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Last week started off with the hot that we all have come to know and love. Eighties pushing nineties (ï¿½F) made getting into the water feel more Summer-like rather than Springy. That changed.

During the hot part of last week, the woods around the lake did a great impression of a tropical rain forest. The hot, sticky trails are a delight to hike by the winter weary, but make sure to spray up with a good bug repellent. Rarely have the mosquitoes been this thick. There are no reports of small pets being carried off by the hoards of flying blood suckers, but it's just a matter of time.

Occasionally loud sky honking from great Vs of Canada-come-latelies drown out the steady hum of the blood sucking hoards.

Other birds are also fluttering about. The hum of some of the smaller ones can induce twitches and flinching in hikers that suffer from mosquito based PTSD.

A pair of loons hooted and fished up the North end of the lake all week.

An eagle was also fishing up the North end of the lake and making a few fuzzies nervous.

The end of the hot started when the water bloated corpse of subtropical storm Alberto passed over.

The 3/4 of an inch of Alberto kept the lake rising and the lawns growing fast.

The streams and creeks flowing into the lake have not yet lost their spring snow melt levels.

For those of us that made it through the Winter, it was noted with no small amount of pleasure that Devils Lake remains ice free.

We popped the drone up after the remains of Alberto passed. While looking over the hill at Lake Metonga, it was realized that the subtropical storm was not done with us yet.

We managed to safely land before another spasm of rain pummeled the ground and made the drone fly less like an aircraft and more like a brick.

After the brief storm, we emptied the rain gauge and were rewarded with some nice color.

Over the weekend, another round of storms again filled the gauge. If we continue to get better than 2 inches of rain a week this Summer, the lake level is not going down any time soon.

During the second rainstorm, we attended a pull cart race held a little south of here. The winner was presented with flowers and a nap.

Second and third place also got flowers plus a marriage license.

It all ended, as events of this nature often do, with the flinging around of small rubber chickens.

The last drink of rain came with a cool weather chaser. Gone is the hot. Here is the seasonal. This trend looks to continue long enough to catch our breath before the next round of hot induced Summer activity is forced upon our long Winter chunky bodies. The cooler weather might also eliminate the need to mow lawns every other day.

-Nemo twitched only a little at the sound of a hummingbird.

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May 28th through June 3rd, 2018