Things are coming to life at the cabin

I am writing this column from the sunroom of our cabin. Victoria Day is overcast and a cool breeze is blowing from the northwest. The original forecast had called for a day with more sunshine, but even today is great being at the cabin.
I lit a fire in the wood stove this morning to take the chill off and now the cabin is toasty warm.
Through two fishing trips on Saturday and Sunday in the rain, my boat is finally drying out. The fishing was not a great success, but tonight we will eat freshly caught fish. We didn’t catch any walleye, but the “Northerns” and the bass made fishing lively.
The Northern Pike were found in shallow waters near sandy bottoms with weeds. They were expensive taking away two spinner baits.
Sunday, my brother in law and I found the bass in a narrows that opened out into a huge section of the south arm of Rainy Lake. They were stacked up along a 75-meter stretch of shoreline. My brother-in-law using a smoky colored grub caught the bass.
Saturday evening our friends from Tucson, Phlip and Carole Greif joined us for supper. Travelers, they had spent four weeks traveling north through the Midwest to reach the lake from Arizona. Leaving last August, they made their way home via northern Quebec and the Maritimes. It was an 8,000-mile journey that took almost 60 days.
They had plenty of stories to tell us. They will use Rainy Lake a jumping off point for visits around the region.
Two fishermen, clad almost in winter gear are fishing a shoreline across the way from the cabin. I suspect that they have chosen this area of the lake to be out of the wind. They are in the lee of the islands.
A spruce tree creeks in the background. Almost a decade ago, the wind almost toppled it, but it became caught up in a White Pine and now rubs against it when the wind blows. The woodpeckers have discovered the spruce over the winter and regularly you can hear them batting their heads on the roots at the ground.
We haven’t heard partridge on the island for several years but for the past two weekends they have been drumming. The red squirrels have been noticeably quiet this spring even through they are scurrying about.
We think that a pair of mallards are beginning to build a nest just off the path up from the dock. Our pair of loons have returned for another summer and Friday night entertained us with dances.
Two Bald Eagles have also returned to the area and removed the fish guts that we put out for them Saturday afternoon. They regularly soar overhead looking for free meals. They appear almost instantly when fish guts are set out for them.
The tops of both the white pines and red pines are crowning out with pinecones. The blue berry plants are blossoming out and now we will cross our fingers that they will receive the sun and moisture they need to produce another bumper crop.
There were more lights visible on the lake this weekend. Fishing Saturday and Sunday, we saw lots of boating activity. The lake is slowly coming out of hibernation.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher