Southwest Angle News and Views, Roseau County, MN USA:

The Ice is Leaving...

     While the ice on the big lake is still solid, a pair of fishermen found out the hard way that the ice just off the dock on the Point in Warroad couldn’t be trusted. At about 8 am on April 15th, they broke through but, fortunately, were able to escape.
     A day later, there was open water where ice had been the day before. Just around the Point, the Arctic Cat test riders were carrying on as normal.
     “The ice out on the lake is still good now. We’ll see how the ice is on Monday,” said one of the test drivers when asked. “I’m scheduled to leave for Colorado to test next week.”
He said that the operation to remove the sunken four-wheeler had taken nearly all day. The ice near the dock had to be dug away with a backhoe and, during the tow process, the cable had come off the four-wheeler. The owner had to go underwater in the frigid channel to re-hook.
The Warroad River is still high and one can encounter a closed road as well as some that are nearly impassible driving around the county. Be aware as you travel on land or over water throughout the area.

by Rob Crowe

I’m not quite sure where it went this week. My ambition, that is. For some reason, after we came back from our weekend trip to celebrate Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, with family in the lower north, the urge to do anything in a timely manner left me and this edition is a bit later than normal. I am still, however, well within budget, primarily because I don’t have a budget.

Management is still putting up with my weekly publication so I’ll assume the costs are bearable.

It was good to see the older kids and get them re-acquainted with the little girls, who seem to be sprouting upward at an unbelievable rate.

One of the problems associated with having a spouse employed at the Yellow Rose is that one of the family members who is building said to Management, “Since you work there, I can get great deals on windows!”

Well, yes, probably, not because her mother works there but because they have good deals on surplus windows at the Home Center. Unfortunately, it means that dad has to go to the Home Center, sort through the rejected windows on numerous different trips as the specs change, then devise a way to deliver the windows to the construction site.

The delivery process would have been quite easy if the window sizes would have been, say, under three feet square, but one of the windows was five feet by four feet. The Aerostar is pretty sizeable inside so I was able to cram the two windows into the van by folding down the seat. Unfortunately, the seat belt situation was somewhat less than optimal. To take Management, the three girls, Abby the dog, luggage, the windows and myself on a four hour trip required more room.

I spent some late Friday night time trying to arrange the big window so the seat back could be raised, but to no avail. It became apparent that I would need to take the trailer. At 11:30 pm I called it a night, preparations would wait until morning. The window recipient kid communicated with Management on a couple of occasions and the two of them demanded from me a firm delivery time. Somehow my reply that we’d get there when we got there didn’t satisfy them.

The next morning, after the staff meeting at Roseen’s Corner, I dove into the project. I re-wired the trailer light plug at the back of the van, installed the extra seat in the van, hooked up the trailer and made sure the turn signals/stop lamps worked. After installing the front and side panels on the trailer, I loaded up the windows. Management had all the luggage piled on the kitchen floor so that got loaded into the back of the van. I jacked up the trailer and replaced the bald tire on the trailer with a new one fortuitously purchased from North Country Tire the day before. Sometime around 11am, we headed south.

We found out that the family communication system was working. Just before we reached Baudette, Management communicated a revised arrival time with the window recipient. Within minutes, we received a call from the kids coming up from Elk River and I had to explain the above activities to them to help them understand why we were maybe running a bit late.

The engine electronics on the Aerostar were acting up; top speed was about 54 mph, but we eventually made it to Hibbing and unloaded the windows. The older daughters had a neat little Easter egg hunt all prepared for the Little Girls, and then it was on to Steak Escape for a family meal.

Resurrection Sunday was spent at our old church in Grand Rapids. As expected, it was blessed to hear my sister sing in the Cantata and later, to greet long time friends after the service. Dinner was at my sister’s place and in late afternoon the Little Girls and I loaded up one of my creations to haul back to Roseen’s Corner.

The Aerostar’s electronic problem miraculously disappeared so motoring back with the creation, a little red truck built on a riding mower chassis, was without event.

Thanks to all who expressed positive thoughts about the passage from Matthew in last week’s paper. I’ve included the sequel in this week’s paper. For future issues, Pastor Bob Ludwig has agreed to be a regular contributor to the Southwest Angle.

Another week in the Great North, see you next week!