Noah, we need an ark!

Thank goodness the cabin is elevated on its footings!  All of this rain is causing the water to rise and rise and rise.  We were at the cabin most of last weekend.  Dave went on Friday morning and did a lot of work on the shoreline and landscaping.  Unfortunately, we had a whole new shoreline by the end of the weekend!  I joined him Friday evening after work.

First things first, we branded the place with Jon and Mere's old swingset name plackard!  It was first put into service in 1992 at 6120 Beard Place, Edina.  Now it is in place at 16231 Sunset Trail, Pine City.

Friday night we hung out with the neighbors a bit after going out on the lake in the fishing boat.  The neighbors are interesting, let's just say.

Saturday morning the water was starting to rise already and we did some fishing right off of the backyard shoreline.  See our catch (and breakfast) below!

Dave's brother and nephew came up on Saturday night and we hung out, had a fire in the backyard, watched fireworks (apparently a popular past time amongst some of the lake dwellers - and these are pretty nice fireworks!), and enjoyed a couple libations.

By morning, the water was coming up pretty fast.  Dave's brother Steve is shown above on the pontoon.  You can see from the pictures below that the water is higher.

That didn't stop the fun though.  That is Steve and Dave on the pontoon above.  Note how high the water is on the dock.  Eventually the dock would be floating entirely.  We actually took it out of the water (lake?  It was still in water in the backyard!). 

Dave's mom, Ellie, and Steve's wife, Shannon, joined us a little later in the morning.  We all went out on the pontoon and little Josh got to try his hand at driving the boat!

Dave grilled and we ate Ellie's homemade rhubarb pie for a late lunch.  The whole gang stayed over on Sunday night.  By morning, the water was higher still.  The swingset that Josh had played on the day before was now under water too.  We caught more fish and had a delightful breakfast of fish, eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and leftover pie. 

After breakfast, Ellie and Shannon left, Dave and Steve moved the dock (wowsa - water up to their shoulders... fun), Josh supervised and eventually Steve and Josh left too.

Dave and I went out fishing again, he asked me to marry him, I said yes, we caught another 23 keepers (for a total of 49 keepers on the weekend and about 75 caught fish altogether), Dave cleaned the up the boats and cleaned the fish, I did a load of laundry, Dave mowed the upper yard (very little lower yard existed!), we secured the place for even higher flood waters, and, eventually, we returned to Eagan.

When we left the water was approaching the edge of the deck (not the dock - the deck).  Since then, according to the government records, the water has gone up (and now peaked) about another foot from then.  That would put the water well under the deck and up on the driveway.  The house should be sound since it is on stilts.

I think we are staying in Eagan this weekend.  We have a deck to stain, a garage door to paint, some travelling baseball to watch... etc.

We look forward to seeing many of you this weekend!