June 17, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

This morning I was up at 5:30 a.m. I don't know why I woke up so early, but I did and was unable to go back to sleep so I got up. It was already light outside, although the sky was grey and overcast. The temperature was 50 degrees, and the wind was 5-8 mph out of the NNE.

At just before 8:00 a.m. Larry and Ross (Peterson, the son of the guy who owns Peterson Excavating) showed up; Butch should be here later this morning. Today the process will be to use the big front hoe to try to pull the harbor wall back some more, while using cable jacks to pull the cable tight. They'll then bend the metal posts that are holding the cable so the cable doesn't slip off, and then they'll start work on laying the tile drain. It'll be interesting to see how much work they get done today and if they'll come back on Saturday, or wait until Monday to continue work. There is a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms today, so it may be too wet and miserable for them to put in a full day.

By 11:45 a.m. the guys from Peterson Excavating had put in some of the tile drain, cut a hole in the harbor wall for the water to run out, and had starting pouring rock over the entire thing. They assure me that they will complete the project today. And if they keep up the pace they're currently on, they just might do it.

Peterson Excavating loaded the last of their tools and materials onto the truck, smoothed out the areas of the yard they had torn up, and put the big front hoe on the trailer and were moving down West Shores Road by 3:30 p.m.

The harbor looks good, albeit not as aligned as straight as it once was, but is no doubt much more sturdy and better anchored than ever before. I'll need to move some rock from the pile at the cabin to a few spots around the harbor walls that Peterson didn't work on, but that's a minor, afternoon project compared to the heavy work that Peterson just completed.

I have to hand it to them, the did a great job, made sure that the electrical pole and harbor lights functioned. The only thing we couldn't test is the sodium light on the top of the electrical pole because it has a light sensor on it and won't come on until dark.

[Update: At 3:30 p.m. I went out to the electrical pole and flipped the switch on the sodium light, and because it was starting to rain and fairly dark and overcast, it came on. Confirmed now that all electrical around the harbor is operational.]

No sooner had Peterson left than is started to rain. Not hard, just a nice steady rain. I decided now might be a good time to spread some grass seed on the dirt left behind by Peterson's heavy machinery, so I got the bag of seed and tried to open it. As is typical with many packages, it was nearly impossible to open so I got out my Leatherman, opened one of the blades, cut into the bag and by mistake also hit my finger.

Blood immediately started to flow, but having injured myself numerous times in the past I ignored it and began spreading the seed. At a certain point the rain started to come down a bit harder so I decided to call it quits and go inside before I got totally soaked.

Once inside I cleaned up my cut finger and noticed I hadn't sliced my finger, like I've done dozens of times in the past, but rather cut off a small slice from the tip; maybe as big around as a pencil eraser. Knowing from experience that this isn't the kind of cut that can been fixed with stitches, I placed a couple Band-Aids over the cut and then wrapped medical tape around the Band-Aids. I haven't noticed in an ordinate amount of blood, so I'm assuming my triage worked.

At 8:00 p.m., under a sky that was beginning to clear for the first time all day and temperatures just over 60 degrees, I made my way next door to the Newman's where John and I grilled brats for dinner. After dinner we had a fire in his "driveway fireplace," listening to some music and didn't even attempt to solve any of the world's problems. Since we had eaten so late in the evening, we didn't get out fishing today. But we agreed to connect tomorrow morning, and weather permitting we will be out on the water.

As I walked home I could feel the wind picking up and I thought I felt some raindrops. We are supposed to get thunderstorms over night. I just hope they pass by tomorrow morning.