My cabin was built in 1952 by my brother-in-law. He and my sister lived there for one winter.

All the logs were cut in the nearby woods by my brother-in-law, and cut into palisades by a local mill. All that was bought were cement, nails, roofing shingles, barn sash for windows, and two doors at a cost of $700. Everything else came from the woods. The actual building took a couple of years, and I helped with the foundation when I was 15 years old.

When he left to be a missionary in Mexico, my brother-in-law sold it to me in 1968. I remodeled it and put in plumbing and running water shortly after I bought it. It has one bedroom that can sleep four, a living room/kitchen with a folding bed that can sleep two, and a bathroom. There is a fireplace and a wood stove for heat. The walls are covered with memorabilia from the many fishing and hunting trips, including a rug made from a bear I shot in 1957.

I use the cabin for grouse hunting in October, for deer hunting in November, and for ice fishing in the winter (one or two trips). We start the summer season with the opening of fishing. Usually I make a half-dozen trips there over the summer and fall for four or five days at a time, with children, grandchildren, other family or friends. Everyone enjoys the swimming, boating, fishing and canoeing. The trip takes about five hours from my home in Wyoming, Minn.

The mosquitoes and horse flies are so vicious that I built a screened gazebo in the mid-'90s.

The cabin is located in far northern Minnesota. It's in the area where my father homesteaded when he came to this country from Sweden. I was born and raised there. Many other relatives also homesteaded in the area, so I have lots of relatives nearby. Visiting the cabin is just like going home.

JOHN OLSON, Wyoming