Hopin' to not be sick by Monday.....

 Yep, still fighting a summer cold, I do however think I am winning. This week since I am trying to get better I stayed home all but Tuesday. When I went and scouted with a buddy for my dove draw on Monday. The sunflowers looked

Sorry... forgot to start with the rose bush pic

It is growing like crazy, I'm just not sure if I'm going to get a rose this year or not... 

back to what I was saying... 

terrible this year, through no fault of DNR. They had to postpone the planting because of wet weather by 2-4 weeks. They didn't have time to mature, so there are very few good sunflower heads, the other part is they are still green, by this time of the year they should be brown and ready for harvest. So that being said I'm not thinking this will be a good dove year.

So to use my time wisely this week I pulled the boat out and reorganized my fishing rods... mainly because I bought a couple more.🤷

This is probably the most organized I've been in.... well, a while.

Since I am forecasting the dove season to be nonexistent, I should be able to get up to Lake Michigan and maybe catch some salmon. 

Never would've thought....

 So, I'm guessing that I, along with alot of people own crocs. I never really wore mine that much. I usually only put them on to go outside or into the garage for a minute. Until recently that is, in the past couple weeks I have wore them to cut up a couple trees, yard work, fishing, and get my tree stand ready for deer season. And I gotta admit I love these things, they're comfortable and rugged. I once heard the holes in crocs is where your dignity drains out, and that might be true, but my feet love being in them. 

Alright back to this week...

Rose pic...

Lotta new growth, still hopeful to get a rose before fall.

 

I went fishing on Erie this week.... it did not go well.

I tried to pick the best day with least wind and least chance of rain, I failed on both. I did get to the launch and my kicker was still attached to the boat.

Super happy about that. 

I looked at the lake and it didn't look too bad, so I launched the boat. I headed East towards the SE side of Kelly Island. I noticed it was a little rough but not too bad. I finally made it to my starting point and deployed my rods. The whole experience felt like I was in a washing machine. The waves were very confused in that the main rollers were out of the NE and the 15 mph wind was out of the SW then with Catawba Island and Kelly they were just bouncing every which way. I kept an eye on the West because that's which way the storm was suppose to be coming in from, and when I did see it I pulled my rods and headed to the launch. 

Yep that sucked, it took me a minute to get this cleaned up.

Really my tackle box falling was the worse thing that happened to me.... I did get drenched when the storm hit and the boat wasn't buttoned up yet. Then yesterday I started coming down with a cold.... but as far as the boat... It ran great and did very well in the bigger waves.

This week

 Rose bush progress pic...

 OK, I got all the gear that was stowed on my last boat loaded and ready to go on the new one. I got the motor mounted🤞, connected to the battery and gas on board, ready to go. I got all my tools off the boat and ready to launch. I've been watching both big ponds wondering which will be my first to hit this year. 

Reports were so so on Lake Michigan and worse on Lake Erie, so not really sure which will be first. I guess it will kinda depend on if I can round up a first mate and where he wants to go 🤷. 

Anyway, kinda feelin' done😞 with this summer and just realized that hunting season is only a couple weeks away 👏👍😁. 

So we'll see what happens next....

drum roll please.....

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls... The fish are no longer safe.

I finally got the boat out for the second  maiden voyage, and I gotta say this one went much better for me. 

 For him on the other hand, not so much. I had talked to him at the dock a little bit, he was launching right behind me. Apparently he just bought this boat a month ago and first time out it overheated. He had the water pump replaced, this was the first time out after that and halfway across the lake the hot buzzer started going off again. Unfortunately none of the other boaters on this basin could be bothered to help. I mean, I understand it's hard to recognize that a fellow boater on a lake, that's adrift with the engine compartment up, might need help. 

I hope this marks up at least 10 warm and fuzzy Karma points for me. 

 

Anyway, the boat ran great, it's top speed was 36mph, 9 mph faster than my last boat that had a 120. It also rode like a dream, it felt like a tank but didn't handle like one if that makes sense. 

Super happy right now with the boat.

I'll get it loaded and rigged next week and am tentatively looking to make the first fishing trip of the year the week after. 

 

Rose bush progress..

I had a little bug infestation that I noticed last week and hit it with 7 dust, which by the way works like a dream. After the dusting the growth started again and it's doing much better.

 

Well, nothing more to rep....

 

Life lesson: when you open the fridge and notice the last bit of watermelon that is cut into Jeff size chunks is past it's consumable phase of life, but you're too lazy to walk it out and dump it in the woods, so you decide to treat it like a dead goldfish, make sure you at least squish it up a little, or you will have to wait til the stores open the next day so you can go get a snake to work the blockage through the maze of toilet and piping before it's sent on it's way. 

 

PS- If you have a house you should already own a snake.....