My summer vacation

I've never worked so hard for something I didn't want... the sale of my Uncle Ricks cabin.😭 I took 2 weeks this year and traveled to "The Great White North" to help Rick with the clean up of his cabin.

 We arrived at the cabin Tuesday afternoon and got everything opened up and turned on, genie started and charging batteries, got unloaded and ready for the next 2 weeks.

Wednesday morning...

Task #1- Load up and go to the dump

Since the dump was only open on Wednesday's from noon to 5 we scrambled to get the underside of the upstairs cleaned out and made a trip to the dump, with a full truck load and sketchy trailer. I wish I would've gotten a pic of that convoy but didn't think about it at the time. Sketchy trailer hasn't left the property in 25 years also the deck and tires are the originals. We loaded enough backed siding to side the cabin and downstairs on sketchy trailer, strapped it down and started off for the dump at only 35 miles an hour. Fortunately for us the dump wasn't that far and the traffic wasn't that bad. On the way we saw a ruffed grouse on the road and a decent sized bear at the dump.

 

 Task #2- Shore up the downstairs.

On the way back we went to the quarry and got a truck bed of rocks to bring down.

We had to get rocks for the footings for the downstairs so it doesn't just erode and topple into the lake.

We didn't worry so much about the one underwater but the others that were out of the water got their fair share of rocks to stop the waves from further erosion.

Before

(i.e.- my sleeping quarters) 

This was my view every morning

 After the rock chore we drove to black bear and bought our fishing licenses. 👍😀

 The next task was to finish getting the rest of the stuff from under the cabin removed and brought up to the upper landing ready for the next dump day.

We loaded the truck here then moved it up past the outhouse. Then used the wheeler and sketchy trailer to haul it up from under the cabin to the landing.

 

Little break in the action we went out fishing Thursday morning. The fishing wasn't really slow more so we were fighting for keepers, lota dinks.

My biggest for the day was a 19.

 Ricks was a 21.

 Friday I left a little early Rick was going to go fishing and we were going to go at 8:30 so since I get up early I loaded up the boat and went casting for pike off Moose. Well, I ended up loosing a 15.00 lure and had to respool my reel, it really was quite the fiasco. So I get back a little late and Rick is already at the launch, he woke up early and "fixed" the dock so it would be easier for us. So Rick put on his boots that he left down on the dock, got in the boat and off we went to catch breakfast. We no more than get 100 yards from shore and he says there's something crawling on me. He pulls his boot off and realizes he's got ants on his socks and crawling up his leg. So what does he do??? he picks up his boot and shakes it out in the boat, where the rest of the colony was hiding. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time just watching him kill ants with his feet all while motoring out to the fishing spot. 

Awesome...

Notice he isn't wearing his boots still... I caught a sauger it's kind of a smaller cousin of the walleye. We always catch some, but we caught a bunch of them this year.

 Saturday morning:

 The next project on the agenda would be completing the Rick and Beth's bedroom in the tongue and groove that we brought up from the barn in Int'l Falls. We worked on this for the next couple days. 

It turned out pretty good.

 We did still manage to get out and fish a little, and swat a load of mosquitos, they were terrible this year.

This was my first smally and pike of the trip.

Yep they were small but I was in Canada and I was casting so all is good.

 Another toss back 19", in Canada there's a slot size that is keepable anything too small or too big goes back.

We did eat fish every morning.😋

 We worked on the upstairs for the next couple days, we worked and fished.

This inline spinner was awesome it caught it all, I was trying to catch pike.

hungry smally

21" walleye

Small Pike

Wednesday we made three trips to the dump because Rick didn't want to use sketchy trailer. 

 I got out just after the dump runs and fished off Moose, I caught the biggest small pike of the trip.

This is my redneck livewell in action

It wasn't a huge pike but he was fun, I cut this outing a little short because there was weather moving in.

 When we went out to fish that evening Rick was on fire. He caught a 19 1/2, 20 and the biggest of the trip 24" walleye.

And I caught the smallest fish... a Sauger

Just a brief break in the weather and then time to head in.

The island on the left in the background is Moose it is my favorite place to fish because of the large pike. This year it was almost completely underwater and seemed like the pike didn't want to hang out there. 

This is Moose during the day..

This was a couple years ago...

Anyway... back to it..

 

Thursday we didn't get out because of the weather, 4' rollers were coming in from the West. This is the day we lost the solar and 5 batteries off the dock, they were holding the dock down.

So since there was no fishing for Thursday we decided to go into town to resupply. Beth was at the cabin the whole time until Thursday, she came into town and stayed at the barn in the RV while we went back out to the cabin.

Momma Ruffed Grouse

One of the 7 baby grouse

The next couple of days kinda went like this windy, rainy, bumpy, caught some fish. We also got the cabin weedwacked, moved the dock over to the bay in the south, and lopped a bunch of small pine on the hillside. 

nice crappie

for some reason there were alot of snakes this year

This is Rick untying the dock getting ready for the big move.

This is after the move and the dock is secured until the water comes down.

It didn't take that long to get the dock tied up, it did take me going into the water a couple times to secure the inshore lines. It wasn't too deep or too cold, after initially getting your package in, it was a hot day so it didn't feel too bad.

We moved the dock on Sunday which only left us until Tuesday morning.

Monday I got out to Moose for some casting then headed over to the bay for a minute. 

 Found this little guy swimmin' in the bay so I picked him up and brought him in with me.

I went to one of the close walleye spots and caught a keeper for breakfast. Went in and ate finished week whacking the lower part of the cabin. Got stuff ready to go back and waited for the wind to die a little before we could go out....

The wind finally died out but it was the proverbial calm before the storm. We loaded up and headed out to the same spot I caught the walleye in the morning. We only made it fishing about 20 minutes before we had to head in, we each caught one rock bass.

It was a little bumpy getting back in. The wind hit first and boy did it hit, if you can see behind the boat you can make out the white caps, and the wind throwing the wake over itself. This was a super crazy storm and by the time we got back to the cabin the waves were like this.

This is the only section of dock we left so we had a place to park the boat. It didn't take too long and the rain came in.... we lost the cable and ended up playing cribbage until it was time to go to bed. 

FYI Rick won 3 I won 1 not too bad considering I haven't played cribbage in I don't know how many years.

I went fishing the next morning for a little bit after I got the water out of the boat.

I actually caught a walleye, a pike and a bass on that inline spinner that I already posted. So I headed back to the cabin and we packed up all our gear. Almost all my gear, I forgot my shoes which were in the bow of the boat, not too bad. We headed back to Int'l falls, went out to eat at Border bar pizza with Jessie and Brynn. Headed back to the RV took a shower and bedded down in the barn for the night.

 

Side notes:

I watched a small spider on the gunnel of the boat jump and catch a small fly. Cool

I saw a dock spider in the outhouse (I know) ...catch a mosquito and eat it. Really Cool

Stuff I broke on this trip:

25 year old pair of scissors, in my opinion they needed broke.

Pulled the positive end of on OHM meter.

Broke a transducer off the bottom of the boat when I put it on the dock. Fortunately it was not the one we needed.

 

Wednesday I was South bound on HWY 53 headed for Cloquet.

When I got home we did the usual went to Duluth hit the outdoor stores. Hung a bunch of crap for my Mom, Dad didn't have a tree to plant but I did rattle can one of his shotguns for him. I'll have to get a pic when I go home in September. I really did run out of time this trip, I needed to put his flat top grill together and I didn't. Mom had some lighting that I didn't get put together, and a couple items for the yard that didn't get done. I got some stuff done but felt bad about the stuff I didn't get accomplished. Hopefully it will be waiting for me when I get home in Sept. 

Anyway Mom and Dad and I made it out to my Uncle Reg's cabin for a fun filled day of fishing and supper.

This was a couple days after Dad's angiogram and he wasn't allowed to use his right hand. All the fish he caught were handed off to either me or Reg to reel in. 

He was able to reel in his perch.

Dad's Bowfin aka dogfish

Reg almost had a coronary when I put this largie back.

 The next fishing adventure is with my cousin Corey, he had bought a new Lund last year and was itchin' to show it to me. We ended up hitting one of the lakes close to the house. The wind came up and we got rained on but we did end up catching a couple fish.

Caught the sunny draggin' bait

We did some casting and he had the colors they wanted. 

When we were done Corey went up and got the truck and trailer while I held the boat at the dock. When he got it backed in I got in the boat and whipped it around and ran it up on the trailer. I thought he was going to shit himself, after a few minor adjustments we were on our way. Sorry Corey forgot about the power load prohibition.😁

BTW nice boat.

Finally the big lake settled down enough to get out for and afternoon/evening fish. This was the first time Jacee made it out with Dave, Pete and myself. It was a nice day we ended up catching a decent grillin' laker.

Jacee saw the bite and manned the rod to boat this beast. 

The other fish was a barely legal coho that I actually reeled in, sorry no pics.

It was a good day visiting with everyone and we caught fish too.

Here are a few other pics I got while I was home.

how much rain did we get last night?

Shoot, looking at that I remember IN was at 4.89 and I think were now at that or less. 😊

Mom's finally lost it.

Jason's grow....

And just like that the vacation came to an end. 

There was nothing left to do but head home..... and an hour into Wisconsin this happened.

The tread blew off my tire taking the passenger front quarter panel with it. So I changed the tire and rolled onward to IN.

When I got home I fixed the car with a little duct tape and paracord.

Then I really fixed it.

Oh Yeah, good for another 200k.

THIS WEEK: Well, last week the starter went out on the big motor so I got one of them ordered. I also put enough 7 Dust in the eve's of the house to kill every wasp in a 5 mile radius. I haven't seen one today. 

Worth it. 🙌

I got the starter off the boat motor, put my new bike tires on my bike. Ordered a holder for my Minnkota remote, and ordered some lures from a place in MN let'cha know how they work. Put the inner on the inside of the "new" fender. Went to the laundromat to do my work gear and bedding. Still gotta do some sewing and foodsaving some frozen meat, make sammiches, get work clothes ready.

By then it will be time for work again. 😞

Unless I hit the mega this week. 😁