It's Jason's fault! He led me astray yesterday so I didn't get a chance to post. Nothing more to say about that, Sis.

Last evening.




While bringing Jason to the cabin, we came across this mother ruffed grouse doing the "lame duck" thing to protect her babies.


A black butterfly.


This garter snake was hanging out under my truck.

These pics are for Cathy, my favorite after Shirley. Just to let her know that we do get some bad weather here too. Funny, it seems that the poor working stiffs bring it with them on the weekends. May be if everyone quit working we would always have nice weather. We had a pretty good thunder storm last evening. These pics are blurry from rain, not fog.





Just getting ready for nephew Jason's visit. he should arrive in North Bay sometime around 8 pm, so we'll get home around 9.

Cruising the lake yesterday afternoon.


Lately, I've had this common merganser, a fish duck, flying circles around the cabin.
She will circle for ten to fifteen minutes, quacking her head off.


In this pic, she almost smacks into a tree and has to use crash avoidance maneuvers.


A better approach this time.


The only thing I did yesterday was to remove the old water line from the lake and coil it up. And since today is such a nice day with out too many bugs, probably not much will get done today. Maybe I'll tan my buns so that I can go around incognito.

While I was out cruising last evening, a boat hailed me over. It was Frank Smith, a guy from the place that used to pay me. He had retired a couple years before me.

This is what all the well dressed gardeners are wearing this season. Is it male or female? Are they from this planet? Do they have a big butt? Is it worth the effort to find out?


Another sun set from Frasertown.


Sun set in the narrows.


Since today is Sunday, ha ha, I'm taking a day of rest, so nothing to report.

Last evening.


Light fog at 6:30 am


Here's another momma merganser and her brood off the dock.


This small mouth bass hung out around the dock for a half an hour. He could obviously see me and would scoot off when I moved, but always came back.


This afternoon.


With all the work that I've done the last week or so, I thought I would lighten the load today. I changed the oil in the generator and lawn mower. Then I mowed. I HATE mowing. As I said to Linda yesterday, if you told a farmer to plant a crop, work on it every week, but you couldn't eat it or sell it, the farmer would call you nuts. That's when I remembered that Jack is a retired farmer, and he has mowed his lawn three times already. When we bought this property, one of the things that I liked the best was that there was not one blade of grass. But over the years, the Devil's seed has blown in from other cottagers planting lawns. It now takes about an hour to mow.

6:30 am


I forgot to mention yesterday that there was no sign of beavers at the dam. I think that the current was too strong for the little guys. I worked for about two hours throwing rocks and sticks into the holes and slowed the water down a bit. I went back this morning and the beavers had been at work last night.


I gave the beavers a hand, that's what neighbors do you know, for about three hours and slowed the leaks down quite a bit. Hopefully they can finish the parging themselves. I left lots of branches for them.


I had gone down there with all the plans and tools I needed. Shovels, saws, chest waders, etc. I also took Kita's chain. It's hard to call back a deaf dog in an area that he is unfamiliar to. I beached the boat on one side of the dam, but the only tree to tie Kita to was on the other side. While crossing the dam, Kita made me slip off; I didn't need the chest waders after that.

We had a sun dog about three this afternoon.


Here's a finch for K-man.

Last evening.


Kita watching the mergansers.


This morning I filled in the trench. I haven't put the sod back yet, I'll wait a day or two to let it settle. After lunch, Kita and I went to pay a visit to the dam busters but they weren't in, so we decided to check out the dam.

The pilot doing his thing on the river.


On the way we met a momma and her chicks.


They put two holes in the dam.


The water in this hole has eroded the bottom down about two more feet. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It is kind of amazing that a whole lake can drain eleven inches in one week through such small looking holes. It's probably a good thing that the bad guys weren't here, maybe I'll settle down before can I get my hands on them.

Threatening skies last evening.


It was cool enough that Kita almost had to cover his nose.


I finally had to light a fire today. Every time I sat down, George would jump into my lap. Here he is fat and happy.


It was a cool, damp day, so I did some laundry and baked some bread. Sorry Shirley, I didn't bake my buns, but I will for the next soiree at the Lube and Grill.

I found out who broke the dam, the water is still going down. Tomorrow I'll have a shot, I mean a chat with them.

7 am. 1.8 degrees and not a bug in sight.


We haven't gone for a boat ride since Thursday, Kita is impatiently waiting.


I did a little clean up this morning and took the rest of the day off. Yup, even old retired guys need a rest. The new water system works great. I guess I don't need these any more.


So, what do old retired guys do when they take a break? They go supervise other people. Like most retired guys, I have a wealth of experience. If there is a wrong way to do something, I've done it. Not too much going on over to Frasertown, except Trailer park Dan converting an attached garage into a living room. He was already being supervised by his missus, so I left them to it. Next stop, Tomiko Dan's to check up on his block layers. They had already quit for the day, so I couldn't keep an eye on them. Next stop, the Birkby's. Jack already had his new chimney in, so nothing for me to do there.

Tomorrow I might fill in the trench.

Dan's blocks.

Two posts today.

Last evening.


Fog this morning. I know you folks from the "Passage" won't be impressed, but we are 1117 miles from the ocean.



TADAAA!

All done and no leaks yet. Well, there was one, just a little drain cock on the part assembled by the cottage water supply guys, so no biggie.

Looks a little complicated, doesn't it?


Close up on all the bells and whistles.


I think that I'll build a rail around it because it's close to a door and I wouldn't want somebody who was tired to fall into it.

Blogger troubles again last evening.

Wednesday evening.


6 am yesterday.


Yesterday afternoon.


Kita watching for rocks while were going through the narrows because the water is getting lower. My boat is now almost lower than the bottom of the dock. If it gets any lower, I hope whoever broke the dam comes over to help me drag the boat into the dock.



Yesterday I had planned to test the system up to the pressure tank. But, yeah that cloud again, the valve I have has a drain on it and I didn't notice when I bought it that the drain plug was missing. Luckily I did notice before I installed it and made a mess. Jack went to town and picked up a plug for me. So, hopefully I'll have it up and running today.

7.8 degrees this morning with fog on the lake. The battery died in my camera this morning, hopefully it will recharge before the fog lifts.

Jason; White.

Cathy; Nope, not linked to email. I'm afraid John would be out gunned in a battle of wits.

Blogger troubles again, remember: it's free!

2 shots at 5:45 am, thanks again, Kita.





Mid morning.


Mid afternoon.


I got the water and power lines and the heat tape inside the 2 inch pipe today. The lobster buoy on the left marks the pump. The other float is just holding a rope that I used to drag the pump out. I have never seen the deer flies so bad. I had to wear the bug jacket, even when I went into the water. Tomorrow I'll make the connections in the cabin and test it out. I also have to check the trench to make sure that it is sloping towards the lake.


On Monday, the water was touching the bottom of the dock.


Note to Cathy: Yup, I saw the comment, and agree with the logic, more bang for the buck. I haven't forgotten about the blogger stuff. I'll get to it after I finish drowning myself with this water system. By the way, would John be gnomish or ghoulish? Or maybe foolish? Sometimes, I make myself break up!