The Sand Castle

By Louise Taylor-Streu

Don and Louise decide to move to the north woods of Wisconsin, sixty miles south of Lake Superior, and build their dream retirement home on a lake. They had spent forty years in the corporate world of Chicago, and knew nothing of the environment or culture of the great north. Construction proceeded slowly, and one year later they moved into their beautiful home. Friends and relatives came from out of the woodwork to enjoy the area. As time went on, however, animals, culture and the environment played into their lives and created a situation that made their lives unbearable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781426973079

Louise Taylor-Streu

I am a senior citizen who has always enjoyed writing and story telling. As a younger woman I took several writing classes at the college level, where it picqued my interest. I was raised during the Great Depression and through WWII. My writing interest probably came from my Grandmother who was a one room school teacher who loved literature. She urged me to read, write and tell stories. There was no money for higher education at that time, especially since my mother was a single Mom due to my father's early death. After marrying, my focus was on my husband's career and raising our three sons. Now at last, I have time to write--and, so, I have put down on paper what I think, in retrospect, was a humorous story, although at the time I was not so sure. The names have not been changed, so, therefore, no one is protected. But they are all still friends, andI hope they will understand.

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© Copyright 2011 Louise Taylor-Streu.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Author Credits: To all those unintended participants in this true story. Thanks for being so helpful to Bryan, Karen, Jeff and Don who listened to these stories over and over again.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4269-7305-5 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4269-7306-2 (hc)

isbn: 978-1-4269-7307-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011910208

Trafford rev. 06/22/2011

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It was in the late 1980s when the idea struck me. I turned to my husband, Don, who was intensely studying the sports pages, and said, So when do you want to go? He continued to keep his nose glued to the paper, and responded Huh?

So when do you want to go? I asked. We had finally reached a point in our lives where the three boys were out of college and started on careers of their own. Well, they had jobs! I said, How about taking a drive up into the beautiful north woods. You know, Wisconsin. My friend Ruth and her husband had this charming cottage they had inherited on Long Lake, and they wanted us to visit. I had dreamed all my life of a cottage on a lake in the woods. We might want to take a couple of days and look around up there. It won’t be long before we are retired and—wouldn’t that be fun? Silence!

That weekend after work we piled into the car and took off driving the 400 miles north from Chicago into the beautiful, pine filled, abundant lake areas of northern Wisconsin. It was a long drive without interstate highways and travel speeds of 65 down to 55 mph. As we drove north, we remarked at the beauty of the land, and how far it was from town to town and farm to farm once we got past the metropolis of Madison. We had a rather late start that Friday and arrived in the area of Eau Claire around midnight. I began to panic that we wouldn’t find a place to stay that night. Not to worry, said Don. We’ll find a place once we pass this town. We pulled north of Eau Claire into the utter blackness of night without a car in sight, and very few homes. I was sure we had reached the edge of the world, or at least the state. A few miles north of there we discovered a small independent motel called The Badger Inn. I sure didn’t know this was the Badger State, but loyalty is prevalent in Wisconsin, so why not name their motel after that charming animal?

After our first night in Wisconsin, we drove further north and finally found our friends on Long Lake. They were happy to see us and invited us for a ride on their pontoon boat. We declined that day, saying we really wanted to look around the area. It is so beautiful, and peaceful. They had owned their cottage for a few years—and loved it! And the 400 mile ride each way on the weekend didn’t seem to bother them.

We drove around the area and found a nice little motel over on Sand Lake. It certainly was not busy. As it turned out, we were the only guests that night. But it gave us a view of a beautiful 1000 acre lake full of fish, and fishermen. The water was crystal clear. And there was a charming little, I mean little, town of Stone Lake, with it’s two bars, one small restaurant, a grocery store and a gas station. We drove around the lake, saw a couple of cottages for sale and wondered if we could look at any of them. The local realtor was available right away, and could show us a few of the gems that were for sale.

We scheduled a time with the realtor for the next day. We met him. He told us he had escaped Chicago a number of years ago and absolutely loved the north woods. He was a fisherman and went on about the Muskies, etc. Told us they were so big that when you landed one, you had to hit him over the head with a bat! Wow, not sure I wanted to go fishing there, or even swimming.

He took us to several little older cottages that had been there a while, judging from the musty smell. They were available, furniture and all—and ready for a quick sale. No thanks. We continued to look. Our realtor, Eldon, asked us what we were looking for. Don said he didn’t want anything quite that old, that if we were going to come north, we would need a view and something that, maybe, he could do some of the work on. Eldon’s ears perked up. He said, I know just the thing. If you are handy at all, we have several shells available. All the exterior work is done. Well, you would still have to finish the inside, get the plumbing and electrical work done. But we have boys in the area that are so good, and they can do it all and work reasonably.

He took us around the lake, Sand Lake, to a half acre lot facing the west. You would get a beautiful sunset every afternoon, said Eldon. The house was an A-frame with beautiful floor to ceiling windows facing the lake. We walked through