We went up to the cabin this weekend to help redo the roof on my parents cabin as there had been critters inbetween the ceiling and the roof it turned out to be a hell of a weekend

Thursday night 5/26

Drive to the cabin which is about 4 hrs north of here left at about 830pm got there about 1130pm

Friday 5/27

12:30am my parents show up

1:30am get settled in go to bed

3am my niece starts freaking out and screaming and wakes everyone in the cabin up including Jack so he now is in bed (on the futon between me and Amy)

8:30am wake up have some breakfast

9:30am drive into Brainerd 30or so miles away (half on dirt roads) in my parents jeep to get scaffolding drive back and set it up

While we where gone Amy and my mom brought jack and my niece to the club house to swim and play at the park, jack took a tumble off the ladder but was fine

1:30pm everyone is napping my mom wakes up and says something we all wake up to see this raccoon climbing down the sliding glass door

So now we know we are dealing with raccoons in the roof

3:45pm run back to Brainerd 30 or so miles away (half dirt roads) to Menards in my car to get poison

We get back and jack has now thrown up and is running a temp, crabby as all get out but from what we could tell he didn't have a concussion or anything has not fallen asleep or anything so we start pumping the Tylenol

6:30pm my bro, sis and bro in law finally get to the cabin (they got a little lost)

Had dinner and hung out for the rest of the night we tried to make a fire but it was raining and not co operating..... So had a few beers and hung out inside the cabin

Sat 5/28

12:30am we all head to bed

1am, 215am, 3am jack wakes up but goes back to bed

3:30am Jack wakes up SCREEEMING! And is just burning up

4am Jack still has not settled down and is still screaming we try to take his temp but the damn thermometer is so slow we cant get and accurate one, we decide to go to the hospital in staples

Load jack into the car and drive to staples (about 20-25 miles away half being dirt road)

4:45am get to the hospital fill out all the stuff to get him admitted ECT

doctor takes a really thorough look at him and said his throat was really red they weren’t going to test it since we don't live up there but will prescribe him penicillin to treat it as if it is strep hospital even gave us the script there! I was impressed how quickly things happened there and it is a beautiful hospital,

7am run down the road to motley to the gas station to get some coffee and something to eat then headed back up to the cabin

8am got back to the cabin and everyone was starting to get up, no one realized we had left that morning so early except my dad who had woken up about an hr after we left which surprises me because my bro and his daughter where sleeping in the pop up trailer that was by our car and my sis n bro in-law where sleeping in the back of there van that was by the car also,

9am the guys get on the roof and start pulling the old shingles off!

11am all the shingles are off and we start pulling up some of the board to replace the insulation (we started at the opposite end from the raccoons)

we found that last fall there was squirrels living in the attic and had been poisoned and had died in there (last fall) so we cleaned out the massive amount of nasty insulation, dead squirrels and poop, replace the insulation and put in some wire mesh to keep animals out of between the roof trusses, started moving down to the squirrel side, we removed the very top board and discover there is 4 babies in one area so we pry up the board they are under to get to get something in there to get them up, they where yelling an screeching, Rock(bro in law is trying to get them out and finally starts getting them out so Amy (she is rabies vaccinated since she needed it for school) grabs a blanket and the welding gloves we have up there to mess with the fire and burrito rolls them as they come out and we stick them in a cooler, we get them all out and decide we will relocate the babies and take care of mom when we can get her,

we get the babies off the roof and strapped to the 4 wheeler(this is just a old little Yamaha 2 wd thing that isn't meant for 2 people) so me and Amy we onto the state land that is next to where we are, had to cruise through a number of mud pits, when we finally got about 2-3 miles away and we didn't think we would make it through the mud pit we faced we stopped and dumped them in the woods, headed back and Amy is like crap I feel rain so apparently we missed our turn back into the area where the cabin is and we hit this huge mud pit so I gun it we get about half way through and get stuck.... so we hop off and realize we didn't go this way out there so turn around and go the other way, get back and it starts down pouring , so everyone is getting the roof tarpped up at this point it's like 7 pm and I’m beet so me and may go to the club house and take a shower as we leave the guys come up to take a shower it had stopped raining but we where just done for the day,

8pm start a fire and have dinner have a few beers earlier in the day the girls where going to go to the pool at the club house, my parents jeep would not start (bat was dead) so I pull the one out of my car and put in my parents jeep to get it started (no one had jumper cables)

11pm getting ready to head into bed and I hear something by the roof I shine my flashlight and the mom is hanging off a tree so I take the light off and watch her silowet climb down and I shine her again she goes darting off into the woods

Sunday5/29

8am get up and get on the roof, finish up cleaning and replacing

No signs of mom raccon

We get continue all day only stopping to eat,

8pm the roof is DONE!!!

We have a fire going and hang out having a few beers,

11PM got a call from JJ earlier in the day so I called him back(had to sit in my car because that’s one of the few places where I got signal, and had to have my phone on the charger, I see my dad with his dinky little flash light walking toward the car and he comes of ask for my good one and then grabs some rocks I’m like what’s going on he says the mom raccoon is back, so I let my friend go and we try to get her out(throwing rocks and sticks at the sulfating) she wasn’t even moving so I climb on the roof and start banging up on the surfeiting with the crow bar, I could hear her in there but she still wasn’t moving around much, we said forget it and my dad went back to bed

Mon 5 30

12am I call JJ back we BS for a while and he lets me go telling me to get some sleep I sounded exhausted

I walk in to the cabin and I hear a really quiet Hi Daddy from jack so I say hi back and start getting undressed when I look at him and he looks at me rolls over, smacks my pillow 2-3 times and looks back at me them did it again probably 3-4 times and said come on dad really quiet

That absolutely made my night

5am wake up to thunderstorms and realized the chimney is leaking… great… I threw a pan to catch the rain and went back to bed

9am so it quite raining and my uncles where coming up so we didn’t really need to stick around so we packed up and got ready to go

1pm we left for home, and apparently so did everyone else traffic was only bad in 2 spots but still made for a long trip,

6pm dropped my niece off at my brothers house and went to Amy’s parents for a bbq and so her dad could see jack (it’s kind of special we always try to make a point to go there when he his home because he is an over the road trucker and doesn’t get to see him much)

8pm we go to the local self serve carwash so I could spray off the 1/4 in of dirt on the car…

9pm took a shower relaxed and bit

11pm called JJ and BS with him some more

Tuesday5 31

12am went to bed

7am woke up to go to work I go down to start the car and the bad is dead on the Saturn….. I can’t be late today because it not pre approved and I would lose my holiday pay so hook up the jumper cables… it’s not doing anything…. Crap….. Check my connections call Amy and tell her she may need to bring me to work retry it starts right up! Thank god the intrigue has a 1020 cranking amp bat otherwise I may have been sitting there for a while!

 

I'll trow some pics up as my fam add them to there Fb and what not

 

wow what a very detailed weekend. sounds like fun tho.

 

Thats alot of typing and alot of things happening. But you made it through and sounds like you got done what was needed and had time to throw down a few beers..

 

wow Justin, crazy to say the least man! Glad things weren't to boring for you....

 

Wow! What a weekend! At least it was relaxing... LOL.

 

Wow - what a weekend!

 

Wow I am tired just reading that.

 

Hi `Justin,
Great short story of what's happening in your busy `life with family. Happy to read that you had a safe/productive holiday weekend. You are blessed to have a happy/healthy loving son.
Thanks for sharing a part of your life with your Monte Carlo Family...EnJoyed

 

Damn Justin. That was one heck of a story! Glad everything worked out for you. GEEEZ.. . And to think All I did was tear into some RIBS at Famous Dave's. Sounds like you had just as much FUN as I did. hee hee.