river and sturgeon ~

It was a beautiful day.  The temps were only in the 60's but the sun was shining and I wasn't complaining.  It was just right for putzing around in my flower beds for a change of pace.

I also had my first harvest of the season ~ some fresh chives :)

I had just finished up with chopping the chives and bagging them for the freezer when my son Sam showed up at the house.

"Mom, can you give me a hand?"

I clapped.

He said, "Not funny.  Will you drive the truck back from the boat landing for me?"

Now that I can do.  

The Flambeau River is about a half mile from our house.  We had the neighbors boat sitting in our yard all week, waiting on Sam to take it down to the landing to launch it for them and take it upstream to their camper trailer.  I would drive back to the neighbors property and pick him up and drop off the boat trailer.  

The neighbors will be up this weekend ... so we needed to get this done for them. You see ~ normally they would do it on their own; but last November Mike (our summertime neighbor) had a bad car accident and isn't getting around as good as he used to.  So Sam volunteered to get the boat in for him and back up to his campsite and to put onto the boat lift.  

Also, Slim's brother built some more steps and a ramp and put up a rail for him to make it easier for going down to the boat dock.  Also, nice wide steps and rails were put in so it'll be easier for Mike to get from his trailer down to the yard and fire pit area (where he spends so much time up here)  from his camper.  He hasn't seen it yet ~ I'm sure he'll be pleasantly surprised.  

When we finished the boat business we, Sam and I, decided to go back to the dam and have a look around.  The dam is just down stream from the boat launch.  After so much rain (and snow melt in May) the river is full to the banks.

~ Pixley Dam ~

This wayside park was built by our 4-H group when I was just a teen.

I have a lot of fond memories of this place ~ swimming in the creek that comes in on the right, fishing the river, clearing the underbrush to make the park, remembering the worse case of poison ivy I've ever seen that my Mom got from it too.  My Dear Hubby too has a lot of fond memories of this place.  He was once a dam tender at all three of the hydroelectric dams on the river. We have spent a lot of time at the Pixley and Crowley Dam with the kids too on fishing expeditions.  

After checking out the water levels at Pixley Dam ~ we decided to drive down to the Crowley Dam a few miles downstream.

~ Crowley Dam ~

At Crowley too, we were quite surprised to see how high the water level was.  Usually there is a bank about 15 feet wide that you can walk on right up to the dam.  Now the water was right up to the bottom step of the hill going down to the shoreline.  No bank fishing here.

~ Sam pointing out some pine pitch on the step and telling me not to step in it.~

Sam was standing at the bottom of the steps and looking upstream ... I was at the top of the steps taking his picture ... WHEN ~

~ when another guy showed up behind me and says, "Holy Sheeze!! Look at the size of that fish!" "That's gotta be at least a 50 inch sturgeon."

Of course, by time we looked we didn't see it.

BUT ~ when I got home and downloaded my pictures I decided to zoom in on that  last picture I took of Sam.

Sure enough ... there it was by the bottom step:

Do you see it?

Show's how much we were paying attention to our surroundings!  

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel