Cindy and Jerry Kroetz: Jerry: “I’m doing what I’m told from Cindy. I’m helping with the lawn. We have all kinds of little yellow flowers there that I mowed yesterday or the day before and left a few hundred of those.” Cindy: “You caught him doing the Shopper on Boundary Street last winter.” Jerry: “Oh yeah. You and I had a conversation last winter. That’s right!” ( You must of had a hat on or something. What did you tell me about?). Cindy: “He said I was a good Catholic girl.” (I recognize you now. He said a lot about you.). Cindy: “He told you about how we retired here and I got to pick where we wanted to live. That’s what it was.” Jerry: “She’s in charge one way or another.” Cindy: “We’re just picking weeds. Weeds and weeds and weeds. I’m letting the little bees use those yellow flowers before we mow them down. Might as well let them eat, for the ecology part of it. They’re kind of cute. They’re kind of folded up right now. First I thought they were dandelions then I realized no, they are a little flower.” Jerry: “The sun has got to be out to get them to blossom. It did shine for a little while today.” Cindy: “It’s a good day to be outside. We’re from Wisconsin originally. Madison area. My mom was born here. Part of the Kobe clan. Matt and Mayme were her mom and dad. And so I’m cousin with the Hutars, the Forsmans, and the Erzars and the Kobes. My aunts and uncles have all passed away but I still have lots of cousins up here. So when Jerry retired two and a half years ago, I had followed him all around Wisconsin and he said I got to pick where we wanted to retire and I picked here. We have a cabin on Eagles Nest Lake 4 and I wanted to be close to the cabin. The kids like to come up here and I’ve got all my cousins.” (We tried to figure out what else Jerry told me last time and it was something about beer.) Jerry: “Yeah. I delivered beer. We were a small beer distributor when I first started there and we were given the Miller distributorship. And we said yeah, we’ll take it. Nobody was buying Miller High Life beer but then, shortly after we got it, they came out with Miller Lite. I thought, there’s no way... As everybody knows now, Lite was huge.” Cindy: “So we bought this house from the Aikins. Do you remember Frank and Josephine Aikins? This is their house and he when he passed away, Frank Jr. was selling it and the realtor showed it to us. I thought, I don’t know, it’s kind of small but I thought small house, small cabin. Fine. It’s only like 1,500 square feet but it’s cozy. It’s a little grandma kitchen.” Jerry: “It’s got a nice lower level because it’s exposed in the back.” Cindy: “And we’re right behind Sigurd Olson’s place so we get to look up the hill and see that. So we bought it 2 1/2 years ago and I’ve been happy ever since. I don’t know about him but I am happy.” Jerry: “I like it here.” Cindy: “The kids are coming in July which they always do and we’re trying to get new flooring in the cabin because it’s from the 80s and it’s really gross indoor outdoor carpet.” Jerry: “That’s what I’ve been doing for the last few days is tearing up the old carpet.” Cindy: “We found out that the pad was glued on so we have to scrape all that off so it’s a bugger of a job. That’s keeping us busy.” Jerry: “I have sore knees from wearing knee pads crawling on my knees ripping up carpeting.” Cindy: “Then dragging it up to the garage. Beautiful community out at Eagles Nest. I love it out there. The neighbors are great. Quiet little area. I am happy here. We have great neighbors in town too. We could use some curb and gutter. It’s a nice place to be. No regrets at all... My mother gave me the 1961 St. Anthony’s Cook Book. I was paging through it trying to find a dessert to back. I was going to do my Aunt Dorothy Hutar’s Date Bars flipped the page and there’s Josephine Aikin’s Refresher Bars. So I thought, Well I’m in her kitchen, I need to make her Refresher Bars. Everybody loves them!” Jerry: “Yeah they’re good.” Cindy: “So I called Frank Jr. and told him that his mother’s bars are a hit and he said, ‘We used to have those after school. She used to make us those.’ What is there not to love about chocolate and dates. I am trying the recipes from the ECHO END of the ROAD RECIPE’s and the last one I cut out is her Feta Cheese with Asparagus and Basil Pesto. We’re trying that one next. That was from a couple weeks ago. I bought the asparagus, I’m ready to go! We had a big black bear walk through the front yard right through here at 5:30 this morning. Dave Merhar called him Mr. Brutus.”Ben, Sigurd and Soren Kubes. Ben: “Do you know a certain bug that eats Lupine. They are eating every single Lupine we have. They’re everywhere. I just got done with work. Nice busy day. Now the boys are riding bikes for fun while I’m playing with the garden and watching the bugs eat all my lupine. The boys got some popsicles and they have been playing at the park all day. So now they are just getting extra energy out riding bikes. I have been doing a little bit of fishing. A little bit of camping. That kind of thing. Took the boys for thier first Boundary Waters trip. That was nice and we got rained on a lot. So that was pretty fun. Bugs weren’t too bad. And we are going to go again next weekend and the next and I think the next.” Sigurd: “Biking. I went to the library. Checked out two books.” Ben: “We’re having a big fire tonight for Solstice. That’s tonight. It’s June 20th tonight, so it’s important tonight. And they get extra marshmallows, extra s’mores and extra popsicles. So it’s a pretty good day.” Sigurd: “Extra Icees, you mean dad.” Ben: “Oh yeah, extra icees. And I baked you two pies, rhubarb and a Juneberry pie.” Sigurd: “Oh I have something to say! I am 6.” Ben: “He’s going into first grade.” Soren: “I’m Soren.” Ben: “Show her your face. (Oh Oh. Owie on the lip). Playing at the playground. Got busted up. Hit his lip on his friend’s bike.” Soren: “And I’m in kindergarten.” Ben: “Yep he’s going into kindergarten.” Sigurd: “Soren and me are brothers.”Mary Laramee came out after the boys interview: “We’re all a family. I was just taking the boys to the library and the park and playing. Easy. And I was just knitting a sweater. It’s fun. It’s something to keep your hands busy. It’s been a busy summer. Playing outside. Camping. Hiking. I’m about to go see if my youngest left his stuffed piggy at the playground and if so, go rescue it. We had a baby fawn in the yard for a while this morning in the flowers. The sun is finally out. We like it here. We like our home in general. It’s a nice place. We’ve been here like 6 years in this house. We like it. We like to keep it kind of wild.”John Duke: “Just walking through town. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. I’m visiting and going on a Boundary Waters trip. I’m going probably in July. I’m going to be here for a little while. I love Ely. I’ve been coming here for 40 years. I went to junior college here so I do hydrology work now because of that. I got a good education here and I already had university degrees and so for me it was a career change. The skills that I learned there were pretty incredible. Hands on skills so that I can do work for engineering firms and stuff, just technical work that they need. I was there in 2008-2009. I have been hanging out at Northern Grounds, seeing my friends there. I have quite a few friends in Ely. I went to the banjo band at Zaverl’s last night and tomorrow night I am going to the play with some friends. Just hanging out in Ely. I love the town. Escaping the heat in Atlanta and trying to stay here as much as I can in the summers. For the rest of the day I am going to go back to the coffee shop with the business center at top and that’s where my laptop is and continue doing my work for my company that I work for. I’m scratching the mosquito bites and sand flies bites, those little ones that take a chunk of skin out of you. They mean business. But I hear they help fertilize the blueberries so they have a purpose. They’re God’s children too. They’re trying to make a living like everybody else.”
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