Minnesota Resorts Blog

     At Kohl’s resort this Fall was more unique than usual.  The weather was warmer and the leaves were more colorful.  The pipe-liners moved in the year.  Kohls usually rents some units to college kids and new people moving into town. But this year there are two major pipelines being put in, so they rented quite a few units to them. 

   With Fall lasting longer than usual we moved right into hunting season.  Aaron and I are dating, we got to sit in the double seater Jim set up.  Aaron and I met in Highschool and  we are now living at Bemidji State University in the dorms. 

  I got my first deer this year sitting with Aaron.  He passed on shooting a lot of deer himself while letting me get the experience of seeing the deer walking and grazing on the foliage. After the first full week I felt confident enough to scope a deer and pull the trigger.  Down it went.  It only went a few steps.  It was a young doe.  Every one was really proud of my accomplishment.  Jim skinned the deer and my dad picked it up a few days later.  We went out for Big Burgers, this is a celebration that the Eickhorst family has been doing for the last 26 years. 

  Jim had a discouraging hunt one day.  We all went out to our own stands and while walking out to his, about five minutes ahead he heard a shot from his area.  When he got to his stand there was a guy getting down from it.  He got a 10 pointer from Jim’s stand.  This really was a bummer to our group that whole night.    Tara Riplinger

    Well, it certainly was a cool Summer, but the Fall has started out to be so very warm.  September was a great surprise,  And the Forecast for October is rainy.  Our leaf cleanup is a big project.  We work on leaves very diligently.  We are doing leaves every 3 days.  We divide the resort into sections, then work on each section.  This week we were able to do some burning of the piled up leaves.  Much of it is composted.  This year we had some extra helpers for the Fall cleanup.  My sister and her husband came  from Wisconsin for their anniversary and were kind enough to help us.   It’s all good as she has a little pyromaniac in her. So she enjoys manning the leaf burning.  Debbie and my sister manned the burning while Bob and I did lots of the blowing and building of piles. 

   I had some major back problems this Fall from  pheasant hunting in North Dakota.  My back came out hunting and doing the leaves continuously  only aggravated it.  I went to the doctor 3 times and the chiropractor 20 times in the last 4 weeks.   Jim

Fall is upon us.  The trees are bursting with color.  The last two weeks have been perfect as far as the weather and fisherman have been out in full force.   Walleye and Northern are hitting hard.  A guest caught 3 Walleye 22″-24″ in just one outing, oh, and plenty of Northern.  (catch & release is a good thing)    Another guest had taken a deer with a bow as hunting has also begun. 

Buena Vista Ski area hosted a fall hayride last Saturday.  Mark your calendar for next year.  Get out there and soak in the colors and the smells of fall.  It’s right in our very own backyard.        

   Labor day weekend is a good opportunity for families to come to the resort for a short stay and enjoy some of the best weather of the year. Most of August is reserved by the entire week, but the last 2 weekends of the Summer we will break up the weeks and let guests book weekends. 

   Labor day marks the to our official Summer, but the next 5-6 weekends can be some of the best fishing.  Also the weather is, in my opinion perfect.  75 degrees during the day and 50-55 at night for perfect sleeping.   Don’t forget those campfires where the evening chill starts to come, and you snuggle in close to the fire.  It’s time for smore and pudgie pies.  “What is a pudgie pie?”, you ask.  There is a special cooker that fits a slice of bread.  So you take two slices of the bread, and put different fillings between them.  Examples: cherry or apple filling, also stuff like cheese, or pizza sausage, shredded cheese, and pepperoni slices.  Good stuff   Put it on the fire, toast it, and you are ready to chow down.   Jim

  Normally I would say: Best hot and dry Summer on record.  or All the guest loved the warm and sunny beach times.  But not this August. This was probably the coolest and windiest Summers on record.  Some of our best days were this past June, lots of beach time then. 

   I say, ” What the heck Mr. Gore”. There is no global warming as far as I can tell.  Someone out there tell me about your global warming experiences!! 

  I have great hopes and expectations for next Summer.  It has to be better.  I am glad that most of the guests just take the weather in stride. I still see people trying to have the time of their lives, biking, hiking, swimming, fishing, running playing, jet skiing, wake boarding, having campfires, using the playground, and yes this year more then ever taking advantage of the fact we have an indoor heated pool, sauna, and hot tub.   Jim

Here is the guest book memories from this past week.

  Geez! Where do I start. Every year more and more memories come.  Staying up till 3am every night! Moments from Nicole & Chase when they were together!  Andrea and Rachel laughing till we peed.Moments in the hot tub!Logan’s nonstop farting. Taking pictures.Going on the water trampoline while it was raining!  Watching skinny dippers at 2am in the morning!  HAHAHA Eating nothing but junk food!  Listening to weird music! Going to the lake at 2:30 in the morning and having campfires at the beach!  And much Much More!!! Me and Rachel holding holding & hugging everywhere!  HAHA 

  P.S.  What we did:Tubed,wake boarded, campfire, fished, night games, hot tub,  ate, TV, video games, activities, feed Timmy the chipmunk! He likes bread and grapes!  Thanks   Andrea Telthoester

   Thank you Andrea.    Jim

   This week had the best fishing of the entire summer.  Why?  I don’t know.  Possible because the last month was unusally cool.  I am really glad our beach is a South facing beach.  At about 9-10am the sun hitts the beach and starts warming it up.  But there were a few days this month that a cold breeze made it very difficult to be at the beach in a swimming suit.  Lucky for us our heated indoor pool was a savior.  Many of the customers took the toddlers up to the lodge and spent the day inside the pool room.  The kids were playing, running, and even eating lunches in the pool area.  The hot tub and sauna saw extra visitors during this Summers wintery blast.  Well during the Summer 72 degrees feels cold, and we had a few of those days.  

   Again, whats the deal with the good fishing???      Jim

We have had two weeks of truly chilly weather.  That’s not supposed to happen here.  Well the sweatshirts have been selling like hot cakes.  HAHA!!   We should be about 85 degrees every day. It has been hitting 75 every day but the mornings and evenings have been much colder then usual.  At least the fishing is still holding steady.  But not every body that comes here is a fisherman.  Many of the last few days people have taken the day trip to Itasca State Park.  It is mostly inland from the lake breezes.  The walks on all  the trails is wonderful.  Many of the states largest trees are right here.  Just a few minuets up the trail from the road.  Wading through the headwaters gives you a sense of enpowerment as you know the size the river gets just a few hundred miles south.     Jim

   This 4th of July celebration was different. Once every seven years the 4th of July lands on a Saturday.  Saturday is our customer change over day. So we said good bye to all our guests, and went to work for the next seven hours. Our new guests checked in from 4pm till about 9 that evening. 

     Usually we, in the past, have done a fireworks display on the night of the 4th. But as we thought many people would still be busy unpacking. We decided to forgo the usual fireworks display, and we did a Sunday classic rock band instead.  We had good reviews from most of our guests.  Actually most of our guests stayed right at their cabins and sat around fires, and listened to the music.

   Many boats pulled up to our sand beach and sat there and listened. A few of them came up for a while and ate a burger or two and had a drink.  We  cooked some food and supplied drinks to all. Happy 4th!!   Jim

   This past week was a great week for getting sun.  The weather was great and because we have a southern facing beach it was really warm.  I saw a few guys walking around with way too much sun burn.  We are so far north that June and July the sun is extremely strong.  The sun comes up at 5:30 and sets at 9:25.  These are extremely long days.  Every one runs around all day, and these days are so long, that when it is time to put the kids to bed they just zonk out. The kids sleep so well, that on the day of our minnow race, Tuesdays, that sometimes we have to go knock on doors to get the kids up to participate.  Jim