Back to “Normal”!

Hooray!!  The motorhome returned home this past Thursday!!  The process of getting it backed into the driveway went without any incidents this time.  Investing in a driveway was a good thing to do.

We spent Thursday night in our “home” and then picked up Paige’s mom on Friday morning in Duluth and headed to Mpls.  Bob had another doctor appointment after which we headed to a Nomads project in Sartell to connect with friends from previous projects.  We had a great visit and pizza dinner with them.  We’ve met so many great friends working with Nomads!

Last week we took time to update the kitchen cabinets at the cabin.  They were last painted about 40 years ago so it was time!  We like the results!

Today we’re going to go to Dave’s and help pack in preparation for his move to a house in northeast Minneapolis.  LeJoy and Dave are going to be combining households now.  It’s a move we are all happy about!  Anna and Sophia are coming with to help – we are hoping to get much of the work done.

If we were at the cabin, this might be the view of the lake.  Unfortunately, we’ve not had a lot of nice, sunny days yet this summer, but this was one of them.  Hopefully, the weather will get nicer in the coming weeks.  We haven’t had the rain and flooding that other parts of the state have had.

Motorhome is NOT backYet!

First – the motorhome is STILL in for repairs – grrrrrr!!  We have to look at the photo on this blog to remember what it looks like.  After planning to go pick it up today, as they had not yet scheduled any repairs, we got a call that the fiberglass guy would be in today and ours is first on his list.  We’ll see! 

Last weekend was another rainy one.  The “weekenders” had their 3^rd weekend in a row of wet weather.  We’re so lucky that we’ve been able to have some good weather during the week to enjoy!  On Sunday it was rainy and windy.  This caused some downed trees and an electrical outage from 4 p.m. Sunday that wasn’t resolved until 10:30 a.m. on Monday.  We were certainly thankful for all the conveniences when it came back on!

Last Friday we had a window of opportunity (good weather) so we rented a log splitter with our neighbors.  We spend all day splitting logs – a much easier task with this device!

On Monday morning, while we had no electricity, we stacked the wood and cleaned the yard.  What a feeling of accomplishment!

Paige beautified the entrance to the driveway by making another little rock flower area and hanging the new “Riewe” sign that Brett’s family gave us for Christmas.  Looking good here!

This week our new project involves updating the green antiqued kitchen cupboards to a light tan color with new hardware.  We certainly don’t rush into these projects (these cupboards were done about 40 years ago!).  Think we got our money’s worth!

It is Done

We now have a proper driveway at the cabin.

After 3 truckloads of Class 5 and 2 more trees removed, we have an area that should be easier to enter and exit with the motorhome, as well as a level place to park.  Like most things, all it took was time and $$$.  Here are some photos:

      

Before: 

During:

                and

After

Now, all we need is to have the repaired motorhome back from the dealer.

There is something special about this driveway - We DON'T shovel snow from it!!

A Couple of Rainy Days

Our last blog was just over a week ago.  Since that time we have had a few rainy days, but not as many as were forecast, and we didn’t receive as much rain as was forecasted either.  The forecasts were, however, scary enough that we got the motorhome out from the cabin and parked down the road a few lots, just to ensure that we didn’t get stuck again.  After the weekend, we took it to a Winnebago dealer in Duluth for a repair estimate.  It will have to sit there awhile, until seen by an insurance adjuster.  In the meantime, we have “moved” into the cabin.

We did go to Mpls overnight on Wednesday for doctor and finance meetings last Thursday.  We got to see Brett’s girls and got them off for their last day of school.  They’re looking forward to the summer!  We also had a chance to have dinner with Rob and KJ as we haven’t seen yet this summer.  Great to see them again!!

Our new driveway and parking area had been planned for this past week, but that was delayed slightly.  We expect it will be completed this coming week – hopefully.

The road out front, Cabin Circle Drive is a private road, and is not maintained by the county.  Our area association hired a different contractor to grade it and repair last winter’s damage.  They did a great job.

Our association also planned a litter pickup on Co Rd #4, but rains on the last 2 Saturday mornings have forced postponements.  We are not sure when that will be rescheduled.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying some quiet time at the cabin – reading, knitting, and  walking.  Pretty boring stuff.  We came into Duluth for church this morning and then went to Red Lobster for lunch with Mom.  We did a few tasks for Mom at her place.  While we were at her place, a big ship came in on Lake Superior.  She has a great view of the lake!

Back in the Land of the Internet – Temporarily!

Because we don’t have good connectivity up here in the Northland, we aren’t able to update the blog often – sorry!  Today we took a ride to Virginia, MN to sit at McDonald’s and do some computer work, have coffee, and then go to our favorite fish fry in Gilbert, MN.  We’ll fit in a quick update on our fairly quiet life up here.

We have an appointment for repairs on the motorhome in Duluth next week.  We also have a contractor coming to put down Class 5 gravel so we have a better driveway to park on.  So we’re hoping that we can park the motorhome in a week or so  - without the problems we initially had!

Last week we spent a few days in Elk River, going to Sophia’s band concert, meeting with friends, and getting a grand-daughter fix.  Over Memorial Day weekend, we had the entire clan up at the cabin with us.  Grandma Joyce came up as well.  Quite an active time!  David took the girls on an educational field trip, up to the Soudan underground iron mine, which is now a state park:    

   

With the holiday weekend over, it was back to quiet time, with only the fulltime cabin people on the point.  This weekend the forecast is for rain so the weekenders may be staying home.  After fish fry tonight, it is happy hour on the point at our neighbors.  Tomorrow is the road clean-up day.  Just a few things going on to keep our hearts pumping!  We’re getting a lot of reading done.

The Incident

We got to the cabin over a week ago.  Brett and the girls came up to help get the motorhome parked.  One tree and many branches were cut to prepare.  There was standing water in the yard, however, the driveway appeared dry.  Brett and Paige helped direct Bob as he backed the RV into the driveway.  It was a disaster!  First we got Bob too far to the left and this caused the front of the motorhome to drop into a hole and damaged the front fiberglass.  After we luckily got out of that mess, we tried again and backed into a too soft area that caused the back, passenger side to drop into a hole.  The driveway was not dried out enough for the weight of this rig.  We knew we needed some gravel brought in but now we realized we really needed to get a professional to create a genuine weight-bearing driveway.  This is going to be done for us during the first week in June (while the motorhome is at a dealer in Duluth to have the fiberglass repaired!).  After having a tow truck come and get us out of the hole, we were able to park on a level spot next to the garage.  So we’re okay until the new driveway is completed. 

This week we are at Brett’s in Elk River.  We went out for dinner for Pam’s birthday on Monday night and attended a band concert for Sophia on Tuesday.  We also had lunch each day with friends so it’s been busy but good.  On Thursday afternoon, we’ll take Brett’s girls back to the cabin with us for the Memorial Day weekend.  Brett will meet us up there on Saturday and Dave and Valentina are coming on Friday night. 

Cooler by the Lake

We have always chuckled when the local weather forecasters say it will be “…cooler by the lake.”  We are not chuckling anymore, now that we’ve been alongside the harbor for 5 days.  We are hearing about record-breaking heat throughout the areas we’ve just come from (Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa) but we haven’t seen 50 degrees yet this week.  If it hasn’t been cloudy, windy, and cool, then it’s been rainy, foggy, and cold.  This evening it is so foggy that we can’t see across the harbor less than 1000 yards away.  Just one reason why there are no photos tonight.

Other than icebrakers, US and Canadian freighters have been using the port for a week or so.  But the first international vessel (called a “salty”) arrived in Duluth’s harbor about midnight last night, officially opening the shipping season. The Diana sails under the flag of Antigua.  It was delayed in arriving due to ice conditions between here and the Sault Locks in Michigan.  This is the latest arrival of the first salty since Duluth became an International port in 1959.  Saying the past winter was hard is an understatement. 

Our week has gone by smoother than expected.  The estate sale buyer and his crew (Bob calls them the “pickers”) came on Wednesday morning and filled an enclosed trailer before lunch.  They were back later to load up the rest and were gone by 2:00.  Joyce’s realtor also came over that afternoon so her house is now officially empty and on the market.  Thursday the cleaners (us) got back to work with brooms, mops, vacuums, and scrub-brushes.  The house is now ready for showing – earlier than we had hoped for. 

This will allow us to get up to the cabin and open it up for the summer.  We have to look it over closely before bringing the new motorhome.  We may have a few more branches and trees to remove to get this bigger unit onto the lot.  We’d also like to lay out a harder/flatter driveway.  Oh the joys!!

Brett and his girls are coming up late Friday night so they’ll be around to help with some of the opening chores.  Brett will bring some saws to help with the tree cutting.  The girls are very excited about coming to the cabin.  And…. The weather is forecasted to be dry and sunny, maybe even the 60’s!!!  A good weekend, hopefully!