Category Archives: The Cabin

Sabbatical?

July 9, 2026 steph 3 Comments

Apparently, I am taking a sabbatical from blogging this summer. I didn’t realize that was the plan, but given the non-blogging that’s been happening here, I think I just need to embrace that reality!! So before we hit ‘radio silence’ for the next several weeks, here’s a quick update on our Vermont Summer!
We’ve seen loads of friends and family! We’ve connected with SOWER friends, college friends, young motherhood friends, nieces, nephews, and siblings! And of course, friends here in Bradford.

Lord willing, we’ll be catching another group of family and friends on our way back to Texas!
Currently, we’re at our third (and final) summer location – a sweet cottage in West Newbury (only about 10 minutes (all dirt road) to the cabin or 10 minutes to Bradford (mostly paved)). Previously this summer, we’ve had many sweet Cabin days (both staying there and also just doing day visits), and then enjoyed several weeks “in town” at my niece’s place while she was away. Yes, staying in one place would’ve been easier, but each spot had its own advantages and delights! (And two of them even had flush toilets!)

The Cabin – the summer revolves around this heart location.

In-town – only 10 minutes from the cabin, and close enough to town to walk to our favorite Taco Tuesday restaurant!

The West Newbury cottage – close to the cabin and town, but situated off the beaten track, and with a great view across the river to New Hampshire!

What great accommodations we’ve enjoyed!

We spent a week in Ohio, watching granddaughter #3 graduate from high school and spending time with our Ohio families.

How precious was that visit! (Big bonus is they will all be at the Cabin over the next two weeks, so we’ll get to see them again before we head south!)
We took a mini road trip with my sister and BIL to the coast of Maine for a lovely visit with my niece and hubby. Sure is purty there!

And the company was pretty fine, too!

One of my big concerns with this extended stay in Vermont was keeping Gary busy. I have my computer, sewing machine and a jigsaw puzzle, so I’m good to go. But Gary? He’s not very good at sitting around. I’m happy to report that between some local friends and various cabin jobs, he’s been doing a great job keeping out of trouble.


Roof over Grill	New Loft window	Treehouse sleeping bunks

We’ve enjoyed beautiful sunsets at the cabin

And now we’re awakened (maybe a little too early) by amazing sunrises over the White Mountains.

All in all, this Vermont Summer plan has been a delight! Oh, we’ve had some rainy days (good for naps) and some stupid hot days (good for doing NOTHING), and yes, the truck is making a funny clicking sound that we’re having looked at next week – but aside from a few glitches – I’m calling it a winner!

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading through this (not so quick) update on our Vermont Summer. I’ll be back – when I’m back!

Family and Friends, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure, The Cabin

Summer Plans

April 26, 2026 steph 1 Comment

The official start of Summer might still be weeks away, but in our little corner of the world, big plans are afoot! I’ve often said that in my ideal world we’d be someplace warm for the winter, but up in Vermont for the summer. We’ve figured out the “warm in the winter” part (well, it’s mostly warm here in Lindale in the winter), but the summer in Vermont presented a little more challenge. Since our cabin is a family property and used by three generations of Dwinells, it was not available for us to just hang out there all summer. (Though truth be told, we’d be more than happy to do that!) So we signed up for May (when there’s not such a demand since most of the kids are in school) which gives us the honor of opening up the cabin. Gary gets the water system up and running, while I’m inside tackling the dead fly bodies, cobwebs, and any other surprises that be waiting for us! We truly love The Cabin in May, when the trees are just beginning to wake up, and the beautiful ‘bones’ of our landscape are visible! Our niece, Christiana, who lives nearby in Bradford, was up last week (it’s always good to make sure the road is passable and things are generally in good shape!) and she sent along this picture –

I am so ready to be there!!

So that takes care of most of May. We head to Ohio over Memorial Day weekend to watch granddaughter #3 graduate from high school and spend a week or so with our Columbus (area) crew! Looking forward to lots of beautiful family chaos there!
In June, we’ll be back in Vermont, staying at our niece’s house in Bradford while she enjoys some vacation time. We’re calling it ‘housesitting’ – but it’s such a blessing for us to be able to stay there. A huge perk of June is that my sister and hubby will be at The Cabin for a couple of weeks during that time! Pretty sure we’ll be able to get in some good sister time!

July was presenting a bit of a challenge, but we put a little ad in the local whatever (you know – Responsible 70-something couple looking for short-term rental…willing to do renovations, etc.) and that did give us a couple of options. But it was actually the time-tested “friend of a friend” connection that found us this sweet three-bedroom cottage to rent for July and part of August. And the location is excellent – less than 10 miles from The Cabin!
Bonus for being in the area in July is that both of our Ohio families will be at The Cabin during the month. So we can spend time with them, but not crowd them. (Plus, we get to go home to a flush toilet. Just sayin’!)

We’re pretty excited about these Summer Plans! We’ll be stopping to see friends and family in the coming and going travels, so let me know if you want us to try and stop by! We are very thankful that these plans have come together so very nicely, and we will once again avoid a Texas Summer. (I’m sure it will happen sooner or later, but not this summer!) We leave TOMORROW!! Today is worship, lunch with friends, final loads of wash, and wrapping up the packing. Leaving your home for four months in the Texas heat requires many boxes to be checked. And really lovely neighbors!

Which brings me to my final point. You know I’m excited about spending the summer in Vermont. All of the above plans are answers to prayer. But our little Texas neighborhood has certainly found its way into my heart, and I will miss the dear folks we have come to love here. Truthfully, we will miss our little nest and the community around it.

I’ll try to keep up the blogging (sporadic though it may be) throughout the summer. But I’m also bringing my sewing machine, so we’ll see how it all works out!

I think the dryer just beeped – better get back to it!

As always – thanks for stopping by –

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. Proverbs 19:21

Family and Friends, Mondays are for Memories, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, The Cabin

Vermont, Round Two

July 23, 2025 steph 3 Comments

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!

Family and Friends, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure, The Cabin

One week into the adventure!

May 16, 2025 steph Leave a comment

And it’s been grand!
While our first official destination was Columbus, OH, and visits with our kids, we did make a quick stop along the way. We were able to connect with some sweet SOWER friends who live outside of Cincinnati! It was a quick stop, but one that did my heart good! Of course, I failed to get a photo of us together, so we each took selfies and shared them!

Not quite as fun as a together shot – but it will serve the purpose for our memories! We love being able to connect with our SOWER family on our travels!
The timing for our Ohio visit was to be able to celebrate our oldest granddaughter’s college graduation!

Prior to graduation day, we were able to spend time with both of our Ohio families, which included (but was not limited to) –
New hair designs,

dog walking,

(not sure who’s walking who here!)
baby almost walking,

a little Bluegrass

and lots of good family time!

With a shortage of available tickets, we didn’t get to watch Ellie graduate “live,” but being able to view it on TV in the comfort of her apartment

worked just fine for us. (Naps may or may not have happened during the commencement speeches. We were so cozy!)
It was a good visit all around! We’ll be heading back that way for more family fun at the end of the month, but right now we’re enjoying some very precious Cabin time!

We so love this place in May!

More Cabin Talk in days to come..
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

The Adventure, The Cabin

Tis the Season to remember the Reason

December 25, 2024 steph Leave a comment

In the fullness of time – when everything was in perfect position – God sent his only Son to make us His own!

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:7-10

RV There Yet?

Category Archives: The Cabin

Sabbatical?

Summer Plans

Vermont, Round Two

One week into the adventure!

Tis the Season to remember the Reason

Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!

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Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!