Time of the year!

Closing camp is always my worst time of the year. I enjoy it here so much that its home and I don’t want to leave. Its also exacerbated by that hold over from my school days when I realized that school was starting next week and I had to start getting up at the crack of fucking dawn. But oh well, all good things must come to an end and I warm myself in the thought that the winter won’t last forever and I’ll be back next summer.

Additionally I have had a particularly traumatic and depressing event (that is in addition to my financial insolvency) – the new diesel experienced a catastrophic failure. The diesel as assembled on the steel “pallet” had undersized bolts that were not fully tightened – the diesel thus  vibrated considerably more than normal. Paul noticed the problem and we replaced the bolts with perfectly sized large bolts and the engine smoothed right out. We also tightened every nut and bolt on the machine. But unbeknownance to me the key to the power take off (PTO) pulley had loosened. The PTO pulley threw the key and devolved to the end of the shaft and wobbled on its end – destabilizing the crankshaft. The bolts holding a crank counterweight failed sending the weight through the side of the crank case. Bad bad bad! Depressing to say the least, but the warranty on the engine will provide me with all the parts necessary to rebuild the lower unit. So looking at it from the bright side – this is a minor inconvenience and I will end up knowing the engine much better. C’est la vie! I will do what I must do. But enough about this.

Before Al and Deb left, we (me, Charlie and Paul included) made a run up the grassy to catch a mess of huge perch and some pike. It was a gorgeous day and we caught fish like crazy, drank a few beers and came home and had a great supper.

The perch were huge and with three people filleting we made short work of them with a minimal amount of bloodshed.

Yesterday I put the docks away – another one of those things that I can’t stand doing. I always think – “I just put them into place!” We need to petition our imaginary friends to lengthen summer by at least 10 months!!!! As I was putting the docks away I recalled the yearly questions about how the dock system operates so I took some pictures of the process. First I remove 3 out of 4 lag screws from a pair of the dock pilings and then “pop” the piling with the crowbar and the dock drops into the water. Its quite a ride.

Here’s a shot of the outer two pilings on top of the dock after I dropped the dock into the water. I then carry the pilings to shore and move to the next set.

Two more sets of piling to go. I then nail a motor bracket onto the dock tether the boat to it (for the return) then take the dock over to store in the weed-bed bay inlet.

It always helps to have some able bodied seamen to help out with the perilous lake crossing. Captain Bart was ready to steer the boat. Notice the motor on the end of the dock. I then push the dock out into the lake  start the motor and pilot the dock to its storage location. This year the boys insisted on riding on the dock with me so I pulled the boat over and they hopped onto the dock. On the way over they ran up and down the dock and barked at some unfortunate loons – while the crazy loon steered the dock. They had a great time and it made for a much lighter day for me to see them having so much fun.

We expect to be leaving in about a weeks time and there is still much to do in the way of closing the camp but the weather seems to be holding and I must relish each day remaining here. Is this heaven? No, its Sportsmen’s Camp.