| May Day!!! |
Here are two entirely different perspectives concerning the coming of Spring weather (if it ever arrives): Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants. -- Dorothy Parker (circa 1930) Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire. -- Virgil (circa 50 BC) There's still ice on the lake so Marianne (the wife of my old school buddy Charlie) in Elsie, Michigan, and Cindy in Grand Rapids are OUT. And by the way, this is only the 4th time in the last 23 springs that there has been ice on the lake in May. I saw some loons coming from the direction of the river early this morning. They flew over LBL then turned and headed back in the direction they came from. Do you suppose those were our loons who got up this morning, flew over to check the ice, found that there was still too much of it, and then went back? It's possible I guess, and if so, maybe they'll check again later today. | ||
| May 2nd |
Bev (in Rochester) is now history.......if the ice doesn't melt today, that is. That's 22 people out and 16 still left in. Click HERE to see some Common Mergansers. | ||
| May 3rd |
It has now been 160 days since the lake froze, which ties the modern day record. Bob in Cohasset and Laurie in North Carolina both chose today in the contest, hence, if the ice goes out today, they win. If it goes out tomorrow they will still win because no one opted for May 4th, and in that case the two people who picked May 5th (my daughter in San Francisco and Dave B in Arkansas) will also win. | ||
| May 4th |
It's difficult to see any ice from LBLR this morning but to see a picture from the public landing click HERE. It's with a telephoto lens and that's LBLR on the other side of the lake. If you're ever up in this neck of the woods just as the ice going out, here's something neat to visit. Click HERE. | ||
| Cinco De Mayo |
As of midnight last night Laurie G in North Carolina and Bob S in Cohasset are OUT. | ||
| May 6th |
For the record: Although there is still a little ice on the lake, the loons that were here previously and then left (see the entries for April 29th and 30th) returned for good on May 3rd. Their arrival last year was May 9th. Notes added late in the evening: Ta-da!!!! The ice is *GONE(!) and we have a quartet of winners. My daughter Teri in San Francisco and Dave B in Harrison, Arkansas both picked yesterday, while Judy M in Hudson, Wisconsin and Chris R in Columbia Heights opted for tomorrow; no one picked today. Four lunches will be rather expensive.......but such is life. Of all the entrants, 29 people were too early (what a bunch of optimists), 9 people were too late, and nobody picked the exact date. The ice graced our lake from November 24th (two days earlier than average) to May 6th (two weeks later than average). That was a total of 163 days which is a new record for the modern era; it beat the old record (which was last year) by three days. The modern era, by the way, began in April of 1992.......twenty-two years ago last month. The history has been updated and you can see it by clicking HERE. | ||
| May 7th | There is now heat and running water in five of the six cabins; three of them have been spring cleaned and a fourth one will be done today. It's moving right along. | ||
| May 8th | THE SPRING RAKING IS DONE!!!!!! | ||
| May 9th | The front porch isn't in yet, but the front porch dock is!!!! Thanks Sarge. Click HERE. | ||
| Fishing Opener |
Here are two extremely rare things for today, which is the fishing opener: 1) the weather is gorgeous and 2) the price of gas didn't go up. Amazing! Now to wait and see how the fishing is. | ||
| Mothers' Day |
Look at these tracks. A horse wandered down the driveway, then over to cabin # 1, then turned around and went back out again. Who could that have been, I'm wondering. Click HERE. | ||
| May 12th | There are a lot Warblers breezing through the area these days. Probably nowhere near the numbers that you down-staters are seeing yet, but a lot of them nonetheless. | ||
| May 13th | It seems that there were a lot of Walleyes caught on Lake Winnibigoshish this past weekend but the majority of them were females that were too big to keep; that's from a couple of different sources (including Swede and Bob). I heard stories about groups of fishermen catching 30 to 40 fish but being able to keep only 3 or 4 of them. | ||
| May 14th | After two days of hard labor (by Sarge, Bob, and I) all of the LBLR docks are in the lake, the front porch is in the lake, the last of the six cabins now has heat and running water, Jeff's boat and Sarge's pontoon are in the lake, the first 20 feet of Randy's dock is in the lake, Bob's dock and boat lift are in his lake, and I have enough carpet on hand to redo both of the LBLR pontoons. | ||
| May 15th | To see Sarge's new lawn mower, click HERE. | ||
| Vesakha 26th | Two days ago (Vesakha 24th) was the day of the full moon in the Month of Vesakha, which was Buddha Purnima, the commemoration of the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing away of the Buddha. Even though this note is two days late, let us celebrate the life of Buddha and follow his sage advice. | ||
| May 17th | No comment. | ||
| May 18th | Same as above. | ||
| May 19th | Geez you guys, I really appreciate your concern, but there is nothing wrong (as has been conjectured), I'm not in a funk (as has been conjectured), and none of you are a "pain in the neck" (as has also been conjectured). I simply have nothing to say. I know that's difficult to believe from someone who talks too much (as I do) but believe it or not.......it's true this time. | ||
| May 20th | See the entry for May 17th, above. | ||
| May 21st | LBL Bird number 94, an Orchard Oriole. That's the first new LBL Bird since November 27, 2012. Click HERE. | ||
| May 22nd | The DNR guys were here this morning to calibrate the lake level measuring device. When the ice went out a little over two weeks ago, the surface of the lake was 1282.94 feet above sea level which is about a third of inch higher than when the ice went out last spring. Since then it has dropped a tad over an inch in spite of the rain we've had. | ||
| May 23rd | It's a truly gorgeous day(!), weather-wise that is. The first one this Spring.......FINALLY. | ||
| May 24th | Another gorgeous day.......so Deb and I put the swimming raft in the water. Click HERE to see that summer has begun. | ||
| May 25th | Denny T and crew are here again from Illinois for their annual Bass opener excursion and, as always, they did well the first day. Click HERE to see Clint with one of the day's catch. Then click HERE to see a much younger Clint with a nice Northern from back in 2009. | ||
| Memorial Day | Click HERE. | ||
| May 27th | LBL Bird number 95, a Blackburnian Warbler. That's two in one year. Wow! Click HERE. | ||
| May 28th |
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| May 29th | How did this happen? These barrels are barely 30 years old, they shouldn't be leaking already. Click HERE. | ||
| May 30th | Rain(!) and do we ever need it. The lake has dropped almost four inches since the ice went out. (It's currently 1282.64 feet above sea level.) | ||
| May 31th | "Welcome back" to the members of the Charles City (Iowa) invasion who have the place full. Summer has now begun!!! |
