The Mound Westonka Blog - around Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota

Surfside

DG — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:02:25 GMT

When I was about 10 years old, my Mom took us kids to swimming lessons at Surfside beach. This would have been around 1970. I remember the beach had an H shaped dock. The dock did not butt up against the shore, but was out there a ways, for kids to dive from and play on it. I remember Fritz Soule was the swimming lesson teacher, and would give us tests, such as swimming a certain distance.

Tom Rockvam is making a request to bring Surfside's old name back to Mound Bay Park. I think that would be a good idea.

Loon sighting

DG — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:02:09 GMT

Today around 1:00 in the afternoon, a Loon call was heard from on Langdon Bay. The Loon was seen by myself as well. It's official. Another visit by a Loon, perhaps indicating the Okay health of the Bay. So far this year, the Bay is quite clear. Zero fish have been caught from the boat launch area, but the minnow population in the same area is well above average.

Langdon Bay gets a passing grade

DG — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:38:00 GMT

Good news from last year for Lake Langdon: "The study's C grade notes that a lake is typical of lakes in the seven-county metropolitan area. C lakes may not be ideal for swimming, boating, and fishing due to summer algae growth. A total of 25 lakes received a C grade in 2010.....Langdon Lake (up from an F grade in 2006 and 2008)..." - waconiapatriot.com/articles/2011/06/10/the_laker/news/news07.txt

While a grade of C may not sound like much to cheer about, it's at least a temporary improvement. In other news, maximum observed carp levels for this Spring, were around 10. Short of the 15 needed for an 'official' Carp Run to be declared. The carp have headed for greener pastures recently. Sollie Creek has slowed down to about 1/2 its prior flow.

Annual Carp Run not yet observed

DG — Sun, 22 May 2011 19:55:00 GMT

Almost daily checks of Sollie's Creek this year have yet to result in the observation of a 'carp run'. In a majority of the years, carp congregate in the creek for a number of days. Today I observed perhaps 4 of them, who also saw me, and then headed into the bay. I assume they lay their eggs some years at the head of creek. I'd say there has been minimal activity there that year. I would also say that a Sollie's Creek carp run would be at least 15 carp in the creek or at its headwaters.

It may have to do with the creek's well above average flow this Spring. There could be other factors as well. Them finding better spawning elsewhere, or a change in their population.

In past years, with the creek having only a depth of a few inches, carp with height of 5 inches, measured from belly to the top of their back, have been observed, making their way upstream. Most of their bodies above water, and showing their survival, can't fence me in, behavior.

2011 Langdon Bay ice out

DG — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:42:00 GMT

Langdon Bay was officially ice out on April 10th of this year. The past winter was unusual for the bay, as Sollie's Creek did flow all winter. I would guess at a rate of 10 gallons per second. In most years, the creek freezes over.

British Petroleum and Lake Minnetonka

DG — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:17:00 GMT

Estimate of the oil spilled to date: 63 million gallons. Estimate of water in the Gulf: 643,000,000,000,000,000 gallons. I figured a 1/10,000,000,000 ratio.

1/195,000,000: odds of winning the Powerball jackpot. Comparing the percentage of Deepwater Horizon oil in the Gulf, to the odds of winning the Powerball, I get 6.3 X 10 to the 10th versus 1.95 X 10 to the 8th.

So if you played the Powerball, one ticket at a time, and at same time examined a gallon of water from the gulf, one gallon at a time. You'd be 31 more times likely to win the Powerball than to find that that gallon of water just examined was actually Deepwater Horizon oil.

Doing more calculations about the BP oil spill, I came up with this: Lake Minnetonka is 1.3 X 10 to the 11th power gallons of water. Using the 1/10,000,000,000 ratio from before, we then have 1.3 X 10 to the 1st power gallons of oil in Lake Minnetonka or 13 gallons of oil. This series of connected lakes is a little less than 23 square miles in area. I sure hope I am not off by a factor of 10 or 100.

Langdon Bay is Ice Out

DG — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:20:00 GMT

The Bay is cleared. March 31st is the official date this year for 'Ice Out'.

Past dates for Ice Outs:
2009     4/06
2008     4/20
2007     3/28

Today I received a call from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. They may be planning a mapping of the lake bottom for this year. We also talked about why the creek started flowing so early this year. This was a common thing this year for other creeks I was told. It's an interesting question. What causes creeks to resume flowing early, before there has been much snow melting.

Langdon Bay update

DG — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:46:00 GMT

The Bay is hinting at going Ice Out. The rock thrown on the ice test though showed that the ice is still pretty thick. The minnows have returned in force and seem to be doing well. The creek is still flowing at a good pace. My estimate is 10 gallons a second.

H & R Block

DG — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:02:00 GMT

Today's festivities at the tax office included a review of a new client's tax return from the prior year. He used H & R Block, though it wasn't the one in Mound, Minnesota. To see what I found click on the link. It's hard for me to believe that someone charges this much.

H & R Block charges how much? One thing I've never done is offer Refund Anticipation Loans. I guess the best thing I could say about them is they get mixed reviews. Paying 9% to get your money about 2 weeks earlier, isn't something they taught me in accounting school.

5th Annual Westonka Horticulture Day

DG — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:39:00 GMT

This just in. Seems like a fun time:

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Mound Westonka High School

5905 Sunnyfield Road East, Mound, MN 55364

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

For more info:
http://www.westonkahort.org/horticulture-day-updated/

Sollie's Creek Update

DG — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:24:00 GMT

The Creek has been flowing for about a month now which is quite unusual. In most years a dry Fall season means that the creek will stop flowing for the year and only resume in the Spring as the the snow melt runs into Langdon Bay. This year was different as with only minimal snow melt, the Creek started flowing while temperatures were still cold . My guess is something caused the bay level to rise, perhaps global warming or heavy snow sitting on the ice.

The flow of the creek has been strong and my guess is a constant 20 gallons per second. No Carp, Catfish, Sunfish or Minnows have been observed so far this year in the creek.

Minnetonka Drive-In

DG — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

From the Lakeshore Weekly News:

"(David) Bennyhoff, who started working at the drive-in when he was nine years old, said that after the repainting he did this year the drive-in looks just like it did in 1961, when his parents opened it as an A&W.

It runs the same, too. The car hops still take orders, and the frosted root beer is still served along with the burgers and onion rings. Most of what's on the menu is made from scratch."

http://www.weeklynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=10&SubSectionID=10&ArticleID=6497

I think we are fortunate that we still have this perhaps historic business in our area. The root beer still tastes great. It is one of the few real drive-ins left around here. According to me, a real drive-in has a speaker that you talk into to place your order.

Langdon Bay Fishing Report

DG — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:31:00 GMT

It's been a slow Summer for fishing on the bay. Fish are not hitting on corn, leeches or lures. The fish tally for the year is zero. Perhaps it all has to do with the winter kill that ended so many carps lives? One theory I heard about winter kills is that thick snow cover on the lake leads to low sunlight penetration into the water. While the fish give off carbon dioxide, the plants lacking sunlight, do not give off oxygen. The bay was oxygen depleted, so the theory goes. (I wonder if the death of the fish, also kills plants, as they are co-dependent?) Carp might be thought of as survivors, and their death might indicate other species having a similar demise. There was no observed annual carp run into the bay this year. Sollies Creek which connects the bay to Lake Minnetonka has been dry most the year. Bay levels are lower than average, but not extremely so.

On the plus side, the bay is much cleaner this year with visibility of a foot or more not uncommon. Weed growth seems somewhat less than average, and I don't recall observing any pea soup conditions that are normal occurrences on the bay. Perhaps the cooler temperatures and low rainfall have caused some of this. Less rainfall may lead to less run off into the bay, that may contribute to plant growth.

The Blue herons have been around all year, and they are my bay health barometers. I may have heard a loon call this year, but was sadly unable to confirm a visit this year.

Fish Kill Creek

DG — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:49:00 GMT

With the passing of April 15th, the East shore of Langdon Bay has quieted down quite a bit. Sollie's Creek/Langdon Bay Creek has been temporarily renamed Fish Kill Creek. Over a hundred carp did not survive the Winter and their final resting place is the creek that flows into Lost Lake. The DNR was notified of the fish kill, but no alarms were raised, and can less carp really be a bad thing? No sunnies, crappies or bullheads washed up with the carp and we hope they survived the Winter. I can report that the minnow traps are active and productive. Now we are looking for some rain with the hope that that will flush the creek. The lake level is still good though.

Langdon Bay Ice Out

DG — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:09:00 GMT

It's official. April 6th is the Ice Out date for Langdon bay. I think the wind finished breaking up the ice on the South East side of the bay.

Sky Blue Water

DG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:47:00 GMT

Today saw the return to the area of Sky Blue Waters. Lake Langdon is approaching its official Ice Out, which is defined as being able to navigate a pontoon boat around the edge of the lake within 50 feet of the shoreline and being able to cross the lake both east to west and north to south. Yesterday saw a huge flock of Seagulls doing whatever is they do on the remaining ice and making quite a racket. They may have been attracted to the lake by the 100 or so dead carp seen floating along the shore today. Lake Langdon is for the most part shallow, and may have ran out of oxygen as a result of global warming during the Winter.

Sollie's Creek is Open

DG — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:32:00 GMT

It's official, Sollie's Creek which crosses under Commerce Boulevard just North of Green T Accounting is open and flowing into Lost Lake. The annual carp run can't be far behind.

Andrews Sisters Memories

DG — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:56:00 GMT

Here's a recent comment left on the blog:

"Back in the 1940's, as a kid, I used to lay down by the the water running out of a culvert and catch little minnows that would swim by. When I had enough of this I would go over to Pete Sollies store and he would give me a slice of meat or two and afterwards I would go the the next store and watch the blacksmith making something on his anvil.
There also would be a time or two when the Andrews Sisters would come to town in their 3 Cadillac convertibles and their secretary would have a Cadillac sedan. The sisters would also go roller skating upstairs at the building by Cooks bay. Some of the guys would roller skate with them but I was too shy. I graduated from Mound in 1948 so I have a few memories of the early days in Mound and it was a wonderful place to grow up in. I hope I can return this summer to see how everything has changed." - Jack Legus

I am sorry that I haven't spent much time with the blog lately as I've been busy. Check the recent comments please. The Westonka Blog is Head Quartered from 'The Sollie Store'.

One thing I've recently noticed is the shrinking of the Laker Newpaper. I wish them well and hope they continue to serve us as they have for so many years.

Auditors Road short cut

DG — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:08:00 GMT

As we know, we do have traffic in Mound that finds us waiting at the stoplight at Commerce and Shoreline/Lynwood. When driving North on Commerce Boulevard with the intention of going East on Shoreline, we often find ourselves waiting at the stoplight, trying to make a right turn on red, but are blocked by someone waiting to go straight on the green light. There wasn't room for a right turn lane there, and I'd say the person going straight is in their proper lane, given what happens further up the road. A way to avoid this wait is to take Auditors Road and cut across to Shoreline Drive. I am not sure what the speed limit is on Auditors, but you'll save time and see what changes have occurred to what I think is called, Mound's new main street.

I wonder what the grand plan is for traffic flow on this subject? Do the planners envision most people taking this short cut, or would they rather they go up to the stoplight and turn East there?

Langdon Bay frozen over

DG — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:19:00 GMT

Landon Bay has froze over for the year. Sollie's Creek that runs from the bay into Lost Lake is dry and has been for quite some time. The bay's level was lower than average during the latter half of 2008.