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.

Sunrise over Leech Lake

This beautiful sunrise picture was taken about 6:45 AM overlooking the "big lake" with Goose Island to the left. Oak Point Estates faces easterly with about 20 plus miles of lake between us and the far shore. Leech Lake is the third largest lake in Minnesota. It has over 112,000 acres of surface water area. Because of the warm temps we have been having in September this year the water temps are still very warm. This time of the year the warm water has a positive impact on our temperatures on land around the lake, I call it the "lake effect". When we get up in the mornings our temps will between 4 to 10 degrees warmer than away from the lake depending on the wind. The only drawback to the positive lake effect is that the payback will come in the spring when we have a large ice cube covering the lake and it will keep the temps cool and the trees will not bud out for two weeks later then away from the lake.
Oak Point Road project had been advertised for bids that were to be submitted by last Friday the 25th of September for the whole 15.65 miles of road. I will use all my sources to find out who the low bidder is this week. The work involves some new culverts, stripping the old bituminous surface and putting down a new bituminous surface. We hope the weather holds until the project is completed.
Oak Point used to be called "Squaw Point" for many years. A group of high school girl students found the word offensive and as school project sought get it changed. They started to write letters and found a sympathetic ear in a state senator who introduced a bill that allowed counties to change the name of geographic features of the area. In February of 1995 the Cass County Board changed the name to "Oak Point". I hope to cover more local history in the weeks ahead. If anyone has a suggested topic, or question, please send me and email. nitchals@paulbunyan.net
Our first frost is forcast for tomorrow morning but I expect the "lake effect" will keep us arm right around the lake.

Great Weather Continues

Another great week of above normal weather with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. The local gardeners love it because all of those green tomatoes that didn't ripen in August are getting red now. Next Tuesday September 22 at 4:18 CDT is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall. Pictured here are some wild grapes that grow on Oak Point. They need a frost which will bring on the sugar to the berries so that some grape jelly can be made. We have to get to the grapes before the birds and animals get them.
The Sumac leaves are starting to change to red. Sumac is deciduous woody shrub that grows in ditches, under power lines and along the edges of forested areas. The Native Americans used Sumac for food and medicine. The native folklore says that sumac foretells the weather and change of the seasons. For these reasons the Sumac were held as a sacred plant.
We had relatives that came for a visit this week who proceeded to catch a mess of Walleyes in the middle of the day, so we had beer batter fried walleyes. Always a treat.
Small Game Hunting Season started on Saturday September 19th for Grouse, Squirrels and Rabbits. Outdoor News reported that more bear have been harvested during the first two weeks of the 2009 hunting season then in all of 2008. Duck hunting begins the first Saturday in October.
The acorns continue to fall. At least once a day I use my leaf blower to roll them off my driveway.

September Weather

These last two weeks have been some of the best weather weeks we have seen this summer. Warming to the 70's and 80's during the day and staying around 60 degrees at night. The moon is called Manoominike Giizis, the wild rice making moon in Ojibwe country. Rice harvesting is at it's peak. Pictured is a common sight in and around Leech Lake, a car or pickup with one or two canoes and at least one long pole. Rice harvesting is still done the tradition way with a canoe and two occupants, one who poles the canoe though the wild rice beds and the other who who has two shorter wooden stakes one of which bends the rice over the canoe and the other to gently knock the grain off the stalk into the canoe. The raw rice is then sold to the DRM (Division of Resource Management) in Cass Lake where it's processed and sold. I bought three pounds this past week of the local rice harvest. I made a wild rice, venison sausage casserole, this evening for dinner and it was delicious. There is a world of differance between commercially grown wild rice and the native grown Leech Lake wild rice.

The recipe I used is as follows, 1 lb venison sausage (any balk sausage will do), one medium onion chopped, two cups of chopped celery, 1 cup of wild rice (uncooked), 1 can of cream of mushroom, beef boulion and french onion soups, two cans of mushrooms (including liquid). Brown sausage and drain, add onion and celery and cook until soft. Mix and put all the ingrediants in casserole and bake at 400 degree for one hour. Add dried cranberries for color and added sweet taste.

A third bear was taken from the neighborhood. It was taken from a stand where one of the earlier bears were taken.

This last weekend Walker celebrated its 17th annual Ethnic Fest to celebrate the many diverse cultures, food, music that make up our community. I still wonder which ethnicity the pork chop on a stick comes from.

Labor Day Weekend

The first weekend of September is bringing us great summer weather unlike any that we have ever experienced this summer. Highs in the 80 's, clear skies and just a slight wind. Lots of people are visiting with family and friends up north at the lake this long weekend. And if by magic, Mother Nature's time clock in Maple Trees, called Photosynthesis is now telling the Maples it's time to start changing the color of the leaves especially for the Sugar Maples. Various shades of reds and yellows are starting to appear.

Two Black Bear were taken the first days of the hunting season in our neighborhood by local families. It's quite a process to get the bear out of the woods, pictures taken and into the local locker for processing. The expensive decision is what to do with the hide, rug or mount.

Had a good visit with the owner of the Oak Point Resort this week. He said that business is going just great this summer. Just about doubled the 2008 numbers. He and his boys were putting up some new spearing houses for rental this winter for Northern Pike. Its important for all of us that a good vibrant resort be a part of our Oak Point community.

New Oak Point Newsletter came this week and we put a copy on our website http://www.oakpointestatesmn.com/ .