We begin our 2023 Cabin season...

The ice went off the lake on May 3rd this year.

The company that opens our cabin did so on the same day.

We eagerly traveled up on Saturday May 6th to start our 2023 season!

It was a long-hard-winter with a lot of heavy wet snow!

 Our giant pines felt it. There are also a few oak trees on both side of our cabin that left a few leaves

 to clean up along with the pine needles and a "bumper crop" of Pine cones.

All the branches

We also did a little trimming of one of our pines

1st load along with a broken washing machine.

We are doing a bathroom renovation this spring, so along with the yard work, 

we begin this project as well.

Our flooring is ordered, we will paint, put up new back splash, 

new trim and get a new stackable washer and dryer.

My "Mr-do-everything" will be the contractor :)

Meanwhile....

Yesterday afternoon we tackled the whole yard. Load #2

Rick blows all the debris into a line, I then rake into piles, 

we both load a tarp and then lift it into the trailer.

My yearly spring blisters are proof of my involvement!

I might also add, I have my Dad's LEAN-BIG-VEIN hands, I like that we have the same hands.

This visit is always the hardest!

 Lots of yard clean up and sprucing up the cabin,

 but we find time to rest and enjoy this sweet haven of ours.

Cabin opening and things...

Memorial weekend visit to the cabin

We were thrilled to have our "opening crew" here last weekend to help get the boat lift in!

 It's a 3 man/woman job so that's usually the last thing we have to do!

Gavin and Brice have got this, while dad holds tight to the rope to help ease this 

giant hunk of metal into position.

Fine tuning

and finally....the boats in!

Lewin has always fished on his tummy, he cracks me up.

It's always fun having the littles here, so much activity, laughter and giggles

Some coloring in the morning

and swinging by mid-morning

This is a tradition for Scarlett and daddy, 

he carries her out into the lake with his hip-waders on and she giggles. 

Teach them young how to start a camp fire

and eat lots of s'mores

He still snuggles up to his mama on boat rides. <3

Bubbles with some Rochester Friends whose grandparents own a cabin across the bay from ours.

This one is having a hard time leaving.....

After the kids left, Rick and I stayed for another 3 days.

We mixed fun with projects

This is our 1st summer with Rick Brother Brad and wife Julie. 

They purchased a cabin about 1 mile down the lake from us.

We happened to be out on the lake at the same time, so we stopped for a visit.

relaxing

A lunch date planned on the lake, we are being picked up by Brad & Julie

Fun to have family on the lake with us.

We have a lot of history on this lake and where our cabin sits. Who would have thought that someday we would own cabin's here and be neighbors? It's just so great.

Too cold to swim, but it's ok to swing my feet in the lake 

We head back to Rochester today, we've decided it's too nice to hurry out of here, so we will finish some things up and then head out later this afternoon. 

We miss our Rochester people...

Finishing up home-schooling for the year. 

Did I mention my daughter is amazing, 

Homeschooling was not something she planned to do but she does it so well,

all the while running a household and working as a nurse part time.

These kids are so lucky!

Springing

With a late Spring this year, I suspect summer is soon to come.

Things are starting to rev up with baseball, car tune-ups, river swimming and cabin time.

Our Carson is playing baseball and he's so fun to watch.

That's Carson 5th from the right

He's a real slugger, he ended up with a single on this one.

Lewin (5)  has got a dad (my son Brice) that teaches him everything!

Like how to change your own oil... notice the jack lifting-up the front of his little car.

Our little free spirit Scarlett,

 she loves clothing design and is so creative as you can see here.

Speaking of "Free-Spirit" this one....

Audrey decided to swim in the cold waters of the river near Quarry Hill Park

(photo, compliments of my daughter Brianna)

We are at the cabin this week, prepping for the season

It's called "opening the cabin"

But first.

Rick getting Pine needles out of the eaves.

When you live in a forest of pine trees, there's a lot of "WORK" to be done 

to clean the yard and buildings of all the needles...I'm glad Rick enjoys it, 

I help with the ground work, it's definitely a two person job to get it done.

Crazy pine needles everywhere

Moon rise... justice cannot be done with an iPhone camera

We LOVE this little cabin in the wood, on the lake.

We also find time to rest while we work to get her open and ready for the season.

It sometimes takes a village...

As part of being a seasonal cabin owner we use the term

 "open", as in we are going up for a few days to "open" the cabin.

Last fall we let a company in town "close" the cabin...

they were in charge of turning the water and electricity off, 

and then this spring turning it back on before our arrival.

With that being done, we only have the yard and dock/boatlift left to manage.

This year it did not work out for our boys to come the same weekend as us. 

We figured we would probably hold off on the dock/boat lift until they could come 

but we were wrong.... 

*insert amazing neighbors here* 

Our neighbors are amazing, always volunteering to help in anyway needed.

10 minutes after Rick mentioned that our boys couldn't come up this time, 

our next door neighbor Scott said "lets do it".

No hesitation, just "Lets get er done".

We are so blessed!

 Now for the leveling.... Rick worked on that while I made sure he did it right.

The next day I get a text from this guy.... John (another amazing neighbor/friend)

 "I'll come down this afternoon and blow your yard"

John has an industrial leaf blower, he carries it around like a back-pack, it runs on gas.

It took him 1 1/2 hours to blow our yard.... pine cone, leaves and twigs.

John is a selfless Godly man who works hard, giving his time for others and doesn't complain.

No pics of me but I worked on some raking and loading the leaves with my guy. 

I have blisters on my hands to prove it.

On to the boat lift.... Wednesday

Our neighbors Scott and John arrived about 9:45 am today to help

Get the boat lift into place, 

It's on wheels and we have ramps to guide it down the 2 foot embankment into the water. 

 We were able to get the boat into the water and on the boat lift, but not before we had
 a little ride to the end of the lake.... all 8 miles of it  :)

We are grateful for such amazing neighbors who are always eager to lend a hand.
Our boys have not been replaced...they just got this spring off.
There will always be "closing"