Short and Sweet

We went up to camp this weekend and just spent the day. Our goal was to finish the deck which required buying an extremely heavy load of green-treated decking. Ray spent several hours at the lumberyard at home last weekend only to decide that it was too heavy a load to haul all the way to WI. We found a Menard's in nearby Rice Lake where we could get the supplies we needed. That way we only had to drive the 16' boards 14 miles rather than 90. We nailed the floor into place and then cut the edge to fit.


We celebrated our accomplishment with a burger and a beer at a local bar and then headed back to the city. Next time we go up we should have a cozy place to stay. The kids kept themselves busy by building "Hole City." They found a spot with some really sandy soil and were quickly able to dig hole as deep as they are! They found some camoflague netting left there by a hunter and used it to cover the top. I'm glad they have discovered the joy of digging a hole because as you can see from my last post, we still have an important hole to dig!
The other highlight of our trip was meeting our neighbor, Cy, who lives across the street. He has lived up there with his wife for 40 years and had all kinds of information for us about our land. Apparently our lake was built by beavers and didn't even exist as little as 10 years ago. One of the previous owners sold off all the oak trees when he was out of work which account for the many stumps that litter the property. Cy showed us a large grove of sugar maples at the top of our hill. A different previous owner tapped those trees and got 200 gallons of maple sap a day. Cy also taps maples on his property and treated us to some homemade maple syrup. At one time the land was used by a farmer to pasture his cows. Cy showed us an old road that the farmer had cut into the woods that was completely invisible to us until he pointed it out. That "road" just may solve our driveway issues. We are so grateful for both the fun facts and the practical advice he had to offer! In the city, our neighbors offer companionship and a helping hand whenever we need it. I'm sure we are going to come to rely on our new neighbors just as much at our home away from home.