I’m Dreaming of a White MEMORIAL DAY..? 5/31/22

Spring is still reluctant to settle in and we had snow this past weekend! It didn’t last long – melting shortly after it arrived, but the past several days have been rainy, cold, and ever-so-muddy. The plants needed the rain though, so we are glad it is here to prepare the soil for us getting all of our seeds in the ground this week, hopefully. While it may seem rather late to be starting seeds, with the past several nights getting back down to freezing, we are glad we waited!

Before all this rain we had several nice weather days and we enjoyed them while getting a lot done around here! There are three cabins and, so far, we have resealed the railings on one of them. We have to work on the porches while there is a block of time where there aren’t any guests who have booked that particular cabin because it takes several noisy days to get each one done. We were hoping to get at least another one done over the next couple of days, but it’s too cold and rainy for the sealer to dry properly. Sue enjoyed the beautiful weather and got to meet her neighbor cats! Konnie’s cats are new to the outdoor scene and adapting wonderfully. Scarlett still has issues with any other cat walking past her, but she’ll learn!

Jeff and Braydon have been taking advantage of sporadic nice days to go hunt Marmot and Prairie Dogs. Braydon likes to carry them around by their tails – some of them are almost half his size! You can imagine the havoc that rodents of that size can cause around a property. Some of the Marmot holes are large enough you wouldn’t want to hit one with a vehicle tire.

We even had a “Sushi” party one nice evening! We sliced a bunch of fresh veggies really thinly, cooked up some rice in Konnie’s R2D2 Instant Pot, and made some delicious rolls!

One of our all-hands-on-deck projects was erecting the Sioux Tipi. It was so cool!! The poles are over 20 feet long and it is large enough to sleep 4 people on nice, outfitter-style cots. There are brightly-colored streamers on the top of the poles to keep the birds from landing on the poles. I had seen leather streamers on tipis before, but I always thought it was just decorative! We actually ended up having to take the whole tipi down because we used an incorrect measurement when setting it up the first time, but when we got it put back up again, it was perfect! We have had a few guests stay in it already (even in the snow!!) and everyone has said it was great. How could you not have fun sleeping in a tipi? The owners told us we are welcome to camp in it as long as it’s not booked for the night and we can hardly wait for it to warm up and try it out. We’ve still been running a fire in the wood stove at night, so we aren’t quite ready for the tipi – but soon!

Probably the most time-consuming aspect of our job here is the flipping of the cabins after guests leave and before new guests arrive. The check-out and -in times are such that it is possible to get them all flipped in time, but we have to hustle! Bedding and towels have to be collected, washed, dried, and put away with already washed articles replacing them. Also, the kitchenette, bathroom, and main areas of each cabin have to be wiped down and tidied to ensure a safe and cozy stay for each guest. Thankfully, the owners are very proactive and have two whole sets of towels and bedding for the entire camp so we aren’t waiting for laundry to dry just so we can flip all the structures. It is rather fun! The cabins take a while to clean and flip for guests leaving and coming in the same day, but the Tipi is a breeze as guests bring their own bedding and supplies. It takes about 10 minutes to sweep, mop, and straighten the Tipi in between guests as opposed to the over an hour to clean and restock each cabin.

Even though there is a lot of work to do, some of the tasks are enjoyable and Braydon has been enjoying pitching in where he can. Weeding, collecting trash, cleaning fire rings and charcoal grills, feeding the fish in the pond, and showing guests around the barnyard are just some of Braydon’s jobs. His favorite task so far has been to make decoy strawberries to put in the strawberry patch so when the real strawberries come in, the birds don’t try to steal them! We collected strawberry-shaped rocks and painted them, then nestled them among the young plants. The goal is for the birds to peck at these not-very-juicy “berries” and get discouraged just in time for the very juicy berries to be ready for us to eat.

This was supposed to get posted a while ago, but between the terrible cell service and wifi and the absolutely CRAZY week we had, it didn’t get posted. 😑 We apologize and promise many more exciting stories in the weeks to come!