Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies
Eric has taken a day off work to pick up another 4,000 lbs of lumber for the dock project.
He is joined by Jared and Ryan to help unload and build for part of the weekend,
It’s Sunday morning and Eric is now running solo in putting on the deck boards. The new deck is starting to look quite massive compared to the original dock.
Hospital food comes in for a fair bit of criticism but in my experience it can be pretty good and sometimes interesting. Take the Burger with no Bun.
So this tray has showed up for a couple of lunches now. Ingredients for a complete hamburger, except no bun! Vary curious.
Pro TIp: Use the Miracle Wip instead of mayonnaise . I swear it make the burger taste a lot like Dairy Wip and other top burger spots around Winnipeg, well maybe not nuBurger ? but for sure the “fat boy” style of burgers.
My sister Gail flew in from North Saanich on Vancouver Island for a visit. It’s the first time we’ve seen each other in more than two year thanks to Covid and various health concern as on both ends. The primary trigger for the visit was a sudden change in The journey resulting in my hospitalization with some pretty serious issues.
Not only did she come for a wonderful visit with lots of deep and meaningful conversations but was bearing the above heart shaped shortbread cookies which are extremely delicious.
I love my sister and she loves me. ❤️
Caught this guy in the tree near the walkway to the cottage one morning.
There is a big crew down for the weekend. Eric, Des, Parker & Dane, with Len & Darlene. Jared and Eric’s friend Barret and Scott.
Crib #2 is the first to be rebuilt. During 2022 the high water caused it to separate under the water line and the top half floated off to be recovered and re-attached and levelled up to the new height.
Crib #2 to the shore needed a new concrete pad as the original crumbled away so Scott forms up a bit of custom work.
To mix the concrete the old wheel barrow is pressed into service. This wheel barrow has been at the cottage from the very start and I can remember it from my parents house for years before that. A bit of vintage equipment that gets a surprising amount of use.
The original Crib #1 needed to be totally replaced. It was built from railroad ties that were nailed and bolted together but over 40 years in the water took their toll and there was not much left.
While Eric and Scott are lining things up with Crib #2 and the shore, Jared is busy building Crib#1
The pile of rock in the foreground was emptied out of the old crib and will go back into the new crib. Lots of manpower involved everywhere in this project. Between the rocks and Jared you can see the old railroad ties from the original Crib #1
Once Crib #1 is built it is floated into place.
But the bottom of the lake was hiding some surprises that presented a challenge to getting Crib #1 into the desired place. This took quite a bit of time and the muscle power of all the guys plus the leverage of a 6′ iron bar borrowed from the neighbour to move a large rock.
Some of us were on the shore watching the young guys work on the problem. I was farther back with the camera.?
Next up is building and positioning the beams to connect Crib #1 to Crib #2
After a long morning the crew breaks for lunch prepared by Darlene & Des.
After lunch with the beams connecting Crib #1 & #2 in place, more beams and posts are put in to join the shore to Crib #1
By the end of the day all of the posts and beams are in place and some joists are being positioned. The crib work seems to get all the attention but there is a complex post and beam going along the shoreline to carry all the joists from the cribs.
Fabulous progress was made in a single weekend thanks to a very hard working crew. My heart felt thanks to all. ❤️
I think this would be somewhere beyond 1st World Problems.
Spending too much on jet fuel?
The E1000 GX is the ONLY aircraft that flies over 300 knots on less than 50 gallons of jet fuel per hour. Combine that with the thrill of a 4,000 feet-per-minute climb out, both achievable even when fully loaded with 1,100 pounds of passengers and luggage.
Now that’s Epic.
Jet fuel is currently $2.25/gal. I know eh! Shockingly cheap!
Still, flying this plane at 50 gal/hr is only $112.5/hr
A drop in the bucket compared to all the other costs of having a jet plane ?
Shirley & I are down this weekend and the weather is quite nice. In preparation for the crew coming down for the Father’s Day weekend, we spend quite a bit of time doing spring cleaning. I washed ALL the bedding down to the mattresses and Shirley does an amazing re-org of the kitchen.
At this point there has been a lot of deconstruction of the original dock that was built in 4 stages over 40 years as the cottage evolved. So, perhaps it’s time to record some dock history.
The original dock was a 40’ straight one across 3 cribs from the shore. The design was simple in keeping with the days. Cedar trees and railroad ties were used to build the cribs that were nailed and bolted together. The dock was to hold the 26’ Express Cruiser that my Dad owned for quite a few years.
However, one weekend a storm came in from the north and the water level was high causing the last two cribs being ripped off.Those beams and boards were repurposed to form the two boat ramps where the aluminum runabout and the sail boat lived for many years.
The original dock was also home to a storage box that housed the water pump systems. However this box was now floating/dangling on the end of the highly damaged original dock. This prompted me to build s small platform higher up on the shore (where the current “boathouse” is located with the box and contents located to a safe location.
Dock expansion number one was to build a 8’ wide deck from the front of the “boathouse” platform to the remaining original dock. This was it for many years.
Since the lake level can fluctuate up to 6’ the dock could be under water or high and dry with a big drop from the dock top to the water. This prompted what came to be known as the swim platform. The swim platform was a wedge of deck that was cantilevered part way down the original remaking crib of railroad ties. This provided a place where our young family could climb down to the swim platform and jump into the lake or launch on the kneeboard without a huge drop into the water. Also, for the older crowd, a good seat from which to dangle you feet into the lake. A ladder was built and attached to the top of the dock and the swim platform to climb more easily out of the lake.
The next dock expansion was to replace Crib #2 and expand the dock. Crib #3 never did get any action and is still siting there under the water half decomposed.
Much like what is happening now with Eric & I, I proposed this expansion to my Dad and he financed the project and I executed the work. The difference now is the dock/deck is much larger, all on one level with a more sophisticated solid build high enough to withstand very high water levels ?.
This expansion saw a 20’ x 8’ deck on beams from Crib #2 to the shore, then a 4’ x 10’ piece which then connected back to Crib #1 forming a horseshoe shape for a boat. Some years that worked, most years not, due to low water levels. Too low even for the 16’ aluminum Lund. From the horseshoe over to the 8’ wide section in front of the “boathouse” was decked and provided a decent sitting area. It retained this design until the high water levels of 2022 which with all the wave & wake action pretty much tore most of that apart.
Over the intervening years we “acquire” a pair of 8’ x 16’ floating docks that we rescued from the point. I watched them for a few years and nobody came to claim them so one weekend Eric, Len & I pulled them off the point and floated them down to our place. We bought enough styrofoam billets to float the worst of the 2 and we’re in business with two floating docks for about $300.
For several years one of them was a swim platform anchored off shore which had a nasty habit of escaping the anchor, necessitating retrieval and several more attempts at a better anchoring systems. I enjoyed it and seemed to be the primary user. A boarding ladder was attached, night lights so nobody hit the thing in the dark, carpet and a deck chair. On a wavy day the deck chair was quite a ride, on calm days, an excellent relaxation and suntanning spot.
Floating dock #2 was fastened by a rope system to the fixed dock to allow for some up & down movement and became a launch pad closer to the water level for the kayaks and canoe.
These docks were using old school styrofoam floats that had a habit of breaking up into foam beads if they rubbed on anything, which they did, and made quite a mess, also somewhat environmentally unfriendly. So one year all of the flotation was removed from one of the docks rendering it useless. This happened all without any discussion and no plans on how to make the dock float again. ?. I can’t seem to remember what happened in the end to this dock. I think it was disassembled and taken to the dump by the folks who sank it.
A few years transpire and the remaining styrofoam dock is looking sad and it’s time for a re-build. Currently environmentally acceptable flotation billets are purchased along with lumber & hardware to attach the billets and we once again have a fairly decent floating dock used for grandkids jumping in and out as well as kayak launching.
So much for the history of the dock. With the demolition of the old dock complete and the cottage ready for everyone coming down next weekend to start the build we’re ready for the big project for 2023, actually the biggest project since the cottage was built almost 40 years ago.
This is the start of the rebuild which is the deconstruction of what remains of the damaged dock.
Eric takes most of the week off to go down and pull the old dock apart in preparation for the rebuild. Old lumber is stacked up by size and re-use potential. Some lumber will be firewood, some with find a reuse in the dock or ramp.
