On Leech Lake, July 6, 2010

Rick with a 23" Leech Lake walleye

This morning was filled with work calls for me, so Rick went over to the cabin and began the process of installing the rain gutters.

There are only three places we need the gutters -- the back side of the cabin facing north (which is a 53-foot run) and then in the two valleys of the dormer over the front porch which are 8-foot runs in one direction and 16-foot runs in the other. So a total of 101 feet of gutter is needed.

In the afternoon Rick and I made another run into Bemidji. We returned some of the "ice and snow" material, as well as some metal flashing, to Pro Build, we returned the nail gun to Acme Tools, and two boxes of unused nail coils to Home Depot. All together, we returned nearly $450 of unused supplies.

After a meal at Brigid's Cross, an English pub in downtown Bemidji, we drove back to Leech Lake for a trip out onto the water.

We went fishing at 9:15 p.m. The water temperature was 76.5 degrees, the wind was at 5-8 mph from the WSW, the moon 34% waning, and the air temperature was in the mid-60s.

We trolled our usual route using Minnow Raps at a ground speed bewteen 2.1 and 2.5 mph. We caught only one fish tonight, not counting the stupid rock bass I snagged, but it was nice 23-inch walleye (pictured above). We came ashore at just after 11:00 p.m. It was another beautiful night on Leech Lake.

At Leech Lake -- July 5, 2010, The Roof is Done (sort of)

The completed roof at the cabin.

After more than two weeks worth of hard labor, but easy to figure out work (according to Rick), the roof at the cabin is complete; sort of. The caveat is that there is some stone masonry work to be done on the chimney and I'm going to have to have Mark from Shore Brothers come out and take care of that. Once that's complete, the flashing needs to go in around the chimney and after that, the final shingles.

The temperature today was no more than 80 degrees, but the humidity was very high making working conditions on the roof unbearable during the middle part of the day. We got a little work in during the morning, and then did the final sprint to the finish from 4:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Whew!

I have to say, the gods definitely smiled on us throughout the project because there was only a little rot on the roof to repair, no one got hurt, and most amazingly, there were literally NO mosquitoes. I saw no mosquitoes, not a one. I can't ever remember being at Leech Lake and getting no mosquito bites. That's simple unheard of. But somehow it happened, and I ain't complaining.

Since we worked late into the evening, and then had a late dinner, we didn't go out fishing tonight. Instead, we stayed inside, listened to some old vinyl on the turntable and relaxed. More tomorrow.

At Leech Lake, July 4, 2010 -- Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!! American is 234 years old, which is actually quite young when compared to any country in Europe.

Guess how Rick and I celebrated Independence Day? That's right, up on the roof of the cabin laying shingles. We got most of the roof complete and with any luck we should be able to wrap up the shingling part of the operation tomorrow.

After cleaning up and eating brats for dinner, we went fishing. We used our usual method of trolling between the cabin and the middle of the bay between Second Duck Point and Duck Point in 9-12 feet of water.

The water temperature tonight was 75.4 degrees, the air temperature was 72 degrees, there was no wind to speak of so the lake was almost still, and the moon was just past half at 49% waning.

Just after sunset we started seeing multiple fireworks display, with the biggest, most impressive and longest lasting coming from Walker, where fireworks filled the night sky for more than an hour.

Throughout the night we caught a few rock bass, but also managed to boat two smallish walleyes. I caught a 16-inch walleye and Rick caught a 14-incher. Both fish were quickly released back into Leech Lake.

We came ashore around 11:00 p.m. and mentally prepared for the final push on the roof the next day. Although it is technically a national holiday, we'll be pounding nails and trying to finish off the roofing project (at least the major part of it). Until tomorrow.

On Leech Lake, June 28 -- July 3, 2010

This past week has been extremely busy. Rick and I worked on the roof every day, went into Bemidji on a couple of occasions to get roofing and other supplies, and I had to take care of my "real" work too.

We also tried to get out onto the lake in the evening to fish as often as possible. Since so much was going on this past week I was unable to post to the blog on a daily basis, therefore, I'm going to condense this past week into this one post.

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June 28, 2010


The "boom truck" unloads pallets of shingles onto the cabin roof

Rick, Sean Malay and I worked on the roof for a good part of the day. I had to bow out a couple of times for work calls, but still put in a good number of hours on the roof.

Rick and I went trolling after 9:00 p.m. There was no wind, the water temperature was 72 degrees, and the moon was 95% waning. I caught two small walleyes -- 13 and 14 inches -- and Rick caught a nice 20 1/2" walleye. All fish went back into the lake

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June 29, 2010


A Sucker Bay sunset at the end of a long day of working on the cabin roof

We worked on the roof all day today. We didn't go out fishing in the evening because we were roofing until after 8:30 p.m. The temperature is starting to climb and is supposed to be near 90 degrees later this week.

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June 30, 2010

More work on the roof today. We're making progress, but there's still a lot to do. This evening we went fishing. The wind was out of the south at 12-15 mph, the water temperature was 71 degrees, and as usual we trolled Minnow Raps. Also as usual, we caught fish. I caught a couple of rock bass and a pike. Rick caught only one fish but it was a perfect 17" eater walleye that we kept.

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July 1, 2010


We started laying shingles on the roof over the front porch

More roofing work today. We started laying shingles and I think they look great. The color of the shingles really compliments the color of the cabin, and it blends in well with the whole Northwoods motif.

As predicted it was very hot and humid today. The temperature was 89 degrees and the humidity had to be close to that as well. Luckily, there was a nice 15 mph south wind blowing most of the day which helped cool it off a little.

This evening, after a tasty walleye dinner, Rick and I again went trolling on Sucker Bay. All I caught was a stupid rock, while Rick boated 18" and 13" walleyes. All fish went back into Leech Lake.

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July 2, 2010 -- Happy Birthday Mom!


Several courses of shingles on the north side of the cabin

I didn't have any work calls today so Rick and I were able to lay down a lot of shingles as the result of many hours of us working as a team.

After calling it quits for the day, we got cleaned up and had dinner. I tried to call my Mom to wish her a Happy Birthday, but no one answered. Maybe they went out to dinner to celebrate.

Tonight Rick and I went fishing, but all we boated was one small pike that I caught right after we got on the water. The water temperature has warmed to 74 degrees, the wind tonight was out of the south at 10-12 mph, and the air temperature was a very pleasant 70 degrees.

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July 3, 2010


The dormer over the front porch is completely shingled! Looks good.

Today we decided to focus the entire day on roofing; no fishing. We started in the morning around 8:00 a.m. and by 11:00 a.m. we had to take a break because it was simply too hot and humid to be on the roof. The temperature hit 91 degrees today.

During our morning break we drove into Bemidji, bought roofing supplies at Pro Build, had breakfast at Perkins, did some more supply shopping at Home Depot before we bought groceries and beer and drove back to Leech Lake.

About 4:00 p.m. it cooled off enough to where the 10-20 mph SSW wind made it bearable to climb onto the roof for more work.

We laid down a lot of shingles, figured out how to complete the valleys over the dormer, and got things prepped for the final run. I'm guessing we have about two to three more full days of work before we'll be done shingling. There is some damage to the stone chimney that is in need of repair, but I'll have Mark from Shore Brothers tackle that since stone masonry is out of our league.

We worked until 9:00 p.m., came back to the house for dinner and then watched as a powerful thunderstorm rolled in. Rick and I went out onto the dock to watch the darkened sky light up with powerful bolts of lightening. Once it started to rain hard, however, we retreated to the house.

No fishing today, but another nice day on the shores of Leech Lake.