Before and After

We’ve talked a lot about the renovations we did to the lodge this year. In total, we renovated 6 cabins and the dining room and rec hall. New roofs, new paint, new floors, new showers, new beds, lights, blah blah blah on and on. Check out this selection of before and after photos instead. They say it better than we ever could.


Created with flickr slideshow.

Diamond in the Rough

Note: The plan was to post this on Mother’s Day, which is when we wrote it, but some unforseen internet issues and just general busy-ness got in the way. Hope you enjoy it anyway, even if it’s a little late!

I’m writing this post as we’re flying from Fort MacMurray on our way home. We had to refuel on the way home from Lloyd Lake.

This weekend was a surprise visit to my dad and brother.  We brought in another Caravan-load of supplies for the lodge. Most importantly, my granny, my mom, Elize and I got to see Derrick on his birthday.

Derrick blows out the candles on his birthday cake. Granny baked it and made sure it got on the plane. It got a few bumps on the way, but it still tasted delicious!

Every aspect of this weekend was awesome. It’s amazing what 6 people can accomplish in 2 days. One cool stat: before, the lights in the lodge used 10,000 watts. When we’re all done in the cabins, we’ll be pulling only 1,300 watts. A great start on our journey to become an eco lodge within a few years.

In the mornings, after having a coffee on the dock, we’d head to the dining room and get to work. For 3 days before we arrived, Derrick scraped wallpaper off the walls—a massive and time-consuming job. On Saturday I rolled the walls, Elize did the cutting and trim-painting, and Derrick found us everything from flooring and paint brushes to light bulbs in the various places they’re stored. It’s a task in itself to sort and find stuff. We’ve brought so many new supplies to the lodge that we essentially have our own Rona.

Mom and granny cleaned out and scrubbed down a storage room and organized the linens. They always take on the tasks no one wants to do and finish them with smiles of pride and accomplishment on their faces. Thanks ladies, and happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday broke beautifully. As the morning sun poured through the dining room windows, we put in the new floor while dad finished reframing the main door. By noon, the new floor was done and we were putting the finishing touches on the paint. Mom and granny had done some more cleaning magic in the owner’s cabin and came up with lists of what we need for the next trip in. What a difference 2 days can make.

Installing the dining room floor.

Although there’s lots of work to be done, Derrick made a rule that we have to go fishing every day. We can’t fish yet, but we did go for a cruise on the lake to the waterfall on Saturday. It’s a peaceful spot with the water running over the rocks and loons calling in the background. We took our new dog, Milli, with us. She’s a golden retriever, and she adores water. She views Lloyd Lake as her private swimming pool.

Meet Milli. She may look like a clean, princessy kind of puppy, but she has special skills for finding the dirtiest, smelliest things to roll in. Fortunately, she loves to swim.

The waterfall.

This afternoon we took her on the boat again for a cruise to see how much of the ice has come off the lake. It’s almost gone. I decided to pick up a piece of the rotten ice. Wow is it cold on the hands! I chucked it back quickly, not thinking anything of it. Next thing we know, Milli calmly makes her way to the back of the boat and dives into the water head first to retrieve. Stunned silence from the 3 of us. Then, pandemonium!

Between laughing hysterically, Elize managed to snap a few photos of me and Derrick giving Milli a hand onto the boat. Notice the ice chunk in her mouth. She was not letting go of her prize, especially after having to jump into a lake with the water sitting at 3.2 C to get it. She’s staying at the lodge for the summer. What dog could wish for anything more? New people every week and a lake just begging her to jump in. She’s going to have a blast!

We’re almost home now. Northern Canada from the sky is a pretty place. Throughout this flight the sun has shimmered on the lakes and rivers. A beautiful flight to end a beautiful weekend.

A Tale of Two Planes

From left to right: Derrick, Dez, Dad (Don), Craig

The past Sunday was a big day for us. No one needed an alarm—we got up more excited than kids on Christmas morning…. After all, we were going to be in our own version of Top Gun. Except that the planes were Cessna Grand Caravans, our uniforms were the new Lloyd Lake Lodge swag, and no one was quite as good looking as Tom Cruise in his younger days. Still, we quoted pretty much every line in the movie:
            
“Too close for missiles; switching to guns.”
“You can be my wingman anytime.”
“If you screw this up, Maverick, you’ll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog sh*t out of Hong Kong.”

And on it went. All the way up to Fort McMurray. All through loading 2 Cessna Grand Caravans as full as they could go—4,500 pounds plus 4 guys and 2 pilots. And all the way to the lodge. As we were approaching Lloyd Lake, this came over the radio:

Derrick’s plane: “Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby.”
My plane: “Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.”

And then, “Vroom!” Derrick buzzed the lodge.

Suffice it to say, we had as much fun as possible. Even though there was lots of packing and unpacking to accomplish our objective for the day, it never felt like work. Cruising over all four lakes was a fantastic time!

Lloyd Lake is opening up nicely, with ice piled up in a few places. Some of the ice took out our dock, which is really good since we’re replacing it anyway. Thanks Mother Nature!

As soon as we landed, I jogged into the lodge to maximize the time I could spend there. Walking into the lodge was serene. I had sand in my moccasins. It was beautiful outside, and when I came to the lodge it was all quiet and peaceful. You could hear your own thoughts echo. It felt like home—it’s a great sense of pride and belonging—and everything was right in the world at that moment.

Seeing 2 planes parked on the runway is definitely cool. Lloyd hasn't seen that in a long time. May there be many more occasions!

We unloaded our gear using the tractor, which is my dad’s baby at this point. I’m pleased to report that he’s getting better and better at handling it. When I get back there, I expect a runway smoother than butter! Right, dad?

For the way back, I arranged for my friend Craig to sit shotgun. He’s never flown a plane before, so I talked our pilot into letting him fly. Craig, well, let’s just say he was a pretty happy guy. He flew for at least half an hour. When the wheels touched the ground in Fort Mac, he looked back at me and said, “Glad I didn’t kill you, buddy,” with a smile on his face from ear to ear. Kudos to Captain Jason MacNeil. Flying with him is plain fun.

While I was sad to get on the plane home, leaving my dad and brother there to get the work started, soon I will be there too. We’ll be working from sunrise to sunset to get everything ready for our first guests. They arrive in 16 days.

Wow. Just wow.

Busy, Busy, Busy… Awesome

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Last day; last load. Dirty, but so happy!