Here is our little cabin in the woods... My aunt and uncle built a log-type cabin, and my dad and mother put up this cabin. At first our place had just one bedroom, but it had double bunk beds. My folks slept on the bottom bunk, and I got the top bunk. I remember many chilly mornings at the lake when I would wake up and smell coffee brewing on the stove, and could feel the air close to the ceiling getting warmer from the heating stove. This cabin had no water heater, so if we wanted a bath or to wash our hair, water was heated in a tea kettle on the gas stove, and for a bath it was poured into a galvanized tub in the center of the living room, and one could bathe in that. Or, if it was warm enough, you could take a bath in the lake. I don't remember my parents using the tub for a bath, but they must have. Maybe they accomplished this while I was out playing, and took turns 'standing guard' so no one popped in on them. In any case, at the beginning, it was really 'roughing it' compared to being at home. But, I loved it...everything about it. Well, not exactly everything! I didn't like ticks, spiders or mosquitoes. But, everything else was absolutely an adventure to me.
This is a photo of the cabins after additions had been added to the fronts. Those additions made the cabins about twice the size they were to start with, and made them much more comfortable, especially if we had family who came up to spend a week or two. Notice the hammock between the two pine trees. Nothing more relaxing than lying in a hammock and feeling a nice breeze off the lake, and hearing the water gently splashing on the rocks along the shore. Also notice the double bench above the dock. All those steps going up to the cabins have a story, and I'll tell about that below. We had a wooden fishing boat, and of course, a 'Johnson' motor.
My dad and my uncle spent many hours constructing stone walkways, stairs and retaining walls on parts of the hillside. The method was for my cousin and I to get into the shallow water of the lake just downhill from the cabins, pick up rocks from the bottom of the lake, and pile them into a bucket which was rigged to a pulley system, which I think was run by an electric motor. When the bucket got full, one of the men would turn on the motor which would start the pulley's journey up the side of the hill with the bucket full of stones. These stones were stacked, as you can see in the photo, and filled in between with cement to create the walls and stairways. You can also see a birch pole railing just beyond my dad, and those were made to line one side of the stairway so a person had something to grasp as they went up or down. This job kept my dad and uncle busy for a very long time, but when it was done, it was not just convenient, but rather beautiful as well. Not only did the moving of the rocks make nice steps and walls, but it also made a more sandy bottom in the shallow water where we liked to play and swim.
Here is my dad working on a hollowed-out 'cove' into the hillside so the boat had a place to be pulled up out of the water. It must have been a very warm day, since he is just wearing shorts and no shirt. By the end of the summer, my dad was quite tan. In this photo you can see part of the stairway up to the cabin. Every spring when we arrived, weeds and long grass had to be cut down with a scythe along these steps, but they held up for several decades. A lot of work, but satisfying to see it when it was done. This photo has a date of August, 1960.
Here's the view of the lake from up on the hill, and you can see the stone edged 'patio' the men built. The canoe was my father's. He loved to go out fishing by himself in this canoe. When he sat in the end with the motor, the weight lifted the front end of the canoe out of the water, and I can still see him putting across the lake to put his fishing line into the water. I think the stones around the 'patio' didn't stay in place long. Every year, ice would cover the lake, and when it broke up in the spring, it would often 'adjust' the rocks along the shoreline. Most constructions didn't last long with that kind of force working against them.
The summer the cabin was added onto, it also got a new coat of paint. If I remember correctly, some of my sisters, their husbands, and kids came up to help. The kids were small, and I remember a bassinet that was placed in the bathroom doorway for one of the kids to sleep in. So, if you needed to go to the bathroom during the night, you had to step over the little bassinet. That must just have been the only place where the bassinet could fit and not be in a room with too much noise for a sleeping baby. We were crowded, but it didn't seem to matter. When the addition was done, we had another bedroom with another set of double bunk beds and a larger 'living' area, which allowed quite a few more people to stay. In the photo, my brother-in-law Jack is helping my dad with some chore (can't quite figure out if it is a paint can, or just what...) My dad is attired, once again, in his shorts or swim trunks and no shirt. On the ladder is my brother-in-law Al, painting the siding above the door. On the saw horse my Uncle Herb or Merry's husband Freddie (I am not sure who...) is standing and painting the facia board just under the roof. That's my sister, Merry, wiping her hands. Quite a big project, but when it was done, the size of the cabin had doubled! (This photo shows a date of January 1956, but I'm sure it must have been taken in the summer of 1955, and maybe just developed in January of the next year.)
My dad taking a walk on the road through the woods towards our drive into the cabins. He often walked this road in the morning. After my dad retired, my folks spent many relaxed and happy times at the lake. The photo says 1966.
My dad made himself a wooden sailboat. He enjoyed taking it out on the lake. He named his boat 'The Merry J' after my sister, Merry Janet. I think he thought his boat was almost as 'pretty' as Merry was... That is my cousin Linda sitting on the prow of the wooden motor boat. I remember one time when he took the sailboat out and didn't come home for a very long time. After awhile, we began to worry about him, so Uncle Herbert took the motor boat out and went to look for him (in fact, this could be the time, since the wooden motor boat is in the water near the sailboat...) Well, they found Daddy, sitting on the bottom of the upside-down sailboat which had blown over and was floating with the sails totally submerged in the water. In that situation, my dad had no choice but to just sit and wait for someone to come looking for him... no cell phones back then! (...and even if there had been cell phones, his would have been drenched and probably inoperable...) I don't remember if it was a chilly day or not, but if it was, I'm sure he got pretty cold because he must have taken a 'swim' when the boat tipped over, and then had to crawl onto the bottom and wait...
Here is my dad, smoking a pipe, and enjoying the lake from atop the hill. The date on the photo says July of 1964. By this time, my folks were living in Cedar Rapids again, and I was married with 2 children. My dad retired early due to health issues, and they were able to go up to the lake for the whole summer then.
Here is my father with his sister, my Aunt Rachel. Notice the pretty painted 'shutter' board by the window. This series of boards had pine cones and birds singing in an artistic tree going up each board. I think those birds were bright red. Aunt Rachel used her art talent to make our cabins very cute, and sometimes boats would come close to shore and look at the cleverly painted decorative boards, and the charm of our summer homes. (There were several of these boards next to the windows, looking like shutters. They replaced the ones that were on the cabin in the first photo where my father is going in the front door. I still have those older boards, and they have been repainted. I hope to figure out a way to install them on our deck and side of the house.) This photo was also taken in July of 1964.
Another view of the north end of the lake from the hill where the cabins stood.
More to come....stay tuned!
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