The speed limit is 5 miles per hour on North Beaver Lake Road. The speed limit is 10 miles per hour on South Beaver Lake Road.
Why the difference? Do you suppose it is because the people on the South side of Beaver Lake live at a faster pace than those on the north side?
Other than a few people, there are four kinds of fishers at Beaver Lake this fall: 1. Three eagles. 2. Two osprey. 3. Five kingfishers. 4. 11 diving gulls. I guess you could say fishing is for the birds at Beaver Lake this fall!
Minnesota has the second highest percentage of people who fish, hunt or both, of all fifty states. The percentage is almost 33 percent, or in other words, one out of three (Alaska has the highest percentage).
An interesting thing is that, while on vacation in Minnesota, more people play golf than fish.
Since 1949, 100 percent of Minnesota’s governors have either hunted or fished, or both.
What does all this prove? It proves that if you want to be in the political arena in Minnesota, you had better hunt, fish, play golf or even better, all three. It also proves skydiving is not a political necessity!
As a young boy, I rode my bicycle from my parents’ farm north of St. Olaf Lake to my grandparents’ farm, the Henry and Elsie McFarland farm, just east of Hope on the Straight River. It was a distance of about 12 miles.
Their farm buildings (house, barn, chicken coop, hog house, pump house, garage, granary, machine shed, etc.) were in the middle of the section. The only way to get there by vehicle was from the east, by crossing a bridge on the Straight River.
I decided to do some reminiscing of my boyhood. I drove down the road from the east, but the bridge across the Straight River is there no longer.
There are a lot of gravel pits on their former farm, with the road from the north chain padlocked so that direction was out. The freeway (I-35) is on the west side with no access to their former farm. That left only the south as a possibility to get to their farmstead.
I drove south on Steele County Road #3 until I found a dead-end road going west. That put me south of their farmstead.
I drove into the last farm place on the north side of the road, and noticed the name “Kubicek” as I was driving up to the house. I introduced myself, and asked the man if I could walk across his land to visit my grandparents’ old farmstead.
He informed me his name was Bruce Kubicek. I could drive north on his field driveway and then across his combined field of beans and I would end up right next to the old building site. He even offered to let me use his four-wheeler (I declined).
I told Bruce that I know a great lady from my writing this column for the Star Eagle, and her name is Rose Ann Kubicek. ‘Twas then he told me it has been a pleasure being my County Commissioner for 12 years, and he agreed his wife Rose Ann is a great lady.
I enjoyed walking around my grandparents’ old farmstead. Thanks, Bruce, for letting me cross your land to get there. (Readers, did you know Minnesota Nice also applies to County Commissioners?)
Bruce says if I write anything about this, I must end with “I’m County Commissioner Bruce Kubicek, and I approve this message.”
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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.