Day nine.

All of the ice-houses are gone.

I woke up this morning to a completely empty lake, which was a little startling since this weekend, with the nice weather, had so far been incredibly bustling up here. I figure the emptiness might have something to do with the big dark line that now spans the lake and which, with my naked eyes and binoculars, looks like an enormous crack with open water beneath it. I'll walk down to investigate and grab some photos later on.

I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday, just some chores and rewrites after taking a long nap and moving the van up from the landing to where it sits now, halfway up the drive. The roads turned from ice and snow to mud in the length of a day, which gave me equal trouble. I really need to get some sandbags.



I started on some jerky last night, cutting a flank steak into thin little strips and throwing them into a marinade of my own invention. Today I'll throw them in the oven on very, very low heat and let them dry over the course of the day. I'm also interested in making pemmican, since I did watch Dances with Wolves yesterday and then spend about an hour on the web, reading about Lakota, and, specifically, the postposition yelo, which sort of piqued my interest for things Indian.

I'm reading a book left up here by Nick for my dad, called They Used to Call Us Game Wardens, by a retired (and now dead) conservation officer named Bill Callies, who tells truly entertaining stories about catching people poaching or overfishing. This book is sold exclusively at Fleet Farms—a sort of farm-based Walmart, for those of you not of Minnesotan, Iowan, or Dakotan stock—throughout the midwest. Like I said, it's a fun read, but all I can say is, Bill: "You're" is a conjunction of "you are" and "your" is possessive, and "hi-power," in the context of a rifle, is not the correct word. In any case, the book makes me at least somewhat confident in my book's chances for publication.

I burned my stupid hand again last night, which makes it a little painful to type, but it's healing quickly and I should be back at 100 percent tomorrow. For today, though, I'm going to attempt the trip into Bemidji. As long as I can get out, I should be good to get back in, since sandbags are certainly on my list.