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Check out this snow It's February 21st, and there is still snow over 3 feet deep! I can't wait until spring to see how the water is! |
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March 28th, we had to take a trip up to see what's going on.
The snow is starting to melt, and the water is rising!
The cutter head is under water. This is a good sign! |
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Some open water, but winter still has a good grip. Maybe next month! |
| We even have some water on the back side of the island. We haven't seen that in quite a while |  |
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April 2nd, just a few days later, I had to go to Grand Rapids for work. So I took a detour to the lake, What a difference a week makes! |
| I got the dredge ready for the launch, then used the dozer to push her in for the season. |  |
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A shot of the old girl, taken from the boom tip of Helga. |
| The rest of the lake from the top of Helga. I was astounded to see that much water! |  |
 I stitched this together, look at all that water! Along the right shore, you can see the road that I built last year to get the dump truck and crane in the lake |
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April 16th, Even our dock is in the water, it hasn't been wet in years! |
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Mike and Ryan take a trip around the lake with the row boat. Too cold for frogs yet.
We didn't do any dredging this weekend, we don't want to disturb the lake before the DEQ can inspect the site for our permit application. We did get the engine out of the dozer |
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After a day of building a tree house, we made hotdogs over the fire. They are so good, what a treat! |
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May 7th, The site was inspected, but now the batteries are dead in the dredge!
I'm really going to have to buy some new ones now!
The lake is up another 2 or 3 inches!
I haven't seen a ringneck pheasant in a few years, could it be a comeback? |
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 June 7th, We bought new batteries for the dredge, it really cranks nice now! The DEQ requires testing on the material we're dredging, so the permit has a few delays. The dozer engine is almost ready to go. The water is up about 18 inches from the April pictures |
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June 21st, A young turkey keeps a close eye on us.
We met the DEQ officer at the site, we discussed some of his concerns, and it look like a permit might be on the horizon. He said they still might be able to waive the $1,200 in testing we might need for the spoils, we'll see what happens! |
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Once again, the boys are taking a break from building to cook hotdogs over a fire. That seems to be the food of choice for Bloom Lake expeditions! |
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We found this giant spider on a 2x6, that board is 5-1/2 inches across!
She was carrying an egg sac, so we moved her away from our area. |
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While I was working on the dozer, the boys had a few little bottle rockets, they found a piece of pipe to use as a rocket launcher.
It was kind of a cool idea. They took turns lighting the fuse, and aiming the tube, trying to hit a stick in the lake. A few close misses, but no direct hits! |
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Fourth of July, and the weeds are starting to take over. The DEQ is working on the draft of our permit.
I sure hope we get a permit soon! |
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July 16th, The lake is starting to weed up. The level is at almost 6ft.
Still no permit, we have a draft from the DEQ, but need to get the lab results from the soil samples. Maybe by the end of July! |
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This turkey was sitting right in front of our barn, I think we walked up on her, and she froze.
As we walked up, she flew and uncovered 2 fuzzy little chicks, they looked like they just hatched! We left the area, and checked back later to see if they where gone (they were). |
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July 22nd, We started preparing to move the spoils basin, it seems our old basin was in a "wetland". The discharge pipe was in the way, so it had to move! |
| I built up a pad for Helga, then I started digging a new basin. I built a berm to keep spoils out of the wetlands. The old basin is in the background. |  |
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July 22nd, Matt (Jenny's boyfriend) gets some dozer time. He did really good a pushing dirt! |
| Mike shows eveybody how it's done. |  |
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August 26th, Finally after 7 months, we have a permit!
I had a chance to pump some mud, so I took 2 days off work and headed north. My plan is to remove the grass island. |
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After 2 days of pumping, the basin is full of water.
I'll need to clean it out next time up! |
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It's hard to tell, but I took 3 passes at the island.
I cut off the left 24 feet, down to 10 feet deep. Each pass was about 40 feet long. That's a lot of mud! |
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September 3rd: After clearing the basin , I was back at the island again.
I made 2 more long passes, but the dredge was cutting slow. Then I realized I was hitting the sand bottom at only 8 feet down. |
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I was about finished with a pass, when I saw water running down the shore of the lake!
Oh No! The basin must have burst! I jumped off the dredge, and rowed for the shore. |
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I got the dozer, and pushed some gravel across the road to stop the water flow.
It only ran about 10 minutes, but it had already done some damage. One of the basin walls split, I must not have packed it good enough? |
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We fixed the side of the basin, and the road to the lake, Thanks Pops!
I finished up the pass that day, but I won't be able to dredge again until the basin de-waters, and I clean it out again. |
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September 15th:We're back, and the basin is drained.
I forget the camera, so no new pics. We hauled about 12 truck loads out to make a bit more room for some new mud.I had to re-rig the cable and hose for the dredge, and took 3 short passes at the island. I'm out to the area where I had the crane last year. I suck up chunks of leftover turf, and that really clogs the dredge pump! |
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October 5th: We woke to a frosty dredge.
It's getting near the end of the season, I think we're going to pull everything out when we're done this trip |
 We're chipping away at the island (it's sand) It's slow going. |
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October That's it. we're done for the year.
(These last two pictures are from December) Helga shrugs off the cold, waiting for spring when we can play again! |
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Bloom Lake in winter. We took a trip up to met with the forester
to discuss our up coming timber harvest.
See ya in the spring! |
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