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.

On Leech Lake, June 26, 2010 -- Our 29th Wedding Anniversary

This past weekend was very busy with roofing work, that I did not have a chance to write to this blog. So I'm going to try to recapture the events of Saturday and Sunday in posts made today, Monday, June 28.

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June 26, 2010

Happy 29th wedding anniversary Kathleen. I love you. I can't believe it's been that many years already. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

Rick and I worked on the roof today and then in the evening went fishing. The wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the SW, the water temperature was just under 72 degrees and the air temperature was in the high 60s.

Using our usual technique of trolling Minnow Raps at roughly 2.25 mph ground speed in 8-11 feet of water, we boated several fish. Rick had a particularly good night catching walleyes of 24", 18", 16 3/4" and 13". He also caught two pike and a rock bass. I caught only one fish, but it was a very nice 24" walleye. All fish went back into Leech Lake.

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June 27, 2010

I did my real work during most of the day, but did manage to find several hours to help Rick on the roof. We did not go fishing this evening.

On Leech Lake, June 24 and 25, 2010

We've been so busy working on the roof at the cabin during the day, and then fishing at night, that I've not had time to keep up with my blog posts. Some of these are going to have to be retroactive, so I may miss a detail or two.

Yesterday, after we worked on the roof and ate dinner, Rick and I went trolling at 9:10 p.m. The air temperature had cooled to 70 degrees, but the water temperautre had warmed over the past couple of days to 73 degrees. The wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the SW and the moon was 99% waxing; Friday would be the full moon.

Despite our best efforts, the only fish we caught tonight was the 17 3/4" walleye that I boated. Although it is technically a legal fish, one we could have kept and eaten, we decided to toss it back into the lake since we had just dined on fresh walleye the night before. I mean after all, we're not FIB's.

Friday, June 25, 2010

After another long day of stripping shingles of the cabin roof and applying Certainteed ice and snow Winterguard, we went trolling in the evening.

The weather earlier today was overcast, but no rain. By the evening the clouds and drifted away and the sky was mostly clear. The temperature when we got on the water was in the 62 degrees, the was no wind to speak of, the water temperature was again at 73 degrees, and the moon was full.

We trolled our usual spot using Minnow Raps. Rick caught a 20 1/2" walleye, while I boated a 16 1/4" walleye. Rick's fish was in the slot and had to go back into the lake by Minnesota law, and my legal fish went back into the lake as well as we decided not to have another walleye dinner until next week.

It was a beautiful night on Leech Lake.

At Leech Lake, June 23, 2010

We didn't make it out onto Leech Lake to do any fishing today, but we did make some headway on re-roofing the cabin.

The wind was too strong today, roughly 20-25 mph out of the NNW, to get out onto the lake, so Rick and I spent the day working on the roof. We replaced some rotted wood long the edge of the roof with new boards that we had to have specially milled at Johnson Lumber. We then put up the fascia board and metal edging.

Even though the wind was strong today, the temperature was a very nice 78 degrees, making it a fine day to work on the roof. Of course by the end of a long day on the roof, we were tired, dirty and in need of a shower.

After we cleaned up the work site, I cleaned the walleye Rick caught last night and we had it for dinner. We might not have made it out onto Leech Lake today, but we did enjoy it's bounty.

Rick standing on the dumpster while attaching a new fascia board

A new first board on the roof's edge, and a new fascia board

On Leech Lake, June 22, 2010

When I woke up this morning Rick was already over at the cabin pulling cedar shake shingles off the roof of the cabin. American Disposal and Recycling of Deer River had dropped off the 20-yard dumpster at 7:20 a.m.

Just by luck Rick was already awake. He woke up at 7:00 a.m. but his alarm clock was upside down so he thought it was 10:30 a.m. so he quickly got out of bed.

I had to take care of a number of work calls, and do some writing, so I wasn’t able to go to the cabin to help Rick until mid-afternoon.

We managed to get the shingles off of the roof above the two bedrooms and the road-side dormer of the front porch.

There was some water damage and rot on several a couple of the boards along the edge of the roof that need to be replaced. The cabin, however, was kit that was assembled back in the late 1960s, 1968 to be exact, so finding matching boards will be impossible. Therefore, we took measurements of the boards that needed be replaced and had Johnson Lumber mill some boards of the same dimension.

We pulled the old boards off and had to wait for Johnson Lumber to finish the milling before we could proceed.

The temperature today was in the high 70’s. the wind was around 8-12 mph out of the NW and throughout the day it alternated between being partly sunny to partly cloudy, and it often looked as if it could rain.

This evening Rick and I went trolling. The wind was still out of the NW at 8 mph, the water temperature had warmed to just over 70 degrees and the moon was 77% waxing.

Tonight we caught only one walleye between us, and that was the 17 ¼” fish that Rick boated. It was the perfect fish for us to keep, so it went into the live well and will be dinner tomorrow night.

After a full day of work on the cabin, Rick was tired and went to bed right after we got back from fishing. I stayed up a little while reading, but not very long. We’ve got lots and lots of work to do on the cabin roof in the coming days, so we both will need our rest.

At Leech Lake, June 21, 2010 -- The First Day of Summer

The rain moving toward Second Duck Point at 8:30 p.m.

At 5:28 a.m. this morning, summer arrived at Leech Lake. I was not up to greet the new season, but when I did awake around 8:00 a.m., the sky was grey, the temperature was around 64 degrees and the wind was light at 5-8 mph from the south.

I did my CA "real work" from 9:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. before taking a break to go into town with Rick to get wave two of building supplies for the cabin re-roofing project.

After a dinner of grilled porterhouse steaks, Rick and I went fishing. The hour prior to us getting on the water it was raining quite hard, but by 9:00 p.m. the rain let up and the winds, which had been as strong as 12-15 mph from WSW, died down to around 5 mph from the west. A nice, but wet, night to go fishing.

It rained as we walked from the house to the boat lift, but by the time we got on the water the rain had stopped and we didn't see any more precipitation the rest of the night.

We trolled in 8-12 feet of water using Minnow Raps at roughly 2.20 mph. The water temperature was right around 69.3 degrees, the moon was on four days from being full.

Rick caught four walleyes -- 24", 20 1/2", 17 1/2" (which was legally a keeper, but we put it in the lake anyway) and one around 12". I caught only one walleye, but it was 24".

There were only a couple of other boats on Sucker Bay tonight, but they took off about a half an hour after sunset, so we had the bay to ourselves. It was another relaxing, and successful, night on the water.

At Leech Lake, June 2010 -- A Brief Look Back

I arrived at our house on Leech Lake around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15. I did not pick up the boat in Bemidji as I usually would because I planned to do so on Thursday when I picked up Rick from the airport. Besides, my plan was to drive to St. Cloud first thing on Wednesday morning to visit Kathleen's mother, Marge.

I spent Tuesday night, my first night at Leech Lake this year, visiting with my neighbor John Newman; it was good to see him again.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning I drove to St. Cloud. I spent most of the afternoon with Marge and my sister-in-law Sandy. In the early evening, I met my aunt Maureen for dinner. She happened to be in St. Cloud for regional quilting convention. After dinner I drove back to the lake and arrived home after 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

On Thursday, June 17, I drove into Bemidji to pick up Rick from the airport. We bought groceries, other supplies, then drove out to Corner Sports on Hwy. 71 in Bemidji to pick up my boat. Throughout the day it rained heavily, the wind was constantly changing direction, but was blowing upwards of 20 mph.

We got back to the house in the late afternoon, put the boat at the top of the boat ramp for its eventual launch in to the water, unpacked the supplies and then just hung out. The rain continued and around 6:00 p.m. we heard that there was a tornado watch for Cass County. We had lots of rain and some heavy winds, but no twisters. Elsewhere in the state, however, there were some fatalities from the tornadoes.

Friday, June 18, we awoke to extremely strong winds -- 30-40 mph out of the south. Leech Lake was an odd brownish color due to all of the sediment that was churned into the water by the wind. Several trees along Sucker Bay Road and West Shores Road went down, but we were fortunate not to have any trees topple on our property.

We checked out the roof at the cabin (which we're going to re-roof) and Rick made a CAD drawing of it and calculated the amount of materials we'll need to replace it. Since it was too windy to launch the boat and go fishing, we decided to head back into Bemidji Friday afternoon to get an estimate on the building materials for the re-roofing project.

The roof on the cabin, which is more than 40 years old, is not in good shape. The cedar shake shingles are rotting and are in such poor condition that my insurance company threatened to cancel my policy if I don't replace the roof. There are actually trees going out of the roof!


One of the several trees growing on the roof at the cabin. This one is a birch.

Late Friday afternoon I finally got the new DSL wireless modem up and running so I could check email, and post to this blog again. That's why I've had to post this brief look back. I think I'm all caught up for now.

It's great to be back at Our Oasis on Leech Lake (for you Kathleen).