Hokey Pokey

How 'bout having friends show up, pretty much on the fly, and bring a picnic lunch to boot? My former next door neighbors in Minneapolis pulled it off on Sunday, bringing some much-needed Love 2 Loveless.

I confess that this whole rain-heat-erosion thing has become a load on my mind. Hard as I try to see the zen of it all … man oh man. Could YOU be at peace if this were the scene at your place?



Logs and bags of rock (for future retaining wall) serve as temporary breaks for water and mud. Left-over lumber from teardown provides a serviceable walkway after rainfall turns the place into a slippery mess.



Doug put in a call early Sunday morning to see if we’d be open for midday visitors. Before we knew it, he was hulking a giant cooler toward Loveless Lake, with wife, Katie, and daughter, Liv, shouldering their own supplies down the hill. They soon produced a lunchtime spread that included a juicy watermelon, a giant sub sandwich and homemade cookies.

And, bless her, Loveless delivered in return.

First we heard, then saw, a loon hanging out on the lake. Then Katie saw a deer walking along the water’s edge before it dashed into the underbrush. We watched as a male eagle swooped down from high above the treeline and gently plucked a fish out of the lake -- what a wingspan! Then we saw the female circle overhead, possibly on her own hunt. THEN we saw a turtle (snapping?) poke its head above water right where we’d been swimming.

And the water? Divine. My colleague Bill McAuliffe has reported on simmering, above-90 water temps in Southern Minnesota, but Loveless has been perfectly cool, and surprisingly clear, given the heat.

Doug enjoyed a good swim, but came ready to work. He hadn’t seen the place since Winter 2010, when he helped us pull the nastiest, most disgustingest mattresses out of the old joint.

This time, he pulled weeds out of the banks of the lake and took his weed whacker to the scruff that has started to overtake the parking area. Most vital, he hung screens on the downstairs walkout porch, knocking off one of those chores I’ve had on my To Do List for weeks.



Doug does a little work on the wildly overgrown lakeshore.





Chipper, Liv and Katie cool off on the banks of Loveless. 

 

Ahh. A dip in the spring-fed (and rain-fed) waters.



Hey, thanks for the reminder. Just like the Hokey Pokey, this is what it’s all about.