Busy week

Well, here we are in June... the fox down the road has had its kits (they seem to be playing IN the road, silly kits!)... our international students have arrived and are working hard and learning fast... and we've launched a lot of canoes the past few days! (Parking is getting a little tight :) ) The new fishing license machine and I are actually on speaking terms - most of the time. The new one doesn't like Mike any better than the old one did, but at least we can do licenses for our guests and neighbors!

We're actually getting some rain, too, on the way back from town Wednesday I was thrilled to see the "fire danger" sign at our nearby fire station read "Fire Danger LOW" - that's the first time it's dropped below "HIGH" since the ice went out in April! Now... if the rain would stick to falling at night? Nah, we're still glad to see it, anytime. Fishing has been pretty good, despite the rain!

Rockwood's New Wishing Bridge

Here are Mike Seim (construction) and Carl Madsen (designer/construction) on Rockwood's beautiful new "wishing bridge". Carl and Mike spent the past week here helping out (THANKS, guys!) and building our new bridge over the little "creeklet" between Cabins 3 and 4. It's a great addition to the place!

We're having a busy Memorial Day weekend - lots of canoe trips and cabin people around - and I think I've finally figured out the new touch-screen fishing license machine!

Lilacs in May

It's WARM around here! Usually my lilac bushes are in full bloom for the July 4 holiday - this year they're going to be gorgeous for Memorial Weekend! In the last day or two I've seen a wide assortment of summer butterflies - swallowtails, cabbage, sulphur, and even monarchs!

Mike's been painting the bunkhouse and I've been (early in the morning) working on the flower beds, which are growing fast... too fast for me to keep up. A little more rain and there'll be a lot of flowers there too!

In the meantime, our "angels", Carl and Mike, arrived yesterday and are helping out big time - bless them!

RAIN!

Finally - Rain! Nothing like what people down south have been getting, but Thursday brought us a glorious inch of the cold wet stuff... and whatever this flowering shrub is certainly loved it! It started blooming promptly on Friday morning! Smells great, too... I'm glad it's up near our house as a similar shrub turned into beaver food last spring.

We've had a great week. So far four groups of volunteers from the Border Route Trail Club have stayed in our bunkhouse and then gone off with their saws and cutters to work on the Border Route Trail just north of us. They've also hiked the South Lake Trail (which runs, roughly, from Rockwood Lodge to the Border Route Trail). So both trails should be in pretty good shape this year! Our last group will be here early next week. We really appreciate all the work these great volunteers do to help keep the wilderness accessible!

Snow in May

Compared to what our friends in Duluth tell us, this isn't much! We did, however, get over an inch of snow last night. Duluth apparently got something close to a foot, poor things! It has been a lot cooler (ok, colder) this past week; after getting used to the nice warm weather I'm feeling chilly.

We went down to check the canoe licenses this morning... and there were two sets of tracks - one big and one small coming up from the lake at Cabin 9 and walking up the soft edge of Rockwood Road into the woods. I think we had moose visitors last night!

We've got most of the cabins and bunkrooms spring cleaned and Mike's been taking down trees and generally working on things like the water system all week. Keeping busy, in other words!