Boat Lunch

72 degrees, no humidity, a light breeze, sandwhiches and tea are the perfect makings of an afternoon on the lake for 'boat lunch'.
We thought that perhaps the sunnies would be spawning and we might be able to pick a few up but it was such a nice day that actually catching a fish was second on my list. I was just anxious to spend a few hours on a calm little lake.
As it turns out the fish are spawning and we caught 29 sunnies. After our first few we decided that we would throw anything back that was not as bog, or bigger than our hand. I think we threw only a couple back as they were all big fish. I have not caught sunfish this size in forever.

David and his fly rod pulled in the most fish

I and my bobber pulled in my share as well.It was a great day on the lake having boat lunch and catching fish.

No New Sightings

I have the camera on the tripod ready and waiting for our bear to pose but since I am ready for him of course he is no where to be seen...despite my lure of strawberries strategically placed by the pond! So I have had to entertain myself with deer. Despite the bear in the woods the deer continue to come to the mineral lick. What we noticed on this one was the black nose, that does not seem as prominent in this picture. And as I zoomed him in, the ribs were showing. Must have been a hard winter.
This momma came in with her still spotted fawn.
We have been fishing on a few good weather days believe it or not. David caught a nice big 20 1/2 inch walleye that needed to be thrown back as on Leech Lake you cannot keep walleye between 18 and 22 inches. He caught another that we did keep....no pictures however. Now we need about three more for a meal!

Since we are not catching fish I have been, as usual, in the garden.
This is my newest minimal maintanence spot. Filled with 'garden art' and annuals in pots.And this was my first bloom, looking very nice in the 'Grandpa Ott' garden. This luminesent plant is blooming right beside Lenny's first trike that is now being used for garden art. I wish I knew the name of this plant. I promised my friend Mary that I would be better about marking all of my plants this year!

WOW

All I can say is wow and all David can say...over and over again is..."That is a big f---ing bear, that is a big f---ing bear"!

We have been seeing lots of paw prints on our walking path in our woods and the dogs have been doing a lot of sniffing when we walk and Peeko has been getting a little skittish when he goes out at night...AND our garbage was torn up this morning as it sat at the end of the driveway waiting for the garbage man.

Tonight at 9:30 I was sitting on the couch knitting, David was in the kitchen getting us a yogurt and I heard him say what I thought was, "Deer, deer" and I thought big f-ing deal we see deer all of the time. I looked up at him and his mouth was hanging open and then I realized he was saying, "Bear, bear!"

Yup there he was down by Tackla's pond, a very big bear at that and black as can be. We watched him go into the woods closest to the house. He sort of hung out there for awhile. I of course did not have my camera handy, had it in the camper for our trip to Nicollet tomorrow. Because the camper is parked close to the house I braved going out and got it. I then stumbled around trying to hurriedly get my tripod set up. The big ole bear once again trotted out of the woods to Tackla's pond. Trying to get that damned tripod up when I want to do it quickly just does not work! Our big bear ambled across the grass and began going into the woods behind the house. Out on the back porch I went and said to the bear, "Hey where are you going I want a picture of you". He turned and curiously looked up at me standing there on the porch with no gun in hand only a camera! I did get this picture but because it was almost totally dark it is not good. However you can get the idea of the size of this fella!

David has been bear hunting and has actually shot a bear (will never do it again by the way as it is a waste to hunt anything for trophy only). Anyway this is the biggest bear that he has ever seen. Yup folks he is big. I will no longer be going into our woods without David and his trusty gun. I would carry it myself but I am sure if I were confronted by this fella I would probably freeze. I would probably be better with camera in hand.....

Wow wow wow.

I am sure he will be back and I am not going to take that damned tripod down for no reason. I will be ready next time mr big ass bear!

This n That

It's been awhile since my last post. I have spent my time playing in the dirt and no Mary I am not yet done planting. One would think I should be done after all of this time but I still have some space left.
Plants are slowly popping through the mulch. I have held off (until yesterday) planting my vegetables because it has been dropping to the 30s at night.
Here it is my boat gardenAnd the new plot behind the boat garden
David did take me fishing one day (or as Jess calls it, dragging a bobbin around the lake). But this is the kind of crappy weather he takes me fishing in! Not much fun and as usual no fish in the boat much less on our lines.
On day we looked out at one of our many new trees and saw seven cardinals perched in it. The birds and butterflies love this tree.
I have put out an oriole feeder which the hummingbirds flock to. Here are a couple of shots of one in the nearby treeHe blends in quite well with the leavesTomorrow we are headed to the Leonard campsite to help our friend Chrissy celebrate her 40th birthday and of course to spend some time with little Julia....expect pictures!

Fish Report

I caught the first (and my only) fish and David caught the biggest (and the most) fish. 'The most' wasn't many, seven in fact but it was fun.

Since the fishing wasn't the best my camera came in handy. I got some gorgeous sunset pictures.

Great cloud structure

Fishing and looking at his surroundings. The river is a fabulous place with something new to look at around each bend.

We cruised by these vultures, one with his wings spread wide. It took a minute to realize that they were in fact real (we thought someone had carved them) and were sunning themselves.

Around another bend this colorful mallard on just as colorful water.

A nesting pair spooked by our boat.

We spied these newly hatched goslings. If you look closely at the little one on the right you can see the egg that he just hatched out of.

And their first swim I am sure.

We are now home to weeds and a lawn the needs mowing.

Our nimble footed friend Jan is doing very well. She has had surgery and is on the mend. Lenny figures that she needs to learn the 'tuck and roll' maneuver. Good luck with that Jan!

Our Day

Told around pictures of the Missouri River, Lake Sharp, where we have been camping and fishing and spending time with our friends.

The plan this morning was for Mikey and Jan to go to 8:30 church and we were going to make brunch when they returned.

A yummy brunch of pancakes, bacon and eggs.

At about 11am Mikey comes driving up saying that they will not make brunch as Jan is in the hospital. She fell after church and hurt her arm.

I went with Mikey to the hospital to find Jan in horrible pain. She had dislocated her right elbow (yup she is right handed!) so badly that the ER doc had never seen another like it. She also managed to break the femur that goes from the thumb to the elbow right at the elbow...again, the docs had not seen a break so bad.

Because it is imperative for Jan to see a specialist ASAP once she got out of the ER (and loaded full of morphine) her and Mikey packed up the motorhome and headed back to the Mankato area to see an orthopedic surgeon this week. Now they can tow either their car or their boat behind their motorhome so I was going to drive their car back for them. Rather than to cut our week short they were so kind as to leave us their boat and their vehicle so that we are able to continue to fish for a few days hopefully catching some fish! When we go back I will take both their boat and their vehicle back. Oh such is life. Poor Jan we are thinking of you and hope all goes well tomorrow.

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

And am I ever glad as it was not easy to keep this secret! Our friends Mikey and Jan who are full time RVers have been wishing that we were able to join them on their travels. Well we gave them a big surprise yesterday when we pulled in beside them with our mobile home. And here she is sitting at our pit stop site, Lenny and Kel's campground.
I couldn't post this on yesterday's entry because we wanted to surprise Mikey and Jan. And surprise them we did. Here is Jan when she realized that it was in fact David driving the truck pulling the 5th wheel.And the two of them with their surprise apparent.As we drove in, they were expecting us but not sure when. They had been saving a spot for us to park our little pick up camper in and were looking for it to be driving up. When the 5th wheel came in Mikey said that it looked like David's truck but wasn't because it was not with the pop up camper. They finally realized that yes it was us when David got out of the truck and walked up to their home! Here we are in our first 'real' campsite guided in by master camper Mikey.
Here we are inside our mobile hotel at our first dinner in it. Jan however did all of the cooking as she was expecting us in our little pick up camper that we are not able to cook in much less sit in to eat a meal! Oh and did I mention that our traveling companion Loi is with us?We are in a great spot in Pierre SD on the river. I will post more pictures once we get out on the water.

Our mobile hotel has a living room in the rear with two slides, one on either side. The couch and dinette slides out as does the TV area. We have a kitchen area across from the dinette then up two steps to the bathroom and our bedroom. We have a bump out in the bedroom as well. A very nice mobile hotel indeed.

A Pit Stop

We are on our way to South Dakota to join our friends Mikey and Jan for a week of good (?) walleye fishing. However we made a pit stop in Nicollet beforehand once again staying at Len and Kel's so that I could go to my regular oncology appointment.
this appointment included a chest x-ray and blood work. The doc gave me a little scare when he told me that the x-ray showed a shadow in the lower left lobe. Now I was sure that it was nothing although I had lost some weight (I have been working on that buttttttt) and of course I had that danged flu and cough for forever so it got the mind to wandering. I had to redo the x-ray and they called me this morning to tell me that the only thing in there is my lungs. A huge sigh of relief!
On to way more fun and interesting (at least to a grandma) stuff. Lenny asked me to get some pictures of their house as all of the trees are flowering and the house looks very nice. It was so windy tho that I was lucky any flowers were left on the trees!
The wind blowing the topsoil off of the field

One of the many flowering trees
And an Oriole enjoying the nectar of the flowers
Little Julia has pink eye and those teeth are still trying to come. Despite not feeling well she is still full of smiles and is such a joy.

Laying on Momma's legs
Not only does she find her own feet fascinating

But her momma's as well
Checking out the new/upgraded car seat. In no time flat she will be big enough to sit in this one facing the front. Well i t may be a while before is able to face front but she can use this more comfortable seat soon.
We are almost to Pierre and hoping to catch some nice big walleye. Update to follow and oh it will be an update to be sure. You will understand what I mean when I next post.

On This Very Special Day

I want to honor three very special mothers.
Kelly and Jen are celebrating their very first official Mother's Day. And Rachel, being the seasoned mom of the bunch, is celebrating her second official Mother's Day.
Happy Mother's Day Kel, Jen and Rachel. May this be a special day for you always. May your daughters always know how wonderful it is to have their moms and appreciate what you do for them.
Of course there will be times I suspect that you will drive them crazy but they will always love you.
Enjoy your day.
And a happy mom's day wish to the most seasoned mom, momma Loi. Can you imagine poor Loi raising David??? He and his brother Ron are only a year apart and were the first born kids. Loi does have some tales to tell.

I have to admit that I have been feeling a bit blue as I found myself missing my mom with Mother's Day slowly approaching. Mom was a special lady not only as a mom but as a grandma, an aunt, a sister, a friend and just all around person. As a life long drinker and smoker she made me so proud when she quite both. No easy task for someone who had been doing both all of their life. David and I were incredibly lucky to have her (and my Aunt Etta) travel with us for many years. As a single parent I don't know what I would have done without her support and love. And guess what, as I type this my mood changes from blue to not so blue as it helps to think of the good things and I have just done that. I am so appreciative to have had the mom that I did and I cherish every day that we had together....even when she drove me nuts!!!! HA I am now smiling and laughing thinking of the days.......

Yesterday as David, the dogs and I were walking in the woods we noticed that they are beginning to wake up here in the north land. Pictures to share
And of course Tack found a water hole. She will be 14 this October. I swear the swimming has kept her alive and as healthy as she is at her ripe old age.David has put up bluebird houses that the bluebirds quickly found. Yesterday this hawk found it as well. He did no damage just sat for a bit looking for a mouse I am sure.

Happy Anniversary

Lenny and Kelly celebrate two years of marriage today. Enjoy your day you two, we love you and are proud of you.

So the other day as we were driving out of the driveway we had an eagle about a block away perched in a tree. Out came the camera and I walked right up to the tree that he was in. Because I have loads of 'eagle in a tree' pictures I wanted to get him in flight. I patiently waited and he did take off. Click click...oop no more clicks what the hell...he flew right in front of me-I could have reached out and touched him- and my camera froze up (this is no fish tale folks, David is my witness). It turns out that my battery was about as dead as it gets. I was able to get a couple of shots however. This is the one right before he swooped in front of me...and right before my camera froze. Such is life.
My friend Mary will soon have no lawn to mow as she increases her flower beds every year. Well Mary I have put in three additional garden spots in the past three days. My tiller and I get along fabulously but our land is much bigger than your yard. I really do need to stop tilling sometime soon! Pictures of the beds as soon as it warms up up here and things decide to grow and bloom.

The Last Of The 50's

Yup David is 59. The next one will be the big 60. Happy birthday dear husband of mine. The 60's will be every bit as good as the 50's have been!

Yesterday Loi and Kelly brought Dezbah and Rachel up for a short visit.
Here she is in a Barbie Jeep that David found (yes he found and reported it to the sheriff) in the ditch. We have kept it for the grand kids. Dezbah seemed to like it and she wasn't a bad driver either!

Dezbah and her grandpa
And her and her great grandma who she obviously likes just a little...or a lot!
And with Peeko
It was a nice visit. Thanks to Kelly and loi for bringing Dezbah and Rachel up.