Back at the lake for another summer. I'm late this year and it's still cold and drizzly.
All the mechanical stuff is up and working: water, electricity, DirecTV, Internet. It's been three years since the big blowdown and I'm still shocked by the lack of trees.
I just left the tarp on the carport over the winter and it survived nicely.
Dock in and ready for a boat - later. This is still not as easy as the sales video indicates.
The ducks are back in the water where they belong. They all got new tethers this year.
I need to change the oil in the engine and the lower unit. I still cannot do the lower unit without making a mess of it.
I'll be ready for fishing soon.
I got 10 little white pine seedling this year. Someday someone might enjoy a nice tall white pine tree or maybe a deer will enjoy it next winter.
Here's one planted just south of the hill house replacing that 3' tall dead balsam I transplanted two years ago (6/15/2017).
I'm going to try to reopen the walking path from the cabin to widow's point again. This view is mostly done looking north to hill house.
This is "to do" looking south. If I can get to the tree line the rest will be easy. If this looks familiar it's because I did this before back in September 2016.
First hummingbird. There was an oriole here earlier but they're harder to get a picture of.
The wooden foot on my Puller Bear rotted away. Here's a new one.
This is the only thing I know of that can rip these scrub oaks out by the roots.
1..2..3..4..? I'm down a duck.
It was in the low 30s last night but I'm betting the life of these impatiens that that was the last cold snap.
At last a nice warm, sunny day. There are even a few lily pads starting to reach the surface. And the bass started to bite - this is one of four.
Five swans a-swimming.
I was unable to get my old printer to work this year after leaving it sit all winter. New printers are so cheap now that they're almost a consumable - not much more than the ink.
85° today and sunny. I think it's hot enough for me to mow.
The path from the house south to widow's point is passable. I'll need to take clippers with me when I walk it to keep it that way.
Have I mentioned that there are a lot of ticks this year? I'm treating my socks, jeans and work shirts with permethrin.
The log cabin is back in business: nothing broken, water is on with no leaks, no mice.
Almost no leaks. The shower faucet wouldn't stop dripping. Menatds in Bemidji had a replacement cartridge which fixed it right up.
It's a cool day today so this is a good time to address the badly pealing paint on the top railing of the deck.
Well I can see a difference! This is just paint, no primer this time, so I'll see how this holds up. I used primer last time I did this and it didn't do all that well.
These lilacs I planted a couple of years ago produced a few flowers this year.
What have I begun? I've start prepping the log cabin for staining.
These are the tools for cleaning the log cabin: pressure washer, TSP, stiff bristle brush, latex gloves and yes a step ladder.
All finished. That's a days work that only took a week. I think that's pretty good.
As long as the pressure washer is out I might as well do the boat house too.
I know it's impossible to tell but the prep work is done and this is a fresh coat of Tudor Brown paint on the north side of the boat house.
I'm using this trick (cheat) on the trim - I paint the side the same color as the field and then just paint the surface of the trim the accent color. Much easier.
Finished! I don't think I'll need to do this again for a few years.
I have a new tool to help me keep the path to Widow's Point from getting too overgrown.
It works pretty well - certainly better than carrying hand clippers with me.
Phase 2: log cabin This is the north side of the bedroom addition done (at least the brown portion). The northern exposure doesn't take much of a beating so one coat will be fine.
Mysteriously, about 3 weeks ago all of the hummingbirds disappeared - all of them. Now, just as mysteriously, they have returned. There were 7 here a moment ago.
Dorthy arrived today. I wonder if she likes to paint?
I got a print of a mantrap sunset painting at the last lake association meeting. We are going to turn a 5' oak 1x6 into a picture frame. Why not?
Table saw, router, spindle sander, nail gun, and palm sander. The point is to use as many tools as possible.
Here's a chance to use the biscuit joiner to reinforce the corners.
The heat finally eased up - mid 70s today - big sigh of relief. (Dorothy insisted.)
Here's the finished picture.
That's not me up there on that ladder that's a neighbor, Ron Harlow, who I hired to help stain the log cabin.
While Ron is back at the lake staining Dorothy and I are in Itasca State Park having lunch at the Douglas lodge ...
... and at the headwaters of the Mississippi river to prove that I can still leap across these stones like I did 65 years ago.
Dorothy and I moved stuff in the shed outside so we could sweep it out.
We also built another tooby storage thing out of an old sonotube.
Cleaner. And we did throw away some unneeded stuff Chris - less clutter.
Dorothy flies back to Detroit.
Log cabin completely stained. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.
The Denver/Houston crew has arrived.
The big boat just barely ekes through the reinstalled gate at the head of the road but we still have a large turnaround space left over from the salvage loggers.
Brandon has the biggest bass so far this year - 5.3#.
Finally installing those telephone poles on the shoreline to help keep from undercutting this tamarack tree.
Andrew, Brandon and Kaitlin heading back to Houston - 1364 miles.
They are also taking the boat with them to Texas. That's a long way to pull a big boat.
Rob and Terri are also decamping - heading back to Denver. Sorry to see them all go.
Bad storm last night. Fortunately all the trees around the cabins have been pre-stressed so no damage there. This was the biggest of the ones across the road.
I decided to use the peevee to just roll this off the road rather than cut it up into chunks that I can carry. Only three trees down that required the chainsaw.
This is the Fischer's place. It looks worse than it is. The trees came off with no trouble and there is only one small grapefruit sized hole in the roof .
The Vlcek place also has a dramatic looking tree down but this too is not so bad, it's hung up on another tree and not on the house. Still this will take a professional with a bucket truck.
I've added Houston to the Mash sign.
I drove to Beloit WI this weekend for Taylor and Casey's wedding. Clearly the event of the summer.
Fishing with Burney today: 4 pound bass. (Brandon still has the biggest bass I've seen this year.) We came in early because it's cold and raining.
Looks like it's going to be an early fall.
Somehow a sunflower seed got past the birds and the squirrels. Even this hummingbird is amazed.
It was a surprisingly nice day so I'm out fishing with Burney. Did we catch fish? As I said, it was a nice day for a boat ride.
Some of my new trees are big enough that they need wire cages. This tree may need to be bud capped also - this looks like I'm showing the deer where to stick their snout.
Closing the log cabin. I pressurize the water system to about 40 psi and then open all the valves one at a time.
Burney and I went fishing today and we caught 8 nice bass - 2 over 3 pounds and 1 over 4 pounds. Instead of showing you pictures of me holding up fish I'm showing you a picture of where we caught them.
It's been about a week now without a hummingbird sighting. Even though it is unseasonably warm it's time to put this feeder away for the year.
Weekly Tuesday fishing trip with Burney in his boat, overcast and blustery but a good day. I got 3 nice bass just under 3 pounds (yeah) and 2 big northern pike at 30" (boo).
This spruce does not look very sturdy. I'd just leave it except it looks like it just might hit the yard light. Probably not ... what are odds?
Safely down. The way it fell it may well have hit the yard light without the ropes.
Bringing in the boat. I use the winch to drag boat and motor out of the water.
This is the second pull to get it better lined up with the boathouse.
Getting this motor off the boat and into the boathouse is still the biggest challenge.
Getting the boat (and ducks) inside is not too difficult.
I drove to PR and parked at Walgreens (that's me on the right). Imagine my surprise when I looked back and saw this - what are the odds? I think there are only two of us in Hubbard county.
Finally a nice day: not too cold, not much wind and it's not raining. Let me get the dock in (or out?) while I can.
Snow this time of year is not really unusual but still ...
Packed up, closed up, I'm out of here. It was a good summer, not as many bass as I would have liked but still, a good year.