Work-play day

Sometimes in life, you just need someone to pull you over the hump. That seems to be the expertise of our friends, Doug and Katie, who have developed a knack for showing up at Loveless at just the right time with their work gloves on.

Both grew up in small Minnesota towns and easily embrace the “barn raising” ethos. In Katie’s family, they schedule Fun Days where the extended clan gathers to do chores around the family farm and then enjoys a great meal en masse.

Last Sunday, Doug helped Chris put the last boards on the front deck, finally moving it out of the 90-percent club. Katie folded herself into the zen of painting, and almost single-handedly got the first coat of paint on one side of the walkout basement. Their small fry, Liv, brought a couple hundred toys and a babysitter to play with when she wasn’t lolling around with Chipper.

Only Doug was brave enough to douse himself in Loveless Lake on this freakishly cold “summer” day, where air temps were in the high-60s. “Refreshing!” he said, with amazing sincerity.

It’s been almost exactly a year since they last made a family trek for a little work and a little play at Loveless. Thanks to their “many hands make light work” spirit, we've made great progress along the way. 

Gnarly treasures

We’re still hauling up remnants of the past here at Loveless Lake, including this gnarly brick + spike thing that was a homemade anchor or some such. Chris also unearthed two more tires last weekend plus a nice rusted metal post, so we’ve now got a total of three tires to haul to the Polk County recycler the next time we go. We’ve cleaned up most of the lakeshore, save for one last hulking wood-and-metal section from the old boat lift, which will be a substantial job once we get to it.

We're now moving to a new lakefront restoration phase: Instead of bringing nasty things UP from the lake, we’re taking a big rock or two DOWN with us as we start to think about rebuilding the shore, which takes a beating from boat waves and erosion from the steep hillside.

Tree-top picnic

There are a handful of people in my life where there are so many overlapping connections through the decades that I’ve forgotten them all. That would be Rosemarie. She also was one of my first friends to totally dig our adventure at Loveless Lake, even when the place was nothing more than an overgrown lot full of junk and a cabin (also full of junk) too far-gone to save.

Rose and her uber-handy husband, Paul, have since found their own diamond-in-the-rough  (code for: massive home improvement project) that they’ve been rehabbing for the past few years in the Twin Cities.

Chris and I finally had an opportunity to host Rose and Paul for a Loveless picnic on the still 90-percent finished front deck. My Loveless next door neighbor, Scott, and his girlfriend stopped over for a quick chat, turning the jam-packed day into an extra-fun adventure in the tree tops.

 

Scott, a yearround Loveless Laker, and his girlfriend, Kay.



The weeHouse is always ready for friends.

The best part is that Rose and Paul want to come back and put in a little sweat equity. I think I've got JUST the right project ....

Green, green grass of Loveless

I had low expectations that the grass seed would survive our long and extra-awful winter, but survive it did. Chris even offered up a first haircut about a month ago, thinking it might strengthen the young roots to do a little growing this summer.

We’re rather partial to the long, flopped-over look, especially since the last thing we want to do when we show up at Loveless is mow.

Here's a reminder of how we got from there to here, which also serves as a good reminder  that what sometimes seems like progress by the inches is actually progress by the miles:



June 2012: We laid out boards to walk on the muddy hillside.

August 2012: Drought struck right after we laid down grass seed.

June 2013: First mow!




Public Enemy No. 1

 

Good ole H2O.

Love it for my sprouting lawn, woodland trees and our groundwater lake. But I was disheartened to discover that rainwater is once again seeping into the walkout basement.

Despite earnest efforts last spring to hang gutters, caulk up the perimeter and refortify the area where the Alchemy weeHouse meets the newConstruction sleeping quarters, water continues to work its wily way under the “glass house” (as it’s known in the ‘hood) and into the downstairs sleeping area.

 

One of three soggy locations.

 

 

We suspect the hard life of the weeHouse prior to its arrival at Loveless may be a factor. It traveled to trade shows around the country on a flatbed truck and sprung a leak when a tree fell on it during a storm in Siren, Wis., right before I bought it.

The drippage has put a chill our slowly progressing drywall project downstairs as we try to trouble shoot. But that has opened up some time for fishing, canoeing and planning for our latest essential need – a repurposed dock!

Pull up a chair

I am such a dork. Friends Margot and Jim arrived at Loveless for a pert-near nanosecond on a recent summer’s eve. They brought their enormous smiles, their curiosity, some fizzy water and assorted nuts … and, in a wildly awesome and unexpected move, they surprised me with a fancy Ikea chair to match a newly acquired pair already sitting on the front deck.

And me? I was so busy hanging out, enjoying the visit and talking about future design plans that I failed to whip out a camera to better blog-o-fi their lovely visit.

So you’ll just have to imagine how sweet it was to hang out high above Loveless Lake, peering through the maple trees in a matching TRIO of these super cool chairs. Thank you M &J!