A final adventure while closing down

We’ve finally gotten to the cabin on Lake Tetonka for a ten-day heavenly stay. Fall is a great time to enjoy the lake and the beautiful tree scenery. There is also much work to be done as we will soon be shutting down and preparing for the long winter season.

Fishing on Tetonka hasn’t been very productive; low water level, weeds galore, and blooming algae. With cooler temperatures, the weeds are gone and the water is cleaner. This gave me the opportunity to fish for a couple of days off the dock. I went down with some nightcrawlers, two rods in hand, and seated myself and my low expectations on the dock bench. On my second cast, down went the bobber: I was in for two days of fantastic fishing!

My grandchildren call it a “grand slam” when we catch at least seven species of fish while angling. The “slam” was on; I caught bluegills, crappie, bass, small walleyes, perch, a dogfish, several sheephead, a carp, and even a huge northern pike.

Time for a true fishing story. I’d put several bluegills and a couple of perch in my fishing basket for a fish fry that evening. The floating basket is made of wire and keeps the fish alive in the lake until I clean them. The basket is attached to a dock pole on a section of dock behind me. As I continued to fish, I heard splashing sounds and commotion in the water behind me several different times.

What was going on? Maybe a muskrat or turtle was moving around; maybe fish were escaping from the basket. I stood up and turned around to observe something big in the water attacking the basket. Whatever it was was gone when I walked back to take a closer look. The fish were alive and just fine.

I continued to fish and cast a short distance from the dock. Down went the bobber; I was suddenly battling a huge pike. Don’t know how I tired the big fish out and got it up to the dock on six-pound test line. I had a small-sized net on the dock and could only get its head into the net: It was a big fish. My only choice was to try lifting it to the dock deck. It easily snapped the line–a great catch and release. Could that have been the critter that attacked my fish basket?

Fun and games were over and it was time to put on the garden gloves and get to work. Twenty decorated containers and pots with beautiful annual flowers had to be emptied and retired to the compost pile. It was sad and disheartening to see some still beautiful flowers go to their demise.

Down to the boat lift to remove two empty barn swallow nests that had been built in opposite corners of the lift. It is always amazing to me how swallows can build a clay pot of hardened mud and raise a family fed with bugs and mosquitoes. I wish them well on their long journey to a warmer climate.

Time to clean out some of my birdhouses and put bird feeders away in the shed. We once again provided a nursery for several families of birds: chickadees and wrens raised their young in several of our birdhouses. A family of ducks hatched in our box down by the lake. Squirrels raised a family in our wood duck box on a pole close to the deck. 

Speaking of squirrels, we had an explosion in numbers around the cabin this summer. I had to quit filling my bird feeders because squirrels kept coming in numbers to loot them. For some reason they also raided jelly from our oriole feeder for dessert. When I cleaned out some of the flower pots, I found acorns and even walnuts buried in them. Fun little critters to watch, but they can be mischievous and a real caution.

Lisa’s wind chimes, Twins and Vikings windsocks and decorative signs hung on the cabin are now tucked away for the winter. We had a huge oak removed in the back of the cabin a few years ago; that space has become a home for gnomes. Lisa and friends made a roof on top, then set an entire village of gnomes on and around the oak stump. The ladies add new pieces to it every year. The village is now asleep, tucked in a container under the deck.

Winding down, I still have to pull the boat, lift and dock, and empty the ‘fridge and cupboards. The end of another season is near.

In closing I have to say “Hello” to Eileen Morgan. I took a wonderful fishing trip with her son Dean to fish Walleyes on Winni. We shared many stories and Dean, a former student, let me know his mother Eileen subscribes to the Pioneer and looks forward to reading it weekly. Eileen and her late husband Jim farmed north of Waseca: All of her children, Dean, Pat, Keith and Jane, graduated from Waseca. Eileen, thanks for letting me hunt pheasants years ago on your farm with my golden retriever, Ginger. And thank you for letting our sixth-graders use your grain truck to haul luggage on our environmental winter trip to Isabella, especially given that I drove in low range and never figured out how to turn on the heat. Guess I needed some truck driving lessons. Also, make sure you buy all of your holiday family meats at Morgan’s Meats in Waseca.

Until next time, charge up the leaf blower and get the snowblower tuned up: Winter white is just around the corner.