After some work around the house, I decided to apply some of the stain I picked up at Sherwin-Williams on the patch of the house that I power washed a couple of days ago. The house had had time to dry after the power washing and torrential rains, and with the nice breeze blowing I thought it would be a good day to apply a test coat.
Using a small roller, which coincidentally was the same size as the cedar planks that make up the siding of the house, I applied stain to the bottom four boards on the north side of the house. From the very early looks of the stain, it is a good match to the original color and should do fine. But to make sure, I will give it 24 hours to dry thoroughly.
As is often the case when you paint the house, or wash the car, a light rain storm moved in at 2:15 p.m. and dropped a light, but steady, rain for nearly an hour. By 3:30 p.m. the rain had stopped and the sun popped through the still very heavy and dark cloud cover.
Using this brief break in the weather, I decided to go fishing. I got the boat off the lift, motored out to a spot in 12 feet of water directly in front of the Giza's cabin and let the 10 mph WSW wind push me toward shore and north toward the boat lift.
As I have for the past several times on the water, I used a black (with red eye) Northland Fireball jig tipped with a large leech. But unlike my past four or five times on the water I was skunked. I didn't even get a bite. So after 45 minutes or so, and with storm clouds and rain again moving into the area, I headed back to shore.
I wasn't in the house 5 minutes when another light, steady rain began to fall. With the heavy rain we had a couple of nights ago, coupled with the rain off and on today, the grass, the plants and the trees were literally shining a bright emerald green.
By 6:15 p.m. the wind had shifted yet again and was blowing out of the NW and with the change in wind another mild storm front rolled in. At 6:30 p.m. a light, steady rain was falling. While the rest of the nation is baking in unprecedented drought and heat we here at Leech Lake are staring at 113,000 acres of water while a gentle soaking rain falls. Climate change is a bitch.
Tom Malay called me this evening and asked if tomorrow evening he and Brian "Bro" Brosdahl could come by and look at the ice fishing houses that the two of them have been storing in my garage. Bro wants to donate one or two of them to a fundraiser for a friend of his who has a grandson who needs heart surgery and is scheduled to make a trip to California for the required procedure.
I do plan to be around tomorrow evening and look forward to hosting Tom, my friend, and Bro a fishing legend here in the northwoods. Bro has been featured in In-Fisherman magazine and on the magazine's TV show, as well as appearing in/on numerous other TV fishing shows, magazine articles, sports shows, seminars, etc. I once met Bro years ago on the water while fishing on the north end of Sucker Bay, but we were both in boats and just chatted while fishing for largemouth bass. Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, I'll meet him face-to-face.
I went out fishing one last time at 8:15 p.m. I only fished for about 45 minutes, and caught only one measly rock bass. I came in just around 9:00 p.m. and again no sooner did I get inside the house than it started to rain. The shower only lasted a few minutes, but once again everything outside was wet, green and fresh. The level of oxygen in the air is high, and it feels amazing to take a deep breath. I could really get used to the northwoods life.
I spent the rest of the evening online, listening to classical music KCRB out of Bemidji, and reading. A wonderfully soothing evening. Good night.
P.S. One last item. My granddaughter Ashley attended the Yahoo summer picnic in Silicon Valley today -- her stepmother works there -- and she met the new CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer.
 |
| Ashley in the middle, Marissa on the left. |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment