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Friday, April 29, 2011
The picture is of Orla's first ever kayak outing. John was the one who took the picture. He offered to paddle us around. I didn't even have to lift a finger to paddle - just hold onto Orla.

The weather was gorgeous all day so in the morning I went outside and started raking. I raked 8 wheelbarrows full of stuff up and out. I put it in the ditch behind the Hemlock cabin where no one can see it. The birch tree by our boat ramp littered 4 wheelbarrows full itself. They sure are messy trees.

After raking I got the chance to work on varnishing Birch's old wood floor. I went to the Warehouse in town and bought some marine varnish that expands/contracts with the heat and cold. It is for decks of boats, etc. so should be good on the floor of a cabin that is closed in the winter. Dave had finished sanding the floor, so he took the sander back to Mercer Rentals, and on my way to pick up the varnish I paid $74 for the rental. After spending another $32 on the oil-based polyurethane, I took it all into Birch cabin, vacuumed the wood floor, walls, anything that might have dust on, and then wiped down the floor with a tact cloth. I vacuumed all the walls, etc. because I didn't want to brush up against anything or have a window open and a bunch of dust or sawdust blow onto the floor. Finally it was ready. I took the 4" brush I had just bought and put a heavy coat of varnish on the floor. It soaked it up pretty quick.

The floor was put in in 1938 when the cabin was built. Sometime in the 70's it was covered in very durable carpeting. When Dave took it up for us, we didn't know what the condition of the floor would be. It turned out that it looked great. I loved varnishing it to see all the old grain come out. It will be beautiful when it is finished. The picture on the right is the before pic and tomorrow, or whenever I can walk into the room, I will post a picture of after.

While I was varnishing, John was removing big trees from our main trail system. He took Orla and a chainsaw and went to work. He removed barricades he had set up to stop snowmobiles, and cut up and moved several trees off of the trail. He then went to our neighbor, Harry's, and spoke with him. Years ago Harry had shut down the snowmobile trail that went thru his property first, and then ours.

John ran into Harry's worker, Jay, who is a little bonkers. He threatened to "kick John's ass" if he ever set foot near Harry's land again. John told him he was there to visit Harry, and that would be pretty impressive for Jay to beat up someone who has a disability. Harry told Jay to stop it, and then Jay walked away. Jay has some kind of mental disability, and Harry is the only one who can put up with him. John was pretty upset by the incident, which I can't blame him, but Harry said to just ignore Jay. Yikes!

I was pretty tired after all that varnishing and my hands were sore from the raking and varnishing with a brush. So around 5 p.m. John offered to take me kayaking. He said I wouldn't have to paddle, just hold Orla. So we did. She did very well for her first kayak trip. In fact, 2 loons were curious about us and came up to us pretty close. I took a video of them and posted it on Facebook.

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

The picture on the left is of the wood floor that was hiding under old carpeting in Birch cabin. Wood floor is always great. Dave sanded it down and I will varnish the first coat today. Hopefully it will turn out great.

John and I then ripped up the carpeting, padding and tack strips in the Alder cabin (other picture). Dave will be putting down a laminated wood floor in there.

I took some items to the Spruce cabin and got it ready for the customers who will be arriving tomorrow. Then I dragged some fallen pine branches down to the campfire area. Orla fought with them all the way down to the lake. It was pretty funny.

John did some paperwork, as well as I, but not much. We did enough with getting Alder's carpet up to last us for the day. I also had to move some furniture in preparation. I'm not used to moving heavy stuff. I hope my back will be okay.

It was also snowing or raining off and on all day until sunset time. Then there was a beautiful pink sunset. The wind calmed down and then I saw the lake. Half of the ice was off. The ice had been pushed over to our side of the lake though, so we had to watch Orla like a hawk. But she was fine. The loons will be really happy now.

Our kayaks still sit by the shore waiting. Hopefully with the warm temps expected on Friday that the rest of the ice will disappear. I hope so. Then I can stop worrying so much about the puppy. Then I'll only have to worry about cars.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Blizzard again. Snow is sticking. Depressing weather but it is still beautiful. I looked out the window at 5:30 a.m. when Orla needed to go outside and all the branches were covered in ice/snow. It was pretty no matter what date it is on the calendar.

John worked with Dave on the Birch cabin a little. There were pipes, fittings and fixtures needed.

We had some customers/friends come to the resort for a visit. I made turkey dumpling soup and we all had lunch, Dave included. The customers brought their big labradoodle and it bit Orla, but she was fine. Some times puppies make dogs upset. Orla is fine but I freaked out when I heard the bite/snarl/bark and then the yiping. I was more scared than everyone else but she was fine. The only problem is she is going to be even more scared of other dogs now.

We took 3 kayaks out of storage and our customers/friends helped load them onto the kayak trailer. I drove the trailer down to the lake and we are waiting for the weather to get better.

I went grocery shopping this morning early and I am shocked at the increase in price of a lot of items. What used to cost $150 is now over $200. I had to give up a lot of convenience items like pre-made, microwave casserole dishes. I also didn't get chips, or other items that are just empty carbs. I also did not renew my 2 magazine subscriptions already because of the increase in gas prices - I had to cut back somewhere besides groceries. We also won't be going on any more scenic drives just to go for a drive. What are you doing to cut back if at all?

We thought about attempting to hook up pipes and start getting another cabin ready for the cleaning girls. John was already cold/wet from his walk outside with Orla, the weather was nasty, so we decided against it. We will have to put off cleaning for a few days until the weather gets better. It wouldn't do any good to hook up the pipes only to have them freeze a couple days later. So I called the cleaning girls and postponed the cleaning for a few days. By the way, if you know anyone who wants to clean on Saturdays this summer, let me know.

John and I did some paperwork in the late day. I am trying to figure out where we can save money. We will probably go with another friend's web site service to save us about $100 a year. Who knows what else. I will keep checking.

We have a customer coming tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be better than this. Oh well, we will do what we have to and hopefully have fun. There is an art show at Your Art Studio on Saturday at 10 a.m. Maybe we'll go to that.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The picture is of Orla under my desk. She's made herself a little puppy cave under there.

Before 10 a.m. Denny was on her way back home. John took her dog, Theo, and Orla for a walk and then Denny left. Earlier that morning, when we were all just getting up, Orla got up on the bed by Denny and licked her face. She was laughing with the puppy for quite awhile. John and I smiled and enjoyed the sound of her laughter. Denny lost her husband of 60 years this last August and when we hear her laugh now, it is almost like a gift from God.

The weather report showed that we were the only part of the state that wasn't getting any precipitation. It looked like it was just rain for the majority of the state, so Denny wasn't too worried about driving. She called later and said that the drive was okay, with only one small period of time that it rained heavily.

I did two loads of laundry for the cabins and myself. After some paperwork, John and I sat around for the majority of the rest of the day. He took Orla for another walk later in the blizzard. We got about 2 inches of snow on everything again. Yuck!

We watched a couple of movies, read books and magazines and I took a nap. Since it was a blizzard with howling winds the whole day, we didn't feel very motivated. There are just some days like that.

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Monday, April 25, 2011

We skipped Easter Day's blog because I really didn't do anything regarding running a resort. We invited some neighbors to join us for our Easter dinner, I went to church in the morning with my mother-in-law, and our dinner was great. My son drove all this way to eat Easter dinner with us. That was great. The picture is of Orla sitting outside on Saturday morning. My car with the dent and branches on it is in the background.

Monday morning was sunny and beautiful so I went outside to work on getting the dahlia bulbs into dirt. I went up to the pump house, which also doubles as my potting shed, and got all the containers I could find. I took some dirt out of a planter, from under the deck behind the lodge and various places around the basketball court. I put the dirt in all the pots, put a few dahlia bulbs in, and then filled up the rest of the container with dirt.

I needed to water the containers so I headed down to the lagoon where there is open water around our piers. I was scooping up a bucket full of water when I noticed Orla had joined me. Before I could finish saying, "No!" She had stepped onto the ice that was next to the pier. The ice moved away quickly from her and she went under. For a horrible second I thought of Senna but I grabbed Orla and hauled her out before her back even got wet. She was very surprised and shook off, then ran around a little. She sure looked funny all soaking wet. I dried her off with a towel and she was back to herself in no time. I hope that means she won't be afraid of the water from here on out.

I finished 90% of the dahlia bulbs, and then we decided to take a drive. John's mom was visiting and this was her last day here so we wanted to make the most of it. So we drove up to Lake Superior. We stopped at Little Girl's Point, ate a picnic lunch, and walked the beach. Then we drove to Saxon Harbor and walked the beach there. Everyone who saw Orla loved her and a little boy was so very happy when Orla acted like she wanted to follow him home. That was so cute.

We came home around 4 p.m. and I finished the bulbs. I put them all in the basement until the weather gets warmer. Some I will plant here at the resort, but the majority go into the gardens at the church in town. It is a tradition that I keep up in memory of Mary Russell. She is gone now, she died when she was 91, but she is a northwoods story I have to tell.

When I first married John and moved to Mercer, I was introduced to his neighbor, Mary Russell. At that time she was in her 80's. She told me, "You know that John is one in a million, don't you?" She wanted to make sure that I knew she regarded John highly. I agreed with her and we became friends.

Through the years I noticed a lot about Mary. She was generous, a hard worker, and never quit when she set her mind to something. She was amazing and I hope to be just like her when I reach my 80's, God willing. She would give anyone who visited a jar of her personally-made jam or jelly. She made a chicken casserole for her customers who would stay at her coach house rental, that she would have warm in the oven for their arrival. She gave her time and craft projects to the people in the Wakefield Hospital during the holidays, and loved to create chef-style meals for friends and family. She also loved to give people tours of her huge, historic home.

I used to give her a present every Christmas: it was a card that had inside a statement, "I will give you 3 hours every week of my time to help you with whatever you need." She used my present to the fullest. I would go over every Wednesday afternoon and help her with whatever she wanted. She asked me to do preparation for her taxes, organize her greeting cards, put dahlia bulbs in dirt containers in April, helped her plant them outside at the end of May, cleaned her floors and much more. She and I became very close and there is one story that nearly broke my heart.

One winter we got a foot of snow in one storm. Mary was due back into town the next day from a trip she had taken to Mexico to visit some friends. It turned out though that she decided not to stay at the hotel in Wausau where her planed had landed. She decided to drive home because she wasn't tired. No one knew this though. She got stuck in her long, winding, hilly driveway. She got out, in the dark and cold, and decided to walk the rest of her driveway home. She went down the snowmobile trail instead, thinking it was her driveway. When she got to the intersection where she saw the large brown arrow that points to our resort, she then knew where she was. So she turned around and went back. By the time she got back to her car, she was disoriented and thought that someone else was stuck too! She should have gone into her car and warmed up, but she was too anxious and probably suffering from hypothermia at that time, so she didn't even recognize her own car.

She turned toward her house, rightly this time, and continued on her way. It was quite a ways to her house and she kept falling into the snow because by this time she was getting exhausted and hypothermia was setting in. She was not dressed appropriately from her trip from Mexico, which didn't help. She told me later that she actually started crawling because she knew she couldn't take another fall. So she crawled up the last hill and saw the one light she kept on in her house. She prayed, "Thank you, God, for getting me to my house. I know where I am know." She decided to rest, which was a very bad idea. She passed out.

The next morning the plow driver, Herbie, for whatever reason, decided he had to do Mary's driveway first. When he saw her car, and a trail of footprints, he became so worried that he slowed way down. At the top of the last hill he saw Mary lying face down in the snow. He called 9-1-1 and couldn't tell if Mary had a pulse.

We got a call from one of our neighbors, Harry. He had a scanner and had heard the ambulance call for Mary. We were in shock. We called the hospital and since we were on their list for Mary's lifeline, they gave us some information. When she was found, her body temperature was 71 degrees. She only had a small spot of frostbite where her guardian angel pin had been against her skin. She was on a respirator at the time and it was not known how well she would recover.

John had planned on going to Milwaukee that day, so he decided to stop and see how Mary was doing along the way. When he got to the hospital, he saw Mary's doctor, who was also John's doctor and our neighbor. She seemed very sad, so John was afraid to ask how Mary was doing. She said, "Oh she's fine. She's sitting up and eating breakfast. I'm just tired." John was very shocked and sure enough, as he entered her hospital room, she was sitting up and talking to the nurse. She later told us, "It's hard to kill a Lithuanian." She lived many years after that. But I think it took a few years off of our lives. She was an incredible woman.

So I do the dahlias every year in memory of Mary. They were her bulbs, which she gave to the church. If it weren't for me the last 2 years, they would have all dried up and withered away. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up Mary's tradition for many, many years to come.

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Yesterday was Saturday, April 23, 2011. We woke up to 5 inches of wet snow on everything. I let out Orla and that's when I saw the big branches next to my new Lincoln (new to me). I knew then that it had been hit. I just didn't know how badly. Later I walked over and took a peek under the snow. There was a huge dent between the sun roof and the back window. That was sad. But at least it didn't break a window. Maybe we can just pop the bump out.

Today the cleaning girls were coming to start the spring cleaning. John and I went into the cabins to see if we could get the heat to start up. I couldn't figure out why the heat wasn't turning on. I had the gas on, the switches on, the breakers on and nothing was happening. John checked it out and found out the switch was supposed to be down and one of them had a pilot that had to be lit on the other. All is well within an hour and the heat was cranking.

John had to repair one pipe in the kitchen of Aspen cabin. He had some spare parts downstairs and that worked great. He took about 20 minutes and he was finished. He's getting to be a professional plumber.

The cleaning crew arrived at noon and started on the Spruce cabin. Spring cleaning is pretty extensive. Every wall and ceiling has to be swept off to get rid of cobwebs, then every wall has to be wiped down with a soapy solution. Then all furniture, bed frames, pictures, everything gets wiped down inside and out. After that the room gets vacuumed or floor gets washed. The kitchen has every dish/pot and pan and everything washed. Then all the cabinets get washed out, dishes put back in, appliances cleaned inside and out and floor cleaned under everything. The screen porch gets wiped down too and windows inside and out get cleaned. In other words, everything is cleaned all over.

They finished Spruce in 5 hours with a crew of 4. That was perfect timing for them to do a great job. They came into the lodge for a snack and then went into the Aspen cabin to start that one. They cleaned until 7 p.m. They will be back next Saturday. Until then I will have to inspect everything in preparation of a customer coming April 29-May 1 weekend.

I cleaned my own house a little, organized some more clean cabin laundry, made all the bags up for the Spruce cabin for them to make the beds, etc., and made a nice dinner.

My son called and will be here for Easter dinner which is nice. I baked a blueberry cake in preparation of tomorrow's dinner. I cleaned windows, straightened out the lodge a little and then we watched a movie, "The King's Speech". It was good and we enjoyed it. It was a good day.

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Friday, April 22, 2011
The picture is of Orla on the edge of the Manitowish River by a huge rock. There is a cool camping site just up the hill from there. Orla was watching some otters swim around. I didn't know what she was looking at until I put the camera away. When I tried to get out the camera and take another pic of the otters, they were too far away and hid under water. At least I got a cute one of our little cutie.

Our treadmill was delivered at 11 as planned. I gave it a whirl and it kicked my butt, which was great. My butt is too big. Orla was very curious about the treadmill but didn't want to join me for a walk on it yet. Thanks, Mike and nephew for the free delivery!

Later Orla was outside between the lodge and the lake. I was getting my shoes on as I anticipated joining her outside. When I joined her, and yelled, "Orla, where are you?", an eagle flew away from a nearby tree. Maybe it was watching the birds at the bird feeder where it was sitting, but it was too close to Orla for comfort. Go away, Eagles! (And wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and whatever else might do her harm.)

John and I had to get some money out of the bank so we made a fun trip out of it. We went to the Pines Restaurant for lunch (great food!), then drove to the bank, and then went to a parking area by the Manitowish River. We went for a nice hike with Orla (the picture). It was brisk outside but beautiful.

The Pines Restaurant has great food and now serves their new Sweetie Pines desserts. It was their opening day of their 30th year of business.

John reconnected the pipes in the Aspen and Spruce cabin after a few minor repairs. We will turn on the heat tomorrow morning in preparation of the cleaning girls coming. It will be the first spring cleaning of the season. Bring it on!

I organized my sewing area which was all in disarray from the winter away. I finished 2 hot pads I had been working on last season. I put away some laundry and helped John a little hauling some branches to the campfire.

John cut down some pine trees that were blocking the view from the Spruce cabin. I hauled out a loveseat sofa from the basement, put it on a large square wagon, hauled it manually up to the Spruce cabin and put it on the screen porch. Luckily the loveseat wasn't that big or heavy. To get the wagon out of the garage I had to move a rolled up oriental rug, padding, coolers, ropes/bungies, paddles/oars and more. Nothing is ever simple around here.

Later I tried organizing the new treadmill area. In case customers want to use it in the future, I started looking at the possibilities of the small basement area. There is a nice glass patio door/window looking out at the lake. I removed a laundry bin of lost and found beach towels, a bin of cultured stone we don't need (odds & ends), some fly fishing poles, goggles/snorkel masks, exercise pad, boots, coats, crumpled air filters and more. It looks a little better now but all I did was move the stuff to other areas of the basement. I wish I could just put everything in a dumpster and start over.

Our basement is a compilation of 3 previous owners, our stuff and previous friend's and/or relative's stuff. We have a lot to sell on Craigs List or Ebay, and a lot of stuff we use for the resort once in awhile. I have my sewing area, excess kitchen stuff, laundry for the cabins, tools, paperwork storage, holiday storage, headboards for beds, old box spring, old toilets (cleaned), and much more in our basement. The list is endless. If you need anything, just call Cheri's resale basement. I just might have something I would be willing to give you to just get rid of. Please, really, call...

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Thursday, April 21, 2011
The lake became very dark, which means it won't be long until it breaks up. We could hear it moaning and groaning all day yesterday. A friend on the lake said she heard it too and that it was loud.

John and I heard the loons and he even saw one fly over yesterday. They are a sure sign of spring.

In anticipation of customers coming on 4/30, John and I worked on getting the water running in 2 cabins - Aspen and Spruce. John went up to the pump house and removed a lot of insulation/doors so we could get to the pipes and pump. Then he went into the basement of Aspen to turn off all the water pipes in preparation. We leave them open to make sure there isn't any pressure or residual water in them. I went into Spruce and turned off all the valves and water too and then I went into the pump house and turned on the water. We had our walkie-talkies with us but there wasn't any water squirting anywhere so we didn't use them. We slowly turned on this and that and emptied out several buckets of dark/mineral water that had sat in the pipes underground. There are so many minerals in our water here, that they build up in the pipes. When we turn the water on in the spring season, we have to clean out a few buckets of dark minerals first.

Every spring we have our water tested by law. It always comes up perfectly safe and pure. We are proud of that. When we got the new well at our newest cabin, there was a little iron in the water, but it is still well within safe levels.

Behind the Ironwood cabin there is a small pond. Our little golden retriever, Orla, loves to play in it and then run around like crazy. She is so cute. We take her back by the pond just to have a bunch of laughs. Puppies are so funny.

I finished the 3-ring binders for the cabins finally. I had to go into town to get booklets from the Chamber of Commerce and the DNR. The DNR office was closed but there happened to be a DNR guy outside the building looking at some turkeys a guy shot. So he let me in and I got the brochures. I had Orla with me. A feather flew out of the guy's trunk of turkeys and Orla chased after it and caught it. They were impressed.

I then went to the Warehouse Hardware store and picked up some things. Orla was in the car and one of the ladies at the Warehouse came out to see her. She exclaimed how Orla is so cute. Then I took Orla to the library to see if Theresa and Renie wanted to see her and, of course, they did. She's a local celebrity.

It took me hours to get the 3-ring binders finished and that was the major job of the day. But I did rake, cut down some thorn bushes, check e-mails, made some calls, etc. It was a good day but, again, it went too fast.

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The picture is of Orla, our little golden princess. She was up on the hill by our Alder cabin.

Yesterday was Wednesday, April 20. The snow was light and in the afternoon it turned our beautiful. I took Orla for a walk and we found a little pond of water that wasn't frozen behind the Ironwood II cabin. She tentatively stepped in it and and then jumped out and ran around like crazy. She came back again and again, stepped a little further in the pond and then ran around like crazy again. She just naturally loves water.

I did 4 binders for the cabins, updating all the rules, rates and info. 3 loads of laundry later and enough trips downstairs and I had 4 bags of finished laundry put away and my laundry done from being away.

John had been working for days, off and on, cutting up a huge pine tree behind the Cedar cabin that fell. There was a section that looks like 4 legs and so he cut it and put it like a table stand near a trail. I have to think of something fun to do with that.

The lake was moaning today, as it expands and contracts with the melting. It sounds either like someone in the distance is bending large piece of sheet metal, or sometimes it sounds like a jet in the distance for just a second or two. Its sort of eerie but I like it.

We got a call from a customer who wants to come here 4/30. We will have to spring clean a cabin early so tomorrow we will try to put some pipes back together and turn on the water in the Aspen cabin. If all works well, we can start our spring cleaning this weekend.

We had two boys visit to see the puppy. Their mom chatted with us as they romped around with Orla outside. It was very cute. She played very well with them and we enjoyed watching.

It is back to work soon here. So John and I started discussing what needed to be done first. Reality bites.

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The picture is of Orla, our little golden princess, sitting by our living room doorway. She is so cute. This morning she woke up at 5:10 a.m. It had just started to snow then as I was standing outside in my robe. The smell of fresh air with impending precipitation, and watching the puppy run around was amazing. We ended up just getting a dusting of snow.

Yesterday was Tuesday, April 19th. John and I both did our own thing. I cleaned the house, a lot, and played with Orla. I took her on a walk and went with her into the Balsam cabin. I grabbed the 3-ring binder that was there and decided to update the information it contains. There is a 3-ring binder in each cabin. We have our info inside including a brochure, lake map, resort map, rules, and Mercer information. Last year the health inspector said we are "ahead of the game" and that other resorts will probably have to do something like that in the future. I wonder if they got the idea from us. Sorry about that all you resort owners if that's the case.

Orla was going toward the lake later and I yelled at her, "No! Orla, come!" And just then a loon on our lake squawked at me. It's song was music to my years. The loons are back! I was so happy! Even though its snowing, the spring season is still coming.

I am amazed at the price of gas right now. It is $4 a gallon here and going up. I heard on the news that it is because of speculators. Can you believe it? That is so stupid - they're getting millions for their speculating and we're all suffering. I hope the prices don't go up too much higher or our customers will balk too.

We still have 8 openings for our summer. They are: June 18-25 Spruce & Hemlock; June 25-July 2 Balsam; July 2-9 Spruce & Cedar; July 16-23 Maple; Aug. 6-13 Spruce; Aug. 13-20 Balsam. If you know anyone who might be interested, please give us a call at 715-476-2241 or e-mail us at: info@pineforestlodge.com Any help would be appreciated. I can't believe we still have an opening for July 4th week.

We will take pictures of the Birch and Alder cabins as soon as they are finished and post them on our web site. It will be weeks though so be patient. The floor in Birch is going to be sanded down and varnished too. The wood floor in there was covered up with indoor/outdoor carpeting a very long time ago. Hopefully it is okay to sand/varnish.

Every day I wake up this time of year, I wonder what I should do. There are so many things that I could do that the list seems endless. Because its cold, I can't paint or do gardening, but that just narrows the list in half. Today I could do any of the following (just to give you an idea): get laundry out of the cabins & call for pick-up; pull up carpeting in Birch and/or Alder to help the process; move furniture around in the cabins to get ready for carpet removal; remove a refrigerator from Alder; remove kitchen stove from Alder to get ready for new floor; finish sewing quilts for twin beds in Spruce; laundry or paperwork that could take all day; 3-ring binders for cabins; paint interior of cabins ceilings; clean up basement area to make room for treadmill we'll be getting; put dahlia bulbs in pots to start them; play with puppy; go into town to visit stores & library that I've missed all winter; and the list could go on but I just don't want to think about it any more. What should I do? I feel tired already - maybe I should take a nap. I guess you'll find out tomorrow what I did today.

Yesterday I vacuumed the entire house, gathered rocks for a memorial garden for Buddy & Senna (for their ashes); did some laundry and made a big dinner amongst little things I also did. I bought a stone that is engraved "here lies a faithful friend and companion" for their memorial garden.

I'm so glad we didn't get the 6-10" of snow they were predicting. But south of us they did and I feel sorry for them.

Hopefully this afternoon/evening the two neighbor kids will come to play with Orla. I baked cookies in anticipation of their arrival. I am looking forward to it. They didn't make it yesterday because they went to the gym for "open gym" or something with their parents. I can understand that.

Have a great day!

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The picture is from Door County where we stayed for the winter at John's mom's place. It was nice to do something different but we are glad to be back home.

Yesterday was Monday, April 18th, 2011. We arrived on Sunday after being gone awhile. As we were unpacking our stuff from the long time away, we saw something we'd never seen before. We heard a strange peeping sound sort of like when you clean windows and the squeak of the cloth against the glass. We looked up and saw two eagles playing with each other as they circled and teased each other in flight. They were making peeping noises and in the updraft, they circled just over our trees. They were so close I could see them turn their heads to get a better look at us and the puppy (yikes). We just looked up and watched them. Orla did too, which was cute.

I went to the grocery store to stock up our kitchen. Then I did some laundry, paperwork, computer work and various odds & ends around the house. Dave, our caretaker, ate lunch with us and we had to check out his work in the Birch cabin. The bathroom is completely finished and looks great. The expansion of the bathroom took up a lot of the living room space though. We contemplated getting a different heater that would take up less space too, and putting the heater in a different cabin. We'll see.

I walked around with Orla a bit and visited with a neighbor who came over to see the puppy. It was nice to see her and she said her kids are bugging her to come and play with the puppy so they'll probably be here after school today. I guess I'll have to bake some cookies (yeah!).

There is still ice on the lake and the shoreline is very dark/mushy. So we will have to watch Orla very closely until the lake opens up. She just loves the snow and rolls around in it every chance she gets. At the vet's yesterday she weighed 16.8 pounds. She's getting big fast. I'll try to post a more recent photo of her soon.

Today we'll try to get some major projects going but you never know what might happen to change that (hopefully).

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

The picture on the right is of our beloved dog, Senna, who died on Tuesday, March 15th. It was a tragic day for us for sure. When I got the call, John and I were in Madison. Someone else had been watching her for us because we were helping John's sister move into her condo in Madison. As soon as I heard, I started sobbing. She was part of our family and we will always miss her. She was 12 years old.

For days we were in shock. Then after talking with our relatives and friends, we decided to get another golden retriever right away - a puppy. We wanted it to be big enough by mid-June when the kids would want to play with her. We were also very concerned about our customer's children being really sad to find no dogs at the resort now. Buddy was put to sleep in November because his body had given out. Now Senna was gone and the customer's children would be very sad.

We found a breeder in Oconomowoc, who had puppies ready. We picked her out on St. Patrick's Day so we thought we should give her an Irish name. John's sister, Kathy, looked up Irish names on the computer. She found one that means Golden princess or Golden queen. We thought that the name was totally appropriate and so she is called, Orla. It takes some getting used to because it is so different, but it is perfect. We picked her up and took her to Door County on March 20th.

So the picture on the left is Orla, of course.

We hadn't had a puppy in 12 years. The adjustment was difficult to say the least. She would wake up every 3 hours for a potty break for the first 4 days. Then she started getting this crazy itch. It was like her butt was on fire and she would run as fast as she could to get away from it. She had one night of sleeplessness with scratching and I called the vet in the morning. It turns out that the leaves under the deck were the culprit and we were to keep her from exploring under the deck from now on. That was not easy with her. She is very stubborn and we had a hard time. I gave her a bath in baking soda water and gave her some anti-itch medicine.

Finally she is sleeping about 8 hours but she is 12 weeks old now. It also took us about 10 weeks to potty train her completely. That was a major disappointment that it took so long. We were in Door County at John's mom's house, and thankfully there were few accidents on the rugs. Mostly her accidents were on the ceramic tile. John's mom has the patience of a saint with us and our puppy. Now she says she misses Orla terribly.

Now we are back at the resort, April 17th, Sunday. We had been back for a few days in early April to vote & start the masses of laundry that have piled up. I did 9 large (4 foot high) bags of laundry on 4/5. The bags are still sitting in the lodge waiting for me to put them away.

In February I started the taxes. It took me about 3 weeks with the strange, and extensive, form that the accountant gave us. It turns out that we lost money again last year. We might gain income from the value of the property, but with all the expenses of upkeeping the resort and cabins, every year we barely squeak by a living. If it weren't for help from things like inheritance and cashing in stock, we wouldn't have been able to get by this spring. It doesn't help that my 23 year old son got in trouble with the law and that took $2,000 of our money either. I just wish he would stay out of trouble!!!

The surprise when we got home was that there was 2 inches of snow on the ground. The lake is mushy and melty around the first foot of shoreline or so and that means we have to watch Orla very closely too.

Dave, our caretaker for the winter, had some projects to keep him busy over the winter months. When we came home on 4/3-5, we went to Menards with him and his truck and our car (and puppy). We spent $2300 on our charge card, and the truck and car were so loaded full of supplies, we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies going down the road. The bathroom in Birch has been expanded a foot in 2 directions and has been re-done completely. The wood floor in Alder is next. All the wood flooring was in the back seat of our car. Orla climbed all over it on the way home. It was so high that she could see out every window and she loved it.

We need to keep up our cabins and every year we try to update or improve something. Last year we couldn't afford to do much so we just painted the outside of a cabin and fixed the basement of the newest cabin, Ironwood. The contractor who built it didn't do a good enough job in the shower there. It leaked terribly into the basement and cracks formed all around the tile. Dave took out all the grout (a huge undertaking) and built support walls under the shower all the way down to the basement floor. What a job! That tile guy who was on main street in Mercer a few years ago is lucky he left. Otherwise we would have sued him for damages. I haven't been able to find any trace of him. That's what we got for trusting a new business in town. I hope others out there didn't suffer our fate too.

So today we take the puppy in for her 12 week check-up and I will go into town to get groceries stocked back up in our kitchen. Maybe I'll even do a load or two of laundry and catch up on some paperwork. We'll see.