Voyageurs National Park

Here are a few pictures from a trip to Voyageurs National Park on the Canadian border I took this August. My buddy Jon and I normally do a trip to the Boundary waters, but since we were a little short on time due to my lack of vacation days at the new job, we sprung for a trip to Voyageurs. The master plan was to load down the canoe with all our gear, hook it up to my 70' something 12 ft Alumacraft and 15 hp Yamaha, and tow it to the campsite. It turned out to be a bit harder than we thought to get it to work, but we eventually discovered that by hooking two ropes to the canoe, and slowing down a bit, it would pull pretty smooth. We did some fishing from the motorboat in lake Kabetogama, and portaged the canoe into some small interior lakes off the beaten path. It turned out the the fishing stunk pretty bad in both the main lake and the small lakes, but we managed to nab enough to eat as much as we wanted. And the scenery was pretty sweet. There was alot more traffic than the boundary waters, but it is still a really nice place to camp and kick back in the northwoods. The highlight was coming across a bear that was swimming across the main lake. He didn't care for getting viewed and photographed, but a boat goes alot faster than a swimming bear, so he didn't have much choice. After doing circles around him for a few minutes, he got kinda dizzy and let us take blurry picture.

Jon's fat fryer

Here is one of my bestest buddies slash partner in crime with his first bow kill. Not a hawg, but hey it will be tasty. Tough to beat the low mileage ones for succulent corn fed flavor. One shot from the PSE, and down he went.

Mr. Big Fish

Here are the 5 beauties I nabbed in a single day of fishing in North West Ontario this June. It was the best day on the water I have ever had. The first fish is a 34 muskie, the second a 33 1/2 northern pike, the third a 30 inch northern, the fourth a 37 inch northern pike, and the fifth a 38 inch muskie. Nabbed em all on a cheap spinning rod from Joes sporting goods and some 8 lb cabala’s bulk mono (that stuff is tougher than steel and cheaper than dirt) on a Shimano Sedona reel, tossing a little silver spinner.

The 37 inch northern put up the best fight of the 5 of them. There was a cliff along the shore that dropped off into about 20 feet of water. The cliff shaded the water, making it look deep dark, and tantalizing, the perfect lair for a beast. I plopped the spinner tight to the cliff and let it settle down maybe 8 ft or so, and started a slow retrieve. It made it about a foot or so, and then POW, the big fat girl latched right on and started screaming my drag. After a tricky combination of driving the boat ( I was running the trolling motor) and fighting the fish, I managed to get out into the deeper part of the lake and tire the beast out. After a photo or two, it was back into the drink to grow even bigger and uglier.

Meet the Family

Here is a picture of my wife Amanda Sue, Grant my chocolate lab puppy, and Baily Jo the tabby cat. Grant was a bit cuter when he was a little puppy.



Moooohhhh - Wheres the beef? This fat red Angus heifer has been grazing on my yard this summer, and into the fall. I bought 55 bales of top notch hay to get her through to January or so, when the weather is right for butchering (I put a walk in meat cooler on the Christmas list) I drool every day when I pull in from work. So fat and tender. I am estimating i will have $2.25 a pound or so into the finished wrapped product. A quick scan of beef prices at Walmart showed prices ranging from $2.50 to $12.00 a lb with an average of 4 bucks or so. So I think I should be coming out a head, plus I will get cuts that I would never buy (mmmm tenderloin baby), and the comfort of knowing that my beef was handled from every step of the way from field to table with tender loving care, and wasn't stuffed with corn and injected with who knows what. Plus cutting meat is a pleasant change of pace from designing bridges and staring at a computer screen.

The Home Front!

Here is our new place in Iowa, after the first snow of the season. After just getting out of school for structural engineering in May, Amanda and I got our new place out in the country. Its only 5 acres, but its way better than the little townhouse we lived at in twin cities while I was in Grad school. The fresh snow makes everything look clean and fresh. To the right is my shed, ahhh the glories of not having your shop double as your garage. The people we got the place from just put the steel on, and trenched in cable for power, but didn't wire the inside. That was on of my first major home improvement projects. I had a bit to learn, since I have never done wiring before. But I thought, what they hey, its not rocket science. After getting the stuff at fleet farm, I installed a 100 amp main panel, outlets, 3 way lights, and a big honking 220 outlet on a long cord for a welder. After connecting the whole mess to the grid and hitting the switch, everything worked flawlessly. What are the odds. Below is the steam rising from ethanol plant near our house, just visible over the November fog. It sort of looked like the mountains or something, so I snapped a picture while sipping my coffee before work.

The hunt

Ahh the bow hunting gods have smiled upon my endeavors at last :) When I got to the woods on a crisp afternoon in October, the air was filled with dust from combines working a corn field over the hill from my stand. After about an hour on stand, I saw some motion and noticed a big ten pointer with a rack like a brush pile on his head. The bugger winded me and circled wide, coming in to 35 yards to investigate me. After he decided to head out and not come closer, I took a shot through an opening in the brush. To bad the 35 yards looked like 30 and the arrow sailed harmlessly under is big fat chest. About 2 minutes later I was just pondering what a fool I was when more antlers appeared in the same spot the big 10 had come from. The tall tined 8 pointer didn't have quite the keen senses of his wiser companion and headed right on down to the spring next to my stand for a drink. At about 6 yards a way, he noticed my outline in the stand, or maybe he noticed the pulsing veins in my neck quiver as I fought off a massive case of buck fever. Either way, he decided something wasn't right and decided to take a rain check on the drink. He circled around the spring and paused right behind a tree that had foiled a shot at a plump doe on opener. Deciding not to chance a shot next to the jinxed tree, I hoped that he would stop once he reached a large open area about 10 yards from my stand, and maybe even look the other way so I could draw. What do know, he read my mind. While he paused in the opening and took time for quick scan of the ridge opposite my stand I came to full draw and took aim. The shot dropped him in his tracks. I examined his teeth later and found they were worn nearly to gums, suggesting he was at least 4 years old or so. What a day to remember, my first mature buck taken with a bow.