In mid-June the peonies were covered with flowers, which in turn were covered with insects. While showing George a Showy Lady Slipper near the shore, he discovered this great opportunity. Later he returned and spent some time shooting in this garden. One result is this interesting photo.
Traditionally our Sunday night activity is a campfire and kettlecorn. Here George has captured the moment Dave is stirring the popcorn to settle the sugar to the hot bottom of the pot where it will caramelize to a nice light brown color. Some of the popcorn and sugar will overflow the kettle at this point creating this cool yellow flame. We have made as many as 21 batches in a night, enough that everyone has had their fill.
Caryn Sullivan wrote this blog post last week nestled in her lodge room.
The Dancing Lake. June 14, 2012
Yesterday began early. It was sunny and the air was crisp; almost like fall, instead of the end of spring. The sunlight beckoned me, reaching into my cozy room above the lodge.
Boot Lake danced as the sun’s tendrils struck it. It was if thousands of Fourth of July sparklers were bouncing off the water.
The birds greeted the day with their chatter. Occasionally, a loon announced its presence with its mournful song.
As the day wore on sounds of Half Moon Trail guests enjoying the outdoors filled the resort. From the carpet ball game across the way, there were shouts and cheers.
Children splashed in the water, parents calling out to them.
During the night the sound of raindrops penetrated my consciousness as I slept.
Not surprisingly, I awoke hours later than yesterday. There was no sun peeking through the blinds to raise me from my slumber. Instead there are raindrops cascading down my window. The lake is flowing, not dancing.
Forecasters predict strong storms, so it will be an inside play day at Half Moon Trail.
Vacation memories can take many forms. We can relax with a book or engage in indoor competitions with checkers or board games. That’s good for the mind and good for the soul.
The weather hasn’t fazed the birds, though. There is a reason we refer to “early birds.” They greeted the day right on schedule, along with the loons.
Caryn Sullivan has been here for a couple days this week. Here is her blog post written on June 13.
Last summer I invited my friend Kelly to join me for a getaway to Half Moon Trail. Kelly is always up for an adventure, so I expected an unequivocal “yes” response.
Instead, she countered with “Can we bring the boys?”
The boys (my Chuck and her Cooper) are cousins. They have deep brown eyes and soft white hair. They love their play dates more than anything (except, perhaps, their mamas).
They romp and run, pant and nibble each other’s ears for hours.
Then they collapse into exhaustion-induced naps.
Our boys were born in the same litter two years ago. They are English Golden Retrievers who think they have green thumbs.
They dig. And they dig. Often, my backyard looks like a combat zone.
So when Kelly asked if we could bring the boys, I quickly explained the resort has a “no pets” policy. You’ll understand when we get there, I told her.
When we drove into the resort, Kelly understood immediately. The grass is lush and well manicured. The gardens are free of weeds and full of colorful displays of assorted annuals and perennials. The thought of our boys set loose in the expansive green grass, the ferns and the flowers was almost criminal.
A couple of weeks ago Kelly and I were preparing for our daughters’ graduation parties, to be held in our backyards. She texted me, “Cooper just destroyed a flat of impatiens.” I replied, “I counted 15 holes in my backyard.”
Graduation parties behind us, I made a quick trip to my home away from home. Yesterday, I watched the gardeners toil for hours. They painstakingly groomed and tended the flowerbeds. It was a labor of love that will continue throughout the season.
From my perch on the balcony above the lodge, I had a good chuckle this morning. Just below the bird feeders, the ladies with green thumbs had planted impatiens along with begonias, miniature evergreens and hostas.
Good thing the boys are safe at home!
George is here this week, looking for those great opportunities to add to his portfolio. Today I have included several photos from Monday night. He stayed up all night to shoot these impressive images.
This last image was taken at 3:05 AM. The first light of dawn is illuminating the left dock, while the moon is illuminating the dock on the right.
Yesterday Jeff and Sarah Neighbors, and their son Eli(4), checked in for the week. Sarah is one of two professional photographers that trade a Half Moon Trail vacation for resort photos. We feel like “a kid at Christmas” when we see what she has been shooting. In today’s album I have included four of our favorites from last year. (George Pfoertner is an equally gifted photographer and he will be here next week.) Stay tuned for some interesting pictures!
Yesterday, while preparing an area for our recycling dumpsters, I exposed an old resort dump. How ironic that while we commit and prepare for a recycling plan, I uncover evidence of how early resorts typically handled their garbage; landfills, either public or private, were the norm. We have found other areas nearby where we have discoverd old bottles, broken pots and pans, plus lots of rusty cans. Some things were interesting enough to save, for no better reason than to connect us with the early resort days. One of our best “finds”
includes an original cedar strip boat used during the 1950s. We know it is a resort boat because there is a red, half moon shape still visible in spite of the faded and chipped paint. The wooden bow now sits proudly to the left of the fireplace in the lodge, reminding us of a time when people vacationed on Boot Lake primarily for fishing and a simple cabin.
The featured photo above is one Michaela took in one of these abandoned dump sites. As the old relics rust and decay, they sink ever deeper into the duff. We are fortunate that nature can sometimes reclaim a site and add its own touch of beauty.
Here are a couple of old bottles I uncovered yesterday while leveling a site for the new recycling bins. The top one has embossed letters which read “Old Log Cabin”, and it looks like it contained something significantly stronger than maple syrup. The other bottle is an old shampoo bottle, Castile Shampoo.
This will be our last blog post until after Memorial Weekend. We are kicking it into high gear and will be concentrating all of our energy into getting the resort ready.
Today’s post is a paper Nate wrote for Freshman Comp. It does a good job showing a typical day working together.
The resort is waking up from hibernation. For nine months it has been silent, but now it is starting to stir. The bobcat is grumbling through its many responsibilities and the shop is buzzing with projects. The workers progress from task to task with a quickness in their step. There is a sense of urgency to get everything done before opening.
On this beautiful Saturday, I started late because I took the ACT test in the morning. I anticipated the chance to flex my muscles and not my brain. It did not take long for the bantering to start flying between Forrest (my best friend), Dad (the boss), and I. “It looks like you two had a good morning drinking coffee and eating donuts.” I shot across, but they just let the comment roll off their backs like rain. Forrest asked, “Doesn’t your brain feel like mush after taking the ACT?” I responded, “Definitely!” We went to lunch. After Forrest and I had lunch, we got our first job: leveling the docks. Dad had another project in the shop, but I convinced him that leveling the docks was the best use of the beautiful day. Forrest and I moved on to the docks.
Leveling docks is a four step process: first, winches are placed on the two end posts; second, the bolts holding the dock posts in place are loosened so the deck of the dock can be raised or lowered to make the dock level; third, the dock is winched up or down above the water using a tape measure and level for pinpoint accuracy. Well, at least it looks level to the eye. Lastly, the bolts are tightened and the winches removed hoping we do not fall in the lake because we did not tighten the bolts enough. This process is repeated until all the posts on the dock are done. We reached the first dock and discovered one of the bolts was broken off. The boss would have to be contacted later, but for now, it was on to the next dock. This dock had a bolt that was rusted in place because it sat out in the elements and had water splashed on it all summer long. My two sisters volunteered to get the oil from the garage. The oil was applied but the bolt was still not moving, even with the impact wrench. While laying on the dock working on the bolt, the impact wrench slipped and it tried to go swimming. I made a lucky grab and saved myself from having to explain to the boss why the impact wrench was in the lake. The bolt came free only after I risked a swim by stepping on the handle of a wrench which was hanging over the water.
The next two docks went smoothly. We then made contact with the boss to ask about pushing in a dock and to let him know about the broken bolt. He said he was in the middle of something and would be out in fifteen minutes to help push the dock in. Walking back, Forrest and I had a little conference. I said, “Do you think we should wait for the boss?” Forrest replied, “We are a couple of young bucks, and we pushed it in last year.” I agreed, “Deal, I was hoping you would say that.” We grunted the dock in by ourselves, but it was not as straight as we wanted. The boss was going to have to make the final judgment. We leveled the next dock while waiting for the boss. He showed up as we finished leveling the dock. He took one look at the dock we put in and turned to get the bobcat to pull it out. I objected saying we could muscle the dock out if he helped. He slowly agreed, so we muscled it out and pushed it back in straight.
Next, the boss headed to get the bobcat, while Forrest and I headed to the house to don chest waders. The waders were needed for our next job: hooking up the sprinkler system. Forrest and I had to pound a stake into the bottom of the lake to hold the sprinkler system’s intake pipe off the bottom because the resort uses water from the lake for the sprinkler system. Forrest started pounding but soon ran into rocks. We had to start over. This meant it was my turn to pound. I was using the sledge hammer sideways. Soon the boss said, “Quit hitting that stake like a girl!” I retorted, “It’s better than hitting my fingers.” However, I did start using the hammer the right way. I also hit rocks with the stake. We started over again. Success! As we hung the intake pipe, we found a problem; the intake was out of the water. I hollered for the hammer, and Forrest waded to shore to get it from the boss. Before he handed Forrest the hammer he said, “You know Forrest, when someone uses a hammer like a girl, that’s when the handle brakes.” They both chuckled at that.
The last job was to pull the dock out that had the broken bolt. Forrest and I chained the dock to the bobcat. The boss had it sitting on dry land in about a minute. We started repairs. First, we drilled out the bolt and rethreaded the nut. Testing to see if the bolt would hold meant dropping the dock back in the lake, leveling it, and tightening the bolt. The bolt did not hold so we pulled the dock out again. This time we took the dock back to the garage. We fired up the grinder and the old bolt came off in a shower of sparks. The welder was wheeled out and I welded on the new bolt. The welder produced several more showers of sparks, and the dock was as good as new. We left the dock by the garage because the smell of fried chicken and fresh bread was calling us in. Supper time is a great time to catch up and recap the day.
One last photo to compliment Nate’s paper on a typical work day. Here is Kenny, a new employee, who found out the hard way what happens when one side of the dock slips!
Here are some of the fish caught in 2011. Boot Lake is a decent fishing lake, but we tend to downplay the fishing aspect. There are so many variables to catching fish that we don’t like to get people’s hopes too high. None-the-less, here are our 2011 Fishing All-Stars!
One aspect of being at the lake for a week is time to indulge in simple pleasures: perhaps something as simple as fishing off the dock. Action is almost guaranteed with all the sunfish hanging around. Whether you dangle a kernel of corn from a hand-line, or work the drop-off with a crankbait, dock-fishing is one of those simple vacation opportunities that happen simply because you have time, lots of free time. In fact, you have enough free time to just fritter some away: time to soak up the sun, or watch the fish under the dock, or just sit and relax. In today’s album, we share some of those special moments that can only happen on a dock, on a lake, during the summer. Enjoy these classic Minnesota dock shots. Photo credits: George Pfoertner and Sarah Neighbors.
We have had plenty of moisture over the last few days. Saturday evening the rain stopped long enough for these lake photos. This was also the first day I noticed the trees starting to leaf out. The popple and tamaracks are the first to “pop” that bright spring green (you can see both in the photo below). Here are a few of Sarah’s Saturday photos that feature this first flush of green, a cloudy sky, and a dead calm lake.
As promised, here are some sure signs of spring around Half Moon Trail Resort.
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