I need to know where you got those chairs. I need some at our lake house, like yesterday.
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Our Northwoods Cabin Journey (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Trihonda
- Start date
OP
OP
if you’ve followed this journey… you know my uncle does a lot of things, but only 85% complete… he purchased these chairs 5 years ago, but they’ve sat in storage…. Unstained… for a firepit he never started….
and @CraigT78 i think a dock is fine, and we use the terms interchangeably… but I’m guessing a dock is a more correct term for a smaller structure jutting out into the water.., and a pier is larger structure for bigger boats maybe. Gotta google this now, i now need to know.
edit
Pier = a platform supported on pillars or girders leading out from the shore into a body of water, used as a landing stage for boats.
Dock = a structure extending alongshore or out from the shore into a body of water, to which boats may be moored.
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OP
OP
What a day... early success with our firepit. We get a rock delivery and start to lay down the rock.
We do some compacting, and set up our chairs. Amazing.
Next we start to plan the job to fix the janky deck support footing. However, we get interrupted with the realization that our external hose faucet started leaking in the utility room. We had to take a couple hours to address the water. And while are still drying out, the problem isn’t a major one and we can keep trucking.
We dig out the footing, then use the tractor to nudge it back into place. We brace and backfill the footing and continue our work on the retaining wall.
The wall turned out awesome!
Then I fly the drone for an aerial pics
We do some compacting, and set up our chairs. Amazing.
Next we start to plan the job to fix the janky deck support footing. However, we get interrupted with the realization that our external hose faucet started leaking in the utility room. We had to take a couple hours to address the water. And while are still drying out, the problem isn’t a major one and we can keep trucking.
We dig out the footing, then use the tractor to nudge it back into place. We brace and backfill the footing and continue our work on the retaining wall.
The wall turned out awesome!
Then I fly the drone for an aerial pics
Looking good - see you tomorrow
OP
OP
This morning was busy. But sadly we must say goodbye to a HUGE friend of the Lazy Bear Lodge. My buddy Mark . Without his help, this would have been impossible. We kept Mark well fed and hydrated, but I regret we ran into time crunches and didnt get to as many fun activities as I’d have liked.
This morning we moved a ton of block (actually it was specifically 3500lbs, which is 1-1/2 tons. Wow!
We also moved and adjusted the pier. It needed to go lower and over some, to allow more sandy shoreline access. Very pleased with the shoreline, but I’d love to do some more weediNG and clearing of brush.
as we were on the shoreline, we spotted a bald eagle.. there are tons of em here. heres my quick attempt at snagging a quick iPhone pic as it was flying around…. Not an impressive pic, but it’s proof that it happened…
More to do later today and tomorrow, but I’ll be flying solo for most of that.
This morning we moved a ton of block (actually it was specifically 3500lbs, which is 1-1/2 tons. Wow!
We also moved and adjusted the pier. It needed to go lower and over some, to allow more sandy shoreline access. Very pleased with the shoreline, but I’d love to do some more weediNG and clearing of brush.
as we were on the shoreline, we spotted a bald eagle.. there are tons of em here. heres my quick attempt at snagging a quick iPhone pic as it was flying around…. Not an impressive pic, but it’s proof that it happened…
More to do later today and tomorrow, but I’ll be flying solo for most of that.
OP
OP
Made a trip up north to play a little and complete a few projects. Sadly, we needed to change out all the locks and wipe the garage door codes. We switched a number of the deadbolts to keypad locks, and reprogrammed the garage openers.
we have started to look at the property from different vantage points. While mowing at dusk, I took a moment to take in the view of the cabin at night, all lit up…
we also took a trip to the range, and my son got to shoot his new .22 rifle (not shown). I hit up the MTB trails as well, for some much needed time in the saddle…
Then lastly.. we secured my uncles red ATV.. we had expressed interest in buying it for a long time, but he had always said he wasnt going to sell. Since he wasnt selling it, I spent around $200 a few monuts back to replace the battery, etc..). Well, my uncle decided to be a butt, and without warning took the ATVs to a local power sports store and put them up for sale….The owner knew me and my uncle and only charged me the “lowest” price my uncle would take. I dont think I’m going to tell my uncle I snagged the ATV, lol….
We come back up for the 4th of July week for more projects and more fun! Stay tuned.
we have started to look at the property from different vantage points. While mowing at dusk, I took a moment to take in the view of the cabin at night, all lit up…
we also took a trip to the range, and my son got to shoot his new .22 rifle (not shown). I hit up the MTB trails as well, for some much needed time in the saddle…
Then lastly.. we secured my uncles red ATV.. we had expressed interest in buying it for a long time, but he had always said he wasnt going to sell. Since he wasnt selling it, I spent around $200 a few monuts back to replace the battery, etc..). Well, my uncle decided to be a butt, and without warning took the ATVs to a local power sports store and put them up for sale….The owner knew me and my uncle and only charged me the “lowest” price my uncle would take. I dont think I’m going to tell my uncle I snagged the ATV, lol….
We come back up for the 4th of July week for more projects and more fun! Stay tuned.
vanislander
Pair
Ignore if you've already looked into it but I believe you can get keypad locks that you can recode remotely as long as there is wifi. You can delete/change codes between guests without having to goto site. You can control the dates/times the codes work. Neat stuff.
OP
OP
Wifi locks are great, but eat up batteries crazy fast. We use a cloud based algorithm lock. Our website automatically generates a code for each guest based on an algorithm factoring in the dates of their stay. The lock creates a code that works only during the stay. Of course, for us, and our cleaner, we just create long term stays so the code is good for ever….
OP
OP
We are up north, and just wrapping up dinner at a local restaurant/bar. I announce it’s time for me to hit the bar for the “shake of the day”.. Mrs Honda says that it’s waste of money and dumb… she gives me a lot of grief and goes to wait in the car….
ha ha.. the shake of the day involves 5 bar dice. There’s a number for each day (today was 6). You get three rolls to get all five dice to match the daily number. My first roll is four 6’s. the entire bar takes notice…. On my 3rd roll I hit my 5th six! Woot. The entire bar erupts in cheers! What the hell does my wife know anyway…. Lol
ha ha.. the shake of the day involves 5 bar dice. There’s a number for each day (today was 6). You get three rolls to get all five dice to match the daily number. My first roll is four 6’s. the entire bar takes notice…. On my 3rd roll I hit my 5th six! Woot. The entire bar erupts in cheers! What the hell does my wife know anyway…. Lol
OP
OP
Started out the day paddle boarding.. we saw two loons on the lake. They mate for life and only two loons will occupy a lake at a time.
Then went to work fixing an outside hose spigot (first time using pex). Then use said spigot to supply a pressure washer that we used to clean the deck. While we only got 1/3 of the deck cleaned, we got a good chunk done in a short time.
The IN LAWS showed up and we put a lid on pressure washing (for the day), so we went ATVing. Our SxS had a messed up ingnition switch, and luckily I had ordered a spare a while back.
Did some quick surgery (actually spent more time Looking for the ignition switch than replacing it). Then we hit the trails.
Stopped at the Pine Lake Lodge along the ATV trails for one of their yummy hand crafted margaritas.
Back to the cabin and we grill out burgers and have a firepit. We even Spotted a bald Eagle during a fly over our cabin…
Solid day (as days go).
Then went to work fixing an outside hose spigot (first time using pex). Then use said spigot to supply a pressure washer that we used to clean the deck. While we only got 1/3 of the deck cleaned, we got a good chunk done in a short time.
The IN LAWS showed up and we put a lid on pressure washing (for the day), so we went ATVing. Our SxS had a messed up ingnition switch, and luckily I had ordered a spare a while back.
Did some quick surgery (actually spent more time Looking for the ignition switch than replacing it). Then we hit the trails.
Stopped at the Pine Lake Lodge along the ATV trails for one of their yummy hand crafted margaritas.
Back to the cabin and we grill out burgers and have a firepit. We even Spotted a bald Eagle during a fly over our cabin…
Solid day (as days go).
OP
OP
Back at pressure washing this morning. You can see in the photos how badly it was needed. Staining later this week…
Then we went north 20 miles to Hurley/Ironwood, MI area for some shopping and antiquing. Snagged some cool cabin decor and had a great lunch at our favorite northwoods Mexican restaurant.
Then back to the cabin where we settle into drinks (margaritas) and dice games!
Then we went north 20 miles to Hurley/Ironwood, MI area for some shopping and antiquing. Snagged some cool cabin decor and had a great lunch at our favorite northwoods Mexican restaurant.
Then back to the cabin where we settle into drinks (margaritas) and dice games!
OP
OP
Couple days have passed, and we have new guests staying with us…. My buddy Mark and his wife. Mark has been very helpful with fixing up the property on several trips up north.
installed new lighting in the detached garage, looks nice!
John Deere collection?
started garage organization with getting an area ready to hang garden tools..
Took Evan to the range, shot some guns
came back and we went ATVing with Marc and his wife. Fun! Then we built a fire and lit off fireworks!
ok, Mark might be a pyro…
installed new lighting in the detached garage, looks nice!
John Deere collection?
started garage organization with getting an area ready to hang garden tools..
Took Evan to the range, shot some guns
came back and we went ATVing with Marc and his wife. Fun! Then we built a fire and lit off fireworks!
ok, Mark might be a pyro…
OP
OP
Before we could stain, I needed to repair a few rotted boards. Fun. Used some scrap I found in our garage.. ha.
Recycle everything!
Tackled the staining.. turned out awesome!
We are glad we thought to put plastic down first
We went out for dinner a few times, had a few firepits, and we grilled out some more…
On the way to dinner one night, we encountered these guys..
We also had a major garage reorganization project. Moved shelves and supplies from one garage to another. The tractor came in handy…
We did quite a bit of shopping and antiquing. I snagged some cool ATV and Snowmobile signs that I forgot to get pics of, but here’s the snowshoes I mentioned in an earlier post. Not sure I like where they’re mounted, but I was in a hurry to get on the road, and wanted them mounted “somewhere”…
Recycle everything!
Tackled the staining.. turned out awesome!
We are glad we thought to put plastic down first
We went out for dinner a few times, had a few firepits, and we grilled out some more…
On the way to dinner one night, we encountered these guys..
We also had a major garage reorganization project. Moved shelves and supplies from one garage to another. The tractor came in handy…
We did quite a bit of shopping and antiquing. I snagged some cool ATV and Snowmobile signs that I forgot to get pics of, but here’s the snowshoes I mentioned in an earlier post. Not sure I like where they’re mounted, but I was in a hurry to get on the road, and wanted them mounted “somewhere”…
That stain really did the job! Looks great!!
OP
OP
OP
OP
And that’s what this baby is for…. 10mph. Woot! Took my uncle 3+ hours to mow. I’m done under 1 hour
OP
OP
We‘ve been up a couple times with little to report. Brought up both kiddos and one of my daughters friends. Had some fun at the range.
We also snagged some deck furniture
we also did some gravel driveway maintenance. Not overly impressed with my driveway regrading skills, but I did find a few big buried rocks…
we also had a situation where our cleaning lady flooded our cabin while doing laundry. She was using pods in a front load washer, and putting them into the detergent tray. This caused the tray to become clogged and start spewing tons of water out onto the floor, which made its way to the bathroom underneath. I’ll attach some before (with damage) and after repair pics of the bathroom. My repairs weren’t perfect, but I’m satisfied.
On a side note, we weren’t mad About the leak, and figured since the cleaner was our employee, we’d just eat the mistake.. BUT she repeatedly said she had no idea why the leak happened. Just said the washer was broken and leaked. She was going to let us pay for a repair person to diagnose the washing machine. The cleaner admitted to using the pod the first load, and said that water was pouring into the bathroom below…. Yet somehow she did two more loads of laundry. Kinda weird you just witnessed a crazy leak from a broken washer, and have no idea how the leak occurred, but youd run two more loads of wash through that washer? Truth is she knew exactly what caused the leak, but refused to admit it was caused by her.. we knew it, she knew it, but as a rental, we felt the need to get it checked out since our cleaner said she didn’t know…. And she had the gall to request a $100 extra cleaning charge for the time it took to clean up the spilled water in the bathroom… Ya, on our most recent trip up, we interviewed a new cleaner.
Then it was waterspout reclamation day. The dock and paddlesport shed needed to be pulled out. tractors are fun!
Next up is some interior furniture the wife found on FB marketplace. Scored some deals on comfy chairs.
here’s a gratuitous pic of the upstairs.
Until next time.. (in a month).
We also snagged some deck furniture
we also did some gravel driveway maintenance. Not overly impressed with my driveway regrading skills, but I did find a few big buried rocks…
we also had a situation where our cleaning lady flooded our cabin while doing laundry. She was using pods in a front load washer, and putting them into the detergent tray. This caused the tray to become clogged and start spewing tons of water out onto the floor, which made its way to the bathroom underneath. I’ll attach some before (with damage) and after repair pics of the bathroom. My repairs weren’t perfect, but I’m satisfied.
On a side note, we weren’t mad About the leak, and figured since the cleaner was our employee, we’d just eat the mistake.. BUT she repeatedly said she had no idea why the leak happened. Just said the washer was broken and leaked. She was going to let us pay for a repair person to diagnose the washing machine. The cleaner admitted to using the pod the first load, and said that water was pouring into the bathroom below…. Yet somehow she did two more loads of laundry. Kinda weird you just witnessed a crazy leak from a broken washer, and have no idea how the leak occurred, but youd run two more loads of wash through that washer? Truth is she knew exactly what caused the leak, but refused to admit it was caused by her.. we knew it, she knew it, but as a rental, we felt the need to get it checked out since our cleaner said she didn’t know…. And she had the gall to request a $100 extra cleaning charge for the time it took to clean up the spilled water in the bathroom… Ya, on our most recent trip up, we interviewed a new cleaner.
Then it was waterspout reclamation day. The dock and paddlesport shed needed to be pulled out. tractors are fun!
Next up is some interior furniture the wife found on FB marketplace. Scored some deals on comfy chairs.
here’s a gratuitous pic of the upstairs.
Until next time.. (in a month).
It's great to see they outfitted the range with stands that let you get in those rappelling-from-the-roof-to-take-out-a-covert-hostage-holding-target reps.
Sorry to hear about the washing machine woes. The repairs look great though, as does the rest of the place!
OP
OP
End of season recap:
Took a couple trips up north to end the season/year.
in November we went up for some last minute maintenance and just to get away. we brought in the pier and firepit chairs. I inadvertently broke an aluminum weld on the pier when bringing it in.. We will have to address that in the spring… ugh..
My uncle finally removed an old trailer with two old snowmobiles, that had been sitting behind the garage.. Once removed, and I mowed the grass back there, I discovered an old aluminum boat my uncle offered to me, or he was going to put on the curb as trash. Well, it is actually solid, floats, and not sure what I want to do with it… there is a decent new trolling motor sitting in one of the garages… hmmm..
Fast forward to December, we went up for a weekend of snowshoeing.
Lots of snow! Which is good for the snowmobile rentals
discovered some branches collapsed under the heavy snow and needed to be chainsawed away…
More snowshoeing
Each time we go up, we try to do a supper club or have drinks and dinner with various friends from the northwoods. No pictures of those from this trip.. in the future I’ll try to do up a photo array of various eateries and their offerings…
Took a couple trips up north to end the season/year.
in November we went up for some last minute maintenance and just to get away. we brought in the pier and firepit chairs. I inadvertently broke an aluminum weld on the pier when bringing it in.. We will have to address that in the spring… ugh..
My uncle finally removed an old trailer with two old snowmobiles, that had been sitting behind the garage.. Once removed, and I mowed the grass back there, I discovered an old aluminum boat my uncle offered to me, or he was going to put on the curb as trash. Well, it is actually solid, floats, and not sure what I want to do with it… there is a decent new trolling motor sitting in one of the garages… hmmm..
Fast forward to December, we went up for a weekend of snowshoeing.
Lots of snow! Which is good for the snowmobile rentals
discovered some branches collapsed under the heavy snow and needed to be chainsawed away…
More snowshoeing
Each time we go up, we try to do a supper club or have drinks and dinner with various friends from the northwoods. No pictures of those from this trip.. in the future I’ll try to do up a photo array of various eateries and their offerings…
Can someone explain what the heck a supper club is to a western Canadian? I don’t really understand and google is somewhat unhelpful.
It's where a number of friends meetup and have dinner at new restaurants. Before COVID we did one monthly, and each couple would rotate the "pick".
Very common in Wisconsin.
BruceWayne
Flush
It's a mid-west thing, especially popular in Wisconsin.
These are small town bar/restaurants, usually in very rural areas that specialize in dinner only. The pricing for quality of food and portion size is off the charts. There's not many that aren't very good and their daily specials are pretty regular. Most are a rather casual setting to cater to locals. It's not uncommon to eat like a king for $10-15.
Friday is big for fish fry (cod, walleye, blue gill, perch), Saturdays are big on prime rib. They also feature things like broasted chicken, sirloin steaks, baked pork chops or ribs and burgers. These places usually have a solid soup/salad bar too.
They open about 4p where they feature happy hour drink specials as well. "Double bubble" as its called... essentially two drinks for the price of one, usually with rail offerings, but dirt cheap regardless of what you want.
Monday and/or Tuesday can be days they are found closed.
I personally love these joints. Many have a lodge or northwoods setting, some like you're walking into a VFW, others like you're stepping into the 70s.
The term “supper club” used to mean a night club where you can also get dinner while watching a show. You see them in a lot of old 40s-60s movies. Kind of place where Dean Martin would sing.
But this seems to be something else.
But this seems to be something else.
Thanks for enlightening me. Sounds awesome!
OP
OP
Talk about karma…
Neighbor calls us about an incident of snow mobilers riding across our property. These neighbors are huge into the local snowmobile scene, and apparently riding on private property is very taboo. It threatens the local trail system, and local economy, when landowners who allow trails on their property get mad when people go off trail into parts of their property they want free from sleds….then they rescind the trail rights.
Anyway my neighbor sees these people riding on our property (while we have other guests on site), one of the riders flips her sled, right in front of our house, and our neighbor rushed out to see if they were ok. It was quickly determined that there were no injuries, and my neighbor was going to help this woman get her sled uprighted.. however, when my neighbor pointed out that they’d ridden their sleds on private property, these clowns said “who cares”…. My neighbor turned to walk away and said “good luck with your sleds”.. karma.
Neighbor calls us about an incident of snow mobilers riding across our property. These neighbors are huge into the local snowmobile scene, and apparently riding on private property is very taboo. It threatens the local trail system, and local economy, when landowners who allow trails on their property get mad when people go off trail into parts of their property they want free from sleds….then they rescind the trail rights.
Anyway my neighbor sees these people riding on our property (while we have other guests on site), one of the riders flips her sled, right in front of our house, and our neighbor rushed out to see if they were ok. It was quickly determined that there were no injuries, and my neighbor was going to help this woman get her sled uprighted.. however, when my neighbor pointed out that they’d ridden their sleds on private property, these clowns said “who cares”…. My neighbor turned to walk away and said “good luck with your sleds”.. karma.
OP
OP
We’ve been back to the property now a couple times this year. we visited for some routine maintenance, then again a couple weeks ago for annual summerization…. Putting in the pier, taking the water sports shed out of storage, etc.
When your John Deere Zero Turn mower makes mowing enjoyable,,, 10mph baby!
when we first arrived, we found a flooded detached garage. The hydrant burst after the thaw, and was spraying water all over… luckily we are on a well, and luckily we have a drain in the garage. New hydrant on order…
We put in some new decor, and here’s on piece. we thought it was cute. I will post when we get done with our next trip up…
In addition to the flooded garage, we also discovered this gem.. county plows must have been asleep at the wheel. Hoping the town will make the repairs..
I had our ATVs on tenders, and they fired right up! The trails were not open yet, so Got ‘em all lined up and ready to ride on our next trip up!
…but before we get to that, I can’t not tell you about this situation…
we had guests last week during the memorial day weekend. i don’t make a habit of watching cameras, but they looked young…. And when my neighbors commented about the garage doors being opened at midnight on Friday, and possibly some yelling, I checked the garage cameras the following morning, and at 1am observed one of the guests run into the garage from the inside of the house, go to his car, grab a decent sized knife, then lay in wait to ambush his buddies? My camera timed out, so I did t get to see the end.. but after an awkward convo with the guests, they apologized and admitted there was a bit of alcohol involved, but it was all in good fun… m, ok.. I just went with it, and advised my cleaning lady charges a lot more for dead body removal…. and then said “do t ansk me how I know”…, lol. they left the place spotless…
BIG things in store For our trip up tomorrow.. The place will look dramatically different, we hope, with a new application of stain on the siding. With logs, it’s a big deal. Check out the siding my the table under the window.. it’s horrible.
Hopefully it’ll be brought back to life, and look similar to this portion of siding, that hasn’t seen any weather
When your John Deere Zero Turn mower makes mowing enjoyable,,, 10mph baby!
when we first arrived, we found a flooded detached garage. The hydrant burst after the thaw, and was spraying water all over… luckily we are on a well, and luckily we have a drain in the garage. New hydrant on order…
We put in some new decor, and here’s on piece. we thought it was cute. I will post when we get done with our next trip up…
In addition to the flooded garage, we also discovered this gem.. county plows must have been asleep at the wheel. Hoping the town will make the repairs..
I had our ATVs on tenders, and they fired right up! The trails were not open yet, so Got ‘em all lined up and ready to ride on our next trip up!
…but before we get to that, I can’t not tell you about this situation…
we had guests last week during the memorial day weekend. i don’t make a habit of watching cameras, but they looked young…. And when my neighbors commented about the garage doors being opened at midnight on Friday, and possibly some yelling, I checked the garage cameras the following morning, and at 1am observed one of the guests run into the garage from the inside of the house, go to his car, grab a decent sized knife, then lay in wait to ambush his buddies? My camera timed out, so I did t get to see the end.. but after an awkward convo with the guests, they apologized and admitted there was a bit of alcohol involved, but it was all in good fun… m, ok.. I just went with it, and advised my cleaning lady charges a lot more for dead body removal…. and then said “do t ansk me how I know”…, lol. they left the place spotless…
BIG things in store For our trip up tomorrow.. The place will look dramatically different, we hope, with a new application of stain on the siding. With logs, it’s a big deal. Check out the siding my the table under the window.. it’s horrible.
Hopefully it’ll be brought back to life, and look similar to this portion of siding, that hasn’t seen any weather
If they used the whole gallon jug of bleach from your laundry room, might want to call the sheriff.
OP
OP
Lol, once I gleaned that it was likely harmless banter between friends, I told them next time to lay down plastic first… told them i saw it in a movie once…
But at first I was like “WTAF”. And in my line of work, it’s not overly shocking to see people aggressing with knives.
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