This is the part under the rear boat seat that is suppose to slide and swivel. The wood breaks under the strain from the seat so I'm going to try using 1/4" steel.
The steel plate is 12" x 12" and the boat seat is 11 1/4" wide. I need to remove 3/4" off one side of the plate.
I need to drill a bunch of 7/32" holes in the steel so I can screw down the seat swivel and the hold down brackets.
After drilling the holes I need to tap in thrads for the #12-24 bolts .
Since the steel plate is thinner than the original wood I need to adjust the four hold down brackets. Upper is original and lower is new.
Pretty much done here. I just need some rust-proof paint and I think this is boat-ready.
Now it's ready. The bolts have been ground down to the right length and the steel has been painted.
I even glued a plastic sheet on the bottom to help it slide on the bench.
It's a late spring. Here we are in May and the road is still not open.
At last, back at the cabin. You might be able to see slushy ice still on the lake.
Another tree across the road. I hope it's not going to be another one of those years.
Dinner with Trish (behind the camera) and Barb and Burney (who just arrived today).
There was another tree down across the road on the way back to the cabin.
The dock and the ducks are in the water. The ducks are easy. Since I now have running water in the boat house I had no excuse for not pressure washing the dock.
First humming bird of the season.
After some heavy grunting the boat is in the water and, I hope, ready for fishing. Please note: that's the new rear seat swivel Geoff and I built over the winter. It works perfectly.
Breakfast at La Pasta this morning with Burney and Bill Mills. The extra is chair is for Chris.
Oh, there was a BIG bear on the deck yesterday evening but I wasn't fast enough with my phone to get a picture.
First day fishing with Burney. It was windy so we went to mirror bay where we both caught 2 bass and a bunch of crappies and blue gills.
The water is on in the log cabin - no apparent leaks. I continue to clean up the Asian beetles which will probably be an issue all summer.
I'm going to have gutters put up around the rest of the hill house. Water now drains right on top of the A/C unit. Most of the facia just needed to be scraped and painted.
This inside corner however will need to be replaced. I'm hoping to be able to just replace a foot on each side.
This is a bottom drawer from the workbench. Mice built a large nest in here over the winter and it was stained and stank of mouse pee. Washed, sanded, primed and painted.
I was able to remove a foot of facia on each side. I needed to use the reciprocating saw for one side.
Almost done. I'll let the caulk dry overnight and then give it one more coat of paint. Then I can put the ladder back in the garage where it belongs.
Okay, I think I'm done here now. A final coat of paint on the facia and as long as I had the ladder here I though I might wash the window and as long as I'm working on the window I might as well scrape and paint it too.
The bear was back on the deck this morning. I shooed him off before he did any damage to the bird feeders. Here he is considering his options.
This porch pine has been here for a year and has lost all it's needles.
The birds just want a place to sit but they're getting a new tree anyway.
I got 3 lilac bushes back in 2017 and they all seemed to being doing well until last year when one of them died. Burney dug up one of his and gave it to me.
Everything is late this year. Here we are in June and this is the first time I've mowed the grass.
I think (hope) that we are done with cold nights so I'm leaving this jade plant outside for the summer.
This is Burney holding the bass mug. When I catch a bass while fishing out of his boat I get to drink coffee from it after our trip. That mug has not seen a drop of coffee so far this year.
We now have a bass mug I can use when fishing out of my boat. Take note: I am drinking coffee out of this mug today.
Big Mantrap Lake Association meeting this morning. We continue to be concerned about AIS. (Be vigilant.) Loons got a late start and while there are not as many eggs as last year it's still a respectable number.
I received my annual T-shirt from Dorothy. Not only is it good looking, I wore it while fishing today and caught 3 bass. A coincidence?
This is the dish for starlink which I installed last summer. Download speeds hover around 100Mbps. I've canceled the DSL line (<10Mbps).
This is the dish for DirecTV. Since I have such fast internet now I've canceled DirecTV and am using YouTube TV with Amazon fire TV.
I got this adaptor which should let me remove to DirecTV dish and move the starlink dish over to the same roof mount.
It's always something up here, isn't it? This is water in the log cabin bathroom. A worse case scenario is a leak in the water pipe behind the wall.
Or, it might be this. The drain plug at the bottom of the surface well has rusted out and is leaking, flooding the floor. Water might be seeping over to the south side causing the standing water. No water in the cabin until I get this fixed. (The pump was installed in 1989.)
Wild night: wind (tornado sirens) and rain (1 1/2"). Luckily only one tree across the road and even luckier it was a birch instead of a balsam.
Water is back on in the log cabin.This needed a 1/2" tap to clean out the threads and then this new stopcock with a longer body to reach past the damaged treads. Also I can now drain this by just opening the valve.
Since i've already painted some the white facia and trim I'll continue with some of the windows that are in the worse shape. This is the screen for the kitchen window over the stairs.
I know what you're thnking, this looks like a jerry-rigged death trap. In actual fact this scaffolding is rock solid.
This is the hill between the hill house and the boat house. I stopped mowing this 4 years ago and I kind of like it. I'm thinking that maybe some more the yard that I mow should be left to fend for itself.
Dorothy arrived today.
This is one of the shed doors I made in 2008. This is probably at the end of its life.
I thought I might be able to salvage some part of this for the new door. I was wrong. This whole thing is destined for the burn pile.
We had lunch at the Douglas Lodge in Itasca.
After one false start we now have a frame for the new door.
This is me routing a 3/4" rabbit to accept a frame insert.
It's been a couple of months since I posted a picture of me with a bass so here we are. This is proving to be an really tough year to get these guys,
Dorothy and I are still plugging away on the shed door. I was able to reuse a few of the T&G 1x6 boards from the old door. Now there will have to be some fine tuning to get this to fit properly in the openning.
This isn't done yet. There's still plenty to do (besides painting) but at least I can close up the shed and clean up the garage.
Dorothy flies back to Detroit. Thanks for your help on the shed door and all the laughs. We always have a good time when she visits.
Offical mantrap loon count this morning:
Adults - 52
Juneviles - 19
I've moved the pump in the log cabin outside. No pipes in the wall and easier to winterize and (hopefully) quietier. I will want to build a enclosure around this .
This also frees up space in the utility closet for a water softener. My question is why didn't I do this 10 years ago?
Back to the shed door. When Dorothy and I built this we left a lot of stuff for post-processing. It's now time for post-processing: sanding, trimming, picture framing the inside to cover up gaps. striker plate,
And, of course, painting.
Almost done. I still need the slide lock on the top, the sweep on the bottom and a 5/16" dowel to fill in the pocket screw holes.
We still struggle to catch bass but today Burney landed a 4.3lb monster.The way things are going this may prove to be the biggest bass of the year.
I'm back on the shed door correcting an error that I thought I could live with. Evidently not.
So, the error has been corrected and I'm pretty much back to where I was two weeks ago.
Fischer's annual block party tonight. 20 or so neighbors having a great time.
A porch pirate this evening. He didn't even wait for it to get dark.
A new toy - roomba. I have high hopes that this will help with the dead bugs that keep showing up in the log cabin. We'll see.
Andrew and Crystal snd friends arrived EARLY this morning from Houston.
Andrew and I are working on the framework for the pump enclosure by the log cabin.
Now it needs sheathing and a roof. That's a problem for another day.
Andrew and Crystal head back to Houston with the kids. It was really good to see them.
Chris arrived today. He appears ready to go fishing.
We're taking down a big dead birch near the log cabin. Hauling these logs up the hill is coming pretty close to being work.
Started work on the pump enclosure again. Putting 1x8 car siding over the framework that Andrew made.
New storage cabinet in the log cabin replacing the vererable old 50s style metal rolling cart.
Continuing work on the pump enclosure. One more row of 1x6 added. We don't work fast but the scribing to the logs is pretty good.
We're getting close now. One more roof board and then shingles and then paint.
I finally screwed up enough courage to mount the starlink dish on the old DirecTV mast. The occasional obstructions from trees are about the same.
Fishing and then dinner at the Fischer's.
Pump shed is finally finished. This was a collaborative effort, thanks to Andrew and Chris.
Dorothy sent new pictures for the log cabin. This is a montage going on the south wall by the ladder.
A nice picture of the log cabin from the lake. This was from back when we had trees. Remember?
Two shots of the lake from in front of the cabin.
The north wall now.
No hummingbirds for several days now (sigh). Time to store this feeder away until next spring.
Bass Tournament
Bill 23.8 (13)
Chris 17.0 (8)
Final Score
Chris flew home today. I forgot about the departure picture until after he cleared security so this is him in the glassed in waiting area. Sorry to see him go.
Now I need to split the logs we got from that birch tree we cut down three weeks ago.
I closed up the log cabin today. It still takes me a couple of hours. The pump is outside so that's a bit easier but now there's a water softener to deal with.
Winching in the boat. It's not too windy or cold or rainy. I thought about waiting but then thought again.
You'd think given the number of year that I've done this it would get easier. You'd think.
Last day of fishing with Burney. While we didn't catch any bass it was a perfect fall day.
The pump is drained, the dock is in as are the ducks. I never did find that 4th duck that went missing.
This is the last Friday breakfast with "the guys" until next spring.
I took my sweet time with this but I finally finished slpitting all the logs from that birch tree we cut down.
It's just a dusting be it is the first snow of the fall.
One last look around ... and I'm out of here. It's been a good summer.
Richard Ronnebaum drained the pipes and closed up the hill house.