This past week I ventured north to the cabin for a few days. I went up there mainly to mow the grass, bring the boat up and do a few other things around the cabin. Unfortunately, my lawn mower didn’t work so I decided to wait until the next morning to work on fixing it. After cleaning the plug and checking it out I pulled the cord and it started; the bad news was that it only ran for about 5 seconds before it blew out a puff of smoke and was done. I had my weed eater along, so I was able to cut the grass on one side of the cabin before the guy operating the weed eater ran out of gas. I will be bringing another mower up on my next visit.
Tuesday evening it started to storm and rain, it continued into the next day. After checking the weather forecast, I realized that it would be raining for the rest of the week. I made the decision to pack up and head home on Thursday morning. That morning it was very foggy, and the air was so thick you could almost shovel it. I checked the weather just to find out what the humidity was, and it said that it was 99% with a 60-degree dew point. After cleaning the cabin and turning off the gas and electricity I headed for home. Thankfully, the fog disappeared just a few miles south of the cabin.
I am looking forward to my next trip up, where I will be joined by my son, Brad and Brad’s son Dylan. This will be a fishing weekend and I know that we will be visiting Spider Lake, mine and Dylan’s favorite, for a full day of fishing. I hope that the mosquitoes will be a little less hungry when we visit the cabin next time.
My fascination with Spider Lake is well known to my family and close friends. When I worked at Wilson Foods in the hog cut, I would often daydream, if that was possible, when I was on the line doing my job. One time one of my co-workers asked me what I was thinking about, and I would answer fishing. After that, some of the guys would ask me what lake I was on today, to which I would usually reply – Spider. I found that it made the time go faster when you took your mind off how many hogs we had to process on any particular day.
Last year was the first in many years that I didn’t get a chance to visit Spider Lake. I hope to get there a couple of times this year. My love of this lake goes back to 1976, the year my son, Brad, was born. After that, I began going there at least once a year to camp and fish. Once we got our land and built a cabin, I still began taking day trips to the lake at least once a year.
I believe that the last time that I went there by myself was in 2020. That was when I discovered that my shoulders were getting too weak to comfortably load the boat. I had no trouble launching it but cranking it on the trailer was more of a challenge. I have considered getting an electric winch, but I like to keep things simple and that might be more work than it’s worth.
I may do another trip by myself in the fall, I won’t tell the family until after the fact, so they won’t worry. Getting old isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but I will still keep on trucking as long as I can. Thanks to my grandson, Trevor, I have been able to get in some good fishing, so far this year.
Until next time: We did get some of that much-needed rain this week but, as usual, it was spotty. We could still use an all-day soaker. It’s still good weather to take advantage of one of the many parks we have in the area, and don’t forget St. Olaf and Beaver Lakes which have swimming beaches, picnic areas and good fishing.
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