Starring Baxter The Wonder Dog.

We translate to Star Base Bryson tomorrow. The other shoe has dropped and the white stuff is issuing from the heavens thus triggering my frenzy of efforts to retreat to warmer climes. I have much yet to do today but the good Rev’s help has given me a leg up on the work. Many thanks and besides it was great fun having him here for a few days. It is 38F over cast snowing and with a brisk breeze from the north. Another odd thing about this fall is that I haven’t been warned by the geese of the impending cold front and snow! Usually the two days before the “excrement impacts the rotating ventilation device” there are high flying wings of Canada (please note philistine Americans not  “Canadian”) geese booting at high speed due south to tip me off to bad weather. Not this year though – they must have had tickets on earlier flights. Very odd weather!

There is still much for me to do today though – shutting down the lower water system, locking the boats and sauna, closing the cabins, boarding up the windows, closing the back porch, putting the stones across, packing my tools (no comments from the “love master” here please) and chain saw, storing my bonsai collection, packing, loading the truck and crv and preparing for a quick getaway tomorrow. But its sooo fucking cold out! Maybe another cup of tea will doit? Aww Hell, I have to get moving. The next blog will be from Star Base Bryson. As Caspar Guttman would say – I bid you adieu!

At least its damn close.

The docks are gone and the weather is getting seasonal. Gee is there a connection here? Its rainy gray and cool. The Reverend Bob and I devoted all day to dismantling and storing the docks.

I gave the good Rev a demonstration of walking on water.

On the way over to the storage location of the docks I noticed a fish rolling in the shallows.

This is perhaps the most sad sight I see every fall! (sigh)

After storing both docks the Rev and I spent about 20 minutes fishing the midlake hump and caught 6 nice big bass with 6 little leeches! It was interesting since we only had one fishing pole – one of us would catch a couple fish then pass the fishing pole to the other and smoke their pipe whilst watching the other catch a couple fish! The only reason we came in was that the north wind was pretty cool and it was time for supper. We still have about a dozen leeches but I think they will be restocked to the lake so they may plague the children swimming at our beach next summer.

Since I will soon be at home and delivering far more politically oriented tirades I give you a small preview. While writing this today I was listening to CNN – Lou Dobbs asked Ann Coulter what she thought of Fred Thompson’s performance in the latest Republican presidential candidates debate – she replied – “Lou, Fred Thompson exhibited far too much intelligence to conceivably be a Republican candidate! The Republican party is therefore investigating yams, potatoes, parsnips, turnips and other subsurface growing tubers as possible candidates. Its a rigorous vetting process Lou, since our current President is such a Fucking Idiot the bar is set extremely low”.

Scary stuff! Halloween is coming you know!

If the weather doesn’t turn bad I’m never leaving! Hey maybe this global warming stuff isn’t all bad! The water temperature is staying – shall we say – moderately cool and the fish are still biting well! Especially the walleye. I was talking with Doug White and he got some nice ones on Stumpy yesterday too!

Here’s a picture of a good looking one (the fish, girls – the fish)

I just got back from Toronto – where I stopped into see Dennis but didn’t get to see Christine and told him I would post a picture of a walleye for him. Rick – the guy in the picture – got a really good one, say ~27″, to the boat where it spat the hook at us just after this one! The fish were biting well on all of the deeper shoals but we did best on the “Mid-lake Hump” catching most of our walleyes there. We also caught some really nice bass mostly around 15 to 18 inches. All were caught using leeches. Locally caught leeches!

I was in Toronto to pick-up the “new” wood stove from Chester and Marion Jachymek – Its a beauty! It is similar to the one up in the lodge and will work really well in #5! I also availed myself to their hospitality and Al was there to help me load it into the car. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Deb. Thanks so much for the wood stove, lunch and beers.

The weather is holding well here at camp – making me want to go fishing but I will be removing the docks today and bringing in the boats.

I will leave you all with this sunset picture that Rick just sent me – Its great to be alive!