Minnesota Resorts Blog

       We just did the Forth of July festivities.  Aaron and I go to Grand Forks to get the forth of July fireworks.  We come back with a truck load.  We get all levels of fireworks and we start with the youngest of the kids. 

    They get to use sparklers, smoke bombs and Roman candles.  We then work up to the teenagers they get to fire off the candles, parachutes, and other mid range fireworks.   The customers sit down and then Aaron’s crew really gets to work.  

  He gets 3 other college guys to help him.  They have 3 different staging areas.  Safety is of course a main concern.  The guests are very close to the action.  In 9 years we have never had even a slight burn to us or our guests.  He ends to night with a 250.00 grand finale.  The croud always goes wild at the end.  This year Aaron started with the youngsters and was working for 15 min and a storm rolled in.  The storm was something like seen in a movie, it was actually rolling up there and really black. We posponed the fun till the 5th.

   Something we always do on the 4th of July is a boat parade.  All the boat owners on the lake meet at a certain spot in the lake and we preceded to circle the lake.  Everybody decorates their boat and we honk our horns.  Kohl’s send out 2 jet skis with drivers and we hand out bags of candy to the people waving from the docks.   This year I was honored with leading the parade.  I felt a land owner that has been here longer  should have been able to do it, but I was beaming.  Our guests with boats join us and the kids have a great time.  These are memories.    Jim

    We are in a good routine, all the building are set up for the July rush.

  We have been working on our new cabin. It took 4 months to complete.  It was finished 2 hours before the first guests checked into it.  We were very excited  to show it to those first people.  The guest were elated when they saw it.  New is so nice!!   

  This new cabin is 202 set in the corner of the woods, the deck in elevated and is set up in the trees.  This cabin used to be a tree house and now have a second floor under it.  It will be very popular. 

   Aaron is having great success with his guiding service, he charges 90.00 for 4 hours of fishing.  His customers have been very successful the past 2 weeks.  They have caught lots of Bass, walleye, northern and pan fish.  For Christmas we got him a really nice landing net and wind/rain suit. 

  I remember last year he was using one of the resorts old landing nets and a big 30 northern ripped a hole in the net and it got away.  Well it was a catch and release anyway, and Aaron did get pictures of it while it was being landed and while it got away.  Fun fish story.    Jim

Now that it is the 2nd week of June there are kids all over the place, pool, playground, beach, frog pond, ping pong table, volleyball area, trampoline, docks, bike area, horse shoe pits, saturn water toy, docks, at the sand castle contest, cook out area, at the minnow races, kids craft, bingo, they were at both of the ice cream socials, the movie night, pool, video game area,,,,  Jim breath.  Yes it’s nice to see the kids here.

  I hired another full time college student her name is Abby, she is a joy to have around.  She has worked cleaning cabins for 3 years, but now she is full time.  This brings us to 4 full timers, 15 part time and Deb and I.

  She will have her hands full as she joins Ana in all the staining and powerwashing of decks. There is also 5 cabins a year to stain, along with all the daily chores.  They take care of the boats. Clean the beach and rake it daily. Clean the fish house, pool, laundry and grounds daily.  They stock wood, get garbage, and even repair stuff.  We are glad we have them.  Ana by the way has been here for 5 years. 

  There was a hail storm this week, our roofs took a pounding.   Jim

    Fishing opener  is already past and the Summer is just ahead of us.  The docks, and boats are all in the water.  The water is high, but it is high everywhere in the country.  I am grateful there is almost no damage like some of the states get.  The water was trying although to wash under our boathouse. 

  Fishing has been good so far and we have lots of pictures for the guests. 

  We are working on our new cabin #202 it will be a 3 bedroom 3 bath unit.  With 2 Jacuzzies, a second living room, dishwasher, infloor heat, airconditioning and a great deck.  Thank you to all the guest reserving this unit sight unseen, we have no pictures yet and we have quite a few bookings already.

  Customers needed air conditioning this week and 2 of them broke.  This always happens the first time of the year.

  I had to get a new truck this Winter, it is a 3 year old Dakota with a plow.  The last one had the engine sieze up after Tires Plus worked on the cooling system. I think they never pressure tested it and thats it the engine is shot.  Too bad I almost got nothing for the trade in.  See you on the docks.   Jim

  All of the Winter lease families have left except a few nurses for the Bemidji hospital.  We will keep there here for as long as we have room.  It is steady income. 

  The helicopter pilots have arrived.  These guys fly helicopters and planes that carry water for putting out fires.  The Spring grasses are brown and there can be up to 20 fires each day.  This year we had 4 guys. One guy stayed for a month.  For workers coming into the area we give them special rates. 

  David one of the guys I hired to help with the docks, will be working for us this Summer