Summer Activities

This past week, like many of you, I have gotten caught up in summer time activities. Even though daylight gives us extra hours, there still are not enough hours in the day.

We have had company "coming to the lake." For a period of time we had more guests than beds in the house. Grandson Zach slept on the floor of our bedroom for two weeks. Now we actually have one empty bed in our house. In spite of the hustle, we hate to see guests depart. It seems like the times in between seeing them are much too long.

Last night was the annual canoe races at the lodge. Probably 300 people turned up on a perfect summer night. The property owners on the upper Trail lakes did a marvelous job with pre-planning and execution of the races. But at the end, we are all pretty pooped out.

The lodge has also been especially busy which is really good news. Lee and Eva and their staff have been working very hard. Also many of the guests are old timers so Bruce and I like to spend a little extra time saying hello to them.

The garden is growing wonderfully but that includes the weeds. I look at them every morning. Berries are ripening and Bruce tries to get a little picking in. We did OK with strawberries. Blueberries have been sparse but raspberries are good. No matter what, we will still have lots of jam to pass around.

Of course, we have all had the Cavity Lake Fire hanging over our heads. It has stayed in entirely within the BWCA but smelling the smoke regularly gets to you after a bit. For those of you who would like to keep track of the fire, go to www.mnics.org. Once there go to the current fires button on the left. There is a button for "Cavity Lake Fire." It will give you the latest maps and updates which are usually done in the late morning. When you visit the second time, don't forget to "refresh" so that the latest information comes up. This fire is certainly an example of Mother Nature during exactly what she wants. The Forest Service has a lot of equipment and manpower on site but even planes can't do too much when you have flame lengths of up to 50 feet.

I hope that your summer is as much fun as ours.