The 1st day of summer is here, was here, and has come and gone.
The Prep Work
Every year we go through the prepping for summer tasks. Getting the boat and Sea Doos out of storage, filling the gas cans, moving furniture from storage to the deck, to the lake front patio and to the firepit. Its not the prep work that we look forward to, its what we are prepping for, summer glorious glorious summer.
Repositioning the Dock
One of the extra tasks this year was moving the dock after the high water flowed out of the lake. We are positioned as the headwaters of the Carrot River system. Any water that flows over the dyke at the far end of the lake flow into that river. This year, with heavy snow, late thaw, and a couple of May snow storms, water levels began about 12″ – 15″ higher than normal. I had help in late May putting out the dock and the boat lift. It was my hope, without any real knowledge to base that hope on, that the dock would be good for a few months, until it inevitably would need to be moved out from shore as the water levels drop.
Later came sooner. I went out to the cabin, solo trip, to spend a few days. Shortly after arrival, I discovered the front Sea Doo not floating but with the nose end resting on the shore.
Solo trip = solo effort to move the dock. I had this all worked out in my head, how two of us were going to do it. I decided to give it a shot.
- move the Sea Doos out of the way
- remove the aluminum channels
- remove the deck board sections
- think, think, think
- unbolt the far 2 sections from the mid-section (I left the deepest 2 sections connected)
- think, drink a beer
- use float barrels to hold the deepest legs above the lake bed and marvel at the ingenuity
- position the deepest sections
- bolt on the mid-section
- drink a beer
- remove the float barrels
- pull out ramp section #2 to the mid-section
- take ramp section #1 out from under the cabin deck and connect to ramp #2
- take a break, until tomorrow
- pour a whisky and pat myself on the back for being 80% done
- put the decking panels back on
- reattach the aluminum channel
- put the Sea Doos back
By the time it was all done, probably about 3 to 3-1/2 hours of work. Give me one person, younger and more agile than me, and we could have done in an hour and a half.
Glorious Summer Time is Here
Now it’s summer time. I took the boat out, caught a Northern Pike on my fly rod. I took a Sea Doo out, cruised half the lake and enjoyed the scenery. Wow, there are a number of cabins that still do not have their docks out, many that have the dock out but not the boat yet. Summer will be shorter than usually, work hard to cram in all the relaxing we deserve.