August 13, 2012 -- At Leech Lake

I'll state right up front that neither Joe nor I did any fishing today, so there will not be a fishing report in today's post.

The weather this morning was breezy with a NNW wind blowing at 12-15 mph creating choppy waters and an occasional white cap. It had obviously rained during the night because there were puddles in the driveway and the ground was wet. The sky was mostly sunny with some big fluffy white clouds and the temperature at 10:00 a.m. (the first time I checked it) was 66 degrees. The high temp today got only to 74 degrees.

After a light breakfast I got everything ready to power-wash the house in preparation for staining it. I got the 8-foot ladder out so I could reach the really high spots on the house, a six-gallon can of gas for the power washer, moved all the lawn furniture off the decks, shut all the windows, etc. Finally it was time to start washing.

I started on the north side of the house, then moved to the roadside of the house, the south side and finally ended up washing the lakeside of the house. As the day went on the wind picked up and was blowing consistently at 15 mph out of the NNW with gusts up near 20 mph. Perfect conditions to dry the house. Just to make sure it is thoroughly dry, we will not start the staining process until Wednesday.

I had a quick bite of lunch and then went right back to work power-washing the dock at the cabin. It hasn't been done since we purchased the cabin 6 or 7 years ago, and I doubt the previous owner ever washed it. It was full of mold and moss and so the cleaning process was a slow tedious one. I only got part of one section done before the washer ran out of gas; which I took as a signal to stop for the day.

At 5:00 p.m. I came inside after pretty much a full day outside working. I relaxed for a bit before getting dinner going. Joe and I were hungry so we made a feast of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits and a big garden salad. It was very tasty and filling, and we were hungry!

Joe and I finished watching The Godfather, Part II and went to bed soon after. It was a productive day at the lake, even if we didn't get to go fishing.

Oh, and one final note about fishing, early in the day I let the perch go. I had caught it a couple of days earlier and had planned on having it for dinner if we could bag at least one more jumbo, but with no fishing today and the house-staining project coming up, I didn't think we'd have time to catch that second fish. Thus, there's one more jumbo perch roaming the waters of Leech Lake.