2016 marks the tenth year we have owned our cabin on Dead Lake in Ottertail County, Minnesota. When we first bought the place, our three sons, Sam, Joe, and Jake, joked that the reason the lake was called Dead was “because there were no girls on it.” I, too, was surprised the first time we circled the lake. With the exception of a handful of resorts, very little noise or activity was to be seen or heard. Notta one ice cream shop or restaurant to motor up to on this 7,500-acre lake was to be found. The lake, it turns…
Read MoreGuide to a Happy Life
Day 15 is “Take my advice and…” in our Moments in May 2015 Challenge. Sometimes I bristle when people give me unsolicited advice. I want to say back to those offering it, “If I’d have wanted your advice, I’d have asked.” I hope this feels more like a “Guide to a Happy Life” post. At least, the following is how I have made a happy life. Cheers! 1. Get yourself a dog. My friend Cheryl has a funny saying about the difference between dogs and cats. Dogs wait on you. Cats want a staff. We’ve owned both and there is nothing like…
Read MoreDay 6 The View From Here Moments in May 2015 Challenge
Everything comes to those who wait. Longfellow My husband, known around here as the Night Ranger, and I embark on our two-hundred-mile drive up north to the cabin. He wants to get the pontoon out of the pole barn and make room for other things. “Let’s do it today,” he says. I want to, too. Two seasons is two too long to wait for the ice to melt in Ottertail County, Minnesota. Time to launch it. Whirling somewhere in the gray matter, though, is the thought that the pontoon never gives us an easy go of it. Whether it’s getting…
Read MoreSummertime Whatevers
I water-taxi to Dead Lake’s North Bay. As I set off from my dock, I feel as though I am taking my dog to the vet to be put down. I hope the wind dries my tears before I reach the access so no one will know this silly woman cries when she says a seasonal good-bye to her pontoon. Around every cluster of reeds I navigate and every downed leaf I pass along my liquid road, I grow closer to the boat access and our Quonset hut where the pontoon will hibernate until it’s “ice out.” Last year, the…
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