October 27, 2009 -- At Leech Lake, 2 Days and Counting

The dock coming out of the water signals the end of another season on Leech Lake

At 10:00 a.m. this morning the temperature is 39 degrees, the sky is partly cloudy with some sun and blue sky visible and the wind is 12-15 mph out of the WSW creating a few white caps here and there on Leech Lake.

The wind is blowing strong enough to knock most the remaining leaves out of the trees and onto the ground. It is raining yellow leaves this morning. Kathleen loves seeing the leaves fall, but unfortunately she missed seeing it by a day; she left for California yesterday.

I'll be joining Kathleen in San Jose on Thursday, leaving behind our haven on Leech Lake until some time in the future. I'm hoping to get back here during the winter for some ice fishing, but I had the same plan last year and it never materialized.

At 2:00 p.m. the temperature has warmed to the mid 40s, the wind is steady at 12-15 mph out of the WSW, the sky is mostly cloudy, but there is some blue sky visible.

Mark and his crew from Shore Brothers are here removing the boat lift and dock at the cabin, and the dock at the house. It's going pretty quick too. The guys got the dock and lift out at the cabin in about 35-40 minutes, and the dock at the house may go a little quicker because there's no boat lift to remove. My lift in the harbor stays in the water all winter because it's sheltered enough that it doesn't suffer any ice damage during the spring thaw.

After the Shore Brothers crew left I decided to split the several stumps and rounds that both John Newman and Duane Paulsen had left near my wood pile. There were two different trees that came down back in the woods that Duane has been cutting them into stumps and rounds for the past couple of weeks. Since one of the trees was on my property I asked that Duane leave me some of it.

In all there were probably 10 or 11 stumps and rounds that I split into small fireplace sized pieces. It took me the better part of an hour to split all of the wood, and then another half hour or so to stack it. And since I had the splitter out, I split a small pile of kindling wood too. We now have plenty of kindling and firewood in the garage for several fires should we make a wintertime visit to Leech Lake.

After dinner I had a fire in the fireplace, listened to music and thought about all of the fun times I've had at Leech Lake. We're very fortunate indeed.