The True Story of Lena

Now anybody who knows Ole even a little bit knows that he’s definitely got the gift of gab.  He can talk to anybody about just about anything.  And because of this gift of gab he sometimes gets himself into “situations.” 

One day Ole went to see his eye doctor.  And of course they never talked about eyes or what’s wrong with them – they covered all kinds of other subjects.  One of the subjects was Doc’s lake place and the fact that he had purchased a boat.  Unfortunately at this point the boat was in pieces waiting to be restored.  That’s when Ole found out this boat was a 1955 mahogany strip boat made by the Ole Lind Boat Works of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  That’s also when Ole started to drool – you see he just can’t help himself when there’s a “situation” that needs his attention.

After some negotiation Ole gave Doc some money and dragged home this wooden hulk that sat on a boat trailer that also needed rebuilding.  (More drooling.  Projects, you know.  Can’t help ourself!!)  When Ole showed it to me I thought, “Well, here’s another mess that’s going to take a lot of time.”

So Ole went to work that winter and took every piece of wood apart and had to remake a number of the wooden pieces that were either broken or missing.  Then there was the painstaking process of encasing each of these pieces in epoxy before reassembling them like a set of tinker toys.  The hull was totally restored and rebuilt with fiberglass as it had originally been.  Then he assigned me the task of making new seat cushions. 

Next he went to work on the outboard motor – a 1957 35 hp. Johnson.  Many an hour that thing sat fastened to a 55 gallon barrell full of water while Ole cleaned and tweaked and twisted all those little screws and setting and gas lines.  Following that it was time for the trailer to be rebuilt so that it actually fit the boat and wouldn’t rub in funny places or bounce around like it did previously with the boat threatening to fly off. 

By that following fall it was time for a trial run so down to the lake we went.  Ole launched her and christened her LENA – after all, what else could you name a boat that was made by the OLE Lind Boat Works in Detroit Lakes, MN? 

Here’s the end results – and she didn’t even leak!!

Now the next questions is – are we going to have to use Lena to get in and out of our property?  The blizzard that we had forecast for last night and today turned out to be more of a fizzle than anything else – don’t get me wrong – I’m certainly not complaining.  We didn’t get the 14 inches of snow that the weather guessers were promising us. 

I hate to wish my life away, but I do wish that the next month was over with and all the water was gone.  Just don’t need this kind of stress in my life anymore.  Been there before, done that before and tired of doing it over and over.

Calgon, take me away!!

Love, Lena