Well I completely missed the dead line for our Freelensed blog circle but since I am looking at this project as a way to share personal images and record the daily happening of my family I want to document a few of our weekends together this month. So here is our weekend at the cabin.
We started the month heading up North to spend a long weekend with nature. This is a very special place to my husband, his father, brothers and other extended family. It was built by my father-in-law and his brothers with some help form eager young boys learning the dos and don'ts of hand tools.
It's a place free from modern technology, oldies leak out of a 1980's battery powered am/fm radio, that I can only imagine was a prized, shiny addition at one point. Water is hand pumped out of a well and warmed on a wood stove. Toilets aren't flushed, they are periodically moved. You don't bath, you sweat in a fire stoked sauna and wipe down with freshly pumped water from the earth. It's pretty rustic by today's standards.
The cabin is called NSL, because it's a place where everyone works for their food...venison, fish, bear. And every year the hunters have left with at least a little to fill their freezers. Some years more than others: Never Skunked Lodge.
Leisure time is spent playing games like dice, Uecker, Cribage, or Kings; and teaching the youngest habitants how to hang with the elders who are well versed in them and their own set of rules.
Then there are the chores...which really, out here for me, don't feel much like chores. It's work, don't get me wrong but, they seem more enjoyable here. The boys even love to help out.
When they can't help out they pretend they are, by adding to their huge fort they've been working on with all their cousins for the past few years. Their turn to try out the hand tools, just like the "big" kids. Because let's face it, We all feel like kids again out here.
And of course tending to the land. There is a lot of it, and this month we added more. So we headed out on the ATV's to keep the trails clean, check the hunting stands, and look for animal sign. This just so happened to be the first year the boys took me for a ride instead. I have to admit I was a bit more cautious with them driving.
There is such varying terrain and so many animals. It's hard to pick a favorite spot. I have to say La La Land is one of mine though.
I even took the time to try and freelens some video of this old bog (La La Land) that feels more like an other world than northern Minnesota.
There really is no wonder why we leave this place dirty, tired, and with the boys saying, " I wish we could live here.". It's a great place to reflect and realign with what is most important in life; hard work, family, and spirit. We are fortunate that this little slice of existence, that was founded by brothers and carried on by cousins, will be shared with our boys and someday their children.
Up next a weekend trip to Green Bay and a flash back to the days of trains.