Greetings from the Great White North

[lloyd3]

We're about an hour and a half west of International Falls here.

Drove a bunch of older, high mileage 4x4s yesterday (2002 Isuzu Trooper and a 1997 Ford pickup) to see what they needed and was pleased to find that they won't need much (well...the old Trooper will likely need a battery fairly soon).  It's a real treat to go from a busy, crowded metroplex (which is what the entire Front Range of Colorado has become) to a rural farming community on the extreme northern edge on this country. No traffic, no red lights, arrow straight and empty roads, minimal fuss, muss, and bother. Slow death to a much younger person (with much different needs than mine...I'm sure) but charming to an "old codger" such as myself. Took my brother's ratty old boat (a late 80s Islander I/O) out onto the Lake of the Woods yesterday to troll for walleye and pretty much had the lake to ourselves too.  The closest real "towns" (with any services) are 20-miles away (in either direction, east or west).

We're so on the edge-of-nowhere here that even the air traffic above us is minimal. No sounds or jet contrails either, at least not very often.  The quiet is what you notice first, the absence of human intrusion (i.e. mechanical noises) is so nice to wake up to. No truck traffic, no railroads, no cattle lowing, just birdsongs and lush green things rustling gently. We live on a dead-end dirt road here, with a mailbox and very few neighbors. The bugs can be bad here too at times, but not generally in the Fall and certainly not after the first frost.

This would likely have bored me to tears as younger man but it's a rare treat to me now.  With modern times, even this remote place has all of the conveniences, Amazon delivery, wifi (a fiber optic line actually w/even better speed that I have at my home in Colorado), AC, microwave, a TV (which I mostly don't use), newer beds (which I installed a few years ago), a very full freezer and refrigerator (now), along with full liquor cabinet, and time, lots of glorious time (like 2 months) to hunt and fish.

Is this heaven?

The house isn't fancy, it's essentially a 30-year old doublewide trailer (a "modular" home) that has seen better days, but it's clean and tight (no leaks), the toilets flush and the showers work. As hunting camps go, this one is pretty spectacular.

By the middle of November this place will get very cold and windy. The lake will freeze and the winds will howl down out of Canada, temperatures will drop precipitously and mostly stay there until late next May (50 degrees below zero is not uncommon here) but I'll be long-gone by then.







Dinner here

[426HemiChick]

Hi Lloyd,

Do like the shotgun; looks like a side by double with rabbit ears.

Don't think I could handle the cold; -55 is about 140 degrees less than my ideal starting point of 85 and above.

Enjoy yourself, you have earned it !!!

C

[Kern Dog]

"Geezer"



You're not much older than I am and there is no way that I see myself that way.
You're still breathing, I don't read that you're using a walker or a cane either.