Black Lake Cabin Expedition

So off we went to the cabin, dog in tow for the first time, with a few projects in mind. Ripping up the carpet with the view to putting a hard wood floor down, seeing the assessor in Hammond to grieve our newly doubled assessment and getting some quotes on the parking pad we need to put down. We were successful with the assessor, having done my homework with comps, but the excavator was out of the ballpark with his quote! Rebar, cement blocks, blah blah blah, NOT! Coincidentally the assessor gave us a name of a local fella who was in the process of developing another section of Black Lake nearby and told us where he was. We promptly drove over and caught him just before he was going to disappear on his boat with his family. We asked him if he wouldn't mind stopping by our cabin and giving us a quote. He came over and his quote was a third of the cost and a better pad. Then we went back over with him to see some of his work. We were very satisfied with what we saw. He also had a chocolate lab and after some pecking order establishment the dogs appeared to get along just fine. Tom and I and the contractor went into a house he had built and when we came out, Rascal was bleeding profusely from the mouth. Apparently the two dogs delved deeper into the pecking order thing. No obvious cuts in Rascal's mouth were seen and so we figured a vet was needed because the bleeding wouldn't stop. The contractor gave us the name of a vet about 20 minutes away who happened to live nearby. She told us to come on over and couldn't find the wound either but assured us the bleeding would stop and gave us some antibiotics. She also told he may throw up from swallowing all that blood. So here we have a 2.5 hour drive with a bleeding dog. Good thing I had my moving blanket and that protected my car. So Rascal is lapping away at his mouth and finally the bleeding stops. But a drop lands on his paw and he starts licking it, thereby removing the clot and starting the bleeding again. This went on for about an hour into the journey but eventually it stopped. Whew! What an end to an otherwise successful outing. The pad should be done by the end of next week! Needless to say the gorgeous weather made it a lovely trip otherwise. We had hoped to the see the Walleye run, which only lasts about a day or two but had to cut the trip short with the dog incident. Slowly the cabin is beginning to shape up into our second home.