Entering BWCA - Day Two

On Thursday we entered the BWCA at entry point #84 Snake River.

We were able to haul in a few brews in for break time.

Things were interesting.  No truer words have been spoken, as when Mike announced "I have bad news, we run out of river".  And indeed we had.  We worked our tails off dragging the boats over rocks and mucking through "loon crap" (Tonya, that's just an expression...you didn't really walk in loon crap).  And then there was miles of rice paddy.

A little wang reward was in order after our hard day of getting in to BWCA.

Off to the BWCA - day one

A couple weeks ago Tonya, Josh, Mike, Dave, Makita and myself headed north towards the BWCA.  Prior to our departure my Dad built us two large storage boxes for the trailer (I call them "the coffins") and Mike welded a bracket so we could carry canoes on the trailer.  Both worked excellent.

We camped the first night outside the BWCA in a campground near Ely. 

Nice hats.

Damn Near Died

Good golly molly I damn near died.  A week ago Monday I had an infected sebaceous cyst removed from my arm and was prescribed the antibiotic Sulfa.  I took it for a week.  Unbeknown to me, I am very allergic to Sulfa.  I damn near died from it.  I ended up in the ER with a temp of 103 that had been raging for days.  We had to come home from our 4 day trip from Effie after just one day.  What a messed up deal.

Forest Fire in Canada

While in Canada fishing on Lake of the Woods earlier this month we saw a plane putting out a forest fire.

In Memory of George Cox

May 2, 1947 - August 10, 2011

This morning the suffering ended for Dave's uncle George.  May he rest in peace.

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.