Spring Lake

We are in the process of buying a cabin on Spring Lake, this of course provides many opurtunities for geeking out and researching the area. This morning I found the DNR site which details everything from water depth to water quality, as well as a great series of maps.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Site for Spring Lake

Minnesota DNR Lake Finder site

Lake Water Quality Data Summary
Total Phosphorus Mean: 112 ppb (parts per billion)
Total Phosphorus Standard Error: 6 ppb
Total Phosphorus # of Observations: 79
Chlorophyll-a Mean: 60.2 ppb
Chlorophyll-a Standard Error: 3.6 ppb
Chlorophyll-a # of Observations: 121
Secchi Disk Mean: 1 meters
Secchi Disk Standard Error: 0.1 meters
Secchi Disk # of Observations: 101
Alkalinity Mean: ppm (parts per million)
Color Mean: Platinum-cobalt Units
Carlson Trophic Status for Total Phosphorus: 72
Carlson Trophic Status for Chlorophyll-a: 71
Carlson Trophic Status for Secchi Disk: 60
Overall Trophic Status: H

Minnesota River

Earlier this year J and I kayaked the stretch of the Minnesota River around Jordan, my new found friends at the ISK describe this seciton of the river as a fast flowing sewer. I can say that the water was a ghastly brown color and there was little to appeal to the eye about the section up river from the town, it appears that down river the landscape becomes more appealing as the river enters the flats arround savage and winds its way down to the Port. There is a 17 mile trip from Shakope to Near the Missippi that I plan on doing next year after the thaw. Whilst researching the trip I came across a great site run by the USGS that has realtime data of the river flow, located here.

Not tying the knot

Today at work I was sitting in my bosses office with one of my colleagues and it was very clear that he no idea how to tie a tie. So in order to help us all I thought it would be a good idea to provide him some links to guides on how to tie the knot:

First my favorite the Windsor

And if you have to the Half-Windsor

In an effort to help him out I tied a Windsor for him, but his tie ended up rather short, and he looked like Chaplin. It looked rather fetching with his bright yellow sneakers.......

I guess in future I hope his better half will just take care of him in the morning and not let him out the house without fixing his tie... please V!

Good judgment is learned from experience.
Experience is gained from bad judgment

Lao Tsu

A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers.