In which summers did the loons not raise a chick?

Fourth of July week, cabin.

- Hannah (3 1/2) caught her first fish off the dock on Thursday, a sunfish. Ray held the rod.
- Loons: no chick this year. Per Bev, the pair sat on the island nest in May and the black flies drove them off it.
- Flag cake needs 2 pints of blueberries and 2 of red berries. Write it on the recipe.

For the calendar: David and Julia, October 6, Estes Park. Book the flights before August.

Fourth of July week at the cabin. Eleven of us: Ellen's four, David's three, Kate and her friend Samir Khoury.

Who slept where: us in the lake bedroom; Ellen and Mark in the north bedroom; Hannah and Owen in the twins; David, Julia and the playpen in the main room on the sofa bed; Kate and Samir in the tent.

Lucas, ten months, at the cabin for the first time.

Loons: two chicks hatched about June 22. On Wednesday the 2nd an eagle took one, in front of the whole dock. One chick left.

Rhubarb jam, with Bev's rhubarb. One batch; do not double it, it will not set.

- 8 cups rhubarb, cut in half-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 lb)
- 4 cups sugar. Mom used 6.
- juice of one lemon, and the zest if I have it

Mix in the big kettle and leave it overnight. Boil hard, stirring, about 20 to 25 minutes, until a spoonful holds its shape on a cold saucer. Skim. Into hot half-pint jars, quarter-inch headspace, 10 minutes in the water bath.

Makes 6 half-pints, sometimes 7. This year: four batches, 26 jars.

Loons: no nest this year. Per Bev, a strange male came in May and the two fought for most of a week out past the island; the old one lost, and the new pair never settled.

Family week 2017. Twelve of us.

- The swim ladder. Ray bolted it to the fourth section of the dock on July 1, on the left side going out: aluminum, four steps, flips up out of the water. $149.00 at Northwoods Sport & Marine.
- Loons: one chick, hatched about June 10.
- Walleye for twelve: 22 fillets.
- Sleeping as last year, except Lucas (nearly 4) on the cot in his parents' room.

For next year there will be thirteen. Where a baby and two more adults are to sleep is a question for the winter.

Family week 2018, practical. Thirteen, with Theo (five months).

- Sleeping: Kate, Samir and the baby had the north bedroom; David's four went to the tent and the sofa bed between them. It will not do for another year. The shed question is open again.
- Loons: two hatched, one left by the Fourth. Nobody saw what happened.
- Gus cannot do the steps to the lake. For next year: a ramp beside the steps.
- Walleye for thirteen: 24 fillets.

Left behind: Lucas's glasses (mailed Monday, insured), one of Maeve's sandals, a casserole dish of Julia's.

Closed today, after 24 weeks. The summer in numbers:

- Days here: 168.
- Loaves from Sigrid: 31.
- Walleye kept: 43 (Ray's count; mine is lower).
- Masks sewn here: 96, on top of the 214 at home.
- Quilts finished: one, and most of another.
- Books read: 37.
- Loon chicks: two hatched, two raised, both gone south by the first week of October.
- People inside the cabin other than ourselves: nine, for one week in July.
- Fish fry from the Thirsty Loon, in boxes, on the tailgate with Bev and Arnie: 14 Fridays.

New on the dock this year: six solar lights, one on each post down the straight part, which Ray put on in June.

Both boats went to Pike Bay on Thursday.

Skein Lake Association, annual meeting, yesterday, 10:00, town hall. 38 households.

- Tom Halverson stepped down after six years. Ginger Stauber is president. Jack Niemi stays secretary. Ray stays treasurer.
- Per Ray, the treasurer's report: balance $6,203.11. Dues raised from $75 to $85 from next year, 31 to 4. 49 households paid.
- Loons (Jack): the nest on the island flooded. It rained nine days out of the first eighteen of June and the lake came up eleven inches. No chick this year. The association will anchor a second nesting raft in the east bay next spring; Ray moved the money for it, $340.
- Water testing: clarity 14 feet in August last year, the same as the year before.
- Boat landing: the town is repaving the ramp in September. Closed two weeks.

Family week 2024, June 29 to July 6. Fourteen.

- NEW RULE, as of Saturday morning: no lures, hooks or rigged rods are left on the dock, ever. They go in the boathouse on the rack. Birdie found a lure of Lucas's at six in the morning and put a treble hook through her lip. The emergency vet in Minocqua (open all night; the number is on the refrigerator now) had it out by eight: a little sedative, the barb cut off, the hook backed out. $286.00.
- Loons: two chicks.
- Hannah (15) painted the dock from the end of it on Friday evening. Acrylic, 16 x 20. It is ours, and it is to be framed.
- Walleye: 26 fillets.
- The porch slept five; the tent slept two. Nate's price for making the shed into a bunkhouse came in June and Ray has said yes, for next spring.

Family week 2025. Fourteen, and a bed for every one of them.

- Bunkhouse: Hannah (16), Owen (14), Lucas (11), Maeve (9).
- Lake bedroom: us. North bedroom: Kate and Samir, with June on the trundle. Back bedroom: Ellen and Mark. Sofa bed: David and Julia. Porch cot: Theo (7), with the dog.

For the record book: Thursday, July 3, about 7:30 in the morning, off the end of the dock, Lucas caught a NORTHERN PIKE, 31 inches by Ray's tape, measured twice. Red and white spoon. By himself, with a net. Released.

- Loons: one chick.
- Walleye on the Fourth: 28 fillets.
- Flag cake, double.

Wanted for next year: hooks in the bunkhouse, four to a bunk. A clothesline nearer the bunkhouse.