Fall Days

The sun is coming in my office window. We have had several really beautiful fall days. As a result Bruce and I have felt the urge to go partridge hunting late in the afternoon. The hunting hasn’t been too good but we enjoy getting out and about to see what is going on in the neighborhood.

Gunflint Lake has stopped rising but not before it went over the top of the main dock. They put out another board so guests can walk to boats without getting their feet wet. You can’t get to the big binoculars without going in the water. I think that the lake will start of go down if we don’t get any more rain. Saganaga Lake is where Gunflint drains into via the Granite River. Sag will continue to go up for one week after we stop going up. It’s plenty high right now.

One hunting trip took us up to the end of the Trail. On the way back we passed the small creek and waterfall just our side of the USFS Seagull Guard Station. At this time of year it is usually a trickle. With all the rain, it was just overflowing the banks. Here is what it looked like.

On that same trip we wandered down the Tuscarora side road. At the public landing entry point for Ham Lake I snapped this picture of the Cross River. Often at this time of year you can walk across the rocks on the bottom of the river and not get your feet wet. Not this year.

When Bruce’s mother, Justine, was alive, she and I happened to drive down here after dinner one spring night. With blind luck, we hit the moments when the winter ice was breaking up and going down the rapids. We parked the car right about where this picture was taken. A big slab of ice would drive up against the rapids and seem to be stuck. Then the moving water would do its work and pretty soon the slab would break up into small pieces and go down the rapids. Another slab of ice was right behind it to repeat the process. Each time it was the same process but somehow different. You never knew which part of the slab would break first. We sat watching until dark.

Our garden is about cleaned up for this fall. Bruce will go out this afternoon and cover the lilac bushes and small maple trees to protect them from the deer. I have pulled out the last stands of broccoli, lettuce, green beans and peppers. Surprisingly the parsley is still producing even after two hard frosts. We brought down two five-gallon pails of fresh parsley to the lodge the other day.

I just had to include this picture of Lee and his son. It’s their first father/son project together. I think his son is supervising Lee in a logging project. It reminds me of when Lee and Robert were 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 or something like that. Bruce would take the two boys with him when he went out to cut firewood on a logged over area by Round Lake. Both boys loved to go. Bruce always brought lots of snacks for those afternoons. When they got bored, the cab of the truck made a great napping spot.

This is probably my last blog before our trip. The next two days will be spent finishing the last projects on my list and packing. All the clothes are washed. I just need to decide what to take. Between Turkey, Egypt and England we will have quite a variety of weather. I do lots of hand washing in the room at night. If we spend two nights in one spot, I send trousers out to be laundered. They are pretty hard to get clean with hand washing. When we ultimately get home, I will just empty the suitcases in the laundry room.

You will probably be hearing from me in the next few weeks. Who knows what adventures I will have to tell.