We woke to one thing we never expected--a cool snap! It was chilly and very, very windy. 58 degrees with a 9 mph wind gusting to 30 mph. Straight from the north.
Ed was not meant to have minnows this trip. His traps were only minimally effective--I think he got a few small perch in them. But the guys next door brought minnows from their pond and they gave us some, several times. The first time they were all dead, so Ed fished them to little effect. Then the second time, he left them in the minnow bucket in the lake but the wind blew it over and the lid came off. And then, as the people were leaving, they gave us all their remaining minnows. After the day's winds died down Ed put them out in the lake...and then the morning gusts tossed it over again. Ay!
While I was taking the dogs on their morning walk, Ed saw a couple of animals swim by going north, then later, one of them swam back by in the opposite direction. According to our next door neighbor, they were beaver. Very likely, but from the look I got at one next morning, not conclusive. But they were clearly larger than muskrats and possibly larger than nutria, which range up to 24 inches long. But neither of us got a good look at them.
A lot of people cleared out that night. All that was left nearby were 2-3 campers and the campground host. The host, it turned out, was the neighbor with the incredibly annoying colored and white lights that prevented me having my windowshade open at night. What kind of moron does that? If we ever come back here, don't get sites 1 or 2 just on the chance that the same moron host is there with the same stupid outdoor lights. We'll go further down the row.
Despite the wind, we fished. I caught a tiny perch of some sort; Ed caught a small catfish and while we were trying to decide if it was big enough to keep, it finned him so badly, he ended up throwing it off just to get rid of the pain. And of course the fin carved out an even bigger slice of his hand. Ouch. Can't blame him, though. The father of the family fishing with us looked sad to see a nice fish like that thrown away.Aside: this family, that we fished with three days in a row (off and on), were superb. Not fancy; not demonstrative; just home folk. Like my family. There was a father who was as dedicated to fishing dawn to dusk. He kept the kids in line, but in a soft-spoken way. An older boy had a spinning reel with a lure; he was also serious fisherman. Then two girls and a boy, of mixed ages. If I'd had to guess it would be girl-boy-girl. One of the girls was as into fishing as I used to be at that age, and on the last day she got her reward--a lovely little catfish! She--and her sibs--were thrilled.
The mother was nice and kind of quiet; we only spoke briefly on the last day. She asked me if I was looking at birds and I replied, deprecatingly--yes, looking, but not finding much. She reminded me of one of Edward's friends' moms--smart as a whip, but shy about it.
Coolest thing--a kingbird attacking a pair of crows at water's edge, and then the attack was joined by a scissortail! They teamed up and chased off one of the crows and the other followed along. I also saw an immature eagle flap/soaring across the lake. He looked and flew exactly like the adult bald eagle I'd seen the previous day, but he was mottled tan and brown.At suppertime it was still a little too windy for enjoying Hibachi-style barbeque, plus we hadn't thawed any of it out. So we took a break from cooking outdoors and had Kielbasi and potato salad and canned pinto beans. Excellent supper and the sunset was out of this world. It was copied straight from the screen of 2001 A Space Odyssey or one of the many animated SCI FI movies I've seen. Sometimes sunsets are majestic, putting you in the mind of gods, kings and magic castles, but not this one! It was all lines and geometrics and colored super nova...distant galaxies when the aliens have hijacked your spaceship and are pulling you into danger...
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