Whitewater Rafting the Colorado

Yesterday we went rafting on the Colorado. It was a hoot. Everyone did really well. Only Lorrie fell out! OMG.........

Eddie's Newly Improved Spare Tire Cover

Mike recently painted Eddie's spare tire cover and installed it last night. It's so darn shiny it's hard to take a photo of. I love love love it! So does Eddie. Dresses his hinder up. The perks of being a parent.

Luke and Samantha Borden Graduation Open House

Saturday was Luke and Samantha's Graduation Open House.

There were lots and lots of people that stopped by.

Maggie was a dancing queen.


Monty played and sang for us. Dick was a Dancing Queen.

Tom stole Monty's guitar and played for us.

Kimkay was a Dancing Queen.

Kyle Graduates from 4th Grade

Congratulations Kyle for Graduating from Lowell Elementary 4th Grade. Now he's off to the new Forestview Baxter school next year.

If you look real hard at the photo below (my camera is a piece of crap), Kyle is the third from RIGHT in the bottom row of students. As usual he isn't smiling.

Makita Trys to Save GM from Bankruptcy

Makita trys to save GM from bankruptcy with his recent purchase of a 2009 GMC Sierra truck. Thanks for your patriotism big guy. A little apple pie and a hotdog should finish the deal.

Sammy and Luke's Graduation Party

This upcoming Saturday is my nephew Luke Borden and Niece Samatha Borden's High School Graduation Open House. We'll be making the trek down to Danvers for the party. We're taking Eddie and at Joy's request, my singing voice. Sounds like the party may last well into the evening.

Trout Lake May 2009

Trout Lake was exactly as I remembered it. We did a jog on Vermilion to the Trout Lake Portage where they picked us up with a four wheeler and drove us across to the BWCA Trout Lake. We had the canoe on top of the boat (as you can see from the photo above).

In honor of Mike, whom made me promise not to break tradition, we cracked our first beer on the portage at 9:10 am.


My friends Ellie and Dave had come in a couple days ahead of us and secured us a great campsite. Thanks goodness they did that because the sites where pretty much all taken. We met a guy from Belle Plain and Ellie had to break it to him.... "dude you're (in trouble)".



Nikki like to sleep really close to the fire. She also liked to eat sticks and throw up in the middle of the night.


Fishing was pretty good. The weather was pretty good. Everything was down right pretty good.




Look for the complete slide show of photos on the left hand side of this blog.

Happy Birthday Bob

Tomorrow, May 22nd, is my brother Bob's birthday. He will be celebrating it over in Afghanistan. Yesterday I received an email with these two photos from him. He says he's doing good and "It is very hot here. It runs about 110 to 115 degrees right know. That's the good news, the bad news is it's going to get a lot hotter". Oh boy. The first photo is of Bob (second from the right), some of the guys he works with and some ABP Soldiers.



This second picture is of Bob with one of his interpreters and a local.

Ellie and Dave made it to Trout

Let me start by saying it's about as windy as I've seen it. That being said, somehow Ellie and Dave made it out to Trout Lake in the BWCA this morning. I received a call from Ellie before 8 this morning saying they were having trouble getting their permit. Evidently the place (Fortune Bay Casino) where we've picked up our permits for years, doesn't issue permits until June 1st now. So they drove to Cook to the Ranger station and were able to get it. Then she called about 10:30 am with a garbled message. All I got out of it was "channel" and "life jackets". This I interpreted as they had made it to the channel between Trout and Little Trout (where we usually stay) and that she recommended wearing a life jacket in the 30 mile an hour winds. We'll be going up Friday to meet them. I hope they stay hunkered down now until the winds subside.

Above is a photo of the channel.

I Need to go Back to Work to Rest

As predicted, we had a really busy weekend. Friday night there was an impromptu Fellowship gathering after I had a hunkering for Mexican food. We all met at El Tequila's (except Moon, who's cat puked. I guess that causes enough concern that you can't leave the house). After stuffing ourselves with burritos and fajitas (Jen likes to pronounce them FAH-JAY-TA's)we went over to Mac's place and had a Springsteen Revival (the Boss was pretty awesome).


Saturday we cleaned in my garage to make room for Anthony (small boat with a new key chain thanks to Jen). Then we got the old boy running. He's a champ. Started right up and purred like a kitten. Then we decided to "fix" my lawn mower. We went into it with the attitude of Kill or Cure. We ripped it down. Got a carburetor kit and spark plug and put it back together. It started right up and still wouldn't run unless we continued to prime it. So we continued to prime it until we blew it up. Yep Killed it. So at that point in the day we stopped working, grilled some steaks and watched the Nascar All Star Race.

Sunday I mowed Makita's lawn on the rider and he took his push mower to my place and mowed for me (good exchange I would say). Then we spent a good part of the day cleaning up Anderson (pickup camper) because he's going bye bye.
Later in the afternoon Sunday we launched Anthony and took him for a spin around Rice Lake. He's officially ready for the journey to Trout Lake now. Just need to fix a burnt out tail light on the trailer.

Busy Weekend Ahead

It's going to by a busy weekend of trying to get a lot done in a short time.

My freak'n lawnmower is not running yet again. I need to take a small engine course. It's the carburetor again. So I'll probably either be cutting my lawn on my hands and knees with a pair of scissors or I'll be buying yet another lawnmower. I can't embarrass myself by taking it to the "doctor" again.

We brought Anthony home. We need to get him all ready to go next week. He's the little 14 foot boat with the 25 horse outboard. He is our vehicle into Trout Lake in the BWCA. As you can see from the photo Makita has devised a rack for Al (Alumicraft canoe) to ride along.

Besides cutting the lawn and getting Anthony ready to roll, we brought Anderson (pickup camper) home also (thanks Jerry for storing all our crap). We'd like to get him cleaned up and ready to sell. The inside is all clean but the outside needs some attention.

Makita also has a landscaping project in mind for the weekend. So we'll be trying to cram a lot in. But first tonight is Mexican night at El Tequila. I'm having withdrawals. ¡Adoro ésos tipos mexicanos pequeños! Ellos pueden inventar un barrito malo.

Nikki the Devil Dog

Here's a photo and a note from my friend Ellie "Happiness is falling asleep with your head in your food bowl. We got her pedigree on Friday and Nikki and Abbey are cousins - both have Ebonstar Lean Mac as the great grandfather. Nikki has alot of champions (what happened to her?) The funniest is that I have been calling her the Devil Dog and one of her ancestors is - FC Running with the Devil - I KNEW she had the devil in her"!!!!!

Weekend in Jay Cooke

Well we didn't let the cool damp weather slow us down this past weekend. We got up to Jay Cooke Friday night and sat around the fire and relaxed. It rained pretty hard most of the overnight. Then Saturday we hiked a little ways down the Superior Hiking Trail (no Ellie, no Drainpipe).





The St. Louis River was really moving fast. It was roaring loud.
Sadie kicked back also. She's doing a bit better as she recovers from her surgery last week.


Sunday we went Geocaching in the park. We were able to locate two of the three we set out to find.

Weekend in Jay Cooke

We're taking off to stay at Jay Cooke State Park for the weekend. We were all set to go to Effie four wheeling but the trails are closed for another week. So instead we're going to kick back at Jay Cooke. It's one of our favorite parks to hike. This time though we'll be taking Eddie and doing the opposite of roughing it. We will be doing some Geocaching.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/jay_cooke/index.html

http://www.geocaching.com/

Hey There Thor Bear....

There's a rather large bear taking up residency at Dave and Ellie's land in Thor. You can see by these photo's, taken by an motion sensor digital camera, that he's a dandy! I think Maggie caught wind of him the other night when we were there, because she went into a barking fit that included some strange howling noises she doesn't normally make.



Standing on his back legs to reach the can of bird seed on the clothesline. "Myyyyyy you're a big one".

Stuck in Thor

Everything we touched got stuck. We ripped that place up bad. I managed to get the Bobcat stuck. So there's some really deep ruts from that. Just happens to be on the main trail.


Eddie was stuck from the get go. Friday night we got it stuck and left it stuck until yesterday. We thought it would miraculously unstick itself over the course of a couple days. Nicki was a lot of help.


After several attempts (broke one chain), Ellie's come-a-long finally was the answer. More ruts. We'll never be invited back.

In between getting everything stuck the fella's got the threatening tree cut down and me and Ellie were splitt'n son's of bitches.

Samantha's Senior Prom

On the same theme as "It's a Small World", here is a photo of my niece, Samantha Borden, during the Grand March at the Benson High Senior Prom. Here's the small world part, her date, Brain Freeman, is my friend's Dave and Ellie's Nephew. Brian and Sammy are both graduating from Benson High this month. Brian is going in to the Air Force and Sammy is going to Bemidji State Univeristy. Good luck kids! Make us proud.