Lucille and Paul Hodsdon of Norway have a new getaway home on Aziscohos Lake in Parkertown Township in northern Oxford County, replacing one that burned June 4. Lucille Hodsdon photo
NORWAY — Paul and Lucille Hodsdon didn’t waste time getting a second home in place in Parkertown Township in northern Oxford County after losing their first in a fire June 4.
Lucille and Paul Hodsdon Submitted photo
All that was left of the camp was a chimney and an unattached garage. Years of memories and personal belongings kept there were gone. Also lost were the four binders that Lucille kept on all the camps built in the area, including photographs of them. She updated it every five years. The also had a three-ring binder with the history of logging in the 1940s and 1950s in the area that was gone.
The couple was not there when the fire started, because Lucille had major surgery that morning.
Paul, 80, described the loss this past spring as “paradise lost.”
But not rebuilding was out of the question. They converted the garage and camped in it all summer in order to clean up from the fire and get everything ready for a new building.
“We got a new permit, a new foundation and a new modular sitting on it,” Paul said in a phone interview Dec. 15. The camp overlooks Aziscohos Lake, just like the old one.
The new modular building was set on the foundation Nov. 2.
There is no siding on it, Lucille, 78, said, because it is back-ordered because of COVID-19.
“It is sealed up. It is 90% done,” Paul said
They expected a crew to do the finish work before the end of December.
In order to get the modular house on the lot quickly, it was taken from the plant before it was finished, Paul said.
They have named it Little Meadow Camp No. 2.
The floor plan is almost the same as the previous one, Lucille said. “The interior of the new camp is the same as the old one.”
A chimney is all that was left after a fire destroyed the camp of Paul and Lucille Hodsdon of Norway on June 4 in Parkertown Township. Submitted photo
Lucille had back surgery in November but is on the mend.
“I’m limited to what I can do but 95% of the pain is gone,” she said.
It has been a busy fall for the couple.
Lucille does knitting and has been pretty busy with her Etsy shop online for the past three years.
They said they are excited and looking forward to May when they will be able to enjoy their new Meadow Camp No. 2.
“After camping in the garage for three months, this will seem (like) paradise again,” the couple wrote in an email.
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