The Potgieters in Minnesota – see a small window to our lives below
On the way back from the braai we drove through Eagan where we used to live and saw a lot of storm damage from early Saturday morning!
Everywhere homeowners and city workers had pulled the broken branches to the curbside for pickup by the city in the coming week.
Large parts of the metro were without power, but where we live, the storm seemed to miss a heartbeat – we just had a little rain! How lucky can you be!
On Hyland Lake – while waiting for some fellow South Africans to arrive for a Braai. The water was a bit choppy with a slight breeze, but the kayak handled vary well.
There was quite a bit of branches in the water from the storm a day before. On the north side of the island in the lake, several trees were down or badly broken by the storm.
The little water turtles enjoyed the sun on the pieces of driftwood, but as soon as I can close, they would dive into the water… just to appear a few seconds later as almost curious little nose tips and eyes above the water.
As summer seems to dwindle, the days are getting shorter – by now it is virtually dark at nine in the evenings. And the available hours for kayak trips are shrinking alarmingly fast as well.
So even though it was a bit early to get up, I had to take advantage of the current warm weather we are having and so I was out on Fish Lake in Eagan at 6.30am this morning. This is truly a very special way to start your day…!
We worked too hard for this batch of 75 punds of Boerewors to take too many photos, but at least the end product is impressive!
We made the wors at Mark’s house and the result was split in three, Mark, us and Steve Gross. What a nice culinary delight awaits us!
Before Church we went out on the St Croix river. I took my kayak and Troy took his tandem – the second seat was occupied by Jacques and we really enjoyed the morning.
We went upstream from where the I94 crosses the St Croix to the upstream side of the train bridge. Next time we will see how far up we can get – Maybe all the way to Stillwater.
Early morning on Lake of the Isles. The water is like glass and everything is super calm – totally the oposite of my previous thunderstorm experience on this lake!
At the ceiling of the bridge I spent the thunderstorm under, a bird (swallow maybe) had built a nest, suspended from who-knows-what. Three little heads can be seen with some imagination and the mom is sitting on something left of the nest.
Early morning out on Fish lake again – it is only ten minutes from our house and big enough to get some exercise on.
There was a curious little black fellow on the bank of the lake – he looked to me like a weasel or ferret and was just as much at home on land as in the water. At one point he slipped into the water and within seconds some ducks who were close by flew off the water in obvious panic! And then he appeared again from the water, not having caught breakfast …
Cannot be easier and always tastes good!
Mix together the following
Pour into a glass dish so that the mix is 1.5″ thick and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 350ºF.
The group, Men About Christian Service, from our church went on a canoe trip down the St Croix river and I joined them, of course in my own boat!
We went down from Taylor’s Falls to Oceola – 8 miles and a good three hours of leisure.
I already had the kayak on the car roof when I noticed it was cloudy. So I ran indoor to check the weather forecast and that had a warning that was about to expire for a county north of us.
So I decided to drive up to Lake Calhoun in any case and see what the weather was like when I got there. Calhoun was crowded and there was no parking so I drove to Lake of the Isles where I found a nice parking right next to the canoe racks.
The weather had gotten a bit lighter and I could see thunder clouds already past me. So I launched the kayak and started away towards Cedar Lake through the canal between the two. There I helped a family who had rented kayaks – the boy needed to sit more upright so we adjusted his seat back and the footrests.
By this time it started raining and I headed back from Cedar Lake to Lake of the Isles – as I reached the last bridge, it really came down hard and I decided to wait under the bridge. Within minutes a thunder storm had positioned itself over us and one of the most spectacular shows played itself out around us! The dad of the family waited with me under the bridge while his wife and son had gotten out and was sitting in the rain on shore.
At times the roar of the thunder was deafening and I wondered if the sound conductivity of the water played a role. It felt like the sharp rumbles would cause the bridge to crumble!
Truly an adrenaline rush…..!
