel boats into a protected dock area. The breakwaters are in and the dock segments are currently being installed. Knapweed control is in full swing with chemical controls used in the areas of high traffic, so that the spread can be controlled. Long-term control also is being used with bugs that are specific to these weeds being planted.

Park manager Randall Butt estimates “it will take about a decade to manage these pests by natural methods, but in the long haul, it is better than a massive chemical attack, since those solutions tend to be very temporary and have long-term effects over other vegetation. The third and perhaps most effective long-term measure is to manage the forest, planting trees that will shade out the noxious weeds.”