Jamie Thingelstad

Last week when I repositioned one of the UniFi G4 Cameras so that I could keep an eye on the flooding and the pontoon I didn’t consider raccoons getting interested in the camera. I had just put it on a 2x4 on the ground. The 2x4 was to keep it from being on any pooled water. That didn’t even make it 24 hours.

Luckily I had a yard stake and some scrap wood. Problem solved! Additionally I’m now looking closer to eye height instead of having a view from the ground. Stay away raccoons! 🦝

Wondering about all that green stuff on the water? That is floating algae that collects in the little alcove that our dock sits.

We stopped at our cabin yesterday to check on the flooding on Cannon Lake. Lucky for us the only real situation we are managing is our pontoon and dock. The water was down a few inches from last week but still very high. The lake association also sent a warning that the water may be contaminated due to all the flooding upriver from us.

I also replaced the sump pump discharge line. Usually the sump pump there doesn’t run often but it is running every minute to two now and I noticed the discharge line had several holes and it was spraying water all over the place. I figured with all the flooding I may not be able to find a replacement but Faribault Ace Hardware had our back. Our sump pump didn’t have a threaded connector but I was able to make it work and got the new line in place.

We drove along Cannon Lake Trail and the water had receded a few inches but still a lot of flooding and even more debris after a week. We also looped through Dodge Court and most of the really big houses there were still okay but there were a few that were badly flooded. In Warsaw I was surprised that bridge that crosses the Cannon River on Farwell Ave was still open. I thought it ould be flooded too. The Channel Inn was not flooded, but Doc’s Dock was flooded and several of their permanent RV spots were as well.

It is fun to think back to 17 years ago right now, tweeting on iPhone launch day, when I got my hands on the original iPhone. What a journey! 🚀

Lovely stroll with Lucky this evening. A blooming Northern Catalpa, Minnehaha Creek brimming with water, and Asiatic Lilies.

This weekend I received my Ledger Stax crypto wallet! I pre-ordered this in December 2022 because I loved hearing how Tony Fadell, who designed the original iPod, approached designing this. The device is meant to look like a book and you can customize the spine and cover however you wish to help see what is “inside” the wallet. I unboxed it tonight.

The packaging is well done but very big for such a small device. The box it comes in is the same book shape as the Stax itself, and then the Stax is simply tucked away inside. Very nicely done and all simple cardboard so very recyclable.

I didn’t set it up yet, but I did power the Stax up and it makes a nice twinkle sound and the screen comes to life. It is a touch sensitive screen and is surprisingly responsive when you touch it. Very cool.

I have a Ledger Nano X already so I’m going to need to sit down and figure out how I want to configure and setup the Stax. I actually pre-ordered two of these so am expecting another one to show up soon.

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

For this challenge you will create a simple counter to keep track of any number of events that you might want to track. You could use this to keep track of the number of books you’ve read, the number of times you did a certain activity, or how many summer challenges you’ve completed.

The counter must be created using Shortcuts and Data Jar. The shortcut should have at least these functions:

• Increment a counter
• Decrement a counter
• Create a counter
• Remove a counter

Once you have created the Shortcut then write a post about how you created it, and include a link to install the shortcut via the share sheet.

Completed! ✅

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

For this challenge you can write about any book that you’ve read. A book report style post is fine, but you could also share something different about the book. The post should include an image of the cover. Preferably it would also include some text quoted from the book as well.

You can redeem this challenge up to five times.

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

For this challenge write about a video game that you have played. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a review of the game. It could be about how you approached the game or any other aspect of it. The post should include screenshots to help share your message.

You can redeem this challenge up to three times.

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

This challenge is about expressing your creativity through images. First, identify a topic or theme that you want to focus on. It could be something like flowers, or water as a topic. For themes it could be movement, warmth, wind. Then take a walk with your phones camera at the ready and capture five to ten photos that express the topic or theme that you picked. Share the photos along with the topic or theme on your blog.

You can redeem this challenge up to three times.

Completed:

• Creatures in the Garden by Tyler
• Other Half Photowalk by Mazie
• A Walk In The Rose Garden by Tyler

I received my Rabbit R1 tonight! I only had time to get it out of the box, do the basic setup, and get it updated. Will play more later.

Helped Tyler order the first three components for his Gaming PC from NewEgg. He’s officially starting that project. Fun!

In September 2016 we experienced a major flood on Cannon Lake, and now in 2024 we are going through an even more severe flood. I’m going to use the completely unscientific gauge of the seating at the end of our dock. In 2016 the water was right up to the seat. This year, only about 3 inches of the upper part of the seats is popping above the water.

I wasn’t sure how bad the flooding would be this year. I have cameras mostly for keeping track of weather and storms and things were generally looking okay. Tammy went to the lake on Thursday to check on things and reported the lake was a couple inches below the top of the dock. Given there wasn’t much rain in the forecast I sort of thought it would be okay.

Then today the lake association sent an email that there were sandbags available at the Channel Inn for homeowners that needed them, and the lake was probably going to rise another foot. I got into the car immediately and went drove there.

As I got to Faribault I started to see how bad the flooding was. There was a road on the periphery of Faribault that was flooded and impassable. As I drove toward Cannon Lake I saw that the water was up very high. Shager Beach wasn’t there at all, entirely under water. The public docks along the south side of the lake were all badly damaged. As I got closer to our place I saw that some of the houses had as much as 100’ of lakeshore underwater.

The good news for us is our place is on a bit of a rise. We are at least 20 feet higher than many other places. Happily our basement is still dry. The biggest issue is the pontoon, which was why I was there. Unfortunately the sumac trees along our shore have gone nuts and the camera I can usually watch the boat from showed nothing of value.

When I got there I could see right away we had some problems.

What to do? I had to think on it a bit. There is no chance of getting the pontoon out from under the canopy. I didn’t like the look of the back of the pontoon. It was much lower and the back of the canopy was visibly higher in the air. I don’t want the motor sinking. After some consideration I switched into swimming shorts, put on a life jacket, and got a single aluminum paddle. I wasn’t going to repeat walking off the dock like I did in 2016, so I use the paddle and very carefully made my way step my step down the stairs and along the dock. I was about waist high in the water.

Once I got to the boat I lowered the ladder and used that to climb into it. The boat was pretty high up to get into otherwise. My goal was to make the boat as short as possible. The bimini was on its lowest setting, but I could drop it all the way down and get another foot. This was not easy. The boat was holding the canopy up and there was a lot of weight. I gave it a lot of muscle and finally lifted the canopy off enough to get the bimini down all the way.

Then I crawled into the boat and noticed that one of the cover poles was bent into a C-shape. I knocked out all of the poles to again lower the profile of the boat. After doing this, I could tell the boat was floating a little bit. It wasn’t pinned in place anymore. I then carefully grabbed a tie down and went back down the ladder. I loosely tied the boat to the canopy support. It cannot go anywhere, it is totally trapped. But when the water lowers the rope could be useful.

I don’t think there is anything else I can do. I definitely bought myself some room. I think the lake could raise another 6" or 12" and it would probably be okay. We’ll see. 🤞

After I took care of this, I repositioned the lake camera and put a new access point in place outside to make this work. Now I have full eyes on the boat and know what is going on. 👀

After tending to my situation I looked around a bit and took some photos. I’ve got it pretty easy. Some folks have their entire houses flooded. It was sad to see.

I also took a video as I drove along Cannon Lake Trail, which is the small road on a strip of land between Cannon Lake and Wells Lake. Feel for these folks. 🙏

On our walk around Lake Harriet today we took a stroll through the Rose Garden as well. There were many roses out in full bloom but it seemed like they had either been battered heavily in the rain or were maybe a bit past their prime. Probably a bit of both.

Just heard the water level on Cannon Lake is expected to increase another foot. Time to head to the cabin to make sure things will be okay. 🛟

The grapes in our backyard are coming along. 🍇

Regular dose of Vitamin G while we were in Ireland.

In the spirit of Harper’s Index, for our Ireland trip.

Part of the Ireland 2024 Collection.