Vacation 08 and Rascal's Barbed Tongue

Background and Related Posts:
Lake Cabin Posts- How it all started, projects and fun

The weather this year was not nearly as good as last year but we still had fun. And unlike last year we did not have any huge projects to complete. In fact we took the left over Trex decking from the big deck project of last vacation, cut it down into a 3x4 deck, and replaced the ugly one that was by the front door. That was it for cabin projects. Tom did "trick" out (Mike's words not ours!) Mike's boat with rod holders, and a battery and bilge pump. Bilge pump you ask? This is because Black Lake is at it's highest level in four years. The water level rose over a foot since we were there only ONE week previously! I am so glad we have a floating dock because those that didn't, had to raise their docks significantly. For some setups this is a royal pain in the tush. Now Mike's boat was stored on a trailer pulled up onto the rocks by the dock when we aren't there. But my fear was that if the water rose any higher, the boat would start to float, and with nothing holding both ends of the boat to a dock it would swing around and whack the motor on the rocks. Either that or it would sink, since the plug is out. If you put the plug in and keep it in the water next to the pontoon boat on the dock it will fill with water and sink if it is very rainy and we don't make it up there for a few weeks. Hence the bilge pump, which automatically pumps out water when it reaches a certain level. And you need a battery for the pump, so we installed that. The nice thing about having a battery is the motor has an electric start, so it's press the button and go. "Totally pimped out, sweet ride." Why can't we simply pull the boat farther out of the water? If you saw the property you would know why, so this was really the best option.

Mike caught some Crappie, some Blue Gill, and this:


Yes it's a fishing rod! While his friend Dean caught this 14.5 inch small mouth bass.


Dean's family, the Hills threw a little birthday party for him as he turned 14 on the 29th. (Dan was 16 on the 31st but was in the Outer Banks the same week and I haven't seen him yet.)

The Hills, a friend and us, minus Gary, at their house on the lake

Mike got a new skate board and a some typical teenage maladies: girls and acne. Girls are incurable but we used the acne treatments that Dan used at his age and they seem to help.

On overcast rainy days we played chess and read a lot. I finished a great book that I previously mentioned called "The Autobiography of Henry the VIII" which I will talk about in another post.

Tom and Mike played some tennis. We saw the guy who sold us our dock, play in a bar in Ogdensburg. He is an was excellent guitarist. We went to see The Dark Knight at the movies and let me tell you, the Joker was fantastic. Heath Ledger was such a good actor and I wouldn't be surprised if he got a posthumous academy award for that part.

Rascal kisses all fish

And speaking of Rascal, well he did it again....got himself into trouble and let the whole lake know it. I was up in the cabin and Tom had just come back from fishing in Mike's boat. Rascal was with me. He ran down to join Tom. I heard Rascal scream and knew instantly what must have happened. Tom had laid the rod in the boat against the side in preparation for carrying a bunch of gear out. Rascal must have stepped on the rod, which flung the lure that had three hooks on it, onto rascal. A hook got him on the ear and another on his tongue, so he was stuck to his ear by his tongue and was screaming bloody murder. Tom shouted up to get a wire cutter and call the vet. Within a few minutes he had extricated both hooks and all was well. No blood and amazingly Rascal knew Tom was trying to help him and didn't bite him. I didn't need the vet and Rascal doesn't go anywhere near fishing poles anymore. Usually there isn't an opportunity for him to get so close to a rod but in that split second during transfer of gear, he stepped on the rod. It could have been a lot of worse. I am thankful it wasn't.

This helicopter was flying around the lake all week at a very low altitude. Any ideas what it was doing? I will tell you in a future post if you can't guess (click to enlarge).