And then again, later in the spring! By this time, we have attached some old hand tools on the peak at the front of the cabin (something we've planned to do since we first added the peaked roof a couple of years earlier), and have rolled out the awning! My sisters were coming to visit (for the first time) in early June, so the rush was on to get thing presentable after a very long winter where we had over 310 inches of snow!

Since the perennials wouldn't be putting on much (or any) show yet, by early June, we were buying annual hangers to add some color. The ones on the front of the cabin were the first to go up.

The flower 'bed' with it's spring show of Daffodils! We only plant Daffodils at camp, not Tulips, because deer like Tulips much better than Daffodils!

To be honest, we haven't had a lot of problem with all those deer at the camp, but I think mostly because we try to plant those things that they don't like 'as well'. That said, we know they WILL eat anything, if they get hungry enough!

We did have a little damage on a couple of apple trees and a hydrangea this past spring and put out some deer repellant stakes on those. In addition, we usually see deer tracks in our boat planter from time to time, although they seem to be just checking it out, as we have not noticed that they have grazed on anything there.

We built this shed to store our camp chairs (the kind you sit in by the camp fire) in, along with such things as fire starting materials, charcoal for the grill, misc tools, and so on. It sits just off to the side of the camp fire. We purposely made the roof very low (careful, otherwise we hit our heads inside) because we didn't want it to interfere with our view of the woods too much while sitting at the camp fire. This replaces a Cabella's type hunting blind (tent) that we used for this purpose the past two-three seasons. That went to pieces and we wanted something permanent, that we could use for winter, as well as summer, storage.

We are very proud of having built this shed with almost 100% (let's say 95%) recycled materials. All we bought was a handful of new 2x4's (when we ran out of recycled ones) and some deck screws. The rest, including the metal siding, was recycled.

Putting up the shed was our first 'project' of 2013.

We will add planter boxes to the front of it at some point, but that won't get done this year. We are fast running out of time!

An early spring shot of the berm immediately in front of the cabin.

That's our Sophie Louise down in front, one of our four puppy children :-) For anyone who is curious, she is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The other three children are Lexie Lee (Tibetan Spaniel), Tessa Marie (Cavalier and Pekinese mix), and Ginger Sue (Pekinese). All came from rescue, except Sophie who was bred by my nieces (who had her mother as a 4-H project). Sophie and Lexie are purebred and Tessa and Ginger are not. They each came from very different circumstances. Lexie was given up for adoption by her original family, who didn't like that she still chewed things at a year old. Tessa was picked up, scared and traumatized out her her wits, on a street in Detroit. Ginger was given up for adoption when her elderly owner had to go into a senior home. Like human children, they only get called by their full (first and middle) names, when they are in trouble or not paying attention!

Our new (pre-manufactured) gazebo. We built a nice deck for this one. Gary and I are becoming quite expert at deck building by this point, having added a deck at our house, a front deck at the cabin, a deck for the shower, then this deck, and later a big back/side deck on the cabin.

This gazebo was immediately picked up by a big wind and tipped over (denting the top on one corner a bit) so is now screwed down tightly to the deck. We call it our 'elegant' gazebo, to distinguish it from the 'rustic' gazebo, which you will see photos of a little later.

The deck is carpeted with an indoor/outdoor rug. The furniture is old (garage sale) wicker, which we have painted a soft green color. There are coffee tables and magazine racks and other decorative items, as well as a battery operated chandelier (identical to the one we have in the cabin). This is the place we come to sit when the mosquitoes and other insects are too bad for us to want to sit on our rockers on the cabin deck or by the camp fire.

This photo was taken right after we put the deck up this spring (sides and roof come down for the winter). As you can see, there isn't even any greenery in the background yet!

The four blue pots in the foreground contain the only four hostas that I have at the camp. I added a few annuals in with them this summer, for a touch of color. They are all NOIDs which I felt like I could spare if the deer destroyed them.

Here we are enjoying the camp fire with two of my sisters and my brother in law .... actually Gary is enjoying the camp fire. I'm behind the camera and not in the resulting shot.

The two shrubs you can see on either side of the cabin deck, are Blue Muffin Viburnums.

This is early/mid June and it was an unusually cold spring, so we spent a lot of time around the camp fire!

Next, are a couple of photos of our first 'boat' garden and one close up of an iris growing in the boat garden. I have a lot of iris close ups, but will only add more of them if someone specifically asks to see them. I KNOW I am overloading you with photos already. There are just so many...

This is our first of two boat gardens. This is a 14 footer and has been in place for three summers now. It is complete, except for maintenance. There is creeping phlox and soapwort in the front (blooms first) then a row of iris and in back a row of lupin, which bloom pretty much at the same time. On each end is a patch of liatris, which is the last to bloom. There are also some taller perennials planted behind the boat.

We just added the second boat planter and there will be a photo of that later. It's a 16 footer and won't really be showy until next summer or the summer after.

Second photo of boat garden.

An Iris closeup from the boat garden. The iris were just beautiful this year, absolutely amazing! Some of them should be divided already. I'm hoping to get to that within the next week or two. Otherwise it's going to have to wait for next summer.

Next, some mid-summer photos from, and of, the front cabin deck. This is the view we see when sitting on our rocking chairs on the deck and (in one or two cases) as we approach the deck.

This is the berm. You've seen it from other angles, taken earlier in the season.

Another deck view.

And another...

A little later in the summer... looking at the pergola over the deck! We love our honeysuckle, and so do the hummingbirds!

One more deck shot from the front area, then will move on.