The critters of Loon Lake Decoy Company

Chances are you already know Loon Lake Decoy Company loves their pets, animals and critters. From bugs to dogs and cats to waterfowl, songbirds, big game and fish there is not much that walks, crawls, swims or flies that we don’t enjoy watching, petting, catching or taking care of. We surround ourselves with nature and animals in our personal and business lives and we enjoy every minute of it.

“Lucky” the stray cat became part of the Loon Lake Decoy Company staff within a few months of us opening our doors almost 18 years ago. At the time most of our property was being used as a cornfield. As we enjoyed our lunch outside the shop one fine early summer day we heard a faint meow. Soon another meow and another came from the cornfield. After trying off and on for a better part of that afternoon we were able to coax three very small kittens from the expanse of the corn field. Now these tiny kittens had obviously been dumped on our doorstep by some uncaring individual who did not want to do the right thing. After a discussion amongst partners it was decided we would keep one kitten and find good homes for the other two. “Lucky” named after the fact she was lucky to have survived being abandoned has been a permanent part of the staff ever since.

Lucky gave birth to two small litters of kittens after which it was decided she needed to make a short visit t the vet. All the kittens were given to good homes and one named Mello still resides with our Art Director Mikki and her family. Lucky has also proven to be fair at keeping the mouse population in check around the shop, each fall as the mice try to make the shop their winter vacation home we find Lucky busy welcoming the uninvited visitors. She is now the senior animal member of the staff, a position she lets all the underling dogs know with the flash of a razor sharp paw when they invade her private space. It is always a show anytime a new dog enters the mix as they learn just which pet rules the Loon Lake roost.

Stay tuned as we introduce you to more of the Loon Lake animal staff in the coming weeks.

Gary

Happy 4th of July!!

As we take time to celebrate the founding of our nation please remember and thank all our brave troops that have served, are servicing and will serve in the future to defend our freedoms.

Be safe this Fourth of July, be responsible and safe behind the wheel and in your celebration activities. Every one of our customers are valued and considered part of the Loon Lake family, we want you all back safe and healthy on Monday.

Keep an eye out for wildlife this weekend as well. The Whitetail Deer fawns are really started to move around this time of year so keep a sharp eye out for them as you travel. I have seen at least 20 fawns including a set of triplets in the last few days on my way back and forth to work. It would not make for a good Fourth if you hit a deer. Speaking of wildlife on the way in to work today I saw a pair of Greater Sandhill Cranes, what a magnificent bird to watch in flight. In the last few years we are starting to see more and more of them in the area as they expand their home range westward.

Please note the Loon Lake Decoy Company Factory Outlet Store will be closed Friday July 3rd and will reopen on Monday July 6th.

Personally I am looking forward to spending some time with family and wetting a line. Also thinking grilled salmon or chicken is sounding like a good Fourth of July dinner for the kids and grandkids before we head down to see the local fireworks.

Please take time to vote on our poll about for your favorite way to grill out this summer. This poll question came about after a heated debate between a couple very good outdoor cooks that I know. I am looking forward to seeing what method you think is best and sharing your input with my buddies.

Again have a great and safe Fourth.

Welcome to another week in tropical Minnesota.

Wow have we been hot and humid this past week. While the crops, especially corn loves it, we northern human types have found the past week down right uncomfortable. With temperatures in the 90’s and humidly thick enough you can see it in the air the change from a long cool spring to full blown summer is taking some getting used to. Hopefully the body acclimates before I melt.

I just had the pleasure of meeting a most pleasant couple from Florida in the Loon Lake Decoy Company Outlet store. Both having lost their first spouses this interesting couple met each other while riding motorcycles around the country. After a seven week around the east coast motorcycle romance they wed and now some years later they have purchased a motor home and spend their summers traveling the country.

He is a retired from the construction business and she is a former school teacher. Both still love to meet people and see new things. Being a woodworker the gentlemen had an interest in wood carved wildlife sculptures so when they were told about Loon Lake they made a point to stop by.

It was fun to explain to them how we create our waterfowl sculptures and see how much interest they had in how we turn a block of wood into a beautiful work of art. It was also great to hear their stories about some of the places they have gone in search of finding unique gifts to take home for their kids. At one stop in upper Michigan a couple years ago they were visiting a small craft store when the conversation came around to what they did for a living. Upon learning she was a teacher the clerk asked her where she had taught school and come to find out she was a former math student from 1960. Needless to say they enjoy a find visit together. While here they found some bargains in the outlet store and after some discussion decided the motor home was still able to support a few more pounds and had enough room that Christmas this year will feature some Loon Lake Decoy Company sculptures from Minnesota. What a pleasure it was to get to meet them and as they travel down the road and read this Blog I hope my story puts a smile on their face as their visit did mine.

Have a great evening.
Gary

Friday is Here

Sorry it has been a bit since my last Blog, been very busy around work and the old homestead.

A couple important updates regarding the website, as you can see we have changed our front page and we have added our Loon Lake Decoy Company Gift Certificates to the website. They make a great gift for those hard to buy for folks and if you need a last minute gift we can get them to you quickly.

The July desktop background calendar is now posted on the website, sorry about missing June, between a computer bug and it being crazy around here it did not get up in time.

Mr. Melton a former full time employee with us was back in town for three days this week. It was a pleasure having him back at his desk assisting us. For those of you who have met Dan at the shows you know he is a good man who is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and help out customers and his fellow staff. Thanks Dan for all you help this week, was fun having you back for a few days.

Rain, Rain, Rain, wow have we had enough bad weather the last couple days. Let’s hope we get a couple days to dry out and give people with damage to their homes and businesses some time to get a little clean up done.

Well I am off to do trout stream habitat restoration work this weekend so my guess is I will drop a few pounds with the hard work, will be good to get that exercise in for a change.

Have a great weekend.
Gary

Memorial Weekend

Wow what a weekend, BUSY is the only way to describe it. Friday night went down to the cabin to do some more work. Than enjoyed some deep fried Gulf shrimp, Rib-eye steak, morel mushrooms, and asparagus with friends, Scott, Tom, Carrie, Sid and Matt. Also had a great campfire. Saturday worked on the cabin and did some fly fishing for trout, fishing was so-so, the Light Hendrickson’s should be starting anytime but they were not coming off yet, can’t wait they are a fun hatch to fish.

Sunday was all family, got up early and went over to the old home town of Arcadia, WI for Broiler/Dairy Days. Watched the parade at my brother and sister in-laws home on main street, had some of the famous RKD grilled chicken, some shrimp and venison kabobs then headed up to the carnival with the kids and grandkids. Had fun playing the games and watching the grandkids on the different rides. The kids even got old Dad to go for a ride on the Tilt A Whirl, figured I had size and weight to get it flying, didn’t disappoint them. After the young kids left we got together with the adult in-laws and went up to the beer garden/pavilion to see a band called The Dweebs. They were fun, played a variety of music and Benjamin could really belt out the tunes. Was nice hearing some decent live music, would go see them again.

Monday was home work day, installed a new dishwasher, what a pain, too old for laying on a hard floor working it a space designed for a mini human, updated and upgraded some of my home computer components, backup power supply, keyboard, mouse and added a 1 terabyte external hard drive for storing pictures and music. For supper grilled some excellent Sockeye Salmon. Served it with a nice cream, capper, dill weed, butter sauce, asparagus, coleslaw and had some very good bagel bread with olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction, not a bad way to end the long weekend.

Tuesday I am back at work and it is nice to make some sales and get back to the regular grind of business. At lunch today I read the first story that made sense about the economy turning around and why the recession has reached the bottom is now on the way back up, Good news indeed. Here is the link if you would like to read it yourself, http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/the-recession-it-is-over-economist-says.aspx.

Hope you had a good weekend, it was safe and THANK YOU to all our veterans who have served and are serving this great country of ours. We can never repay you for all you have done to protect our freedoms.

First Hummingbird of the Year!

The first Ruby Throated Hummingbird of the year just showed up at my feeder outside my office window. I was finishing my lunch at 12:45 PM today when I looked up and saw a beautiful male land for a quick drink. I am looking forward to having them back for the season, their constant movement and chatter make them one of my favorite birds to observe. Now I feel like spring really is here!

Gary

Glad to be back at work!

Well it is good to get back to work after having the past week off. I am looking forward to calling some of our customers and getting back in the sales mode.

I enjoyed my week off with my two brothers and a young nephew. We spent our time turkey hunting, fishing, and enjoying nature. We saw many different kinds of wildlife including some fun encounters with nesting Wood Ducks. It is fun watching how fast they can move through the trees. As fast as they go it is amazing they never crash.

Deer are still plentiful, even after last years near record hunting season and a hard winter there were lots of deer around. We had one group of 12 or 13 get within just a few feet of us as we sat motionless along a hillside one afternoon. Of course turkeys are not smell sensitive so we were not scent free and it was driving the deer crazy. They could smell us but not see us so they really put on a show. They went through all the hoof stomping, head bobbing and snorting trying get us to move and give away our position. They finally moved off walking up hill about 20 yards to the side of us and as they went up the hill here comes the flock of turkeys we were calling, 9 birds, 2 hens and 7 jakes so no shot for Mitch in that bunch. By the way Mitch is my brother’s 12 year old son and it was his first year turkey hunting. It was great getting him out and sharing time in the field with him. He did not get a bird but he came very close one afternoon after school. We were set up in the same spot my Dad shot his last bird at. All four of us were together, Mitch’s Dad Terry was filming, Mitch and brother Dave were the shooters and I was calling. We got four long beards to come within 10 yards. Unfortunately Mitch moved and the birds busted us, started putting and moving off. I putted back and switched to an excited yelp that got one bird to gobble so it settled the others down. They then moved to the other side of the brush they were behind and Dave ended up with the 9 yard shot instead of Mitch. That is the way it goes there is never a sure thing in hunting or fishing but it certainly was exciting to watch Mitch’s reaction as four long beard turkeys were gobbling less than 15 yards from us.

It certainly would have been great if Mitch would have gotten a bird there. How cool would it be to get his first bird in the same place his grandpa got his last.

Fishing, we fished for Crappies twice during the week. We had fair success, the bite was just ok and the fish were running a bit small. The first time out we only had a couple hours to fish and even though we caught some nice fish we released everything we caught that day. The second trip we kept a dozen 13 to 15 inch fish, brother Dave wants to share a fish fry this week with a lucky friend so we kept some for him. The best bite we got ended up being on 1/16 and 1/8 ounce jigs with yellow or white twister tail bodies. We cast to shore and than worked the jig back slowing letting it swim and fall into 25 feet of water. Most of the bites came in the lower 5 to 8 feet of water with the occasional aggressive biter hitting a swimming jig higher up in the water column. As we pulled out on the second day we got checked by the Game Warden, nice to see them out protecting our natural resources. Was fun talking with him, he was also turkey hunting and he had just gotten his bird the day before so we shared some success stories.

That is it for now, it is almost 9 AM and I have to return some customer phone calls. Again good to be back at Loon Lake and I look forward to speaking with soon.