DEVIL DOG

Remember "Devil Dog" He lives in my dog's body. And when you least suspect it, He comes out .
Devil Dog wasn't there when I took Flynn for a ride in the Truck . Flynn was sitting like a gentleman when I went into the store. He rode like an ace when we went driving, He didn't bark when I got out to take pictures of ducks in the park. Then all of a sudden He wouldn't sit still. He was pacing over the seat. I should have seen the signs. Devil Dog was getting stronger, Flynn was losing the inner Battle. He was barking at people on the street. Thank God I had only one more stop before I could head home.

When I came out of the convenient store with my coffee Flynn was gone, Devil Dog had taken full control. And He had violated my hula dancer. He pooped on the floor and ripped up the paper I had on the dash. Now I had to drive home smelling dog poop with my news paper blowing out the window' and my poor hula dancer had her butt sticking out for the whole world to see.
Needless to say I wasn't to pleased. But when we got home He was all sweet again. But was it
Flynn or was it Devil Dog? I chained him up outside just the same. He gave me that look like "What did I do." I don't know what to think. He needs either a psychiatrist or an exorcist.

HEAD SHOT

HEAD SHOT
This is a sad story of a hair cut that went terribley wrong.

It all started out as a bad hair cut. What's the diferance between a good hair cut and a bad hair cut? About two weeks. No big deal right? Well probably not, But I could fix it right now. So I got out the sheep shear clippers and went at it.

That was my first mistake. But then I figured Grandma could fix My mess. That was my next mistake. So I guess I'd have to fix the mess Grandma made. And on it went tell I got what you see. That was three days ago so it's starting to grow back. In another six months I can go into the barber shop and get a hair cut. And if I leave it alone two weeks after that I'll have a good hair cut.

RAINBOW STEW

***RAINBOW STEW***

When I was a kid in the early sixties we boys had an old friend who was kind of a hermit that lived on the edge of town. We didn't know his real name. We all just knew him as Texas Bill. He was harmless and everybody knew it. But our parents didn't like us over their a lot. He was kind of wild and ruff around the edges. He told wild stores about his cowboy days. He told us that he actually shot and killed Comanche Indians and other bandit's. Our parents all said it wasn't true He was crazy and making up stuff. We didn't know for sure but we liked the stores.

We did know for sure he was a good trapper. He would snare rabbits and squirrels and other small animals. Or he would shoot them with his .22 rifle and He tough us all to do it to.

Every Saturday Me, Russel, Marty, Wally and a few others would show up. We'd go out in the woods with him to check His traps and see what we were having for lunch. And part of the unwritten rules for our Saturday rainbow stew was we had to steal something to put in the pot. Texas said we was suppose to get it without anybody knowing we were taking it. And by "it" I mean things like potato's or onions or carrots anything eatable that we could sneak away from home. Just something to put in the pot to share with the others.

Well that's all fine and good. I think most of our parents knew about it and chose not to say anything. After all whats a hand full of green beans or a can of corn.

But one of the worst exceptions was Russel's father. He was kind of mean and didn't like anybody. So if Russel got caught swiping anything for the stew He'd get a whipping.

Well on this particular day that's exactly what happened. When Russel's father came home from work He went out to water His garden. He discovered someone had taken three of His biggest tomato's. Then somehow He found out what us boys were up to.

He showed up at Texas Bills shack with the cops. We were in his back yard sitting around the picnic table and on stumps We used for stools. The big black pot was still bubbling over the camp fire. Russel's father came over ranting and raving his face was red, spit was coming out of his mouth.

And as Russel will tell you to this day for a fat man His father can hit pretty hard. And he started hitting Russel then and there on the side of the head knocking Him to the ground. The cop didn't do anything to stop Him. But Texas Bill picked up his rifle which wasn't loaded but it made a good club, even for Texas who was about one hundred years old. He hit Russel's father with the rifle butt right in the face.

Then the cop stepped in and grabbed Russel's father before He killed old Texas. Russel's father had blood on his mouth and a broken tooth. Texas told Him "If you hit that boy again, I will put a bullet in this here gun and shoot you right between the eyes". Everybodys mouth' went wide open. Including Russel's father and the cop's.

Then in a small cowardly voice Russel's father turned to the cop and said. " Did you hear what he said to me". The cop looked at Him then He looked at the old man with the gun, and at us. He turned back to Russel's father and said " I heard Texas say if you hit the kid again He's going to press charges."

Russel's father was real careful about what He said about Texas or our rainbow stew Saturdays. But He was still a mean man and every now and then we seen or heard something. But we were afraid to tell Texas. Because we knew he would kill him and end up in jail. Russel wouldn't tell us anything.

We were around thirteen or fourteen, what could we do? We told our parents. All they said was stay away from Russel's house. We couldn't do that, Russel was our friend. And we quietly wanted to let Russel's father know we were around watching and we were Texas Bills friends.

Well, Russel made it. He grew up and moved in with His brother in His senior year. The rest of us made it to.

***************THE END***************

A PAIR OF GEESE

I don't know what's more interesting the two geese with no ware to go, or the two feet of ice that won't go. I took this picture yesterday. This time of the year the ice should be gone. All the rivers are flowing over banks into the lake and it's melting around the sides. But other then that 10 to 15 feet of watter you can see their is at least two feet of ice. Fishing season opens in six more days.
My busy time at work is from ice out for three to four weeks. I need to be on the lake lowering docks and putting in boat lifts. It takes a crew of three in one boat about four weeks of long days and weekends just to get all the docks that we have down. And on the bardg the two of us will take about three weeks to place all the boat lifts. If this isn't all ready by opener customers start to complain. We can't do anything about the ice but some of these cabin owners seem to think it's our fault. Is the customer right? I dough it.

p.s day before yesterday I got a bad hair cut I tryed to fix it it got worse. To make a long story short I shaved my head.

GRANDMA

This is Grandma it's hard to get a picture of her without a grand kid in her lap or cooking me something to eat. Or cleaning up some mess me or the dog made. But we all love her and need her to keep us balanced.

These are some pictures of my beautifully blushing Bride Wanda Mari. It's seems like just yesterday we walked down the isle.

This July it will be 37 years. And she's still pretty but I somehow got old. How did that happen? She doesn't have one gray hair and what hair I have left is mostly gray.

This afternoon we're having My sister and Brother in law over for dinner so I,m going to help clean up the mess the dog made out of the back porch. And I'll try to be helpfull in other ways. But Grandma always tells me I'm more help if I just get out of the way.

MILKING FISH

O.K; these are some pictures of the hatchery that I took this morning. They are not in the order I planned. But I'll try to explain.

The picture above is a picture of the special river mud that's brought in for this purpose. The reason being that the egg's are slime so they have to be coated in this real fine mud to keep them seperated from each other. This is a picture of a Lake Vermilion walleye. "very tasty" This is a good size female full of eggs. In the fish world females are always bigger then the males.

This is the part every one wanted to see these fish are being milked. You hold the fish by the head and gentle squeeze and rub toward the tail. From a fish this size you will get about a quarter of a cup. OK boys and girls now for the big surprise these fish that are being milked are Male's.

In all fish the female lays the egg's and the male comes later and deposits his milk over the area where the eggs are. And with a little luck the baby fish "which are caller fry" will hatch. In the walleye's case it will take about three weeks. Then if they haven't been eaten by other fish they will grow into whats called a fingerling. A fingerling is about two inches long. At this point they are quit a bit safer from predators so they can be put back into the lake or be transported to other lakes.

The picture above is of a female being striped of it's eggs. The egg's come out the same way the milk does. gently rub from front to back. It's not uncomon for a fish to have egg's that weigh thirty to fifty percent of its body weight.

This is an area where it all takes place. These men and women are on walkways over traps catching fish. Some are getting fish out of traps, some are striping egg's out of the females, some are turning them lose into the river and Yes Tylen some are milking fish

PIKE RIVER HATCHERY

I just came back from a trip to the Pike River Hatchery. It's about five miles out of town. This time of the year the D&R traps walleye in the river that runs into Lake Vermilion. They started trapping about a week ago and will be trapping for at least two more weeks.

When I got their I run into an old friend of mine. His name is Charlie, He's retired and moved up here from Texas five years ago. He works at the hatchery six weeks a year. He says it's fun but six weeks a year is all He wants.

In every one of these beakers is 110,000 walleye eggs that will turn into 110,000 fish. They will be shipped to just about every lake in Minnesota. Ten percent will be put back into our lake. The D&R says that in the wild due to predators and bad luck only ten percent will make it. In the hatchery almost one hundred percent will live. So I guess that's fair.
Charlie said that if I come back tomorrow I could get some pictures of the adult fish being milked and striped of their eggs. So you know ware I'll be. I wish Tylen was here I'd give his teacher a note and we'd play hooky for half a day. If he's going to be a duck framer he should know how to milk a fish.