Hi! I’m Naomi Jones. My spouse, Jeremiah, and my dog, Lennie are usually my adventure buddies. We love to travel, but since COVID, have especially fallen in love with traveling the Midwest. Our favorite spots are Sleeping Bear Dunes, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Viroqua, and pretty much any A-Frame in the tri-state area.

We came upon this land through a family connection.

The original owners planned on building a cabin of their own. They made a clearing in the trees, but were careful to leave as many trees as possible! Years passed, hardships came, joy prevailed, and they decided to move on and list the land for sale.

About 90 miles away, I was 5 years into a teaching career…

in a suburb of Minneapolis, about 3 bad days away from walking out of the building. I was completely desperate for a way out of the career I thought would be my “forever” job. COVID made an already impossible job even more difficult. Societal pressure, ever growing class sizes, contentious politics, and fear of school violence began to make me feel like it was no longer possible to do the job I loved in the way I believed it should be done—full of love, connection, compassion, and nuance.

I created my first cabin plan out of a desperate need to plunge my creativity into something I craved: peace. I love creating spaces where people feel safe and at peace. In these places, people can connect, be vulnerable, and come to new understandings about life they can bring with them when that peace wanes. I became obsessed with the idea of creating a place where I could feel that way, and I wanted to share it with others at the same time. This dream carried me through the rest of the school year. I tearfully left what was my dream job in June of 2022 and made plans to pave my own path.

That summer, my mom told me one of her lifelong best friends was selling a little plot of land outside Balsam Lake. I contacted her, looked up the parcel and met her to take a look. The winding driveway up to the cleared meadow made my heart flutter. As soon as my foot hit the gravel, the dream materialized. I was already having morning coffee on a leather chair on a cool autumn morning.

I’ve spent countless hours creating a plan, arranging walls, re-arranging, hiring a drafter, adjusting again, and we finally landed on this cute 22x26 modern, yet cozy and character filled cabin on a two acre plot of land overlooking Bridget Lake.

I have some big entrepreneurial dreams for Alkov Cabin Co. However, my first dream, Alkov Balsam Lake, is where we begin!

The success of this first dream opens up the possibility of building more cabins! We have plans and dreams to expand our business. One goal we have is to (someday) purchase a 20-40 acre plot of land and build a small resort with 5-7 tiny cabins and a main lounge with a coffee shop/wine bar/bookstore open to the public! We’ll see where our journey takes us. Follow along @alkovcabinco for the ride!