Cabin Chronicles

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Denny Hecker Auction List

Boats, trailers, golf carts, ATVs, and many more items once owned by Denny Hecker are up for auction May 25, 2010, in New Germany, MN. If you can’t make it to the live auction, don’t worry! We have something wonderful called the Internet, and items will also be sold live online (at 5 pm Tuesday, May 25, 2010). Prebidding is now in progress. We know many of our customers have dealt with Denny Hecker personally, and whether you love him or you hate him, you don’t want to miss this! Now is the time to pick up some great deals on new “toys” for your Crosslake area cabin. For more details on the Denny Hecker auction, click here.

Unwanted animals visiting your garden and eating your prized perennials? Strike fear in the hearts of deer and other animals with Eartheart’s Organic Fence, a natural animal repellent with no offensive odor. What’s worse? Animals eating your flowers or the smell of some off-the-shelf deer repellents?  If you have ever attempted to use some of the invisible fence sprays found at home improvement and garden stores, you know the horrible smell I am referring to. There is an odorless alternative to those stinky sprays that is made from organic ingredients. It’s made by Eartheart, and it is called Organic Fence. You cannot find this in stores. It can be purchased directly through Eartheart. But if you are a Home Halo customer, you can purchase it through us, and we can deliver it to your Brainerd Lakes Area home or cabin at no extra charge, and you avoid paying shipping charges. Purchase Organic Fence and say good riddance to tulip-tongued rabbits!

Live Plant

Spring is here, and many of our customers will be returning to their summer homes in Minnesota to find their precious house plants alive and well, thanks to Home Halo! Many of our customers entrust us to keep their green friends hydrated and sunned while they are away. One customer really keeps us a busy with a basement full of plants! Most people only leave a few behind for us to care for. We can rotate them so they are properly sunned, and we can water them as needed. We did well this year. All of our customers’ plants are still alive. We hope to keep them alive again next winter season. Thank you to all our customers that used our service this long winter season. We appreciate it.

It’s April, and for many of us this means it’s time to start thinking about deep cleaning at the house or cabin. It seems like there is a new cleaning product on the market every day. But do we really need a blue solution to clean our windows or a purple liquid to clean our floors? I don’t think so! People always ask us what cleaning products we recommend. Our response is simple. It’s water. We tend to get funny looks from people when we tell them that. When did it become strange to use water and a little soap to clean? Call us old fashioned, but some hot water with rags or nonscratch scrubbies are generally all we ever use, and they work just fine. For really tough stains (like hard water or rusty iron stains from well water) we do use commercial products like CLR or RustOut, but this is only in extreme cases. So this year when you are doing your spring cleaning, think of the environment, your family’s health, your own health, and just use plain old water rather than harsh chemicals to do your spring cleaning.

Footprints in snow make home look occupied

We have had tons of snow this year, and one thing we are always sure to do with the homes we care for is make them look lived in. Of course, many of our customers do actually stay at their homes year-round and just have us perform concierge services for them. However, for the customers that are away, either for weeks, months, or just days at a time, we can make footprints in the snow on their walkways, if we are not shoveling and clearing snow completely off the walkways. Nothing is more attractive to burglars than an unoccupied home, and it’s so obvious a house is unoccupied when there is snow piled up in front of main entry doors.

It is important that homeowners inform their neighbors if they will be having work done at their home when they are not around. Recently, a Colorado Springs handyman hired to change a homeowner’s locks nearly missed a bullet after a police officer who had mistaken him for a burglar fired a shot at him. The police were responding to a complaint from a neighbor who noticed the handyman there.

It is stories like these that concern us, since we often work in homes when the owners are not home. The neighbor did the right thing by reporting the suspicious activity, but you can see how this turned into an embarrassing and dangerous situation quickly due to poor communication. We always ask our customers to inform any neighbors they can trust that we will be doing some work at their home. Most importantly, we ask that they tell any guests who may be staying at their home about us.

This case is a bit extreme, and it seems like it escalated out of control quickly. However, it does happen. If you have service workers coming to your home, please be sure to notify a close neighbor and any houseguests you may have. You will avoid a dangerous situation like the one in Colorado, and your neighbors and home service workers will appreciate this.

The Colorado handyman is okay, and he has forgiven the police officer.

Here in Minnesota, people tend to have great memories of ice skating or playing pond hockey on the neighborhood rink as a child. It brought the neighborhood together and provided kids with hours of fun, whether the rink was made on an existing pond or lake, or if it was created by flooding someone’s backyard. It seems like kids these days are stuck inside playing video games. It’s easy to make an ice rink, and I think you’ll find that if you take the time to make one, your children or grandchildren will love it. In fact, you might like it just as much as them! It’s pretty fun to shovel the rink on skates. We’ve made rinks for our customers at their cabins. There is nothing better than spending a weekend at the cabin in the winter and having your own private ice rink! Feel free to comment by sharing your memories of the neighborhood ice rink with us. Video music provided by Danosongs.com

Crosslake web cam top 10

Our web cam was awarded a spot in one of the top ten web cams on Earthcam.com this week. That’s pretty exciting stuff for us here in Crosslake, a little town located just north of Brainerd, Minnesota. Other cams that won a spot in the top ten best cams include cams in Romania, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Greece. Romania actually had three cams that made the top ten list. There were two cams that made the list in the United States, one being ours and one in New Hampshire.

We are afraid our little snowman on the cam might be starting to fall. If he falls, we will be sure to have a fresh snow sculpture to replace him. Is there anything you would like to see us make out of snow that we can display on our cam? If so, let us know. We’d love to hear some of your creative ideas!

The snow has finally stopped here! I was beginning to think it would never end. Now it’s time to film the snow. We have a Sony Handycam that we love to use, so I’ve posted a dazzling slide show of Sony camcorders. It’s neat that there are so many camcorders on the market today. There is one for the person who wants to spend a little money, and there is one for the person who wants to spend a lot. They are even available in all colors of the rainbow. Want an orange camcorder? You can find one! Purple? Yep. They make those too. It’s easy to do your research and buy camcorders online. Camcorders are great for capturing moments that you want to last a lifetime. So, they are perfect for use at the cabin, where people gather with friends and family. Buy one to use at your cabin, then upload your video to the web and share it with your friends and family that couldn’t be there with you to show them how much fun you’re having at your vacation home.