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. 

Lakes Are Opening Up

This week we had a surprise visit from John's brother Larry, his wife Kathi, their daughter Holly, and Grandma Nona, John's mother. They arrived in the rain on Monday, but Tuesday was a gorgeous, sunny, brisk day perfect for hiking up to the overlook on Indian Lake. I took a few pictures so you could see the progress of ice melting. But do you also notice the white streak in one of the pictures? That is our dog sled trail for trips in the winter. It is still white since it was packed all winter by snowmobile and dog sled teams and cross country skiers, like John, Joanna and me.

I predict the ice will be out by April 15th on Indian Lake. What is your guess? Sandbar Lake is all open next to the 325 Road and shallower lakes like Arethusa are close to being all opened up.

Joanna and I will be leaving Sunday to drive down to Ely and share an Easter service at Oasis Intl, our daughter Cherish's church before leaving Monday for the twin cities to fly down to North Carolina to visit Mom and Dad. Then after a ten day visit with them in Franklin, NC we drive with them over to Pensacola Beach, Florida for a grand Jackson family reunion. It will be Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, the Jackson five kids, their kids and their kid's kids. Did you follow that? Mom and Dad spent our inheritance to rent a gorgeous three story beach house so we could all be in the same building. Our son Jonathan, his wife Reseth and our 8 month old grandbaby Aaron now live in Pensacola, Florida where he is being trained as a navigator for the Air Force. They will be moving in June to another base, so we thought this was the best opportunity to get everyone together.

We should be back to Ignace, well oiled and well tanned by April 30 to start cleaning all the cabins and finish some last minute renovations here at camp.
It won't be long and this place will be hustling and bustling again with our fine fishermen.

Goodbye to the Two Holer

Last summer, John completed two new outhouses for the campground which were badly needed. The old two holer had become a recliner. The back end was sinking in the ground, making it quite difficult to get up after completing your business.

Using his indispensable backhoe/loader, John dug holes that were about 10 feet deep for the new toilets. No worry of them ever filling up. He also put clear plastic roofs on them, filling them with plenty of light to see, except at night of course.

Yesterday was the day set for the demise of the two holer since we still had enough snow on the ground to make it safe to burn it. He drove his backhoe/loader over to the toilet, then using his bucket, he began the demolition. It was fun to watch and probably fun to be the operator in the cab. After it was satisfactorily smashed flat, John lit a match to it and we had a bonfire. (Not one that we wanted to roast weiners over, however)

It's a lot nicer view now facing west from our dining room. And we hope our campers enjoy their new toilets.

Our Tribute To Saga

You've probably heard that phrase from years ago that was used to advertise a TV show called The Wide World of Sports moderated by Howard Cosell. It talked about "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."
I think our family just experienced that in a different sort of way. As you may have read in a previous blog, Joanna won her first dog sled race at the 83 mile Midnight Run in Marquette, Michigan. What a thrill it was to be waiting for her at the finish line and see her and the team pop over the hill in first place! It was quite a moment.

This week it feels like we are experiencing the agony of defeat. Joanna's beautiful and precious 23 month old Irish Setter began to limp after returning from a walk. It seemed she wasn't able to put any weight on her left back leg. In fact her whole back end was a bit wobbly. We just assumed she had somehow banged her leg and would heal by resting and staying off of it for awhile as she has in the past. We called our vet to make an appointment to get her checked out.

But after a few days of rest, she was worse and had also acquired a gurgly sound in her breathing. Alarmed, we rushed her to the vet in Dryden on Sunday where they examined her and came to the conclusion she had either a fungal or bacterial infection of some kind in her spinal area. It sounded serious. They wanted to keep her to put her on I.V.'s and antibiotics to start counteracting the infection and run some blood and urine tests to see if they could pinpoint the problem.

After conferring with other vets, including an online forum, our vet decided to put her on the antibiotic specifically for Blastomycosis hoping she would respond. On Wednesday we drove to Dryden to bring her home and continue the drug treatment for Blasto. But when we got there, the vet carried her out to us and sadly explained that she was not better, but her condition had worsened. Now Saga had lost the use of both her back legs and she had no bladder control. We followed him to an examination room in the back and laying her on the table, he went over all they had done to try to help her. Her symptoms were still a bit baffling to everyone, but the consensus was that she most likely had intradiscal spondylitis and she had already sustained permanent injury to her spine. The condition would only worsen. The clinic staff said Saga was a very sweet and cooperative patient and they were sorry that there really was nothing more they could do.

We soon realized, with crushing dismay, that our only choice was to put her to sleep. As we cried, Saga lay on the table, totally unaware of the present disastrous situation, looking at us with those big brown eyes, licking our hands and probably wondering when we were going to take her home. We spent a few more minutes petting her and kissing her goodbye. How do dogs work their way so deeply into our hearts?

Each day we relive happy memories of Saga and the joy she brought to our lives. She was not only stunningly beautiful, but she had such a free, fun-loving, excited- about- life, personality. In just a year and a half, she had become an obedient, mature dog who enjoyed being loved and cuddled. She displayed cute quirks like carrying around a pillow from her crate, making comfy beds for herself with blankets and some of Joanna's clothes on the floor, playing hide and seek with Sabre, and acting like a Mommy with sled dog puppies. John got a kick out of the way she would sit by the garage, waiting for someone to come out and play even when we were trying to beckon her into the house. He would often take her on walks in the woods with Sabre. Sabre has been unusually sober lately too. I think he misses his little playmate. The house seems emptier without our little ray of sunshine...our redhead.

Thank you Saga for bringing such joy to our home. We'll never forget you!!