Hotter

Last week started off hot. Really hot. Fry an egg on the sidewalk hot. The kind of hot that can turn a professional tanner into a amateur heliophobic. Okay, it might not have been that hot, but lord knows it wasn't in any way cool.

While escaping the heat under the lake we found a dive mask (diver not included) that was lost last year during a Eurasian Milfoil picking. The item was returned and should probably be cleaned before using.

The first ski show of the week was held in front of a light, presumably heat tolerant crowd.

It was pretty good.

The water hazards at the NCC golf course are still threatening, but are getting lower. We could use some rain.

The end of mining, splitting, and stacking wood for next year's maple tapping season is coming to a close. Final-ish cleanup included gathering all the bark and other schnibbles that accumulated around the splitter and getting rid of the pile. This year, in a nod to the uncomfortably blistering weather, the men chose fire as the disposal method.

On Wednesday, the wind shifted and it got a little less hot. The northerly wind not only brought a modicum of heat relief, but also the smoke that has haunted the past two summers.

Two days later, the wind shifted again and the smoke dissipated. The smoke free air wouldn't last long.

Before the air lost that crispy caribou smell, there was another ski show.

Despite the air quality, it was also pretty good.

Sunsets had many of the men speculating on how life would be like on Mars.

On a smokey Sunday, some of the men went into the woods around the lake to mine the last of the wood for tapping. It got a little deer-y.

The geese have not been seen on the north end of the lake for a while, but the north end duck collective is a growing force, tragically minus one. On Sunday, as best as we can figure, one had a bad landing too close to some big rocks. Instead of hauling the carcus to the dump, we opted to leave it on the beach for the eagle.

It took about 24 hours, but worked out pretty well. (For the eagle.)

The men are just a few more smokey days away from starting a Go Fund Me page to buy and send copies of "Forest Management for Dummies" to the powers that be in Ontario, Manitoba, and Minnesota. In the meantime, Lucerne's water level is falling again. We could use some rain to prop it back up and to wash away the air atrocities from the north.

-Nemo loves smoked food, not smoked air.

Hotter

July 13th through 19th, 2026