About Sophie and Dale  

   Sophie and Dale Lehmer moved to the area about 3 years ago and live in an abandoned farmhouse they restored on a farm boarding the Oswegatchie River. Sophie is Russian and grew up in the Novosibirsk Academy town in Siberia, Russia. Her parents were both important scientists in the Soviet times and her father was a leading expert that helped develop the rocket fuel to put Yuri Gagarin in space. She was fortunate to grow up in Academy town as this was one of the two major places where Soviet Scientists lived and worked, and she had the opportunity to learn and study the English Language that she loves. (She does the spell and grammar check on all our writings). After graduating from high school, she went on to become a physicist at Tartu State University in Estonia, where she lived and worked until she met Dale about 8 years ago. She has two children, both living in the area, and her daughter, Alice has just started her college at SUNY Canton. Sophie does all the architectural drawings and photography for the company, and cooks wonderful Plauf and Borsch.

   Dale grew up in Pennsylvania and after high school received an athletic scholarship and attended Wheaton College where he graduated in 1966 with a BS degree, majoring in psychology. He later went on to get his Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Indiana. He played football, baseball and wrestled in college and still has some of the injuries to prove it. Upon graduation, Dale worked with hard core delinquent boys for 10 years (and has a few injuries to prove that too -- mostly mental!), and then quit due to burn out. He then started his current company that dismantles and rebuilds early barns and homes all across the country -- Antique Woods and Colonial Restoration. He has been doing this work for over 30 years now and is considered as one of the experts in his field. He has done barn homes for many high profile people including Robert DeNiro and Ted Kopple. Dale has two children and one grandchild.

   Dale and Sophie love this area and believe in it immensely. They hope to find and purchase other abandoned and discarded houses in the area with magnificent locations and restore them back to life for resale and/or perhaps more elegant lodging for folks like yourself visiting the area and searching for a special place to stay. They hope you will give the Oswegatchie River Lodge a try.