Monday, February 13, 2006

Cabin Fever

This is the time of year that cabin fever starts to set in for a lot of people - including myself. Thoughts of spring start to enter your mind - warmer days, snow melting, and the lake ice breaking up and turning into the crystal clear blue waters we've been dreaming of all winter!

It won't be too long and the spring work will begin at the resort. Right around the first week of April is when we begin to get the resort ready for the summer. The first jobs usually consist more of inside work...cleaning cabins and the lodge. As the days warm and the lake water temperature rises, we'll start getting the docks put into place. The sight of some of the first dock sections going out into the water always brings back memories of past resort seasons coming to a start!

Since the first season in 1974 up until last year, we have always had only wood docks. Almost all of them are 16 foot sections and up until last season, we put out almost 40 of the 16 foot dock sections (some of which you can see pictured in the photo). Last season we purchased 14 new 20 foot aluminum rollout docks. They worked well for us and we might look at purchasing more in the future. Even if we do purchase more, I think we'll always have some of the old wood docks around...there's just something about the look and feel of them that you can't seperate from a Minnesota resort!

We calculated the total docks we've put in since opening in 1974, and if you put them end-to-end, it would be over 3 miles! That's a lot of nails and pounding...and don't forget...black and blue thumbs!