100 Years of the Cabin

It has been longer than normal since I published a blog post as I have had a lot going on over the last couple of months. I kept thinking that I would be able finish one of several drafts with only a little bit of effort. I finally realized that it was OK to take a break until things settled down and I could give it the attention it needed.

We had our annual family reunion at the lake last week. This year we celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the Eriksson “Red Cabin”, which was built in 1923 by my mother’s paternal grandfather. My mom spent entire summers at the “cottage”, as she called it, and I have spent time there almost every year of my life. The cabin has always been a happy place for me, my sister, and many cousins.

Wayne and I were very busy for weeks with preparations for the event, in addition to other unrelated things that were happening. Because of my skill set and because we live near the cabin, and because I am retired and have time, many planning and preparation tasks fell on me. Wayne was doing his share also, including going over to the cabin multiple times a day moving sprinklers around due to new grass planted during a very dry period. Other people contributed a lot too.

The culmination was about 50 people for dinner in the yard at the cabin on Saturday, July 15, with a live band playing in the background. My uncle, with some younger assistants, made his usual pizza on the grill while all the attendees mingled, caught up on family news, ate, and listened to the band. There was another large group dinner outside on Sunday with almost 40 people, followed by a multigenerational kickball game. On Monday morning we had the regular 15 mile bike ride to a Phelps Mill park for pancakes with family made maple syrup.

Some people traveled three hours from Minneapolis for a short day trip to see all the extended family in one place and participate in the celebration. Others stayed for an entire week. We had 11 people and 5 dogs in our house over the first weekend. Aunts and uncles and cousins stayed in the cabin and other lodging nearby. A few people who were only there for one or two nights stayed in a hotel 12 miles away.

We have this reunion every summer, although most of the time it is smaller. The pizza dinner happens every year, there are always additional large group meals, everyone looks forward to watching or playing kickball and the bike ride with pancake breakfast. The next photo is from an earlier year, with my son about the kick the ball.

People always contribute food to the group meals, but it has usually been a bit disorganized and last minute, and then when the meals are over there are only a few people who step up to help with cleanup. This year my sister and I created a google spreadsheet and assigned people ahead of time to bring salads, side dishes, and dessert, or to help with prep and clean up. A few people, younger and older, who have not helped in the past were surprised to have an assignment.

I am good at doing the planning, but once everyone was there and things were happening it felt out of control fast. Several people commented on how relaxing the group meals were. That is wonderful, but I have to say it was not relaxing for me. By Monday afternoon I hit a wall and could not make one more decision or accomplish anything. Fortunately everyone staying at my house understood and gave me a break.

We had a selection of 100 year anniversary tee shirts and sweatshirts with two different designs created by our graphic designer cousin. My sister and I, with input from a few others, narrowed down the apparel and color options. It turned out to be complicated as there were different colors available for each of the apparel options and the same colors did not work for the two different designs. A local company built an online store so family and friends could place orders before the reunion. Following are photos of a couple of people wearing their shirts with the two different logos and some of the colors offered.

I upcycled a youth tee into a baby size dress for our new granddaughter with help from my sister. The following photo on the left is my concept drawing. I did not have much time and was trying to make it easy, so I envisioned the fabric extending out to make a mock sleeve. We had to make a quick trip to Minneapolis before the reunion, so I had cut the shape and got it started, and was able to try it on the baby before too far into the process. I got the width right, but the “sleeves” did not look good. My sister helped me change the design to actual sleeves which made a big difference in the final product. It was not that hard, but she knew what shape to cut the sleeve pieces.

I made a giant family tree for the reunion that I was able to display on one large poster board. Included were 125 people from 8 generations down to the youngest family member, our granddaughter born less than a month ago. I tried using some actual family tree software but there did not seem to be a way to print off a paper copy in a format that worked for my purposes. Instead I entered all the names and information in a spreadsheet program, formatted boxes around each person, printed it off in sections, manually drew the lines, and pasted the sections together. My husband described it as a 5th grade project with a grade of B+, but my sister gave me an A+. Personally I was pleased with the result. It was too windy during both of the large group dinners over the weekend to display outside on the easel my sister had loaned us, and instead was propped up inside the cabin against a window so it was visible from outside. I don’t think very many people looked at it or appreciated it.

My sister made a photo memory book using an app called Mixbook that she has used before. I spent quite a bit of time on this project also. Included were vintage photos from 1923, and photos representing all the generations and years until now. It was a ton of work to find and upload appropriate pictures, remove duplicates, narrow down photos to the right number so the book was not too big, add years and captions, and try to represent a century of people and activities. Only one copy was printed because we knew that as everyone looked at it during the reunion, people would find mistakes in identification of people and years. A group photo was taken on Saturday just before the kickoff pizza dinner, but a few people were not there until Sunday. My cousin-in-law, a professional photographer, took a separate photo of the missing people later and will attempt to photoshop them in. It may end up being a “funny” version if she cannot get it to look right. Either way will be great! The draft of the photo book is waiting for corrections and addition of photos from this year, then we will print another copy to keep in the cabin and for whoever wants their own copy.

Unfortunately, we had to put down our 15 1/2 year old 10 pound yorkie-poo dog during the reunion week. She had been declining for months and we were not sure she would make it this long. Lyla was still going on short walks even a week ago. One day shortly before all the guests came she wanted to walk the entire 1/3 of a mile from our house to the cabin. I think the cabin was her happy place too. On a day when we were preparing fresh fish taco dinner at our house for 15 people, Lyla had reached the point when it was time and I took her to the vet that afternoon. It was hard and not ideal timing, but we were grateful that she had a long happy life, and that our daughter visiting from California was able to spend some time with her. We had a small group of family present for a short memorial service in the yard, and then we all went in the house to finish getting ready for the dinner party. It was good to be busy and with people.

On a happier note, we had been thinking about getting a pontoon boat for awhile. My parents never used the lakeshore at their house where we live, so it needs some work before we can safely get people down there and put up a dock. There is currently a very old rickety wooden stairway down a steep wooded bank to get to the undeveloped shoreline. Wayne has contacted several contractors with requests to come and look at it but they all seem to be booked up and not in a hurry for our business. In the meantime, Wayne was watching listings for a used boat that met his criteria for both the boat and the motor. We almost bought one before the reunion. The boat was perfect, but the motor was sketchy. Another one came up for sale later that was the same model boat that had been refurbished, had a good motor, and came as a package with the trailer and boat lift. Meanwhile, my uncle had offered for us to keep it on his shore for the rest of this summer. Wayne bought that boat, after most of the people attending the reunion had already gone home. He put in a make shift dock on my uncles property, using a couple of extra sections the cabin owns.

After the photo was taken, Wayne added another section of wood to bridge the gap between the shore and the beginning of the dock.

Our lake association scheduled a rummage sale day for the Saturday at the end of our family reunion. Families around the lake were encouraged to set up a yard sale and notices were sent out in the area. We decided to participate. There was already a lot going on, but my sister and her daughter and son-in-law were able to help select and move things into the garage before they left. Many things that no one wanted had already been set aside in the basement. Wayne found more things in the garage my dad had bought that had never or barely been used. On the morning of the sale, we put everything out on tables or propped up near the road. We sold a few items and met some neighbors, but more importantly, we got it all out of the house. After the sale was over we packed everything up for either donation or consignment at a shop in Minneapolis.

On Saturday evening, after all close and extended family had left and the rummage sale items were cleared away, Wayne and I had our maiden voyage on the pontoon boat. We enjoyed a leisurely cruise around the perimeter of the lake. I was finally able to relax. We have more company coming in upcoming weeks, so we look forward to taking guests out on the lake. For now I am enjoying the quiet, although I keep looking around for Lyla.