22 Day of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

At 8 a.m. I was out by the dumpster to take off the anti-bear device. The garbage truck was due to arrive soon and I wanted to be ready. On my way to the dumpster I picked up the fish cleaning house's garbage. The bag had slid into the garbage can so when the next person threw in their fish guts, they missed the bag. Thank God they wrapped them in newspaper, but they smelled as bad as you can imagine. When I finally got them all back in the bag, it was time to breathe. I had been holding my breath. What a stink! My hands were wet from fish goo and there were even scales stuck to my hands. Yuck! So I tied the bag into a knot and immediately washed my hands at the sink. Our fish cleaning house has a table, butcher block cutting board, soap, sink, brush, garbage can, stool and shelf for newspapers. When I reached in to wash my hands, I jumped because there was a huge, live spider in the sink. Remember those black plastic spider rings from Halloween? Yeah, that big. He was dispatched quickly by the scrubbing brush and then I thoroughly washed my hands. I took the garbage to the dumpster, and just as I was lifting off the cover, or anti-bear device, I heard the garbage truck. A customer's car was parked in the way, so I ran up the hill to the Balsam cabin to get them to move their car. They did, and were a little upset about it. I apologized to the customer and they were very nice about it then. The garbage truck driver apologized for being so early too. He explained that with Loon Days going on, he had his entire schedule changed for the day. The first Wednesday of August in Mercer is the famous Loon Days. The entire downtown is full of vendors and tents. The whole thing started out as just a flea market kind of sale and became a huge deal. Since it is in the middle of the week, vendors from all over are available so the entire town is mobbed. Mercer alumni come from far and wide for this event so its also like Homecoming week. Our resort pretty much cleared out this morning to go to Loon Days, so I wasn't about to stay behind by myself. By 10:00 a.m. I was on my way to Loon Days. I parked our beat-up minivan in our friend's driveway. They live a few houses down from the elementary school. This means I only have to walk a few blocks to downtown. I walked and walked and bought stuff and then sat down for lunch. I ordered some pork schnitzel from the Pines and sat down at their picnic table. Soon I was joined by my friend, Karen. She is a health inspector for the county and she and her group had just finished inspecting all the food booths at Loon Days. She was eating some of the same food I was, so that was a good sign. She and her fellow inspectors said that all the food booths were fine. She has to inspect our resort every year too, which would be a bad thing for our friendship if it weren't for the fact that we're just so close to perfect its not a problem. Since we bought all new mattresses in 2005, we have a lot fewer citations. In fact, the only citations we get are for new code changes. She's not doing us any favors because she's my friend. She's a perfectionist and believe me, if there was anything she needed to write us up for, she would do it. In fact, I have a lot of pink sheets from the last 12 years to prove it. Usually the write ups were for things we had no clue about - like we needed a vent in the floor right behind a gas space heater, or a smoke detector was not working properly because a customer had taken out a battery. When I got back from Loon Day, I went in to check messages. John, my husband, is with his dad, about 5 hours away, who is dying. I have had them on my mind all day. I called him back and spoke with him awhile. His dad was being brought back home and hospice was being set up there. He said it was sad to see his dad like that but it is good that he was coming home at the end. It is so sad also that John is going through this when I can walk around downtown and have lunch with friends. I wish he was here with me and everything was back to normal. But life throws curve balls. My son can attest to those curve balls. A week ago he finally finished his 4 year term in the Marines. During his duty his platoon was scheduled to go to Afghanistan. I prayed and prayed that he wouldn't have to go. Then when he was off duty, he and some other Marines were in a car accident. My son, Joey, had to have surgery on his leg, which had a chunk taken out of it. He also had some other injuries but because of the accident, he didn't go to Afghanistan. He was thrown quite a curve ball. This evening at the resort some kids were opening and slamming the steel cellar doors on our new cabin. The noise was so loud, that I had to go over there and put the fear of Cheri into them. Then I noticed that the neighbor's dog was in our resort again. So I put him in our minivan and drove him the 2 miles back home through a gravel driveway to our neighbor's house. We call them neighbors, because they are labeled as such in the country, but 2 miles is a long ways for that dog to keep coming on his own. I used one of our old leashes to tie him up to the stairway there. When I tried to leave, he tried to follow so I had no choice. When I got back, our dogs were very happy to see me. I love dogs. I would have been pretty lonely these last few nights without them around. This afternoon a UPS truck arrived with a present for our golden retriever, Senna. The box was labeled, "Senna Stratte". I was very surprised but called her over. When I opened it, I found a brand new toy for her. Boy was she excited when she saw it. Last week we had some customers here with their dog, Max. Max had the same type of toy and Senna kept trying to steal it. So they were very nice and generous and sent her one. She grabbed it in her mouth, and went absolutely bonkers with excitement. She danced around on the deck, ran up and down the stairs twice, and then took off on a run for the beach. Half way there she turned around to see if I was following, which I was. I threw it in the lake for her a bunch of times and when she started shaking off in front of customers and friends, I just threw it on the lawn. She is one happy dog tonight. There was supposed to be northern lights tonight but now its raining. Bummer.

The Final, Sad Chapter for the Fugitives

The Final, Sad Chapter for Delbert Lyle Snook and Eunice Rosenberg

Running a resort definitely has its perks.  But at times like this, it has its sad and stressful chapters.

If you haven't read my previous post about the fugitives, perhaps you should go back and read that first.

We met the couple in August, 2016.  They told us their names were Blossom and Quincy Eagleman.  We took them at their word.  They paid us in cash only so we never saw any identification nor had any reason to doubt their claims.  They seemed normal, friendly and fun.  Little did we know how this would end up.

This last Sunday, January 29, started out like a normal Sunday.  I went to church, made lunch, sat around and read a book.  Around 5:00 p.m. I received a call from Lyle's daughter.  She was crying  and emotionally distraught.  She told me she had some very sad news.  The authorities on Madeline Island (just outside Bayfield, WI) had found her dad's body.  Next to his body was a woman's body whom they believed to be Eunice's.

My heart went into my throat.  Tears sprang to my eyes.  I didn't want to believe it.  I was incredulous but I had no reason to doubt what she was telling me.  So I asked questions.  This is what she told me.

On December 14th the fugitives had left a motel in Bayfield without paying.  The owner/operator of the motel investigated their room after not seeing nor hearing of them for two days.  Inside the room was their dog, Punky, alive.  Also in the room was a suicide letter.  They called the police and took the dog out of the room to take care of it, get it water, etc.

The police investigated and then notified Lyle's family.  The fugitives were nowhere to be found but they would keep looking.

The family called me to let me know of the latest development.  We hoped that the suicide notes were just a false lead.  Hope is a blessing.

The family made plans to drive up from Wyoming to pick up the Jeep, which was left behind too, and the dog, as well as personal belongings.  They did that.  We offered them a free room in our cabin and when they arrived, I had dinner waiting.  We had a lot to catch up on.  When they pulled up to the resort, in tow was the Jeep we had become familiar with, now on a trailer.  Punky, the border collie, being very familiar with the resort, ran up to greet me and was very happy to see us all again.  She greeted me and our two dogs like old friends.

Over dinner and after, we talked with the family for hours about the investigation, the character of the two fugitives, and our stories of the last few months with them.  They were eager to hear all about their dad as they missed him very much.  We missed him already too.  Punky made herself comfortable on the sofa in the lodge, next to our dogs, as she had months previous.  She was sound asleep quickly as we all talked for hours.

Lyle had become a good friend of my husband's.  They spent every day in each others company from August through to the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.  You can't spend that much time with someone and not get to know them better and become a friend.  At no time during those months did he seem worried, agitated, sad, depressed or like he was a victim.  Lyle would come and go from the resort lodge, where there was a free telephone right on the wall he could have used at any time.  He didn't.  He was there of his own free will.

At that time, we didn't know what had happened to the fugitives.  I guess you could say we were blissfully ignorant.

When we got the call on Sunday, January 29, that their bodies had been found, it was like a bomb went off in our lives.  Everywhere we went in the house, resort, up the road past cabins they had stayed in, on trails they had walked on, were memories.  We felt jabbing pain as those memories kept reminding us of what had been, wherever we walked.

Their ending of the story goes like this: 

• They left suicide notes in the Bayfield motel and left their dog and Jeep there.  
• They got on the ferry in Bayfield to Madeline Island.
• They met someone from the yacht club who gave them a ride to a local coffee shop.  (They were cold, seemed lost, and took the offer of a ride happily.)
• They talked over coffee.  Eunice said (another lie) how she wanted to rent a boat slip for a party in May.
• Then they walked out of the coffee shop, down a trail, heading towards the woods.
• There they eventually committed suicide with a pistol that Lyle had carried.  No one heard a thing.

The main question I get from people is who did the shooting?  It doesn't matter.  Its the same result either way.  Its a tragic, horrible, devastating way to end a life.

On Saturday, January 28, a person hiking in the woods on a very warm, winter day, found their bodies.  There had been a major thaw.  My guess is they didn't think their bodies would be found until spring.  But we had received an unseasonably warm weather week.

If they would have asked anyone for help in the northwoods, they would have received it.  If they would have given us a call, to even say good-bye, we would have offered help, a free place to stay, food, whatever they needed.  We had given them as much in the past.  So it wasn't a stretch of the imagination that we would be there for them.  They didn't.  We will never know why.

Many questions have gone through our heads.

• How could he have not called his family?
• Why did they do it?
• How could he not have called his bank to find out why his debit card wasn't working?  (It had become a chip card and they would have sent him a new one if he had only asked.)
• Were they starving since his money had been "frozen"?
• How could she have lied right up until the last hour?  What happened to her to make her this way?  Did she have a horrible event in her youth to cause her pathological lying?
• Did she talk him into it?  Or was it she told him her plans and he wouldn't let her do it alone?
• They had options so why didn't they use one?
• Didn't they have any notion of this being wrong?

My husband saw pictures people were posting on the Memories of Lyle Snook Facebook page and swore.  I understand how he feels.  Its hard to see pictures of him smiling on a fun trip, smiling at a family gathering, etc.  This is such an extreme, total loss of a great man.  It didn't have to happen.  Its a horrible tragedy.

It took the coroner days to confirm that it was, in fact, Eunice Rosenberg's body.  They wouldn't tell me why.  So I can only assume its because she has been on the run for so long.  She had supposedly broken all ties to her actual family and son.

Already Lyle's remains are home in Wyoming with his family.  His family worked so hard for over a year to get him home alive.  They spent weeks of long hours combing through leads.  One family member has a chronological and geographical map of where he was and when.  They didn't mind that he ran off with a woman.  They just wanted him to be safe and happy.  They didn't freeze his money.  They didn't do anything wrong.  For them this will be the saddest story that will be passed down through the generations.

As for us, we will make a trail on our property a memorial to Lyle with a bench.  He helped my husband make the trail and helped set up the bench.  Lyle had walked the trail many times and had a smile on his face when people used it.  We will get a plaque to put on the bench with his name on it.  Its the least we can do.

May God rest their souls.

How we met fugitives, Eunice Rosenberg and Delbert Lyle Snook

This picture is from a Facebook post of Delbert Lyle Snook's daughter. Starting in August and lasting through Thanksgiving, two people started staying at our resort. They told us their names were Blossom and Quincy Eagleman. After they left without paying us for 2-week's stay, we started investigating. What we found out was nothing less than extraordinary. The people we knew as Blossom and Quincy were defrauding resorts and businesses in multiple states, giving false identities and telling lies every day. Here is the story of our experience. First I must state that this story is our account of what happened, falls under the freedom of speech laws, and is solely our opinion. This is our side of the story of the events and is not meant to implicate anyone of any illegal activity and everyone is innocent until proven guilty. August 2016. A couple arrives at our resort, Pine Forest Lodge, and rents a cabin. The week happens to be our Disabled Kayak week, as we called it. The week is held annually at our resort where we offer sports and recreation for people with disabilities. It is a discounted week to people with disabilities only, and we offer free guided kayak trips, adaptive equipment and more. The couple, who told us they were Blossom and Quincy Eagleman, seemed friendly and we had some fun conversations. During that week, Quincy helped people with disabilities transfer from their vehicles to chairs, to kayaks and more. He even constructed a transfer bench out of wood for our resort for people with disabilities. During that week we had pot lucks at which Blossom would add a dish or two and we had a lot of fun evenings in the lodge. We talked, laughed, watched and discussed politics, and then she proceeded to spin the web of lies of their lives. Some of the lies she told us, off and on through September, October and early November, when they came and went from our resort. (Note: they always paid us in cash. We never saw any identification other than their vehicle's license plate from Wyoming, which we never had the need to call in to check.) 1. Their names were false. 2. His birthday of Oct. 10 is false. 3. She said Quincy was selling his ranch of 5,000 acres, some of which is Bureau of Land Management land. Truth: Lyle owned a home with less than 1 acre of land. 4. She said she was selling her home she owned in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She showed me a picture of a Spanish architecture home of a large size. Found it later on a realty website. Truth: she did not have any home. 5. She said they were looking for a new home in the area and wanted to discuss buying a cabin from our resort. After we agreed that we would think about this, and we did, I told her that until they are sure where they want to be, buying a cabin from us would not be a good idea. We wanted them to be sure so there wouldn't be any hurt feelings in the future. (Was this a 'womens intuition'?) So we told them we were taking that option out of the discussion at this time. Truth: they had no intention of buying a cabin. They were using aliases, and did not have the money to do so anyway. 6. She said they had to go visit her daughter, who worked at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Hayward. So they left for Hayward supposedly several times off and on during those months. 7. She said they had to go visit her son, Al, off and on during those months. She said her son, Al, lived in Watersmeet, MI. Truth: Her son, Al, who wants nothing to do with her, lives in the State of Washington and has never lived east of the State of Idaho. 8. She said she had a grand daughter named Katie, who was a rodeo rider, who trained dogs, was 19, and was closer to Quincy than her real grandfather (Blossom's ex husband). Truth: According to Lyle's daughter, Katie does not exist and this had been investigated to be sure. 9. Blossom told a friend of ours that she was going to give them a border collie from her grand daughter's dog training school. Those friends ended up waiting at their home for this dog's delivery by Katie for weeks. They waited by their phone, re-arranged their schedules when Blossom would tell them Katie was coming, etc. Truth: Katie does not exist so neither does the dog. Later our friend found the dog's picture that had been shown them by Blossom on a border collie website. This lie was especially cruel since our friends had just had their old border collie die of old age. 10. Blossom told us all that Quincy had a buyer for his ranch and what a coincidence that a doctor wanted to buy her house in Ft. Collins too. She said she and Quincy were going to go look for their own house that they can now own together, rather than have separate homes they owned previously. Truth: neither sold any house or had a house to sell since Quincy's house is going up for auction because of bills and taxes not being paid. 11. They went looking for a home to buy and told us upon their return that they were buying a home in Lansing, Iowa. She posted pictures of the home. Truth: we found those pictures later on Pinterest.com, Zillow.com and other sites. They were not owned by Blossom at all. 12. Blossom told us her daughter, who was a lawyer at the BIA, was taking 2 weeks vacation to go to Fort Collins, pack up Blossom's house and storage, and move them all to Lansing, IA. I had a lot of doubt about this story and questioned her a lot about this. She faked a couple telephone calls from her daughter about certain furniture questions during the move. This was probably to try to convince me. Truth: no daughter at BIA, no moving, no home in Lansing, IA. 13. After repeated questioning of her daughter's name, location, her daughter's life, etc., she came up with a story. She said her lawyer daughter volunteers for the Tourism Bureau of Hawaii and in return for pay, gets free trips to Hawaii. She asked us if we wanted to go there with them. She said they didn't have friends who could take off 3 weeks in the spring like we could. So would we want to go? It would only be $500 per couple per week. Truth: no trip, no daughter, no money exchanged thankfully. 14. Quincy told us he had had a heart attack years ago and had diabetes. Truth: he did and was on medication according to his daughter. His daughter is worried to this day that Blossom doesn't let him take this medication. 15. Quincy helped us almost every day he was at the resort. He fixed broken lawn furniture, helped put up a pole and lighting, made railing repairs, stacked wood, hauled gravel, moved and organized piles of trash/items to go into trash, cut trees with chainsaws, etc. He was amazing. He kept busy and was offering help to everyone and anyone at the resort. He spent time with my husband during the day. Sometimes Blossom would come into the shop/town with me and spend time there or at the library. At home Quincy would help and hang out with John. Truth: This is the truth. He became a good friend of my husband and John now misses that friendship. Note: sometime during their stay in the Maple cabin, when we were gone for 3 days, they came into our house and took some of our groceries out of our refrigerator. One of the items was a smoked ham valued at $45 from Nueske's. I had told her if she needed anything out of my pantry, while we were gone, that she could go in and help herself. So when we got back I noticed a pizza, potatoes and more small items were also gone. She later told me that she took the ham and left money in the refrigerator to pay for it. The money was there, minus a few dollars. I was very surprised that she would be so bold. I also didn't like this at all and started looking up their names on the internet. I could not find one item with the names they gave us. I told John I suspected they were using aliases. 16. We started suspecting her of lies with regard to the trip, her home purchase, her family, etc. I found her home pictures on Pinterest.com. She probably saw that I had "liked" those same pictures or something like that. Soon she was running again. The next thing we know, she's telling us her daughter-in-law, Courtney was suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She would have to leave her home in Lansing that they had just been moved into and come back to stay at our resort. I said a lot of prayers for help for them. I pray a lot for guidance too. Truth: they were staying at another resort in our town. They did not have a Courtney who had cancer. The picture she posted of her Courtney is of a model on the internet. 17. Blossom told us her grandson, of Courtney's, had appendicitis and wasn't this hard to take with everything else going on? She went into detail how he had thrown up all over the place at night and how they had to take him to the emergency room. I said a bunch of new prayers. Truth: Blossom had been throwing up as evidenced by the vomit on a shirt she left in the cabin. My guess is this was from stress on having to leave our resort and our friendship was ending as I was becoming suspicious. Also they were having money troubles. 18. We got a call from another resort in Mercer that Blossom and Quincy were seen in town at the grocery store. He said he heard they were staying at our resort. Blossom and Quincy owed him/his resort $450 and had left Quincy's camera there as collateral. Truth: They were staying at both our resorts during Thanksgiving week. They did owe that resort that money. They owned us $600 at this time. But we felt bad if what she said was true about the grandson having to have an appendectomy. Then when we got the call from the other resort, we knew we had been lied to for sure. 19. For 5 days their items were left in the cabin and they had never shown. She texted me over and over about the appendectomy and all her stress and I didn't answer. Truth: they were on the run. No grandchild. No appendectomy. No payment. So finally she called me at my quilt shop. I had 4 women in shopping so I couldn't talk for long. I asked her if she was okay and when was she going to come to pick up her items, pay us, etc. She said Thursday. Thursday came. No show from them of course and at 8:30 p.m., I started searching the internet more thoroughly. I cleaned out their cabin. It was a mess with food items lying around and I didn't want mice to have fun. Plus they hadn't paid for this stay. So I started cleaning the cabin. We put all their items in our house. That night is when I found out the truth. I looked in a pocket of the duffel bag they left behind. I wanted to find some identification. A name. Anything that would help me to find out their real name. A name was found. I looked up that name on Facebook. It was a woman who had a site set up, "Missing Parent Lyle Snook" and there was Quincy's picture. His name was Delbert Lyle Snook. He was a missing person. His family was concerned for his safety. Blossom's name was Eunice Rosenberg (her former married name she kept). I don't know what her maiden name was. They had defrauded people/businesses in Wyoming according to Lyle's daughter. They had defrauded our resort of $600 and another of $450. We called the police. After entering the group "Missing Parent Lyle Snook" and posting a picture there we had taken of Lyle and Eunice on our pontoon, I realized my mistake. At 11:30 p.m. that night, Eunice noticed my post. She was on to us. If she hadn't been on the run before, she was now. She knew the police were going to be on her trail. The police contacted the Wyoming Sheriff's dept. They said that Lyle's family had been in contact with him in October, that he wanted to be left alone, and so they had dropped the case. The family was furious. The family told me some history, that Eunice had come to Wyoming with a man who died shortly after. Was his death from natural causes? Did I know if Lyle was healthy and okay? Was she taking care of him? Was he able to make phone calls? I answered their questions and concerns on the Missing ... Facebook page. Another mistake. Eunice was able to log onto her false name Facebook page and see my comments. I found this out days later. This was how she was able to keep one step ahead of all of us all this time. They had now been running for 13 months. So this wasn't her first time she had been suspected. She kept up to date on Facebook by looking at Lyle's family's posts. She was one step ahead of us all the time. Hopefully Lyle is healthy, is taking his meds, is able to make outgoing calls, etc. He is a nice man with a fun personality and is very giving of his time, labor and more. He made many friends here at Pine Forest Lodge. We all miss him and are extremely concerned for his welfare. Eunice had become a friend of mine, but when I found out about all the lies she told me, I realized I had been betrayed. I wonder still about if anything she told me was the truth. I will always wonder if she cared about us at all. I remember her smile and smirk, her eyebrows rising in humor, at what she was looking at on her cell phone. She had been enjoying this. May God help them.

365 of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - my last blog entry. I said I would do this for 365 days and here is the last day. It was so fun to hear your comments and positive feedback.

I love to write, even if some of my blogs did not show it. Sometimes I was so busy that I couldn't even blog for days. Some days I was too tired to even lift a finger. But whatever the case, I enjoyed it thoroughly overall. I hope you did too.

Wednesday was a fun day. A group went out kayaking and we helped them strap on the kayaks. John mostly helped. I was sitting at the campfire cooking polish sausage for lunch. After lunch I made pudgie pies of apple pie filling and raisin bread. They were very good, especially when cooked over the fire.

Our niece, Jaeden, went out fishing with her new friend, Gabbi. Gabbi and her dad are our customers and they took Jaeden out fishing because the girls are very close in age and have been hanging out together. They caught 10 fish each and then stopped and came back. They were all caught within a hour and a half. They had a lot of fun.

Some customers came into the lodge and played the piano a bit. That was beautiful. We have an old upright piano in the lodge. John and I don't know how to play it but love it when customers do.

Orla, our puppy, has been really tired every evening. She has been playing with everyone and has sometimes even taken a walk with customers on our many woodland trails. She is a wonderful addition to the resort and is well loved. She will love it here and we hope she lives a very long time because she is loved much.

I baked some chocolate chip cookies and then mopped the entire lodge, lodge bathrooms, and my kitchen. I think the smell of the cookies must have floated around the resort. Because I had to turn away at least a handful of customers while the floor was drying. It was a little humid so it took over an hour for the floor to dry. By then the smell of the cookies had dissipated. I think its funny. I love to give cookies to people, so when the floor was done I was a little disappointed that no one asked about a cookie. So I started handing them out myself.

John and I watched the women's soccer match for awhile. Then we relaxed with the kids, our niece and nephew, and sat around talking and laughing. John eventually took a big group out on the pontoon for a sunset cruise. The sunset was beautiful with dark purple and pink stripes in the sky.

There was a campfire and John and Orla sat at it for awhile talking with customers. I was in the lodge with a couple customers while Jaeden played foosball. It was a good day and a good year.

Its hard to believe that a year ago we had a trouble bear here and it was captured on the eve of the beginning of my blog. So it seems strange to end the blog with nothing exciting going on. We are very happy there are no bears, and even the raccoons have left the premises. Oh well. I guess I have to end on a boring blog entry.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe I will think of something else to write about. But for now, do something fun every day. Life is short. - - Cheri Stratte, Mercer, Wisconsin, Pine Forest Lodge.

362-364 of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

Sunday, July 10-Tuesday, July 12, 2011

There's only one day left of my blog. I will miss it.

The picture is of my daughter, Danielle, who is pregnant. We were at her baby shower on July 3. The cradle sitting on the table is the same one that she was in as a baby, as well as her brother. It was made by Melvin Jacobi, our neighbor growing up. He was like a grandpa to us kids.

Sunday is usually a day of rest for me. I went to church, bought a few groceries, and then came back with the Milwaukee Journal. I took the paper down to the beach and several customers read it as well as John. I then made sandwiches and took those down to the beach for John, me, our niece Jaeden and nephew Tommy. They were swimming with a bunch of other kids. The water was really warm.

Several people took out their boats as they were leaving to go home after the 4th of July vacation.

We had a bunch of people in the lodge in the evening visiting with us and talking. We recently had a group of 3 baby raccoons at the resort and that night the mommy raccoon finally came back and got them.

Monday was another day spent at the beach. At 6 pm we had our pot luck. Some groups didn't bring enough food for their teenage daughters and guests. So all the food was gone pretty quickly. I made a big veggie/Italian sausage/pesto dish as well as a salad. Even though there wasn't enough food, it was still fun and everyone stayed awhile to watch the homerun derby, as the pot luck is a private party. It was pretty late by the time we all went to bed.

Tuesday it was cooler than usual. I could finally bake the blueberry pie I've been wanting to bake. So I did that, and then Jaeden and I went into the girl cave. I call my sewing area in the basement the girl cave. We sewed for a couple hours and when we were done, Jaeden had finished her first quilt top. She didn't like the tedium so I don't think she will continue this interest anytime soon. When I was 9, like her, I wanted to sew badly. My mom and aunt bought me a very old Singer for my 9th birthday. I sewed on that until I was in my 20's. I love to sew.

Jaeden didn't like sewing because she doesn't like to be bored. We did a 9 patch quilt. There are 5 squares that have 9 patches and then 4 squares of matching fabric. When she got to the last 9 patch square, she gave up. So I sewed on the borders. Oh well.

Later in the afternoon a customer's son caught a large musky that was in our bay. It jumped out of the water and they filmed it on video. The musky broke the line and got away. I can't wait to see the video.

I got out some boards, cut them to about 8" X 8" and brought a bunch of stuff up from the girl cave and basement. Each kid who participated got a printed gothic font letter of their first initial. I cut out the letter, which was about 4 inches in height, and pasted it on their board with a glue stick. They then pasted stuff all over the board. They had my old tackle box so they used old tackle. They had my old buttons so they used those. They had my scrap fabric box so they used some scrap and tassles and old keys, etc. They can take them home and hang them up now.

Tuesday night some more people came into the lodge. John and I were watching the All Star game but then we had to visit with customers. It was very fun as they stayed late in the day.

It was a good day.

361 of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

July 9, 2011 The picture is of 3 little raccoons who have been frequenting the resort lately. Our puppy just watches them walk by. She perks up her ears a little but doesn't bother with them. Orla is such a good girl.

I got up really early this Saturday morning. My niece wants to help me with all the work and before she gets up, I was hoping to get a bunch of stuff done. So I quickly went downstairs and made some bags of laundry, stripped two cabins, and then delivered the bags. When Jaeden woke up, we were ahead of the game so we could take our time.

We went to the other cabins and started taking the dirty laundry out. We brought the dirty laundry to the basement. We had to put all the clean laundry away and then we stuffed the dirty laundry in that bin for pick up. She was very helpful and we got so much done that we could have some fun.

Jaeden wants to learn to sew. So we spent about an hour sewing while the cleaning girls were working on the cabins.

John and our nephew, Tommy, mowed the lawns, emptied the grills, cleaned out the boats, moved brush from fallen trees, and much more. I had extra cleaning girls so when two had to leave at noon and 1pm, that was all right. It all worked out great. That is until people started to arrive.

At 3:30 pm I noticed a customer unpacking into the Cedar cabin. They weren't scheduled for that cabin until the following week. So I went up there and asked the dad to come down to the lodge because, "I don't show that you are in this cabin." He was rightfully worried and came down to the lodge to find that even our confirmation showed the following week (thankfully not our fault).

So we had to scramble for over an hour to try to find a place for him and his family. We eventually worked out a deal for him with a dear friend who has a rental on the lake. So hopefully we will fill our empty cabin next week otherwise he will have to pay us some of our lost income. The customer was really worried because he couldn't afford to pay for a cabin of the same price this week and then pay for our loss next week.

Our friends, the Schroeders, arrived from Arizona, Milwaukee and Cedarburg. We were looking forward to seeing them and we will have a great week.

At the end of the day everything seemed to work out okay and it was a good day after all.

357 - 360 of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

July 5-8, 2011

The picture is of a tree that fell on Friday, July 1 on our lines and part of it hit our Lincoln too, of course. The power surge of it hitting these particular power lines fried one of the electric hot water heaters at the resort.

July 5th, the day after the 4th, is always a little of a downer for me. Here I've decorated the entire lodge with 4th of July stuff, wore red/white/blue for days, and now its over. I will just leave the decorations up for awhile anyway. Laundry picked up today. I almost forgot to call and when they were able to make it, I did a huge sigh of relief.

John and Dave worked on the hot water heater again. The customers weren't too happy. I sewed the lady a custom, quilted apron in her kitchen's colors and gave it to her. It was hard to tell if she liked it or not at first because she was a little upset about the lack of hot water. But it wasn't there (on the following Saturday) when they left so I think she liked it.

We were invited to a cabin for their famous Korean ribs. They were fabulous. John had just gotten back from a kayak outing with customers. I had to pick up one kayak on Oxbow Lake but the rest of them kayaked back to the resort.

Later John took a big group out on the pontoon for a sunset cruise. They loved it.

I sat on the beach with customers most of the day. It was supposed to rain but all we got were a few sprinkles in between some clouds. John went around to all the garbage containers and made a garbage run. The garbage truck will be coming soon.

Wednesday, July 6, John and I both hung out at the beach with customers most of the day. Some customers went to town to the Wampum shop, which is a tradition. The shop has a lot of fun stuff for kids. Later a small girl was walking around the entire resort terrorizing us all with her wooden recorder whistle.

Thursday evening a bunch of people decided to bring appetizers into the lodge. They had to leave on Friday so they wanted one last hoorah. One of the customers brought in his huge Imac to show us his pictures of his latest trip. They were amazing. He has a great camera and his hobby is photography. We saw awesome pictures of Peru, Thailand and South Africa. We ate food, visited with people and had a great time.

Friday morning two cabins left early. They left us some good food and ice cream too. One of the cabins left in the morning, one in the afternoon. While I was saying good-bye to them, a couple of baby raccoons walked by. They are so cute and I will post their picture tomorrow. After the customers left I went into their cabins and turned off the refrigerators and stripped the dirty laundry from the cabin. I will get a head start doing this.

Friday night our niece and nephew came with their mom and dad/my brother. The kids will stay for a week. They come on Friday evening just so they can help us work tomorrow. They also love it here at the resort. There is always something going on and always people to visit or play with. We love it when they visit too so we can spend a lot more quality time with them. Family is important.

It has almost been a year since I started my blog. I love to do this! I will miss it.