He's a winner

Here's lookin' at ya, No. 27.

Talk about being game. My youngest brother, Russell, took me up on a long-shot of an invitation to visit the Midwest in the dead of winter to partake in the Balsam Lake WinterFest and annual Chinese New Year festivities, which this year happened to fall on the same weekend.

Russell and our father did business in China for a number of years -- selling U.S.-grown Southern Pine lumber to the Chinese. He's been studying Mandarin, and I've been trying for years to get him up here to meet my Chinese friends, who always put on a stellar Lunar New Year feast.

Temps were in the teens and low 20s when Russell set out for his maiden voyage on snowshoes for the increasingly popular 5K Snowshoe "race." Sometime after passing Mile Marker 1, Russell decided to sprint ahead, clearly tapping into his former college football athletic self. Chris and I eventually caught up, realizing he had intuitively discovered our secret of North Country survival: Breaking a sweat in the coldest of cold gives you the (false) impression that you're kicking winter's ass.

Russ was a true sport in everything Loveless. He put up with drywall dust, lack of a bathroom and a furnace that broke just as temps were heading toward a week of sub-zeros. 

Here's hoping we didn't scare him off and that he'll return with his lovely wife when we're no longer in glamping mode.

 

Getting an ice fishing lesson from the master.

Jaguars fan (note the ski cap) from the very start.

Mighty fine fishin' hole. Alas, no bites.

Some Loveless winter lover made a snowman on the lake!

Scenic photo opp during the "race."

That crazy Beer Man.

Trusting the ice...

... even though they raced ATVs instead of trucks this year.

This photo begs for a Caption Contest.

No trip to Loveless is complete without a functional fire.

 

Loveless Lake is humble, but she's a beaut.

Old school

I may be building a modern lake house but waterfront activities are of the non-motorized variety, centered around hand-me-downs (canoe) and church bag sales (auger). Chris grew up ice fishing, and this year he's been eager beaver to get onto Loveless Lake. I'm more attracted to the notion of ice fishing than the actual sitting there and staring into the hole. But I probably just need to catch a fish. 

Chris easily shucks his gloves to spear a minnow, but I dread the idea of sticking my hand into the icy bucket and forcing a hook through a squirmy little fish. How lucky am I to have my own fishing guide on hand to do all of the hard work?

Experimenting with lawn chairs -- too chilly.

I'm with Handsome

Hard to remember that the North Country had a really slow start to winter. Not that we were complaining about the warm, sunny days and lack of snow. Then a few weeks ago, one of those arctic blasts arrived. Suddenly, Helloooo winter!

We celebrated with a tromp on Loveless Lake on snowshoes. As long as I've known Chris, he has complained about winter.  Swears this will be his last. Those damn dark days, lack of light, lack of energy, you get the drift.

But here he is again, bless that big ole Scandinavian  heart of his. Winter is better with a Handsome Handyman around.
   

Phase II underway

While I was in Florida helping my brothers guide our dying mother out of this life, Loveless was under construction.

The timing was all wrong to be sure. But when the builder appears, the client better be ready. Or be ready to wait. So off we went in June on the stair tower + loft project. The goal was to be finished by August.

Well… this, too, has been on Loveless Time.

As of last weekend, the stairs have been framed in, 90 percent of the drywall is done and primed, and most of the wood flooring has been installed. Home stretch, baby.

Builder Brook Waalen is a gem. He understands my vision, has solved unexpected problems (hence the delayed timeline) and been patient with all my waffling and changes.

Sure it’s a bit whacked to be working on Phase II when there’s still no shower or bathroom sink. And there’s a boatload of drywall still to do in the bedrooms. But I’m so overjoyed to have the ability to move from the upstairs to the downstairs -- without running outside and up a snow-covered hill -- that it’s easy to be patient. Plus, the project has opened up the weeHouse and let in even more natural light.

“I really like the skyscraper,” said neighbor Scott, tapping into my continued mortification about how TALL this whole thing is.

Yet, I totally agree. Chris and I can't wait to hang out in the loft, which truly is in the treetops.

View from the weeHouse kitchen.

Blends into the trees.

Siding will get put up in the spring.

Gone to the Unseen

Spring and summer have come and gone at Loveless Lake, and I will forever think of this as my lost year.

My mother suddenly became sick this spring and died in mid-September. Her death came about a month after Chipper’s and a year after my Dad’s.

I had planned to get Mom up to Loveless for her 82^nd birthday in August, but it wasn’t meant to be. Chipper gave us three bonus months and we squeezed in a few more naps in the weeHouse. And I’m grateful my parents were able to see the place when it was nothing but a dream.

At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.
What marvelous route did you take from this world?

                                                                             -   Rumi

A visit to Loveless October 2011 before the arrival of the weeHouse.

Chipper made a great life even better.

Coming in for a landing

It only looks like fall.

Well, there’s spring, and then there’s spring in the North Country. It does take a while in these parts to warm up. Forget the white shoes at Easter. Often we’re still tromping about in mukluks. Memorial Day? Generally we're wearing galoshes or hanging about our outdoor fire pits.

Once the snow melted at Loveless, Chris and I decided to build a little hangout spot on the sunny side of the lot, as we’re still trying to use up the awesome pieces of cedar decking that came with the weeHouse. Our new landing has quickly become one of our favorite places to absorb some Vitamin D and daydream.

Longtime blog readers will recall that we used several pieces of this awesome decking to construct our one-of-a-kind Saturn walkway/bridge (which you can read about here). The walkway remains one of the coolest parts of our project.

That other jumble of stuff visible over Chris’ shoulder is the last of the decking, which, admittedly, has become something of an eyesore. I’m noodling on several ideas for its next life: a second landing  closer to Loveless Lake (because we like our first experiment so much); a meandering pathway from the landing down the hill;  a fence to shield the septic tank or the propane tank from view; and ...

For now the ideas are stuck in my always-thinkin’-‘bout-Loveless noggin. In the real world, we’re enjoying Chipper’s remaining days and time in the sun.

Writer's loft

Daybreak at Loveless Lake.

My pal, Steve,  needed a get-away to focus on a writing project and Loveless was there for him. He now holds the record for the longest uninterrupted stay there -- six nights -- and I’m ever so slightly envious.

Of course that also means six sunrises and plenty of room for surprises. While there, Steve enjoyed a fluffy spring snowstorm from the windowed weeHouse and drank in the countryside by the light of a full moon. Best of all, Steve reports he got a lot of work done.

Said Chris: "He's living your dream."