Old dog, new tricks

One cool thing about being a newbie to the cabin lifestyle is that there are so many firsts.

Like getting Chipper into a canoe.

As a puppy, he easily took to hopping onto a hammock, especially when long naps ensued. Seemed logical to think as a 10-year-old he’d enjoy riding in a wobbly water vessel, too.

The two of us went on our first sojourn a few weeks back. Although he was a little tense, it worked out OK. Adding Chris – and especially a fishing rod – into the mix proved more challenging.

It clearly is in his Labrador DNA to try to retrieve that splashy thing that Chris tosses out on his fishing pole. Though Chipper listens to “leave it,” I haven’t figured out the right training method (other than distraction) to get him to chillax and actually ignore it when Chris throws out a cast.

On our most recent trip around the lake this weekend, Chipper’s first containment challenge came within minutes, when I forced him to stuff his deepest doggie desire to leap into Loveless to check out a neighbor’s Rottweiler on the shore.

Next, as we passed a no-wake buoy, he barked and PUT A PAW OUT of the canoe before succumbing to my shouts from the stern. (In his defense, it did look mildly like those fetchers used to train bird dogs. Maybe he's been watching too much Ron Schara on TV.)

By the time we got 20 feet from shore, he was done listening. He lobbed himself overboard, somersaulted underwater and used that giant tail to rudder himself to shore.

Next time, treats?

The allergens of Loveless

Chris has itchy eyes and is sneezing up a storm (which sends Chipper into a brief state of apoplexy). I woke up this morning with a puffy eye and cheek after a day of cleanup.

I’m not complaining. It’s more glorious exploration, as far as I’m concerned, to see what has erupted on the groundcover-free Loveless hillside since spring.

One prize: what seems to be the world’s tallest dandelion. It’s probably a close cousin, whose nice yellow flowers were broken during a Saturday rain.



Spiking at 5-feet. Any ideas?

We’ve also got plenty of butterweed and ragweed, the scourge of sensitive noses everywhere. I was heartened to read that goldenrod is wrongly accused of causing allergies. I have lots of it on the north side, and I quite like the look of it. As I was researching it, I chuckled at the descriptions of where it likes to grow … “disturbed areas” or “roads, ditches and waste areas of North America.”

Pretty much describes Loveless --before we started bringin’ the love, of course.

At any rate, these weeds may not long for the earth (at least until next year). Now that the retaining wall is built, I’ve hired a landscaper to grade the hill, bring in some top soil and throw down some grass seed.

In the landscaper’s words, we need to “stabilize” the site before we can do much else.

The Wall

This hardworking bunch finally pulled off the first major post-construction project at Loveless Lake. I’ve now got a lovely tiered retaining wall to keep the earth and water away from the walkout window in the basement. (To celebrate, I've given the blog an uplifting new design as well.)

Jeff, Chris, Kobe, Mike toast a job well-done.

 

Recall the scene in late May…

 

At least the ferns were happy.



Mike figured out that The Builder never caulked under the sill.

The retaining wall project got postponed six times for rain or heat. We were 0-for 3 on consecutive weekends and facing 0-for-4 on Friday night when another storm rolled in after midnight.

(And it was a doozy. My neighbor’s house in Minneapolis caught fire after getting struck by lightning from the storm, and Mike and young Kobe spent a terrifying night in Mike’s sailboat on Loveless Lake.)

Chris and I headed up Sunday not knowing what we'd find. We figured the worst that would happen is we’d get there and have to, I don’t know, maybe play in the water or go canoeing or fishing or something.

Sunday turned out to be a fine day to work. Low humidity, temps in the low 80s. The delays ended up giving Chris’ hand more time to heal, and Jeff was willing to motorcycle over to add some muscle.

With three professional handymen -- and support from the peanut gallery of Kobe, Chipper and me – the boys pulled it off in a really long work day that went something like this:

  

Thank you, gentlemen.