Seasons Greetings

'tis the Holiday Season here on Oak Point at Leech Lake. Our neighborhood comes alive between Christmas and New Years. Many families, relatives and friends will spend a few days up at the cabin to enjoy Christmas Vacation time. Cross country skiing, snow shoeing, ice fishing and an assortment of other winter outdoor activities will be popular. Fires in the fireplace and good hearty meals, games and reading will be a part of indoor family activities. So far it appears that the winter weather is going to cooperate.

I am attaching a picture of an enormous living Red Oak Tree that is located on Oak Point Estates. I measured the circumference at 10 ft. 8 in. about three feet up from the base. I estimate the height of this tree in the 80 to 90 ft. range. It was difficult to get a clear picture of this tree because of it's size. I had a fairly clear view from quite a few feet back. On my August 30th Blog I wrote about a dead red Oak Tree that we estimated at 135 to 140 years old that was smaller then this tree. Based on that I would estimate this tree in the 200 year old age range. Wow.

I am also including a picture of a Bald Eagle's nest on a branch of a large White Pine tree, also located on Oak Point Estates. Two young eagles were hatched in this nest this past year. I have heard that some of these nests can weigh up to a ton or greater in size. There was another active Eagle nest about a quarter nile down the road towards the "Narrows". That nest had two young eagles as well this last summer.

Tomorrow , Monday December 21, 2009 will be the shortest day of the year called the winter solstice. The winter solstice is an astronomical event which happens each year when the tilt of the Earth's axis is the farthest away from the Sun in the northern hemisphere. The North Pole points directly away from the Sun. Our Sunrise tomorrow will be at 8:05 am with Sunset at 4:29 pm.

The "Outdoor News" dated December 18, 2009 had an interesting article entitled, "State Officials Mull Next Five Years for Leech Lake". The article talked about the last five years with the problems with the lake's fisheries and the dramatic turnaround after three major actions were undertaken. They were first, the protective slots and new limits on Walleyes, second, the eliminaqtion of 12,000 Cormorants and third, the intense stocking of Walleyes. The Minnesota DNR estimates the 2009 harvest was 87,000 pounds of Walleyes.

January Weather

It seems like we just skipped December and went straight to January. This whole week has been very cold, below normal cold. We have had several mornings with below zero temperatures, in fact today started out about 7 or 8 below and I don't think it ever got above zero. We were lucky though, with the big snow storm that hit the Midwest hard we only got about 2 inches of snow. We have stayed nice and warm in our house using our wood fireplace. Oak wood is the greatest.

Plenty of ice being made on Leech Lake these days. Some of the guys have their fish houses out already. Our neighborhood resort, Oak Point Resort, has their spearing houses out. They are available for rent at $45.00 per day which I think is real reasonable. You can get a hold of them via their website, www.oakpointresort.com


I did walk every day this past week with a neighbor, sometimes we waited until noon or later to stretch our legs, but we made it. We usually go about 3.5 to 4 miles which keeps the body warm.

Lake Ice

Winter weather came with December. On Thursday the 3rd it was real cold in the afternoon and I watched ice forming along the edge of the "Big Lake", by sundown we had ice as far as I could see. By Friday morning we were iced over past Goose Island.
November temperates were the third warmest on record. December is the 3rd snowiest month of the year with an average snow fall of 8.6 inches. The average temps start on December 1st at 29 degrees and by the 31st its 19 degrees.

The following is a story by CJ Fairbanks, daughter of Frieda Fairbanks who grew up out on Oak Point. The story is entitled: My Encounter with the Caretaker?

On a balmy Saturday evening, as I sat chatting with my favorite Auntie, a notion hit us, "Let's go set Net!" Setting net is a Northern Minnesota Native American Tradition. We have been doing this for centuries to supplement our food supply. We set our nets in the early dusk to avoid the boaters running around the lake. We leave the nets out all night and pick them up in the morning. But this encounter happens after we are done setting our nets.

We were forced to row out to where we drop net where we fish in the Narrows because the boat with the motor refused to be involved in our plans. As we were rowing back through the ever-darkening night we noticed a round light shining brightly over Goose Island. I pointed this out to my paddling Auntie and she said it was Venus, the first star that shines at night. I thought how smart she is to know that. "Well," I said "Auntie, the light is getting bigger and brighter." She said to "keep rowing." I told her I think it was an airplane. We kept rowing and the light kept coming closer and closer. Pretty soon it was right over us. We didn't hear a sound, just a bright light illuminating us like we were on Broadway. We quit rowing and sat in stunned silence.

From out of nowhere a huge launch came flying toward us. We were dead center in the middle of the channel. The launch was sure to hit us if we weren't under the glare of the light. Apparently, the launch saw us from afar and was able to go around us. We were alive. The caretakers light just disappeared. We don't know where it went and we didn't notice it when it disappeared. All we knew was that it saved our lives! We paddled as fast as we could to get back to shore and to this day I think about my encounter with my caretaker.

The old ones used to say that dead members of the tribe were put in the trees on Goose Island instead of being put in the ground. That is why I say caretaker, or should I say caretakers?

I enjoyed this story because it links the past to the present and it's about my local environs of the Narrows, Goose Island and Oak Point.

We went Christmas tree shopping out in the Chippewa National Forrest. For $5.00 you get a permit to cut your own tree.