Dacha 2013

We had a nice 2+ weeks at Helen’s NH lake house, meeting up with Z&T.   Here they are planning their lake entry strategy:

Which they then execute in style:

Helen provided lessons in mushrooming:

They found lots of them:

Not sure this was a mushroom, but it was cool:

Some mushrooms came with frogs:

We also found a not-frog, probably terrestrial:

There was a 65’ dead birch tree teetering towards the neighbor’s cabin, so Zack got all excited for a chance at hopefully controlled destruction (for the tree, not the cabin).  That’s him wrapping a control rope 20+’ feet up the tree:

We were all relieved when it fell in the right direction:

For the trip back to MN, they had a really full car, but an empty trailer, so Zach loaded it down with a rubber ducky:

I imagine it brought lots of smiles to fellow Interstate travelers:

We also had good visits with Aya and friend Max.  Aya’s look of horror is at the amount of butter Helen loaded onto the toast (she is scared of butter):

We had good weather and swam every day:

I did a mini solo biathlon, swimming around the lake perimeter (2.5 miles, 2 hours), then running up and down nearby Mt Lovewell (5 miles, 1.2 hours) … got a bit sweaty:

I lost my camera.  Figuring it might have slipped into a couch cushion crack, I started digging and found many years of accumulation:

I didn’t find the camera there, but playing Sherlock Holms, I calculated one other place it might have fallen, under a kitchen cabinet.  Not only was my camera there, but hidden behind a few dust bunnies I found another camera I had lost 4 years ago!

We attended friend Sophia’s wedding at a lake on the Canadian border:

Helen got some help with rarely applied makeup:

Sophia and Lil were a very happy couple:

The border fence had no warning going into Canada, but once there, you could not come back:

Aya in the foreground and Helen is somewhere far in the background, swimming into Canada:

Helen has decided to sell the lake house, so we posted a for sell by owner sign while we were there:

That prompted a couple of options that Helen is considering.

Although the lake swimming is very scenic and unrestricted, the first minute can be a bit chilly at 72 degrees and I’ve come to appreciate the 86 degrees we keep our pool at.   At a recent pool party, we introduced some doggies to swimming:

But they preferred boating:

Bruce