How Did June Get Here So Fast?

The picture today is another bird picture from Sheryl. She took it at Gunflint and it is a Baltimore Oriole. Neither Bruce nor I have ever seen one here. In case you are wondering about Sheryl’s bird pictures, she got a new camera and has been really enjoying it. I have a bunch of wonderful pictures from her.


Ronnie Smith is popping flowers in the ground as we speak. Just give us two weeks and there will be a burst of color all over Gunflint. Things slowed down a bit last night as we had clear skies and a FROST. This is really late. Usually we are finished with frosts here by the first of June. At our Tucker Lake home, Bruce and I covered the basil with a sleeping bag and a piece of plastic. I am going to go out and take it all off after the blog is finished.

It may be clear skies today, but over the weekend we had some nasty weather. The wind blew and the heavens opened with rain. It was good to get the rain but some nice gentle showers would have been nicer than pouring down rains. Also the wind took our power out for about 4 hours. At least it was during daylight so the repair crew could see what they were doing. It is now really rare for us to lose the power for such a long period of time.

Fishing has been good. Jon Schei was out with a fishing party last week on Gunflint. They brought in a nice 31” walleye along with other fish. Don’t ask me where it was caught or what the lure was. That information is all stamped TOP SECRET. We have also had some of our staff out fishing with good luck. Bonnie was commenting on how great it is to have staff exploring the area. Our guests have been doing their bit fishing. Last night we had a couple bring in a nice stringer of bass. She caught the biggest one and he caught the most. The fish looked to be about 3 pound smallmouth bass. It will be a nice dinner when they get home.

Bruce spent two days down in the Twin Cities helping Lee build a deck. Lee and Eva are opening a new canopy tour/zipline between Belle Plaine and Henderson. The area is adjacent to the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway (or some name like that). They had an administrative building put up but needed a deck around it. Lee gave Bruce a couple of his staff to help with the building project. Bruce brought down the tools. In two days time the 75-year old man worked the two twenty-some year-old boys to the ground. Lee enjoyed pointing that out to the two younger men several times.

The canopy tour will be opening on June 14th. If you have ridden ours here at Gunflint, Lee and Eva’s is the same but different. They have a website up called kerfootcanopytour.com. On the site they have more detailed information about location and times of operation. Last weekend I visited the location and it is going to be amazing. At several points the zip goes across a 125-foot deep valley. Be sure to look at Bruce’s deck too.