Spring at Last

This past winter, in contrast to last year, was an easy one. And so it was that most of us were filled with the expectation that true spring weather would arrive sooner than usual as well.

We were wrong.

Ice-Out on March 4th was the earliest anyone could remember but April and the first week of May seemed to be one long stretch of raw, cold and rainy weather.

Outside work around our Camp was halted. Even the people that you met at the Post Office or the dump seemed grumpy.

Yesterday, May 12th, all that changed and for the first time you could actually feel and smell that spring was in the air.

A warm sun, crystal clear skies and a gentle breeze brought back memories of past spring seasons and the lead up to a summer filled with family and fun on the lake.

Taking a break from cutting up some fallen pine boughs I sat by the edge of the water with my coffee lost in my own thoughts.

Then, as If on cue from the raised baton of an orchestra conductor, I heard it. The soulful wail of a loon not far out in the water.  She was alone and her plumage was strikingly beautiful. Almost at once the baton was raised once more and a hawk soared in from the south circling over head as if to see whether the the loon had discovered a school of fish fresh for the taking.

Sitting there, in the warm sunshine, I  could not help but wonder if at that moment they too could feel that spring at last had arrived on the lake all three of us consider to be our home.

We're on the Bumpy Road!

Most of us cherish the thoughts of a special get-away place in our lives. A place where the memories are almost always good ones. For some of us, these places are from a long ago past. But for the lucky among us the experience of place is lifelong.

For our family, merely mentioning the name "Camp" conjures up the words; family, friends, solitude, campfires, board games, and time unmeasured by the requirements everyday life; "At Camp we do nothing, and we do it all the time". 

So strong are these emotions, so certain are the expectations, that even the car ride to Camp sets the mood for the days to come. 

And so it was recently, that as we made the hour-long  journey to Camp, perhaps for my wife and I, for the one thousandth time, that our two year old granddaughter Caroline, making the trip for perhaps the twentieth time, shouted out in voice only an excited child can make;

"We're on the Whine-Dee  Road!" as we left the highway and turned onto the road leading to the lake.  As we proceeded from paved to the rough unpaved section, the voice from the car seat exclaimed eagerly "We're on the Bumpy Road!" And moments later "Going down the hill to Camp!"

From the front seat I could only smile in the knowledge that Caroline's growing memories of life at Camp will be a part of who she is for the rest of her life.

As most of the family knows, for the past 35+ years the fireplace at Camp has been unusable because of its poor ( read nonexistent) draft.

With the help of chimney and fireplace gurus Jim and Corey we have;
Cleaned the chimney, used an electric grinder to cut out the cast iron damper (which had been installed backwards), installed a smoke-guard to the front top of the fireplace, and finally, today installed a chimney top spring loaded damper.

THE RESULT:
A perfectly balanced, aesthetically pleasing, working fireplace.

One more step in our goal of making Camp the 3 1/2 season retreat that we want it to be, for this generation and the next.