White Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving on Oak Point was white and cold. We had two snowfalls last week, one on Monday the 22nd, and the second one was on the afternoon of Wednesday the 24th and into the morning of Thanksgiving Day. We went to visit with our son, Matt and his family down in the cities. Thanks-giving is all about family and friends and the start of the Holiday Season. We all got a chance to say what we are thankful for.

We are getting another snowfall today Monday the 29th. The National Weather Service has a winter storm warning for our area today until noon tomorrow with new snows from 6 to 10 inches. With all the new snow one can easily see the deer tracks all over the places that I hunted. The big game specialist for the DNR was quoted as saying, It's looking like once everything is said and done we are looking at about 215,000 for the state wide kill."

Leech Lake ice has a lot of water on top of it thanks to the heavy snows. Walker Bay, Steamboat Lake and some of the larger lakes still have some open water. Yesterday I saw some fish houses out, which I think is way to early. I can't think of a Thanksgiving where we could go ice fishing this early.

Leech Lake Area

Watershed Foundation

The Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to promote activities that preserve and sustain the national resource of the area for the use and enjoyment of current and future generation. The Leech Lake Watershed is one of the 15 sub watersheds that drain into the Upper Mississippi. Our watershed consists of 674 lakes that all drain into Leech Lake. The total area consists of 855,000 acres of which Leech Lake is 111,500 acres. Our watershed is located in Cass, Hubbard and parts of Beltrami Counties. It's home to half of the Minnesota naturally reproducing Muskie lakes. One-third of the watershed area is in public ownership such as county, state and federal.

November Winter

We have moved into the winter season here on Oak Point. It's cold and snowy this morning. The ice on Leech Lake is as far as we can see all around the Oak Point area. The 2010 deer hunting season quietly ended Sunday evening, November 21st. I went out for the last time and sat in a stand and saw no other hunters or hear any shots. I had a great hunt, but no deer this year. It was good just to be a part of the annual hunt.

Oak Point Resort

Our neighbors Lee and Laura Nupson have been busy this fall at their resort. Pictured here is the latest addition, they built new living quarters above their lodge for them selves. Lee told me that they are doing quite well this year and that they are looking forward to December, because they have a number of reservations for their cabins and spearing houses. They will be putting out the spearing houses just as soon as the ice is strong enough. Its good to hear that they are doing well this year. I might be interested ion renting one of their spearing houses a time or two over the upcoming holidays. The Oak Point Resort has a website at http://www.oakpointresort.com/ or phone them at 218-335-2993.

Beltrami Electric Coop.

Our supplier of electric power on all of Oak Point is Beltrami Electric Coop. out of Bemidji. They have been around this past week notifying their clients that starting in mid December they plan on removing trees and brush in the oak Point area underneath their over head power lines. This is nothing new, they have been doing this clearing process about every 5 to 7 years for some time. It's necessary to protect us from power outages and the chance of danger to our property and persons. What is new though, is that they plan on coming through one year after the mechanical clearing and apply a herbicide to control resprouting of trees and brush. Along the Chippewa Beach Road area this can be as close as 250 ft. from Leech Lake. This makes me nervous and I plan on checking into this. The US Forest Service does not allow them to spray on any of their properties.

Beltrami Electric has someone to call and his name is Dan Edens, Manager of Operations at 218-444-3649. I call and talked to him how you can opt out of the spraying and he told me that before they spray they will be contacting each of us and we can decline to have our property sprayed. If you have any concerns about this spraying you can contact me or call Dan Edens.

First Snow

We woke up to our first covering of snow this morning. We must have 2" to 3" of the wet snow, compared to the 10" to 12" that they got down in the cities. The temps right now are in the low 30's with a forecast of somewhat higher temps for the next few days, so we are hoping for the snow to melt. Our son and family who live in south Mpls. were some of the unlucky homeowners whose electric power was knocked out.

Deer Hunting

Deer hunting continues here on Oak Point. The number of hunters in the woods are down some this weekend from last weekend, but still lots of blaze orange hunters are out. I had the privilege of going hunting with Gilbert Starr on Saturday morning. Gilbert grew up on Oak Point, Starr Point area, and he knows the area like the back of his hand. He show me the area that he has hunted over the years, included various tree stands. He has plenty of stories of successful hunts, both deer and bear, associated with various stands. With the new snow on the ground maybe that can help me locate a deer. The Minnesota DNR estimates that nearly 90,000 deer were taken during the first weekend from the approximate 450,000 hunters in the woods. I have until November 21 to get my deer.

Miscellaneous

Saw my first flock of swans flying over this morning. They are usually the last migratory birds that use the Leech Lake area as a stop on their way south. Saw some birds on the lake yesterday, I don't know if they were fisherman or duck hunters, but I suspect their days are limited. Usually by Thanksgiving we have some ice on the "big lake". We typically don't see any ice fishing houses out until sometime in December. Been burning plenty of oak wood in our fireplace these shorter days since we are back on Central Standard Time. Darkness comes early. So a warm fire and a warm supper in the oven is welcome. I cooked a bear steak in the slow cooker that turned out real tender and very tasty and was a great main dish with some locally grown potatoes.

It's That Time Again

The opening of the Minnesota Deer Firearms Season started on Saturday November 6th. It's like a state holiday here on Oak Point, second only to the Fishing Opener. Lots of hunters took to the woods Saturday morning. I have never seen more hunters out after the local deer herd. Oak Point is located entirely in Zone 197 where the season runs until Sunday November 21. I heard many success stories. Most of the larger parties had at least one successful hunter. I heard of one party that had three deer to their credit.

I went hunting myself for the first time in about 15 years. I was not successful myself, or should I say "not yet". I still have plenty of time. I had to borrow a rifle, buy some new blaze orange clothing, build a deer stand and bake some oatmeal cookies. I even had to find my hunting knife and sharpen it up. I had the help of my grandson Aaron, who visited us during the long MEA weekend, building the deer stand. Maybe sometime in the future we can get him up here for some hunting. It did feel strange sitting in the deer stand and listing to the Loons doings their musical serenade.

The weather we had was just great. We had wake up weather in the low 30's. Saturday we had a high in the high 40's and today we made the 50's with a calm winds. No rain. The strong winds that we had last week brought down some flocks of Bluebills ducks who fly over the surface of the water with a whistling noise.