No phone service here in the woods. My “the-spectacular-antenna-flip-phone” has been caught short. Apparently these cell phones and transmission towers operate on a variety of alphabet-soup bits & pieces, i.e. codes: stuff such as, CDMA, GSM, or UMTS and LTE, or GSM, or UMTS. Do I need to continue?

Anyway, the only transmission tower within reach dropped the one code my phone requires. This summer its no ‘robo’ calls for me (or, for that matter tossed in as an additional bonus; any other call). It does give a lot of room to enjoy my morning coffee in utmost quiet.

My friend Claire (our North Woods everyman) finally crawled out of the bush. I talked with him on how one of the dear little ladies back at the condo had spotted a roach—“it was huge, very ugly, and had whiskers” (she can be somewhat dramatic).

Claire responded quietly:

“Have you looked at yourself lately?” ~ Claire – our North Woods everyman

From the corner of my eye, I saw Marcia nodding vigorously.

Work continues – when you have an insurance company hounding you. See, the cabin has been raised a little higher now that a foundation is underneath. This means that the insurance company wants to see proper handrails on the steps and along the front deck.

As you can see, the raw materials have been delivered and on Monday the work will begin.

I really hope that no one will slip and fall before everything is installed. Fingers crossed.

It’s always something – especially at Northern Comfort. Time spent taking the branches from our recently felled Hemlock tree into the bush took more time than I expected. But, it’s done.

Then there is the saga of our old ‘Rosemary Clooney’ screen door (how we came up with that name is another story). The door itself is ancient, made of wood, and I have restored it twice over – but stay it must, it has character.

Now, when something, anything for that matter, gets old it also gets saggy. The door was horribly saggy.

My solution was to buy four 90-degree metal brackets and place these strategically around ‘Rosemary’. That is when our resident engineer, Donn, sprang into action. He too has older screen doors and he had the correct solution, a low-cost kit which tightens the door on the diagonal.

My next trip to town had me at the Hardware Store. Soon I had a clerk help me on my ‘low-cost kit’ search – without success. They called a sister store, no luck; seems like it’s an out of production item.

However, I had seen how the little system works and so a “plan B” was born. Some eyelets, 8-feet of thin metal cable, a 2.5” turnbuckle, and clothes-line clips were all readily available.

‘Rosemarie’ was placed on a flat surface and with some wood-glue and clamps began to take shape. After the requisite drying time the little parts were assembled and tightened into place.

Once the hinges were screwed back into place it was a bit of light adjustment on the turnbuckle and now that door is beautifully operational. And, since the Black-Fly population has exploded it’s great to sit on our screened in porch – complete with a fully functional screen door – and not be bothered. Thanks Donn.

Fini – This morning it was just before 5:30 when a very pink morning pre-sunrise glow entered the bedroom. I got up, made coffee, and took my camera outside.

In the distance I heard an owl. Closer by a pair of Canadian Geese were sounding their morning calls. And across the cove a male Loon was calling to his mate (Noreen told me that she’d seen momma Loon on the lake with her young one on her back). At our little bird-house the Tree Swallows had already started their morning ritual of nest building.

Yesterday I nearly stumbled on a very large Pileated Woodpecker which hastily and noisily flew away. And just prior to that saw a Great Blue Heron fly by the tree-line across the cove (seeing those magnificent birds on the wing one can imagine what it would have been like to have seen a Pterodactyl fly over). Yesterday I also spotted the first Hummingbird of the season and the daily fly-by of a resident Kingfisher.

Can you understand why we love this place?

By the way, for those who love their cars, just letting you know that our little Citroën 2CV, “Our Duck” started right up after sitting idle for the winter. Last evening Marcia and I took it to the Trading Post for an ice cream cone. That place was humming with the start of the Queen Victoria Holiday Weekend.

To everyone, make it a great week and everyone, stay safe.

Cheers.

Dirk