I couldn’t be more excited to announce myself as in-house photographer for Half Moon Trail resort guests. I picked up a camera at age 13 and haven’t set it down since. Photography is one of the few things in life I consider a passion. I learned as much as I could about photography online via YouTube and Google in high school, and furthered my education with a degree in graphic design and communications through BSC in Bismarck, ND. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Michaela. I am a born-and-raised resort kid. I spent my summers fishing and swimming with a new batch of friends deliv ..read more

I bring you the spring Boot Lake fishing report, based on my personal outings and careful daily examination of the fish bucket in the cleaning house. Largemouth bass, sunfish, crappie and northern pike are the most frequently seen species in the fish bucket lately, with the walleye bite being even more finicky than usual. This spring fishing season has been atypical, the weather being unseasonably warm early on and hitting a cold stretch later in May. Mid-depth weed lines are beginning to fill out and seem to be the best place to find northern pike. The crappie bite was good about a week ago ..read more

Let me tell you something crazy. My mom currently has around a thousand plants which she somehow keeps alive and happy. Each day she checks the weather and they get specific care which includes, but is not limited to, keeping them from getting sunburned (plants get sunburned?!), keeping them pruned, starting new plants from cuttings, keeping them healthy with nutrient-rich lake water and or fertilizer, and moving them indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. The truck bed is currently filled with flats of plants that our house will not accommodate and is pulled out of the garage when it i ..read more

With my boots planted in the spring mud, seated on a five-gallon bucket filled with sap, I can’t help but smile. Mom, Dad, Ryan, Mabel, Mary Kate, and Caroline are perched on nearby buckets (or laps) surrounding the cinder-block structure housing the fire and holding the pans of boiling sap. Unlike smoke, the thick clouds of steam rising off the pans are easy on the eyes and slightly sweet-smelling.  A day boiling sap is one to be relished. With hours of watching, mixing and skimming sap there is time to laugh and tell stories, or just sit in appreciative silence. Seventy-five gallons of ..read more