2008 Deer Opener

Deer opener is a sacred tradition in many Minnesota families. This is definitely the case with our hunting crew. This opener we had 11 guys staying at the shack. Bob, Phil, Dale, Todd, Ron, Chad, Matt, Sherm, Jerome, Gerry, and me. Missing this year was David due to illness. Because of this the mood of the shack was sudated.

Most everyone arrived by about 8pm on Friday night, got settled in and had a sauna. For dinner we had cheeseburgers. A little cards were played and everyone got to bed pretty early since we needed to get up at 5.

We all got out to our stands around 6:45 or so the next morning. We stayed out until about 11:30. After opening morning we had 1 deer, Chad shot a 4 corn. We had a cheese potatoe soup and sandwich lunch provided by Bob.

A few people went over and visited David. The rest went out to their stands for the afternoon. At about 4pm a bunch of shots rang out. After the dust had settled and we got back to the shack we found that Todd had a doe; Bob had two bucks, an 8 pointer and a spike; and I had a doe. We went and got atvs and headed back into the woods to field dress and pick up our deer. After taking care of the deer and getting them on the pole we settled in for the night and had a sauna.

We had Uncle Donald's spaghetti for dinner, played some cards, and went to bed.

The next morning we weren't as enthused about going out since it had been really cold the previous day. But for the most part we all headed out. By lunch time no more deer had been shot and no one was much interested in hunting for the afternoon. We had sloppy joes for lunch, I used Carol's recipe to make them.

Todd, Dale, and I headed in to town as David's health was failing fast and he was moved to a hospice house in Duluth. We saw David and visited with family and then headed back to the cities.

On Tuesday the next week I brought Heather to the airport for a work trip to New Jersey. I went to work and received a call from Dale telling me that David had passed away that morning. At this point Heather was still in the air but I called and left her a message to call me when she landed. I talked to her later that day and told her the bad news. She did what she needed to do in New Jersey and came back a day early.

We headed for Duluth on Thursday afternoon so that we could be with family. The visitation was Friday night and the funeral was on Saturday. The turnout was great as David had touched so many lives. He will be sorely missed.

We will be headed back to the hunting shack this weekend not so much for the hunting but more for the friendship and the fact that David would expect us to be no where but there. It's just the right place to be. Now the healing can begin.

South Dakota Pheasant Opener 2008

Our annual South Dakota Pheasant trip has come to pass yet again. Participants included Todd, Bob, Sherm, Willy, Steve, Jim, Don, Rich, Jack, and myself. We sadly missed Dale and David due to David's health. We also missed Abby as she had to be put down during the off season. Dogs present were Don's two shorthairs, Max, and Baylen. Watson is now retired and since David wasn't there Robbie and Izzy didn't make the trip.

Todd and I took off after work on Friday and made it out to the farm around 10pm. The guys had ribs for dinner and were kind enough to save us some. Of course we then stayed up until about 2am drinking and talking. You have got to love the season starting time of noon!

The first day of the season started off with beautiful weather. We ate breakfast in Colome so we could visit with sweet Linda. We hunted the normal places and did quite well. We finished hunting by around 5:30 with our daily limit. After cleaning the birds and taking care of the dogs we cleaned up and had appetizers and a lasagna dinner. Another late night of drinking, cards, and b.s.

Day two turned out just like day one except we had breakfast at the farm and a steak dinner.

Day three was the highlight of my trip. Baylen finally started to get some points in! I was so proud. We worked two draws with just him and he nailed at least six solid points with birds getting up when we approached. He found some crips and numerous dead birds. I couldn't have been happier. Everyone kept telling me that it was just a matter of seeing more birds and being exposed to these situations but you can never be certain. Now we will be focusing more on retrieving bird to hand. We finished the night having a tator tot hot dish with Duane the farm owner. We always enjoy spending time with Duane and were glad we got more time to develop that relationship.

Day four broke to spitting rain, wind, and cold temps. Todd hunted for an hour or so and then headed back to the cities. We hunted out the day and only got 7 of our 30 bird daily limit. This brought our trip total to 97 pheasants of a possible 120. Willy and Steve took off for Chandler, MN after cleaning up and a hamburger dinner. They planned on hunting the next day in Chandler and then finishing the trip home to Alborn. This was the only night we went to bed early.

Day five started off at 6am. We packed up and got on the road at 7:10. It rained the whole way home. We got into Brooklyn Park about 3pm where Bob and Sherm were kind enough to drop me off as they continued their trip home.

It was another fun trip filled with camaraderie and cherished moments. Hopefully next year we'll have the whole crew together again!

Here is a picture of this years group.

Truck Bed Lights

I'm not quite sure where I got the idea to add some under rail truck bed lights. Perhaps it was all those times when I have been fumbling around in the back of my truck in the dark because of hunting trips or camping trips.

Trucks have a built in cargo light at the top back edge of the cab but if you have a toneau cover or a topper this doesn't help at all. So I took it upon myself to remedy this situation.

I picked up wiring, a switch, a fuse holder, a 3/8 inch light rope and some light rope holders. It took a few days and a few misteps or stupidity on my part but I am very happy with the results.

What do you think?

Duck Hunting 2008

This years North Dakota duck hunt was quite a success. Trip participants included rookie Zach Graves, Todd Mell, and myself.

Todd and I left the Twin Cities at 4:30 am after a late night on Friday due to a family wedding. Zach left Duluth at about the same time. We met in Grand Forks, ND and then continued on to the farm arriving around noon.

We quickly set up, met the new farm owners, ate lunch and then headed out to find some ducks. Long story short we ended up shooting our limit plus 5 ducks that we made ramaki out of. We even ended up getting a couple of geese which thrilled Zach because he was hoping he would get a chance to shoot some.

The weather was windy and wet for the most part but those elements got the ducks moving. We ended up shooting Gadwall, Mallards, Teal (blue and green wing), and Wigeon.

Baylen had never been asked to retrieve ducks and considering he did a great job. He found at least 6 ducks we would have lost and even chased down two ducks that got into the water after being hit. He didn't retrieve them to hand but he at least got them to quit running. He kind of just put a paw on there heads and pushed them down into the mud. If they kept moving he would grab them by the wing and flip them around a bit. All and all I was pleased but as always we still have some work to do.





All seemed to have a good time and hopefully we'll be back for another year.

Grouse Hunting 2008

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted but as the world is want to do we have been rather busy as of late. Between Heather starting up masters classes for the fall, work, hockey, and hunting life has been a little hectic.

Baylen and I have been experiencing our best year to date as he continues to improve. It seems to me that most dogs start hitting their stride once they have had about 3 years of experience. Baylen will be 2 on Dec. 1st.

Him and I definitely have room for improvement but it is neat to see how far we have come. For example, I have been grouse hunting for about 4 years and in that amount of time I shot only 4 grouse. This year after 3 weekends we have 8 birds under our belts.

Baylen is getting off the trail more, has started to find the birds for me after I shoot them, and recently has started pointing a few. He is also beginning to retrieve the birds, however, he only does this when he sees me coming. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is picking them up because he wants to show ownership. None the less I am content and excited that even with my limited training experience he is turning out to be a good hunting dog. There is definitely something to be said for good breeding!

Here is a picture of the two of us with 4 birds we shot a week ago.

I will post more hopefully in the near future as Todd, Zach, and I are going duck hunting in North Dakota this coming weekend.

BWCAW - South Hegman

Recently Heather and I decided it was time to yet again haul as much as we could carry into the Boundary Waters for a few days of communing with nature.

We have both been into the BWCAW several times before but never where we had to lead the group so this presented us with an opportunity to take charge, perhaps I should say responsibility, and act like the adults we claim to be.

We chose South Hegman as this is a lake we have gone to before and this is a reasonably easy lake to get into. To take away that advantage we decided to bring Baylen with us. Neither one of us had ever been to the Boundary Waters with a dog and of course Baylen had never been camping before either.

We planned the trip for about a month, this included reserving a permit, figuring out menu, and what items that we needed to pack.

We got everything packed up the night before and then headed up to Hermantown on the night of July 30th. We stayed at Heather's parents house that night.

Thursday morning we left early and got to Ely around 9 am to pick up our permit. The DNR now has a beautiful new permit center across the street from the previous location. After picking up our permit we drove North on the Echo trail to the parking lot for South Hegman. Of course before we had even finished unloading the car Baylen had already plopped himself down in a nice mud hole. We ran into a group coming out who had stayed on the campsite we were hoping to get, always a good sign!

For those of you who have not stayed in the BWCAW you only reserve entry points on certain days, you can't reserve a specific campsite and therefore you sometimes have to look around a bit and you might not get the best location.

As a result of that news we hurried up and got through the 90 rod portage to the lake. Nothing eventful through that exchange and we were able to launch the boat with any issues.

So to help you picture this we were in a 17 ft aluminum canoe with three large packs, one small pack, fishing poles, dog, paddles, and life jackets. This first canoe ride was test number one for Baylen because you can quickly ruin a trip by rolling the canoe over with all of your gear loaded.


We debated a bit on whether or not to stay with our original plans of staying on South Hegman or moving farther into to Little Bass Lake. I made an executive decision that the original plan was sound so we continued to the campsite that had just been abandoned. We were not disappointed as this is truly the best campsite on the lake.

We setup camp and had our firewood gathered by about 1 pm. We then spent the rest of the afternoon doing odds and ends like splitting firewood, putting up clothes lines, filtering drinking water, reading, and napping. Baylen of course spent the afternoon swimming and shaking water all over us. He was particularly pleased to be camping where he could live in the outdoors! We think he did at least 500 laps of the campsite in the first few hours.

Thursday night we had boyscout stew over the campfire, always a favorite. Later on that night we had some smores and turned in early as the sky clouded over making it tough to see the stars. Test number two for Baylen was sleeping in a tent. I laid out a towel in the corner and he was so happy to be in the tent that he promptly went over and curled into a ball on his towel trying to show us that he would be a perfect little angel. He was snoring before Heather and I even started to read!







Friday morning awoke to a clear blue sky. I made Heather coffee and we had oatmeal for breakfast. After cleaning dishes we decided to try test number three, taking a day trip to another lake for fishing, in my opinion the hardest test of all. We loaded up the fishing equipment, a day pack, and Baylen into the canoe and off we went!

We did a short 5 rod portage into North Hegman and a longer 150 rod portage into Little Bass Lake. Once to Little Bass we decided to fish, now this is why I consider this the hardest test of all. Picture Heather fishing in the front of the boat, Baylen and I fishing in the back of the boat. There is a lot going on, I'm controlling and propelling the canoe, keeping Baylen in check, taking off fish for Heather (to her credit she tried and was successful at taking off some of her own fish, good skill to have) and taking off my own fish. We were amazed that Baylen stayed calm through all of this! We had little luck before lunch and eventually found an empty campsite and ate some lunch before taking a nap in the sun. After lunch I changed our lures to an old standby of a jig with a grub tail. This helped us meet with much more success. By the end of a few hours more we had caught and released several large mouth bass.



We realized it was getting a bit late so we decided to head home and unfortunately had to bypass our favorite blueberry picking grounds. We got back to our campsite around 6 pm and made campfire pizzas, learned from Ron and Jerome a few years back, over the grill. As expected they were delicious.

That night we turned in at dusk due to tiredness and the howls of a pack of wolves, especially because we weren't sure about the dynamics of wolves regarding people and dogs. The night turned out to be uneventful and again Baylen was snoring before Heather and I finished our game of cribbage. Of course this time Baylen was curled up between us instead of on his blanket! We didn't sleep that well that night due to keeping an ear open to all outside noises.

Saturday morning broke to a beautiful lake with fog hanging on the water. Again I made coffee for Heather and we had oatmeal for breakfast. The days plans consisted of heading out fishing on South Hegman so that we could have a fish dinner that night. We got out reasonably early and caught several small mouth bass. The most exciting moment came after Heather took a fish off her hook and it fell into the bottom of the canoe and flopped around. Baylen wanted so badly to run up to the front of the canoe to help her! We caught a few keepers but in the end didn't keep them because we decided to cut our trip one night short since wolves tend to be territorial and we wanted to get a little more sleep.


We packed up around 4 pm and got out to the car around 5 pm without any incidents. Of course right before we left the parking lot Baylen again laid down in the same mud puddle.

We had a great time and will not hesitate to go into the BWCAW again and we will definitely not hesitate to take Baylen with us again as he passed all tests with flying colors!

Old Oppel Family Photos

I recently received some old Oppel family photos from my Aunt Jill. This is my dad's half sister, same mom different dad. This was a very nice gesture and something that I will cherish especially since before seeing these photos I had never seen a picture of my dad's father.

The below picture is my Grandma Marilyn and my father in 1944, the year my dad was born. This is in Chester Park, Duluth.


Pictured below is my dad's father, Edward Oppel. He passed away sometime around 1980 I believe.


Here is Marilyn and Edward together in Bayview Heights, 1944.


Next two pictures are the same group plus Peter, 1944.



This is Edward's father, Cliff, and Deanna my dad's full sister, Duluth 1943.


Edward during the military deployment, Air Force pilot I believe, and Marilyn's father (my great grandfather) Peter Jens Christensen, Hobbs, NM 1949.


Edward and Marilyn's mother (my great grandmother) Noramay Christensen, Hobbs, NM 1949.


Lastly, my father, Peter Jay Oppel's graduation photo. I am not sure if this is college or high school. If it is high school it would be 1962 and if it is college it would be 1966. You can definitely tell the family resemblance between my dad and his father. My dad passed away on July 21, 2003.

4th of July Weekend

Todd, Shannon, Heather, and I ended up going to Duluth for the 4th of July weekend. We left late on Thursday night to avoid the traffic and got up to Hermantown around 10pm. We then spent some time around the campfire and got to bed late.

Since everyone was a little tired from the night before Friday morning started out a little slow but we eventually got things setup for a bbq with badminton and ladder golf. In attendance were Grandma Mell, Miriam, Zach, Anne, Chase, Todd, Shannon, Dale, Carol, Heather, and myself. After much eating, drinking, and playing games us youngens went down the bayfront to see the fireworks display. Heather and I met up with my mom and family and spent some time catching up. We also ran into Gerry and Bonnie Niemi who weren't surprised when we told them Dale was already asleep when they asked where Dale and Carol were!

Saturday started early with the guys getting up at 5:30 to go up to Lake Nichols for a little bit of fishing. We fished for a few hours and ended up with only a couple sunfish but I enjoyed reminiscing about days and places gone by. We then headed over to the hunting shack to mow and put up a beverage shelf for the sauna that Dale had asked me to build last fall. Later that afternoon we played nine holes at Enger which tired us all out due to the heat and humidity. We ended the day doing a bonfire and making camp fire pizzas.





Sunday was another slow starting morning, especially since when I went to bed the night before the room seemed to be spinning! We eventually loaded up and went out to David's house on Crooked Lake where we spent some time cruising the lake and the "Everglades" where we saw a young fawn with spots.



We did a little fishing and again caught nothing, seems to be a theme doesn't it! Before and after boating we did a little swimming with the dogs. A big part of my want to go to David's was that I wanted to test Baylen out in a canoe since Heather, Baylen, and I will be heading into the BWCAW in late July for the first time as just our little family. Good news was that Baylen passed the test giving me some confidence that he won't end up tipping our canoe during the trip. We then loaded up and headed back to Dale and Carol's for a bite to eat and the trip back to the cities.



It was definitly a trip to remember and the weather couldn't have been better. Glad to report that all had a good time!

Women's US Open

Heather and I decided to take Friday June 27th off of work to attend the Women's US Open at Interlachen. Golf has long been my favorite sport to watch in person and this tournament didn't disappoint.

Heather was particularly excited to see some of the long time greats such as Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam, Juli Inkster, and Cristie Kerr. I was mostly excited to see some of the new up and comers such as Lorena Ochoa, Morgan Pressel, Yani Tseng, Michelle Wie, and Natalie Gulbis. Unfortunately, we never got to see Wie and Gulbis because of a rain delay that ended the day at about 4:30 but thankfully we got there early and still managed to get in a pretty full day.

Seeing pro golfers sure gives you an appreciation for what it takes to be that good. What makes it even more astounding is seeing that some of these women are actually just early teens, one was only 13 and on her second US Open and at least one other was only 15. I can't imagine having that much maturity to cope with those pressures at an age like that. Amazing!

If you have any appreciation for golf I highly recommend you attend every professional tournament you can, you won't be disappointed.

Red Prince Weigela

This is one of my favorite plants in our yard. I took a picture that I just needed to post.

Fathers Day weekend and a Band Saw

This past Father's day we spent up in Duluth with Heather's parents and brother and sister-in-law.

We left the cities Friday after work and made it up to Duluth around 7:30pm. We unpacked stuff including a dresser that belonged with a set in Heathers old Hermantown bedroom. Then we high tailed it over to my sister Sarah's to drop off a washing machine that my mom got from her sister down in Shakopee and we were volunteered to deliver up to Duluth. Only Sarah and Hudson were home so were lucky enough to spend some time with the little cutie.

Saturday morning the guys got up early to head up to the hunting shack to mow and let the dogs swim. Even though it took quite a bit of convincing to get Baylen to swim last summer he has become a huge fan of the water and takes to it whenever he can, including in Dale and Carol's front yard pond which is not designed for dogs!

During the early afternoon Todd, Shannon, and I were coming back from doing some errands when I noticed a band saw at the end of someones driveway with a free sign. We stopped and Todd and I went up and talked to the home owner and found out that the band saw worked but that the guy was giving it away because he didn't use it anymore. So of course we loaded it up. We noticed that we would have to do a few minor repairs but nothing we couldn't handle.



After that we went golfing at Nemadji in Superior where we all shot pretty decent rounds. Then as normal we headed to our favorite pizza joint, Shamrock for taco, bacon-cheeseburger, everything, and pepperoni pizza. We capped off the night with Grasshopper ice cream drinks and a nice bonfire. Truly a great day in Duluth!

Sunday we went to church in Hermantown then to Perkins at the mall for breakfast. After that we went down to the cemetery to see Dale's dads head stone. Next we went to visit Dale's mom in the nursing home where she is recovering from hip surgery that she had about a month ago.

We capped off the weekend with a nice steak dinner and rhubarb cake, watched a little bit of the US Open and headed back with our new band saw to the cities.

Monday evening I made the necessary repairs to the band saw and found it to work very well. Who says you can't get anything good for free. Here are some examples of my first projects with the band saw.

Welcome Chase!

This past weekend we co-hosted a baby shower for Chase Michael Graves. Joe and Leah Kilsdonk were our co-hosters. Heather's parents, Dale and Carol, generously offered their house for the party.

Heather and I got a late start on Friday night and made it up to Duluth around 10pm which meant that by the time we finished making a "Welcome Chase!" sign, the pasta, and some brownies it was a late night!

The next day Heather took off early to run some errands. I stayed and mowed the lawn which helped me to appreciate the amount of work Dale does every week. Man that is a big lawn to mow with a push mower.

The party started at 3pm, in attendance was Zach, Anne, Chase, Amy, Nolan, Joe, Leah, Natalia, Pat, Jessica, Britt, Kalista, Zion, Heather, and I.

The theme of the party was "Baby Olympics" which ended up consisting of speed eating baby food, carrots, and milk; spitting water for distance; and ladder golf.

The winner of the gold nuk was Anne, silver was Pat, and bronze was Britt. I was proud to win the speed eating contest narrowly edging out Joe by 2 seconds.











After we finished the games and Zach successfully let Chase roll right onto his face in the dirt we decided to fire up the grill for some burgers, brats, and hot dogs. I had never used Dale's grill but was happy to find that it didn't seem to have any hot spots and all the food turned out well.

Everyone seemed to get enough but somehow they found room for the cake from Cold Stone. I now have a new favorite that has taken over for the perennial Dairy Queen cake!

We capped off the evening by letting the kids play with the dogs, watched the News since one of the invited guests who bailed to fish in the ALS tournament called to tell us he had won, and had a bonfire.

The evening ended about 11pm and it seemed that all had a good time.

Christian

Think before you aerate!

So as a result of owning a dog we have a bit of a race track around the house and the grass isn't growing very well because of compacted soil.

From my reading the solution was to aerate the lawn and then water and fertilize. I was smart enough to mark our sprinkler heads but for some reason never thought about Baylen's Invisible Pet Fence.

Aerating was easy and reasonably cheap so I completed it before we left for Chicago.

When we got back from our Memorial trip to Chicago the pet fence was indicating a break and surprisingly enough I was smart enough to add 1 and 1 and come up with the correct answer that I broke the wire with the aerator.

I have done this before while edging the driveway so I know mostly what I am doing but that time I knew where the break was once I thought it through. This time it wasn't nearly as easy so I went to the old fall back of Googling it.

I came up with three solutions...
- Hire a professional
- Buy a device from PetSafe for $50
- Buy an RF Choke from RadioShack for $1.39

This last solution I found mixed commentary on regarding its success but it was worth a try.

The only parts I needed was the RF Choke and a battery operated AM radio. Basically, you attach the RF Choke to the positive and negative terminals on the pet fence control unit leaving the pet wires connected. This completes the circuit as far as the pet fence is concerned so electricity is now running through the wire. Then you turn your AM radio down to the lowest empty station, in my case it was 600. You can then wave the radio above where the wire is in the ground and hear the static pulse when you're above the wire where electricity is flowing. It helps to keep the radio as close to the ground as possible.

So, I followed the wire around until I lost the signal. At this point I dug up the sod and found the wire break. I actually found 5 wire breaks within about a 25 foot section. I repaired those breaks and everything is now ship shape again.

It's a good feeling to fix something yourself and a much better feeling when you don't have to spend much money doing it.

I'm chocking this one up as a lesson learned and the moral of the story is always think twice before you start your projects!

Christian

Memorial Weekend 2008

We spent a wonderfully relaxing Memorial weekend with our friends Mark and Christine down in Chicago. The weather was hot compared to MN and we enjoyed spending as much time outside as possible. Christine and Heather planted flower pots and Mark and I toured the local motorcycle shops and played tennis and basketball.

Unfortunately while we were away two tornadoes hit the Twin Cities but fortunately they missed our house, one touched down only about 5 miles away!


Here is a picture of the four of us with "Mr. Weber" at the Weber Grill.
Mark and I at an Irish pub(Ballydoyle) having Guiness and listening to Raggea Funk from the Cold Water Mystic, http://www.middlegroundmedia.com/coldwatermystic/ for those of you who are interested.
Heather and Christine at Ballydoyle listening to live music.

Thanks to Mark and Christine for inviting us down to spend time with our best friends!

Best of Balyen

Here is a sampling of the best photos we have taken of Baylen our French Brittany Spaniel. The last picture shows his Sire (Ram) and his Dam (Tabia).