October 16, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

It was one week ago today that I was last out on the water at Leech Lake. Between the weather and my brief trip to St. Cloud, it's not been possible for me to go fishing. And today will be another day spent on shore.

The wind, for the third straight day, is howling at 22-30 mph out of the WNW creating large waves and white caps on the lake. I did not see a single boat on the water all morning long. The official temperature as posted in Federal Dam was 40 degrees at 11:00 a.m., but the thermometer on the back porch read 33 degrees at the same time. The sky was mostly sunny with a large number of billowy white clouds being blown across the sky by the high winds.

My was to finish the job of cleaning out the gutters on the house, but I managed to keep putting it off until 2:15 p.m. I took a break from following the Lions vs. 49ers football game on the PC and started where I'd left off yesterday, on the lake-side of the house.

I climbed up onto the roof and cleaned the gutters from up high rather than trying to move the ladder every 15 feet. I worked my way over the living room, around the south side of the house and finishe up at the back of the garage. By this time my hands were wet, cold and numb from the 42 degree air temperature and the 30+mph WNW wind. I made my way down the ladder, moved the ladder to the front of the house, then came inside to warm up and check on the Lions.

The Lions eventually lost their first game of the season to the San Francisco 49ers (the one time I want the Niners to lose) 25-19. Both teams are now 5-1 on the season.

With the "big" game of the day over, I went back outside and spent the better part of an hour to finish cleaning out the gutters on the house. All done, for this season. When I came back inside I immediately went straight to the crawl space under the house and put up all the insulation into the vent holes and blocked them up for the season. No need to have cold air blowing underneath the floor of the house.

With the dirty chores of cleaning out the gutters and closing up the vents under the house out of the way, I took a shower and got cleaned up myself.

I made dinner and had finished eating before 7:00 p.m., that's early for dinner here at the lake. After dinner I made a small fire in the fireplace, listened to some music and eventually decided to watch an old Hammer Productions horror movie -- The Curse of the Werewolf. Not nearly as good as the old Universal classic, but appropriate for this Halloween season.

When I went to bed 'round midnight, the wind was still blowing at more than 20 mph and the temperature was 38 degrees. Apparently, according to the weather report, there more windy conditions and cool weather in store for the next two days.

Again no fishing on Leech Lake today, although other tasks were completed. Good night.