Saturday, September 3/2011

Kimmy getting ready

Who catches a clam!  Marie does

Where's the big ones!

Jace should have brought lunch!

A awesome Sunset on the Lake

Fish stories!

All the fallen trees from the big wind storm

Happy Birthday to our oldest son Jace.  It is hard to believe that 28 years ago he was brought into this world kicking and screaming - somedays, he still does!!  What an incredible young man he has grown into and it is my pleasure to call him "mine".
I have decided to go fishing with Jace and Kim today.  John will quad with Dale.  Dave and his brother Jeff will also fish and we have decided to go to Island Lake.  Unfortunately, Shirley has to work today so that totally sucks for her.
Dave assured Jace that he could get into Island with Kim's new Lincoln truck (no scratches allowed) so off we went.  Jace towed the fishing boat he brought and Dave towed his fishing boat.  There were a few "tight" spots along the trail to the lake and Jace got out of the truck a couple of times with the chainsaw and made the trail a bit wider.  We made it down to the lake in time to see Dave put his boat in and apparently break something on the truck so that the four wheel drive mechanism no longer works.  Now that might be a little tricky come time to pull the boat out of the water.
The plow wind that went through this area took an incredibly wide swath in this area,  extending from the grid road all the way down to the lake's shore line.  I would use the term massive devastation to describe the area and I can certainly see why heavy equipment was needed to clear the trail.  I took pictures so I hope they were able to capture the enormity of the devastation.
Once in the boat and ready to fish,  Jace and Kim told me about the "fishing game" they play.  Something about getting Money for the first fish caught, the most fish caught and the biggest fish caught.    I was recruited into the game simply by being in the boat!!  No choices there!!  As it turned out - I WON and was $40.00 dollars richer by the end of the day (I even managed to hook a clam - not sure how I did that though)!!  Happy Birthday Jace - hand over the money!!  Of all the fish we caught, we only brought two home which we decided to keep until the next day.  Jace and Kim will be fishing again tomorrow and they may have better luck and we can then have a fish fry.
We arrived back in camp just before John and Dale arrived off the trails.  In fact, we actually passed them sitting at 8 mile corner (didn't know it was them though).
With everyone back in camp, it was time to cook supper (steak, baked potatoes and Caesar salad) then sit around the campfire and share the day's stories.  It was fun!!
PS -  We heard from Casey tonight while we were sitting around the campfire.  Apparently all is fine with him and he seems to be enjoying his job.  Hope it continues!!