The Leaves are Falling

I had the opportunity this week of meeting Frieda Fairbanks, a life long resident of Oak Point where she lived and raised five daughters. Frieda told me a family legend concerning her husband's grandfather, John Ogema. In October of 1898 a battle between the Pillager band of Chippewa and the US Army took place. The troops under the command of Major Wilkinson, took a barge from Walker pulled by a steamer called the Flora headed toward Sugar Point to arrest the local chief Bug-o-nay-ge-shig. The Oak Point Indians including grandfather John Ogema had a group hidden in the woods along the narrows armed with guns in case the troops stopped at Oak Point. The troops didn't stop and no shots were fired . But family lore has it that if any shots had been fired grandfather would have headed home as fast as he could go. Frieda says you have to understand Native American humor to appreciate this story. What is interesting is that her family story is living history of our Oak Point area. I hope to have further talks with Frieda to learn more about our Oak Point area.
We found a local fruit this week called "Wild Crab Apples" that I didn't know even existed in this Oak Point area. We had to ask a local neighbor who spent her youth in the area what these fruits were. Pictured here are some Wild Crab Apples that we took off the Internet. The fruit we found was past peak ripeness but next year maybe we can get enough for some jelly. Apparently there are a number of these bushes or small trees down by the narrows. We are still enjoying our wild grape jelly with homemade English muffin bread.
Fall back is the word for tomorrow when daylight savings time ends on November 1st. My walking buddies and I will be glad to see that happen. We start walking at 7:30 AM every morning weather permitting. These last few days are real dark at 7:30 AM aided by overcast skies. This time of the year we wear blaze orange so that traffic can see us. Our 3 to 4 mile walk usually takes less then 1 1/2 hours , depending on the number of distractions. By distractions I mean how many neighbors stop and talk. If Jimmy Whipple stops he usually shuts off his car and we exchange neighborhood news. This week he wanted to talk about deer hunting.
More stories and talk about the deer opener coming up next Saturday the 7th. The neighborhood hunters are all going to the rifle range sight in their rifles. With the snow yesterday afternoon the deer are starting to move. We saw one this morning cross the road in front of us walkers. With hunting pressure and the upcoming rutting season the deer will be very active at night. That means slowing down with your cars on Oak Point Road. I hit a deer a few years back and it's not a pleasant thing, plus the hassle to get your car fixed.
We ate the last of our Leech Lake Walleyes. With my boat put away and the dock out. I will have to buy my fish now. We baked these fish with a shake and bake recipe and were they good.

Late October

In my opinion, fall is the most beautiful time of the year. Pictured here is the golden/yellow needled pine tree called Tamarack. Tamarack is the North American species of the larch tree, and are the only deciduous coniferous tree. They are commonly found in swampy areas and are very cold tolerant. These trees were found along the Oak Point Road. Other than the Tamarack the majority of the fall coloration is past their peak. Close to Leech Lake the mighty Oak Trees still have the majority of their leaves, their coloration has dulled, but they hang on the trees for a long time.
I also have a picture of the lake waters called the "Narrows". This connect the "Big Lake" to the Walker Bay area. This area is about 1/2 mile from the entrance to Oak Point Estates. Just to the right of the Narrows and to the south is the city of Walker. The Narrows is a great duck hunting area. Lots of boats pass through the Narrows on a daily basis.
The conversation at the local cafes and other neighborhood gathering areas has turned to where deer stands are going to be placed, what they are seeing with their trail cameras and the need to sight in rifles. The firearms season for Deer begins Saturday November 7th. Oak Point area is located in zone 100 that has a season from November 7th to the 22nd. Deer season is like a local holiday with many people coming back to their cabins and the locals have their friends up. I don't hunt deer and will have to rely upon my neighbors and friends to get me a venison taste.
The water temperature on the lake has come down quite a bit with the cold weather we have been having. The surface temperature is now in the mid 40's, down about 20 to 25 degrees in the last three weeks. We have had three days of rain this week which is helping the sloughs and wetlands.
The Oak Point Road project had a muddy week but the work continued every day. They replaced a number of culverts rain or shine. I still hope that the weather straightens out for a few more weeks.
Please contact me if I have made an error, last week I misspelled a critical word that was pointed out to me that I have now edited. Thank you. My email is nitchals@paulbunyan.net and my home phone is 218-335-2879 and cell phone is 218-760-3727. Give me some ideas on what you would like to read about.

Arrival of Fall at Oak Point

Today was the warmest and sunniest day that we have had in October. Highs in the mid 50's. We went from one of the warmest Septembers to one of the coldest, snowiest Octobers on record. Last week was dark, wet and windy. On Thursday morning, October the 15th we had a misty rain with the temps right at the freeze/thaw point, but two miles away from Leech Lake we had about two inches of snow! Thanks to the lake effect, close to the lake no snow.
On Thursday morning work on the Oak Point Road project began. Anderson Bros from the Brainerd area are the prime contractors. We are all wishing for about a three week period of "Indian Summer" so that most of the road can be completed before winter sets in. Typically, the first snow that stays will not come until Thanksgiving time. Also the big lake will freeze up about the first of December with Walker Bay having ice two weeks later. So we are hoping for some good road building weather.
The wild grape jelly turned out just great. Just Google wild grape jelly for a recipe. We ended up with about 14 pints. The jelly is great on homemade bread. I also got two keeper Walleyes this week which was a great taste treat.
My grandson Aaron and I learned a lesson in small town patriotism on Friday afternoon. A young soldier from Walker was killed in Afghanistan serving his country and they brought the body back to town in an motorcade escorted hearse with many, many area resident lining the streets in town in respect. The Walker Chamber put out an email alert.
A number of visitors were up at the lake this past weekend because most schools were closed for two days for MEA. Lots of docks and lifts came in for the winter. Many neighborhoods get together and work together. We hire a group of "boys" from Walker who brought my stuff in.
Pictured is some wild "Bittersweet" which is a poisonous perennial vine that had these oval coral red berries that add to fall decoration or wreaths.

Taste of Winter

We got a taste of winter this past week. Killing frost on Thursday morning and snow on Saturday morning. Most all of the snow was gone by Sunday afternoon. We still have plenty of leaves on the trees, many of them are just now at their color peak. Oak leaves will be the last to fall and are still green.
Picked wild grapes on Friday afternoon with my sister and her friend who were visiting from Iowa. In total we must have had about 8 gallons with the stems and leaves in the pails. We will be making wild grape jelly during the next few days. Wild grapes are about the size of pea and have a seed and are very intense in flavor and will need plenty of sugar. We find the wild grapes right along the lake shore or along ditches where can get plenty of sunlight. The wild grape vines trellis on small trees and shrubs with many up so high that we need to pull the vines down to get to the grapes.
Put my boat away for the winter with the help of a neighbor. I have two garages that get filled up with two cars, pickup, boat, two lawnmowers and a four-wheeler plus other possessions that we seemed to need.
Saw my first flock of Bluebills (Scaups) ducks that the winds blew down from up north. The bigger lakes in our area like Leech attract these speedy ducks that fly real fast just above the water with a whistling sound.
Nice to have high speed telephone connectivity at Oak Point so that I can watch all the sports activity from the Vikings, Twins and Gophers out in the wilderness by Leech Lake.

Fall Weather

Fall weather arrived with a rush on Monday of this week with a stiff NW wind. We had two mornings of frost away from the lake that I saw on my morning walks. We had rain, wind and much cooler weather here in early October. September turned out to be one of our warmer months this past summer. We are having evening fires in our fireplace now.
Duck hunting started this past Saturday. Duck number were up this year by an estimated 13 %. Leech Lake always has a good number of local hatches of Mallards and Wood ducks and a few other varieties. Oak Point Estates is just around the corner from the "Narrows" and wild rice areas that attract many duck hunters. Minnesota DNR reports that the number of duck hunters is slowly declining since the peak in 1999.
Got my hands on a copy of the "Mississippi River Headwaters Reservoir Operating Plan Evaluation" (ROPE). This report is the final operating plan and EIS for the 6 reservoirs that discharge water into the Mississippi River that are controlled by dams operated by US Army Corps of Engineers. The reservoirs studied were Cass Lake, Lake
Winnibigoshish, Leech Lake, Pokegama Lake and Sandy Lake. The original Leech Lake Dam was built in 1884 at the outlet of the Leech Lake River some 27 miles before the junction with the Mississippi River. The dam is called the Federal Dam (pictured here) where a small town with the same name sits. The results of this nearly eight year long study with various scenarios looked at is that no significant change in the Leech Lake water discharge will take place. The original purpose of these dams were to provide a constant water flow down river for the flour mills and saw mills in the Minneapolis area.