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.