Category Archives: The Cabin

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

Family and Friends, The Adventure, The Cabin

But there was more

August 27, 2024 steph Leave a comment

Reunion Ingredients –
Great people – Check
Pond Fun – Check
Lumber Jack adventure – Check

…but what else was there to do??

Well, here are just a couple of the other activities that filled our days! There were three ATVs that pretty much were on the go most of the time! If kids weren’t in the pond, there was a good chance they were exploring the property on wheels.

And then there was a little field trip – tubing down the Waits River.

The Waits River wasn’t the most challenging river and there were some pretty shallow areas –

but at the end of the adventure, I think a good time was had by all!

And the folks that didn’t go tubing? Well, we’ll get to that another day!

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, The Cabin

Another Pond Activity

August 23, 2024 steph 1 Comment

Do you see the birch tree in the header picture above? We’ve been watching that tree get closer and closer to the pond each year we come. And the concern was that it would eventually fall into the pond and then be impossible to get out of the pond. Gary had worked on trimming off some of the easier to reach branches earlier in the summer

but knew that getting the main part of the tree down would have to wait. Since we had a good supply of 40-something men and a couple of willing teenagers around during the reunion, Gary came up with a plan that involved a couple guys in the boat,

and a brave soul willing to shimmy himself (and the saw) out over the pond.

Sometimes it takes two on the tree to get it low enough to fully cut through!

While it didn’t go exactly as it had been envisioned, our gang is great at improvisation and at the end of the day, the tree had been dispatched, no adults or teenagers or turtles were harmed in the excursion, and The Pond activities resumed.

Actually, I’m not at all sure they were ever interrupted to begin with!