Spring is in the air at Half Moon Trail! We are in full swing getting the cabins cleaned, water turned on, and the grounds cleaned up. I took a few minutes to snap these photos so you could see what grounds and gardens look like at this point in the spring. They look very different than later on in the summer when they are all filled out, but it’s still pretty fun when all those plants start poking through the ground in the spring!
We are excited to add an old time favorite to the Half Moon Trail menu this summer! We will now have on tap root beer, and root beer floats, served up in a deliciously frosty mug. We just got the tap up and running recently, so we will have plenty of time to do lots of taste testing to make sure it’s perfect when you all arrive 😉 Cheers!
you all arrive 😉
It was beautiful here at the resort this past Sunday, and we took the opportunity for some family time. We love many aspects of the resort life, but spending time with family is one of the most important. Working with, and teaching our kiddos the value of hard work is a huge benefit of living at the resort, but it’s great to kick back and relax with them too! Mabel found her daddy’s hunting decoys, and thought they would make good friends so she insisted on having Liz and I carry them around and even sent them down the slide…life is never boring with youngsters!
We are taking advantage of the inclement weather outside and working on some cool chalkboard signs for the lodge. We are making the frames from some old barn wood that we harvested last year from a local barn that was being torn down. Mary Kate seems to like a little shop time, too, while Mom snaps a progress photo 😉
For those that are curious, the lake ice finally went out completely yesterday with a strong north wind to break everything all up!
We have another early spring on our hands! I know many of the lakes a little farther South have already been open for a while, but we are typically a couple weeks behind the twin cities. I took a few quick pictures of the ice last evening. It’s started getting dark, cracks are widening, and it’s really opened up around the edges the past few days. As I was taking the pictures, I saw and heard several different kinds of ducks, swans, and geese as they are back in the area now with some open water for them to use – a sure sign of spring!
It was a little chilly on Friday, with a few snow flakes swirling in the cool spring air, but we still enjoyed a toasty campfire at Mom and Dads, just down the lake. My brother Nate was home from college for a few days and had made some benches and campfire ring so we had to try it out with a hot dog roast. It’s great being close to family! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
Today we are playing lumberjack! There is never a dull moment here on the resort, and it seems we are constantly switching our “hats”, which keeps life exciting. Today we harvested a few older trees that were near the end of their life and cut them up into specific lengths. We are taking them only a couple miles down the road to a friend of ours who will saw them into lumber to be used in one of our building projects in the future.
We’re in the midst of a little remodel here today at Half Moon Trail. The Department of Health is requiring a new three bin sink be installed, so we are taking the opportunity to get a new floor, cabinets, and ice cream signage behind the desk.
An interesting side note on our vintage ice cream dipping cabinet – the seals were starting to go bad, so I spent many hours trying to locate a new seal, only to find that it is no longer available. The ice cream cabinet was made by a division of the Anheuser-Busch company back in the sixties, which is no longer around, hence the reason I could no longer find parts! We are still in the process of getting some custom parts made in an attempt to keep this piece of history in our lodge.
Over the years, mom has gradually “wintered over” (is that how you say it?) many of our plants in the lodge. They don’t require much attention through the winter, but come March, we start to help them wake up a bit in anticipation of the summer. We all worked to water, fertilize, prune, and check for bugs today! Even our little Mabel and Mary Kate got in on the action. 
Bald Eagles aren’t an unusual bird around here, and we see them quite frequently. However, the other day there were two Eagles and a few Black Billed Magpies on the deer carcass at the same time, about 25 yards from our front window. We typically save the deer scraps and carcass from the fall hunting season to attract wildlife. There are several different types of birds and animals that will feed off the carcass all winter, including, weasels, eagles, crows, ravens, blue jays, chickadees, and magpies.
My dad found a sweet, retro toboggan while out antiquing recently and decided it should be tested out before using it for decoration. The kiddos got a little ride out of the deal, and mom and dad got a few kid-free minutes 😉
First signs of summer! Okay, so maybe it’s a little early to be thinking that way, but we are getting excited for the upcoming season as we just got the first shirt order in today. Enjoy your sneak preview!
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