At Leech Lake, June 2010 -- A Brief Look Back

I arrived at our house on Leech Lake around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15. I did not pick up the boat in Bemidji as I usually would because I planned to do so on Thursday when I picked up Rick from the airport. Besides, my plan was to drive to St. Cloud first thing on Wednesday morning to visit Kathleen's mother, Marge.

I spent Tuesday night, my first night at Leech Lake this year, visiting with my neighbor John Newman; it was good to see him again.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning I drove to St. Cloud. I spent most of the afternoon with Marge and my sister-in-law Sandy. In the early evening, I met my aunt Maureen for dinner. She happened to be in St. Cloud for regional quilting convention. After dinner I drove back to the lake and arrived home after 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

On Thursday, June 17, I drove into Bemidji to pick up Rick from the airport. We bought groceries, other supplies, then drove out to Corner Sports on Hwy. 71 in Bemidji to pick up my boat. Throughout the day it rained heavily, the wind was constantly changing direction, but was blowing upwards of 20 mph.

We got back to the house in the late afternoon, put the boat at the top of the boat ramp for its eventual launch in to the water, unpacked the supplies and then just hung out. The rain continued and around 6:00 p.m. we heard that there was a tornado watch for Cass County. We had lots of rain and some heavy winds, but no twisters. Elsewhere in the state, however, there were some fatalities from the tornadoes.

Friday, June 18, we awoke to extremely strong winds -- 30-40 mph out of the south. Leech Lake was an odd brownish color due to all of the sediment that was churned into the water by the wind. Several trees along Sucker Bay Road and West Shores Road went down, but we were fortunate not to have any trees topple on our property.

We checked out the roof at the cabin (which we're going to re-roof) and Rick made a CAD drawing of it and calculated the amount of materials we'll need to replace it. Since it was too windy to launch the boat and go fishing, we decided to head back into Bemidji Friday afternoon to get an estimate on the building materials for the re-roofing project.

The roof on the cabin, which is more than 40 years old, is not in good shape. The cedar shake shingles are rotting and are in such poor condition that my insurance company threatened to cancel my policy if I don't replace the roof. There are actually trees going out of the roof!


One of the several trees growing on the roof at the cabin. This one is a birch.

Late Friday afternoon I finally got the new DSL wireless modem up and running so I could check email, and post to this blog again. That's why I've had to post this brief look back. I think I'm all caught up for now.

It's great to be back at Our Oasis on Leech Lake (for you Kathleen).