Remodeling

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Dan The Builder has started the transformation of our dear little Dam Cabin. The spiral staircase is in temporarily, and it looks great. We can hardly wait 'till the old stairway is gone and the room opens up. We also brought up a gas fireplace that Dan The Man is going to install for us. Our next jobs are to pick out paint colors and new carpeting. I'm lobbying for inexpensive remnants. By Christmas this caterpiller will have morphed into a beautiful living space.

Before and after photos:




The lake appears to be frozen over. I'm leery of walking out there yet. We did see a group of humans - kids or ice fisherpeople we weren't sure. They were too far out to tell - walking across the lake. I think once the ice houses are out it'll be safe. Tyler took a long walk back in the woods while Dan was here. I think skiing back along the creek this winter could be fun.

Last night we drove into Aitkin and went to the Rialto Theater to see our annual Thanksgiving weekend movie. This year we saw Bolt. We all enjoyed the movie and the theater. They don't make 'em like that anymore . . . the theater, not the movie. It was a venue in the old style; small screen, large room, lots of funky art deco lights and murals on the walls. No need to sit in the back of that theater, the middle rows were plenty far away from the action. They might want to think about replacing the seats some day though. Walking out of the theater after the show was kind of special. Exiting the front door onto main street small-town Americana. There was a light snowfall and the town was decked out for the holidays. Very nostalgic.

Experimental Slide Show

I'm experimenting with some sites at school. One I might try with kids allows them to make slideshows, so I made an example with pictures from the cabin. I'm going to see if I can post it here.

Hey, it looks like it works. Cool!
The only trouble with the site is the slideshows supposedly disappear after 30 days. So, it's the 25th of November today. Check back on Christmas Day to see if the pictures are still here!

Relaxation

First, a Louis update: He is fine. He takes his vitamin K pill every night, gets plenty of rest, and watches between meal snacks. He isn't, however, the dog with the iron stomach even though he can eat mouse poison and live to tell the tale. We tried disguising his pill with a little pork marengo, and that did not sit well. Forget the hydrogen pyroxide. Pork's the way to empty that pup's tummy!

This weekend at the cabin was finally a relaxing one. We met with Dan The Builder on Saturday afternoon. He's going to start on the remodeling this week. By the time we get back there the new circular staircase should be in and the old stairway may be gone.

It was a pleasant day and evening. We got some little projects done. I stuffed the drainpipe with rock salt. Don't ask. Dar put mothballs in the Party Barge to keep the mice out. No more poison bricks for Louis to feast on. We mostly just enjoyed the quiet and tranquility of our northwoods spa. Even the animals seemed to be relaxed this weekend.


Saturday night Dar sewed some merit badges onto Tyler's scout sash while we watched a Bollywood movie on my computer: Kaho Naa, Pyaar Hai with Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel. What a disappointment! There were a few laughs, but the music and choreography were not very good, and there was no chemistry between the leads. Don't add that one to your must-see Hindi film list!

We woke up this morning to a sprinkling of light snow. It was very nice. The snow was gently falling, no wind, the temperature was around 32, it was quiet and peaceful. The first thin sheets of ice were forming on the lake. We went out and took a long walk with the dog.




The roads were slippery coming home. I'm pretty sure the morning class at the Princeton School for Stupid Drivers had just let out when we drove through there. The road seemed full of people driving way too fast and way to recklessly for a snowy day. We saw one SUV almost lose it on a bridge, and a little farther down the road we had to slow down because the highway patrol was pulling a jeep out of the ditch that looked like it had rolled.

We got home safely and can't wait until we can get back to our little Dam Cabin!

Circular Staircase

Darlene tells me I write too much, so I'm just going to hit the highlights of this past weekend's trip to the Dam Cabin.

We spent the day Friday driving to Winona and back. Tyler is thinking of going to school there in a couple of years so we set up a campus tour. None of us had ever been to that University before, and I think we were all pretty impressed. It looks like a good school. I liked the setting, nestled in the river bluffs.

We got home from that long drive in the early evening. Well, not too early. It was after dark. I went to bed around ten. Tyler went over to pick up his friends that were going to help us move the staircase on Saturday morning. The next thing I remember was being jarred awake by Louis barking in my ear. It was 12:30. Ty and his friends had just rolled in. Dang! I was sleeping so soundly too!

The alarm went off at 5 on Saturday morning. We got everyone up, ate breakfast, and drove over to Gary's to pick up his SUV. We don't have a hitch on any of our vehicles so we were going to borrow a car and trailer for the day. It was snowing as we pulled up to Gary's house. He had just opened his garage. After swapping keys we headed over to Deb's to pick up the trailer.

We were on the road by 6:30 heading through the snow/rain mix to Lakeville to pick up the staircase. It only took me about 20 miles before I stopped looking back to see if the trailer was alright. I just wanted to make sure I didn't screw anything up!

Stairway Mike was waiting for us in Lakeville. He was in a hurry because he had a job to run off to, so we lifted the staircase onto the trailer, strapped it tight and took off for Aitkin. We didn't get too far up the freeway before I had to stop. It looked like the stairs were going to bounce right off the trailer! I got out, tied another strap on the front end and tried again. That seemed to help.

We got up to Rogers with no further problems and met Dar up there. Ty and his friends hopped into his car and Dar joined me in the SUV. Then it was off to Dam Lake. Actually, the trip up was very uneventful. There was no precipitation, and I stopped looking back to check the load every five seconds and came to the conclusion that if it was going to fall off it would have already, so I ignored it and enjoyed the ride.

We stopped in Malmo for gas. The station was full of trucks, cars, trailers, vans, and men in orange. It was the first day of Deer Hunting season: the annual struggle pitting man against beast! I'm happy to report that it appeared man was winning the battle. Many of the trailers we saw had deer carcases in them. We didn't see any deer walking around with dead hunters on their backs. A true sign of man's superiority in wiles and firepower!

One orange-clad warrior walked over to our trailer and asked, "Where'd ya get the staircase?" "On Craig's List," I explained. "Wanna sell it to me?" he asked. If I had been a more shrewd businessman I probably could have scored a quick couple of Benjamins, but I passed on the offer. My goal was to get that stairway to the cabin safely and get it into the basement.

Mission accomplished as we rolled up to the pole barn with our cast-iron helix still in one piece.


Our next goal was not as easy. Mike said he got the stairway out of his house by slowly rotating it through his doorway. We tried that twice. It didn't work. The only thing I can figure is our walls up there are 2x6 construction, and that extra two inches made the difference. We got close, but we just couldn't quite get that sucker in the door! We unscrewed it and carried it up to the pole barn. The consensus of the group seemed to be, let the carpenter figure out how to get it in the house!



Ty and his friends ate lunch and had a Jenga tournament -- well, Ty and Eric played one game, but I swear there was a tournament atmosphere! -- Eric won and remains the Dam Cabin Jenga Champion. Then they drove home.

Dar and I putzed around doing little odd jobs until Dan the Builder drove up. He is our carpenter of choice to do the remodeling for us. We're going to demolish the existing stairway, install the circular stairs, put in a gas fireplace and an island in the kitchen area. We talked over our plans with Dan and he gave us a quote. We went out to the pole barn to look over the stairs and Louis, the dog, came with us. As we were leaving I noticed Louis eating something on the floor. I pulled him away and saw the greenish crumbs of a cake of mouse poison.

OH MY GAWD! I'VE KILLED THE DOG!!

Dan left and Dar and I started frantically looking for a vet we could call that was within a hundred miles. It was about four in the afternnon so there weren't any clinics open. We did, finally, talk to an on-call vet who told us to make Louis vomit and then get some vitamin K from our regular vet. I raced into Aitkin and bought some Hydrogen Peroxide and a rubber syringe and raced back. I kept thinking of the scene in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World where Sylvester is racing off to help his mother, tears streaming down his face, sobbing, "I'm comin' Momma! Your Sylvester's comin' Momma!" That was me racing back to the cabin, only without the tears and the sobbing.

We are such wimps. We tried to squirt the peroxide into Louis mouth but we weren't very successful. He was supposed to throw up the poison, but he never did. Then Paul the Builder showed up to give us his bid. I think we were pretty preoccupied with Louis and we kept trying to hurry Paul up a little.

He finally left and we decided we better get Louis to the emergency room. So we packed everything up and drove home. We were in a borrowed car with a borrowed trailer with a sick dog that we hoped would throw up. But not on Gary's leather interior! I put a blanket in a big plastic tub and put Louis inside. He didn't like it very much, but it was better than having to clean up an accident!

We got to the Golden Valley Pet Hospital around eight o'clock. Louis seemed fine. He didn't get sick in the tub. We had called ahead and they said they could see us right away. Two and a half hours later we saw a doctor. It was just like going to the ER at a hospital. I did that three times with my dad and once with Dar. You run in with an emergency and you sit there for hours! They should call it the "We know you're sick, but we'll get to you as soon as we can, so don't die before we call your name" room.

Dar was mad. She was barking and snarling louder than any of the other animals in there! In fairness, she was okay for the first two hours, but then she'd had enough. We hadn't eaten, we were worried about our dog. The doctor finally saw Louis. She explained that by then it was too late to induce any purging. He was most likely going to be just fine. We had to make sure we gave him Vitamin K every day for the course of a prescription she'd give us, keep an eye on him for the next few days and if he had any visible signs of bleeding to take him to our regular vet, and make sure he didn't eat any more mouse poison.

That made both of us mad. We sat for three hours so you could tell us he's okay and to give us some pills? Ooohhh, Louis and I both wanted to bite her!

We dropped off the trailer in the dark and finally got home just before Midnight.

It was a long, eventful weekend, and we were all glad it was over!

So far Louis seems okay, but we'll keep you informed.