The Sleep-over, God's great gift

I am preparing to make another trip out to California this summer, 2011 so I thought I better get caught up a little from my last several visits out there.





My latest trip was in March and April, 2011. I had purchased a small camper trailer-sight unseen- before I made the trip. My son-in-law, Scott picked the trailer up for me and towed it to a friend's place where they were gracious enough to let me store it. I had my daughter take some pictures of it and send them to me so I would know what to expect when I got out there. While she was taking photos, my grandson, Danny, was wandering around inside and as my daughter say it, "His little wheels were turning overtime as he was deciding just where all the electronics like TV, game consoles, etc. would go". He was heard saying things like, "Papa could cut a hole in this cupboard and mount the TV so I could lay here in bed and work my games." He was full of ideas and when I heard about it, I sent him a letter inviting him to have a sleep-over with me when I got out there and he could explain all his ideas to me. In no time at all, I got a return letter from him saying that he had talked it over with his parents and it would be fine for us to do that.





On sleep-over day, Danny packed his clothes and tooth brush etc. and armed himself with a backpack of DVDs. He planned out enough DVDs so that we would have to stay up to at least midnight. Well, it was a good plan anyway!! So after supper and a walk around the country side, we folded the table down and made up his bed. We actually did watch quite a few movies but I was a little surprised when decided it was time to go to sleep.






The fold down table bed was just right for him as another movie put us to sleep. We both slept like logs but Danny did mention the next morning that he thinks he heard something in the middle of the night that sounded like snoring. I wonder what that could have been?

We were both very refreshed in the morning so another DVD was in order to be viewed along with breakfast. I cooked up his favourite breakfast - well, I guess I'm not sure if it was his favourite or not but it sure is mine - PANCAKES! With real butter, pure maple syrup, and a big glass of orange juice, what could be better. I'm just glad that Danny used pure maple syrup instead of ranch dressing.

But then, that's another story............

IT'S IN!!!

I wasn't going to do a garden again this year even though we always did gardening of some kind for as long as I can remember. For the last several years I have kept the (small but very productive) garden plot tilled so it would be weed-free and ready to plant. This year I realized that I would be traveling again this summer so even though the plot was ready, I wouldn't be around to tend it.

Then the thought hit me....A friend of mine in town does a lot of gardening. He has plots all over town and even outside of town. I approached him with the idea that since my garden was tilled and ready to go, would he want to plant it and tend it? He jumped at the opportunity and came over with seeds and plants and put it in. That was several weeks ago and he has since been over a time or two to do some weeding. It is doing real well as we speak. There might even be some produce for me to feast on upon my return later on this summer. I can hardly wait!!!

DUCK!!! Here comes a flock of them!!!

I have been having trouble with my computer for many weeks now being unable to upload photos to this blog. I seem to have resolved some of the issues so here I go again with some up-to-date posts for those of you who are interested.

This picture is one that I took on one of my early morning walks about three weeks ago, around the beginning of June, 2011. Even though I usually walk the same couple of routes everyday, I always like to look around at the beauty that God has given us though his wonder of nature. If you look, you will see. With all the rain we had this spring, a section of ditch along the road going north out of town collected a lot of water and held that water for a long time. I had noticed earlier, a pair of Blue-Winged Teals swimming in the ditch but this day I noticed a little more activity. Sure enough! Extra splashing and extra quacking! As I approached, Mama Duck started quacking for her little ones to "gather around and follow me".

I did not have my camera with me so I decided that an extra mile to the house and back wouldn't hurt me so off I went. Upon my return to the ditch, I actually came up too fast and startled Mama. What followed was one of the most exciting things that I have experienced from all my excursions of watching nature. Mama Duck instantly flew up out of the ditch, quaking her head off, and landed right at my feet. She then proceeded to flop wildly around on the road right by my feet with one of her wings hanging out to one side as if it were broken. What did I do?!! Did I do something to cause her to injure herself? What can I do to help her get back to her babies? In all the excitement I realized what she was up to. A diversion. She wanted me to think that she was injured so I would go after her and leave her babies alone. All this time I was trying to do what Karen would have done if she had been there. Talk soothingly to Mama and encourage her gently to go back to her babies. Finally, when Mama realized that that I wasn't going after her or her little ones, she gathered her wits about her and quietly slipped back into the water and over to her babies. They quickly lined up behind her as if Mama was taking roll call and with all of them quacking away, they swam in circles and all eventually calmed down. Oh, I better quick take a picture:
Isn't nature wondeful??

SUNDOG

Do you know what a SUNDOG is?? It is one of God's most beautiful creations and wonders. When my nephew Mark invited me to Minnesota in February, 2010 to go ice fishing, we picked a day which happened to be one of the coldest days of the month. It's a full day's drive to Mille Lac Lake, MN so I left Butte at sun rise. The temperature was twenty degrees below zero. When I reached the highway just out of town I saw it!! The sun was just breaking the horizon, and the sky was clear as a bell. Did I have my camera with me? Yes! Pull over and take a picture before it is gone! Could it have been a better composition? Not with that windmill right in front of the rising sun!

A Sundog is made with prism shaped ice crystals, otherwise known as "diamond dust" that are floating in the atmosphere. That alone is enough to describe the phenomenon that the viewer is about to see. It must be extremely cold for a Sundog to form so the minus 20 degree temperature of this day, along with the clear sky, was a perfect combination as the sunrise happened. The prism shaped ice crystals reflect the sun's rays and create the beauty that we see below. I have seen several Sundogs since living here but this one was truly the clearest and most profound one yet. This is another advantage of living in a very cold climate. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I wish that everyone could experience one first hand. Thank you, God, for your wonderful creation.

Minnesota Ice Fishing, Feb. 2010

Minnesota had at least as much snow as we did here in North Dakota but they seem to keep their lakes more accessible. They do have more lakes (10,000 at last count) and more people to use them so most lakes have roads plowed on them so one can get around. Mille Lacs, near Brainerd, MN is one of those that plows roads on the lake. Mille Lacs is Minnesota's second largest lake at just over 200 square miles of surface area and averages 40 feet in depth. My nephew, Mark, invited me to come to MN for an ice fishing adventure since I was not able to do much fishing here. It was a great experience and an opportunity to see what ice fishing in Minnesota was all about.

Since there are more people using the lakes in MN, you see more of a community of fishing shanties on the lakes. This trip was in February of 2010 and normally you would see a larger Shanty Town than this but with the severe winter, fewer people ventured out.
Once we got my fish house set up, it was off to drilling holes and getting the rigs ready to fish. The walleye bite was a little off when we were there but we did have good success with perch. What could be better than fishing with all the comforts of home?

One day it was so nice that Mark drilled a hole outside and soaked up the warmth of the sun's rays. I think the air temperature was -10 at the time.

Sunset on the snow drifts of Mille Lacs lake. It was a great week of fishing.

Ice Fishing '09-'10

The past three winters ('08-'09, '09-'10, and '10-'11) have seen snowfall of epic proportions. So much, in fact, that it has been nearly impossible to get onto the lakes because of snow drifts at the access points as well as the amount of snow on top of the lakes makes driving impossible. Each year I have been able to go out early in the season (as soon as the ice is thick enough) and start what I think and hope will be a full season of ice fishing. This picture is my first or second trip to Cottonwood Lake in December, 2009. The ice was close to three feet thick already and the conditions for getting around on it were excellent. I thought that I was in for a great ice fishing season!

The fishing is always good on Cottonwood and I usually catch my limit of Northerns right away. The Game and Fish Department has been working at building up the perch and walleye population as well. Even though it is more fun to reel in a huge 32 inch long northern, the perch are worth it too, especially when they hit the frying pan.

On this particular fishing trip my intention was to spend at least several days, if not a week, in my fish house and take advantage of the quiet and solitude of being out on the ice and having the lake all to myself. I spent one night out there and the next day the weather report started talking about a blizzard coming in. The afternoon of the second day it hit. It certainly was a good thing that I decided to come back home because if I had stayed out there, I would never have been able to get off the lake. Snow drifts started swirling around my rig so I packed up and headed home. That was the last of the fishing for the whole winter since the snow kept coming and kept coming. I parked my Jeep on the driveway when I got home that evening and the next day the snow had drifted around it. The reports had more snow coming over the course of the next several days and weeks, so I finally got it parked inside the garage. I couldn't go any place anyway.

Ice fishing '07-'08

Here are a few more photos of my ice fishing adventures during the winter of '07-'08. As opposed to the last three winters, this winter was a year of mild snow and good ice. We were able to get onto the lakes without any difficulty throughout the entire winter and the fishing was really good too.
This is Cottonwood lake just three miles north of my house. Most of the time it is like my own private lake as there are very few fishermen using this lake both in the winter and the summer.

I can hardly go fishing in Cottonwood without catching a good sized Northern Pike whether it be summer or winter. Here I am pulling one of the many Northerns through the hole in my fish house. When my kids are here in the summer time we come here in my boat. When I post photos of my grandkids fishing on Cottonwood, you'll see what I mean!