Staff blog stories — make sure the author is set on these posts
Sunday our wonderful staff met up for a afternoon of fellowship and to recognize their excellent service the past year. It was the first time we were all together since the fire on October 10th. We also distributed the funds from the GoFundMe fundraiser organized by Maplelag guests. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Full January 8th update.
It has been two months since a fire broke out in the main lodge at Maplelag, resulting in a complete loss of the building. It continues to be hard to believe as we adjust to the major change in our lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our staff and all those that grieve with us. This weekend would of been our opening weekend with our first ski camps. It is a big adjustment for our staff not to be servicing all our wonderful guests and we are keeping you in extra thought and prayer as well as our guests that are not able to come. Thank you for continued support of love, prayers, donations and contributions in so many ways. The act of giving during this Christmas time is putting us at loss of words and we are so grateful for the continued outpouring of support.
Last week, Jay and Jonell took a trip to Bemidji, MN. to visit the Concordia Language Villages (CLV) permanent language learning sites or “villages”.
CLV is recognized as one of the top language immersion programs in the country, with a mission of being “builders of globally minded communities and guides to world fluency”. We highly encourage parents of children to consider attending a summer camp. Each village gives a sense of the representing country. Maplelag has a long lasting relationship with CLV going back to the late 70’s when Jim and Mary visited with directors about building a lodge to host languages camps. These conversations would come to fruition and a big reason the first lodge, that was lost to a fire in 1999, came to be in the late 70’s.
Since the late 70’s, Maplelag has hosted many different “villages” including Russian, Swedish, French, Finnish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and most recently, Chinese. The Maplelag family, have not only attended villages but Jay and Mary were head cooks at numerous sites including Swedish, Russian, Norwegian, Chinese and Japanese. With these experiences and the hundreds, if not thousands of relationships forged, you can see how the Concordia Language Villages has been a huge part of our lives and we would not be where we are today without them. Their operations are very similar to Maplelag and we’ve had many conversations with them on how to deal with critters, septic tank, food service industry etc.
The trip to Bemidji saw us visiting all the villages, focusing on the main buildings that serve as dining rooms and looking at all the kitchens including the older facilities and the most recent ones. We want to thank Warren for taking the time showing us each facility as well as Patrick sharing his information.
Our thought process at the moment, if we are to rebuild, would be keeping CLV in mind, just like the first lodge was built, to continue the special partnership moving forward or into the future.
Last week we also hosted our first Nordic Ski Meet of the year and possibly the first one on natural snow in the country! It was so good to see familiar faces and have the trails buzzing with the energy of the kids. It really was a magical day with fresh snow falling in the morning leading to sunshine in the afternoon. The growth in high school Nordic skiing is very encouraging with even more teams being added including Wadena/Deer Creek. Thanks Terry for the opportunity to work with the kids. We are always willing to volunteer our time to help out any youth, as time allows. Please reach out in advance. We are looking forward to hosting our next meet on January 3rd for JV and Jr High skiers, the long running DL Invite mid January and the Sectional meets in early February.
Finally we want to give a special shoutout to Krolls Zuckerwald and John and Susan for making a special delivery of multiple cases of their pure maple syrup. Maplelag serves pure maple syrup with many entrees but among the most loved was the Norwegian Pancakes. We have a few pints for sale if anyone is not able to find this delicacy in local markets.
The Winter of 2007-2008 was a winter of Winters Past, meaning that after some weird winters the past few years, this was a normal winter. Snow came early around the 1st of December and our last ski was the 1st of May which was an all time first. We had no thaws or rains to mess things up and while we didn’t have a ton of snow, it was a super season thanks to cold temps. We always close the middle of March and after we closed the snow gods really let loose and we had almost more snow in April than we had all winter. The last week end in April we received a 20 inch dump and it was so deep and heavy that the local staff could not get in to work. Our chef Debbie had to come by snowmobile as we had a ladies retreat here and they all arrived on Friday early before the snow hit on Friday night and the rest of the week end was no travel in and out to Maplelag. But the snow started to melt rather fast at the end and Jay had the last ski on May 1, a new record at Maplelag. It was a good season and hopefully the coming one will continue in the same mode
We had two great winter staff members that were here on the J-1 visa program for students from other countries. They are allowed to come for up to four months and be part of the US work force. We had Pedro from Brasil and Daniel from Peru and both of these students did an outstanding job. Working mostly in the rental shop as well as keeping the sauna going, they were a great addition to the regular Maplelag staff. This coming 2008-2009 winter we have two students lined up to come from Brasil and there might be a third. Over the years now we have had close to 160 students come and work at Maplelag and it has been a fantastic experience for all concerned.
I *LOVE* this time of the year! (That would be Fall.)
I haven’t written for so long, rather than try to tell you what has been
happening the past few years I thought that I would just write about today. (No more grandchildren…more about them another time… or that would have been first, of course!)
But as for today, it was a perfect day for a walk in the woods-sunny, calm and about 60 degrees. I started out on Lucky’s Loype trail and then cut over to the single track. (I don’t know how anyone on a mountain bike can negotiate the drop to the lake without going head over handlebars!) My counterbalancing, two step to the point to where I just shuffle/run down and pray I’ll land at the bottom in an upright position is probably a bit Charlie Chaplinesque. (Spell check suggested “noncompliance” but, you get the picture.)
Anyway, to borrow an oft used description, the woods were intoxicating! The fall colors are peaking..Maples in stages of gold, orange and red and the Red Oaks red/green leaves to darker hues which look almost leathery. Those two varieties are my favorite But, you need the yellows, greens and other colors to complete the beautiful palate.
Many leaves have fallen and the trails are covered so, after the visual feast, comes the sound of the crunching underfoot. Then the sounds of the birds, migrating geese and the barking and bounding of the dogs as they’re off on another chase. Before long I am picking leaves to bring back to the lodge to use as the base of garnishes for the serving platters in the dining room. (A couple of contrasting leaves, a sprig of fresh rosemary wrapped with a curl of birch bark and then a few small mums, or tiny pine cones or even dried cranberries and the garnish is ready for a platter fit for a wedding reception. We have two more weddings this fall so I can use my talents as the resident kitchen “fooh-fooh” lady and leave the cooking and baking to our talented staff.)
Well, back to the woods! Once I stop to hunt and gather I am struck by the “peace and quiet” as I hear the wind moving through the trees. It is amazing how you can hear it moving toward you and then feel the gentle breeze and then hear it pass on. This time of year we often have windy days so a walk on a relatively calm, sunny day in the woods is to be treasured. For a visual, go to the “Trails section on our web-site. Jay is an “artist” with his camera! Be sure to check out some of the photos of the funky fungus that look like white coral.)
O.K., I’m almost home…or so I thought! I am usually so intent looking for “treasures” to photograph myself, that I lose my sense of direction which is marginal, at best. As long as I have lived here, I still can get lost in our woods. I thought that the opening of light through the trees would lead me home but before I knew it, I was looking out at a vista of Bullhead Lake…. the opposite direction! A couple of trail signs up ahead pointed me in the right direction and soon I was home, relishing my “walker’s high”.
If you live close by, I strongly encourage you to come and experience the trails of Maplelag for yourself. Call ahead and maybe I could even go with you. You can lead the way!!
Rich Text Area Toolbar Bold (Ctrl + B) Italic (Ctrl + I) Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D) Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U) Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O) Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q) Align Left (Alt + Shift + L) Align Center (Alt + Shift + C) Align Right (Alt + Shift + R) Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A) Unlink (Alt + Shift + S) Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T) Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N) ▼ Toggle fullscreen mode (Alt + Shift + G) Show/Hide Kitchen Sink (Alt + Shift + Z) Add a Category to your Page or Post Format – Paragraph Paragraph ▼ Underline Align Full (Alt + Shift + J) Select text color ▼ Paste as Plain Text Paste from Word Remove formatting Insert custom character Outdent Indent Undo (Ctrl + Z) Redo (Ctrl + Y) Help (Alt + Shift + H) I * LOVE * this time of the year! (That would be Fall.) I haven’t written for so long, rather than try to tell you what has been happening the past few years I thought that I would just write about today. (No more grandchildren…more about them another time… or that would have been first, of course!) But as for today, it was a perfect day for a walk in the woods-sunny, calm and about 60 degrees. I started out on Lucky’s Loype trail and then cut over to the single track. (I don’t know how anyone on a mountain bike can negotiate the drop to the lake without going head over handlebars!) My counterbalancing, two step to the point to where I just shuffle/run down and pray I’ll land at the bottom in an upright position is probably a bit Charlie Chaplinesque. (Spell check suggested “noncompliance” but, you get the picture.) Anyway, to borrow an oft used description, the woods were intoxicating! The fall colors are peaking..Maples in stages of gold, orange and red and the Red Oaks red/green leaves to darker hues which look almost leathery. Those two varieties are my favorite But, you need the yellows, greens and other colors to complete the beautiful palate. Many leaves have fallen and the trails are covered so, after the visual feast, comes the sound of the crunching underfoot. Then the sounds of the birds, migrating geese and the barking and bounding of the dogs as they’re off on another chase. Before long I am picking leaves to bring back to the lodge to use as the base of garnishes for the serving platters in the dining room. (A couple of contrasting leaves, a sprig of fresh rosemary wrapped with a curl of birch bark and then a few small mums, or tiny pine cones or even dried cranberries and the garnish is ready for a platter fit for a wedding reception. We have two more weddings this fall so I can use my talents as the resident kitchen “fooh-fooh” lady and leave the cooking and baking to our talented staff.) Well, back to the woods! Once I stop to hunt and gather I am struck by the “peace and quiet” as I hear the wind moving through the trees. It is amazing how you can hear it moving toward you and then feel the gentle breeze and then hear it pass on. This time of year we often have windy days so a walk on a relatively calm, sunny day in the woods is to be treasured. For a visual, go to the “Trails section on our web-site. Jay is an “artist” with his camera! Be sure to check out some of the photos of the funky fungus that look like white coral.) O.K., I’m almost home…or so I thought! I am usually so intent looking for “treasures” to photograph myself, that I lose my sense of direction which is marginal, at best. As long as I have lived here, I still can get lost in our woods. I thought that the opening of light through the trees would lead me home but before I knew it, I was looking out at a vista of Bullhead Lake…. the opposite direction! A couple of trail signs up ahead pointed me in the right direction and soon I was home, relishing my “walker’s high”. If you live close by, I strongly encourage you to come and experience the trails of Maplelag for yourself. Call ahead and maybe I could even go with you. You can lead the way!! I took this photo near Rootin Tootin ski trail during one of my walks through the woods. Path : p
Greetings! I am not embracing this “world wide web stuff” but to stay “in the loop” with the rest of the world, including our boys and Jay, I will try………..
Summer went very quickly and when asked “How was your summer?” I tend to reply, “Great, only one trip to the ER, this summer.” (Jens “hooked” his back, fishing off the dock) Which I think sums it up, as we have four VERY active boys. So long, naptime (in case you have read my previous articles from our newsletter).
This fall was a huge change for me, all of the boys are in school. So, for the first time in 15 years 3 months, I have no one at home but Jay! I haven’t sat around once to ponder, what will I do now? But, I do miss them all terribly and honestly it was harder taking Jake to the high school than it was to leave Jens with the kindergarten teacher.
The store is full of new merchandise, I will re-stock it again for winter and I have some custom jewelry pieces on the way. I have my list of suggestions from last winter, I will do my best to accommodate. We had our “favorite” pumpkin lady, Virgie Ziegler, deliver all of the beautiful harvest decorations two weeks ago and now you will find all of the varieties scattered through out Maplelag, inside and out! The fall season is going quickly, with two more weddings, the pumpkin run and other retreats, the snow months will be here before we know it………think snow and come visit us again soon! Jonell
