Week 1, 2009

  It's been a week since we first landed at Aikens.  Yesterday Julie and the kids flew in to join us, while Charlie went back home.  The kids have been super excited about coming up to Aikens.  The first question out of Annika's mouth as she stepped on the dock was "When do we have our first shorelunch?"  They spent the entire afternoon playing with all the new(old) toys and jumping on the trampoline. We've been hard at work getting everything back in working order.  Leo and Gabe have been making the lodge a much more "maintenance-friendly" area.  That means that they were tired of crawling under the building to service the compressors, A/C units, and the camp's water supply.  Now, all of these items are located next to the lodge (in the middle section we call the Courtyard).  They can now be easily serviced, repaired, and cleaned in order to keep the lodge running smoothly.  This spring, we have been heating all our hot water with the wood boiler we installed late last fall.  The only propane that has been used to date is less than 1/2 a tank in the kitchen for the stove!  We are so thrilled with this green technology!      On the lake side, the last of the ice melted on Monday afternoon.  A nice south wind took care of the final few "islands" of floating ice on the lake.  We spent that afternoon/evening fishing the river.  However, places like Stange Bay and Slammer Straights were not hitting yet.  The walleyes are just getting into their spawn now, while the pike are just finishing up.  The pike were active in the Bay of Snakes.  We also caught a few lakers by trolling the shallow rocks around the Impassible Reefs.  We had a beautiful shoresupper that night consisting of lemon-pepper and cajun pike at the Middle Gull shorelunch site.  It was the perfect end to a great first push, especially with it being Charlie's last night at Aikens.  He helps us open and close the camp every season, and we very much appreciate the work he does for us! We are now getting started on putting the Lund fleet in the water.  Everything seems to have wintered really well.  Next week is our annual "Molly's and Dolly's Week" where we host over 30 friends, family, and volunteers to get everything cleaned up before our first guests arrive.