We’ve been super busy since February. Derrick’s been up to
the lodge 4 times, and I’ve managed to make it there twice. The last 2 times we
hauled in everything from new roofs and a tractor to redo the airstrip to a
quartz countertop, 9 boats, and a 1,000 gallons of fuel for the boats and
generators.
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| Hauling in the boats. |
Choosing and buying floors for the cabins, tile, faucets,
and showers for the bathrooms, countertops and cabinets for the kitchen, and
all the other miscellaneous stuff you need to run a lodge takes a long time. The
coolest and most useful thing we’ve hauled in so far is the Argo. We’ve also
become mechanics in the process. When something breaks in the middle of
nowhere, you figure out how to fix it yourself pretty quick.
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| Just a little floodwater. |
In the middle of all this craziness—and trust me, the
logistics of getting three 48 foot trailers and twenty 18 foot trailers filled
to capacity to the middle of nowhere, unloading them, and driving the content
across 20 miles of floodwater-covered ice road is crazy, not to mention the
Visa bills—we keep saying to each other how amazing it is that we get to live
this dream. And even better, how amazing it is that we get to do it together.
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| Riding off into the sunset...to clear more snow. |
We
won’t talk about the relief of not falling through the ice (we only broke
through a few times), or the jittery adrenaline rush when you hit a patch of
floodwater on the ice road. Each time we managed to get the trucks across the
ice into the lodge, there was such a sense of accomplishment. Owning a lodge is
all brand new to us, but I hope we keep the sense of wonderment at our new
reality as the years go by.
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| Getting all three trucks to the lodge was a proud moment. |
The busy-ness continues as we get ready to start the real
work in the beginning of May, and to welcome our very first clients on May 24th. We’ll be at the Fort McMurray trade
show next weekend too. If you’re there, stop in and say hi. We’d love to tell
you more about our adventures so far.
We can’t wait for what I’m sure will be the best fishing
season of our lives so far.
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| Last day; last load. Dirty, but so happy! |
