Sunday, July 29, 2012

Today we all slept in until 8am and did our doctrine around 9am.  We listened to the next communion message.  It was really good.  Then everyone kind of went their separate ways.  Mom, Scott, Hannah, and I played Shanghai Rummy.  Scott kicked our butts and I took last.  In the middle of the game we made grilled cheese and tomato soup.  It was way to hot for soup.  The humidity was terrible.  After everyone had eaten and we quit our game.  We headed out to the shop to see how much Dad and Alan had cleaned up.  They had shoveled rock and filled in a hole and then moved the traveling fishing boat closer to the back corner.  Then they hung Alan’s canoe up since they are leaving soon.  After that Dad said we were going to take the float boat out and jump off of it.  By the time we took off a storm was moving in.  We thought we had time so Mom, Dad, and I jumped off and started swimming back while the plan was for Scott to drive the boat back and swim out to meet us.  But he had to wait for Alan to bring Hannah back on the jet ski.  She was getting ready to jump in and lost her flipper.  It doesn’t float so there wasn’t any hope.  She was very sad.  We got about half way and it really started to thunder so Dad thought we should get back in the boat but we couldn’t figure out what they were doing (found out later they were looking for the flipper).  Mom and I swam hard.  Dad caught a ride part of the way holding onto the jet ski.  By the time we reached the shore, lightening had started and the rain came.  I got hit by something hard and we soon realized it was hail.  I have never seen it hail up here.  It was pretty wild.  We got everything together and secured and ran up to the porch to watch the storm – frantically closing windows in the house.  It was crazy storm.  It was raining and hailing so hard you couldn’t see the island.  The hail was making splashes all over the water.  There was a couple of golf ball sized hail, too.  After the storm, Hannah and I went out and collected some of the bigger pieces that hadn’t melted off.  It doesn’t look like we had much damage to our vehicles or camper which was completely God’s grace.  After the storm, Scott and I went back to the camper and read/napped.  Around 6pm we had grilled chicken and baked potatoes.  Then I went down to the lake to swim but ended up working on scooping up nasty green algae near the shoreline.  I got about four leeches from it which I found on my short kayak excursion.  Mom, Bridget, and Hannah went back to the Olympics.  Dad, Scott, and Alan went Muskie fishing and I was left in charge of the fire by the dock.  I took my kayak to Paradise Island and back as quickly as I could.  Then I picked up some of the kindling around the fire and added it.  After that I took my kayak back out and shaved my legs then finished my bath.  I went and said hi to the girls and had Hannah check me for leeches in case I missed any.  She and I went down and she fixed a s’more by the fire.  Then I rinsed off in the lake and came up to my camper to blog.  There are more storms expected.  Might be kind of scary in our camper!!   

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Today, after our Bible study everyone was tiptoeing around me and being all nice.  I have a pretty wonderful family but it was still pretty awkward.  Dad, Scott, Alan, and Hannah went fishing.  Mom came and visited me in the camper and Bridget had breakfast on the dock in her new chair.  Then mom left to watch some of the Olympics, Bridget too.  They spent most of the day doing that.  I laid around in the camper and read.  Then I fixed some toast and hot chocolate on my camper stove.  Then I did a load of laundry in our new wash machine out in the new room in the shop.  It was wonderful.  When they got back from fishing, we had lunch and saw pictures of their exploits.  Hannah had a cute baby walleye.  Alan had a nice glob of stick bass.  But… Scott had caught a really big northern and they had pictures to prove it.  After lunch, I made a Hannah trailer while Scott worked on his homework.  Then we packed the float boat for dinner on the rock and I thought fishing.  Dad, Mom, Sue Martinsen, Scott, Hannah, and I took the float boat to Connaught Point.  Bob, Jason, Julie, Lennox, and Elliot met us there in their boat.  Alan and Bridget came a little later in the fishing boat.  The weather was beautiful and everyone enjoyed visiting.  After dinner, Scott, Alan, Jason, Hannah, and Lennox went fishing.  Julie, Elliot, and Bob took Bob’s boat home and Dad, Mom, Sue, and I headed home through Canoe Narrows.  It was a lovely boat ride.  I got some loon and eagle pictures and some cool pictures by the Indian Art rocks.  Dad and I unpacked and cleaned up the float boat and took baths.  Bridget and Mom are over watching the Olympics and I’m working on my photographs.

Friday, July 27, 2012

We were supposed to take our kayaks out to the Walleye Hole and someone was supposed to pick us up but Mom and Dad went to Dryden so we waited for them to get back.  Hannah and I read in the camper for the entire morning.  Alan and Scott worked in the shop and Bridget evidently took her bike to the tracks and went blueberry picking.  Hannah and I didn’t even know that she left until Alan came and told us he was taking the four-wheeler thing to see if she was okay.  She ended up picking blueberries for 5 hours!!  Scott and I took off on our kayak excursion.  We went west of Paradise, east of Sunrise and out to the Walleye Hole.  There Scott explored a small part of the shoreline of the island and then fished for walleye.  We took about 5 swipes through the hole and all he caught was a perch but he did lose his bait.  We paddled southeast to the mainland and did a little casting.  I caught a northern but Scott didn’t see it because he was caught on a rock.  By the time he was free, I had flipped the hook so I didn’t have to bring it on my boat.  After casting at little on the shore we cut across to Tivo (Eagle Island) where Scott got out and I got freaked out because it appeared that the vultures and eagles were going to swarm me looking for fish.  I video logged what I thought to be my last minutes on this earth so that there would be proof as to what happened to me but eventually I got far enough away that they lost interest.  I had a meltdown when we returned because we had paddled about seven miles and no one came to get us.  We came in an hour after we had asked them to come get us.  So Dad had found a boat he liked and talked Alan and Hannah into going back to Dryden to look at the boat.  Mom and Bridget had been worried but didn’t have a way to come out and check on us.  After exploding and then crying, I finally pulled myself together confessed and focused on the abundant grace that God has provided me.  As mom pointed out I am exercising a lot and my hormones are probably pretty out of whack from it but it is no excuse for acting the way I did.  I guess I’m not perfect! J After dinner (which I skipped because I needed to soak my muscles in the cold water), Bridget and Hannah went to Jeff’s to watch the opening of the Olympics.  Scott and I went to bed and watched a really stupid movie.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

This morning the thunder and lightening woke us up around 3:20am.  Scott and I closed up most of the camper and listened to the rain until we fell asleep again.  We did doctrine around 8am then Scott, Hannah, and I started our shopping excursion.  It had been raining all morning and was still spitting off and on.  We went to Moose Creek gift shop and then had lunch at Buster’s around 11am.  On our way to Dryden, we stopped and Egli’s Sheep Farm and Hannah and I bought winter hats which actually felt really good since it was so cold and rainy!  After that we hit the public library in Dryden where Hannah found some books for sale, I tried to read but ended up taking a nap and Scott worked on homework.  Jason Colwell walked in with Knox and Elliot.  It was fun to see them, they had not been to the cabin yet but stopped in Dryden to pick up some groceries.  Hannah and I then drove to the gift shop on main.  We walked about three blocks stopping in stores along our way then we crossed the road and checked out a few more stores including the salvation army where Hannah found another kitchen treasure.  About an hour and a half later we picked up Uncle Scott and headed for Walmart where we found a few treasures then headed to Canadian tire to buy some water fins.  After filling up with gas we headed back to the cabin.  Arriving around 6pm, Mom and Bridget had an awesome dinner (pot roast, homemade biscuits, and mashed potatoes).  After cleaning up I took my kayak out to Sunset Island.  On the way back Scott met me on the far side of Paradise and paddled back with me.  It was nice.  I figured I paddled about three miles.  We tried out my fins and took a bath.  Now we are sitting in the camper (kind of cold) working on our computers.  Haha I actually wore my new hat all night too because it was so cold in the camper.  It got down to the fifties.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

We got up around 6:30pm and did BD around 7pm.  Then Dad, Scott, Alan, and Hannah were going to go out walleye fishing.  No one had charged the boat battery so they had to wait 45 minutes for it to charge so we all started working on the shed again.  Dad and Scott finished digging the sewage ditch while Ron Grove supervised.  Bridget worked on putting visquine over the insulated walls.  Hannah and I finished two more electrical boxes and Alan hooked up the electricity and strung the sewage piping.  They finally left for fishing.  Mom and I went to Andy Myers who basically told us they couldn’t fit in our fishing trip now.  Bridget went blueberry picking.  Mom and I then ate lunch and had a nice talk.  After that we kayaked around Paradise Island.  We saw an eagle and a Merganser family.  The fishing crew drove by on their way back.  They hadn’t had much luck fishing except Hannah almost pulled in a big northern but it bit her line off.   Everyone else finished burying the sewage line while Hannah and I played with field guide apps and I caught up on my emails.  Finally, Mom, Hannah, and I went swimming.  We swam almost to Paradise Island.  Then we had dinner with Ron and Dee (Bridget’s homemade corn chowder) and played a couple of hands of shanghai Rummy.  Alan and Scott hooked up the rest of the plumbing.  We now have a wash machine running and the toilet that works.  The only problem is if you want to use it you would have to shut the big shop door, the little shop door, and cover the windows bc the walls aren’t up yet. 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Dramatic morning fishing plans changed three times.  I lost my cool and everyone ended up working most of the morning.  Hannah and I wired the electrical boxes and switches.  Later in the afternoon, she and I took kayak adventure along the west edge from dock to Kulbom’s along the shore to the public boat launch and then back.

July 20-21, 2012 Canada

Friday, July 20 we arrived to the cabin around noon.  It took us most of the afternoon to get unpacked and set up the camper.  Bridget made us burgers and some fish that Paul and Alan had caught.  

Saturday, July 21 the cement truck pulled in right on time at 8am and we all went out to pour part of the floor in the shop.  Alan had all of the pipe laid so we could put in the electrical and plumbing later next week.  In the afternoon, Hannah, Paul, Scott, and I took to the lake.  Paul did a reenactment of last year's Water Sumo Boy and then we all swam part of the way to the island.  When we got back Nana had come down to the lake so Hannah and I went back out swimming with her.   Hannah had on fins and was flying through the water.  She could outrun any muskie!  We headed in to pack for dinner at Connaught Point.  Alan, Scott, and Paul took off fishing around 5pm and the rest of us packed the pontoon boat for a hot dog roast and took off, Hannah at the wheel.  When we got there Dad, Hannah, and I jumped out and scouted a place to get to the rock.  I pulled the pontoon along the beach and into some weeds then dad decided to go back to the other side so everyone else got back in and moved the boat while I took the kayak around the peninsula.  Ron and Dee arrived about then so after they got the boats settled I pulled up the kayak.  I ended up with two leeches probably from walking thru the weeds.  We had a beautiful night and Paul and Alan even caught a couple of walleyes.  There was a baby deer swimming across from Boat Island to Canoe Island.  I was sure it was a baby moose so Paul and I jumped in the kayak and chased it.  He got the pictures on his iPhone but I haven't seen them yet.  When we got back after we we took baths and Paul wanted to play Shanghai Rummy.  We played to rounds pretty much all slap happy.  Paul said we couldn't quit until he won and it was eleven o'clock so I fed him players for two rounds so he would win and we could all go to bed.