Fishing on Lake of the Woods

Last Thursday we headed up to the Lake of the Woods in Canada, where we stayed with Ralph and Ellen Vonasek on their island.  They are fantastic hosts.  Ralph always put us on the fish. 

Bill shows off a smallmouth bass he hooked.

Makita brought in a five pound walleye.

Ralph caught and released a 14 pound Northern.

We brought in our limit of walleyes....

Ralph cleaned them up.....

And we had a heck of a fish fry.

Storm Passes Through

I think it was around 1am this morning that the storm rolled through.  The winds were incredible.  Knocked over a bunch of trees.  Gotta get out the Stihl.

Flag Pole's In

The new flag pole finally got installed this past weekend.  It's 25 feet high, telescoping and awesome!

Driveway Is In

A week ago Anderson Brothers showed up to do the ground work in preparation for paving the driveway.  The soil  here is all sand and most of it is making itself at home by coming in the house and living in the carpets.  You can't even walk to the mailbox without tracking in an entire sandbox.

So they hauled in a couple dump trucks of dirt and packed it down.

When they left here last Thursday this is what it looked like.

Today here they came, finally, to lay the pavement.

There were several dump trucks with tar in them.  They'd back up to this tar gizmo and dump the hot tar in there.

They literally started in the garage.

7 guys (one was actually a gal) showed up and worked their tails off.

Here's the packer thingee staging in the garage.

Tah Dah! And of course the sun goes behind a cloud and the picture doesn't look that great.  But let me tell you, it's great!  Can't drive on it for a couple days but whatever...no more sand!

Fellowship at Zorba's Last Friday Night

 Man oh man are we hot!  Well me and Stella anyway.  Not sure what's going on with Jen or Makita.  Jen looks like she's prego and the stunners are over the top.

Brand New Picnic Table

Dad's been working in the garage building shelves and a work bench.  I convinced him to take a timeout to build a picnic table.

Turned out awesome.  Now if the flies and the heat would go away, I'd actually go sit at it.

Tonya's Birthday Bash

Tonya arrives to celebrate her birthday (July 4th).  Here's what 31 years and a hunger for the devils candy looks like. 

The kids (including Josh and Mike) played water balloons, cornhole and Slip and Slide.

Tonya is presented her official BWCA Wang cup.

Keen's for portaging.

Everyone that stayed over crashed in a tent.

Kids love the sparklers.

Finished off the evening by the campfire.

Fellowship Independence Celebration

This past Saturday night the annual Fellowship 4th was held at Irish Acres.

Makita grilled us up some ginger chicken.

Stella made a festive Independence Day cake.

After oinking out the wheelbarrow races ensued.

Hang on Stella!  Pat cannot see what he's doing.

Point and case....

Oh boy...it's my turn.

Oooops

Go that way for crying out loud.

Thanks Makita...you dumped me.

Off go the Hopp's.  They are very serious competitors.

Moon are you peeking?

Mike and Jesse were killer fast.

After the wheelbarrow races we had a water balloon tossing contest.  I don't remember who won.  I just know it sure wasn't me and Makita.  Early elimination.

And after dark we had some fireworks and mosquitoes.