Rain has been an all too frequent occurrence in International Falls this past month. Though the water levels may be over the usual, no one is feeling these gloomy day effects more than the local youth who would be swimming at the beach, biking, or fishing if the weather was nice.
“My children have been bored and at home playing video games,” says Cheryl Gaetzke of International Falls, “We’d be at the beach if it was nice or skate boarding, fishing, and biking. We absolutely want the rain to stop.”
Many other Falls residents feel the same, such as Shelly Wheeler, who would be gardening and painting her shed and getting work done around her house. “It’s a little bit depressing, I like the sunshine,” she adds.
But it’s not only the Falls residents that have been feeling a little gloomy, our neighboring Fort Frances residents feel the same.
“The rain sucks, we just need to have some nice weather, it’s ridiculous,” says Tammy Mclean of Devlin, Ontario. “I’d be out in my yard, buying flowers and planting them. Freezing flowers in the end of May is ridiculous, everything is so far behind,” she says.
“The kids would be riding horses on our farmland, but they can’t in this weather, so to keep themselves busy, they’ve been spending a lot of time on the computer,” Mclean adds.
Dave Winger, one of City Beach’s caretakers, also agrees that the rain needs to end. The winds have made the water really rough and fog has invaded the area on many mornings, he says.
“I haven’t seen anybody out here since the weather changed. We want people to take care of the beach, it’s time for summer to come.”
Many local businesses have also been feeling the impact on their merchandise sales due to the weather changes.
Woody’s Pub and gift shop in Ranier has had a sufficiently large amount of people playing cribbage and dice in the pub and shopping during the rainy days, say Cheryl Mickow, the manager of Woody’s. “We’ve had no real lack of customers on rainy days than sunny days,” Mickow says.
One of Ranier’s other attractions, Tara’s Wharf, has also been feeling the drowsy effects. “It’s slow on rainy days and better on sunny days. The weather is definitely affecting a lot of sales,” says Kristy Walls, an ice cream scooper at Tara’s Wharf, “We have really good varieties of ice cream and people should come try some when the weather gets nice.”
Sjoblom Landscape and Nursery in Ranier is also feeling the impact of the weather. “The chilly weather is affecting the blooming of our flowers, everything is so far behind,” says Merna Larson, the self-proclaimed caretaker of the flowers.
“The price of gas has a lot to do with the sales as well. A lot of people are staying home and planting,” says Duane Sjoblom, the owner of Sjoblom Landscape and Nursery, “The weather has an absolute effect on sales.”
“As summer comes, more will bloom,” adds Larson, “I just hope we have nice sunny weather for a while. People should come check out the wonderful flowers and shrubs.”