2009 brings new & fun stuff at Rose's Retreat

This year we are starting mini-survival lessons. When you come camping, you can sign up for an hour long lesson on edible plants or firemaking and many more!

Also, last year we completed our rustic getaway cabin. We have had rave reviews on the Acorn! It's a cozy getaway set back away from all the other sites. It has a 4-poster queen bed.....very cool.

This summer we are remoldeling the Rosewood, we hope to open it by the Blueberry Festival in August. The Rosewood is a 2 bedroom guest house with a bathroom, living room, and kitchen.

Camping fun for the whole family

This year we have a lot of new ideas for fun in the forest! We are planning to have Saturday Socials around 7 pm. Each week we will have an activity such as tye-dying, nature crafts, how-to-build a good campfire, plant identification, hay rides, make-your-own ice cream sundaes, campfire snacks, and whatever else we can think of along the way. We are also having some theme weekends such as scrapbooking, wine tasting, paintball, and whatever else we can think of in the coming months.

Ideas?

Last season we started this theme idea with our Fall Festival. The 1st weekend was great! Fun was had by all. The we had a run of bad weather weekends, but we still had fun.

The 2nd Season

We are finishing up the drywall on our 7-room bunk house! It is really starting to look great. The building is named, The Haven and it can sleep 24-30 people. Each of the 6 sleeping rooms will have 3 twins and 1 full beds. The 7th room is a common lounge. Guests will be able to rent rooms individually or rent the whole bunk house.

We had such a great buzz from our guests last season, we look forward to the word of mouth spreading.

2 weeks to go!

We have only 2 weeks before we host our first guests at Rose's Retreat. This weekend we finished painting the outside and the inside floor. All the doors and screens were painted. The Oak is really starting to look finished! We've had an enormous amount of help from our friends and family! Without the help, we would have never made it for a grand opening this year. So a BIG THANK YOU to all who have taken part n the great rose renovation.

Our Progress

When we purchased this property in 2004, it needed a lot of repairs! That's an understatement. The cabins hadn' been used for anything except storage for 30 years. We first set out to remodel the north bath house. We rented this huge digger and dug a trench for the water, gas, and power lines. It was cool, even our son was in the digger. We replaced everything and David built great cedar stalls.

Then we moved on to the electricity. BIG job....

We are now finishing up the two cabins that were previously called "The Green Cabins". We have now named them The Pine and The Oak. David built these great lofts in each one and some very cool railings (and the ladder is cool too).

Rose's Retreat

My husband and I have been remodeling a campground near South Haven, Michigan for the past 2 1/2 years. We have 28 wooded acres on Saddle Lake. The land was used as a girl's camp about 30 years ago. We would love to hear any stories about someone who may have attended that camp! It was also used as a restaurant called The Oak Springs Inn. Our website can be found at http://www.rosesretreat.com