Don and Frank are sawing large beams to be used by Frank to construct a bridge into his property from the adjacent county road.

Frank had the site prepared for this project the summer of 1992.  The road to and from the bridge was graded and the trees cut and stacked next to the road where we were to assemble the saw.  Frank built the bridge abutments with local stone and set the span of the bridge based on the length of logs available.  It was well planned and worked out just as planned.

A beam nears completion.  The saw will handle logs 29’ long.

Here the beams are in place ready for the planking.  Frank never did build on this lot and ended up selling it to some folks from Texas.

After much preparation, we are ready to go north after this stop for gas in Louisville.

We always stop in Cheyenne to top off gas and check the "load". Good thing, the trailer axle had bent and the tires were tilted in and were about to rub on the trailer.  We found a truck repair shop where a large press straightened the axle and a 3" "I" beam welded to the top made it strong enough to carry the load. Seven hours wasted. Dewayne is firing at Don as we wait to get into the shop.  Note bent axle and spitting snow.

While driving north from Cheyenne, Don worried about the trailer axle. He should have been worrying about the trailer right wheel bearing that burned up at Bill, Wyoming. We had to drive 35 miles back to Douglas and visit all three auto parts stores to get all the parts for a repair. Joann waited in Bill and decided to decorate the trailer with some athletic tape. Note the wheelbarrow tied onto the trailer tongue.

The ball on the hitch pulling the trailer with the 14' Lund came loose and the trailer ricocheted into the woods, luckily at one of the few level spots. The strangers in the blue truck helped pull it back onto the road. Not having a hitch, we left it along side the road and came back the next day from the landing after "borrowing" a hitch ball from a Colorado truck parked at the landing.

Upon arrival at the landing about 1PM, even though everyone was "dead tired", we all drove to the bridge to look at the river we would be going down the next day. Dewayne and Brian Hoskins turned their trucks around and drove 1/4 mile back to where we had agreed to park and spend the night. Don drove over the bridge and pulled into to a small trail to back up. Upon getting the trailer back onto the road, a large mining truck unexpectedly rounded the curve and crossed the bridge at about 65 MPH. Don barely got the black trailer back into the trail to avoid a crash. He tried the maneuver again and a second truck rounded the curve and nearly crashed into the trailer. Shaken, Don then backed out enough to continue north to find a place where he could make a U-turn. After 10 miles and finding no spot wide enough, Don stopped on a long, flat, straight stretch to manually disconnect and turn the trailer around. After getting the trailer turned perpendicular to the road, Don could not budge it in ANY direction. It was an invisible target in the middle of the road for the next truck.

     Don turned his Suburban around and connected a log chain to the trailer and dragged it around to a southerly direction and re-connected it to the truck, afraid a mining truck would zoom by at any time. Luckily it didn't. Upon returning to the other trucks, Dewayne wondered where Don had disappeared. With little sleep for several weeks during the trip preparation time and even less sleep on the drive up, Don was accurately described by Joann as a "stress mess". More difficulties lay ahead.

     The next day, Don decided to try and pull the "Tank Trailer" all the way down the 4wheel road and significantly reduce the portaging required. To his surprise, low, low in 4wheel drive would pull the truck and trailer all the way down the road, with minor scraping and tearing off the trailer license plate. All that day, after retrieving the abandoned trailer and boat 50 miles south on the gravel road, was spent hauling the boats and gear the remaining 150 yards down the portage and loading the boats. With the sun just set, we decided to take off for the island, even though we might run out of all light near the end of the voyage. That's when we discovered the "new" used 30 HP motor was stuck in reverse, regardless of what we tried. We switched to the new 10 HP short shaft motor on the long shaft transom and took off, now much slower and with even less light.

     We did run out of light well before getting to the island and decided to spend the night at the island we had camped on the prior year. We knew where the rocks were and had a fairly good shelter to keep the boats, still loaded, overnight. Too tired to put up his tent, Don crawled inside the crumpled tent at immediately went to sleep

The next day, we loaded up the boats with our tents, breakfast gear and the moose head we had cached on that island the prior year. We also picked up a log table and two bench seats we had constructed the prior year. The remaining 5 miles was on calm water as we and the moose head hugged the northern shore.

     As we changed course to cross the bay to Dancing Loon Island, a violent wind started almost instantly. It struck us all that "Mother Nature" was telling us she wasn't so sure she wanted us to get to that island. Pulling a train of boats drastically reduced your maintainability and we all wanted to get there so bad that we continued on. Just off the beach it looked as though the canoe would be dashed on the rocks. Instantly, Dewayne leaped into the water and swam to the canoe, where it was only waist deep and guided the canoe safely through the rocks and onto the sand beach. After all the boats were safely on the beach, the violent wind disappeared as fast as it had appeared, having lasted for no more that 10 minutes. Now we all felt positive that this was some kind of "sign".

Our first order of business was to pitch our tents and then construct a "Cook Shack". Here we would store our food, cooking equipment and community items such as tools, etc. Many quality hours would be spent in the “Cook Shack”, cooking, eating, reading or just getting out of the weather. This construction entailed surveying the site and deciding where things should be located for the long haul. This early photo shows only two sides  enclosed, flat roof and no radiophone antenna. Wilderness living has a way of harshly setting priorities and making you suffer for bad decisions.

SNOW! Four inches of SNOW on June 4!! Don awoke in his tent this morning in a state of confusion that far exceeded normal. Maybe he was having a dream, maybe not?? Why was he unable to move? He seemed encapsulated in something strange...no, it is the tent that is pressing against his face. The whole darn tent has collapsed on top of him and he wasn't aware of it until morning. Mother Nature seems to be feeling playful today.

     Two days later it was 93 degrees F. and everyone went swimming. The entire crew was clearing the cabin site and by 5PM everyone was very sweaty and several days without any shower. Dewayne suddenly cried out "Beach time". Don ran down to his tent and got into his swimsuit and went to the beach. There, Dewayne, Joann, Brian and Kelly were all standing in the buff. Dewayne said that this was the way they preferred to swim and would do so unless Don had a problem with it. Don said it wasn't a problem but he was dressed the way he liked to swim, so that is the way it was all summer long. Don thought to himself, "I think I have forgotten what 24 looked like".

Don is writing in his log, Joann reads and Dewayne seems to be enjoying Kelly’s attempt to construct a cooking utensil we had forgotten to bring along. Horizontal space is always at a premium so the log picnic table tended to collect everything one might want to put down. The clothing indicates how cold it was.

Don is the "horse" while Dewayne "drives" the wheelbarrow full of sand destined to put under the stove in the cook shack to make a fireproof base. This technique was used every time anything was hauled up hill or through sand in the wheelbarrow.

Brian and Don assemble the saw while Joann "knifes" a log. The saw was disassembled at the end of each year and hidden for the first couple years but after assembling the saw on log "ties" to increase its stability, it is now left assembled and covered with a tarp. The saw shown here was the initial design and in 1994 was portaged back to the truck, transported to Boulder and modified to eliminate the cantilever support, then returned to the island in 1995. Later pictures will also show a roof over the saw that is now referred to as the "Saw Pavilion".

Not only did the cabin site need to be cleared of trees, stumps and brush but also the 100 yard trail up from the beach to the cabin site. Brian and Kelly did this as the rest of us worked on the cook shack. Here some of the 25 pier holes are being dug and in the process, some of the rocks used to construct the piers were uncovered. Many more rocks were required for the piers and these were hauled up to the cabin site from the shoreline and frequently from out in the lake.

More rocks. At the time we didn't realize that some rocks are better suited for masonry construction than others due to their shape. Some rocks are just plane "Ugly" with no flat surfaces and better suited for "fill". Many of these rocks ended up as "fill" under the flag stone pad. Note the mortar box next to Dewayne and Don where they are working on the first pier that was being done as a "pilot" project to determine how much work the piers were going to be.

The cook shack evolved to have 4 walls. Note the gray colored radiophone (below the cabin model). The wood stove provided a handy place to hang wet clothes or towels to dry.

The cook shack had only one wall of counter and storage at this time. Note that the cook stove here is the old white gasoline style, later replaced with Propane. Refrigeration was nonexistent after the cooler ice melted. The cooler and many white buckets shown here would provide security from the small critters that frequented our "home".  A water jug (lake water was potable) suspended from the roof was our only water source in the cook shack. Filling a couple water jugs, generally off shore from a canoe was one of those regular daily chores you never think about at your home.

Don and Dewayne start building the first stone pier. Besides the stones, this effort required Portland cement. hydrated lime, sand, water, mortar box, hoe and trowels. These needs had to be anticipated before you left Boulder or you were out of luck and may get by only with some creative substitution. Note the perimeter string used as a reference to locate all the piers.

Dewayne does laundry from the luxury of the newly constructed dock and boat ramp. Note also the conveyor built to haul the hundreds of logs out of the water and up to the saw area with a minimum of sand contamination that "kills" saw blades. Unfortunately, the level of the lake fluctuates significantly during the summer and a permanent pier like this proved to be impractical and was abandoned in subsequent years.

Dewayne split most of the wood we burned that summer.  An addition to the cook shack was constructed later that year to hold cut wood, tools, fish poles and a shower stall.  We heated a large cooking pot of water and mixed it with lake water in a two gallon plastic water jug with a sprinkler spout.  This we hung from a roof beam and it would provide two minutes of “just right” temperature soft water for a shower, but no more.

This little squirrel somehow found our honey container and managed to eventually eat through the thick plastic.  Cute at first, he soon became a major annoyance.  Joann would not tolerate an execution so we had to come up with plan “B”.

Don trapped the little beggar.  Note the leather gloves.  This squirrel did not realize how badly he was out “gunned” and was ready to attack, given a chance.  We relocated him across the channel over to the mainland and never saw him again.

Washing was accomplished the old fashion way.  I like to let the clothes soak in a bucket of soapy water for a few days, then wade out in the lake, here at the end of the pier, to stir and agitate each item in the bucket, then rinse in the lake.  The water is so soft that getting out the soap takes a lot or rinsing.  Frequently we wade out to the “bathing rock” and finish the wash and rinse there.  A breeze blowing the soapy water away helps and some times we row the boat out to do the rinsing in deeper water.

Don and Dewayne grew beards.  The moose head was hung to greet us as we came up from the beach.  This feature will be seen to grow over the years with the later addition of an “A” frame, a second moose head and lots of assorted bones.

Joann removes the bark from the ridgepole using an antique drawknife.  We found this beauty half way up to the cabin along the trail.  It was 14 inches at the base and about 38 feet long and was the largest black spruce we ever found.  It had 35 knots and was a big project that only Joann was allowed to do.   (By Joann, she was very protective of that project)

Jim and Jay arrived at the island and provided a big boost in the muscle power.  We had been requesting by radiophone things for them to bring up to the island.  I had given Jim my list of things and Joann was requesting things for Jay to bring, mostly fresh food, especially lettuce that we had depleted some weeks earlier.  When they got to the island, Jim had all of his list but for some reason Jay had none of his list.  Joann was not too happy with her new father-in-law.

Here Jim prepares to tie logs onto the “Mother Rope” with lengths of orange bailing twine.  The ”Mother Rope” is attached to the transom of the boat and thus all the logs are towed behind the boat as a group, resembling a large “Christmas tree”.  These logs were cut  north of Loon Island on “North Island” about ½ mile away.

Jim and Jay return to the island hauling the logs they had worked so hard to obtain.  Earlier in the day, Joann had asked Jay when they would be back for the big supper that she was preparing for their first night on the island.  Unfortunately, this picture was taken at about 8:30 PM.  By this time the supper was cold, Joann was in her tent, justifiably quite upset.  It was another tense time.  Jim said later that he had never gotten in so much trouble after working so hard.

A favorite activity while at Dancing Loon Island is to take a nature walk to “Esker Lake”.  This is what we call the small lake that is located a short hike from the north end of  “My Lake”.  We start hiking up a gradual hill that soon turns into an obvious esker.  It takes you on a serpentine trail through a recently burned area then into a forest pocket of old growth.  It is obvious that many animals use this trail and we always fine bear, wolf and moose scat along the way.  After about a mile of hiking you arrive at this spot where the trail disappears into the marshy valley of a small stream flowing into Esker Lake.  This is typical terrain that you always encounter whenever you walk in any direction for even a small distance.  This is why overland travel to or from Dancing Loon Island is virtually impossible.

We typically find many animal signs along the way to Esker Lake. Here a bear has torn into the base of a tree that is infested with army ants. Army ants are large, some ¾” long but even so, the bear must out weigh them by a million times. The ants seem to be a favorite food for the bears judging by how frequently we find trees attacked in this way. Maybe the ants really are 67% protein. The bear can probably hear the activity of the ants inside the tree trunk since their presence is not obvious from the outside of the tree.

Jay, Jim and Don fish at the “honey hole”.  Fishing above the rapids is usually outstanding but when fish are involved, it is not prudent to make a hard and fast declaration because as soon as you do, the fish will prove you wrong.  There are times when fish just are not biting anywhere, regardless of the bait used or who is fishing.  It has always been a mystery to me how the fish seem to communicate this “stop or start biting order” across great distances.  More than once I have compared notes on what the fish were doing at some distant lake only to find that they seemed to be acting in unison.  Many years ago in Ontario, a good friend and I kept crisp records of when the fish started to bit and when they stopped.  We knew we would be fishing in different lakes about 5 miles apart but wanted to know if there was any common pattern.  To our amazement, during a one week period, the fish seemed to turn on and off in perfect unison.  How this can happen, one can only speculate. (more…)

Joann was really good at finding interesting plants in the forest.  This beautiful rose is fairly common but could not seem more out of place.  If one will take the time to notice, the variety of plants far exceeds your initial impression.  By changing location only a few yards, you can find yourself in a totally different mix of plants and trees.  Some tree varieties will be separated many miles and we are still finding small pockets of a variety we had not noticed before.

This dragon fly is quite common in the area. They first appear around the end of June. Because they eat mosquitoes, they are popular with the campers and we always welcome their company.

Don hugs the largest tree ever found in the vicinity of My Lake.  It is some type of cottonwood according to Joann and is located in Joann’s favorite spot at the end of My Lake.  She and Dewayne visited the spot many times to study the unique ecosystem that seemed to exist because of the abundance of water.  Don revisited this spot in 2001 and this tree is still standing tall and strong.

This is a female grouse commonly found in our area.  The male has a bright red spot on the top of his head.  These birds have a survival strategy that depends on camouflage.  They will “freeze” when they see you and hope you don’t see them.  They are easy to approach if you do it slowly.  They run only after you get to within a couple feet.  This strategy has earned them the reputation of being “dumb” but I don’t think it is deserved.

     One morning while in my tent, the rising sun was brightly shining onto the side of the tent under the rain tarp.  I had awakened to the soft chirping of some birds close by and noticed that the sun was casting a shadow on my tent of three small grouse chicks sitting in a row on a limb. Their image was so crisp (because they were so close) that I could see their beaks move in synchronization with the chirping.

     I lay there enjoying these three chatter ay and in my mind IIf you do see chicks about, you know that the mom is close by, frequently making soft chirps in grouse language to signal the chicks what to do.   I once notices a spherical depression in front of my tent and noted that I didn’t remember seeing it before.  Later that day there was a female grouse snuggled in the depression, pecking away at the ground where a log had decayed, leaving only a reddish color on the ground.  Obviously, it was a good spot to hunt bugs.  The next day there were three smaller depressions next to the original large one where the chicks must have learned how to get a meal.

An early morning trip was made by the Nieburs to explore a nearby river.  This is what Dancing Loon Island looked like as they pulled away, towing the sports canoe behind the 14’ Lund.

Joann poses on the pile of rafters that she “knifed” to remove the bark and nubbins.  This was a huge task requiring hours of tough arm work for each 21 ‘rafter.  Note that they have been sawed flat on one side.  The flat side was positioned “up” when installed in the cabin and provided a flat surface for the roof deck while the knifed log provided a rustic appearance from within the cabin.  Unfortunately, the logs twisted about 20 degrees during the two years they were stored under a tarp.  Now we know that the logs should have been stored uncut and cut only at the time they were to be used.  This detail was omitted from all the log processing references I had seen.  This problem would cause an extra two weeks of back breaking work to correct two years later.

   They were very ugly and we didn’t have a clue what was wrong or how or if it could be corrected.  On a trip to LaRonge for supplies and while in the lumber yard, I inquired of the desk person about my problem.  From his expression, it was obvious he was not going to be any help.  Luckily, an older customer overheard our plight and asked if we were working with black spruce.  After hearing that we were in fact working with black spruce, he smiled and told us that the cabin he built for himself was of black spruce and every few years it would turn black and all that was needed was a cleaning with Javex.  “What in the world is Javex”, I asked.  “You know, household bleach” he responded.  By this time I knew that Canadians have a few word different in their vocabulary and this was just another one.  So we were off to the grocery store and the purchase of several gallons of Javex.

     Back on the island, painting the logs with a mixture of 50 percent Javex  and 50 percent water seemed too simple of a cure for a problem.  Fortunately, it worked like a charm and the black logs would morf into the natural blonde color we started with.  Again, this was not mentioned in any of the literature I had read about timber processing.

Don’s tent is setup here in one of the several tent sites we cleared.  There is a vestibule attached to the front of the tent that provided additional room for storage in the tent.  The tent also has a rain fly installed plus there is a heavier tarp fly over whole thing, supported by saplings.  Dewayne provided the green tarp material seen in many of the pictures.  While working as a life guard at a local hotel, he inquired what was to happen to the many skids of material that was accumulating from the old “bubble” that was being replaced over the tennis court.  When he learned it was destined for the local dump, he suggested that dumping it at his father’s farm was a much shorter drive.  They ended up with many skids of this tough material and they graciously provided me with many, many large sheets of the material and it was invaluable to the cabin project.

Frank and Don are shown relaxing in the cook tent. Note the gas powered Coleman lantern.  Don, Frank and Betty went to the island in late August after Don, Joann and Dewayne had returned to Boulder.  We stayed two weeks, mostly making laminated beams and floor joist out of the many 4 x 4s that had been cut on the earlier trip.  Don had constructed a “jig” for this process up by the cabin that looked like an old hitching rail.  We would glue a couple logs together on top of the jig, then wrap loosely the logs and jig with three chains, one in the middle and two near each end.  Three hydraulic jacks were then placed between the logs and each loose chain, running the chain over a special saddle on each jack.  By pumping up the jack, the logs were compressed tightly together and were then nailed with long ring shank pole barns nails every 12 inches.  In this manner we fabricated 21 - 4” x 12” x 9’ beams and 85 - 4” x 8” x 8’ floor joist.  Driving all those 7” long pole barn nails turned out to be quite challenging because they tended to bend when they encountered a knot.  Holding them in the middle with pliers while driving them proved to be a good “farmer” solution to the problem.

Franks and Don did saw quite a few logs into the 4 x 4 timbers.  Almost every log was so close to the minimum size required, that all the 4 x 4s would typically have rounded corners where the sawed wood ran out just before getting to a corner.  This imperfection was necessitated by the fact that the trees in the transitional forest in our area were just too small.  That was the bad news, the good news is that these small trees have no commercial value and this should assure that the area stays pristine for a long time.

This model was made in Boulder from local willows   It proved very valuable is several ways.  Besides helping to verify the design for Don, it also provided a good way at the island for us to communicate what logs were required and where they would eventual go in the cabin.  It also provided inspiration by allowing us all to have a common vision of the end objective.  The actual cabin turned out to be almost exactly as shown in the model, something that frequently does not happen.

Frank shows off a typical catch of walleye.  We were getting ready to leave the honey hole and clean these fish for taking home.  Unfortunately, Don managed to drop the whole string over board and we were unable to retrieve them before the drifted down the rapids still attached to the stringer.  Have you forgiven me yet Frank?

Floor joist are stored here on the left and the beams that would eventually support them are on the right. When we arrived at the island the next spring we found that a mother Mallard duck was nesting under this pile, safe from predator and rain. After the beams and joist were used in the cabin construction, this storage area was used for miscellaneous wood and a dry place to store bags of cement and lime. In 2002 the Mallard duck nest was occupied by a Merganser. This Merganser would fly around the island several times before coming in for a tricky landing. Frequently she would land on the cabin deck, then hop over to the nest, providing us with some enjoyable viewing.

This view is looking north, showing the cabin site with many of the pier holes dug.  The rocks came either from the holes we dug or from the beach.  Many more rocks were eventually required than what we had collected in this picture.  Many of the rocks were “ugly”, meaning they were not the right shape for using in the piers.  These ugly stones eventually became “fill” for the stove platform.

This view is looking southwest and shows the first pier we made.  It was the located in exposed bedrock slightly above grade and provided the elevation reference for the whole cabin.  We wanted to do one pier to see how much work it was and to test our process to see how a masonry pier would standup to the –50 degree winter temperatures. Fortunately, we had the right mortar mix, good sand and a very solid foundation.  By 2002, not a single crack has been found in any of the stone work, no small feat considering the extreme temperature conditions.

Our first “John” was located beyond the saw pavilion and looked across the channel to what we called “salt lick point”. The point had a block of salt deposited on it to attract some wild game. We had hoped to see a moose or a bear from this vantage point but it never happened.

This early shot in the cook tent shows it with the original low ceiling and no addition for storage or shower.  Note the sand under the stove to add some fire protection.  Our only fire was caused when Dewayne decided to burn up some old cardboard and the stove got so hot that it ignited some cardboard alongside the stove.  It was not a major incident but it did illustrate the potential problem caused by putting too much volatile fuel in the stove.

Our radiophone antenna is shown here pointing in the direction of the Sasktel tower that we communicated with. When we first tried to use this phone there were a lot of variables to deal with. One was the correct pointing of this antenna but that proved to be one of the easier ones to deal with. When Don tried to make the first call from the island he got the operator rather easily, however, she said his phone was not set up in her computer and she could not make any phone connections for him. Don explained that he had followed the prescribed procedure for getting a new phone and the operator in Prince Albert had assured him that everything was all taken care of.

     Before leaving home, Don made another call to the “new phone” lady at Sasktel and was again assured that everything was all set, his sizable deposit had been received and deposited and all he had to do was pick up the phone in LaRonge, properly install it on the island, point the antenna toward the tower and follow the phone protocol.