The Cabin

Pride & Sharing our Bounty

For the second weekend in a row, we are at our cabin with guests! It’s been a long time coming to reach this point, but I am glad we arrived!

 

Our property is unique. We have two acres on a lake in Northern Wisconsin. It is three hours from our primary residence.  When we first moved to Wisconsin, we lived in a subdivision by choice. We didn’t know anyone and felt that it would be best to live where our young son, then four, could meet other kids and play in our yards that lined the street.

However, since subdivision living was not what neither my husband nor I was used to, we began looking for a property on which to build a cabin. This whole process took a couple of years, and by the time we closed on our lake property we were expecting our third child.

Our cabin is a timber frame. If you are unfamiliar with this type of building, it is also known as post and beam. There are huge wooden (pine) beams that form the structure of the building. Wooden pegs hold the beams together. They were pounded into place by an oversized mallet called the “persuader.”

Other than putting up the frame, and some help from a Mennonite work crew that put on our roof and installed the windows, my husband finished the inside of the cabin. I’ll be honest here and tell you that the cabin is a house. We could live here if we wanted since it has all the conveniences of modern life. There are a dishwasher and even a laundry room. Still, I’ve always resisted moving here for several reasons.

One of the reasons is that the cabin is remote. We do have a road (gravel) lined with similar homes, most of which are lived in year-round. The other reason is that we’ve used the cabin as a means to disconnect. We have a T.V. and DVD player along with a stack of movies and shows. But there is no cable and no internet. I like to be connected if it is my choice to do so. After all, without the connection, none of you would be reading this blog. I also like the people in my life, especially those with whom I can have a deep conversation. They don’t live near the cabin. I’d miss them if I could not see them regularly. Essentially, I deemed the cabin just a little too remote.  And, since up until early June, we always had a boy in school, moving to the cabin was never a serious consideration.

But, as we have experienced some isolation over the last few months of the pandemic, our recent visits to the cabin have held more appeal. Maybe, it’s because we are spending more time on what needs to be done at our cabin. We have landscaped, figured out how to have a temporary but adequate internet connection, and most recently bought some new furniture.  All of these things could have been done years ago but weren’t. In recent years, our visits became fewer and farther between as our boys’ lives became busier and busier. Because of jobs and activities, it became common for not all of our family to be together when we visited the cabin.  One or two of the boys were left behind to fulfill their obligations while the rest of us went to re-commune with nature and relax. Occasionally, in the last year, it was just my husband and I who made the trip.

But, now the importance of our cabin has resurfaced. Last weekend, all of us were together for the fourth of July weekend. And, we invited guests in the form of one other family. They were thrilled to join us, and we were equally thrilled to have them. We were a group of nine. Comradery, fishing, campfires, and boating on the lake were all involved. We all slept well with the windows wide open despite the temperatures in the 90’s during the day. We were sharing our cabin’s bounty like we had envisioned when we built.

 

This weekend we are back, another family has joined us this time. We are a group of eight. We are again happy to have others join us for a weekend of floating, fishing, food, and conversation.

Happy stories of the cabin’s history are being shared. The building is being appreciated by both us and our friends. The night sky was filled with the stars that we could not see just last week while they were blocked by the light of a nearly full moon.

All is well while we keep our circles small and enjoy the cabin that has served us well for the last 15 years. We’re proud of what we built and now is the time to share our bounty. Everyone needs a little respite, especially now.