Wing and I have had a wonderful marriage. We've been married for 32 years. You might even call it a great love story. We've stood together through many trials and trails. Still with all that, I realize she's had a lot to put up with - being married to a Jackpine Savage.
When I first met Wing she was guiding canoe trips in Ontario. I was doing the same thing. We hit it off right from the start. For such a thin little thing, she could carry a Duluth pack and canoe along with the best of them. She was always enthusiastic and loved the northwoods. She would run the portages, with canoe and pack, and could paddle all day without switching sides. I figured she was just the woman for me - if only I could win her. The northwoods must have intoxicated her. Before too long we were married.
We weren't married too long before I discovered, much to my surprise, that she viewed life the woods as an interesting summer interlude - while I viewed it as a way of life. She was a city girl. I viewed cities as giant cages - a good place to visit once in a while - a place where you could go to see the strange people who lived there - and also just to make you feel good that you didn't live there.
Wing had visions of a ranch style house in the suburbs - but definitely on the bus line.
Wing's family is very genteel and refined. I never slept in a bed with sheets until we got married. It was years before Wing could get me to blow my nose using anything but my fingers. I was raised with the understanding that every tree was a restroom. I think my poor bride was close to despair many times in the early years of our marriage.
Wing's upbringing had taught her that punctuality is a virture. I'm always on "Indian time." Wing likes a shower and a bath. I'd forsake either for a good sauna. I once talked her into spending a year in a tent while I built a log house. I look back on it with great fondness. It is almost too painful for her to remember.
Wing was worried about the kids drowning - as we lived so close to the lake. I was never that concerned, but started throwing them in the lake after they reached one year. Never too early to learn to swim. I'd make sure she wasn't around though. I felt she might not agree (none of them can remember a time when they could not swim).
We weren't in agreement on the correct age for kids to start canoeing either. Sara says her first memory is of being in a canoe with me. Not too strange. I worked nights. Wing worked days. Had to do something with the kids while I was watching them. So we went canoeing.
Wing always had a hard time having kids. When she was pregnant - she would go slightly out of her mind. She says the only reason she ever agreed to buying our present residence was because she was out of her mind. She was pregnant with Sara, our youngest, when we looked at the property. We'd had a lot of financial problems. My construction company had gone belly up about 1980 and all of our money had gone with it. We bought the place dirt-cheap. I was very surprised Wing was interested at all.
The property had an old log lodge and an old sauna. The lodge was swaybacked. The posts it was set on were all rotting and the floor looked like a roller coaster. The lakeside wall was 11 inches off plumb. There was no indoor plumbing, and the chinking was more of a memory than a protection against winter winds. Our first winter, the idea of a log house palled. We covered the interior with poly to keep off the wind. Five of us lived in a space the size of an outhouse. I could see my bride was mortified to have her people see what we were living in.
It's amazing what a Jackpine Savage will do to keep his genteel bride happy.
I intended to doze the lodge and build anew. Not sure where I thought the money was coming from. I checked with zoning and found that if we dozed the building, we'd have to place the new structure 200 feet further from the lake. I liked it where it was.
We jacked up the building with old screw jacks and railroad jacks. I cut two large pine and broadaxed them into beams to support the building. I dug down the footings and got concrete block from a building that had been knocked off its foundation by a semi-truck. It took over a month to chip off all the old mortar. I dug out the basement by hand, a wheelbarrow load at a time. I started the basement in September and poured the floor in February. Most of the concrete I mixed by hand.
I removed the front wall and pulled the top plates together with a come-along. I removed part of the roof and built a half story with two bedrooms and a bath. This took care of the sway-back roof line. I built stud walls on the porch and turned part of it into a bathroom. I put another bathroom, laundry room, workshop, pack room, and a bedroom, in the basement. I changed around all the rooms on the main floor. We ended up with two bedrooms, a huge kitchen, front room, bathroom, and den on the main floor.
I added stud walls and sheetrock on the inside, firring strips and siding on the outside. I wired and plumbed the whole place and put in all new windows. I took up all the maple flooring (the only decent feature in the place) and set it back down tight. I found large ceramic tile and floored the kitchen. And all of this on a shoe-string budget like you wouldn't believe. For five years I never did much of anything but go to work - and work on the house.
In the end, my bride got a nice house to live in - one she loves and is proud of.
Me, I got to live in the woods, and on a lake, with a happy bride.
PG
When I first met Wing she was guiding canoe trips in Ontario. I was doing the same thing. We hit it off right from the start. For such a thin little thing, she could carry a Duluth pack and canoe along with the best of them. She was always enthusiastic and loved the northwoods. She would run the portages, with canoe and pack, and could paddle all day without switching sides. I figured she was just the woman for me - if only I could win her. The northwoods must have intoxicated her. Before too long we were married.
We weren't married too long before I discovered, much to my surprise, that she viewed life the woods as an interesting summer interlude - while I viewed it as a way of life. She was a city girl. I viewed cities as giant cages - a good place to visit once in a while - a place where you could go to see the strange people who lived there - and also just to make you feel good that you didn't live there.
Wing had visions of a ranch style house in the suburbs - but definitely on the bus line.
Wing's family is very genteel and refined. I never slept in a bed with sheets until we got married. It was years before Wing could get me to blow my nose using anything but my fingers. I was raised with the understanding that every tree was a restroom. I think my poor bride was close to despair many times in the early years of our marriage.
Wing's upbringing had taught her that punctuality is a virture. I'm always on "Indian time." Wing likes a shower and a bath. I'd forsake either for a good sauna. I once talked her into spending a year in a tent while I built a log house. I look back on it with great fondness. It is almost too painful for her to remember.
Wing was worried about the kids drowning - as we lived so close to the lake. I was never that concerned, but started throwing them in the lake after they reached one year. Never too early to learn to swim. I'd make sure she wasn't around though. I felt she might not agree (none of them can remember a time when they could not swim).
We weren't in agreement on the correct age for kids to start canoeing either. Sara says her first memory is of being in a canoe with me. Not too strange. I worked nights. Wing worked days. Had to do something with the kids while I was watching them. So we went canoeing.
Wing always had a hard time having kids. When she was pregnant - she would go slightly out of her mind. She says the only reason she ever agreed to buying our present residence was because she was out of her mind. She was pregnant with Sara, our youngest, when we looked at the property. We'd had a lot of financial problems. My construction company had gone belly up about 1980 and all of our money had gone with it. We bought the place dirt-cheap. I was very surprised Wing was interested at all.
The property had an old log lodge and an old sauna. The lodge was swaybacked. The posts it was set on were all rotting and the floor looked like a roller coaster. The lakeside wall was 11 inches off plumb. There was no indoor plumbing, and the chinking was more of a memory than a protection against winter winds. Our first winter, the idea of a log house palled. We covered the interior with poly to keep off the wind. Five of us lived in a space the size of an outhouse. I could see my bride was mortified to have her people see what we were living in.
It's amazing what a Jackpine Savage will do to keep his genteel bride happy.
I intended to doze the lodge and build anew. Not sure where I thought the money was coming from. I checked with zoning and found that if we dozed the building, we'd have to place the new structure 200 feet further from the lake. I liked it where it was.
We jacked up the building with old screw jacks and railroad jacks. I cut two large pine and broadaxed them into beams to support the building. I dug down the footings and got concrete block from a building that had been knocked off its foundation by a semi-truck. It took over a month to chip off all the old mortar. I dug out the basement by hand, a wheelbarrow load at a time. I started the basement in September and poured the floor in February. Most of the concrete I mixed by hand.
I removed the front wall and pulled the top plates together with a come-along. I removed part of the roof and built a half story with two bedrooms and a bath. This took care of the sway-back roof line. I built stud walls on the porch and turned part of it into a bathroom. I put another bathroom, laundry room, workshop, pack room, and a bedroom, in the basement. I changed around all the rooms on the main floor. We ended up with two bedrooms, a huge kitchen, front room, bathroom, and den on the main floor.
I added stud walls and sheetrock on the inside, firring strips and siding on the outside. I wired and plumbed the whole place and put in all new windows. I took up all the maple flooring (the only decent feature in the place) and set it back down tight. I found large ceramic tile and floored the kitchen. And all of this on a shoe-string budget like you wouldn't believe. For five years I never did much of anything but go to work - and work on the house.
In the end, my bride got a nice house to live in - one she loves and is proud of.
Me, I got to live in the woods, and on a lake, with a happy bride.
PG
