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A VIEW FROM THE LOG CABIN

by Harriet Doolittle

 Hooray! Spring at last!  Hopefully, when this column appears in the Newsletter, I’ll be back at my home on Tripp Lake. The ducks and geese will be leading lines of their newly hatched ducklings and goslings in their twice-daily swim around the Point.  The orioles will be feasting on oranges and collecting my Golden Retrievers’ hairs from the doormat for their nests. Despite my medical/physical problems, the Maine snows, its cold and heavy rains,  which have all threatened to prevent or delay my migration north to Tripp,  it looks like that’s all in the past. I will soon be in Maine for the summer and fall.

My good friend, Deborah Dewyea, along with my two canine companions make the trip with me from Pine Hill, NJ each spring.  The dogs will stay for the rest of the season but, unfortunately, Deborah must return to her family and job after only a few days at the lake.  Her help and companionship make the long trek between Pine Hill and West Poland easy and fun.  She is invaluable to the canines and to me.

Since I left the cabin and Point last October, I’ve been viewing the unfolding winter season in my mind’s eye.  The heavy snows have been imagined with glee since I don’t have to shovel or travel through them.  I don’t worry much about the cabins and deck since these structures were built by Maine men, to survive the best and worst that Maine winters could throw at them.  My little guest cabin has stood on this site since the 1950’s, the deck and log cabin since the 1980’s. 

View with rainbow from the southern end of the lake (August, '04')

Both of their builders knew what heavy snow meant in Maine terms. I didn’t know the builder of the little cabin, but the story goes that the materials were brought down from West Poland in a row boat towed by a motor boat, since no road existed beyond Fernald Road at that time.

I did know the builder of the deck and log cabin, for his family and mine spent happy years designing and completing the projects that resulted in the structures under the pine and hemlock trees on the west shore of the Lake.  It is with great sadness and a deep sense of loss that I returned to Poland this summer, knowing that Irving W. Groves would not physically be with us. His spirit is surely present in the flourishing Poland Mining Camps that his widow, Mary, will continue operating, keeping his vision alive. His genius and humor are evident in many ways at the log cabin, like the little orange golf ball attached to a string over the stove, which, when pulled, opens overhead cabinets.  The deck and cabins have been maintained over the last 16 years by another outstanding Maine builder, Ked Bennett of Poland Spring. His knowledge and expertise have allowed for numerous innovations and improvements; his dedicated care of this complex has kept the property in an enjoyable state for my family and friends. My deepest gratitude goes to all three of these outstanding builders.

 All of us around the lake are looking forward to a great summer in 2005.  Soon the floodwaters will recede, the roads will dry out and be rebuilt.  Flowers will be planted, docks and boats put into the lake, bird feeders filled and hung!

 The view from my log cabin will be outstanding and unequaled.