Splish Splash

Once the weather warmed up enough for us to actually get in it, Joanna and cousin Holly grabbed their tubes and took a fun ride down the rapids adjacent to our camp.  The water was higher this year than last year so they were able to avoid some underwater rocks.  It provides a bit of a thrill for the thrill seeker. 

Catching Up

The month of August has been filled with visits from wonderful friends from our past and family members.  Usually the weather is warmer, the berries are ready for picking and life at camp is a bit slower paced.  That also means I tend to neglect posting on Our Blog for all you faithful readers.  So, it's time to catch you up on what's been happening around here. 

I've received quite a few pictures from some of our guests displaying their prized catches here at camp.  In this blog, I thought I'd post their pictures so you can see them too. 

The last picture should really excite all you fishing lovers to come and experience the exhilaration of pulling in one of those clams.  I actually had the pleasure of landing one of these rare species.   Like a good conservationist, I threw it back so it could grow bigger and bless another angler in the future. 

Whoops!

My brother Rick Jackson from Oakwood, GA, along with his son and other relatives joined us here at camp for a week of fishing adventure.  I will share more about their trip later, but thought I'd give you a preview by posting this picture.  I think he may have misunderstood the purpose of our cigarette butt pails on the decks.  Funny guy!

Nice Lake Trout

Take a look at this Lake Trout Steven Allick caught on Indian Lake a week ago.  It's got to be pretty exciting to pull up one of these monsters from the deep spots in the lake.  Steven and his family know Indian Lake very well and never seem to have a problem finding the fish, but Lake Trout can be tricky.  So, well done Steven.

Grandma Takes the Prize

Fishing has been on a downturn here on Indian Lake for the past week.  Oh, folks are getting fish alright, but it has not been fast and furious as some years have been.  Some say it's the late spring, some say it's the recent cold spell, some don't know why.  I can tell it's beginning to pick up again though, especially when Grandma Liz Hansen outshines all her children and grandchildren with a huge 45 1/2 inch, 22 lb Northern Pike.  I heard from her husband, Don Hansen, that she even started a new trend with their family by giving the fish a smorgasbord of both worms and leeches on the hook to entice them to bite.  Liz is a kind, quiet, unassuming women, but she sure packs a punch when she's out on the lake fishing.  Way to go Liz!!
  Like the Canadians put it, "Who says girls can't fish, eh?"

My Waterloo

Let me set the stage...

We brought home our very first brand new dining table in February last winter.  It was gorgeous.  I wanted a large table that would seat 10 people for when we entertain guests or have family home for a visit.  Cherish helped me pick it out while shopping together in Virginia, MN when I was down to the states in January.  The rich hues of the red mohogany stain in the oak wood matched our floor perfectly.  The leaf in the middle is a butterfly leaf that neatly folds under the table when not needed.  

The chairs are very comfortable with just the right support for your back.  I truly liked EVERYTHING about this table.... except for one little thing.  There were grooves like a frame around the main portion of the table as well as the butterfly leaf.  They weren't deep grooves, but big enough so that when you go to wipe the table, crumbs would most surely slip into them.  

I wondered if I should even consider purchasing the table because of those grooves.  Who would design an eating table with little troughs to catch food crumbs?  As far as I could see, it was the only flaw of the table.  Yet, I decided I should look around to see what other choices there might be since this was just the first store I had checked.  We only had about an hour to shop before leaving for Ely, so we had to hurry. 

After checking two other stores in the city and not finding anything to my liking or in my price range, we returned to the first store and this table.  It was a good deal for a beautiful table, so I took it, figuring I could fix the problem of the grooves.  

When I got it home, John and Joanna expressed their approval of my purchase, except John too figured the grooves would be a problem.  What could I do to fix it?  I decided polyurethane would do the trick.  I bought some clear satin poly at the hardware store and went to work.  Two coats later and the grooves were just as deep as before.  Where did the polyurethane go?  It certainly did not fill up the grooves as I had hoped.  

Determined to get the job done, I took a foam brush and went around all the grooves, dripping polyurethane only there to build up to the level of the table.  It took eight coats.  Now I had ridges over the grooves well over the level of the table.  It seemed the only solution would be to sand them level with the rest of the table.  After two hours of sanding one little spot and accidentally digging into the original finish of the table, urethane dust flying everywhere, I stopped and looked in despair at the mess I had made.  What was I going to do?  I felt horrible for ruining a brand new table.  But there was no going back.  I was in over my head and I knew it.  I fervently prayed, asking the Holy Spirit to help me, show me what to do and He did. 

The idea that came to me was to use a knife and try to cut down the ridge I'd made over the grooves so there'd be less to sand.  I took a fairly long knife and carefully, but firmly pressed the edge along the top of the table.  All of a sudden the knife was cleanly removing all of the piled up layer of polyurethane right down to the original level with the groove filled to level with the table.  It was actually fun to go around the table cutting away the poly.  In a few spots the knife nicked gouges in the original stain.  Ooops.  

After I finished removing the layers of poly over the grooves, I realized I had another problem.  Over the grooves, I was down to the original layer, but everywhere else on the table was the two coats of poly I had put on at first.  Now what to do?  I took the knife and carefully and slowly began scraping off the two layers of poly on the rest of the table.  It was like peeling a sunburn.  The layers came off in narrow one half inch long strips.  As you can imagine, I accidentally nicked the original stain in many places and after weeks of scraping, my new table looked like a scratch and dent mess.  People that visited me during this time thought I was absolutely crazy for doing such a thing.  But we are practical people and this table had to provide us with a smooth cleaning surface for use.

The first picture below is during this peeling process, but it was not at the worst. 

Even though I now had the grooves filled in with polyurethane and I had removed all the other poly so that it was at the original stain level, there were lots of nicks and scratches and the poly in the grooves looked white instead of black as they were at the beginning.  So, I took a ruler and a black felt pen and went over every groove with the marker till they all looked black again.  I found a can of red mohagany stain in a storage closet and went over the whole table to help conceal all the scratches and gouges.  Then I put about six layers of poly over the whole table.  The outcome was amazing.  People  who saw the mess before couldn't believe it was the same table.  I was extremely grateful to the Lord for helping me complete the project successfully.  Whew, I'm glad that is over!

The second picture below shows the finished project.  

A Big Boy

Jason Koskela caught this 41.5 inch Northern Pike on Indian Lake this spring.  I asked him if he could hold that pose for just a few minutes.  Ha.  That fish is might heavy, so I didn't want to take too much time to position for the picture.  It's torturous to hold them out in front for very long like that.  But as you can see, Jason was quite happy with his catch of the day.