Guest Blogger

Some of you may have heard that Lin experienced a mild stroke last week. After spending the weekend and recovering well at St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth, she moved to the Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation Center on Monday. Miller-Dwan is a wonderful facility and an excellent place to get her back to Rockwood Lodge as soon as possible. We do not have any idea yet how long this rehabilitation stay will be.

Lin’s biggest challenge will be managing the gradual return of speech. Her memory and ability to understand were not significantly impacted; but, it is frustrating right now to know what you want to say and not have many words. Miller-Dwan will be scheduling her days this week with little time for breaks and have informed us she will be exhausted. For these reasons we ask that phone calls please be reserved only for family.

Mike and Rockwood Lodge are being swarmed with support and it has been appreciated. A huge thanks for all who pitched in the past week to keep Rockwood as wonderful as ever. Rockwood’s neighbors and the Gunflint Trail community have also come up strong. We are truly grateful for the wonderful patience of our patrons last week, and in the weeks to come.

We gladly accept prayers for healing and rest. Lin told me herself that, “This too will pass.” Mike has been getting some rest and we all know Rockwood is such a peaceful place for that. It is my intent to post periodic updates here as things improve. Thank you for your concern, thoughts and help.

Mark (Mike and Lin’s son)

Cards or flowers may be sent this week too:

Linda Sherfy, c/o Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation Center, Room 220 - Bed 2, 502 E. Second Street, Duluth, MN 55805

June

Carl and Mike have been and gone... and we miss them! All sorts of wonderful things got done... and there are, as usual, a few things left for next time - but thanks, guys! Carl took this incredible photo of the canoe outfitting building one morning - perfect, no?

Our first student helper - Nurick - arrived Thursday evening and is working hard. It's a little hard to be the first student arrival at mid-trail - it's lonely, for one thing! - but he'll also be the one who can help out all the new arrivals next week. Our second student arrives on the 13th.

The lilacs are trying to bloom! Some years - especially ones that have been as chilly as this one - they don't bloom till 4th of July - so maybe we simply missed spring and are proceeding directly to summer this year?

Spring has arrived!

The ice is out, the flowers are (starting) to bloom - mostly dandelions, plus those odd purple things that look vaguely familiar, and this morning the white shrub by the house driveway burst into bloom! The rain we got the last couple days has really helped - grass is growing, leaves are popping - and I've been hearing about a few walleyes and northern getting caught.

And our friends Carl and Mike are here helping Mike - thanks, guys!

Endangered Species...

If you ever wondered how some critters make it on to the official Endangered Species List... well, I guess this goes a ways to explain it! There must be well over a thousand trees within fifty yards of this busy bird and surely half of them have more insect life than this treated power relay pole? Our intelligence-challenged friend here has been pecking away at this pole on and off all week.


In the meantime, his mate has been equally busy in a big old birch behind Cabin 4; so far she's got three and a half nesting holes made and she's spent the week pecking away inside the tree. We need a "Pileated Pod" or something to film the life cycle of our family of pileated woodpeckers, don't we?


Our loon has been busy today greeting our guests and escorting them across the bay towards their portages. Nice to have loons calling again!

ICE OUT!

When we came home from our annual "see how many things the resort needs that you can cram into a Chevy Impala" trip today... the ice was gone! We have WAVES! No sunshine, at least not this evening... but the waves are beautiful!