So What's New You ask?

I know, I know it's been a long time. It's so much easier to upload photos to Facebook so I have been doing that and neglecting this. I've been very busy between the kids, work and vacation. Thank God for that almost perfect weather last week or I would not be able to face winter, as the summer appears to be over after just two whole weeks. We were very lucky to be on vacation for one of those two weeks!

The steps are done and that's a gangplank at the end. This gangplank was modified from the previous owner's dock.

Me taking a refreshing float on a 95 degree day. The water was perfect!

I grabbed this shot of a blue heron on Fish Creek.

Doesn't he look like a ballerina?

Our vacation was stupendous, and we finished the future dock steps. While we were on vacation, we went to the Rennaisance Fair in Sterling NY. It was fun, and the people and costumes were wonderful.

Some dead Rennaisance men

The Queen's procession

The Joust!

A romantic poem is told in French followed by a translation. "Your eyes are fat" (said with a thick accent) was our favorite line. For the rest of the day we were all saying it.

Who are these charming people?

Black squirrel at the cabin

I am enjoying my job very much. Daniel even came to visit one day and my boss gave him the tour.
For the next two weeks, the kids are working at the Great New York State Fair as parking helpers. Apparently it pays well so it's a tough job to get. We knew someone and that's why they got in. This year there were about 400 applicant for 70 or so jobs (the figures may not be exactly right).

Stairs, No Knitting and Ducks

FINALLY we had a picture perfect summer day at the cabin. The boys continued on the stairs and I totally relaxed on the deck with a book, slipping in and out of refreshing little sleeps. We had a lovely dinner of goose stroganoff (yes goose) and retired early...but not before Mike got some wakeboarding in. He managed a 180 but says a 360 is not on the cards! The plan was to finish the steps Sunday but lo and behold, it was POURING Sunday. That was not the forecast either but it certainly came as no surprise to us ducks. Since it was miserable, we went home after breakfast. There was plenty to do at home.

click to enlarge

If anyone is curious I have been reading a lot and not knitting even though my 2nd sock will be finished in 20 minutes. Generally if I am on a reading stint I don't knit. Don't know why. But a coworker is having his first baby in February and I want to knit something special. I have a few projects lined up on Ravelry but my favorite one, a sweater with little sheep on it, is intimidating me a little. And since it takes me so long to knit anything, I better get spinning and knitting now. I would also like to knit one of those neat snowboarder's hat's with earflaps and a big tassle that droops off the side. I found a fantastic colorful pattern last year and promptly lost it.

The ducks are still with us I am happy to report and they are two males, not females as we originally thought.

July Vacation

The weather was not kind to us for our July vacation up at the cabin. It rained three days straight, so we got a lot of reading done. The sun decided to come out Saturday at 6 and then again Sunday as we left! It was out Monday and Tuesday as well but temps were unseasonably cool. Despite the cool weather, Mike taught himself to wake board. After a few attempts he was up and away. He has been working on jumping with the view to jumping the wakes and a possible flip (not something I want to see in the learning stages). Since he is a snowboarder, the motion is very similar but landing on a moving ody of water is much different than landing on hard packed snow.

Click to enlarge hugely:



Then Tom and Mike started the new steps that will lead to where the dock will be. We will be moving it from the heaved, 40 year old cement steps. They had some help from our neighbor Peter.
Getting ready to finish the third platform where the last set of steps will start and reach the stone shoreline.

Tom and Mike

Peter's wife Gail, has a few trained chipmunks. Check it out above.

And of course one of my favorite ducks, the loon, came to call. Literally.

Memorial Weekend at the Cabin

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Red Misty Morning

Ooops! Almost Flipping the Tube

Campfire Looking Down To The Lake

Jonboat as it pulls away from the dock

We arrived at the cabin to find the dock installed as we expected. We launched the little Jonboat at the nearby launch, then headed into Hammond to pick up the pontoon boat. That launch went without a hitch and Mike, Brent his friend from school and I drove the 15 minutes to our bay while Tom drove the trailer back. So now both boats are in and the cabin is truly open for the season. The weather was very nice, sunny and not too warm with temps hovering in the 70's. We love the Jonboat and it's much nicer than the previous vhull 14 footer we had. It's more stable and really flies. The kids took advantage of this as they puttered around all weekend and did some fishing. They got some tubing in despite the 65 degree water.  At night they built a fire and toasted marshmellows. Because Dan was playing and marching in the Memorial day Parade at home we had to leave at 6 AM Monday to be back in time to see him.

I started my second sock and am about to start the heel.

The Last Weekend at the Cabin

We're back from taking the boats and dock out and closing up the cabin. We are getting better at this as we had less stuff to bring back home and the dock removal was painless this year. Check out the ingenuity of this guy. He is the fella that sold us the dock.

a pretty but blurry sunset on the lake viewed from our deck

poles are removed and gangplank is "folded" over the floating dock

custom attachment seat and trolling motor "bracket"

pat drives the dock to the nearby boat launch

custom truck for easy removal of dock

all done! dock is sitting pretty on our parking pad where it sleeps for the winter

My son Dan drove home the whole way from Black Lake! There were a lot of firsts on this drive. Since we took two vehicles, Tom and Mike took the truck and Dan and I took the Kia. Dan drove on I-81 for the first time and he drove through the heart of Syracuse, also for the first time since we had to do some clothes shopping. He had to navigate across two very busy lanes to get off at the exit. That was a little scary (for me, not him!), but he was very calm and informed me that he loves driving in areas he has never been to. "It's an adventure," he tells me. It was also his longest drive to date, about two and a half hours. He also took the truck and drove the trailer for the little boat down to the launch before that. So all in all, it was a successful weekend. The weather was incredible for October! The leaves were at peak and it was sunny and mild and for the first time there was no wind the entire three days. The water was like glass and this is very helpful when removing docks and boats. We caught lots of Crappie, only the most delicious fish on earth, which had been eluding us all year. October is a very good month to fish at the lake.

Where Do They Get This Stuff?

Kids come up with the strangest stuff but it's oddly funny. I forgot I had this video to elaborate yesterday's photo of the hanging of the hand. In case you can't understand the captivating dialogue, Mike is saying "May the Lord have mercy on his soul", with a follow up from Dan, "Proceed". Clearly too much Henry the VIII stuff is lying around the house.



This gave me an idea though. Dan is thinking about having a Halloween party this year and he could send out video Halloween invitations. Heck everyone of his friends is online so why not do something different? And speaking of kids and technology, Dan's girlfriend got a new cell phone for college. It's amazing. It has a touchscreen pad, GPS, internet, full qwerty keyboard...basically everything but the kitchen sink. I will be reviewing it and giving a teenager's opinion on it soon, over at my gadget blog, Today's Gizmos. Come on over!

Chopper Dangler?

No guesses on the chopper dangler? Ok, well the outfit that owns the chopper was mapping tin and the dangling "net" actually is a great big magnet! Years ago lead was mined in this region and apparently tin and lead frequently occur together.

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).

A Few Seconds of Terror

You may have noticed a dearth of posts this past 10 days. Well I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack from a long vacation at the lake.
Pics and another dog horror story to follow. It seems as tho' the lake is bad luck for the dog sometimes. But all is well and it really was only a few seconds of terror.

Mummified

Anybody you know sleep like this?

This is my youngest son, snoozing on the couch at the cabin. How does he breathe in there? I cannot have anything over my face like that..... ever. I get claustrophobic. He looks sort of like a mummy in there doesn't he?

Bargains Where You Least Expect Them

The 4th of July weekend was great. I couldn't have asked for more perfect weather for a long weekend at the cabin. Our little bay on the lake had it's 2nd annual boat parade. The boats were decorated with flags and streamers. That's Mike in his little boat. He was behind us.

There was plenty of sunshine, not too hot, little wind...in a word, perfect. Dan's girlfriend came with us too. They were goofy.


When we arrived on Thursday, we set about getting dinner started
Then we threw in a dvd and got to bed early. For once they were very few projects to do over the weekend. But we did need to go to Ogdensberg and got gas for the boats and the car on Friday. That was painful. We stopped at Walmart for some fenders for the other side of the dock and "Mike's boat". Then we went to Lowe's in search of a nice table and chairs for the little deck. Now we had a $100 gift card from Tom's boss, and another 10% off for any Lowe's purchases. We found a lovely iron table


with removable ceramic 12 inch tiles. I loved the table and liked the idea of being able to replace the tiles if I got sick of them. Then we found 4 suitable faux wicker chairs. Tom asked the service desk if we could get another 10% off if we applied for a Lowe's credit card. The gal checked with her supervisor and said yes!

You can pretty much get a lower price or some kind of break if you just ask anywhere you make a purchase of a few hundred dollars. We have done it in so many places, so we know it works. On our way home we passed a closing out sale of stuff from an antique shop. As we got out of the car, the owner said everything is half off today. Oooh good I said since I'm always on the lookout for a good bargain. We needed a coffee table with a lamp for the cabin. There was a cabin wall light that drove me batty. I had to wear a baseball cap whenever I looked at the TV since the light always shone in my eyes! How much do you think we paid for this? It's looks good in the cabin I think. Definitely a best buy day for us! It does need a little more dusting though. It was $5! Should I take to Antiques Road Show?



Not one to miss out on his exercises, Mike did some chin-ups with his brother acting as the chun-up bar over the side of the boat. The water temperature was 75 degrees.

The Challenge of the Dock

We put the boat into the water finally up at the cabin in Black Lake. If you remember last year, the dock was all set up for us when we bought it. This was to be our first time putting it in, and getting it to the water was going to be the challenge. It was stored on the side of the hill all winter. The steep slope and weight of the dock, we knew, would be obstacles to overcome. But overcome them we did, even if it did take a few hours! Next year we will either rent a winch capable of handling all that weight or get come-alongs with longer cables. OR we may just trailer it down to the nearby launch and float it up which is what the guy who sold us the dock did. There is no market research out there on this particular set of circumstances.

We didn't choose the floating option because we didn't have another trailer. Now we do because we bought another boat! It was too good a deal to pass up. We bought it from our neighbor and we can store it there over the winter. It is a small fishing boat with a 10 horse 4 stroke (good on gas like the pontoon boat motor) and won't need a dock and can be launched off the shore. This is good for lots of reasons. The kids now have a boat and when the water gets too cold to be putting docks in and out of the water, we can still go boating on the lake with this little boat. We had been looking for something like this for awhile. I will have pics next week when we do the deed. In the meantime check out the dock lowering photos.

Dock was stored tied to this tree all winter having winched it up last Labor Day

Attaching come-alongs and s l o w l y lowering it down

lower

Lower still with boards at the ends to aid slippage

Almost there

Yay! paddling a few yards to dock area and we are done!

We got the ceramic firelogs going. Boy did they do the job. The cabin warmed up in a few minutes and it looks pretty too.

Did I mention a few water lines were broken? Yep so we replaced them with PEX which is much better because it expands, decreasing the chances of broken lines next year.

All in all it was a good weekend. The weather could have been about 10 degrees warmer though.