Getting Stuff Done

14 bushel lawn debris collection system.

Wow, got too busy to finish!!!   Oh well, here's what I wrote last week.  With the ice forming well but still not good enough I decided to get some use out of the 14 bushel leaf/grass collection system I bought earlier in October to help clean up the yard.  The last 2 weeks haven't been ideal however on Sunday it was almost warm enough to get the job done, It would probably be my last chance before the snow comes to get the leaves picked up off the lawn, and there were a lot of them.  The system itself is pretty slick.  It attaches to the mower via a quick hitch system and it has a blower that gets mounted to the output of the mower deck and is powered by a pulley that is attached to one of the spindles.  A belt goes on the pulley then it has a tightening mechanism to put tension on the belt.  When you engage the mower deck the blower pretty much sucks anything under the deck and forces it up a chute and into the bags hanging off the back.  It is surprising how fast it will fill up, I just take the bags and dump them into my trailer then haul it to the back of my property and dump it.  The ground was froze and I had a number of problems with moles this fall, so it was a pretty bumpy ride yet I was able to get all the leaves picked up and the grass looks ready for the snow.  My next project is to get the snowblower attachment on as I think within a couple of weeks we will have blowable snow unfortunately. 

Keith's first walleye on the ice!

Red Lake continues it's freeze up as well as most of of the lakes north of Brainerd are frozen over.  Although it's only walkable ice, if one is careful it's not too bad and guys are getting out.  My friend Russ is planning on heading to Red on Thanksgiving, leaving his house on shore and using an ATV to get out.  So far the reports are stating up to 8 inches of ice however they did have some breakup from the wind last week, it's healing up good and some resorts have safe routes staked out to over a mile.  In the mean time my friend Keith Holtan, who lives near North Long Lake by Brainerd got out and sent me this picture of his first walleye of the year, not bad if you ask me!  So as I stated in my first sentence, I am getting caught up and quie honestly am getting ready to fly to Savannah, Georgia on Wednesday, November 18th to attend our fall TTA meeting and what usually comes out of these get togethers is a fishing trip and this year is no exception.  We are going to be fishing out of Tybee Island with Miss Judy's Charters, a recommendation we got from Phil Gordon.  Phil has a time share on Tybee Island as it is just south of Hilton Head, South Carolina, a popular golf destination.  Although our conference is Thursday and half a day Friday, Phil has got us a rental condo on the beach for Friday and Saturday night as we have booked Saturday, December 1st as our fishing day.  Our fishing day looks good as I checked the weather for the weekend and it looks like we'll be in the 70's which will be a nice change from the 15 degree weather we've been experiencing here in Minnesota.  I arrive in Savannah late Wednesday afternoon and the low is supposed to be 32, a warm spell!  Anyway we have 7 guys signed up for fishing including Bruce Thackwray, Glen Collins, Matt Davis, Gary and Steve Hicks, Phil Gordon, and myself as we will target inshore saltwater species such as Redfish, Sheepshead, and Seatrout.  I have fished with these guys before and it's always a great time!  The plan is to find a local restaurant close to our condo that will cook our fish, maybe we will even have enough to bring some home.  Either way it will be good to get out before heading up to Red to fish the hard water.  I may post something later this week or wait till I get back from fishing with some nice pictures of our quarry!

It's Cold!!!

Roger's on Red has almost 4 inches of ice already

November is really coming in like a lion (I know that's a reference to March!) however things are really starting to tighten up and making ice.  My good friend and neighbor, Lory Brasel came back from deer hunting in his home town of New York Mills, MN and claims he had -2 degrees on Sunday morning, music to my ears!!  The friends I hang around with for ice fishing, Mark, Russ, Randy, are all getting ready to head up to Red Lake next week to at least try and walk out to fish.  We all stay at JR's Corner Access and I suspect they will pull up their wheel houses on or right after Thanksgiving, they can stay on shore for the nights and pull out portables with their ATV's in the day.  JR's Facebook page shows pictures of the lake via his airplane and claims it's froze up tight.  Roger's on Red, a resort down the road is reporting more specific conditions like the picture from last Monday the 12th of November showing around 4 inches near shore with around 2 - 3 inches about a half mile out.  This was totally disrupted on Wednesday when they experienced a fairly strong south wind which broke up the ice pretty good.  Those who were thinking of getting up to Red this weekend, it probably won't happen untill we get back to single digit temperatures at night, something that will happen this weekend but it's probably going to warm up over Thanksgiving.  Still it might be a great excuse to get up to JR's and get the house ready to go as I am now predicting that we may not be able to get out on the ice with our wheel houses until the weekend of December 8th.  Not that I am looking for an excuse to stay home however I do have a fishing trip scheduled for December 1st in Savannah, Georgia.  That will provide a nice way to bridge the "Wait for the ice to thicken" verses "not doing anything for the last 2 months."  In the meantime the Salem is pretty much ready to go, I did get the chance to do some re-wiring and added two 120 VAC outlets, one next to my power control center, which will be nice for the aerator for the minnow cooler, as well one in the front closet, now I can keep my  battery operated power tools charged up without having to have them laying around the house.  It turned out very nice!

Nature's stump Grinder!

While waiting for everything to freeze I have been dealing with my seizure issue, which my
neurologist thinks was just a freak deal.  What is interesting is that I have to volunteer this information to the State of Minnesota and not drive for 90 days after the incident.  Like anything the government does, their forms are simply confusing and make no sense.  Of course calling them does little good as one is usually put on hold for 30 minutes then one has to hope you get to talk to a person who actually knows whats the correct process is.  Uffda.  I have already talked to my brother Steve and he is more than willing to drive up to Red this season.   I do have an interesting thing happening in my yard this fall.  Last year one of my prized maple trees died so I basically cut it down leaving about a 2 foot stump standing, with the intent of getting my neighbors stump grinder to finish the job.  Well that hasn't worked as planned as the stump is still there yet it is going through quite a transition.  The stump is getting really punky and a few weeks ago something has been working away at it because the base is simply full of wood chips.  One afternoon I was cleaning up in the garden, near the stump when a very loud squawking noise came from that area.  All of a sudden a very large Pileated Woodpecker landed on the stump and began tearing it up......now it makes sense.  Apparently the stump wood is soft and I assume full of delicious grubs that the woodpeckers find a delicacy.  If you have never seen a pileated woodpecker, they are amazing birds.  Almost the size of a crow, they are quite large with beautiful red feathers on their heads and a loud call to match.  I am sure that the punky condition of the stump makes it an easy job, in fact I have seen 2 on the stump at the same time.  We have had these appear at our suet feeders from time to time however they have seemed to take up a permanent resident, probably until the stump is gone!  Either way they are amazing birds to watch and admittedly if they want to grind up my stump, go for it!!  As well the apple crop wasn't very good this year and a couple of my trees still have lot's of worm infested apples hanging.  Of course this is a smorgasbord for the local deer herd, I counted 9 one night.  Once again, there is no problem if the deer want to clean up those apples that fall on the ground. 

The first Hard Water Sportshow is this weekend at the Blaine Sports Center.  Lory and I will try and attend on Saturday.  The big ice show at the St. Paul Civic Center is the same weekend that I'll be in Savannah offshore fishing.   Maybe there will be time to stop there on the December 2, the day I arrive back in Minneapolis.

Missing Deer Hunting

Ben's first Buck!

Well my situation last week definitely has put a damper on the usual outdoor activities which occur this time of year, namely deer hunting.  Although I have been deer hunting since I was 16, the only time I have missed is when I first moved to Minnesota and really didn't have anything established for the first couple of years.  In 1978 I had already met my good friend Mark Taylor and along with his brother-in-law Tim guzek, and brother Jack, we teamed up with a guy from my work who was from Roseau, MN (10 miles south of the Canadian Border) and began to hunt Minnesota.  Things have changed over the years and Mark doesn't hunt anymore however up to this point I have continued to hunt with Jack and his son Ben, up near their cabin west of Onamia, MN.  We have hunted our old friend Rich Allen's land however it's been getting wetter and wetter over the years as Rich's nephew Brett is now in charge.  Luckily one of Jack's neighbors at the lake has 40 acres southwest of the area, it's driveable and although can be wet, is still more comfortable to hunt.  In the last few years it really hasn't been important to harvest a deer as much as it is to participate in the deer hunting comradery.  Well the one year that circumstances made it impossible for me to hunt, Jack's son Ben shot his first buck.  I would have loved to been there to see his reaction, although I am sure you can tell by that big smile on his face that he was pretty happy.  I look back at my deer hunting experiences and I was probably 23 or 24 before I shot my first deer, here Ben is 14 years old and  has already shot a nice deer, good for him. Ben and Jack are going back up this weekend and are hoping to get back into the high ground on the other side of Rich's swamp, good luck to them.  With a little luck the next few days are supposed to have low temperatures near 10 degrees, enough to possibly create a layer of ice over the swamp and allow an easier access to the stands in the back.  I  guess time will tell!  Good luck and I suspect I'll have to wait till next year to try my luck again.

Freshly frozen salmon fillets!

Tuesday was a great day at work as one of my dearest friends stopped by with a little present for me, a bag of freshly frozen salmon fillets from Alaska.  Keith Holtan and his wife Jane are back in Minnesota for the winter and they came down to the Minneapolis area to meet with someone, as long as they were here they were kind enough to drop off some beautiful Sockeye Salmon fillets as well a couple of smoked salmon chunks that are absolutely delicious!  Keith is a guide on the Kenai and spends the winters in the Brainerd area.  He often comes up to Upper Red Lake, at JR's with me for the early ice walleye fishing.  As well he has a client, Gary Blinn, whom I wrote about on my June 27th post from this year after we met at Lac Seul Outposts this year.  Keith is a really good guy and I would highly recommend him if you want to fish the famous Kenai River in Alaska for salmon.  I also really appreciate his friendship as shown by the fish gift, and I am sure that soon I will be posting of our adventures on the ice.  It is interesting and I am sure I have discussed this before, years ago I talked Keith into buying a chamber vacuum packaging machine for his clients.  It has turned out to be such a popular service that he is now talking about buying a large, double sized unit to do two at a time.  Nothing like taking it to the nth degree!  Either way it's a nice thing for his clients as I understand the process to get your fish vacuum packed and frozen while in Alaska.  I am looking at the weather forecast for Waskish, MN which is on the east shore of Upper Red Lake.  For the next 10 days the daytime temperature will be in the mid 20's and the overnight temperatures will be in that 10 degree range, hopefully enough to start making some substantial ice.  A couple of years ago we were able to drive out on Red Lake on the friday after Thanksgiving.  Hopefully this could be a repeat year for early ice as the Salem is pretty much ready to go!  The next couple weeks will tell the story for sure.  I almost have everything done with the boat for it's long winter's nap.  Interesting but this cold weather, rain, an my extraordinary last weekend put a damper on using the new vacuum system on my lawn tractor.  It will come in handy next spring however.  The next thing on the list is to get a snowblower attachment installed before the real snow comes!  The forecast looks as though it might be pretty soon!

Abrupt Halt

Top left to Right: Neal S, Roger O, Scott B, Jeff K, myself, Dave H, Larry H,
Bottom:  Marilyn E, Kris P,  Joanne M, Kathy S, Diana B. 

Well, last weekend came to an abrupt halt with myself getting hauled to the emergency room via the ambulance and first responders from Dayton.  Although I remember absolutely nothing other than waking up at Mercy Hospital in Anoka being told that there is no room and they were transferring me to their sister hospital, Unity on Osborne and University Avenues in north Fridley, it's still nerve racking either way.  Apparently I was having a seizure on Thursday morning and was doing the proverbial crappie flop in bed, convulsing uncontrollably.  Admittedly this wasn't much fun at all as I bit up my tongue pretty bad and my wife thought I was choking so she put her finger in my mouth to clear any obstruction, that was a big mistake as I about took that off for her!  I did get an MRI of my brain later on Thursday and the verdict is still out whether they found anything however we haven't got that far in the analysis yet!  Either was it is looking like the mild stroke I had a number of years ago finally reared it's ugly self and it is possible the minor damage can cause my electrical system to go haywire, and haywire it did!!!  Either way it has really taken a lot of energy out of my system as I attempt to recover.   Damn, this getting old sure doesn't get along with me very well.  This event has changed my short term plans for deer hunting this year, I am probably going to stick around home and try and get some things done and stay close to my doctors.  I am pretty sure nothing bad would come of my hunting up by Jack's cabin but I would have said that last Wednesday night before I went to bed.  It was quite an experience and unfortunately now I have one more pill to take each day, I feel like a walking pharmacy, I have pills for my type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, anticoagulant, anti-seisure medication, hell, I think I am taking at least 8 pills a day.  I suspect if I could lose about 20 pounds I could get rid of most of them, something I really need to try and do.  I guess I am not getting any younger!!!  With not much going on it probably is a good time to reflect on my 45th year class reunion at the Viking Club House in Strum.  I guess we didn't have the greatest turn out but it was definitely nice to see those that came.  It's a good time to reflect and those that did attend, it was nice to see them.

EZ Lube, Lower Unit Grease dispenser

Well, traditionally this would be deer hunting weekend in Minnesota.  After last weeks events I will skip this years hunt, which is fine with me as deer hunting has become just another excuse to get out of the house.  There is still much to do around the house, leaves need to be picked up, some of the fluids on my outboard need topping off, the garden could use some TLC.  Speaking of outboards, a number of years ago I bought this gear lube dispenser, similar to a standard bug sprayer.  It has an air pump, one puts standard gear lube (lower unit grease) into the tank then pump it full of air.  The hose has a rubber cone that allows you to insert it into the lower unit drain hole then force new gear lube back into the gear case with a minimum amount of effort.  It works absolutely great and makes changing the lower unit grease in your outboard very simple.  Well I thought I lost it a few weeks ago so figuring I needed a new one, it is obvious that the company is no longer in business as their website is down and the phone number is no longer in service.  Luckily I was able to locate mine but it is too bad that this great product is not available any more, meaning I had better take better care of it!  My current outboard, a 250 HP HO Evinrude takes over a quart of lower unit grease and those old pump dispensers that fit on the bottle of lube then you hand pump it out in small increments, takes forever whereas this device is pretty slick, it dispenses quickly and there is little waste of gear lube as well the clean up is fairly quick and easy.  Now I just need to make sure that I know where it is next year!