August backyard (sort of) happy hour

It started with a torrential downpour then just steady rain then sprinkles and finally just clouds and a breeze. This month's happy hour was moved indoors. So folks got to see and sit on the new sofa.

Once it stopped raining, we did move outside for a while.

Diane and Nancy. Nancy came all the way from Virginia.

Amy and Dave.

New Living Room Furniture

Tired of slouching in my one arm chair and a loveseat that was too short to lay out in, I got a new sofa... an actual sofa in my little living room.

It might look like it is taking over the room but it is actually on a few inches longer into the room where the chaise is. It also provides more sitting for game nights.

I am planning on replacing the secretary desk, also. I am thinking of something more like a table that would also serve as a side table for that end of the sofa.  The wingback chair isn't going to stay there either but as you can see I decided to move the Stickley mission-style loveseat into the sun room.

And as a reminder, this is what it looked like before.

Jenny - triathlete

Jenny B. did it again this year. She completed the YWCA mini-triathlon. It consists of 500 meter lake swim, 15 miles bike course and 5k run course. Fantastic accomplishment,

Apple load

The apple tree is fully loaded again this year.

Apples and vegtables

The apple tree is showing hundreds of apples. The branches continue to droop under the weight and I am trying to support as many as possible.

Also found a squash in the garden. The plant came up on its own so I didn't really know what it would be. The little yellow pear tomatoes are from the front yard experiment. The cucumber is from Amy's garden.

Photo prop fun at Jennifer's birthday

Click here to see some fun photographs from Kathy Just's creative mind.

Here is a taste

BWCAW Annual Trip - or Half-Assed Knot (Day 4 - Sunday August 2)

Sunday was our last day and paddle back to civilization. The weather did not look so great but it turned out to be nearly perfect. The clouds meant it was not hot. I was hoping for a tail wind but that did not happen. There was a little bit of head wind occasionally but nothing like when we paddled in.

Dramatic sky

When we got back to MacFarland Lake, we saw fish swimming/jumping through the fast moving water between the Pine and MacFarland. Brian got out his fishing rod to do some easy catch and release.

What was a 4 hour paddle in was just a 3 hour paddle out. That is partially due to having gotten accustomed to how to paddle the kayaks.

We drove back to Grand Marais for a bite to eat and to check out the Grand Marais Art Fair. I was hoping to see an old boss of mine who has moved to Grand Marais. I did not see her.

We then went back to Jenny and Andrew's cabin to unload and store gear at the cabin before heading back to Minneapolis. It did finally rain on the way home but we were driving in my truck so did not care.

It was another great trip. Many thanks to Brian and Jenny for making the whole experience so much fun and full of memories.

BWCAW Annual Trip - or Half-Assed Knot (Day 3 - Saturday August 1)

Saturday was another beautiful day. Not too far from camp was the portage to East and West Pike Lake.  Half way on the portage is the Border Trail. We were not going to portage the kayaks because that is tricky so we paddled to the portage and hiked the Border Trail to the West Pike Lake overview.

We found out where the mosquitos were. They were on this portage and trail. Mosquitos absolutely love me unfortunately. At least by the time we got up into the trail the mosquitos calmed down.

The trail has a lot of elevation changes... most of them steep. We walked through a beautiful pine forest section and had two amazing lookouts. The final one was of West Pike Lake.

West Pike Lake

Trying to capture the height and majesty of these beautiful pine trees

When we got back to camp, we decided to play around in the water. I tried swim and swamping the Canak. Brian practiced using a paddle float to self-rescue. Jenny did her 15 minutes of swimming. And I tried the Rob Row portage yoke.

BWCAW Annual Trip - or Half-Assed Knot (Day 2 - Friday August 1)

We had such amazing weather. It was calm on the lake so we decided to paddle to the west end and hike over to Johnson's Falls. We had been there years ago and remembered how pretty it was.

I don't think we realized that there are three major water falls. As you hike up, there is another and another... and at the top is a beautiful view of a calm stream.

The valley stream that is the head of Johnson's Falls

I slipped on a wet rock while trying to take a photo of the second falls. I hit the rock hard which knocked my camera out of my hand into the water. I reached for it but it was gone. The water was rushing crazy but I kept feeling around in the rocks and walking down the cataracts.

I then realized I had busted up my right forearm and was bleeding but I wanted to find my camera. The searching with my hands underwater as successful. I find the camera and it is still working!

We had lunch and played in the water and had a fantastic time before heading back to camp.

Brian in the "spa"

On the paddle back Jenny and Brian fished and I took photographs of the shore. There was a loon pair and one loon baby on the lake. We came on them on the way back to camp. The loon parents are teaching the young one how to fish.

Water iris

Loon parent

Queen Anne's lace

Jenny caught a good-sized Northern Pike which I had to get the hook out of. We decided not to keep it thinking that Brian must have been doing pretty good catching small-mouthed bass.

Back at camp we found that a large walleye had been filleted and left at our campsite. We were not to happy about that thinking someone left it on purpose knowing it was obviously a campsite. When Brian got back, he did not have a kayak full of fish... he had none. Brian went to get the food bags down and said that obviously someone had been at our campsite because the food rope knot was "half-assed". I confessed that it was my half-assed food knot and perhaps an eagle or seagull had found the fish and dropped on our campsite rock for later. We are still laughing about the half-assed knot remark.

I took the fish back into the woods. When I later was walking over to do some fishing in a different place along the shore, a bald eagle flew out from where I had thrown the fish. So perhaps the bald eagle had dropped it and was back having found it again.

That walk through the woods was when I scraped my forehead on a tree and opened a pretty good gash. It bled quite a bit but not so much that it was alarming. We carry a first aid kit and I got my forearm and head taken care of.

We witnessed a new phenomenon on this trip. Since the mosquitos really were not that bad in the evening we were able to sit outside of the tent to watch the sunset and then the stars come out. I was sitting out on the shore rock and noticed dozens of dragon flies zooming around.

As I watched I realized the dragon flies were catching gnats and mosquitos in mid-air! Brian, Jenny and I laid out on the rocks and watched the amazing feat of dragon fly squadron taking on the gnats and mosquitos.

BWCAW Annual Trip - or Half-Assed Knot (Day 1 - Thursday July 30)

This year's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, BWCAW, trip was last week.  This time it was just 3 instead of the usual 4. So we decided to use kayaks instead of canoes. Kayaks meant we needed to be more careful of how much we packed. Kayaks generally have less storage space. It turns out there are hybrid canoe-kayak vessels.  So we rented a Rob-Roy and a Canak...both are hybrids. You'll see pictures later.

We also decided to enter and journey in an area that Jenny was not familiar with. We went up the Arrowhead Trail to enter at MacFarlane Lake. If you look at a map of Minnesota, the upper east portion wraps around the top of Lake Superior and looks like an arrowhead.

MacFarland Lake is a public lake with cabins mostly on one side. We entered on the east side and paddled west. The western tip joins with Pine Lake which is the entrance to the BWCA.

Pink Lake is very long...7 1/2 miles and only a mile wide it is widest. There was a bit of a head wind which we had been warned about. Also, there are not many camping sites on the lake and we were really banking on staying here and not having to portage.

We had a campsite chosen from the map but when we got there, we did not like the location. It was in the trees which meant little breeze and lots of mosquitos. We headed to the next site. On the way two bald eagles landed in trees right next to the shore. It is always awesome to see eagles up close.

While we were distracted by the eagles another pair of canoeist showed up. Jenny and I set off for the next campsite because we didn't want to lose it. It turned out to be a fantastic site and we got it.

The long 4 hour paddle ended with a quick campsite set up. Jenny cast her fishing line right from our shore and on the second cast caught a really nice small-mouthed bass. Thinking it was going to be an easy dinner, this one was tossed back in. It turned out to be our last chance.

The lake was fantastic and the day had been long so we ended with a fun time in the water.