Originally built as a one-room logging cabin in 1900, this building saw a few significant alterations before our purchase in 2005.
The primary room was walled off to create two small bedrooms and a kitchen. An earlier addition created a bathroom and a porch. The extended outbuildings included a boathouse, bunkhouse and an outhouse. All needed some "TLC" and have received some work over the years. (The original fieldstone fireplace includes a swing arm for cooking!)
Our extended family has always enjoyed cabin life. My parents would rent a cabin for a week in the Danbury, Wis., area where my four siblings (and, later, spouses and soon-to-be nieces and nephews) would swim, fish, boat and relax. Two of my brothers eventually bought their own cabins in the area. An opportunity allowed us to put a down payment on the place in the same vicinity. With three families nearby, every summer holiday becomes an extended get-together.
We bought at a time busy with baseball — our two boys playing and my husband, Tom, coaching. When would we have time to go to the cabin? As our lives have evolved, we've been able to spend more and more time. Now, it's nearly every weekend, and some day visits could grow into entire summers.
Our sons learned to love the joys of being on the lake: swimming, tubing, skiing, floating, paddling, spotting eagles and loons, playing board games, cribbage and backgammon. Our golden retriever, Reggie, loves the lake, too, which is just a few short steps from the cabin.
It's pretty amazing to think of this cabin housing loggers, then morphing into a family gathering place over 100 years. Hopefully the family gatherings continue for another 100.
Julie Tapper, Plymouth
