Revisiting Mystery #7

Dearest Nook,

Where oh where are you?
Did you get caught up in the rapture?
Did you fall prey to the steady
march of progress?

We're sorry that we called you
Crook in the Woods
when your name was actually
Nook in the Woods ....

We were just uncouth, uncultured
kids from the ghetto
who had to babysit
teaming Catholic families of
six kids under 6 years old
washing their never ending laundry,
ironing their wrinkled beyond belief clothing,
walking their unmanageable dogs, and even
PICKLING their cucumbers
all for a lousy 5o cents an hour
and thought we were rich indeed,
only to find out that
everything at the Nook was at least a dollar.

We take back every thing we said about your
exorbitant prices and promise
we will be forever happy with
JUST LOOKING
which is Almost As Fun (voices of mothers everywhere)
if you will just give us one little indication of
where you disappeared to.



We miss (in no particular order):
The Hull pottery, now only available on ebay


These fake little tonic bottles




This gen-u-wine Indian beaded leather belt





These miniature little mailboxes



This Gwen Frostic timeless stationery




This owl windchime





These owl candles


And these mushroom candles
with a little owl figurine
(Owls were very big in the 60's, as were mushrooms.
No one really knows why.)
(photo from TheGinghamOwl.etsy.com)


At the end of an energy-leaching sunny day
it felt good to walk down the sandy road
and turn in at the wagon-wheel
and browse among all of these irresistible trinkets
while the wooden floor creaked underneath our flipflops
and the windchimes tinkled outside
and the lady behind the counter
watched us like a hawk.


Sadly,
we had to satisfy our
spending urges
with yet another
Blue Moon ice cream cone, or,
a big bag of beef jerky
from the much more reasonably priced
Blue Horizon.

The Pirate's Life For Me

There are three sorts of people;
those who are alive, those who are dead,
and those who are at sea.
attributed to Anacharsis, 6th Century BC

Now, bring me that horizon ....
Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean


We've talked before about Dave VH
and his love of boats and boat building
and seagoing and seafaring.
This enchantement started,
apparently, at quite an early age.
Initially, he was content to just be in a boat
even if it went nowhere.
Later on
he learned that putting a boat in water is key.

Hi there mateys!
I'm guessing this is 1954 ish.

On the back of the photo is written,
"Big Star Lake, Star View,
Randy & Rod Rietema, Henry Kroondyk,
Danny Rietema, and Dave VH".

Star View was a small resort on the
far eastern bay of Big Star
run by the Geerdes
and currently the approximate location of
Holtvluwer's cottage.



I'm guessing Star View was somewhat
north of "Star Marsh" on this map.
In the photo below you can see
the peninsula that is Oddfellow & Rebbeca Camp
over the two boy's shoulders.

You can also see Dave
in the "bow" of the boat
proudly modelling his playboy bunny sweater.


Now, fast forward 50 years or so ....

Here is Dave on the right
with his bro-in-law Tom Zwiep on the left
and his son Luke in der midden.

Kind of tangentially, but
important to the plot-line nevertheless,

this looks like Luke again, don't you think?
In fact, I call this particular YouTube still
Luke-alike.
Check out the photo below for
instant verification.

Yup, dead ringer.

Luke, obviously, on Laina's left, your right.

And you know what's so deja-vuey
about this YouTube still?
It's grabbed from a song called Lukey
(from the band Great Big Sea)
which is the exact term of endearment
used by his mother
and

wait for it,

the song is about a man's
love affair with his boat.

I am going to post it for you below
to help all you Hofmans get in the mood
for sun and water and boating
or maybe just floating
belly up, face-down, whatever your pref

but

make sure you watch the whole video
because Luke doesn't appear until
almost the end.
And .... I know you're Dutch so
y'all need to crank it up loud.

BSL Mystery #8, or ....

The Message in a Bottle

Long ago and not so far away
there was a little boy who
loved adventure of all kinds
but especially the kind that involved
water, boats and fishing.


This is what he looked like in the olden days ....




And this is what he looks like now ....



One fine summer day
while fishing for blue gills off the dock at Elhart's cottage
this little boy decided to inject
klein beetje more excitement into his little life
and he wrote an ultra-secret note
and put it in an empty pop bottle
and tossed it in the lake.

KERPLOP !


Fast forward a year or so
and imagine yourself barely existing in the
Dreariest Of All Months, aka, January
where it's doing all kinds of this ....

(genuine disgusting photo taken by author
and yes that's 31 inches in 24 hours)



.... and out of no where
(Okay .... Ohio)
this shows up in the mailbox!


A letter from Ohio!
(We know no one in Ohio)

A letter from Ken Pearson
of Westchester Ohio
to be exact.
This considerably brightened
an otherwise dreary January day.

You see,
Ken had found the bottle
containing the little boy's letter
and then he took the time and effort
to write the little boy
and then we promptly did Two Very Bad Things:

1. We LOST the letter!!!
I know! Stupid stupid stupid.

Then

2. We NEVER wrote back to Ken to thank him for being so great!!!
I know! Lazy lazy lazy. And mean.
Our Protestant Work Ethic just went
right out the window.
(Loosely illustrated below. Don't ask!)


So Ken, if you ever see this blog,
we are so so sorry and we hope you
have a wonderful life
and that everyone else you know
is thoughtful and kind and
promptly answers your emails,
and considerately RSVPs on time,
and quickly passes all your messages along
and you never have to be on hold for
an hour listening to Kenny G or Barry Manilow.

Our Calvinist guilt is eating us alive.
(Sing first stanza of Amazing Grace here.
The one about what wretches we are)

P.S. This was not really a mystery for us,
but if Ken ever reads this posting,
it will solve a big mystery for him.

P.S.S. That first photo is by Kraftwerk on flickr CC A licensed
(hope I did that right)

So so sick ........

of winter.
Gag!

Lies, Val & Grace
in happier warmer times
on the beach at Elharts.

Houston ....

We have lift off !!

Where there's smoke
there's fire,
and where there's fire
there's warm toasty bodies
or warm bodies toasting

(Hah! I know this looks kinda like a cadaver
due to the waxy white legs
and strangely blue toes
but no human beings were harmed
and/or killed
in the making of this blog)

So, it was an extremely
perfuhlicious weekend
for finalizing all things sauna
with just the right amount of sugary snow.

First you have to make a door



and then hang it so
don't nobody see
no nearly nekkid bodies.
(triple negative!
Please refer to this post here)

Then you have to make a fire

(We don't know why he's wearing that hat, either)


And then you have to get some water
and carry it uphill from the creek
in a rahther heavy container
and make hernia-like sounds humping it
across the threshhold
and into the sauna




And then get it up on the stove
(grunt, gasp, groan)



And, voila mes amis
in a word,
STEAM !


A veritable pillar of cloud
doth issue from the rooftop
and the hand of the Lord
doth pass over them.
"And the pillar of cloud by day
and the pillar of fire by night
did not depart from before the people."
Even people with weird hats.
(Exodus 13 : 22)
Yay!



And now
on a completely different note .... birds.
In particular, a large, prehistoric,
Jurassic Park-like bird
called the Pileated Woodpecker.

They come to the birdfeeder here
and they are impressive indeed.



And here is Dave's graven image ...

(photo stolen from Ellen)



and a close-up I took
to show the carving detail


I know you want to worship it
but .... not a good idea.

Wintering Scandinavian-Style

Remember when we were talking

about how much I dislike winter
even though it is a very beautious time of year
at the Van't Hof cabin near BSL?

Well thank goodness Dave VH is making
something out of these wooden hubcaps
previously encased in snow
and now guaranteed
to warm even the chilliest of bones.



What once looked like this ....



now looks like this ....

Can you find it in there?

I know it's somewhat reminiscent of
Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house
or, the Lair of the Troll who so
viciously attacked the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

But in reality
it just needs a little more tweeking
and a wood stove
and the rocks that you pour
boiling water on
and a water supply
and a changing room
and some nearly nekkid people
and maybe some plush terry cloth towels
donated by anonymous hotel chains
from across America
and then all will be ready
for the fake Finnish people.


Le tour de la sauna ...

This is kinda the front.

Judy is testing the support beam
which seems to have fallen already
and Ellen is bringing sauna-supplies
of a mysterious nature
(Holiday Inn towels?).

This is the side of the sauna
and we pray it is somewhat camouflaged
from the ravenous bear
who hoffentlich is not at all drawn to
slowly cooking human flesh.



This is the back of the sauna.
Rustic is our name.
Impenetrability is our game.



And this is the inside of the sauna
where you get the full
hubcap decor affect ....




Then, to kind of gild the lily,
Dave added these pretty telephone-pole thingies.

These double as rifle port holes
when under ursa major attack.



All in all,
I think the VH sauna falls somewhere on the
woodland housing spectrum between
this troll house


and this fairy house

We discovered this fairy house
at Bill's cottage at BSL.
It was constructed
(we think)
by Esther Bovenkamp's grand kids.
Notice the similarities to
the structure below.

Almost complete sauna.



Very soon now
3 hair highlights later
and 50 pounds leaner
this will be Ellen and I
just chillin' in the sauna ....


complete with my favourite snack ....
burnt marshmallows.