Ask and you shall receive right? Yup, it’s funny how things tend to go that way, except when you ask for a million bucks! It’s usually the more simplistic things that we get simply by asking. The real question though is whether we want it or not; or better yet, does everyone want it or not. To use the adage, what is good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander. Cryptic? Please, read on.

So here we are in July and summer is upon us. The kids are on holidays, and things are good (well, except one thing but you’ll have to read the next paragraph). It’s too bad that it’s already the middle of the month and the days are just flying by…thankfully I’m making each one count. We’ve been sending most of them at camp, which I know the kids appreciate. I grew up spending most of my summers at camp and it helped make me the person that I am.

Well, I guess it would not be a typical post without a rant about the weather and boy do I have a rant. Remember the title? Ya, especially the part about getting what you ask for? So what’s the problem Dave? You see, in about the middle of May, people around here were complaining how dry it was and how we needed rain. What do you think happened? Yup, we got rain…a lot of rain. How much rain you ask? A crap load! We set a new record for the wettest June in history here in Thunder Bay with just under 200mm of precipitation coming down.

This has had a huge effect on me, more specifically on my railway work. It’s hard to get out hiking when the ground is so saturated. How wet is it? Well, let’s put it in perspective. Most of my hiking takes me to the boundary waters, so I usually monitor the weather station at Seagull, just west of Gunflint Lake. Since my last hike at the end of May, 250mm of rain has fallen. That amount is the same as the cumulative total at this time last year, compared to 390mm and counting this year. Sometimes people just need to keep their pie hole shut!

You know who else needs a punch in the face? Climate change deniers that’s who. The amount, duration and intensity of the precipitation we have received is a clear indicator to me that climate change is alive and well. Our weather patterns are so bizarre and are nothing that I have experienced in my forty something years. Every time I think we’ve turned a corner and things will dry out and get back to normal, there is another big dump of rain. The ground is so wet that the water does not soak in but rather sits there for days. My backyard has not dried out yet, and it’s been 5 or 6 times that I’ve been left with huge puddles of water in all the low spots. Grrrr!

Backyard flooding, July 2016.

With all of this rain we’ve received and my inability to go hiking, it’s left me a lot of time to spend out at camp as I mentioned. And it’s not that there’s a shortage of things to do out there. The better part of the last four weeks have been taken up with removing the old dock that was built circa. 1995, and replacing it with a new structure. For good measure, I also threw in a swimming raft for the kids, which has turned out to be a big hit. It was a lot of hard work, and the bugs ate me alive the entire time (thanks to the rain), but I’m pretty proud of the finished products. Carpentry is something that I really enjoy and I’m becoming more proficient at it as I get older.

Camp morning, June 2016.

Completed dock, July 2016.

The work isn’t done however. My wife Jo-Anne has been focussing on the inside of the camp, adding new curtains and a fresh coats of paint. I still have a ton of cleaning up to do outside, that is after I redo part of the basement walkout with stone. It will take us several years to get things where we want them, but it will get there.

With everything going on, things have been very quiet on the railway front. As I mentioned already, hiking is out of the question since the ground is so wet and many low areas are inundated with water. I’m hoping to get out in August, that is if the weather cooperates and allows things to dry out a bit. I’d really like to try and follow the route of the Gunflint & Lake Superior along Crab Lake. I guess I’ll just have to play the wait and see game.

In the next few weeks I am going to have to put a bit more time into the railway as I have a number of important events coming up. In just under a month I’ll be at the Chik-Wauk Museum doing my first ever full-length presentation on the Gunflint & Lake Superior Railroad. That means I have a lot of work to do to get the slideshow ready for August 14^th.

Speaking of August 14^th, my presentation for the Northern Great Plains History Conference is also due that day. This is probably the biggest history conference in the northern Great Plains area and I’m excited to be a part of it. I’m also rather nervous. For me this is the big leagues, a conference full of university professors and well-published authors. I’m just a high school history teacher and a part-time historian who is rather new to all of this. I am sure I’ll be okay, but there will be definitely be a lot of butterflies beforehand!

Anyway, I think it’s time to go. I’ll try to be back soon…hopefully there will be something to new talk about in the near future. Until then…