For The Record

Just for the record. It snowed up at the lake this morning. I don't think it'll amount to anything. It was just really windy and blustery, but there were flakes in the air as we were leaving. In fact, it got worse as we got closer to Hamel.

Mark it down in the Dam almanac: bare trees and first snowfall, October 26, 2008.

Weekend two

It’s only been a week since we closed on the Dam Cabin. It seems much longer. We drove up on Friday night in the rain. It’s a much easier and enjoyable drive during the day. I’m sure that once we’re used to the roads it’ll be better. It takes about two hours to get here from our house in the Twin Cities. We’re feeling more and more at home each time we come up and stay. We both think it was a good decision on our part to buy this particular lake home. It seems comfortable and warm.

Saturday was a windy day on Dam Lake. I got up early and took Louis, the dog, out. We’re trying to let him run more up here than we do in the cities. Down there he takes off and runs all over the neighborhood. This morning he ran around the yard a little bit and then took off down the road. I watched him as he sniffed his way down the dirt path. It occurred to me that he was following some trail of scent and would probably never find his way back. I don’t think he knows this is his home yet, so I followed him, picked him up about a quarter mile down the road and carried him back.

Louis is having the hardest time adjusting to the new digs. For some reason he’s afraid of the hard kitchen flooring. We don’t know why. It’s darker than our kitchen floor at home, but the same color as the neighbor’s where he spends time while we’re away on trips. It’s slippery, but not any more than anywhere else he’s been. We can’t figure it out, but he hides in the bedroom and shakes when we try to get him to walk out from that carpeted room onto the harder kitchen floor.

We drove into Aitkin Saturday morning and ran some errands. We stopped by the library and signed up for library cards. We visited the thrift store and bought a step stool. We also ate lunch at the Birchwood Café. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, and there was a lot of local color. I think we’d eat there again.

From the “What were they thinking” file: What were they thinking when they put in the kitchen cabinets in this cabin? They are about 10 feet tall. Even I, at 6’ 3”, can’t reach the top shelves. We had to buy a step stool so we could make use of the cupboard space.

From the “What were they thinking” file part two: What were they thinking when they drew the floor plans for this place? They put the staircase right in the middle of the main room. It takes up almost a third of the square footage of the room. We’re going to remodel and take out those stairs. Dar’s been looking on Craig’s List for a circular staircase and finally found one in Lakeview. We’ve agreed to buy it for $800. Now we just have to figure out how and where to put it. But that’s a discussion for another time.

We met another neighbor this afternoon. Diane was walking her dog Jessie and she stopped by to introduce herself. We were outside cleaning up some leaf piles and flower beds.

Speaking of wildlife, as I was walking Louis this morning a large Bald Eagle flew overhead and down the lake shore. We walked up the road late this afternoon and saw another Bald Eagle flying by. They’re always fun to see. The only other wildlife we’ve seen are the hoards of Asian Beetles in our kitchen. At one point Dar got six of the little buggers in a row. I know we didn’t get them all, but we haven’t seen any tonight.

We won’t be able to come up next weekend because of Halloween and other party invitations, but we will be coming up the following week. We need to pick up the spiral stairway and figure out not only how to get it up here, but how to get it into the house. It’s over ten feet long, five feet in diameter, and weighs about 300 pounds. That should be an adventure!

Sad news: Our free Wifi is gone. Whichever neighbor had the strong signal must have turned their router off for the season.

Day Two

Day Two at Our Dam Cabin!

Musings:

Wildlife. We haven't seen any yet. Even Jessie the dog has been noticeably absent. Jessie belongs to the neighbors at the end of our road. She's a very friendly golden lab who, according to the previous owners, is always hanging around the house. Haven't seen her since we came up in September to look at the cabin one last time before making our offer. Haven't seen a squirrel, a rabbit, a deer. I have seen some birds, but not many. Maybe it's the wind. The wind was howling in from the South all day today.

We heard stories about the abundant wildlife in these here parts, but so far they've been unfounded. Right after we closed on the property we all went to lunch together, and as we were sitting there Al and Betty, the former owners, started talking about the wildlife. "Oh ya, there's always deer in the yard eating my hostas, and there's skunks and racoons around, and wolves." "Wolves!" Darlene's eyes got as big as saucers. "There's wolves around here?" I think that kind of amused the locals. "Oh sure," they all said, "But they're more afraid of you. You can watch 'em on the road and then they just wander back into the woods." "But," said Dar, "what do you do?" "Oh," they said superciliously, "you just don't go outside until they're gone." They probably thought we were a couple of real bafoons; a couple of real citified ignorami. They might be right! I didn't think wolves' territory was this far south. That would be a cool thing to see!

Docks. As the day of closing drew near, both Ty and I were worried about having to take the dock out. We were told it wasn't a big deal, and I'm sure it's not. The thing's on wheels, and the lake bottom is hard sand. But it was just going to be the two of us, and we were going to have to do it by hand. We don't have an ATV or a vehicle with a winch. I imagined we were going to have to go into the water to separate the two sections and pull them out by hand. And I knew the October air and water temperatures would be freezing. That did not sound like fun! When we drove up Thursday morning the first thing we saw was the dock sitting out on the lawn. I don't know about Ty, but I let out a small little sigh of relief. We won't have to worry about that until next spring. I figure we can round up a few extra helpers by then.

Boats. Tom-the-Realtor called us a few weeks ago and said that he had found us a pontoon boat for sale. He had looked it over and thought it was a good deal. We were supposed to call his friend 'Rocky' who owns a marina near here. I thought that maybe he was going to make us an offer we couldn't refuse! He sent us some pictures, and it looked okay for the price. It was an older model, but it looked in good shape. We talked it over and decided to go ahead and buy it. Rocky said he'd bring it up and put it in our pole barn for us. The next day Dar says, "A tree fell on the pontoon." "What?" I said. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Rocky said that a tree fell on the pontoon, and it dented in one of the railings. That's why it's for sale." "Oh," I said, "that's good to know." Turns out it's not as bad as it sounds. You can't open one of the gates all the way, but it's structurally sound. Anyway, they brought it out on Thursday afternoon and put it in the barn. Only, it's not what I'd call a normal pontoon boat. This thing is like the Queen Elizabeth II or the Titanic (Oh I hope not!) It's huge! I told Dar and Ty that it would be a misnomer to call it a pontoon boat. So we now refer to it as the 'Party Barge!' That thing barely fits in the pole barn. It has like a 6 thousand horse power engine on it. I'm pretty sure if we welded on some fins, it would hydro-foil across the lake. It's humungous! I'm sure our neighbors are going to be whispering behind our backs next summer about the new people on the lake with the huge yacht -- making innuendos about size and compensation -- I told Ty we should paint it pink and put a Party Barge sign on it. It might be a good way for him to meet girls. If you come and visit us there's going to be plenty of room, that's for darn sure!

Wildlife redux. We went across the lake (by car, not by Party Barge) and ate at the Lake View restaurant on the other side of Dam Lake tonight. The first thing we noticed was the Happy Hour sign: M-F 3-6 pm, Saturday 10:30-12:00 am. Darn. We missed happy hour by seven hours! That must be a misprint I said. So Dar asked the bartendress. "Yup," she says, "people come in before they go out fishin' in the mornin' or after they get done fishin'." What exactly are we promoting here? Welcome to the great "It's Never Too Early For A Beer" North Woods! Then we went into the dining room. There was one other group in there. They were dressed like they might have been fishing, or hunting, or motorcycle touring. Motorcycle touring is not very accurate. They looked like they were part of Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in 'The Wild One'! No, that's not quite right either. They looked like banjo players from 'Deliverance' would look if they could ride motorcycles. And they were loud, and they were staggering to and from the buffet table, and I turned to Ty and said, "Let's not go out on the road 'til long after they're gone." I'm not sure what was a scarier thought: that group in a boat throwing fish hooks around, that group walking around with guns looking for animals to kill, or that group riding bikes down a public highway.

Names. I've been thinking about the name of this blog: Our Dam Cabin. Maybe it should be something more, oh I don't know, Laura Engels Wilderish like, 'Little Cabin on the Dam Lake' or 'Little Dam Cabin on the Dam Lake.' I don't know. Work in progress I guess.

Neighbors. We have great neighbors. We haven't even met them yet, but I know they're great. Ty brought my laptop up here Thursday to work on a paper for school and discovered that we can pick up a wifi signal from somewhere. We can actually pick up three separate signals. One is locked, but two are available. The signal isn't strong, and it comes and goes, but it's there. We can't get a cell-phone signal, but we can get online and blog. Thanks neighbors!



Louis, ready for his first boat ride!

Tonight is the first night in Our Dam Cabin.

This is the view from our deck.

We hope the name won't be a mantra for the days, months, and years ahead. You know. "Our Dam Cabin is so expensive!" or "Our Dam Cabin is so much work!" or "Our Dam Cabin!" That last one just a blanket expletive yelled out in angst.

We call it Our Dam Cabin because number one, it is now officially ours. We spent the morning doing a last walk-through with the owners, trying to figure out why the lower level bathroom had a puddle of water in it. Explaining to Tom-The-Realtor that yes, I brought some tools up with me, but no, I was not handy enough to turn off the water, take the toilet off, put a new wax ring on it, and get it all put back together without something else much worse happened to the plumbing. I didn't mention it, but I had visions of the time I tried to change the hoses on the washing machine, broke the copper tubing and had an impromptu facial shower of boiling water. Luckily I am handy enough to know where the shut-off valve is. No, Tom, I don't think I'll handle that job. Let's call in an expert handyman instead.

We spent the rest of the morning signing papers. "Initial here, here, and here, and sign here and here." "This is an exact copy of the papers we signed earlier, but I always like to have a spare copy just in case." "Shake your hands out and the cramping should go away."

Then, we handed over the big cashier's check and it was done. The Dam Cabin was ours. Now what were we going to do?

We call it Our Dam Cabin because it's ours, but also because it's a cabin on Dam Lake. Dam Lake is about 12 miles East of Aitkin, MN. If you try to find it on Google Maps or Google Earth we are on the Northwest corner of the lake. I can't tell you much about the lake except it was so named because at one time there was a natural rock dam at one end, it's about 48 feet deep in the middle, has some good fishing according to the locals, and it's now our Dam Lake. Well, we live on the Dam Lake anyway.

Tonight we're going to spend the night sleeping on luxurious air mattresses. Tomorrow we're going to drive over to Duluth to visit the UMD campus with Tyler. Then we'll be driving home to pick up more furniture to bring back up to the Dam Cabin. Luckily gas is down to about $2.60 a gallon.

We are excited about being here and the prospects of actually owning our own Dam Cabin!



View from the West

View from the East

First night on the deck overlooking Dam Lake.

More to come . . .