Our little family grew early on Sunday morning as we welcomed our third daughter, Caroline Michelle! She is a perfect 7 pounds and cute as can be. We are all very excited that she’s finally here, but her two sisters have been extra googly-eyed for her and have hardly left her side! She is wonderful, and we are very blessed to have another healthy little munchkin to join the bunch.
Ryan and Cole spent much of today in the shop getting ready for this year’s craft activity at Half Moon Trail! We plan for around 450 participants, so it’s quite an undertaking, but we really enjoy providing a unique experience for our guests each summer. Thanks, Cole, for all your wonderful help!
We had a week of cold weather, as did most of you, that made ice on most of the shallow local lakes. It warmed up a few days ago and melted most of the accumulated snow, along with the very top layer of ice/snow mixture that was on the frozen lakes. I took advantage of a fairly warm day and took Mabel out fishing, along with our resident photographer (Aunty Kayla). We managed to convince a few small walleyes to bite, and Kayla was able to capture some pretty cool photos with the watery ice acting like a giant mirror (along with being incredibly slippery!).
Here at the resort, there are a few jobs we do every season that are sort of like book ends, defining the end of one season and the beginning of another. Pulling out the docks is one of those tasks. We wait as long as possible to pull them out though, as pulling them out too soon kills the grass where they are set for the winter. Dad and I are grateful to have them in as it snowed another inch yesterday, giving everything a fresh white blanket and making winter even more apparent that it’s here to stay. With temps in the 20’s to low 30’s, the small ponds are starting to freeze over, and it won’t be too long and the lake will have a coating of ice.
First off, we apologize for the long delay in posting updates on the happenings at Half Moon! It was a busier spring than usual with the new cabin, and the summer and early fall has flown by like a flash! Things have slowed down a bit, and we feel we can finally start posting a little more regularly now.
Fall at the resort is beautiful, and a time that our family thoroughly enjoys. Mom (Mary), myself, and our garden crew were hard at work this past week working on the gardens. We go through the gardens in the fall, making note of plants that did well, some others that didn’t, and things we would like to try next season. It’s also a time that we split perennial plants that have grown too large for their current spot in the garden, which is what we are doing in the last photo below. Lastly, we put the gardens to bed for the winter. The first two photos are before and after we have winterized one of the gardens. Winterizing requires cutting most of the perennial plants down, pulling the annuals, and saving any bulbs that we take inside to replant next season. All of plants that we pull or cut are then composted, making nutrient rich compost for adding to the gardens in future years.
We’re heading into the home stretch of our spring work and tying up a lot of loose ends. Cabin 19 was fitted with its carpet today and furniture delivery is set for Monday! It has been a fun project, but we’re looking forward to its completion. The pool got a face lift back in the fall with a new liner and skirt of concrete, and Ryan and Dave have finished installing the fence around the pool. We decided to change the fence so it just surrounds the pool area, and no longer the courtyard. We’re loving the change and hope you’ll enjoy it, as well! We’ve a
Thursday morning was beautiful here at the resort, with the sun peaking over the trees and illuminating the resort with a warm orange glow. One of the photos shows a beaver out for one of his first paddles this season, and stretching his legs after being in cooped up in his lodge all winter. This early spring is wonderful, as it gives us an early jump on spring work and getting Cabin 19 finished up! It seemed like the ice went off the lake quickly this year, going from the normal light grey ice color, to a dark blue color just before it started breaking up early this past week. If your curious, our lake association has the history of freeze up and thaw dates. Check it out here!
Mary Kate and I (Ryan) went for a short evening drive yesterday as we both enjoying seeing deer. The field directly across from the resort must have been hosting a deer convention, as there were over 100! We have had a fair amount of snow up here this winter which makes the forage in the fields inaccessible. The deer are excited for spring, and to eat something other than the woody browse they have been eating through the winter months. We, just like them are excited for the warmer weather and are anxiously awaiting getting outside and working on yard work and spring projects!
Recently, my brother, Nate, and I helped my dad build a small heated wood shop so he could start carving again. Prior to buying Half Moon Trail in 1995, he and my mom were artists, and made their living carving and painting bird sculptures. My sister, Kayla, has an interest in art, so Dad is doing a little teaching this semester and Kayla is getting a little hands on training from the pro. The photos below are just the “roughing out” stage, which usually starts with a chainsaw, like Kayla is using below. I’ll post a few more pictures at a later date, showing the carvings when they actually look like something other than a piece of firewood 😉
Liz’s parents were up this weekend and were kind enough to watch the kiddos while we took full advantage of the beautiful weather today and went skiing at Soaring Eagle Ski Trails, located north of Park Rapids about seven miles. The trails were beautiful and it was great to get outside without bundling up like a marshmallow to stay warm 😉 As with many of you, it’s been pretty chilly the last couple weeks with most days barely getting up to zero, so it felt pretty balmy when the thermometer read 20!
Happy New Year! We’re getting pumped to see many of you this summer! Installing v-grove is how Nate and Ryan celebrated New Years Eve and day. Cabin 19 is coming along nicely and it’s at this stage, where all the rough-ins are pretty much completed, and the paneling is going up, that we can start to imagine all of it coming together…and we’re SO EXCITED with how it is turning out. One of our neighbors is doing most of the paneling work, but Ryan and Nate hopped on the crew this weekend as it was time to do the pitched ceilings, which required scaffolding and a few extra hands. Ryan measured, Nate cut, and Vern, our neighbor, set each board in place. One extra picture of the supervisor, Mary Kate, is included 
This morning was brisk, with the temps hovering around 10 below and the windchill about 30 below. I zipped outside for a few quick photos of this beautiful sundog before my fingers and camera lost the ability to function. The lake froze over this past Saturday, and with the last few days dipping down into the single digits, and nights well below zero, the lake already has 3-4 inches of ice out in front of the resort.
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