Many thanks again to the Ellendale-Geneva Sportsmen’s Club for furnishing the dock at the landing at Beaver Lake. The original one was installed in 1994. Once again, thanks.
It is now official. In the Governor’s Opening (for walleye fishing in the Great State of Minnesota) Governor Dayton and I tied for the number of walleyes caught. He didn’t catch any!
Attention, if you’re going fishing: Noodling in Minnesota is illegal. The sunnies and crappies at Beaver Lake are hard to keep off your hook when fishing. No problem if you’re not fishing!
It’s sad to say, but my vote doesn’t count as much as it used to. I used to go to both of my deceased grandfathers’ places of voting, identify myself as my grandfather, and they would check it out in their book that I voted. Now, I have to furnish proper identification, thus my previous three votes are only one.
My former employer (AAL) merged with Lutheran Brotherhood to form Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent was named as one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” for 2012. I wonder if my retiring helped them get that award.
So, I can only answer the land line phone when I’m at home. I can’t send or received pictures on my land line. It has to be plugged in to work. These are just some of the reasons I was going to switch to a cell phone. I hung tough, but gave up and Genie and I now each have a cell phone and no land line.
Attention Mustang car owners: Sturgis, S.D. now has a Mustang car rally after the Harley Motorcycle Rally. The numbers are growing rapidly, with about 7,000 participating in 2011.
Genie and I attended the High School Graduation party for Tammi Hendrickson at a farm site just west of Hartland in 1986. Genie and I attended the High School Graduation party for Jacob Staloch at a farm site just west of Hartland in 2012. Same farm site both times! Both mom and son were beaming with joy in 2012 (Grandma Sharon beamed the most of all three). How many of you readers attended both parties?
When you’re on I-35 leaving Ellendale and headed for Owatonna, you will see a sign with the word “Hope” on it. If you don’t turn off, you are then “beyond Hope.” That is a good comparison of my feelings for the Twins. At the beginning of the baseball season I had “Hope.” Now the Twins are “beyond Hope.”
I have many good memories of the great little town of Hope. My Irish grandparents (McFarland) farmed just east of Hope on the Straight River, where I caught a lot of Northerns. Grandpa taught me how to enjoy a glass of tap beer with salt at the Hope Tavern at age 14!
The following two paragraphs reveal the Best True Fishing Story so far this season at Beaver Lake.
I stopped to talk to two fishermen on my early morning walk around Beaver Lake, just as they were putting their boat on the trailer. They told me fishing was very slow, and one guy said he left an unattended line out in the lake by a dock on the north side.
I remarked that this was illegal. He laughed and said he wasn’t worried about any fine. They were in fact trolling and had laid his rod and reel on the back seat to pour a cup of coffee. The hook snagged something and the rod and reel fell in the lake. Thus, to his way of looking at it, an unattended line in the bottom of Beaver Lake!
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. This is the Hanson’s 37th summer at Beaver Lake. They leave the lake in mid-October to go south — to Albert Lea — and return in April. Bob says if you enjoy his article, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of Wisdom: There is always room for God.