It is a cold a miserable day today. The temperature is about 34 degrees and we have a strong northwest wind. Even in front of my house, we have good sized white caps. The east end of the lake must be just rolling. Snow flurries are coming down too.

Meanwhile Bruce and I got home from our morning walk about 8:15. We have been walking with our neighbors, Bob and Sharon Baker. Both couples are going with two other couples to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking just before Labor Day. So, we are trying to get into a little better shape. Here are Bruce, Bob and Sharon ready to go this morning. Luckily I get to be the photographer.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. We really are not walking together. Bob was in the National Guard for many years. He sets a pace of four miles to the hour. Sharon and I most definitely don’t walk that fast. We do about two miles in 50 minutes. Bob and Bruce go over three miles in that same time.

Except for today, it has been quite nice and I think we are all doing better. It is fun to see the game as walking down the road. For several days there was a snowshoe rabbit about ¼ miles down the road. Every part about him had turned brown except for his feet. They were still white. We have also heard calling loons. Today we even heard a loon above the wind and waves.

My garden has been trying to claim some of my attention. Yesterday I finally made it out. We got some small white pine seedlings this year. For years we have planted but never been really successful. A friend whose parents had owned a tree farm suggested a new method of planting to me. I went up into the garden and cleaned out a space we were not using. It was just a mess with grasses growing all over. After crawling around weeding on my hands and knees, I was a mess too. But I planted 33 trees about 8 inches apart. Here is what they look like.

My friend Terry tells me to let them grow for two years. At the end of that time each one will have a nice root ball instead of those thread roots you usually plant. So, I planted and watered yesterday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Fishing has been fairly good. The walleyes are still spawning. The Cross River and Little Gunflint have lots and lots of females filled with spawn. In a few days the males will come in to fertilize them. Most people catching the big females have released them so they can spawn. In a few years we will catch their children.

Lake trout (any kind of trout) fishing has been good. Today as we walked there were hundreds of worms on the road from last night’s rain. Bruce says that these earthworms are good for catching trout. No matter how good they might be for bait, I’m not going out on the lake today. It just looks nasty.