It’s springtime at Brookside, and because we live in Northern Minnesota we know it’s going to be short. And while most Minnesotans just find this to be the price we pay to enjoy the best summers on Earth, we resorters think of it a little differently. We think of it more like a dead sprint from winter to summer with spring being just a blur of raking and cleaning.
We have mixed feelings about spring around here. On one hand, we are seriously deprived of Vitamin D, company, and warm fresh air by the time spring rolls around. But on the other hand, there are some seriously long to-do lists to accomplish before we will be ready for 2018’s eager guests.
With just a few days left until we officially open: here is a sneak peek into our spring.
Spring work around here falls into a few main categories: Cabins, Grounds, and Water.
The cabin work involves undoing all of the closing down we did to our buildings last fall. We wash windows, dust ceilings, clean screens, vacuum beds, wash ceiling fans, clean light fixtures, scrub blinds, and clean carpets.
And then once all of that is done, we do the actual cabin cleaning. Our “Spring Cleaning” consists of eight incredibly hard-working women cleaning for five days to get everything ready for another summer season. These women are amazing. Thorough. Steady. They wash every dish in every cupboard. They deep clean every showerhead. They flip over every recliner and clean the inside. Yes, you wish they would come to your house. No, I won’t give you their phone numbers.
The work on the grounds includes taking our mess of leaves, branches, and messy grass and turning it back into an 85-acre playground. We rake and haul MANY loads of leaves. We trim branches. We clean up the beach. We put all of the docks and boats back in the lake. We paint decks and cabins. We power wash…..and power wash…and power wash some more.
And, finally, WATER. Starting up the water system every spring could be its own blog entirely. However, it’s not my department. What I do know is that it takes several days, sometimes requires squirming underneath cabins (in some VERY small spaces….), and is the gatekeeper to getting any of that cleaning done.
On top of those tasks, we sprinkle things like finishing any projects we have going (Cabin 15 this year), getting the golf course up and running (which involved trenching in some new water lines this year) and trying not to miss our kids’ end-of-year festivities at school (so far, we only forgot to meet the school bus one time…)!
And, although that might all sound like a LOT of work (it is….) we also get to do it with the feeling of fresh air and hard work all around us. We use equal parts brain and muscle and the work feels good deep in our bones. We take tremendous pride in getting the resort ready for a summer full of guests. And we love sharing our slice of Up North with everyone who gets to come rest and relax with us.
So, it’s back to work (there is an hour of daylight left….) and if you need us in the next few days, you will have to leave a message!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joanna is still a relative newbie at blogging, but not at resorting. After a childhood of growing up at Brookside she is now learning how to own the place.
Comentarios