Fishing is Hot

 At the beginning of the season, we were praying for rain.  Already there had been more forest fires in the area this spring than last year, so we knew the dryness was a serious condition.  Thankfully the rains have come... and keep coming.  It seems like it rains a bit every day.  The lake is up now to where it needs to be and all the new trees, and gardens I have planted have been thoroughly watered with the rain.  It sure saves me a lot of time going around watering with a hose. 

The may flies are in full season, but that has not stopped the excellent fishing on Indian Lake and the whole area.  Some campers from Wisconsin and Illinois Jim Fitzgerald, Kevin Hodgson Mike Fitzgerald and his son Mike are having great success on Indian Lake as well as some newcomers, the Bob Jensen family from Edgerton, Wisconsin.  They went out this morning and came back with a string of walleyes and said they had to keep throwing them back because they had already caught their limit.  That's a fine problem to have, I think.  They were all smiles.

Fish Galore

I don't know... it kinda looks like the younger guys are showing up the older guys.  Well, not really.  We're seeing some really good sized fish these days in camp.  Though the rainy, windy weather lately has been a challenge for the fishermen, they are still bringing in some nice fish.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Adam and Levi Strong ( number 1 and 4 in the order of pictures) are cousins who both caught some fish to be proud of.  Others in the Strong family , Ken (picture #3) and Tim ( picture #5) landed some smallmouth as well.  In fact , I heard a lot of the guys were finding schools of smallmouth this week.

Quentin Dernovsek (picture #2) caught this 39 inch northern pike on nearby Heathwalt Lake.  Doesn't that mouth look like that of an alligator?  Way to go Quentin!!

Brad Speichinger (picture #6) was fishing with his Dad , Eric, when this monster grabbed his hook.
It is fun to feel the excitement of these young people as they get to experience the adventure of catching the different species of fish on these wilderness lakes.  I commend their fathers and grandfathers for providing this wonderful experience that creates a memory for a lifetime and will hopefully perpetuate it in families of their own someday.  The great outdoors is where it is at!!!!

Moving Closer

We received some exciting news last Friday.  Jonathan and his family will be leaving Pensacola, FL where he underwent fifteen intense months of training to become a navigator with the Air Force, and moving to Omaha, Nebraska.  That is great news to us since they will now be within reasonable traveling distance for us to see them more often.   That little grandson is such a cutie pie and this Grandma and Grandpa are longing to be with him more, along with his parents.  So, congratulations to you Jonathan.  You made it through and did a super duper job.  We are so proud of you all.

The Grand Family Reunion

I apologize to all our readers for the tardiness in posting on Our Blog.  I realize it was the first part of April since you have seen anything about Agimac River Outfitters.  Please accept my humble apologies.  We have been through some highs and lows here that have made it impossible to publish on Our Blog. 

Joanna and I left for North Carolina the first week of April to visit my Mom and Dad.  We spent ten wonderful days enjoying their company as well as my sister and her family.  Then we all drove to Gulf Port, Alabama where my parents had rented a three story beach house right on the Gulf of Mexico.  It was a gorgeous place featuring modern facilities throughout and even a small pool on an expansive sunning deck.  My other two brothers and two sisters met there as well with their children.  Our daughter Cherish flew down from Minnesota, but John had to remain in camp to take care of the place and feed the dogs.  We had 25 people in all.  Our son Jonathan and his wife Reseth and their 8 month old Aaron are presently stationed in Pensacola, Florida, so since he was working , Reseth and the baby came and stayed with us too.  I was thrilled to be able to spend so much time with Reseth and my grandbaby as you can imagine.  Thankfully, Jonathan's flight training schedule permitted him to join us on quite a few occasions.

It was one of the most memorable times of my life.  Having all my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, Mom and Dad, all in one place for a week...wow.  It had never happened before and I doubt it will ever happen again.  My mother's health is failing due to cancer and this was her greatest desire - to gather her family together one last time at the beach. 

All kinds of activities transpired during the week.  We played a board game together that left us laughing so hard, we were in tears.  Volleyball games, kite flying, sun bathing, boogie boarding, fishing, eating out, seeing lots of marine life go by, like schools of porpoises and manna rays, watching a Blue Angels practice on base, lots of conversations and interacting, tennis, tons of yummy food, did I mention laughter?, loving on the two toddlers, watching the two toddler boy cousins interact, and all culminating in one large family picture and a meaningful gathering the last evening together.  Unforgettable.

We returned home the first week of May to find that John had successfully arranged for the Bell radio telephone repairman and two tower climbers to work on putting up a new antenna on our 60 foot tower to hopefully restore our radio telephone to working status.  We had no phone service for three months!!  What the repairman determined is that trees may have grown on the hills between us and Silver Dollar, blocking our radio telephone signal.  So, they thought they would try to put up a more powerful antenna to transmit the signal.  We waited three months for this to happen.  Finally on April 27th, we were able to have a working phone.  I use that term "working" loosely.  There was a lot of static at first, then the static left and no one could hear us very well.  We are still trying to get more help from them on this issue.

However, more excitement was soon to follow.  The second week of May our computer crashed, then a few days later we lost internet access and had no idea why.  I took our laptop with me to town each week to try to keep up on emails, while we worked with a company in India to get our computer working again and tried to figure out what the problem was with either our modem, our cable or the dish for satellite internet.  After two weeks, we finally deduced that the cable was bad and replaced it.  Then there was the matter of restoring all our files and folders lost in the computer crash.  We're still working on that one.  So you see we were out of commission due to technical issues.  My hat goes off to those who can patiently
brainstorm their way through the maze of computer issues that plague us from time to time.  It is definitely NOT my forte.  I figure the Lord is teaching me patience and long suffering attributes to develop my character.  :)

Thank you for YOUR patience in hearing from us again.