Cabin Chronicles

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.

Minnesota snow storm continues today

The Snow Storm of Christmas 2009 is still going strong here in Crosslake! Today is Saturday December 26, and it has been snowing for a full three days now. I just took this photo of the snow coming down on the Adirondack chairs by the fire pit and wanted to share it with you. Two of our caretakers are out plowing driveways and clearing walkways of snow with shovels and snow blowers. Earlier this season, the caretakers helped some of our customers mark their private wells and septics with flags. Doing this allows the wells and septics to be easily spotted underneath the snow if they need to be serviced during the winter. This is something all homeowners should be doing on their own if they do not have a company like us to do it for them. We have more helpful snow and ice maintenance tips on our site. It sounds like our customers are having a great time enjoying the fresh snow at their cabins this weekend. They’re hopping on their snowmobiles and creating ice rinks to go skating. Is it snowing where you live?

Christmas Eve 2009 Minnesota snow storm

We are having a white Christmas here in Minnesota at Home Halo! This is fantastic. It’s like a fairy tale Christmas in this town. It’s so fun to drive down the snow-covered roads and look at all the evergreen trees coated in snow and see the beautiful log cabins with big snowflakes falling all around them. Of course, I am working when I do this! We have been busy getting homes ready for guests that are visiting over the holidays or homeowners that haven’t been to their cabins since last summer. We have also been plowing driveways and snow blowing and/or shoveling walkways to house entrances, propane tanks, and anything else that should be accessible for the maintenance of the home and the safety of the homeowner. We have had about 5 or 6 inches fall today, but reports are predicting much more snow over the next 24 to 48 hours, possibly for a total of 20-plus inches when the storm ends. Merry Christmas Eve!

Today was fantastic! I got a concierge job baking someone a pineapple upside-down cake. My fellow concierge co-worker got stuck doing some outdoor work, and it was zero degrees today! So, while he was outside working on a wood project, I was in the warm kitchen making goodies for one of my favorite customers. These cakes are so pretty, and they are easy to make. I made a video of how to make one of these great cakes so I could share it with you. These cakes are the perfect dessert to accompany a holiday meal. Here is the recipe I used:

3 tablespoons of salted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
maraschino cherries, cut in half
pineapple rings
boxed yellow cake mix

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. Then, pour the melted butter into a round cake pan. Mix in the brown sugar until blended. Arrange pineapple rings and cherries in a pleasing manner. Set aside.
2. Mix the yellow cake according to the directions on the box.
3. Pour the cake batter into the cake pan on top of the sugar/butter/fruit mixture.
4. Cook according to the directions on the cake mix box.

That’s it! Quick, easy, and beautiful. It’s great served warm or cold. I like it plain, but it can be topped with whipped cream, ice cream, or rum sauce as well.

The former Pillsbury Estate, Southways, on Lake Minnetonka is up for sale by way of a sealed-bid auction. The deadline for delivering sealed bids on this 40,000 square foot home is December 9 at 3 p.m. central time. There is a lot in the news right now about this sale, but what about after it’s sold? Whoever purchases this magnificent estate, whether it’s a family or a corporation, they are certainly going to need some help maintaining it! With 13 acres and 1,700 feet of lake frontage, the groundskeeping is going to be an ongoing task. And, how about maintaining the inside of the home? Wow! How would you like to clean all those bathrooms? There is a caretaker’s cottage on site. Thank goodness, because the new owner of the estate is going to need one! Depending on the situation, it may need an entire staff to help maintain the property, or a domestic couple at the very least. If we were caring for it, the first thing we would do is create a household manual. The property is actually being offered for sale as five separate parcels or as an entire estate. Either way, domestic help will likely be necessary. And domestic help is what we offer at Home Halo.

Conventiently, this estate is near us. We have many customers that live on Lake Minnetonka. It’s located only a couple hours away from us here in Crosslake, and several of our clients who have cabins in Crosslake also have homes in Minnetonka. If you’re not familiar with Crosslake, when we say cabins….we mean sprawling estates that people refer to as “cabins.” For more information on the estate and the sale/auction of this property, you can do a Google search to see who is selling it. I emailed the company asking them for a good photo for the blog, but they didn’t respond to me, which I found quite rude, so I removed their link! If you’re thinking of buying it, remember we’re here to offer you professional and reliable domestic help after you purchase it! Video courtesy of Fox 9 at www.myfoxtwincities.com

Today we installed a lock box for one of our customers. These are great devices, and they're a wonderful alternative to keeping a key hidden under a mat or in a flower pot! If you must keep a key on your property, make sure it is locked. Click on the slide show above or click here if you’d like to buy a lock box. This will take you directly to a home and cabin shopping mecca. You’ll find a variety of reasonably-priced lock boxes in different shapes, colors, and styles.