Busy Days

It has NOT been a quiet week (or 2) here at Lake Woebegone (Whiteface Resv).  We have been busy: with visitors, with work, and with boating.  We had 3 more granddaughters with us for a week, taking them swimming, and boating, and picnicing on a nearby island.  We were able to take Grandma Joyce out to lunch on her 84^th birthday. What a lot of energy those girls have!
 

We started stripping the siding off of our outhouse the day before Brett came.  After he arrived on Tuesday, we found some insect damage in the rear framing that needed to be repaired, and the bottom framework was replaced while we had the chance.  Then we replaced the door and rebuilt its frame.  While we were doing this, we had to put up with the hottest and most humid days of the entire summer.  Naturally, the mosquitoes were also at their worst so working outdoors was a challenge.  Over the next few weeks we will hang new vinyl siding, left over from the cabin re-siding job of last year.

After Brett and the girls left for home, we had a little wind storm that didn’t seem to be too bad, but it was just enough to bring a small tree into a nearby power line.  The entire Whiteface Point was without electric power for about 12 hours.  We ran the motorhome’s generator to provide power for the cabin’s freezer for a few hours.  Our friends, KJ and Rob, came that morning for a 3-day weekend.  We played a lot of cards while they were here.

This week, Paige’s cousin Tim and his son Nick have been with us for a couple of days.  On Wednesday Bob took them to the Soudan Underground Mine State Park for a history/mining tour below sea level.  On Thursday they went to the Duluth harbor to see the Tall Ships come in.  The older-style sailing ships are traveling all around the Great Lakes, drawing tourists wherever they stop.  While they were gone, some neighbors took us for a 2 hour boat ride on their pontoon.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride!
 

We have no company coming in the foreseeable future (other than Paige’s mother), so we’ll be working on the outhouse and other small projects around here.  Neighbors on both sides of us will be here for the next week so we’ll have the opportunity to visit with all of them. 

Still Here

We are way overdue to update this blog.  If we have any regular readers left, you may think we’ve disappeared somewhere.   

Our oldest granddaughter, Valentina, and her dog spent the week of the 4^th with us, and David joined us for the 5^th and 6^th.  David and LeJoy (his friend) joined us the weekend before the Fourth to introduce LeJoy to the “cabin” life.  We had a great week with all of them!

Since then, we’ve had a couple of quiet, relaxing days up here at the lake, with the exception of the mosquitoes.  They have been really nasty this year.  Maybe the late spring warm-up and the frequent rains have made them vicious.  We have given up taking walks around the 2-mile circle since they are so thick.

Paige’s mother brought some friends up here for lunch and a little time at the water’s edge, but they have just left as we write this.  Our quiet time ends tomorrow, however, when the 3 remaining granddaughters come for a week.  Their Mom has to attend a seminar in Chicago, and Brett is back on 24 hr shifts at St Paul’s Fire Dept.  He will come up to join us next Tuesday.  We’ll be re-siding the outhouse.  Since completing our last small remodeling project we have just been taking things easy and doing quite a lot of reading.

Future plans have come together, somewhat.  We will go back to the Twin Cities for a couple of days in late August, then come back to the cabin for the Labor Day weekend.  Shortly after that we will be packing up and heading for the Pacific NW, stopping for a 3-week Nomads project at a church camp in Montana for late September/early October.  After that we plan to do a lot of sightseeing and meeting up with friends as the fall winds down.