NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/873551
OCTOBER 2017 • NEBRASKAland 37 opening day and heading home the next morning. "There have probably been 50-plus people involved over these 60-plus years," Jake said. "The problem is we can't seem to keep the extras. They come for a while and love it and then something happens, either in their personal life or work life or something, and they can't come back." The Shack As long as Jake can remember, that barn, built who-knows-how-long-after Scotia's founding in the 1870s, has always been called "the shack." It's been called other things, too, most notably the Scotia Hilton. When Jake's grandfather moved in, he boarded off one section of the barn with plywood and added two windows and a door, creating a room measuring about 10 feet wide and 25 long. There were two double beds on one end and a table and countertop on the other. In the middle was a wood stove that burned corn cobs – "they didn't burn long," Jake said – and coal before it was replaced with a propane heater. When the Polinoskis moved to Ord, the Jacobsen boys remodeled the shack, removing everything, flipping the floor plan and filling the space with cabinets, appliances and furniture they had replaced in their own homes. They painted the walls and put linoleum and carpet over the plywood sheeting that covers a dirt floor. On one half is the kitchen, complete with a sink but no running water. That's carried in buckets from the hydrant outside and goes down the drain to a septic tank. A few cabinets, an old hutch and some pantry shelves wrap around a dining table. There is a stove and a refrigerator. The former is part of a parade of hand-me-downs that have made their way from the homes of hunters. The latter is brand new, bought in Ord the day before the 2016 season opened, the best option they had after arriving to find the old fridge had quit since they visited a few weeks earlier. On the other end you will find two hide-a-bed couches and Jake's recliner, all positioned to watch an old tube-type television wired to a satellite, allowing the gang to catch the Husker football games and any others of interest. The north half of the barn is a storage shed, in which they store a grill, fryer, tools and other gear they might need. Jake's uncles built a porch on the front of the shack, complete Dolton, Schmidt, Jake and Sands watch as Jim gives his chocolate lab, Guinness, a treat during lunch on opening day. The kitchen/dining room, mostly unchanged since the 1960s, take up half of the one-room shack.