The Cabin

Buying the cabin was pretty much painless in 2002. The banks do not loan $$$ on mountain property, especially ones without electricity and water. But since I own 2 vehicles and a motorcycle all I had to do was give them the titles and some Savings Bonds and they gave us a 3 payment 3 year loan, which meant I had to write a check every May for $6000 for the next 3 years. So between my Schwan's Bonus checks and Income Tax checks we had it paid off in 3 years. We didn't do much to the cabin in those 3 years, just clean it up and Rita made it our 2nd Home with a whole 600 sq ft, 300 on 1st and 2nd floor. We would go every weekend or every other, to do everything as a Family cooking, cleaning, hiking, biking, fishing,Picnics, building, wood cutting, grilling, eating together, sledding, motorcycling, 3 wheeling, snowmobiling, playing games, Tickle Monster, Rappelling, bonfires with smores, hide n seek, Lotsa Fun Family activities which brought Rita and I closer together and our Kids. The cabin became a Santurary where we grew closer together and created an unbreakable Bond between us. Our Favorite time here started in 1994 when we spent our 1st Christmas at the Cabin an of course the summers because you have so much to do outside. We had allot of visitor's, where the Ole Cabin felt a little Cramped, like when the Lenhoff's came with their 5 kids, 4 adults and 9 children made things alittle Cozy, Tracy Lenhoff would always, and to this day, hurt herself, gashing her knee open or crashing a motorcycle after 10 whole feet on it. Or the Borst's and their 3 boys sitting around the camp fire telling scary stories like Where's my Toe and watching Luke Freak Out and dive for his Mother's protection. Or the Welu's and their 3 boys. While they were up at the cabin with us, Michael was messing around with me, so I decided to throw him over my back and hang him upside down, by hanging onto his legs, but I forgot I had a Phillip's screw driver in my back pocket and it kind of puncture his private area (OUCH!), so we had to take him to the emergency room. Michael kept saying all the way down, I hope I get a man doctor and not a female. Or the Winseman's and their 3 kids, who Even spent a Christmas with us. Lora and Alicia are Best friends and still to this day, well 1 afternoon, out of the blue, they decided to build a Tee pee on the hill by our cabin, but didn't tell any of us, so Rita with her Loud Whistle let er rip and the girls came running. We all made a trip to see what they built, and "Wow" what a Great Tee pee and still stands to this day after 16 years. They must of learned their buildings skills from their Dads. And of course lotsa Family, My Dad and Dee and all my sisters 1 Christmas, Rita Dad and Mom,Keith Loves the Cabin, they have spent a few christmas's with us there, My sister Michele,Don and her 3 boys, Rita's sister Rhonda, Eric and their 2 kids, I was teaching Kyle how to repel and was distracted by his over protective Mother and did not tie the rope off good enough and he fell about 10 ft, but since he didn't hardly weigh anything, he landed like a feather on some rocks and saw a pretty scared face in me wondering what I had just did, well that was it for his Mother, No More Repelling, at least this time at the cabin because now Kyle loves to rock climb and repel. In 1996 I start tearing down barns, sheds and one small house for the lumber, because we have out grown our little cabin and need to expand, say like double the size from 600 sq ft to 1200 sq ft, so I draw up all the plans after reading a few how to books and start work in May 1996, I can only work on it over the weekends and a few vacation days, and by October I have it enclosed and that’s when the building inspector drops by and leaves me a note to stop construction and get a building permit! What the heck, I’m clear up here and I need a building permit. Luckily I knew someone done there and she took me straight to the head honcho and he approves my plans and doesn’t fine me, Yippee!! Well I had a lot of help building it and a lot of Fun Too; you see working up at the cabin is like relaxing to me. Rita help when she could and this one time I was holding up about 10 sheets of sheet rock about 450 lbs and I needed to open a window so she volunteered to hold it up, I said, are you sure because it’s a lot of weight and she assured me she could balance it for a second while I opened the window, I only turned for a second and heard a loud crash to see Rita on the floor and luckily the sheetrock hit my saw horse, or it would of landed on her too. Before we left for the emergency room I tried to talk her into packing up and heading back to Brush but she knew I wanted to be at the cabin working on things so she said no way let’s just go check my arm out and come back, Yep she broke her arm, and Yep she was miserable but we had to go back to the cabin to pack up and head back to Brush which was a long 5 hours, traveling back and forth. It took 5 years to get a final on it because I told them I have to take vacation to be here during the week, so every year I would get an inspection and would tell them, see you next year, because they always found things I still needed to do. After the cabin was done I built a 1000 sq ft deck around it. OK now I’m done till 2008
The Cabin is just God's gift to all of us. None of this would not have happened if Rita was not so persistent to get me to slow down enough to get the phone #, because she knew it was one of my goals to own property in the mountains. Rita always had so much faith in me and what I could do. It True behind every Good Man there is a Far Better Woman "Rita".
Now back to Brush, I'm extremely busy turning my Schwan's Sales Company into an Extreme Selling Machine, in which we strived to win every contest they had. The one I remember the most is the Chicken Contest for 2 reasons, we wore Chicken Hats and handed out Rita's simple ,easy and delicious Chicken and Rice recipe to all our customers and they loved it, of course so do we. We were #1 in the Division and #1 in the Region for years in that contest. Now Rita was a busy Woman, she worked for me without a raise for 6 years, well I gave her fringe benefits at work! She was my tele-communicator and did all the calls for my route managers, it was 7-12 hours per week and gave her Mad Money for whatever she wanted. When she wasn't doing that she was a volunteer at all the kids schools and would help in the class room and all the field trips. She would take the kids to school every morning in her PJ's and then go all over town having Coffee with her friends, I would have a heck of a time tracking her down when I needed her or was wondering what she was going to feed me for lunch, Rita would always ask What do you wanna eat? and my response always was the same "Food". Cathy one of Rita's friends had a classic Rita Story, Rita had stopped over for coffee and they both were in their PJ's and fell asleep, when Cathy's babysitting Dad came by to drop his kids off and woke them up, Cathy said he had a strange look on his face, like I'm going to leave my kids with You, he did and after he left they laugh about it. Rita was involved in everything, Sorority, School, cooking for church, kids sports, baby sitting,, she made friends easy,and our Life Together Just kept gettin Better. Happy Easter Love Mike and Family

Rita's Chicken N Rice
2/3 cup uncooked Rice (I liked More Rice)
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can of cream of Celery Soup
1/2 cup milk
Raw Chicken Breasts (I like allot of Chicken in it)
Mix the above ingredients and heat through, pour in greased 8x10 pan(I like bigger for leftovers), Lay pieces of raw Chicken over Rice, Season the top(I like onion soup mix Best), 325 for 2 hours, cover with foil, last 15 minutes or so uncover.
Wala Delicious
Who wants to make it for me?PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE