A Week at the lake

This year we planned a week at our lake place over the 4th of July. Arriving Friday before the 4th and leaving the weekend after we had 8 or nine days to hangout on the dock, work on projects and just enjoy the beautiful weather that summer in Minnesota can sometime deliver.
Indeed Minnesota delivered this year the weather was spectacular, sunny and warm daily highs in the mid 80s it was perfect to hang out at the lake. Early in the morning the weather was nice enough that we could sit on the deck and enjoy our breakfast and coffee while watching the deer troop through the yard.

One morning after breakfast we were sitting in the hot tub when a doe and her two fawns still with their spots on walked right by the window.
As it turns out the deer were on the other side of:
“The Great Flower Wars of 2010”
Every year Margaret plants flowers around the yard and they do quit well. However this year with the dear strolling though there daily, and an enormous population of chipmunks scrambling over everything, the flowers suffered.
Not too many people know that chipmunks like to eat violets. When we lived in our condo in Edina we had a chipmunk who we caught more than once in the pot of flowers chowing down on Margaret’s pretty violets. This year with so many chipmunks on our property they have discovered the violets as well.

The real damage is however done by the deer on Margaret’s Hostas in the flower beds.
h
Chewed down to the ground there is little left of the flowers other than this picture in Margaret’s imagination

This year we have no big projects planned as we did last year when we built the Garden house, but there are any number of smaller tasks that have been on our list for a while to get caught up on.
One of these has been Margaret’s goal of having a paddle boat to cruise around in on the lake. So after careful assessment of the paddleboat marketplace Margaret carefully selected a yellow Pelican from Reeds in Walker to ferry her around the lake
The Paddle Boat Arrives!

A incredibly powerful 2 horsepower people powered drive train has us skipping over the water in no time.

The crew of the Yellow Pelican hard at work:

How the crew gets paid after piloting the Yellow Pelican around the lake.

One of the beautiful summer days at the lake was spent on the roof of the coach. Every year you have to climb on the roof and inspect, clean and re-caulk the roof to keep it in good shape.

This year during this process I decided to repair the damaged air conditioner covers. When we bought the coach one of the covers was damaged by an apparent run in with a tree limb from the pervious owner. He tried to fix it but did a half ass job. He started to fiberglass the cracks and holes but never finished.

So after a trip to the hardware store in Walker to procure a fiberglass repair kit I’m out in front of the garage with the fiberglass resins and cloth bringing the old damaged covers back to life.

Once the holes and cracks are re-fiberglassed from the inside and hardened they need to be sanded smooth on the outside.

Then repainted so they now look like new instead of old and cracked

Another project that I had been putting off was taking apart the Fantastic Fans in the coach and cleaning them. The previous owner had neglected the fans because they have to be disassembled to clean. So early one morning I pulled them apart and cleaned them till they shined like new. (I can see why they never cleaned them before it was a bitch to do!)

After cleaning the fan and then Scott afterwards, we were off to Brainerd to sightsee and have lunch. We stopped in Pequot Lakes for lunch and a beer and Margaret had the best seat in the house.

“There is no rest for the wicked” they say and that must be the reason I find myself working all the time. Next on the list of projects was to repair the stuck awning over the door on the coach. It worked when we brought the coach home but stopped going out shortly after that.

It turns out after struggling with it for a couple of hours that water had leaked into the case around the motor and filled it up causing the lower motor bearing to rust. After pulling it apart and cleaning and greasing it, then drilling a hole in the plastic case for the water to drain in future, it functions again as intended

No vacation at the lake is complete without a water skiing trip around the lake in the sunshine, and here you see Margaret zipping handily around behind the boat enjoying the ride. (How did Scott get this picture if he was driving the boat?)

Afterwards celebrating the trip around the lake.

Even Margaret had some projects to take care of.

The payoff for a days hard work at the lake!

Back to the topic of no rest for the wicked. Because we have a well at the lake we seldom use the 12 volt pump on the coach. Testing all the systems on the coach this week revealed that the pump wasn’t working. So being the best & cheapest plumber that I know of I was the elected individual to repair the problem. Pulling the pump out of water bay of the coach and disassembling it to discover what was wrong was the order of the day.
Nothing really appeared to be wrong so after cleaning, reassembling and reinstalling the pump I was surprised to find it in perfect operating order. Whoa… am I good or what! I can fix things and I don’t even know what I did.

Over the years we have acquired a couple of ceramic dwarves that hang around our yard in the summer. Well to my surprise they appear to have been mating. Out of the blue another ceramic dwarf appeared on a rock near the deck one morning. (I’ll have to investigate birth control methods for dwarves)

One of the traditions of summer at the lake is the hammock. What you might not have known is how dangerous a hammock can be. Here you see demonstrated by a trained hammock professional how to enter or exit the hammock properly.

Here is the trained hammock professional’s response to my assistance or lack there of ,with the hammock (sorry I was busy taking a picture)

Summer at the lake is mostly about relaxing on the porch or the dock and enjoying the the day!

Pano from the Porch

Visitors for the Weekend

We have Friday off this weekend again. That’s getting to be a lot of Fridays off this summer. That’s OK though. I guess it comes with getting older.

I don’t think I related to you the story of the dented refrigerator from the last time we hauled it up to the lake. Margaret has always wanted a small refrigerator in the shed. Now that we have pretty much turned it into a Garden House it seemed like we should have that refrigerator. We found a nice one with a big freezer compartment for ice at the Menards store in Minneapolis so we purchased it. It was in a nice box and sat in the garage at the condo for a week or so until we loaded it in the jeep and hauled it to the lake. Upon getting it unboxed at the lake we found a nice big dent in the front door. Not good! Now it has to get hauled al the way back to the Menards store to be replaced.

So this weekend the replaced refrigerator makes it journey to the lake to find a home under the counter in the new Garden Shed where it can vend ice and beer for drinks and parties in the hot tub.

We also have visitors coming to the lake this weekend. Its my fathers birthday and usually once a year they make the trip to the lake. This seems like a good weekend to come. We can celebrate his birthday and they can see the new Garden Shed and hot tub.

Friday morning I stained the inside roof of Margaret’s new farmers porch before my parents arrived and then cleaned up. They arrived around noon and we sat on the deck and had lunch.

Since I wasn’t going to work too hard while they were here it seemed like it might be a good idea to put the new basement refrigerator and freezer in the coach. The new sliding basement tray had arrived and was waiting to be installed in the storage compartment. All it needed was a few bolts and spacers to install and then be wired into the 120 and 12 volt electrical systems. This shouldn’t be too much trouble and can be done from the deck while everyone sits around this afternoon.

The project starts with the big tool chest of sockets and wrenches. You have to be careful to open it right side up or all the sockets will get dumped on the ground when you open it, just like in the picture below.

Of course no project is complete without a trip to town for additional parts. This project is no exception and the bolts required to fasten the slide to the floor are no where to be found in the garage so off we go to the Ace Hardware Store in Walker for parts.

My mother managed to make a spectacular deal on a closeout set of Crocks for $4 at the hardware store. Here she is modeling her new purchase. I’m sure she will be the fashion queen in here neighborhood with these new shoes. Hey there 4 bucks what did you expect!

We managed to get the refrigerator slide in the coach and after a few drinks managed to retire to the hot tub for a soak and a continuation of happy hour!

So the big question is: Are they wearing swimming suits in the hot tub? This is a pretty wild crowd you know!

Hot tub parties are tiring

I did manage to get some work done on Saturday too. I did some electrical work in the shed and after the visitors returned from an emergency trip to Bemidji to repair a flaky cell phone we put up the eve troughs and had lunch.

In the afternoon my mother who is a big supporter of the Indians in Minnesota made her obligatory trip to Northern Lights Casio (just down the road) and donated so the poor Indians can have a better life.

Lately it seems we have been having problems with paddleboats, canoes and small water craft crashing on the rocky shore line of our lakefront. So Margaret solved the problem with a new light house to warn the boaters of impending danger!

The weather was nice for the weekend and the visit, the Indians were happy they got their contribution, and a good time was had by all.

April at the Lake

The middle of April can go either way at the lake. Often the ice is gone but farther up north there can still be ice until later in April or sometimes even May like last year. This spring has been fairly warm and this weekend looks like its suppose to be 70 degrees up north at the Lake so we are taking Friday off and heading to the lake ice or not. Most of the way up to our lake place the water was ice free, but as we headed north on the last stretch of road the small ponds still had some ice.
When we arrived at the lake is was nearly 70 degrees the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. After opening up and checking everything out a trip down to the lake revealed that we are close to ice out, but not quite. The ice is dark grey and mushy, but its still there. It should be gone by next week.

All along our shoreline was open, and a few strange looking ducks had taken up residence in the narrow stretch of water. I have never seen any ducks that look quite like these, all white with a dark head and back.

Apparently I’m not the stealthy wildlife photographer that I think I am because as I was trying to sneak down to the lakeshore behind a big pine tree to get a better photo they took off winging their way over the grey ice.
Later research indicates that they were Common Mergansers a diving duck that hangs out all over the North America

With the sun shining on the lake shore and 70 degree weather it was a great place for a class of wine for happy hour.

We sat on the shore until the sun disappeared behind the trees watching some little crayfish scuttling about in the water looking for a meal

Dinner was grilled salmon and sashimi tuna along with a baked potato.
As always the first couple of days at the lake in spring are consumed with cleaning and repairing the effects of the long winter. Raking leaves and hauling them into the woods for disposal make the grass grow better in the summer.

It wouldn’t be the lake if Margaret didn’t want some rocks moved around.

I also started the big diesel engine in the coach for the first time since last November. I was expecting trouble, but the engine cranked right over and started immediately! I also fired up the diesel generator and let it run for a while to exercise it.

Then out into the woods I went with the big chain saw to drop a dead jack pine tree that could eventually fall on the neighbors house.
Here you see some work by the world famous videographer Margaret.

I had just a bit of a problem with it wanting to fall the wrong way so I had to use a wedge on the back cut, but it ultimately went down in the right direction. Then it had to be cut up.
There is still a couple of smaller dead ones in the same area, but they can wait till another time. They will require ropes and a hand wench to get them to fall in the right area and not hit an electrical wire or a house.

One more Jack Pine down. One lawn wheel to fix. Is there no rest for me?

Here comes the rest. Lovely Margaret the world famous videographer has been looking out for me and provided refreshments and chair in what was left of the sunshine for Saturday afternoon. I guess moving rocks pays after all.

All in all it was a good weekend. We got some work done and that puts us that much closer to a relaxing summer at the lake this year. ….Ya Right that will never happen!