Eric's Sixtieth Celebrated at the Lodge

Born September 18, 1953, Eric celebrated his sixtieth on October 12, 2013 at the Lodge. The girls and I planned a "50's themed party"...costumes encouraged. The party started at 3:33 in honor of Eric's boyhood address of 1333 Peach Street and we had about 80 people attend. Since all the grandbabies and a few other children would be at the party, I created a drive-in with little cardboard cars (one of which was an Alpha)  to amuse them. We had 50's inspired food, and 50's music, 50's candies as favors, Cherry Cola spiked cherry rum punch, a special signature drink of Jack Daniels and apple cider with cinnamon stick and apple slice garnish  and banana splits for desserts. The kids all pitched in along with dear friends Sue and Kevin to buy Eric a kegorator for his new Pub. The kids saw that it was stocked with Allagash beer and that was certainly enjoyed by all! We thank all our dear friends who helped usher Eric into his next decade!

The Root Cellar Pub

A long time in the planning and a lifetime worth of collecting began to come together when in February of 2013 we went to Smith & May and purchased a pellet stove fireplace insert and began construction of a hearth so that they could come install the stove in March. Many weekends of heating the basement with the kerosene heater followed. We added bricks around the support beams to form a table area and to tie the brick look elsewhere in the room. Itchy & Scratchy came and laid a rubberized membrane on the floor which goes about 10 inches up the walls and is spray foamed in place. They also spray foamed around the rim joist. This should really make the Pub an easy place to heat, but it also created a huge problem in framing in the walls as both top and bottom had these puffs of insulation protruding up to eight inches out from the cement walls. We were intending to strap and add polyiso insulation to the walls anyway, but these bumps were deeper than the 2 inches of board insulation we were planning to add. So, we ended up adding knee walls with 8 inch shelves around most of the room, a happy accident as they say as it gives me room for all my collectibles to be displayed as well as a place for drinks, snacks, etc. We laid 2x4's on top of the rubber membrane and they boarded over with 10" shiplap, sanded, stained and polyed (six coats) for a perfect pub floor.
What with all the outside work during the summer, and time to enjoy the cottage, we went into crunch mode in early September as we were having a sixtieth party for Eric at the Lodge October 12 and wished to have as much done as possible on the pub. We really did not wish to finish it as its christening is yet another great excuse to have another party!... but just to a useable state. We made it much further than we hoped and the family especially was amazed by what we had done. I must do another photo update to show you all the progress.

A Wonderful Summer for the Gardens

A summer that tested many gardeners what with a 15 inches of rain in May and a June where temps soared into the 90's for a week straight proved to be a great one at the Lodge. My hostas were in their glory with all the rain and they are well shaded, so the warm temps did them no harm. Everything else seemed to love what ever mother nature threw at them and now that most things are several years old, I am loving how things are progressing. I made a courtyard garden down by acorn and divided some of my Krossa Regal hostas, phlox, helenium, autumn joy sedums and popped in 50 or so marigold seedlings to make a splendid new garden. I moved an azalea as well as added a new one to give some early spring color. The hosta courtyard garden was doubled in size and a forsythia hedge was planted to divide the play area from the gardens.