Bluegills and Patience

We helped take the granddaughters fishing a week or so ago.  We baited their Princess and Frozen rod and reels with a night crawler and bobber and they were actually very effective!  Still the best way to start kids fishing.  They both caught nice fish without having to wait too long.  Their attention span wasn't too long and they quickly lost interest in fishing, so I got to do a little on my own.  We ended up with several nice bluegill and bass, which Bob and Jenny took home to fillet.

We started harvesting on the 13th, but we haven't accomplished much yet.  The fields were saturated with all the rain we'd been having and we are cutting ruts and getting stuck.  We started out just taking off the front end rows of several fields, and so far yields look excellent.  We were able to get a couple of fields out this week finally, but we still buried the auger wagon yesterday afternoon.  The Precision Planting crew showed up with their equipment to take out a test plot they have in our field, and helped us out.  We had tried to pull it out with our 4WD tractor, but broke 3 chains in the process and didn't budge the stuck tractor and cart.  We ended up picking around the wagon (and ruining part of their test plot) and then off loading our cart into theirs.  They have a tracked tractor pulling their cart.

First stick of the year.

A little help from PP

Prior to the season, I made sure that our continuous flow dryer was fully functioning and serviced.  Thursday morning we filled it with dry corn to transfer from the wet holding bin to a storage bin.  The metering augers started and then quit.  I did all the troubleshooting I could, but ended up calling out the service man.  He showed up Friday morning and said our DC motor and gearbox both failed.  Our dealer ordered the parts and the old farmers helpful wife headed out on a seven hour round trip to Frankfort Indiana to retrieve the parts. She called me from the business to make sure she had what she was supposed to pick up, but the employee there assured her he gave her what our dealer ordered.  This morning the service man shows up and says the DC motor was missing. He drove to where he knew an old dryer sitting in some weeds was located and robbed the motor off of it, but when he hooked it up, it was erratic, then quit altogether.

Soooo, we still don't have a dryer, so we can't harvest any corn that comes home to the bins, and we don't know what we will learn of our fate until Monday morning.

  Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
John 21:3

Superior

The summer (JJA) rainfall total was 50% above normal.  The rainfall total for August in Central Illinois was close to the wettest on record.  Needless to say, we had high humidity all summer and the crops looked lush all summer.  We had 2.5 inches of rain today.  We will start harvest as soon as it is dry enough to get in the fields.

Uncle Bill spent some time in the hospital with congestive heart failure.  He is back home on hospice.  He and his family are in our prayers.  He told us he got a lot of mileage out of this joke.

How is a hospital gown like insurance?

Neither one gives you full coverage!

Some of our California family were here for a long weekend.  It was great to reconnect and spend some time with them. It was fun meeting young Joshua for the first time!
When they left Monday morning, we also left on a getaway trip.

I had driven Minnesota's North Shore Drive from Duluth to Grand Marais or the Canada border five or six times in the past on Boundary Water canoe trips or Canada fishing trips.  I had never spent more than a day on it exploring it.  So we decided to make it our destination for a few days.  We drove to Duluth and spent a half day walking, shopping, and touring, then we headed Northeast on Route 61 to enjoy the beauty of the Lake Superior shore and the North woods.  The 150 mile stretch between Duluth and the border has eight State Parks, nine "waysides", two drive up overlooks, and literally dozens of waterfalls.  The Superior Hiking Trail parallels the road with numerous spurs and access points.  Also the Gitche-Gami bike trail follows the shore for 88 miles.

 In Duluth, we shopped at one of my favorite stores and toured the Glensheen Mansion.

On our way up the shore, we made the obligatory stop in Knife River at Russ Kendall's Smoke House to stock up on smoked fish to snack on.

The shore line is a beautiful mix of everything from black sand beaches to rugged cliffs.

We hiked to so many waterfalls and took so many pictures that after a while they all started to run together.  But still all so beautiful to watch that we kept looking for more.

There are also several lighthouses along the shore that we checked out or hiked to.

One day I hiked to the top of Carlton Peak to get some good views of the Lake and the Sawtooth Mountains.

We stayed in a log cabin that was right on the rocky shore of Lake Superior.

The view from the kitchen table.

On the way home, we picked up some more smoked fish, then stopped at another of my favorite stores in Duluth, before eating some excellent ribs in Superior, WI, were we spent our last night.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.
Psalm 29:3