June 8, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday it was hot, muggy and sunny. Today at 7:15 a.m. the temperature was 48 degrees, the sky was grey and overcast and it was very windy, 15-20 mph out of the west, creating white caps on the lake.

At 8:00 a.m. the two kids from WC Peterson Excavating showed up and immediately fired up the jackhammer and cement saw. Maybe with the cooler weather today, and the experience of working on the walkway yesterday, they'll be able accomplish more of the demolition today than they did yesterday. It would be nice if they could wrap up the demolition today and move on to repairs during the balance of the week.

The FLW walleye tournament starts tomorrow on Leech Lake and runs through Saturday. That means I'll most likely awake tomorrow to dozens, if not more, boats in front of the house. I'm sure many of the pro fishermen are on the lake today pre-fishing in an attempt to identify good fishing spots. Despite the high winds and white caps, I see a couple of boats in front of the house now at 8:15 a.m.

Despite the wind and cool temperatures I decided to go for a little bike ride. My intention was to do the entire "loop" but no sooner than I turned onto Ottertail Point Drive off of 26th than it started to sprinkle. Not wanting to get caught in a rain storm miles from the house, I turned around and rode home. The rain didn't come as I expected, but it did mist heavily for a half hour or more.

Right after I got home T&K Outdoors arrived to mow the lawns at the house and cabin. In addition to the jackhammer and cement saw, the loud roar of the riding lawn mower added to the din. Normally it's so very quiet at the lake, with the exception of the chirping of the many song birds, that today's noise is made that much more obvious.

At 1:15 p.m., Butch, the lead guy on the harbor project, showed up to check the progress the two kids were making. With Butch's help, they chipped away at the concrete almost to the end of the walkway and should be able to have all of the cement removed today. I don't know if they'll get to any other aspect of the project yet, but there is still a lot of daylight left.

I decided to run into Cass Lake for a couple of grocery items and to pick up a fresh scoop of fatheads from Froggy's. When I got back at 4:30 p.m., the guys from Peterson Excavating were gone, and the job of removing the cement walkway was not complete. I would estimate that there is another hour or two of jackhammering still to be done.

Daily Nature Update: Today was juvenile day. While on my daily ATV ride around the peninsula I came across an adult bald eagle and two juvenile eagles flying directly above me, no more than 25 feet up. They must have tracked me for 100 yards or more giving me a great look at these marvelous raptors on a family hunt. Later, on the same ride, I came across a female whitetail deer and her young offspring. It was no longer a fawn with the white spots, but a small deer with the same coloring as the adult. And later, after I was home looking out at the rough waters of Leech Lake, I spotted the Common Merganser pair that have been hanging around our harbor and dock for weeks, but they were now accompanied by 10 little ducklings. The young Mergansers couldn't be more than a week old, if that. I'm guessing their nest must have been on our property between the house and cabin somewhere. Again, another wonderful glimpse into the wildlife of Northern Minnesota.

By 9:00 p.m. the wind had calmed some to maybe 15 mph out of the north, but the lake was still very choppy with some white caps. The temperature was 44 degrees and the sky was dark and overcast. It wasn't a night I felt like venturing out onto the lake, so instead I stayed inside, listened to classical radio KCRB and read Thoreau.

Photo/Album: Post 11

Time once again for an entry in my Photo/Album series.

PHOTO


Lately an Acura car commercial has been running quite a bit on TV where the voice over talks about putting the car through the rigors of winter in Baudette, Minnesota. At one point in the commercial the camera zooms in on a thermometer and the temperature reading is 25 degrees below zero; as if that's somehow unusual for Northern Minnesota. As this photo, which was taken in February on the back porch of our house on Leech Lake, attests, it gets that cold quite often. Sure it's cold, but it never stopped me or my neighbors from hitting the ice for a little hard-water angling.

ALBUM


In the mid-1970s I got very into music which led me to study and research stereo equipment; stereo being the state of the art at the time. I spent many hours in stereo stores in the Lansing/East Lansing area listening to systems from Pioneer, Technics, Lux, Marantz, Sansui and many others. Inevitably, whenever I was testing out a receiver, power amp, turntable or loud speakers, the saleman reached for one album to play, and only one album, Dark Side Of The Moon, by Pink Floyd.

I heard this album so many times in stereo stores that by the time I actually bought it I knew every note, every lyric, every noise on this incredible album. To say it's a classic is an understatement. The album spent 741 weeks in the Billboard Top 200 chart; that's more than 14 years! I've attached a clip here that starts with Speak To Me that opens side one with that pulsating "heart beat" before it segues into Breathe and On The Run. Enjoy!

Deer Season at Leech Lake

A nice 10-point buck taken on our property on Ottertail Peninsula, Leech Lake

I may be back in California, but that doesn't mean I don't think about Leech Lake on a daily basis. So it was a pleasant surprise when I opened my email the other day and saw a note from my neighbor John Newman giving me an update on this year's deer season in Northern Minnesota.

I have two deer stands on my property and John has a very large, almost palatial deer stand on his. For the past several years now John and his son Greg have used their deer stand, while our friend (and the guy from whom we bought our house) Clancy uses one of the stands on my property.

Apparently, this year John and Greg didn't even see a deer. Clancy on the other hand not only saw a deer, but bagged a nice 10-pointer. Clancy knows I much I enjoying grilling and eating venison brats, so he's promised me a few will be waiting for me at Leech Lake when I next visit.

One of these years Kathleen and I are going to spend a full year in the Northwoods so we can enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's at Leech Lake.