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Dave-glad to hear your guys are doing well, and your shop is successful. Do you think you'll be able to expand where you're at, or will you need a different/bigger building? Good luck with all you've got going on, sir. .

Ya can’t see what it looks like over the phone. Take a drive.

To me, the guy seems to be fishing if you’re looking to develop the land into a subdivision.

Yeah, that's a good thought. I sure hope we don't buy a place out away from town just to find out it's gonna all get busted up into small lots. Not much we can do about that if we're buying a relatively small (10 acre) parcel. 'Been a while since you've been out our way Tom, but if you remember, all that stuff up across the street from us got split up into 10 acre lots. They all mow it fence to fence-not much in the way of cover.

Makes me think we should try for a little more land, even if we have to buy some low laying stuff to get a bigger parcel in our price range.

Gunner, what type of a home are you thinking of buying, or building?

10 acres is actually a pretty good amount imo. Even if it gets developed around you, you’ll have some privacy. I don’t think you’ll have that issue up there. People there don’t want it. Which may be why he was asking. But if you want more land with low land...you’ll find it there!!

What we plan on doing is buying the land and initially putting a camper on it. I'm 55, so 10 years of work left. We will sell the house when I retire and build on the land. We'll build probably about 1000 sq. ft., single level with a garage and storage/workshop area. One level, two bedrooms, one bath, with a fireplace. Porches front and back, one screened in, the other open so I can shoot off of it.

Special thanks to T-Zone for answering some questions about used trucks. My Explorer bit the dust a couple weeks ago. It needed exhaust, and front end work, and just wasn't worth putting any more money into, so it went to the scrapyard. I got my annual bonus this week, and talked to Tom regarding what he thought I ought to look at for a 4x4 pickup, stretch cab, with an automatic. He took his own time and looked some stuff up for me on Craiglist and made some recommendations. Yesterday I looked at one of the ones he suggested-a 2001 Dakota and worked out a deal for it. The check hits this morning, so I'll be going to pick up the truck shortly after noon.

Tom went out of his way to give me some advice, and I really appreciate it. Thanks again buddy. We've been a one car family for weeks now (the dreaded mini-van) and I'm ready to be back in my own vehicle. I worked the deal good enough, that I've got money left to buy an in-line ML now that Mn. has legalized scopes on them.

Tom's good people, and I really appreciate his input.

Hopefully, that truck will do what you need it. It should with no trouble actually.

Great Stuff Boys !!

Gopher, hows that Dakota working out?

So far, so good, but I've only driven it a couple days. I've got to come up with a spare tire for it. I went to the boneyard while out running some chores and they've got a couple Dakotas out there, but I wasn't dressed for crawling around in the mud, so I'll go prepared this Friday. Seems to run good-no rattles to speak of. Suspension and brakes feel good. It definitely drives like a truck-not quite as smooth of a ride as the Explorer, but it's fine. The 318 provides plenty of power for my needs-we'll see how it does towing the boat.My biggest challenge so far is figuring out how to set the clock!

Are you guys getting the itch to do some open water fishing? It's just about time to start working on the boat. Man, do I ever want to wet a line. If anyone wants to get out this spring when the crappies and sunnies start biting, let me know. I've always got room in the boat for another guy, and would gladly send a nice batch of fish home with you.

I sort of hate to butt in here. Yes, I am looking forward to open water fishing. First, we are planning a trip to NW Ontario late March with two grandsons to fish through ice.

How many feet of ice you got? I'm hearing 48"-55" on lake of the woods right now. That's ridiculous by the way, totally ridiculous. Any more than 36", mother nature is showboating.

55!!!! Holy mooooly. There is no need for that kind of display. Good lord that's a lot of ice.

Minimum 36" here + snow on top. Bring shovel & auger extension !

Good fishing though.

Some pretty good looking things to eat there Paul! It's a good lake when the perch are as big as the walleyes! Bonus for the bag limit, taste the same!

Quick story.... When we lived in WI I fished a lot. I mean A LOT! 5-7 days a week. On the weekends we'd fish Lake MI, mostly Green Bay, for Walleyes. Early May of 2006 we were on a pretty damn good spring bite. They Walleyes were in shallow, post spawn. We were catching beautiful 17-24" but we were looking for big ol WI girls. So we tried a bit deeper, near the Perch fisherman. They're easy to spot because they're a big island of boats floating around the middle of Lake MI. We finally found what we were looking for on the outer edges of those Perch jerkers, probably 100 yards out or so. Trolling spinner baits and night crawlers, slowly at different depths. I caught my first 10 pound walleye that day. But mama wanted a few for the pan so I kept a 19" fat girl and a 21"er.

When I got home I was cleaning them for frying pan, and in the 19" Walleye, clear as day was an entire 9" Perch! I was surprised. I knew they at Perch but I didn't think they'd eat one 1/2 the size of them selves. I got to the 21" eyeball and there was an 11" Perch in her! Holy crap I couldn't believe it. They ate those perch and were still hungry enough to eat our baits!

Greetings to all, back from my 3 week whirl wind of travels. Was at Devils Lake, was good trip, then was up at the angle. 45 inches of ice up there. Fishing was good not as good as last year. Took the bombers from Angle Outpost to Garden Island every day was a 50 minute bomber ride each way..

Then i was home for 10 hours repack to sunny Florida for a week.

Went from windburn face from Devils to sunburn in Bonita Springs....