Winter fly fishing on April

Today I meet up with several other members of the St. Paul Fly Tiers for breakfast in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. This was for our April outing. This year is different than others as it was snowing and 30 degrees F. On the way the the restaurant road conditions got really bad for a few miles in River Falls. There was a couple mile stretch that had several cars in the ditch and top speed you could safely travel was 30 mph. After getting through River Falls the roads improved.
There was 3 other crazy guys like me who still wanted to fish in the poor weather. After breakfast we went to the Rush River. It was crystal clear an 41 degrees F. We started at Stonehammer and went upstream. I found that a Tup's Indispensable was the best fly today. It snowed, rained and sleeted during the day and there was no visible hatch, but there were a few fish that were surfacing. I only caught brown trout today as the Brookies were shy. Even with the bad weather it was nice to catch a handful of trout.

Enjoying the snow

Now that winter is winding down I have finally found some time to get out and do some cross country skiing. Last Sunday I got up got all of the stuff put some wax on the skis and headed out to Como Park. It was early, around 8:15 and there was only 3 other cars in the parking lot. I was a little surprised by the temperature as it was only 14 F, which was colder than I expected.

The snow was freshly groomed and in perfect condition. Definitely worth going out. It sounds like we are going to get another snow storm on Monday and Tuesday of this week and then warm up. So if I want to get out the best snow will be right after the storm.

Ice fishing on the St. Croix

Last weekend Saturday I went fishing with Andy, Al, Caleb and Sam Craig on the St. Croix river in Bayport. It was a beautiful day and many people were out. This was my first opportunity to use my new Eskimo fish house. The ice was great at about 30" and about 5" of snow on the ice.

I was very impressed with the fish house. It setup and came down very easy. Also the quilted insulated cover was quite warm. Most of the day I did't even turn the Buddy heater on and the sun was enough to warm it up nicely. After I did turn the heater on the house was quite cozy.

Fishing was slow. Caleb started the day with a crappie. We all continued to see fish on the finders and an occasional bite but we weren't getting any hook ups. About an hour before sunset the bites started being more consistent. We all fished until about 5:45pm and I ended up with 2 crappies. It was a great day on the river.

Southern California

It has been along time since I posted anything so it is time again. Sue and I went out to Southern California for sue's aunt Evelyn's '90 birthday. It was a lot of fun. Evelyn was feeling really good and everyone had a good time visiting.
The weather was cold while we out there but I did play golf 2 days in row with Sue's cousins Dave and Roy. I didn't I shoot very well and the excuses are too many to list.
We will see many of the same relatives this summer at Kelsey's wedding.

Kitchen Remodel

This summer we finally went ahead with remodeling a portion of our kitchen. After a long process of picking out material for a new counter top we decided on a gray granite from Virginia. The stone slab was from Cold Spring Granite and the fabricator we used was Stonemaster & Sons in Edina.
For this project I removed our old counter top and added a 3/4 inch filler strip to give more clearance for a new dishwasher. I also had to replace some plumbing and the shutoff as galvanic corrosion had near plugged off the line to the dishwasher.
Stone masters measured kitchen and cut the stone at their shop. It ending up fitting perfect and looking great. We now have a new dishwasher as well. The next part is to paint the walls. I will post a few pictures after the painting is finished.

Big Lake Triathlon

On Saturday August 4th Sue and I competed in the Granite Man Big Lake Triathlon. This was our first time at this triathlon. After an early wakeup time we drove up to Big Lake and met a few friends who were also competing in the race. The weather was perfect for the race. We both finished the race with good race times. It was a fun event and we hope to do it again next year.

Little Log House Antique Power Show

On Saturday July 28th I went with my dad to the Little Log House Antique Power Show. He brought two tractors a Farmall Cub and a Super W-6. He also brought my Simplicity Broadmoar 728.
We both drove our tractors in the parade, me on the Simplicity and my dad on the W-6. I am pretty sure that my Simplicity was the loudest tractor at the show, even though it has a muffler. I need to get a new muffler before next year.
It was a beautiful day weather wise, which made it great for walking around and seeing the sights. We had gone to the show for several years, but had never toured the area on the grounds with the stone quarry, spiral bridge and army camps. This year we got on the Little Log House tractor hay ride and saw the whole grounds.
We had a great time and hope to be back again next year.