Nature Isn't Planned

Sometimes It Just Shows Up

For those of you that don’t know me, this is a post where you will get to know me a bit. For those that have read my blog for awhile, you will remember.

I grew up in Chicago. I got married and raised my family in Chicago. My wife is from Chicago and I still have a daughter there. Over the past several years, my wife and I have been scouting different places to move to given the terrible tax and lifestyle environments in Chicago.

As I have told people many times. People will put up with a lot of crap and graft to live in cities. But, the bargain is they are relatively safe. That’s not true in Chicago anymore. The “safe” neighborhoods aren’t safe. That was the last straw for us. When you are nervous walking your dog at night before the local news comes on, the city dropped its end of the bargain.

We moved to Las Vegas.

My grandfather was in the US Forest Service. In 1972, he built a small 700 square foot cabin in the middle of a boreal forest. It’s in far, far northern Minnesota right by the Boundary Waters. His pal built a cabin next door and I have been coming up here since almost every year since.

We’d always come for a week. We’d do some fishing and hopefully see some nature. When I was a kid, I had a “moose call” and would sit on the deck trying to call one in. Of course, nature doesn’t work like that.

When you are there for a week, it is truly hit or miss. The forest is not a zoo. This is a wilderness lake. No jet skis, water skis, or anything like that. It’s quiet.

On my wife’s first trip, we saw a big bear and a moose. We caught a lot of fish and she was hooked. She probably likes nature more than me.

Nature goes on its own time. It doesn’t really care if you are there or not. Last year, I was standing in the parking lot by our cabin and a gigantic white pine fell over. Trees sometimes get tired and fall. I was lucky it fell the other way because if it fell towards me it would have been hard to get out of the way. Trees do make noise when they fall.

This summer has been a bit nerve-wracking because we had a drought. There were fires 30-40 miles away and the smoke would sometimes infiltrate our lake. I don’t remember seeing it this dry, but apparently, in 1976 it was similar. Thankfully, we finally received some rain and thankfully there were hundreds of firefighters working to put the fires out.

My wife and I rehabbed our cabin and administered the rehab of the other one, doing a lot of the labor ourselves. We spend summers up here now. I have one gig fiber to my door so I can do a lot of things up here and never lose track of civilization. Spending a lot of consistent time gives you the chance to see things happen. You never know what will happen or show up.

My grandparents never had electricity. It was unique to spend time here without electricity but frankly, you really appreciate having it. They also got their water from a natural spring on the hill. But, because we spend so much time up here with people in and out all summer we drilled a well.

For the past three years, it has been a ton of work. A ton. But, nature reveals itself and so you get a benefit. During Covid, it’s been nice to be here and away from all the madness.

One year, we saw a Cooper’s Hawk continuously attack blue jays by our feeders. Other times a Fischer or mink would run by. You can see where a porcupine chewed the edge of my cabin. Every day the eagle makes a patrol and we see them catch fish. Occasionally, they terrorize the baby ducks. This summer, I was fishing and reeling a fish in when an eagle came down out of a massive white pine and took the fish right off my lure. It dropped the fish and continued to fly. It swooped down and took a duckling and ate it on the other shore as the mother duck protested loudly.

Sometimes it’s like Mutual of Omaha’s wild kingdom. Sometimes it’s just sedate and placid. With nature, you never know what will happen at any time.

Africa has its Big Five. The Boreal Forest of Minnesota has at least a Big Three. This summer, I have seen at least five bears. You can see bears if you are around enough. But, this summer we saw both a wolf pup when we were fishing, and yesterday a moose decided to swim across the lake and stop by.

Here is a photo of the wolf pup. It’s incredibly rare to see one. My daughter spotted it when we were fishing and there was another in the woods we could pick out but couldn’t get it in a photo or video. An aside, my daughter’s boyfriend was up and it was his first time fishing. He caught a fish too.

My wife and I were up the Gunflint at Poplar Haus and saw a cow moose cross the road. But, yesterday I was out on my deck and I looked out at the lake and saw a bull moose swimming across. When I saw him, his neck was out of the water and his rack looked sharp. He was about ten feet from our shore. I scrambled inside and grabbed my phone. I ran to our road.

I listened quietly and heard him picking his way through the lot to the road. He came out, looked at me, and turned away. He shook like a dog and all of this water sprayed off. He stood there for a couple of seconds and then just moseyed up the hill into the woods.

Earlier this summer, my wife and I went fishing. I saw something struggling in the lake. I pulled our boat up to it and it was a bird trying to get out of the water. I made eye contact with it, and it looked like it was telling me to save it. It struggled mightily to try and make its way to my little fishing boat.

I cupped my hands and picked it up. We turned around and came home. My wife got a box and we put the bird in a box. It was freezing and would have certainly died. My wife turned the light bulb on in our oven and put it in there to warm. The next morning, we took the bird out and it flew away.

Our best guess is some falcon or hawk attacked it, couldn’t hold on and dropped it in the lake. It would have died if we hadn’t happened by. It was a little female downy woodpecker.

It has been quite a “wild” summer. It’s almost time to close up and go back to Las Vegas. I have some painting to do, a pontoon shore launch to finish building, cabins to clean and shut down, and there is always wood to split.

Hope you had a productive and good summer. It’s fall now.