Am I Cut Out for This?

 

I have been struggling for weeks to find something to blog about but have failed miserably. It seems as though it’s all been said and it’s only the mundane that appears on the horizon each day.

We go about our normal lives; shuttling back and forth between our two places, to take care of each place’s needs. Living lake life is probably a life long dream for many, but the reality for me hasn’t quite met up to the fantasy. For one thing, living in the forest, I had no idea how the woods constantly shed, extremely so in times of high winds, and without daily pickup of downed sticks it becomes impossible to keep neat and tidy. In anything over 20 mph winds, I find I am picking up thin broken branches as long as six feet or more. Thus, our burn pile never truly goes away; it only builds up for the next round.

I have also questioned whether I am truly cut out to be a second home owner. Let’s be realistic: at our ages, even keeping up with the maintenance of our two acre property, shop and house seem like enough especially when you throw in being gone for such long stretches at a time. A case in point is our front stairway; it was always Marc’s intention to replace the temporary steps with Trex to match the rest of the front porch, but was one of those things he never got around to. Well, as the wood rotted, it suddenly became expedient that he do so, so he spent two rounds of five days each in Waupaca building the new staircase and it’s still not finished. It should be nice when it is.

On top of maintenance efforts of having two places, comes the double costs and the time and boredom factor of always shuttling back and forth between the two. Yes, it’s a beautiful relatively traffic-free drive on decent roads, but it’s the better part of nearly three hours each way. Utility costs are ongoing in both places to some extent whether we use them or not. Our electric provider in the Northwoods is a co-op and the service standby fee just to have the benefit of the service is $40/month before even one turn of that little KWH dial. The fiber optic internet cable even when shut off also has a standby fee and the propane tank is leased, so it has an annual fee. And of course, the government never cares where you are so property taxes accrue on both parcels. Oh, and let’s not forget the homeowner’s insurance! 

To add insult to injury, sometimes Nature may step in like she did at the end of June and rip through with a horrendous storm—causing us to spend virtually the rest of the summer doing clean-up duties. I lost track of the times we’ve had bonfires to get rid of all the downed and tree cutting we had to deal with for the frickin’ third summer in a row! 

I guess it may be no wonder the blush is off my rose despite just how stunning and lovely this property is. We didn’t get everything done to it this summer we had hoped so I know we’ll likely be here again next summer but that may become a turning point for us where we seriously consider putting it on the market. A lot depends upon how the market goes—it has represented way too much work to not be able to realize a significant gain off our efforts.

 

Marc has decided to back off remodeling our home kitchen until we sell this so our winter won’t have much excitement going on. I’ve been ordering and gathering new materials and embellishments to continue to do my art for the benefit of the animal shelter. I plan to return soon; Marc will remain here to button up the place and finalize a few things he needs to do so it’ll be October sometime for his return. He does need some good weather to finish the staircase build before it snows.

Until next time…

 

Two Old People VS a Hundred Trees

 

Well, maybe not a hundred, but it’s sure felt like it! I’m referring, of course, to our cleanup efforts that have been required from our big storm in late June, which either knocked down or over trees in all five sections of our hilltop forest. 

We’ve been chipping away at it slowly and after a month have seen the vast majority of the cleanup finished. Over 2/3rds for sure. It’s required lots of chain-sawing, dragging out trees to a central location, limbing, stacking of wood, then giant bonfires to get rid of it.

right after storm

hard hit storm damage area

after some cleanup

after some cleanup

latest pile ready for burning

right after storm

Marc chainsaw clearing

after most cleanup

Views really opened up!

Marc’s made a couple trips back and forth to Waupaca for yard care and I have only left the property twice for a quick trip to the local grocery store. It’s been a grind that I hope never has to be repeated. 

When Marc’s back gives out from working with the chain saw, he switches things up by building more of the stairway to the pier. It finally came together enough with a temporary handrail that we could at least use it to get up and down. He still needs to finalize a handrail on both sides and connect it with a landing of some sort to where the pier starts out across the bog from the last of the solid land. He’s still designing that in his head but it will add another couple of steps at least; right now, we stand at 33 steps. Yes, it’s a steep bastard…

Even the cats enjoy the new stairs

We finally warmed up into the 80’s and are thankful we’ve dodged the terrible heatwaves and fires happening elsewhere across the U.S. I can’t say it’s been a particularly fun summer for us; in fact, we’re talking about leaving early—maybe by late September so we can still enjoy some good weather to do some outside maintenance on our home place. Marc also wants to build a small storage shed to replace the one that was original to the property and has now become full of wood rot. 

We sold the pontoon boat but are holding off on buying any other kind of boat until at least next summer, but it really comes down to how much longer we feel we may own this property. With the cost of living increasing so rapidly over the past couple of years and values reaching staggering heights for lake-front properties, it’s been tempting to think about putting it on the market, especially with all the sweat equity gain. A lot can happen between now and next year though so for now it’s just a thought. We do really enjoy it tremendously so it will be a hard and considered decision. However, it does add complications to our lives which we’re not sure we need at this point in our older age. We seem to fall farther and farther behind on keeping up with our main house since summers are the only time we can do outside maintenance and yard improvements there. It gets costly going back and forth all the time with both fuel and our time. Whenever we need an item, it always seems to be “at the other place”, so we often have to spend yet more money duplicating things. And finally, sometimes it feels selfish since this is solely for our use and enjoyment yet represents a significant chunk of change that isn’t generating any income. More retirement income would always be a most welcome thing!! 

Lots to think about. Right now, we’re only looking ahead as far as winter, when we’re contemplating finally getting our kitchen completed in the main house. Marc doesn’t want to or isn’t capable of doing the work himself, so we’d have to hire it done, which will be a novel idea for us. You’ll have to stick around to see how that goes, ha! 

Horrific Wind Storm

 

The morning dawned with just a touch of lake fog scooting across the water, creating a momentary and mesmerizing shimmer of pink. I had never caught the lake exactly like that before. 

As it neared bedtime, I had read about and seen a severe weather alert for Wausau but nothing for Price County. I fell asleep only to be awoken around midnight by thunder and lightning moving in. Then it got much closer and louder with a little rain starting and the winds starting to pick up. Our weather mostly seems to arrive across the lake from the north. This places our RV broadside to arriving weather with a band of trees providing somewhat of a shelter. Winds have always been a fear here due to how many old and rotted trees we have on the property which are thin and very tall. I’ve shown you video recently before. 

It wasn’t long before it felt as though the trailer was literally dancing, the rain was coming down in torrents lashing against the windows so hard I felt as though a fire hose had let lose. Then, for what seemed like half an hour (but was probably a shorter time period) the winds became in the category of “banshee”. The big, bad wolf was definitely huffing and puffing to blow this house down as I started fearing for my life! I started crying and tried calling Marc (in Waupaca) but of course, he was sleeping and didn’t answer. I must have wanted to say goodbye; I can’t really think of why I called him at that point. The trailer rocked, the winds so ferocious I thought all the windows would blow right out as I ran from the bedroom to hide under our flimsy RV table. The storm was so severe at this point I couldn’t make it into the garage. The power went out. 

During bursts of lightning, which lasted for a good two hours, I could see trees coming down and was hoping like mad my last sound wouldn’t be one crashing through my tin can, destroying me and the RV.

Finally, with a last whimper of distant thunder and sheet lightning, the storm moved off farther east and south. I gratefully fell asleep but was awakened not long after by the sound of chain saws buzzing in the distance. 

So, of course, I was up at dawn to start surveying the damage and to call Marc. I finally reached him around 5:30 a.m. where I relayed what had gone on and as I stepped outside to take pictures to send him, it was just jaw-dropping how many trees were down. By this time, the chain saws and equipment sounds were much closer so I figured the crews were out on our boat landing road, which our driveway leads off from. They told me there was quite a bit of wind damage throughout town; power out to thousands; a roof blown off a restaurant, but no one had been hurt.

 

All in all, I am still in shock that we managed to escape with no real damage to any structure or the Suburu. I had it parked under the RV shelter, but that is open on the sides and I know sticks and branches were flying yet it seems to have remained unscathed with no scratches or dents. My imagining a wild ride in the RV was indeed, true—apparently, the wind lifted the rear of the RV off the jacks and knocked those metal jacks stands out from under it. Our screen tent looked done in, but quickly gained its shape back once the pooled water on the roof was removed. One of the trees Marc had it tied to was bent and loosened, so that will have to come down.

A conservative estimate is that we likely have around 50 trees down and there are a handful more that are now leaning precariously and will need to also be brought down. Our work is cut out for us for next two weeks Marc figures. A sad part of the aftermath is that the behavior of many of the birds here is off. The loons are nesting this time of year and overall quieter than usual but they forlornly started calling out all day. I am fearful, since their nest is on the small river which empties from our lake, that either their eggs or their small chicks may have blown out of the nest and been lost. We also have a dove here which has done nothing but call and call as if it can’t find its mate. 

A quick trip into town for gas caught more of the devastation along our road. These pines were just one after one, totally uprooted. Today will be another day of making piles and also we’ll start our first bonfire burn to start getting rid of as much as possible. One thing totally noticeable is how losing the trees opened up our views of the lake. It has changed the character of the property, but maybe not for worse.