By Bernie Troje

Our story starts in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.  We were looking for an inexpensive vacation, so we invested in camping gear. 

We started out touring the North Shore.  Then we moved inland to Scenic State Park near Bigfork.  We loved the area and the town.  We went into the United Farmers real estate office to see what property was available, and we found a lot on Little Sand Lake and loved it right away.  When our tent started to wear out and the boys were growing up we bought a pop-up camper.  We stayed in the camper here for two years. 

We had a female springer spaniel that would bring us baby rabbits.  My sons, Dave and Chuck, would try to raise them, but it never worked.  The rabbits were too young.  We started putting the baby rabbits back in the woods to make sure the dog didn’t get them again.  She changed species.  She brought us a baby porcupine.  That ended her baby delivery career.

In Grand Rapids we saw a cabin built by Cohassett Lumber for $995.  It had two bedroom, a very small bath, a kitchen, and a very nice porch.  We stopped in and ordered it and had them hire some carpenters. 

We were told it would be finished in two weeks.  Two weeks became six weeks.  That’s when we learned all work stops during ricing season.  Finally we were told it was finished, so we packed everything in our station wagon that would fit and headed up north.  When we arrived, to our surprise, it had no windows or doors.  We spent the night in the cramped car.  We didn’t get much sleep.  We contacted our contractor in the morning, and his crew came out that day and finished the cabin for us.

It was three years before we got lights.  Our stove was a combination gas and wood stove with a water reservoir, so we always had hot water.  I miss that stove, but it was too old to get parts for.

We tried to find water but had no luck.  Harvey Watts came over and witched for us.  We got a little water then, but it was just surface water.  Then Erick Carlson came and witched for us, but he had no luck.  We decided we’d better hire someone. 

To our surprise they started drilling right where Erick had witched.  They found water at 70 feet – a flowing well producing 15 gallons a minute.  It’s still flowing to this day.

We like hiking through the woods and finding what nature offers.  It helped the boys with their science projects. They  had items different from the ones of other students.

Every time we drive past the old Max store, we think of Bud Anderson and how friendly he was.  He was always ready to help us,and if he didn’t have what we needed he would get it by the next week. 

Bud was a big help to my husband Frank when he was plumbing our place.  He had never done anything like that, but Bud talked him through it.

It’s hard to adequately describe the people up here.  I have never lived around such friendly folks.  They are the best friends ever.  When someone new moves in, they are invited right into the circle.

I don’t want to leave in the winter, but we have to.  Of course we’re ready to come back in the spring, even if there’s snow on the ground.  I like the snow, the colors in fall, and spring when the birds and ducks return.

Edith’s specialty is peanut butter bars.  She also knits.  Right now she is making a double thickness peacock blue afghan for granddaughter Dannie. 

Frank was in the Air Force when he and Edith met and married.  He had been stationed in Florida and then transferred to St. Louis, MO where he helped write fighter pilots’ handbooks for airport runways.  Most of the runways Frank worked on were in Russia. 

Frank started his work for Xcel Energy in the hydro-electric plant and worked mostly on generators.  He also worked in steam, coal and nuclear plants. 

Edith and Frank lived in Coon Rapids from 1964 – 1978 and in Blaine, MN from 1978 – 1994 and had three children, all boys, named Dave, Charles (Chuck), and Mike.

Edith managed Junior Chefs, a community education after school program for kindergarten through sixth grade teaching them skills in the kitchen two days a week.  She taught them how to make yeast bread, pretzels, and cookies.  They would make homemade ice cream and cookies and invite the parents to join them for a treat.  Edith’s nickname was “Edie Gormet.”  She received  a Silver Plate award in appreciation for Junior Chefs.

Edith and Frank have two dogs.  They went without pets for quite awhile. Then one day Frank checked the paper and suggested they get a Boston Terrier, so they got Brutus, who is now four.  Later they got Sugar who is three.  Edith shared that the dogs like to be covered up, even in summer.  Sugar will look at Edith and whimper until Edith stops what she is doing, kisses Sugar on top of her head and covers her up.

For a number of summers Edith helped at Summer Vacation Bible School at Sand Lake Alliance Church.  She says it’s lots of fun watching the kids – they are so eager to learn.  She especially loved watching Lynda Roberts work with the kids in her class.  Edith liked to help Lynda with her class because her special needs grandson Rolland comes up to visit and goes to Bible School in Lynda’s class. Rolland loves Lynda too.

Rolland has a wagon with him all the time.  He loves to pull around the yard.  He puts Brutus in the wagon and Edith makes Brutus lie down in the wagon so Rolland can take him for rides. 

Edith loves attending W.O.W. in the summer time.  She says if it weren’t for W.O.W., she’d just be sitting in the cabin again.  She especially loved the feather painting and bird carving.  Wilbur Wright helped her use the Dremmel tool to carve her bird and it was easier going.  She is going to take it to Florida and work on it down there where she and Frank have their own Dremmel tools.

    Edith gave a program at W.O.W. (Women of the Woods) meeting.  It consisted of helpful hints. 

Elinor asked, “What’s the best advice you ever got and what’s the best advice you ever gave?”  Edith replied, “Don’t be so quick to say things that come into your head.”  Once her manager asked her what she felt was her biggest fault and she replied, “Foot and mouth disease.”   And her manager said they would work on that.

    About living up here, Edith says, “This is where we belong.”  She refers to the area as “our beloved woods.”  She says, “Superficially [this part of Minnesota] may be considered unpleasant.  The land is low.  The mosquitos love it that way.  The grass is bristly.  Sometimes the roads are muddy, and the air is damp and cold.

    “As we turn to leave and head back to Florida, I realize just how full of majesty, how full of life these woods are.  Here I can let my curiosity about the wildlife around us run free.  It is wild, completely claimed by nature.

    “I am thinking now of the early sounds of spring – the croak of frogs, the call of the red winged blackbirds.  Or the autumn flickers on every deserted logging road.  Or the snow buntings of November who flush only when the bumper is nearly on them.

    “I am blessed to be in on all these.  This is where we want to be.  It is more than a place of life and beauty.  It is our legacy to preserve and protect this place – to leave it the way we found it.”