The Keen sauna was Dad’s idea, but the kids can’t get enough

Sauna Times Guest Post Series continues.  Welcome to the Keen Sauna in Dryden Ontario Canada.   The frozen north.  Enter Peter:

Peace and quiet? Calm relaxation in the Sauna? Hardly.

We six moved this summer into a larger house, which had good bones, a heated workshop, two three-car garages, and a private boat launch. It needed a few tweaks. Tweaks like new roofs, new windows, new siding, new garage furnace, new air exchanger, new flooring, new paint, new dock, new decks and new doors. Oh, and a complete interior renovation too.

So naturally, the Sauna came first. I figured it would be a break from the for increasingly loud kids, using it regularly after a day’s hard home renovation. Peace and quiet. Time to mediate. Relaxation, löyly and wine.

Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, the kids loved building it.

The ten year old nailed shingles. The eight year old built benches. The six year old screwed in decking. The four year old helped find missing screws.  (The story of how they went missing shall remain untold).

Even worse, the kids love using it.

We Sauna three or four times a week, sometimes more. We used it when warm outside, and on Christmas day in -35c (-31f) weather. I cool down standing outside, or sitting inside the changing room. The kids cool down by rolling around in the snow, screaming in anguish, before running back inside, only to do it all over again.

Inside, we tell stories, tell jokes, or read books until they fall apart in the heat.

The kids compete for who can do the most dramatic roll in the snow.

They all want to water the stones.
Peace and quiet? Bah. This is much more fun.
I’ll meditate when I’m dead. If I live that long.