A heavy, wet snow early this winter brought down trees across the road again.
According to the guy from Park Rapids who is going to clean this up there are 39 trees across the road.
The new power line has been plowed in and the transformer is ready for an electrician to make the connection to the cabins. Maybe Monday.
I was able to drive in without a problem but when I was ready to drive out (I'm staying at the Pines until I get power) this tree was across the road. Is that a sign?
I walked the new path today, that is to say the buried power line path. This is a view of the southern end where there are still trees.
Still no power but at least the ducks are back in the water.
Wahoo! Electricity at last: lights, water, refrigerator, stove, TV, internet (Alexa, play Pandora).
The grass in front of the Hill House seems to be taking root.
Not so nice looking southeast from the deck. If you zoom in you can see what a mess the loggers left. There is a lot of that.
I ordered some trees last fall through the lake association. I picked them up today: 60 Red Pine, 20 Jack Pine, 10 Tamarack, 10 White Ceder.
The loggers had to move the mailboxes last fall in order to get their big trucks around the corner. They left them pretty well messed up.
I feel responsible so I'm going to make a new unified mailbox platform. This is my grand plan.
After a trip to Home Depot I'm ready to star building this thing.
This is my scheme for attaching the mailboxes to the horizontal shelf. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to easily adjust them left or right as needed.
Here we have the first Red Pine planted in front of the Hill House, 99 more to go. Then I just need to sit back and relax for the next 20 years watching them grow.
The old mailboxes are gone. Now this had better work. I need this to be done tomorrow (Sunday) so mail service can resume on Monday.
Trish and I spent the day installing the new mailbox platform (no pressure here). Now I wait to hear what the reaction is.
The creeping phlox and ferns on the south side of the log cabin are appearing. They should get lots of sun this year.
I got a couple dozen bags of pea gravel hoping to shore up the eroding shore line next to the boat house.
It remains to be seen whether this will have any lasting effect. I'll need to get into the water and see if I can poke some of this into the undercut. Still another 10 bags to go.
And here is the first burn pile of the year. This is northeast of the log cabin just a bit.
The balsam Chris and I planted here on the deck last year had long since died. I went out in the woods today and got a new one. Happy hummingbirds.
Drizzling rain all afternoon - that's a good time for a burn. It's not a big one but it's a start.
It stopped raining long enough for me to plant the barrel. With all the stuff I need to do around here this seems a little superfluous but hey, why not?
Another burn pile ready to set alight. Evidently I'm unlikely to do more than one of these a day.
Each 10' dock deck section is about 90 pounds. That's (maybe) OK if I'm dragging them 30 feet.
This year I'm going to drag them up the hill so that's just too heavy for me. Cut in half is more manageable - but still a struggle.
Would this be called dry dock?
Chris Farden showed up today with his Bobcat (actually it's a John Deere).
Whatever it is I want one.
Imagine if I had had one of these last summer.
Another day or so and we'll have this almost presentable. I'd like to be able to walk here and not break an ankle.
I've temporarily planted the last 25 seedlings because it's going to be a couple of weeks before that wasteland is cleared. I'm afraid if I leave them in water that long they might drown.
I was afraid that with so few trees around now I wouldn't have as many hummingbirds but there were seven buzzing around the feeder this morning.
The log cabin is open: water on (with no apparent leaks), the internet is OK and the bunk beds and cane chairs are still comfy. I'll dust later.
Watch this space.
I was going to replace this light last summer but stuff happened. There's nothing wrong with this other than it's been here since 1966.
Here is it's replacement: LED bulbs and dimmable
With so many trees gone here behind the shed the old Primestar satellite dish kind of sticks out.
There that's much better.
There, that was easy! I'll just keep the boat tied to a tree for a while. At least now I can go fishing.
Even with a narrow view of what is lawn (i.e. mow-able) there is still a lot of grass to cut. I miss the trees.
First bass. On June 11th? That's ...that's just wrong.
A charm of goldfinches. I scared off two more on the support rod before I took the picture.
I went out in the woods and dug up a 4' balsam to transplant. At least this new tree is taller than thigh high.
Here's the new dock we've all been waiting for: 3 8'x4' sections, Titan (polypropylene) surface, 2 cleats, 2 4' vertical bumpers, and yes I did get the winch.
Cousin Dorothy arrives for a week.
Dorothy and I are fixing the sag in the new mailbox platform.
We're bolting a steel channel to the underside as a stiffener.
When I was in Bemidji yesterday I picked up some 1x8's for a little woodworking project.
It's Burney's 70th birthday today. Barb had a party for him with a bunch of neighbors invited.
Dorothy and I are almost done with this years joint project. It seems to me that most of my woodworking involves making boxes.
We're getting close now. This needs a knob on the door and some paint.
It remains to be seen if this will really be practical. I think I'm going to have to put an electrical outlet behind the microwave if it can't share one with the fridge.
3.6 lbs - 17 inches. I caught this one on the river just south of Trails End.
Dorothy flies back to Detroit. Now I need to motivate myself to get stuff done.
All painted and ready to go. I'll have one of the Baxter's move it down to the log cabin next week.
I'm at Aubrey's beach wedding in Saint Joseph Michigan. Quite the do.
The Baxter's drove up after the wedding. I flew back but they got here before I did. I spent a lot of time sitting in airports.
Out fishing with Calan, Matt and Alyssa - I scored a 5 pound bass by the narrows. I was just showing off.
The crew is fixing the outside light by the log cabin. First we want the good shade by the bent light at the top of the hill.
It was a group effort to unscrew the steel light post, lay it over (don't break the wires), fix the shade, new light bulb and then tip it up and screw it back in. Nicely done people.
Calan, Charley, Janet, Matt, Alyssa & Chuck head back to Denver. It's been a long time since they were here last. I'm glad they came.
This is one of the red pines that didn't make it. Sorry guy.
Here is his replacement. I'm trying something new with this one - I'm burying a small fish at the bottom of the hole. I've heard that this helps the tree for the first year. We'll see.
I saw a cute video of hummingbirds playing in a birdbath so I thought why not. The hummingbirds couldn't care less but goldfinches kind of like it.
I've finally started repainting the deck railing. This is primer.
I at least finished the deck railing. I still need to do the new stairs. I'm dreading all those spindles.
I went to a COLA meeting in PR this evening and afterwards I checked out the free concert. Main street was blocked off and there was live music. Nice.
Colorado & Texas relatives arrive: Andrew, Kaitlan, Brandon, Terri & Rob. The bass are in trouble now.
Rob is having just as much luck off the new dock as he is in the boat.
You've got to look close - this is the underside of the stairs primed. It wasn't too terribly hot this morning.
Rob & the boys moved the old dock over to the pothole. It's on the southeast corner for those of you who know the layout.
Lots of hummingbirds lately. They aren't suppose to leave for another month so maybe they're just hungry.
Chris arrives. He drove up this year by way of New York.
Departing: 1 flying to Houston, 2 driving to Midland & 2 driving to Denver. It was fun having you all here.
We've started work on the new car port. First: dig six holes.
Captain Chris. Single up all lines. Stand by to cast-off. Who stole my strawberries?
Car port construction (slowly) continues. Six holes dug. After much futzing about with tape measures and strings and stakes I believe they are in the correct position.
A rare rainy day. We're going to make some changes to the log cabin bath room we've been putting off for a while now.
Temporarily remove the medicine cabinet.
Wiring down here is a nightmare at best. We will at least get to remove some of the metal clad wiring.
We fished Romex over to the medicine cabinet and then down to the old outlet, which had to be expanded to accommodate a double box.
Here we have a new light fixture above the mirror with the switch down by the outlet. The side lights are gone.
Back on the carport. The three posts on the south side are now set in concrete - no more adjusting.
And here are the three posts on the north side permanently planted.
We need to cut them all to the same height. A chance to use a string level.
As it turned out I didn't need any special glasses or filters to view or photograph the eclipse today.
We've started to make the half-laps for the upper ring.
It still requires a bit of hand shaping. These 4x4s all have their own idiosyncrasies.
Also it is surprisingly tricky getting all of the half-laps oriented correctly. Kind of like getting the left and right sides of a drawer correct.
I replaced the water softener. It looks the same to me.
Progress! The top plates are on the posts and the ridge beam is up. Now for some rafters and reinforcing gussets on the corners.
Sometimes progress is measured in small units. Today we managed to put up 2 rafter pairs. I believe Tommy could do it faster.
Getting close now. The rafters are 4' OC so I would need to put a rafter between each of these if I ever decide to sheath it with plywood.
4.8 pounds - woohoo.
This is the year-end meeting of the mantrap looners (lunatics). 58 loons on the lake 25 nests 43 eggs laid 26 hatched 16 survived.
That's just about it for the carport (at least for this year). I'm glad I kept that old tarp from two years ago.
This balsam in front of the cabin is leaning precariously. If it falls it just might the catch the edge of the roof, so ...
... down it comes. I've missed all this cutting and hauling of trees. Not.
Here is the light post which was bent over in last years storm. I am going to move it. It's in two sections.
The lights are controlled with a pair of three-way switches. I do not want to lose track of where these wires go.
The upper section of the light pole was not bent too badly so I was able to pretty much straighten it out.
It was much more difficult than It planned to find the underground power line. I was deeper than I thought and it ran off in a different direction.
Here, at the top of the stairs is where the new light will be. A box in a hole ready for concrete.
I had a curved piece of 1 1/2" pipe to use at the bottom of the form.
With the base secured we can use the same braces we used for the car port posts to make the light pole vertical.
It took 4 1/2 bags of concrete to fill this form. Fortunately I had 1/2 bag in the garage left over from a previous project.
Here's a trench from the old light location over to the new location.
Here's the relocated light switch on the outside of the handrail.
Finished with the light. I know, there's still a slight bend at the base of the upper segment. Too bad.
Since construction is over it's time to clean up a little. I really should have taken a before picture so you can appreciate that this is indeed neater than it was 2 hours ago.
Chris heads back to Florida. (There was no damage to his house in Venice.) We got a lot done - thank you. I almost feel bad about beating him in the bass tournament.
I've seen no hummingbirds in several days now. I guess they're all half way to Mexico by now.
Another bad storm last night. The top of this big white pine next to the carport snapped off. I was afraid that if this guy uprooted it could hit the shed. That didn't happen.
The top of the tree scored a direct hit on the new carport. Broke the 2x6 ridge beam, 2 of the 4x4 rim joists and a few of the rafters. Also one post is a bit askew.
My weather app told me bad stuff was coming so I had my car in the garage. Chris, you got out just in time.
After a bit of clean-up and propping up broken and sagging members it looks like I can reuse some of the rafters. I'll need to replace the ridge beam and 2 rim joists and somehow straighten up one post.
An homage to one of my favorite old TV shows.
I figure that this is about where I was at the end of August. Since I've done this before it should go faster this time - right?
These wild flowers just decided to grow around the barrel. I think it looks nice in a sort of unplanned way.
The first replacement 4x4. It's going to be a challenge to get everything square and true again. Most things are off by 1/2" or 1/2 bubble.
The ridge beam is back up and bolted in place. This was a lot easier the first time (when Chris was here).
Alrighty then. The rafters are up and the missing gussets have been re-installed. I need to look at the old 12x20 tarp to see if I can use it. I'll get a new 14x20 tarp next year.
Log cabin is closed for the year - pipes drained and blown out. Oops, I forgot to put the anti-freeze in the drains. I'll remember to do that later.
The old tarp has a few large holes but it will just have to do for now.
The little wooden clippy things we made to hold the edge of the tarp worked great. They were all still attached to the tarp.
I needed to reattach the fascia boards before I try to get the tarp up on the roof.
Three ropes strung over the carport should allow me to pull it up and over.
This was surprisingly difficult but it did work eventually. It was very windy and the tarp keep getting caught up on things.
I'm not sure you can see it here but that's a skim of ice over my bird feeder this morning.
I'm not sure you can see it here but that's a skim of ice over my bird feeder this morning.
I'm going to try to pull the boat onto shore with the motor still on.
I used Chris to supply the muscle. This worked pretty well.
The motor is still very heavy but manageable with both feet on the ground. The boat and motor are stowed for the winter.
The new dock is safely stashed away. This was easier than the old dock but still took about the same amount of time. There were a few tricks to learn so I'll be better next time.
I bud capped the new pine trees. This will prevent deer from eating the tops of these guys. About 40% of the seedlings survived.
The foot on the hanging swing rotted away and broke. Next spring I'll decide if this is repairable or if this is firewood.
Packing up to leave. Will I remember everything this year? Even with a checklist it's still 50-50 if I'll do everything that needs to be done.
One last look back.