LOST
Year Five. A journal of our
adventures at LOST island resort. It began when we moved from
3-25-07
We
left
We
got so happy we were almost giddy. The resort is like a happy pill.
It reminds us of all the great times and all the laughter and the anticipation
of another summer almost makes the body ache. Now, I really do love my
job as a teacher, but the resort is like having a great dessert. We had
to clean out the basement (really dusty down there) but we were grinning and
laughing our way through the task. It was so dusty/musty/mildewy that we took showers afterwards and all three of us
had a bit of coughing and sneezing. Didn’t matter.
It couldn’t change our mood and sense of excitement.
The
lake was still covered with ice but the warm wind created a deep, dense fog
soon after we arrived. It lasted all night Friday, all day Saturday, and
we went to bed with visibility near zero Saturday night. Then Sunday
morning a 20 mph wind magically transformed the ice covered lake. First
the ice started crumbling and looking mushy. Then it started moving north
in large convoys and piled up on the north shore. It was really amazing
to watch and I must admit that it was a great excuse to take a break from the
physical labor. I took 30-40 pictures and within two hours it was all
over. Imagine seeing an ice-coved lake and then in almost a blink of an
eye it was all water and white caps.
I
put together a little photo show on the INFORMATION page of the website that
shows what happened this weekend. It’s called Ice Breakup and it’s a
large file, so be patient with the download. We’ll be back next weekend
if you’re in the neighborhood and the Lodge and Eagles Perch are available for
the early bird vacationers. Now is the time for frisky walleye and Northerns.
April
15, 2007
It
has been a perfect weekend at the lake. The only thing missing was lots of
kids. People were putting in docks, fishing, even water skiing (with
wetsuits). Temps reached the 60s and the air was so fresh you wanted it
for dessert. We still have a lot of things we want to get done for summer.
But, this weekend we raked up the bare spots and planted about 10 pounds of
grass seed around the resort. We checked the two 500 gallon gas tanks and
they were both in good shape. I drained the gas filters and there were no
particulates or water. Then I put about 10 gallons in the truck just to
be on the safe side before we turn on the pump for the boaters. (Truck
ran fine).
On
Saturday I guess the spring fling must have bit me. I decided to get the
golf cart running. It started right up and then I took out the bonding compound
we use for nicks on the boats and I put compound on every nick and crack on the
golf cart and then sanded it down. I had 3 cans of Walmart
cherry red spray paint and I painted that sucker and now it looks like a little
fire engine. When I was done I took a good look at the faded white
fiberglass canopy and said, “Hmmm, I think I need to paint it too.” So, I
grabbed a can of silver paint and I blasted the top of the golf cart until the
can ran out. The golf cart is now truleyyyy a
limo. I think we’ll use it in the Bully Bullhead parade this year.
It can pull our little courtesy carts and put a couple of little kids in
there. What do you think? Anyway, I put a before/after
picture of the cart on the INFORMATION page of the website.
Also
on Saturday, they almost finished the exterior of a new house over by the
Klein/Miller lake home. That new house was a 4 section modular home that
they brought in 3 days ago and it’s just amazing to see how fast an empty lot
turns into a great home. A big crane lifted up the sections and they
connected them in a few hours. On Friday morning there were no roof
trusses but by Saturday morning all the trusses were up, plywooded
and covered. I used my new zoom lens to take a couple of pictures and put
them on the INFORMATION page for a few days.
We
will be staying in
May
31, 2007
Well,
it’s done. Both daughters have graduated and had their receptions.
We had to fly to
The
resort is looking pretty good. The deck has been repainted and Eagles Perch
narrow stairs have been replaced with strong wide steps so you can carry a
cooler without walking sideways. We also added 4 new tables, 3 new park
benches and pressure cleaned all of the picnic tables. We are going to
replace the old Playstation 2 unit with a new one and have added some XBOX
games. That old pirate ship on the Sunken Putter mini-golf course is
going to need some attention. I have half a mind to tear it down since
the trees give plenty of shade now. What do you think I should do?
The
weeds have been especially bad this spring so we had an extra spraying.
The lawns are nice and purrdy now with not a dandelion in sight. The jacuzzi has sprung four small leaks in the pipes over the
winter but they drip so slow I wonder if they’ll tighten up after we use it a
bit? I’ll spend some time on this. May just be a loose screw or
needing a glob of compound.
It’s
a shame we aren’t here promoting the resort for early spring fishing since they
caught so many good fish. It was not as cold as last spring and those who
braved the wind and spring chill had a good time. I’m not ready to give
up teaching yet but sometimes I wish I could be two people at the same time!
I
really like my old beat-up golf cart now. For some reason cherry red
seems more pleasant than that faded purple color. Tanya tried to give her
aunt a tour of the lake on the cart this past weekend and they ran out of
gas. So, she had her aunt push it back to the resort while she
steered! That’s one tour that auntie won’t forget for a while.
We
had a guest this weekend that had not been to the lake for 11 years. They
were amazed at how much the resort had been improved. Then they took a
slow drive around the lake and were amazed to see all of the new construction.
Nothing was recognizable to them from the past. The homes are all bigger,
better, and nicely maintained.
We
are one week away from our first big family-reunion guests and I’m counting the
days! See you soon.
June
5, 2007
This
past weekend was Jekyll and Hyde weather, sunny, rainy, sunny, raining. But we all still had a great time.
During the brief periods of rain there was the game room, free video library
and trips to Wild Rose. Brian and his father-in-law brought us a fabulous
gift. They built an 8-foot windmill in their machine shop and the vane
said Lost Island Resort. We put it up in the golf course. I’ll put a
picture of it on the INFORMATION page for a couple of weeks.
Our
guests are the best you can imagine. Some of the older kids helped us
with the boats and other things and really enjoyed it when they were rewarded
with ice cream cones. Bill, a walleye fisherman, also was curious about
all the things we do and helped every chance he got. This early in the
season there are lots of loose ends as we shake off the cobwebs of the last
nine months. It can be a real joy when others want to assist.
One
father said his four kids said it was their second best vacation ever.
They spent most of their time on the boats but also did the golf and
badminton. Wait a minute. Second best?
Last year we were better than Disney and now only Second?? I forgot to
ask what was first. Darn, we’d have been first I bet, if it hadn’t
rained. J
In
addition to our fabulous guests I have another story about our neighbors and it
includes Bob (yes, that Bob). We have a big tree on the border of the
resort and it creates too much shade in an area that Bob’s wife wants some
flowers and it has a root system that is attacking my sewer line. It was
just a scrub tree but was now about 25 feet high. Well, I was yakking and
yakking about what to do since felling the tree might smash Bob’s window or
crash through the roof of Pelican Nest or sever a gas line or break the sewer
line or someone might get hurt or …..get the
picture? Anyway, Bob’s brother Terry grabbed a
tree saw and said “Stand back”. No discussion, no 2 hour debate on CNN,
just “stand back”. The guy was amazing and of course Bob was a big help
and I tried to pretend I was in charge but was mostly ignored which made my
wife repeatedly bubble over with laughter. Here’s the trick. Take
your time. Saw small sections of the tree off at a time. Don’t saw
clear through so the branch will slowly drop down. Let the downed branch
cushion the fall of the next branch. It worked. Soon we only had
the 15 foot main trunk left. We laid some boards down on the sewer line
and Bob and I pulled hard as Terry cut through the trunk. Down it
came. Most of the tree will wind up in the brush dump in Spencer but we’ll
let the main pieces cure for a year and then use them for firewood. The
whole thing took 45 minutes.
What
great friends, huh? Terry’s that guy in the catamaran picture I posted
last year. He told me he also has a 14’ Sun Fish sailboat this
year. Last week when it was real windy I saw a catamaran flying so fast
it didn’t seem possible. The two guys must have been having a great time.
I’m
also teaching some online courses this summer and hope to travel around
June
11, 2007
So,
it was cold and windy all last week as we prepared for our biggest family
reunion ever. On Wednesday, 50 mph winds tore through the resort
depositing leaves, twigs and branches everywhere. The deck floor was almost a
solid green from all the leaves. Denise and I recruited Grant to help us on
Thursday to clean up since our guests were due to arrive Friday. Denise
worked on the deck while Grant did our large pea rock yard and around the
volleyball court. He finished at 4 p.m just as a new storm came through
with 35 mph winds. By 4:30, leaves and branches were everywhere on the
volleyball court and we started over again. But for some reason the deck
was mostly spared. Now, I know this sounds whinney but it’s kind of funny
too. It’s a natural part of resort life and isn’t upsetting. But here’s
the reason I’m telling this story. The weather remained cloudy and
drizzly and windy until about noon on Friday.
A
little after noon on Friday the wind died, the clouds parted, and the sun
cranked up the heat into the 80s. Then they started rolling in, and they
kept coming and coming until all 9 residences were filled. They came from
The
good weather is back today and it really is getting summery. The wind
dropped down, the days are in the 80s and it should be a great week. One
of my lakefront friends came over for some soft ice cream and gently reminded
me that I had not turned on the webcam on the website. I’d better try to
do that today.
June
18, 2007
I
know. Still no webcam. I need to reinstall the
software and I can’t find the disk. Not much time to play with that,
we’ve been full for the past week and it looks like the whole summer will go
that way. We thought there would only be families in seven cabins this
past weekend but we had two last-minute bookings so we were full. One of
our last-minute guests was only able to stay one night because the cabin was
occupied on the other nights. He is a fisherman and I told him that I
thought the walleye fishing was starting to slow down for the summer
doldrums. The next morning he left with 8 walleye, a perch, one crappie,
and maybe 50 bullheads and he caught them all on our dock. I’d like to
think I know what I’m talking about but when it comes to the weather or fishing
I guess I’m just full of hot air.
I
know I’ve said this before, but one of the tricks to running a resort is to
have lots of different “possibilities” for activities but to do it in a way
that you minimize moments of disappointment or embarrassment. For
example, the dock benches are reinforced with 2x4s because Americans are
getting bigger and I didn’t want anyone to be embarrassed by having an
“equipment failure” on the dock. Another example is the microphones on
Karaoke night. People like to wiggle around and walk around when singing
and if the cord is too short they give it a good yank. When they do that,
the cord breaks. Well, it happened again last week and the whole family
seemed to be worried about it. That made me feel bad because it was
really a minor expense (under $10) so I sprang into action. I had a pair
of wireless mikes express mailed to the resort and this Saturday was a lot of
fun as my new 10 year old DJ, known as
No-No-the-Jack, ran all over the deck with a wireless mike encouraging
people to sing. I hope he comes back next Saturday to give me a
hand. But, the real point of this story is that no more families are
going to feel bad if Suzy or Billy Bob breaks a microphone cable because there
are no more cables.
We’ve
made a decision about the golf course. The ship is coming down. One of my
neighbors heard about it and came over and told me how hard the previous owner
worked to build it. It’s true. But it is going to be impossible to
preserve it as an historical landmark so the thing is going to be
demolished. We thought the best approach is to wait until we have a set
of non-golfing guests so we don’t interfere with anyone’s vacation. Then
we will take down the front of the old ship and see how sturdy the back end
is. The back end is covered so it has not deteriorated as much.
I’ll post some pictures when we begin the project.
My
big project this past week was digging a 75 foot trench from the 500 gallon
propane tank to the jacuzzi. It took 2 days and
really added some muscle to my shoulders (translation: pain!). Then the
gas company sent a team over and they installed a new gas line so the jacuzzi will never run out of heat. For the past three
years I was using a system of two 100 pound tanks. When one was empty, I
hooked up the spare. I would then try to roll/carry the empty tank on
that narrow terraced ledge over to my pickup to get it refilled and then
roll/carry the full tank back to the ledge. This was very tricky and one
day last year I slipped and had to lift up the full tank to keep it from
bouncing down the terrace. It took a week to recover from the back pain. I also
put in a wireless on/off switch onto the jacuzzi
bubbler to make it more convenient for guests. Needless to say I am
thrilled with my new trouble-free lakefront jacuzzi.
How many places are there in the world where you can be getting a nice hot
water massage while watching the kids play on a water trampoline? Of
course, I have to be honest about this. It’s kinda for me too, because I love sitting in a hot tub.
There’s
a group of us that pool our money for a fireworks show on the 4th of
July weekend. The people who do all the work are in Bobs (yes, that Bob)
family with Paul taking the lead. Well, it’s going to be the best ever
this year. We have a legal permit. We have the support of lake
associations and clubs, and we are getting some great donations. The only
thing I wish could change is the day of the fireworks display. It will be
on Saturday night, July 7th. Now that seems like a long ways
from the 4th but there’s a reason. Many of the lake people
only come on weekends and they are the big contributors to the purchase of the
fireworks. The 4th is on Wednesday. I guess the nice
thing is that all the local communities will have their displays Wednesday
night and then everyone can come to the
June
27, 2007
Busy,
busy, busy. We have a nice family reunion this week and they have the
best ski boat on the lake. They come every year so it seems like family
and everyone is relaxed and slowly changing color from white to brown (or
red). I had kind of a revelation about little kids. They have a
little boy that is now 2+ and wasn’t even born the first time they came
here. But this year I have been watching him and I realize that his
kiddie brain is recording things for the first time and he is intensely
absorbing every experience. Blowing up a tube (wow, look at that thing
getting bigger), a loud boat goes zooming by the dock (wow, what was that?),
dad grilling up some marinated meat (yummy, what is that nice smell and why is
my tummy bubbling?). Don’t you wish that you could capture that emotion
and everything you do seems exciting and fascinating? It sure would make
it easier in the morning when you have to get up and go to your 9-5. I
think owning a resort gives your brain a greater variety of experiences than a
normal job and that stimulation is probably good for your health.
Of
course, now I have to come up with some examples of new experiences at the
resort. Here’s one. Don’t let water continue to seep into your
paddle boat until it is so heavy you can’t lift it onto the dock. It’s
probably a good idea to haul it out of the lake every 3 or 4 days and let it
sit upside down with the plug open. We have been so busy with other
things that it wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that I noticed the hull of the
Pelican Princess was filling up. The couple in the boat looked like they
were paddling a submarine. When they got to the dock I asked Dan if he
would help me lift it out of the water. He did, but we had a terrible
time and I was worried he might pull a muscle or something. Then I pulled
the plug and tried to lift it up to drain it but the bottom was slimy and it
slid back into the lake only now the front end was under water with the plug
open! You could see more water bubbling into the hull. Fortunately
Dan rescued me again and we managed to horse it back up onto the dock and then
his cousin came down and the 3 of us got it positioned for draining. I
guess the funny part of this story is about the same as most of the things that
happen around here. If my guests hadn’t come to the rescue, the Pelican
Princess would be a new artificial reef, located about 30 ft from shore.
I
know I talk a lot about karaoke even though it is only 2 or 3 hours out of the
whole week. And the truth is, most families
wouldn’t even notice if there wasn’t a karaoke party. There’s
plenty of other things to do. But, inevitably, it is the karaoke party
that produces tons of laughs and it’s fun to write
about that and the memories are lasting. Last Saturday I found that the
microphone port on my laptop was broken. There had been an accident in a prior
week and I only thought it broke the cable, but alas, the computer port was
damaged too. There were several people sitting patiently when I stood up
and said there were no mikes and I was going to shut it down. Well, a
lady from
I
bought a really cool digital camera that does a great job of taking lost
distance photos. I’ve been taking pictures of guests on the water and
then printing out an 8.5 x 11 glossy photo and giving it to them. I think
it is a nice surprise and a gift that can be a keepsake. I also really
enjoy photography. If you are coming here and you have a specific
request, don’t be shy. Let me know – I enjoy doing this.
The
webcam keeps dropping the signal. I have to reboot it every day so my
apologies if you are getting a blank screen.
Denise
is still doing her landscaping. The place has flower gardens blooming
everywhere this year and it really makes it look cheerful. Today the boss
(yes, her) just told me to get out there and clean out the shed. Darn,
the place doesn’t feel so cheerful right now. Gotta go!
7/5/07
I
thought last week was busy? That was only a warm up to the main
event. The cabins are full but we thought we would have sort of a slow 4th
of July on the lake because it was on Wednesday. Man, if
that’s s l o
w, I don’t want to see fast. We drained the big storage tank of
gas and it was a good thing we bought that back-up tank last summer because we
almost drained it too. We spent the whole day running up and down the
dock steps and it was just Denise and me running the joint. We calculated this
morning that it was the equivalent of running up 1800 stairsteps. I had
cramps in both calf’s. The jacuzzi
was the real life-saver. After 30 minutes in the bubbly, I was ready to do it again.
Late
in the afternoon on the 4th I was telling a jetski customer that
there’s so much traffic on the lake that it looks like Okoboji. The guy
laughed and said, “No it doesn’t”. He had come from Okoboji an hour
earlier and told us that the traffic was so bad they could barely move on the
water.
Last
night there were very few fireworks around LOST, but the mosquitoes put on a
good show (drat!). I’m hoping everyone is saving up their stash of
munitions for the big show on Saturday night. The weather looks like it’s
going to be perfect and the big show will be right next door to us and we’re
looking forward to other neighbors shooting off their fireworks too, creating
quite a spectacle all around LOST…..I recommend getting your boat anchored up
on the water by 9 pm. The show will probably begin a few minutes before
10. We’ll have some music and a little karaoke too.
7/10/07
The
fireworks on Saturday were amazing. I always videotaped the show but this
year I took the pontoon out for some guests and it was the best. At 9:45,
Bob’s family (yes, that Bob) started the heavy artillery and I looked around
and there were only about 20 boats. I told Denise that I was worried
about the turnout since we had 65 boats last year. Not to worry! By
10:15 there were so many boats you couldn’t count them since their anchor
lights blended in with the shore home lights. There had to be over 100
boats – a sea of bobbing lights that covered the whole lake. There has
never been a night like that on this lake. Cheering, blowing horns,
flashing lights, man-oh-man. We are going to have a more formal process of
collecting donations for next year. The donations are in the thousands
now and we’ll get better organized and get some recognition for those who
participated. Then, next year the show can be even better.
We
added a few new pictures to the INFORMATION page. One is a cute pik of a
baby pool in front of the jacuzzi. Another is
the dock with some of the spent artillery of the fireworks. Then there’s
a picture of an anonymous person whose head is tilted down on the pedal boat so
that she looks headless. Ha. The last picture is a
teen tubing in the light of the setting sun. Monday evening I took
the pontoon over to the beach and tried to give tube rides to the 48 kids in
the Upward Bound program. After 2 ½ hours I had to call it off because of
darkness and there were 4 disappointed kids waiting on the dock waiting for
their turn. I was exhausted but I still wished I hadn’t run out of time.
Then,
today my daughter came from
Tomorrow
we pour a new concrete pad for our dumpsters. Some say that the measure
of success is the amount of trash we accumulate. Well we must be getting really
successful because the dumpsters are so loaded that they won’t roll anymore on
the rock driveway. We’ll take care of that problem at 9 a.m.
7/15/07
The
concrete pad is finished. Someone heard the truck backing into my
driveway and came running over to help with the leveling (yes, that Bob).
I put a funny picture of that event on the INFORMATION page. I absolutely
love my new digital camera. I put up a couple of fun pictures on the
INFORMATION page. One is six examples of strange boats on our lake.
The other is 3 shots of kids clowning around on the trampolines.
Another one of those “to the rescue” stories. It
starts out like so many others. We have a lot of stuff here: bikes,
golf, water trampolines, all those boats, jacuzzi,
dozens of doors, windows, A/C units, fridges, etc. Denise and I could
never keep up with the fixin’ without professional repair people and more often
than not, our guests and neighbors. Yesterday our soft ice cream machine
began getting louder and louder and today it moaned a final time and
quit. Sunday afternoon, 88 degrees, no ice cream.
Gives you the shivers doesn’t it? Two families had checked into the lodge
an hour earlier and one of the wives was in the shop when Denise gave me the
chilling news: “No more soft ice cream”. The woman said, “My husband can
fix that!” and she ran out the door (clearly understanding the urgency of the
situation).
I
went out to the shed and put an assortment of tools in a bucket. When I
returned to the shop her husband and his friend were already hunched over the
complex machinery discussing potential ailments like two emergency room doctors
hovering over some old guy Dick Cheney shot. Within 15 minutes they had
taken it apart and discovered a busted sheer pin caused by the ice cream being
too cold and too thick. The auger couldn’t turn and the pin broke to
protect the transmission. After another 45 minutes I had returned from
Menards with a sheer pin and in no time we had ice cream again. The
reason the woman knew her husband could fix it is because he was an engine mechanic
in the Navy and also was responsible for the onboard ice cream machine.
Isn’t that amazing? I put a picture of these fix-it guys on the
INFORMATION page.
Last
year when I couldn’t get the pipes right on my new gas storage tank it turned
out the guy in Eagles Perch was a pipefitter. It seems like every time we
have a potentially big problem, somebody pops up that can save the day.
It took me years to be able to graciously accept the help of others but I’ve
tried hard to reciprocate. The lesson is that you have to accept the help
of others even when you know you won’t be able to pay them back. The real
payback is when you try to find opportunities to help someone else who won’t be
able to pay you back. This is one of the things that makes
a nation great. This is something we need to pass on to every generation of
Americans.
7/26/07
I
can’t believe it’s been 11 days. I put a picture of my daughter’s grand
entrance into the resort on our INFORMATION page for a couple of weeks.
It looks like she ran over some guy and then landed in the ditch. It’s
actually Ronnie attaching a chain. I know, you’re all thinking “Where’s
Bob?” (yes, that Bob). He wasn’t at the lake or
else I’m certain he would have been in the picture too, with a tow truck or big
crane or something.
We
have been having great weather and the resort has been really busy. I guess
that’s why I have been so slack with the journal. I haven’t completed any
new projects or anything. I’ve replaced some tired deck lumber and a few
boards on the dock. I’ve helped pick up cigarette butts in the pea rock
on a couple of occasions. We’ve filled up the trampolines with air and
have replaced the water in the jacuzzi every 3 days or
so. Oh, one day there were various groups of people in the jacuzzi from about 10 a.m. til the wee hours of the
night. What I have witnessed is that the teenagers who come here year
after year are more frequently using the hot tub than they were
previously. I think we have as many teens in the tub this year as we do older
adults. That surprises me. We’re the ones with the aching
joints aren’t we?
Schwans
Food corporation has a new aluminum foil tray that has
a perforated secret compartment with mesquite pellets. When you put fish
on the tray and grill it, it winds up having an incredible smoked flavor.
We have used these trays to cook salmon, bullheads, and catfish. I’ve
done a bit of consulting work for Schwans and one of their executives was
staying with us at the resort this week. He asked me about the new
product and I told him that it was great for fish but that the ultimate test
would be for someone to catch a carp and ask me to smoke it. Well, that
son-of-a-gun promptly went down to the dock and caught a carp.
That
meant I had to filet it and that leads to another story. His young son,
Pete, wanted to see me clean the fish. So, with the carp in a
bucket we headed for the fishhouse. When we got there, he volunteered to
say a prayer before I killed it. This was cute and no
doubt something that all good Catholic boys should do before
slaughtering defenseless animals. Well, it was a rather long prayer but
to summarize it, he said “God don’t put a curse on us for killing your
fish. Please remember that Jesus hired fishermen too.” It was so
funny.
Then
I killed the fish and opened his stomach so Pete could see what the carp had to
eat. We then smoked it, along with a catfish. Hold on to your
hats. The concensus of the four taster-people was that the carp had a
better smoked flavor. Wanna know what the real problem is with
carp? It’s those darn bones. I couldn’t stand it. I am
determined to figure out a way to solve the bone problem. If we can do
that, we can eat the LOST carp into extinction, leaving our lake teeming with
walleye and northern right?
There
has been another sighting of that giant catfish that I have been writing about
for years. It’s becoming a mythical thing, sort of like our version of
the Loc Ness Monster. Only this fish has been seem by at least a dozen
people in the last few years. No it’s not a large carp being mistaken for
a cat. The carp head is very different. This thing looks like a
gigantic bullhead.
Had
a kiddie karaoke party for an hour Tuesday and that same little guy Pete sang
the
The
catfish have been the steady winner out on the fishing dock. Guests are
pulling in 4 or 5 nice ones daily on stink baits and liver. That Schwan’s
guy even caught one while casting a fly – I’ve never seen that done
before. They’re also catching a few crappie and bullheads but as hot as
it is, most guests are here for the water sports and biking. Most
afternoons have been over 90.
A
couple of days ago I made a quick trip back to
8/4/07
It’s
raining. This is our first good rain all summer. We’ve had a few
brief sprinkles but no rainy days since early June. A lot of the local
crops were burning up and farmers were talking about harvesting silage (not
good). Usually a resort owner is praying for sunny days but today I’ll
make an exception for all of our farmer guests at the resort. Our golf
course was turning into sand. I hope now that the grass grows back and
beautiful the way it was in June. Of course, we still take care of our
guests. The jacuzzi has a canopy so it’s still
being used. The game room has Xbox, Playstation 2, and Nintendo game
cubes. There’s over 500 videos for free rental and the cabins all have
VCRs and cable tv. It’s not unusual for the teens to play rainy
volleyball but today I think it might be a little chilly. 76 degrees,
sprinkling and the wind is starting to pick up.
We
had a fascinating family in the Lodge & Eagles Perch this past week. It was
a family reunion with a mother/father and four grown kids and all 4 of them had
a 2 year old boy! What are the odds against that? They seemed
to get along so good. They all had little wagons and tricycles and toys
galore. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of this, they were so
cute. When they first arrived you think that there might be a possibility
of constant crying for a week but that didn’t happen. And the dad’s really
kept the place hopping. One day they went over to Okoboji and when they
returned they must have had 15 blow up toys, some of
them really big. They were going to use lung power and a tiny electric
pump to blow them all up. But I pitched in with the big compressor and we
got the job done in no time. Then they filled up the back of two pickup
trucks (no kidding) with the inflatables and off they went to the
I
have kind of a funny gas pump story. Three teenagers came in on a jetski
for a fill. The girl in front had a $50 bill and said “don’t let it go
over $50”. It stopped at $49.15, 85 cents short of $50 and the exact
price of an ice cream cone. So I told them that all three of them could
make an ice cream cone if they give me the whole $50. Zoom. Into the shop
they ran for their ice cream cones and then they headed back to the
jetski. I grabbed the camera and followed them out the door. I
stood on the deck and yelled down to them that they should sit on the deck to
eat their cones. They politely declined so I asked them to pose for a
picture and I’ll put in on the INFORMATION page for a couple of weeks.
Sure enough, the boy was licking the cone as they hit the first wave and it
smashed against his face. I wish I could have caught that on the camera.
I
guess this is our year for tearful goodbyes. My granddaughter had a fit
when she had to leave. Last week two young teenage girls cried when they
had to leave some boys they met. Yesterday, kids from two families got
all teary when they had to go. It creates these weird mixed
feelings. We look forward to our next guests, since we already know most
of them. Yet, you wish the other guests didn’t have to leave. It’s sorta
like having a great big family only they don’t all fit at one time so they have
to take turns.
8-12-07
Guess
who checked into the lodge when the four little 2 yr old boys checked
out? You guessed it – 4 little girls. It was a three generation
family and the girls ages were real close – they were
from 5 – 9 years old. They were really cute and got along real
well. They also helped me out. No kidding. I was sitting in shallow
water throwing big rocks along the bulkhead when one by one they swam over and
starting hurling rocks with me. It’s amazing how some of the jobs you
don’t want to do, you put them off and put them off, and then when you finally
do them (rebuilding the shoreline), it gets turned
into something that’s fun. I kept it up until my fingers turned
red. The little girls would help for a while, then sit on the dock and
talk to me and then they would help again some more. Then when their
parents took them to the beach they asked if I could go to. (Now, that’s
a compliment. But I didn’t go.)
This
is the meteor shower weekend and one of our absolutely marvelous families is in
the lodge. This year they have a Japanese junior high student with them
who speaks almost no English. But man that is so quickly forgotten by
kids. They can communicate so well without language. The family is
so patient with her and they turn everything into fun and play. For
example, the annual meteor shower is here this weekend and there is no moon so
it is the perfect condition for watching shooting stars at LOST. Well,
that little girl screamed with joy at 11pm when she saw her first shooting
star. She was also fascinated by the view of the cloudy, blurry streak
that is the Milky Way, our galaxy. It seems that in her home in
One
reader mentioned that I am a Pollyanna and only see the good side.
(What’s wrong with that?) Ok, ok, it’s not perfect here. There is a
new issue that we are dealing with this year. Three times this year
we have had a family that used to live in the Ruthven area book a cabin. So far so good. They check in and immediately dive
into all of the free stuff since we are an All-Inclusive resort. They
ride the bikes, take out the paddle boats, play golf,
etc without having to worry about how much it costs. Then they overdo
their enthusiasm and start calling up local people they still know and have
them come over for a barbeque and the day visitors
start using our equipment too. All three times the family got upset when
I said their guests can’t be here for free. I don’t know how to do this
in a way that keeps them happy. We’ve posted a sign in the driveway about day
visitors, we posted another day visitor sign in the shop, and it’s also on our
website. Most resorts charge for everything and that’s how they
significantly boost their revenues above the price of the cabin. We
wanted people to have a worry-free, trouble-free vacation and have a single expense
at the beginning of their stay and then leave them alone to enjoy LOST. I
think if we charged for the bikes, paddle boats, golf, game room etc. then
people would be less likely to invite local people over to use our facility or
if they did they would know that the day visitors would have to pay also.
But, we are not going to change. There are too many good things happening
here to alter our format. I just don’t know how to fix this glitch; I
guess we’ll have to explain the situation about day visitors to every family
that arrives to check in. I don’t like doing that and I don’t like
rules. We’ll see. It’s not a very big problem and it only happened a couple of times. There, you happy?
Fair and balanced news reports from John’s Journal.
8-23-07
Rain,
rain, go away, come again another, another, hmmm, year? I guess I’m
pretty hard to please. We’ve finally received our rain and now the grass
is growing like crazy and I have to mow every 5 days and it won’t stop raining,
whine, whine, whine. Fact is,
our guests have been very lucky this year. We haven’t had a single day
that I can think of that was a total wash-out. Last week, there was at
least a few hours daily of no rain and everyone got their exercise and
fun. But I must admit I am grateful for that game room. It had a
lot of use with the xbox, nintendo, and playstation getting almost as much use
as the internet computers. I am so glad we got rid of those old-fashioned
coin operated game machines.
But, wow, the fishing. Despite the drizzle last week,
our guests caught lots of good-sized catfish. There were more cats biting
on worms than there were bullheads. It’s about time. We went two weeks
with very poor catches and its good to be back to
normal.
This
week has been the worst for bad weather but it is our “gap” week. The
“gap” week is the third week in August when all of the kids go back to school
and a week before Labor Day. Usually the weather is fabulous and the
bookings are low (thus, the “gap”) so Denise and I get a little vacation of our
own. But this year, dog-gone-it, it has rained for 4 days of our little
vacation and the lake has risen about two feet. I had to raise all of the
boat hoists so the boats wouldn’t float away! I’ve never had to do that
before. The good news is that despite the high winds and two feet of
driving rain, there was only one tiny roof leak and there was no
flooding. Well, almost no flooding --- the golf course developed some
temporary water hazards for our duffers J.
The
girls are gone. Probably for good. Jackie
is at the U of Florida pre-med and Tanya is at
Denise
and I went to Spencer today and left our business cards at all the motels for
the fair week. We’ll have all of the cabins open in September so if you
are going to the Clay County Fair “the world’s biggest county fair” then please
come stay with us. We also think the motels will
refer fairgoers to us since they are all booked up already. Tomorrow our
last two jetskis will be turned over to their new owner and we’ll have to
change all of our literature. No more jetskis. I hated to do it but
all of the resorts are ending their jetski
rental businesses. Insurance is too high and repairs have gone
astronomical - $110 hour labor at Okobo geee
that’s costly. We’ll still have the pontoon and tubing and the fishing
boat.
Labor
Day is going to be great this year. We’re totally booked and they are all
old friends of ours. It looks like the weather will be much better and we
can finish the season will a real bang-up good time. Then we can start
preparing for the county fair and the pheasant hunters.
8-31-07
Here
they come! The guests are booking in for this last celebration of summer.
The weather is perfect, low wind, high in the mid 80s and clear blue
skies. The party Saturday night is going to be a big one with singing
guests and a couple of large groups swinging in from some of the homes around
the lake. Fish are jumping, kids are swimming, it
doesn’t get any better than this.
Last
week we sold our last two jet skis and we have some real funny pictures of the
boat hoist being floated over to the public ramp. It looks like one of
those refuge rafts that wash up on the beach at
There’s
going to be a lot of camp fires this weekend. The evenings are cool, in
the 60s, and that will cut down on the mosquitoes. The little buggers
really multiplied after that huge week of rain we had and guess what else came
out in droves? Frogs. I’ve never seen so
many frogs. If you are afraid of them just stay off the grass.
Fortunately, all the cabins have pea-rock yards, not grass. I bet the
northerns are going to be really big this fall since they’ve been gorging
themselves on the froggie buffet.
This
weekend we’ll have 10 bikers in our Lodge accommodation. I remember back
in the 60s when bikers were a feared culture. Anybody remember
that? Now, they are among our best guests – fun loving, respectful of
property, and personable. I wonder what the average age of the bikers was
during Sturgis this year? I bet it was over
40. I think I’m going to buy a Harley when I retire. What kind of
tattoo should I put on my chest? “Get LOST”? Maybe I better ask
permission from Denise before I do this.
Best
Labor Day ever. Absolutely perfect weather and the only threat was from Mosquitoes. I am happy to report that we
successfully knocked them down. Over the three day holiday I sprayed 8
gallons of Malathion and it worked. I did get some help – our guests
started several campfires and that really helps with bug control. We had
karaoke parties on back to back nights – Saturday and Sunday. Last night
the entire deck was full of people from around the lake and we hardly had a
single mosquito. One group of people came from the public campground and
they said the bugs were so bad over there that they couldn’t go outside at
night. They were so happy to be over here for the evening. One
really cute camping couple kept saying “awesome” as we went through a series of
video songs on the 10 foot screen. Maybe they’ll stay with us next year.
The
bikers were great, it reminded me of Pam and Steve’s
group earlier this year. It’s so nice to be able to work hard yet feel
relaxed because the people are being so friendly and chatting all the
time. As they were leaving some of them were talking about coming back
next weekend! I guess they felt the same way about us as we did about
them.
Blaine
and his buddy went over to
We
had a rescue this Friday that taught me a lesson. We had two little girls
who wanted to go kayaking and apparently the mother helped them get lifejackets
and get launched. There were two things that were wrong. They had
canoe paddles instead of kayak paddles. Then they paddled with the wind
and it was blowing 20 mph, so they flew away from the dock. I didn’t see
any of this but the mother came to me very worried while I was talking to Tom
(from a different family). She said she couldn’t see the girls and was
afraid. I said they would be ok, that they had life jackets and the boat
can’t sink. The worst thing that could happen is that they would be blown
to shore and have to walk home. While I was trying to make light of the
situation, Tom said to her, “My boat’s ready to go, let’s go get them.” So the two of them ran down to the dock, jumped in the boat and zoomed
off in search of the girls. I got out the telescope and watched as
the boat raced to the other side of the lake – downwind – and found the two
girls almost on the shore, using the wrong paddles and going backward instead
of forward. The littlest girl was crying. Tom got them into the boat,
calmed down the little one, and secured the kayak.
Ten
minutes later they were both back on the water, playing on the water trampoline
and they even went back on the kayak when the wind died. No harm done, bu
here is what I learned. The most important thing is a person’s
perception. The mother wasn’t worried about physical harm (my perception), she was worried about the emotional state of her little
girl. Thus, I was yakking and yakking and she needed immediate action
which is what Tom perceived. I would have dropped the fishing boat in the
water and rescued the girls but I was too slow to react. I’ll do better
next time.
I
saw something new on the water during last night’s karaoke party
but it’s really hard to describe. The lake was dead calm,
like glass. All of the home lights were shooting reflections of what
looked like colored icicles out from the waters edge. The moon came up
and the moon beam formed an orange glow that spread across the lake and,
because there were no ripples, it almost looked like a smooth golden path you
could walk on. Then a boat went zipping across the middle of the lake and
the neatest thing happened. The wake of the boat created a rippled rhythm
through the moon beam and the yellow reflection wiggled almost in time with the
music. It was unreal and I know this doesn’t really describe it and you’d
have to be here to appreciate it. It just confirms that when we look for beauty
in nature it’s all around us and no matter how hard we try,
humans can’t create anything approaching it.
It’s
over. Time to wrap up all the summer toys.
We’ll be hauling in the water trampolines this week and starting to get ready
for hunters. Still plenty of cabins available for the county fair and the
fishing is only going to get better as we move into
fall. I’ll be here off and on all fall and winter and Al will be back to
help out the pheasant hunters. If you want a quiet
weekend getaway, now’s the time to give us a call.
9-9-07
It
looks like our little trip to the Spencer motels paid off. They’re
sending people over here from the county fair. One guy pulled in at 10:30
pm and he had been standing up selling lemonade all day and was simply bone
tired. I had driven over to the fair earlier and the first day crowd was
amazing. One of the couples staying with us had never been “LOST” before
and fell in love with the lake. They want to come back next weekend and
bring their pontoon boat with them. We’ll see. It can get nasty
cold and wet this time of year but if it’s good weather they’ll be back.
It
was going to be so easy disconnecting the trampoline and doughnut. I put
on a ski vest and swam out on Thursday. I had a long rope in my
hand that was tied to the dock. The idea was that I was going to attach
the rope, disconnect the mooring line and then pull myself and the floats back
to the dock. I dived under the trampoline and popped up in the air space
in the middle. In the Spring I had attached new clip-on connectors to the
anchor chain so it would be easy to detach. “All good plans of mice and
men…..” you know the line. Of course the trampoline and doughnut
(12 feet apiece) had been dancing with the wind for almost 4 months and yup,
they were hopelessly tangled. I was smart enough to bring a razor with me
and was able to cut everything loose but it took a long time and now I was
really tired and a tad cold. When I finished and popped up outside of
trampoline I was wondering how my tired body was going to pull them in by
myself. Like every story at LOST there’s a happy ending. There
stood one of my guests on the dock waiting to see if I’d ever reappear in the
water. He happily grabbed the dock rope and pulled me and the trampolines
back to the dock. In 10 minutes they were both on the dock being deflated
and folded up for storage in the shed over the winter. Looking back, this
was really a good year for all of our inflatables. I’ll have to throw
away the old orange trampoline that we had kept tied to the dock all
year. Other than that, no major deflations, no runaway trampolines (makes
for exciting moments), and most of the kids really like the partially inflated
12 foot doughnut in the deep water. Next year I have plans to make it
even better but you’ll have to be here to know what I’m up to. Wink wink.
Our
goose hunters did very well in this tiny little weekend goose season. They all
bagged birds.
Today
I’m taking out the little dock we used for the kayaks. The temperatures
are down to the 60s and that’s cold enough. Even with waders on you start
to feel cold after a couple of hours. I’ll probably jump into the hot tub
afterwards. That’s the fastest way to get your body heat back.
Gotta go..
Well,
I didn’t get the little dock out on the 9th. The wind kicked
up and it was too dangerous. Today was perfect, though. Not only
that, no one was here (everyone’s at the Worlds Largest County Fair, in
Spencer) so I could cuss and complain and chew myself out without anyone
thinking I was crazy. It went really well because I had used a grinder to
smooth out the tops of the pipes and they slid out without a hitch. I had
stacked 4 of the sections on the shore by myself but now they were stacked so
high that the ramp I was using wouldn’t work anymore. I was sitting there
pondering what I was going to do when I remembered this same thing happened
last year and Al showed up at that very moment and we lifted it up
together. So I whispered to God, “Ok, who are you going to deliver to me
today?”
9-27-07
I found a great pontoon fishing boat and had to buy it. The story actually begins in February, 2003
when we bought Marlers Resort. The
resort had six 13 foot fishing boats that had bare metal seats and 6 hp
motors. The previous owner told me that
they had been popular with the guests. But times change. No
one wanted to rent them in 2003, our first season. So at the end of the season I pressure
cleaned them and put them next to the road with a sign, $100 each. They were gone in one day.
I kept one of the boats as a free rowboat for any guest to
use, but no one does. In 2004 I bought a 14 foot
Now, there’s a related story that sounds like a tall tale
but it really happened and it happened this afternoon. I had taken the Fishin Barge out on her
maiden voyage and returned to the DNR dock.
I tied it up, got into the truck, and backed up the trailer to the
ramp. As I was doing this, an older
gentleman pulled up to the dock in an SUV.
He walked to the dock with a cell phone and appeared to be trying to
call someone. As I walked past him I
commented that reception was horrible here.
He agreed and asked if I saw any other boats on the lake because he was
trying to call his friends from Laurens.
I hadn’t seen any other boats but the two of us looked carefully and
thought we saw a white boat on the other side of the lake by the county
park. Apparently they had called him in
Laurens, told him the fishing was unbelievable, and to get his butt up here. Now that he had arrived he couldn’t get them
on the phone. So, I told him that I
would motor him out to the boat and he accepted. I pulled the trailer back to the parking
spot, helped load his fishing gear in the pontoon, and
off we went.
As we neared the boat, they started heading toward us but
they hadn’t recognized him, they were simply heading home for the day. We flagged them down and they pulled
alongside. Sure enough, they were done
for the day, having reached their limit on walleye. That was a happy pair of guys. They took him aboard and headed back to their
fishing spot to give him some fishing time.
I headed back to the dock. After
I pulled the boat out I realized the toons were not sitting right on the trailer
and had to drop it back into the water.
As I realigned the boat on the trailer guess who pulled up to the
dock. Yup. My new friend from Laurens had already caught
5 good sized walleyes! It couldn’t have
been more than 30-45 minutes. Needless
to say, that was a happy group. I don’t
know, I guess I’d like to stretch out a fishing trip to 3 or 4 hours but if I
did only have 30 minutes, that’s how I’d like to spend it. He thanked me again for the water taxi
service and off they went.
Man, today has been busy.
The Fishin Barge is 24’ so I had to buy a bigger trailer. I found a great scissors trailer but a boat
came with the deal. It is another 24’
pontoon so I actually have three pontoon boats now but this third one has a
blown 50 hp Johnson. I’m fixing up this
boat for resale because all I really wanted was the scissors trailer that it
was on. The wood and carpet on the deck
are in great shape but I’ve done a lot of pressure cleaning. I also replaced the little platforms in the
back for the gas tank and battery with ¾ in marine plywood. The toons are perfect, no dents. Great
anchor, nice railings with child locks, good captains chair and a canopy with
cover. First $1990 gets it. Other seats are bad, motor blown, no power
tilt, no trailer. Will deliver.
While I was cleaning the toon today, a roofer was putting a new
roof on Seagull Shanty and he’s almost done.
By the end of the weekend he’ll also have Pelican Nest done and Bluegill
will get some work also. All the other
buildings already have new roofs. Denise
and I will spend a good part of Friday raking up Walnuts, grrrr. Why on earth do those magnificent walnut
trees have those nasty walnuts? I
really shouldn’t complain. Tomorrow will
be around 80 with a light breeze, not bad for this time of year. Our cabins should be full of anglers this
weekend but they won’t be, because we really haven’t gone after that business
in the past. We really need to start promoting the fall fishing season even
though we are both teaching. This is an
experience that is quite different from the summer and has a beauty all of it’s own.
10-10-07
October, 90 degrees with light breeze.
Can you believe it? Friday and Saturday
highs were in the upper 80s. Sunday it rained and now it’s Wednesday and things
are back to normal – 55 in the day, 40 at night. Yesterday was so fresh and cool I whipped out
the 16 pound mallet and decided it was time to sink a ship. I have been putting this off for over a
year. The 50 foot ship on the mini-golf
course had turned into 50 feet of dry rot and I had to get rid of it before it
collapsed onto somebody. I was amazed at
how the mallet just smashed through all of the beams. I thought this was going to take a week but I
started around noon and by 6:30 p.m. my poor ship was gone. The only thing left to do is to burn the
wood. I guess the nice thing is that we
can now see that stand of trees behind the golf course and it is full of birds
and squirrels this time of year. I may
have to put up a fence if we keep losing golf balls over there. We’ll see. For now, no fence, just pretty
trees. I have a before/after picture of
the ship that I am putting on the INFORMATION page for a few weeks.
Last week we had so many migrating flocks. Bob, (yes that Bob), and I took a guest out
for a nighttime exploratory cruise since we could hear so many birds on the
water but we couldn’t see them. We ran
smack dab into this huge flock on the water and in unison they all took to the
air and flew over us – it was like a living curtain or ceiling – and then
landed back on the water on the other side of the pontoon. What a sight that was. Today there was a flock of mud hens (I think)
all lined up like school kids. I put a
picture on the INFORMATION page.
We have guests today who brought a terrific kayak and are
going to explore all of the wetlands around LOST. I wish I wasn’t so tied down with schoolwork, I’d love to follow them around in one of our
kayaks. I sure hope they see lots of
birds – it’s that time of year.
Next summer keeps looking better and better. New trampoline, new boats, all of the roofs
are done, decaying ship is gone, shoreline rebuilt. I hope winter goes fast. The only sad part is not having two bouncy
teenage girls (my college girls) running the place. I hope Denise and I can talk them into
spending at least part of the summer with us.
We’ll see.
The Lodge and Eagles Perch are booked up at the end of
December but are still available on the 31st for your New Years Eve
getaway. Time is running out!
10-21-07
What a weekend.
Temperatures ranged from the 50s to the 70s and we really took advantage
of it and prepped darn near everything for winter. But the best part was the airboat. I mentioned in my last entry on the 10th that
we had kayakers who hit the wetlands.
This weekend it was an airboat.
Man oh man, I haven’t seen one of those things
since my
I’ve taken so many pictures this fall of birds and it’s
tempting to fill up the INFORMATION page with them. We saw another parade of black ducks that
stretched for a few hundred feet and every morning the singing birds are
deafing. This morning I stood outside at
sunrise and tilted my head back and looked straight up into the sky as
thousands of birds flashed over our home.
It was a dizzying kind of feeling and when they had all roosted in the
trees I started chuckling and wondering why I didn’t get bombed with bird poop. I also wondered how old I would have to be
before I stopped wishing I could zoom around the sky like that. Then I went back in and ate my oatmeal.
The fall foliage is almost gone now and we’ve done real well
with the raking. It rained during the
week so I wasn’t able to burn the final remnants of the old wooden ship but
I’ll get it done next week. We pulled
out the a/c units and blew out the water lines on the seven little cabins. We
winterized the boat motors, covered all 4 boats in canvas and tarps, mowed the
grass, and replaced two windows that had cracked. So it’s done.
No more guests can stay in the 7 dwarfs until Spring. The Lodge and Eagles Perch will be busy for
the next couple of weeks with our pleasant pheasant guys. Looks like it’s going to be
a great pheasant season.
11-3-07
The hunters have now all left and what a great time they
had. On the first day of pheasant season
we had 10 guys staying with us. They
left before sunrise and by 11:40 a.m. they had all bagged their limit and
returned to the resort. It doesn’t get
any better than that! The only downer
was that the temperatures were plummeting in the night and we couldn’t take a
chance on firing up the jacuzzi. Last year a cracked pipe wound up costing
$440 and this year the temperatures were going down as low as 25 while the
hunters were here. So we pulled the plug and covered it up for winter.
We still haven’t finished burning the old ship. There’s no hurry, the golf course won’t be
operating again until May. We’ve been
finding a lot of golf balls under the wooden floor which is kind of funny. Guess there won’t be any ball shortages next
season.
This was our best fall for migrating birds. It was like a circus – noisy, acrobatic,
exciting, great variety, etc. I
especially liked the little mud hens on the water. They would cluster for a long time and then a
“leader” would take off paddling and they would line up behind him (her?) in
groups of 2 and 3 and form this long, long line of ducks.
On Friday, I was on a statewide radio show called Mickelson in the Morning to discuss alternative drivetrains for cars and why our dysfunctional political process can’t deal with it. (I do not take a political position.). It was on 1040 AM WHO radio and they put the discussion on their website so anyone can listen to it. Click here if you are interested: http://www.mickelson.libsyn.com
12/22/07
This will probably be my last entry in 2007. We are busy getting ready for Christmas and
the parties leading up to our new year.
Then we head to
A couple of days ago I was in the driveway when I saw a group of deer on the lake for the first time in five years. I was able to get my camera and fired off six photo shots before I spooked them. I put the best one on the INFORMATION page for a couple of weeks. We see lots of deer this time of year but never on the lake. At night they will sometimes come through the resort while foraging. I was amazed to see them running full tilt on the ice after I spooked them. I thought it was too slippery for that.
Earlier this year, I put a photo on the INFORMATION page showing large schools of fish that were offshore from the lodge. Last week a neighbor dragged a large ice shack to that exact spot and set it up for the ice fishing season. Hmm, I wonder if that’s a coincidence?
This has been a wonderful, successful year for