June 22, 2014

The Great Minnesota Flood of 2014


The Great Minnesota Flood of 2014
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 22, 2014


We're about ready to start building an ark in Minnesota.  A very rainy spring has led to an even rainier summer as Thursday alone we measured more than 4 inches of rain at our house.  Miss Sheri says it may be that she hadn't dumped the rain gauge in a few days, but I'm sticking with the fact that we had more than 4 inches in a day.  Prior Lake is higher than any of my neighbors have ever seen it and it's getting harder and harder to get to our boat.  Oh well.  I'm sure it will be sunny and dry soon enough so we can't complain about a little rain.


Luke and Avery stayed inside and out of the rain for most of the week helping out at a robotics summer camp for elementary school kids.  They spent 4 days building a robot and then the 11 teams competed in a tournament on Friday.


Avery filled a role where he helped all the teams, but Luke was a table leader by himself and helped 4 boys build a really competitive robot.  They did real good.


It feels like just yesterday when our boys were the little ones getting help from the high school students and now they're getting the opportunity to do the same for the younger kids.  Unfortunately I was at work and couldn't see them volunteering at the camp, but seeing the pictures made me real proud of them!


On Friday night, I had a great time inviting over some of my old friends from Nor-Tech for a game of poker.  I lost a bunch of money so we won't be doing that again for awhile.


On Saturday, we were invited up to a friend's cabin to spend the day in the sun and on the lake.  The lake was pretty deep there also.


We've known the Relling Family for many years.  Their son Carson is in the same grade as the boys and they've been in many activities together including Boy Scouts and Band.  This was the first time we've gone to their incredible cabin, but now that we've done it once we're hoping it becomes a regular occurrence!


Bob gave us a tour of Indian Lake which has also been hammered with rain this Spring.  Like most lakes in Minnesota, it's currently under No Wake restrictions.  Which is probably a good thing for us since Bob had a really crazy look in his eye the second he got behind the wheel of that boat!


We had fun all day doing different water related things like paddle boarding.  


Luke and Avery made the paddle board look pretty easy.


I on the other hand didn't handle the board too well.  I was able to stand on it, but the second I tried moving I was flipping into the water.  I think I need a more balanced belly to do well with this particular activity.


I did much better with the trampoline.  At least at first.  They dropped me off on it from the boat and I jumped around for awhile.  But when I jumped into the water and tried to climb the ladder back up to the raft, I found it just a wee bit challenging.  I gotta get into shape one of these years.

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