July and August...ugh

Sorry Nick and Lisa; I have never been a fan of July. It's hot, sticky, and the fish don't bite. And August? Don't EVEN get me started...




July 1st:


So....Despite my dislike for the month of July, were actually able to find some fish early on. Though not many, the fish we did catch were stout to say the least. Paul and I fished the morning together out of the Clara Lee and found some waldos in the process.

The afternoon outing I was able to convince the Mrs. to join us and she was a good sport about it. We only managed two fish the entire evening, but the two we caught were dandies!


39 inch pike!

24 inch waldo for Paul.

July 4th:


Blast to Nick and Lisa's place to help out with a few projects, shoot some guns, and pick up the mattresses. It was nice to help Nick out, at the time, life was pretty shitty and he spent most of his time in a puddle in a chair, or laid out on the nearest flat surface. Also Lisa is starting to look a little pregnant...As am I.

Despite the heat and their competitive nature, these two pups were borderline inseparable for reasons I don't understand.
#Bestiesforlife

Though a blasting trip there and back, we were able to get all mattresses loaded and strapped for their new home in Clark. When I eventually find the pic I will include it.


July 17th:


During one of my trips to Mobridge for work, I finally stopped in the Cathedral of the Prairie in Hoven, SD.

August 4th:


I have FINALLY completed the bed frame for Rachel. All salvaged lumber, it amazed me how much money still went into the damn thing. The beams came from my Grandpa Rex when he worked at Lindsey's years ago. Because we Livermore's cannot let go of things, my father had saved those beams through many moves and was going to finally throw them during the Dike move purge, but my Livermore blood kept them and stored them in my Father-in-Law's shed....


With these beams I made the frame for the bed including the head and footboard. the paneling part of them is again, salvaged oak flooring. This is some stout stuff and made for a spectacular finish.


I had been sitting on this project for way too long and a visit to my Uncle Randy's fueled my desire to finish the job and to do it right. With a loaner router (which ran scary awesome) I was able to router out a groove in the top and bottom beams of the head and footboards. This gave for a much more professional finish, and invariably a stronger product. THANK YOU RANDY!!!!!!!


So with having been married to Rachel for 6-ish years, I would say that I did quite well to get this done for her in a timely matter!

About the same time I finished the bed, Rachel finished the bathroom tiles in our bathroom. Through a seriously long winded debacle, we tiled the hallway AND our bathroom. Rachel did a splendid job with both and now we have matching tiles, and nowhere for Lou to pee but outside!!!

We have had visitors galore intermixed within the weekends and have enjoyed the company. Rachel's frustrations with hobbies has propelled her to move forward with making more of her cookies and cakes. Hopefully she can sell a few and fund more bullets for me!


As August comes to an end I find more self in sweet relief of the heat, and anticipation of the upcoming hunting season.


I can't wait to see what this fall has in store.






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Ol' Stompin' Grounds

The last full weekend in June Rachel and I found ourselves back in Iowa for her cousin Lindsey's wedding. As we had taken an extra day off, we were back in Iowa that Thursday night which meant I had a free day on Friday to do what ever I pleased. I had a day scheduled at Coleman's to work on some of the timber work out there. Before I even got the chance to finish off my thought process, Rachel's sister Megan asked if I was willing to take the kids out with me. It ended up morphing into the boys not wanting to go out there but wanting to go fishing instead.

OH DARN.

A quick $10 online and I was ready to go in the morning. We kind of had to improvise for fishing gear as I had not not brought any of my stuff but before long we on our way out. I figured I had an entire day to find these kids a fish and this was my opportunity to take them back to our old stand-by fishing spots where we fished years ago. We started by the bridge in downtown Shell Rock. Yes, it has changed immensely since I have been there since, but that's what rivers do; they change with the currents.

We still managed to find fish.

We didn't catch many at this spot as the fishable water was much reduced, so we headed downstream a ways to the boat ramp area. We pulled in a few small fish there,

and the boys both found a dead squirrel which they deemed needed to be peed on...

Once we got bored there, we had a quick bite to eat and then headed to Clarksville to another one of our go-to spots. It was amazing to see the condition of the spot we stopped and the age of these boys compared to a pic my Dad took of Nick and I years ago at this exact same spot. Again, we found a bunch more fish!

I was told that the boys would not likely last all afternoon fishing and we could just hang out at the house before they came back from decorating or whatever the hell they were doing, but the outing ended with the clock winding down and getting short on our curfew. We needed to be back by 4 and I had them back by 4:30....

Oops.

This was my kind of afternoon.


The rest of the trip was wedding stuff, blah, blah blah.



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Weekend with the Rossi's

With the impending move to California, I figured this was as great of a time as ever to get Mike, Lisa, and the boys up for a weekend at Jon and Rachel's. As this is no easy feat with two boys of 6 and 4, we had to work with their scheduling. When they were finally able to make it up by a little before 1pm on Friday, I had the boat ready, and gear for everyone. with Mom and Dad not far behind, we had lots of people and even with the bigger boat, we were going to have to take shifts. The first shift of the day was Grandpa Martin, Lisa, Gabe, and Jacob. I had the fishing planned out the best I could as long as the weather would cooperate. When we finally got the boat launched and everyone ready to go, I bogged our way across the bay to the secret spot where Adam and I caught fish a week before.

I bombed out Gabe's rig, bombed out another rig for Jacob, and was working on the third when I look over and Gabe is already fighting a fish. Again, 1 minute tops and we had fish. A stout 21 inch waldo for the livewell!!!! The first thing Gabe asked after we got it into the boat was, "Do we get to eat this one????" The answer was absolutely, and as I neglected to have a decent dinner plan, Gabe made it for us.

As Dad and I were trying to untangle the fish from the net, I turn around and Jacob is cranking in a much bigger waldo. It was truly chaos...By the time I got to the back of the boat to help, the fish had flopped around enough we lost it at the boat. It amazed me how much patience these two kids had through the whole outing. As the fish had quit biting, and Lisa was done with the leeches being in the same boat as her, we rotated and we dropped her off at the dock and picked up Mike in the process. Heading back to the same area, but not the same spot we were unable to catch another fish for awhile. Gabe finally convinced us that we needed to head back to "the number 1 hot-spot". As we did so, again, it was mere minutes and he lit into another big waldo. At 24 inches it would be the largest of the weekend and another stout fish for dinner!

Gabe and Jacob spent just as much time looking at the fish in the livewell as they did actually fishing, but whatever kept them out longer was fine by me.


Before we were even able to call it an evening, Gabe "hot-hands" Rossi showed us all up again. While we were all occupied with something else, all we hear is "ZZZZZZZZZZZ" as the drag on Gabe's rod starts screaming. None of us knew there as a fish on until we heard the drag. Gabe was so flabbergasted by the deal he didn't utter a word but subtle grunts.


Another walleye, just under 20 inches would finish out our afternoon on the lake. Even though we were unable to get a fish for Jacob, he seem unconcerned by it and enjoyed just being out on the lake.


Pics back home will forever show how much fun this outing

was:

After pics I gave to boys a tutorial on fish cleaning and showed how much meat there really is on these fish.

Gabe kept asking what kind of fish tastes better walleye or ____? The answer was always walleye. I was skeptical about their willingness to eat the fish, but with Dad's simple marinade and a grill mat, we grill some of the most spectacular fish I have ever had. It didn't take long for the cheeks to cook through and I was able to let Gabe have the first bite of the fish he caught today. His reaction will forever be burned into my head. "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!"

Even Jacob ate the fish without so much as a complaint.


This alone made the entire visit for me.




Because we live on the tundra, it is now not getting dark until 10pm, so well before dark, everything was quiet again in the house. Once dinner was served, baths were taken, and teeth were brushed, everyone in the house crashed. When I went downstairs to steal a pillow from pile to boys had, Gabe was flat out, and Jacob was sawing logs. That's how you know we did it up right.




Saturday morning we had breakfast of hashbrowns eggs and sausage before thinking about another outing. The weather was going to be a little more tricky with rain in the forecast, but it looked like it was going to hold off long enough for us to get some fishing in. The wind was a little more of a project to work around this time and we were unable to return to the "number 1 hot-spot".
In our "hot-spot number 2" we were finally able to get Jacob his fish!!!

We tried a few other places to no avail, and again did some swapping out at the dock and Dad joined me with the boys. We tried three other spots and again were unable to move a fish. It turned into casting practice with Grandpa Martin instead, which was just as much fun. When we tried the stumps out of the bay, the wind was picking up enough, that we ended up pulling one of the trees out when we anchored to it... Oops.


When we doubled back to where Jacob caught his fish, Gabe was able to haul in one more good waldo before we had to call it a trip.

The high commanders said we needed to bring the boys back in for food and potty breaks.


Back home after a refueling of sandwiches carrots, we took one last pic of the boys with their fish for the day.

I have many memories as a kid fishing with all of my uncles and I wanted to provide as great of an experience for these boys. It's funny what you remember and what you don't from these kinds of trips and it will be interesting to see what they got out of it. I know for sure, these kids will eat the fish and that is the biggest hurdle in the entire equation. I can't wait for their next visit.










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