Newsletter - February, 2006
A message from Carol and Dick:
Dear Friends,
My the years have flown by - here we are getting ready for our 24th season! And the changes continue. 2005 saw the beginning of an extensive remodeling of the Main Lodge. Working with a 90 year old building provides many challenges. Rotted foundation structures were replace, along with walls and windows on the lakeside. Work is continuing over the winter as well into the summer of 2006.
After discovering the roof rafters were cracked and losing support, a new truss system was put over the existing roof, walls enclosed and the old roof removed. To better utilize this new area, the second floor rooms are being remodeled.
All of this is going to cause some temporary changes for lodge usage. There will be limited access to the lodge in the 2006 season. The store, library and TV room will not be available for use. Check-in and check-out will still be at the front desk, but there will be shortened office hours. Videos will still be available and there will be access to the telephone, ice machine and the computer. There is satellite broadband connection, not as fast as in the city, but pretty good for the north woods. Sorry, no Wi-Fi or wireless! The completely remodeled game room will be open for the season. We are sorry for these inconveniences which are necessary to provide for continued and improved facilities.
Due to the amount of these unexpected constructions, we have not been able to work on the fitness room. We are hoping to get to that as soon as possible
2005 gave us great vacation weather - hot and dry. Not so good for the environment, however. Our creek dried up to a near trickle. The water table dropped and we had to limit water usage. October helped us out with 10" of rainfall in one week. Snowfall is minimal as yet this winter.
There is a real threat of invasive species to our lakes. Many measures are being taken by the DNR and the lakes associations to keep our lakes pristine. We are joining these efforts by requiring all private boats to be washed before being launched at our boat landing. This will apply every time the boat is removed and relaunched. We will have a boat wash set up to facilitate this procedure. We know it is as important to you as it is to us to keep our lakes free of invasive species which could kill our lakes in less than two years.
The pair of kayaks added to the servies provided in 2005 were well used. There was much fun in the water during the day and around the campfire after dark
We are certainly looking forward to seeing everyone in 2006.
Carol and Dick Malmgren
