Bluegill, Rick's new place, and our Grand Lake Ohio Algae

I took the windows out of the Jeep yesterday, and just before Noon headed north and east about 70 miles to my friend Rick's new place, across the state line north of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The trip in the Jeep was cool, bouncy, and breezy, but I made it in about 2 hours by taking the back roads as much as possible, before hitting I-469/I 69 and Indiana 3...arriving just before 2pm.

Rick and wife Toni bought 17 acres in Noble County about 13 years ago, and after working and clearing the land, putting in a large pond, and selling the house that they and the 3 kids lived in for 26 years last winter, finally got their new dream house under roof...and moved in this past April. The inside is something to see. The property is still in the landscaping stages, and Rick is finishing the basement over the next few months...they have themselves quite the place, and with a minimum of neighbors...it makes me wonder just why the Hell I ever moved back into town?....especially considering some of the trash that surrounds us now.

Rick, who was my best man at my 1976 wedding, (I returned the favor at his and Toni's in 1981) and I have known each other since our High School days at Celina....we worked at the old Marsh Supermarket in Celina together until I graduated in 1967...we have been best friends since those days...although we don't get together that often these days. Plus I have missed out on the past 2 annual Mushroom Hunts in Michigan, due to baseball tournament consideration, and we didn't get together last New Years for the first time in about 20 years, because they were living in an apartment waiting for the new house to get livable....so yesterday, I drove up to see how things had worked out since I was last there early in January, when the place was under construction.

We drank a couple of beers, had a cigar or 2, and I dipped the pole in his pond, filled with Bluegill and Smallmouth Bass. I came up with about a half dozen blues in about 15 minutes...almost too easy, these guys are hungry, and pretty tame, and of course I just caught and released...didn't catch any real big ones, but did get some 'decent" sized fish, and a couple of runts....Like I said, way too easy, unlike my next subject, the fishing and other water activities at our Grand Lake St. Marys.....

After about 4 hours of touring and BSing, I headed back to Celina, making it home around 7 last night.

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Gan-Green Grand Lake______

Our 13,000 acre recreational lake, Grand Lake, has become of late a 13,000 acre swamp of Algae and dead fish....the State of Ohio has declared the State's largest inland lake(once the largest man-made lake in the world) "Off Limits" to most activities:

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/jul/01/toxic-algae-takes-over-ohio-lake-ar-129349/

The above story was from a Columbus TV Station....some photos are overstating what the lake looks like, but the smell cannot be overstated in some locations, lucky for Celina, we are usually upwind from the prevailing breeze...

Here is what a former Mercer Countyian...now living in Arkansas, says about Grand Lake and it's problems:

http://libertywell.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/algae-and-government-mucking-up-grand-lake-st-marys/

Just what the Hell is a "Social Libertarian"? I've always considered myself a Far Right Wacko on both ends of the political spectre...and a ass kicker on Social Issues....meaning, if you piss in my yard, I'm gonna kick your ass., because it's not your yard, it's mine. if you, as a doctor perform a later term/partial birth abortion, you are a murdering SOB...seems pretty concrete to me, but I digress. Back to Grand Lake...

More Photos and Stories:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/29/dont-touch-the-water.html?sid=101

Anyway, this Algae, Ag runoff and Goose Poop is mucking up the works on Grand Lake for sure...and the Freedom Days Festival, beginning tonight in Celina, should make for an interesting read come next week....I won't be around however, 6 District Ballgames to umpire in Lima and Rockford over the next 4 days...

Enjoy you 4th....and Remember...Obama and Company are the enemies of Freedom, true American Freedom.

back later

Photos-top..one of the Bluegill I nabbed and released back into Rick's clearwater pond...just some Catails, and some algae around the edges...nothing like Our Grand Lake...The front and back view of the Pearson Mansion....the landscaping still to come. And our "Grand Lake" in all it's bloom...more photos contained in story.