Our love for our little red cabin in Vermont is no secret around here. We’d already been at the cabin earlier in May, but we were delighted to be able to work in a second Cabin stay in late June. As always it was just what the doctor ordered! We overlapped the first couple of days with my sister Joie & hubby which was a first for us – and quite the delight from my perspective! We stayed in town with Chris (so thankful for that sweet guestroom!), and took exactly zero photos of the four (or five, depending on the day) of us, but trust me – walks were taken
thrift shops were visited
(all pink tags were 10 cents. Yes. 10 cents.)
and ice cream was eaten!
While we were together we also had our annual Dwinell Cabin Association meeting, with over 15 in attendence.
Zoom has really helped us include more folks in these annual meetings – and it was a great meeting! As our family grows, it becomes more and more important to be organized and official! We love that so many of this next generation are excited about spending time at the cabin. (Excited that they are paying dues too!)
After Joie & Fitz wrapped up their time, Gary started in on what was our big project for this trip – painting the cabin floor!
We got all the furniture moved to one side and Gary began sanding –
As he moved around with the sanding I followed behind vacuuming, mopping and taping. Soon he was into the painting!
Day two was (carefully) moving the furniture to the painted side, and begin the same procedure as the day before. Sanding, cleaning, taping, painting.
Second coat on the high traffic areas –
We let everything dry thoroughly before we tried to put the cabin back together again!
The floor looks great, areas have been cleaned that haven’t been cleaned in a good long while, and I may or many not have gotten all of the fine green dust off of just about everything!
These are the feet of floor painter –
We stayed down at Chris’s during the process which was great. Truth be told, it was a bigger job than we thought it would be. Thankfully it doesn’t need to be done very often (last time was 2017), and we now know that the next generation will be the ones handling the job next time. =)
After we got that floor done, it was a pretty relaxing time for us. There were no treehouses to build, no docks to construct, or giant rocks to dig up. Chris and I worked on our side garden which we are trying to make into a Native Garden. The hope is that eventually it will be mostly self-maintaining and filled with beautiful Vermont-native plants. This is the first summer to really work on it – and I think it’s coming along nicely! (Now if we could just keep the ‘native’ grass under control!)
Starting out –
In process –
And mostly done (well, for this summer at least!)
The bench was donated to the cabin in Elna’s memory, so I’m calling it Elna’s Garden. It’s a work in progress to be sure – but it is quite the lovely spot to sit and watch the sun set over the mountains.
We researched where to hang the new hammock (yard sale find!)
Looks good, but a little too close to the outhouse, especially on a windy day!
Final spot is a keeper!
Even has a view of the pond!
Besides the naps that we took, the books we read, and the ice cream we ate, some of our other highlights were –
-Celebrating Aunt Vesta’s 100th birthday at the Dwinell Homestead
-New custom door on the outhouse –
And of course – my favorite way to wake up
with a crackling fire and fresh brewed coffee!
We finished up our time there with another sweet overlap – this time with those sweet Chambersburg Fitzpatricks. It was just one day – but it was a pretty perfect cabin day!
-Chores
-Swimming and games (no pictures, sorry, but lots of laughing and splashing was heard).
-Trip for ice cream
-and finally a campfire (complete with S’mores!).
What lovely weeks we had at The Cabin! We were reminded (as always) what a family treasure this little spot is – and what a precious gift our grandparents left us those long years ago! This was our final ‘see ya later’ for the cabin this year, but we left with our hearts full of Cabin love.
And then we were off the next part of our adventure…
Details coming soon!
Thanks for coming along on our round two of our Cabin time!
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