Saturday, July 18, 2015
Nothing says "fun at the beach" like a polka in northern Minnesota. This is my dad playing the song that I remember most as a child growing up, the Tick Tock Polka. I was always fascinated at how loud his accordion was back then, and like comfort food, that particular polka is very meaningful to me.
My Dad learned how to play while still a 12 year old kid and I remember the story of how when he was in the army in Korea, some of the brass found out that he could play and they miraculously dug up an accordion for him.
In this video of 2015 he's now 83 years old. So, for as long as Northwind Lodge (Jasper Lake Resort) has formally been a resort in Lake County, my dad has been playing his accordion.
That's a lot of history at this Minnesota resort.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Painting Dogs in Northern Minnesota
July 5th and another laid back day at Northwind Lodge. Looks like I'm heading backing to my former life of painting. I kind of missed it, actually. It's nice to be back in familiar waters once again.
Spectacular weather, beautiful days. good fishing and a little bit of paint. How come you aren't here?
Click Here to see the finished painting of Delilah & Cookie
Visit our website
Spectacular weather, beautiful days. good fishing and a little bit of paint. How come you aren't here?
Click Here to see the finished painting of Delilah & Cookie
Visit our website
Monday, June 29, 2015
Chair #2 for Incredible Ely is finished - Fire!
Chair #2 for the Charish Fundraiser Auction by Incredible Ely is done. In some ways it was easier and harder than Chair #1 the moose, but I was happy with the end result. I've noticed that people react differently to different scenes (well, duh) - what I mean is that it is interesting to watch them. People focused on the eyes of an animal and stay there. They look at the other parts, too, but the eyes are the center of concentration.
Scenery with different aspects in the picture, require more time to study it (duh, again), but they focus on the fire and then move around the scene for several long seconds. The surprise for me was noting that even a painted campfire draws in humans, particularly those who like the outdoors. A campfire is like a magnet whether real or depicted.
I think that attraction goes back millennia as the fire is where the warmth, food and light were and remain today. It's in grained into the instincts of humans. When in trouble or having fun, a fire is a source of comfort and protection. Hence the reason for the long observances by several people in the store here while I was painting.
Scenery with different aspects in the picture, require more time to study it (duh, again), but they focus on the fire and then move around the scene for several long seconds. The surprise for me was noting that even a painted campfire draws in humans, particularly those who like the outdoors. A campfire is like a magnet whether real or depicted.
I think that attraction goes back millennia as the fire is where the warmth, food and light were and remain today. It's in grained into the instincts of humans. When in trouble or having fun, a fire is a source of comfort and protection. Hence the reason for the long observances by several people in the store here while I was painting.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Painting Chairs for Incredible Ely
It was a really slow Sunday at Northwind Lodge today, so with a never ending list of things to do, I got caught up on an Adirondack chair painting that I was doing for Chairish, Incredible Ely's fundraiser. I shot some video while I was working on it. I still have a ways to go, but it's starting to turn out, OK. These are pretty nice chairs built out of cedar buy the shop class at the Ely Highschool. Rob Simonich is the teacher and he's doing a pretty good job with these kids who build all of these chairs.
Come Stay with Us At Northwind Lodge - Click Here for our Lodge Website
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
A Landing Net's Life
Once we hit the trail, she began her Wood Lake portage routine of blasting ahead at full speed, turning off the trail into the woods and running parallel back along the trail only to come out behind me. From that point, she snorts past me again, tongue flopping and nothing but a blurry streak of fur to do it repeatedly for the entire trail. I figure that she runs about three times the length of the trail every time we walk it. In the back of my mind, I’m waiting for the moment she drives out a momma bear and cubs to meet me, but that hasn’t occurred….yet.
As I walked the trail carrying my oars, our rods and my pack, I noted the fresh tracks in the mud – two people ahead of me. As a boy, I was trained to not leave tracks – not in the figurative sense connected to symbolically saving the BWCA, but instead, for real. Hunting and trapping as a kid, we never wanted to be followed and the best way to avoid followers is to never leave tracks as best we could and we still do this to this day. As a result, I observe this telltale “flaw” in others all the time and today’s tracks in front of me were no different. I could tell both were men, in their late 30’s to early 40’s, weighing about 185 lbs. each. They wore big floppy hats, mosquito head nets, blue, white and black, paddling gloves, and brand new long sleeve, nylon button-down shirts with brand new nylon, zip off pants.
As Delilah blasted silently down the portage, about 150 feet in front of me, up a hill and around a curve, I heard her let loose with the most ferocious, attack-dog bark her nine pound body could muster! First I thought ” bear” but that was immediately corrected. There was a scream and panic as a voice-in-terror yelled, “Gggaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! GET OUTTA HERE! GO AWAY!!!! ” as Delilah stopped them in their tracks. I tried to call her off, but she was unrelenting, so I picked up my pace to see two guys decked out in nylon shirts, zip-off pants, trail boots, blue-white-black paddling gloves, big hats and bug nets. Delilah finally shut up as her job was done attacking the space aliens. I chuckled and said when they passed, “I bet that scared the crap out of you!” to which one replied “Maybe a little…” Delilah looked back at me all proud and alert for taking down the “aliens” with a good, solid whoopin’. Then, she blasted down the portage once again.
When we hit the water, we endured a beautiful day with moderate catching but enough to keep up busy all day long. In a pretty true test, we found that live bait and artificial lures ended up producing about “neck and neck” . There was no real, obvious gain in using live bait over lures. Later in the day, the wind picked up and screamed from the west making for about 1.5 hours of tough rowing with a significant chop and some whitecaps. I put together this video called “A Landing Net’s Life” since the I had the camera stuck to the net.
Upon returning to the parking because not much wears Delilah out, she took off and chased a 70 foot long semi roaring past on the Fernberg Road. The present road crew tried to catch her but she blew past them, returning to me and prompting a parking lot visit by a concerned, but laughing foreman looking for “a little brown dog that was chasing one of their semi’s down the new asphalt.” Delilah stood up on the truck seat and smiled at him.
Good dog, Delilah. Never give up.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Life on the Island on Jasper Lake
Kelly & Joanne arrived today along with their young son, Walker. Today's journey for them began in Memphis, Tennessee. They boarded a jet plane bound for Duluth, MN and buckled in for a ride at over 500 miles per hour from the land that is hot to the land that is not. Duluth, Minnesota which sits on the shore of the world's largest air conditioner had to be a change from the ambient temps of Memphis. It was at Duluth that their journey northward continued to their final destination of Northwind Lodge or more accurately the island out on Jasper Lake.
Kelly and Joanne first made it to the Island for their honeymoon, many moons ago. We've know them for every last one of those moons. When we first met, Kelly was in a residency for psychiatry and Joanne was working on a higher education in mathematics. Today, she teaches and Kelly probably analyzes and assesses or whatever psychiatrists do.
For year after year, this couple stayed on the Island in the small cabin that my dad built in 1962. It was to be his summer home and for years we called it "the shack". It's a nice little cabin and when I was a kid, we spent many weekends out there in the winter, ice fishing on Jasper, flying kites in the winds of March and being really hot with that old wood stove that would almost drive us out even at -35 F below zero. When we stayed there with no electricity or running water, our entertainment was whatever old magazines we had to read in the din of the gas lights. We also had an old,black, massive, battery-powered, radio we had that pulled in shortwave broadcasts and AM signals from around the world. There were hardly any FM stations back then and after dark, the AM signals almost always came in stronger from great distances. It had a five foot tall antenna on it and about fifteen different radio bands that changed by pushing one of the fifteen buttons. We used to listen to Quito, Ecuador and Little Rock, Arkansas, and somewhere in Texas. Every now and then, an outside noise would demand that we turn down the radio and listen to what was making noise under the sparkle of endless stars through the crisp, but biting winter air. Wolves on the mainland again, or maybe on the ice. Sounded like five or six of them howling in jubilance. It's always a slightly unnerving sound to humans after their taking down a midnight deer and celebrating their victory. We'd know more the next day with the telltale signs marking the not un-gruesome event on the ice.
For the Baltich family as is the case for all families, life evolved and got in the way of staying at The Shack. So, there it sat lonely for many years until we began to rent it out to lodge customers because, for more than any other reason, it seemed like such a waste that someone wasn't able to enjoy the sounds of the wind in the needles of the white pines that towered overhead and the feel of the cool breeze as the wind cut across the water and through those trees.
Many, many couples stayed on The Island over the course of numerous summers and winters. Cross country skiers spent the weekends and our summer visitors would spend the entire week. It was a common occurrence that we did not see the Island People but more than once or twice per week in the summer months. The vast majority went into "vacation hiding". Every now and then, someone from the resort would head down to the beach to see if there was movement or signs of life by their canoe having shifted positions or their gear sitting on the shore
Kelly and Joanne were similar but would stop in more often than some. They were always enjoyable to talk to and we all shared many laughs as we traded life stories over the years. One story included the blowdown of 1999 at 12:15 on the Fourth of July. The two had just stopped in having paddled across from the island only minutes before. Then the wind picked up. Annette was in the house closing the windows and could hear and see the Island fade completely from view as the wall of wind, picked up water from the lake like horizontal rain. She said it sounded like a freight train driven by banshees going by the house only a quarter mile away. I ran down to the lake and saw the water being lifted up with massive white caps roaring to the east where whitecaps have never been before. Kelly and Joanne 's canoe was on the beach and I thought about grabbing and pulling it to safety. It was all of 30 feet in front of me, but as the wind and the rolling waves increased, I chose to stand among the limber ash trees and not risk stepping into the fray. A bent up canoe was a small price to pay, I figured. The canoe never moved while the lake behind it was in complete and utter pandemonium. The wind blew so hard, that the mixed-in rain passed through the zipper of my raincoat leaving me completely soaked as if I'd worn nothing at all. I went back up and found that Annette already with K & J in the basement of our home for the 15 minutes that the straightline winds attacked our region. We waited and listened unsure of what was going to happen next. And then, like it began, it was finished. We all walked out into the silence of normalcy wondering what just had happened. Fortunately, it just missed us but wreaked havoc and devastation on the roads and homes just beyond Northwind Lodge. Everybody but us was without electrical power for almost 2 weeks. We were very lucky.
As the years passed,Kelly and Joanne were blessed with their son Walker, and for a while, staying at The Island at Northwind Lodge, had to take a back seat to growing the kid into a more mobile unit. But, Walker got bigger and back to Northwind Lodge they came. The Island has had less people set foot on it than most of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It is a veritable pristine island with a very low human impact. Part of that is because we really protect it from humans and we've never been really big on developing property. While it probably has great value, that piece of land surrounded by water is part of our home. Over all the years of renting the cabin, we only allowed up to two people to stay there at a time. It's seven acres of land with very few human feet on the vast majority of it. We've also never allowed pets with the exception of our dogs Rex (deceased) and currently, Delilah who set her feett on it for the first time on May 30, 2015.
It's a small, hand-made cabin and it is crowded with more than two people. The one and only exception to the rule is Walker. He is now grandfathered in since his mom and dad well know and accept the space limitations plus, we know them and they understand the Island. Over the years, we've been very fussy about to whom we rent the cabin. It's a magnificent experience and we would not want to see that changed.
You could stay here, too! It's like camping in a really solid tent with screens windows and a kitchen. "Roughing it" means no running water or electric lights, but we now use batter lanterns and the gas lights are still there as well. The water is quasi-running water. When you are out, you have to simply run over to the mainland and fill up right at the beach. It's pretty simple and still a terrific experience. You'll be amazed at how much fun you'll have there!
Visit our Ely MN resort website, Northwind Lodge - Click here
Kelly and Joanne first made it to the Island for their honeymoon, many moons ago. We've know them for every last one of those moons. When we first met, Kelly was in a residency for psychiatry and Joanne was working on a higher education in mathematics. Today, she teaches and Kelly probably analyzes and assesses or whatever psychiatrists do.
For year after year, this couple stayed on the Island in the small cabin that my dad built in 1962. It was to be his summer home and for years we called it "the shack". It's a nice little cabin and when I was a kid, we spent many weekends out there in the winter, ice fishing on Jasper, flying kites in the winds of March and being really hot with that old wood stove that would almost drive us out even at -35 F below zero. When we stayed there with no electricity or running water, our entertainment was whatever old magazines we had to read in the din of the gas lights. We also had an old,black, massive, battery-powered, radio we had that pulled in shortwave broadcasts and AM signals from around the world. There were hardly any FM stations back then and after dark, the AM signals almost always came in stronger from great distances. It had a five foot tall antenna on it and about fifteen different radio bands that changed by pushing one of the fifteen buttons. We used to listen to Quito, Ecuador and Little Rock, Arkansas, and somewhere in Texas. Every now and then, an outside noise would demand that we turn down the radio and listen to what was making noise under the sparkle of endless stars through the crisp, but biting winter air. Wolves on the mainland again, or maybe on the ice. Sounded like five or six of them howling in jubilance. It's always a slightly unnerving sound to humans after their taking down a midnight deer and celebrating their victory. We'd know more the next day with the telltale signs marking the not un-gruesome event on the ice.
For the Baltich family as is the case for all families, life evolved and got in the way of staying at The Shack. So, there it sat lonely for many years until we began to rent it out to lodge customers because, for more than any other reason, it seemed like such a waste that someone wasn't able to enjoy the sounds of the wind in the needles of the white pines that towered overhead and the feel of the cool breeze as the wind cut across the water and through those trees.
Many, many couples stayed on The Island over the course of numerous summers and winters. Cross country skiers spent the weekends and our summer visitors would spend the entire week. It was a common occurrence that we did not see the Island People but more than once or twice per week in the summer months. The vast majority went into "vacation hiding". Every now and then, someone from the resort would head down to the beach to see if there was movement or signs of life by their canoe having shifted positions or their gear sitting on the shore
Kelly and Joanne were similar but would stop in more often than some. They were always enjoyable to talk to and we all shared many laughs as we traded life stories over the years. One story included the blowdown of 1999 at 12:15 on the Fourth of July. The two had just stopped in having paddled across from the island only minutes before. Then the wind picked up. Annette was in the house closing the windows and could hear and see the Island fade completely from view as the wall of wind, picked up water from the lake like horizontal rain. She said it sounded like a freight train driven by banshees going by the house only a quarter mile away. I ran down to the lake and saw the water being lifted up with massive white caps roaring to the east where whitecaps have never been before. Kelly and Joanne 's canoe was on the beach and I thought about grabbing and pulling it to safety. It was all of 30 feet in front of me, but as the wind and the rolling waves increased, I chose to stand among the limber ash trees and not risk stepping into the fray. A bent up canoe was a small price to pay, I figured. The canoe never moved while the lake behind it was in complete and utter pandemonium. The wind blew so hard, that the mixed-in rain passed through the zipper of my raincoat leaving me completely soaked as if I'd worn nothing at all. I went back up and found that Annette already with K & J in the basement of our home for the 15 minutes that the straightline winds attacked our region. We waited and listened unsure of what was going to happen next. And then, like it began, it was finished. We all walked out into the silence of normalcy wondering what just had happened. Fortunately, it just missed us but wreaked havoc and devastation on the roads and homes just beyond Northwind Lodge. Everybody but us was without electrical power for almost 2 weeks. We were very lucky.
As the years passed,Kelly and Joanne were blessed with their son Walker, and for a while, staying at The Island at Northwind Lodge, had to take a back seat to growing the kid into a more mobile unit. But, Walker got bigger and back to Northwind Lodge they came. The Island has had less people set foot on it than most of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It is a veritable pristine island with a very low human impact. Part of that is because we really protect it from humans and we've never been really big on developing property. While it probably has great value, that piece of land surrounded by water is part of our home. Over all the years of renting the cabin, we only allowed up to two people to stay there at a time. It's seven acres of land with very few human feet on the vast majority of it. We've also never allowed pets with the exception of our dogs Rex (deceased) and currently, Delilah who set her feett on it for the first time on May 30, 2015.
It's a small, hand-made cabin and it is crowded with more than two people. The one and only exception to the rule is Walker. He is now grandfathered in since his mom and dad well know and accept the space limitations plus, we know them and they understand the Island. Over the years, we've been very fussy about to whom we rent the cabin. It's a magnificent experience and we would not want to see that changed.
 |
| Looking at Northwind Lodge |
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| Just Offshore of the Island |
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| Looking east to the narrows of Jasper Lake |
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| Looking north to the Island from Northwind Lodge beach |
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| The deck on the cabin and looking west |
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| Western view outside of the cabin |
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| Approaching the Island on Jasper |
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| Inside the cabin |
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| Standing at the water's edge facing north |
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| Another view |
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| Kitchen living area |
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| Island Log - many stories |
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| Hand written tales of adventure |
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| From the deck looking south east |
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| From deck looking northwest |
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| Trail to the outhouse |
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| Trail to the outhouse |
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| Standing at western shore looking east |
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| The heat source - don't need it in the summer |
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| Island table and window facing west |
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| From deck looking south to Northwind Lodge |
You could stay here, too! It's like camping in a really solid tent with screens windows and a kitchen. "Roughing it" means no running water or electric lights, but we now use batter lanterns and the gas lights are still there as well. The water is quasi-running water. When you are out, you have to simply run over to the mainland and fill up right at the beach. It's pretty simple and still a terrific experience. You'll be amazed at how much fun you'll have there!
Visit our Ely MN resort website, Northwind Lodge - Click here
Monday, May 25, 2015
A New Ceiling for Rental Cabin #3
Last fall, we needed to put a new roof on Cabin #3. That cabin was there since the 40's and as a kid, my brother Bernie and I put at least two new roofs on it years ago after our dad had done the same prior to that. It finally developed a leak and I patched it but the whole roof was shot. I decided to insulate it and put a layer of osb sheeting over the top. Curt and I did that last fall.
I discovered that there were five layers of rolled roofing on that cabin! The roof itself was simply made out of ship lap pine and that also made the inside of the ceiling which had turned that really dark brown like old, varnished pine usually does. While walking around on the roof on 66 year old boards we were careful to make our feet bridge two boards while walking to prevent cracking or even going through an individual plank. I'm always amazed that lumber from 66 years ago still even has structural integrity. The boards were still springy and after a ton of running around, not one even cracked a little. I don't think any type of plastic would have held up the same.
I installed a simple framework, laid down the foam insulation, nailed down half inch sheeting and roof edging that I had to build for this job and put the felt layer on along with the shingles.
Upon inspection of the inside, I could see where some of the nails we shot down in the framing became an issue and I decided to put in a new ceiling in the spring. Well, spring sprang and in between rain, snow and bad weather, I videoed a condensed version of that particular job along with the end result. It turned out OK.
While I was sitting in Cabin 3 tuning my radio I happened to look outside the window at the spectacular view of blue water on Jasper with a backdrop of wilderness while an eagle soared overhead and one of our loons protested in the distance. I said to myself, "yeah, I could live here for a week or two!"
It's a pretty cool place.
Bring your wife or hubby! Come stay in Cabin #3 at Northwind Lodge! Click Here for our website.
I discovered that there were five layers of rolled roofing on that cabin! The roof itself was simply made out of ship lap pine and that also made the inside of the ceiling which had turned that really dark brown like old, varnished pine usually does. While walking around on the roof on 66 year old boards we were careful to make our feet bridge two boards while walking to prevent cracking or even going through an individual plank. I'm always amazed that lumber from 66 years ago still even has structural integrity. The boards were still springy and after a ton of running around, not one even cracked a little. I don't think any type of plastic would have held up the same.
I installed a simple framework, laid down the foam insulation, nailed down half inch sheeting and roof edging that I had to build for this job and put the felt layer on along with the shingles.
Upon inspection of the inside, I could see where some of the nails we shot down in the framing became an issue and I decided to put in a new ceiling in the spring. Well, spring sprang and in between rain, snow and bad weather, I videoed a condensed version of that particular job along with the end result. It turned out OK.
While I was sitting in Cabin 3 tuning my radio I happened to look outside the window at the spectacular view of blue water on Jasper with a backdrop of wilderness while an eagle soared overhead and one of our loons protested in the distance. I said to myself, "yeah, I could live here for a week or two!"
It's a pretty cool place.
Bring your wife or hubby! Come stay in Cabin #3 at Northwind Lodge! Click Here for our website.
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