September Swimming

With school starting next week the thought of swimming can bring a chill down your back.  When the temps hit the upper 70′s today we had no choice but to go jump in.  The water was really nice.  Not many days left where we’ll be able to float around.  Not to say we won’t be swimming before the ice arrives, but I can guarantee it won’t be a lounging experience.  As I was jumping in this afternoon Erin said she was taking my picture.  I tried to turn for the camera, but only made it part way around.

This evening Jesse, April, and Sawyer came out for dinner.  It was still nice out and Sawyer hadn’t been out for a boat ride yet.  So he donned his baby life jacket and we all hopped in the boat.  Erin, Jim, and I went for another swim.  The water was still very nice.  We hear around 66 degrees.   After a quick dip we went for a boat ride around the lake with the preparing to drop below the horizon.  It was a nice night to be on the water.

Winding Down

Summer seems to be racing to an end.  I can’t believe how fast the summer months fly by, only to see the same amount of time in the winter drag on by.  I guess working does that to you.

I’ve had a jam packed summer.  Erin and my tirp to Australia was such a great time.  In fact the best part of this summer was being able to spend almost every day all day with Erin.  Not like we do a ton of crazy exciting stuff, but just being together is nice.  Aside from our trip over seas I’ve spent about 20 days in the Boundary Water Canoe Area filming for BWCACAST.  The weather wasn’t phenomenal but it wasn’t the worst either.  We had rain on every trip, and sure fought the wind on our longest trip where we covered 100 miles in 7 days.  We got some great video and had a blast spending time in the woods.  My parents came down for one trip where we paddled across pretty much the entire Crooked Lake.  We did it the right way paddling from west to east, so the wind was at our back the entire time.  Can’t complain about that.

Erin and I finally got some time in the lake at the end of the summer.  The weather was so cold, windy, and rainy that it wasn’t to appealing to jump in the lake.  This is pretty much crazy.  On a normal summer day we are in and out of the lake at least three times.  So with a few nice days in August we finally started jumping in and even did a little water skiing.  Josh (a friend of mine from Fairbanks) came down for a BWCA trip and he was the instigator for the skiing when we got back home.  I amazingly got up on one ski on my first try which was pretty cool.  The next time I tried a couple days later I wasn’t so successful and wasn’t able to get up on one at all.  After six or seven tries I opted for two skies and dinked around on them for a while.

Our first official days of inservice for school begin next week.  I’ll be heading in tomorrow for a bit, but hope to spend as much time playing as possible before work is thrust back into my life.  Dont’ get me wrong.  I like my job, but having the days to do whatever I want sure rank a bit higher then the old “9 – 5″.

I hope to be posting more in the future.  I know I fluctuate quite a bit with my posting.  With all the websites I manage it kinda play out with coming up with fun witty posts to entertain the masses.   I’ll do my best though.  Don’t give up on me yet.

A week on the water

I sit here on my couch looking out the window over a calm lake vermilion.  You can see the reflections of the trees on the opposite shore in the near still slightly ripply water.  The only waves are created by the occasional boat passing by.  We truly live in an amazing area.

I just got back from our second trip into the Boundary Water Canoe Area.  This was our long trip of the summer.  I think I’ve talked about it in previous posts, but we started on the eastern edge of the BWCAW in a lake called Little John Lake.  From there we headed west traveling through 31 lakes and 6 rivers covering approximately 94 miles.  This brought us to about the half way point on the Voyagers Highway.  This “Highway” is the same route the fur traders used to transport their winter catches from as far north as Athabaska country all the way to Grand Marais where there was a substantial trading post. When deciding the location of the international border between the United States and Canada they agreed that this commonly used route would be the dividing line, and that all of the lakes and portages (the hiking trails connecting the lakes) could be used by people of both nations without the need to pass through customs.  So on our entire trip the shoreline on our right was Canada and the the shoreline on the left USA.

As we paddled and hauled our gear over this historic route, it was amazing to think about the individuals who passed over the same ground we did years ago.  Also to think about the equipment they used and the weights they had to haul really made us appreciate the struggles they would have endured.  There is one portage we encountered along the way that was 660 rods long and aptly named “Long Portage”.  Portages usually range in the 30 – 170 rod range, and there are 320 rods in a mile.  So needless to say a 660 rod portage is quite the undertaking.  This is where you take all your gear out of your canoe and carry it across including your canoe to the next lake.  A two mile hike doesn’t seem that difficult if you are on a backpacking trip, but the packs we use are designed for canoeing.  They are wide to fit in the canoe nicely and one feature that hiking packs have that these packs do not is the very important waist belt to help carry the load on your hips.  These are strictly shoulder packs and at 60 – 70 lbs they are a bit to lug around.

We got to see some cool wildlife.   I was filming a loon swim across the lake when Matt nudged me and pointed out a beaver dragging a green leafy branch down the bank towards the water.  I quickly began to film him doing his work.  As he began swimming with his branch I was zoomed in relatively close on him when the loon popped up right in the frame.  It was pretty cool.

The first few days were kinda chilly and a little rainy, but then turned to sunny blue skies.  It was nice to dry out and feel the hot sun on our faces as we paddled across these lakes.  One of the difficult things we dealt with on the trip was a constant head wind the entire 7 days.  The wind apparently tends to blows out of the North West and since we were heading West for our trip it made for some difficult paddling at times.  Luckily when we were crossing the bigger lakes it wasn’t too strong and we were able to avoid the large waves that often accompany gusty days.

I’d like to at some point do the entire Voyagers Highway through the BWCAW, but that will have to wait for another year.

Oh Matt (Erin’s cousin) was with on this trip.  He is a math teacher down in the cities.  He helped figure out that we each paddled approximately 20,911 paddle strokes.

For now it’s nice to be back hanging out with Erin.  It feels like I’ve been on a dead run since school got out on May 29th.  I had the 4 day BWCA trip on May 30th, two days after returning from that trip Erin and I flew to Australia for three weeks, four days after returning from that trip I took this 7 day BWCA trip.  So now I’m looking forward to some down time.  Maybe sleeping in and not doing much.

Here are a few pictures from our Voyager Highway Trip.

Spring Cleaning and a Bike Ride

This weekend with the absense of the cold white stuff all over the yard we decided it’d be a good idea to spend a day cleaning up the yard.  We still had some left over building materials from our re-roofing project last fall, so that along with some other things that needed to head to the local dump we loaded up two pickup loads.  We still have a little left to deal with, but its a step in the right direction.

We had beautiful weather both Saturday and Sunday.  It was a bit windy on Saturday, but the sun was shining so it was a nice day to be out working outside.  Aside from cleaning the yard, Jim and I worked on the motorcycle.  The back tire was pretty old and had some cracks in it.  We decided it’d be a good idea to get it replaced before it pop on one of use out on a ride.  It was a bit of a wrestling match to get the old tire off, and the new tire on, but after a little elbow greese we had it back together in no time.  We also installed a new winsheild that had a little better coverage then its predicessor.  So with the new upgrades to the bike all in place I got a couple of rides in over the weekend.  Sunday morning Erin and I took it into town for a trip to McDonalds.  I am looking forward to some warmer weather in hopes of driving it to work.  Right now its  pretty chilly out in the morning.  I need to find my rain pants before I brave the frosty mornings.

Rain

Its been a while since my last post.  The days of snow covered ground have dicipated into the soggy soil below.  As the ice melts away from the shore we’ve scurted along the the mirror smooth water in our aluminum canoe.  The ice moves around in the wind and can cut you off if you are out for too long.  The aluminum canoe allows us to be mini ice breaking boats if we do get a little trapped.

With all this rain coming down and some milder temperatures I am getting more and more anxious to be finished with school.  I have 24 more days with kids and 25 more days of work.  Not like I’m counting.  I really can’t wait for our trip to Austrailia.  It will be nice for Erin and I to get out and about again.  We had a balst over in Ireland, and I think three weeks in a little camper will be a perfect way to start our summer break.  We will be in Southern Australia, so it won’t be a tropical vacation being their winter and all, but watching the penguins run up on shore and checking out the occasional winery will be very relaxing.

We went down to Baxter yesterday for Axton’s second birthday party.  He sure is getting big.  It was nice to catch up with the Svirs.  They have another little one on the way, so they will be busy for sure when the new one comes along.  Wonder what Axton will think of having a younger sibling.

On a sad note, my little dell mini bit the dust today.  I had it set up taking a time lapse for the last 5 days.  It was taking a picture every 5 minutes and when it did it would make a little beeping noise.  I woke up this morning and didn’t notice the beep at all through out the day, so I went over to check on it.  The screen was black and usually it would have the screen saver going, so I tried to move the mouse and no go.  I did some further checking and after a little chat with Dell support Im sending it back in sometime this week.  So for my first Dell purchase this doesn’t boad so well.  Im thinking its just the power board in the laptop that went bad preventing it from powering up the battery or running the computer.  So it shouldn’t be too difficult to fix.  It’ll be interesting to see if the time lapse was saved at all.  We’ll see I guess.  The support guy said that the turnaround time would be about 7 – 10 days, so we should have it back in time for our trip to Australia.  I’ll update you when I find out more.

Well time to get to my school work done.  Have a great week.

Labor Day Weekend

This was our last real weekend of freedom before heading back to school with kids.  I have been working for the last three weeks trying to rebuild all of the district websites… Its quite a task.   The list runs something like this…

• District Website
• High School
• Roosevelt Elementary
• Parkview Elementary
• Nurses Website
• Each staff member has a site. (roughly 250)
• All the sports (basketball, track, football, tennis, etc.)
• All the student activites (chior, band, orchestra, etc.)
• Community Ed

Im sure there are more that I am either not thinking about, or haven’t even been made aware of.  So that has kept me pretty busy.

Aside from that I’ve been helping Rudy (the network admin for the district) set up polyvision boards, install projectors, set up airports, which doesn’t really fall under my job description, but its a lot of work for one guy.  I have also been helping teachers get their classroom websites up and running, and working with a few of them on how they can start to implement some technology into their classroom.

Needless to say, I’m wicked behind and have decided I’ll work as hard as I can, but at the moment I have more tasks then can be completed before school starts.

So back to school starting tomorrow morning.  Amidts all that I haven’t really had time to plan for the two classes I’ll be teaching.  One being web design and the other broadcasting.  I’ve worked of the last couple of days hammering out a syllabus for each class, and lesson plans for the first week.  Those are finally under my belt, which feels good.  We’ll see how those plans play out in the classroom this week.

So to take a little break from the actual computer we headed out on Donny’s new pontoon boat yesterday with April, Trisha, Tonya, Cindy, Erin, myself, and of course Donny.  It was a great day to be out on the lake.  Very very warm, and just enough of a breeze to keep us somewhat cool, and throw the occasional wave up over the bow splashing everyone from the front of the boat to the stern.

I was reading up on CSS (cascading style sheets) while we were out and about.  I haven’t had time to do any reading lately, so it was a perfect time to relax on the boat and listen to everyone chit chat and catch up on all that fun xhtml/CSS goodness.

Although summer feels like it has come to an end, the days are still warm, and the lake is still swimable.  We went out a couple times today.  Its nolonger like bath water, but it sure helps cool you off from the hot sun.

The McDonalds

Erin and I were lucky enough to have Jeremy and his family drive up from Bemidji to stay with us.

Its been fun to spend some time with their little girl Scout who is a little cutie.

They pulled in this afternoon and we hopped in the boat for a little tubing and swimming out at twin islands.  Rowan is pretty much a pro when it comes to the tube.

We did a little swimming out at Twin Islands.. Jeremy had a great jump off the top of the island.  It really is a fun place to go swimming.

We boated around a bit and even went to MooseBirds by boat to get some ice cream after dinner.

Its been a great day.  Its so much fun hanging out with Jeremey again, and getting time to spend with Nikiya, Rowen, and Scout.

Kickin It in the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area)

Last week Jim, Erin, and I packed up a few days worth of food and clothing, threw the canoe on the car and headed up to the BWCA.  Our jumping off point was the Moose River.  We were a little concerned about the water level.  In the fall there seems to be considerably less water than in the spring, so we weren’t exactly sure if we were going to be able to make it into Moose Lake which was our goal.

We started paddling on the first section of the river and things went really well.  The water level was high enough to clear most of the hidden rocks and lily pads.  After about 45 minutes of paddling we made it to the first portage.  A portage is where you carry your boat and gear between two bodies of water.  The fist portage was about 160 rods, a rod being 5 1/2 yards which made the portage about half a mile.

We made the little hike quite nicely getting all of our gear and the canoe over to the next portion of the river.  This one however didn’t have quite as much water to speak of.

We started paddling and soon were pushing and pulling the canoe through the ummm swamp.  Erins dad ended up almost losing his sandal a few times in the muck while trying to get the canoe pushed along.

It took us a long time to make our way through the shallow river and ended up at the second and final portage of our trip in.  This one was about 60 rods so it was a much quicker trip on land.  This dumped us on the edge of Big Moose Lake.

We set up our tents, did a little fishing, of course a some swimming.

The trip was very nice.  To be off the grid and relaxing with Erin and Jim.  I am looking forward to our next trip into the BWCA.

Cabins and Baptisms

Erin and I had a few days to rest after our Ireland trip.  Last week Wednesday we drove down to the cabin in Cass Lake to meet up with my mom.

We had a nice few days relaxing and reading intermixed with some biking, swimming, and hanging out with family.  Zac and Bunny (my aunt and uncle) came out a couple days.  Bunny brought with the scrapbook she got for her birthday this year.  The pages were made by family and friends.  It was fun to look through all the pictures.

My Grandma even came out for a little barbecue.  Erin and I picked her up from Bemidji and drove her out to the cabin.  She was out for the afternoon and we had her back home in time to watch the Twins game on T.V.

From the cabin Erin and I headed to Brainerd.  Our friends Mike and Amanda were having their new baby boy Axton baptized and they had asked us to be the godparents.  We were very flattered to be given this honor.

It was a fun weekend of spending time with family.  We played a little bocce ball and grilled up some burgers on Saturday and then had the baptism on Sunday morning.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out.  It was very nice to catch up and spend some time with the new little one.  He is a very calm baby.

When we left this morning Mike and Axton were participating in the normal morning ritual of sleeping on the couch.

We are back in Cook for the evening and are leaving for Wisconsin Dells early tomorrow morning.  Not much down time for the two of us.  We should have posts up from the water-park excitement.

Shrimping

Well we were back out to pull the shrimp pots today. Dad and I went out in the boat this afternoon. On the way out we discovered that the pot puller (and electric machine designed to pull pots up off the bottom) was missing. That meant we would be pulling in the pot by hand.

250 feet of rope later we had the pots on the boat. From the 2 pots we ended up with 21 ginormous shrimp.

They were both tasty…

And decorative…

Some of them were quite large…

Then we had to clean them before we headed back into the harbor. Here is a video of the procedure.