Working on the roof

With Bill in charge, and Tim and I hard at work we managed to get the roof on the porch. The weather was brutal the whole time, but getting the roof on was a huge accomplishment. Thanks again to Tim for helping out, it really was a three man job most the time and he knew what he was doing so it went smooth. 

Big Dog Little Dogs

Poor Shaemus was feeling pretty down when Eddie and Tico were being cradled. We felt bad but what can you do?  Then it came to me, now he is back to his old happy self

Putting the roof on, Tim comes for a visit!

With the window closing quick on outside work, and snow already coating the ground, we put a drive on to get the roof put on cabin five. By pure coincidence My cousin Tim came for a visit, cutting my workload in half. Tim already had a good idea of what was going on so I was able to sort of hide behind him when Bill (Dad' friend the carpenter) asked us to do something.  Thanks Tim

Travel Travel Travel

I have been driving all over the state of Maine and most recently down to Mass for my Mom's Birthday. I did not take many pictures except for one morning after running on Long Sands Beach in York. Shaemus was on suicide watch due to lack of exercise and poor ownership. He was stoked and we were friends again by the time I took this.

Winter is here.......sigh

Winter is here, it is cold, I saw some snow flakes. That's it, goodbye fall, sigh...... Everything seems to be harder when it gets cold. We have a few key projects like a water line to finish and now that it is cold ass hell everything is freezing. We should have the water line done in the net few days if we can get the insulation tomorrow and the stars align. This is a look at a small portion of the ditch Dad dug with the tractor, those piles of backfill are covered with hay tonight so they hopefully don't freeze. 

Payback

Just to thank Donna for the spa treatment, Eddie decided to get into her bag of Knitting supplies, and projects. He got all kinds of tangled up and made a huge mess. Tico left a thank you card next to Donna's bed. Good dog Tico.

Only the best for the little ones...

The "boys" as Tico and Eddie are affectionately referred to, needed to be groomed. They were taken to non other than the finest groomer money could buy. Houlton's own..........

Shaemus goes hunting

So the other day I was looking around for Shaemus, when he came out of what looked to be his tree stand. Apparently he has got into hunting since he has come to Maine. He has his two articles of orange on these days so he is legal. Good Dog, I hope you get a big one bud!

Dr. Lord administering.......something

A broken women

Liv came up to the camps about a month ago on the eve of her knee surgery. She was to have her ACL operated on in York after tearing it in an alumni soccer game at UMaine Farmington, drag. She was more than happy to go fishing in the rain all weekend with me even though we caught nothing, unreal! This would be the start of some bad luck....... What was to be routine turned tragic when she was diagnosed with a staff infection. So instead of a quick recovery she spent a week in York Hospital and the last couple weeks laid up on the couch. Liv was able to come up to the lake after surgery just recently, hopefully enjoying a couple days with some different scenery. We enjoyed having her up, she even let me administer her some antibiotics, (or something) what a trip! It was great to spend some time with her, and well be running together in no time! Here are some pictures of before and after the surgery, get well soon sweetie, or should I say, Captain Liv

Donna and I hit the ditch full force

It was a rainy day and we were again laying sewer pipe. Donna and I were in the ditch wrestling with the pipe and untangling a mess that WE created. After this roll we were sure to take extra care to look at the roll and get it laying the correct way. As you can see we were struggling and glad to be done. Coffee was administered shortly after this picture was taken.

1300 ft of 2" plastic pipe layed

We have managed to hookup and lay 1300ft of sewer pipe. Man, this stuff is a pain in the neck and tough as hell to roll out. Despite it being cold as hell, and inflexible, we managed to do it. We insulated the pipes and backfilled as we went. We have a whole lot more to backfill but a good sized dent has been made. Hopefully we can get to some other projects that are a little more glorious.

Moving the oil tanks

In order to finish the ditching, two giant oil tanks had to be moved from behind cabin # 5. To our amazement the tractor was able to lit them up no problem.

The trenches

The old man sat up on his tractor digging while I slaved away in the trenches laying sewer line all day........ Actually he must have carpel tunnel from playing a real life video game all day, lucky. He gets into it and moves some serious dirt around. Weston, "In my next life I'm going to run excavators" (That is a direct quote) aka Dad, DID all the work, I occasionally got into the ditch and continued the line, putting insulation over the pipe and burying it. We got a ton accomplished and dug farther than either of us could have imagined, no huge rocks halting progress.  The rest of the day I bounced around doing all kinds of stuff. At one point I swept three chimneys, I felt like Marry Poppins Boyfriend. Chim-chiminy- chim chim-chim- charoo right? something like that. Anyway, it was a good productive day. Shameus stayed close (except for when he was eating the better part of a bag of kitchen trash) supervising the operations, making sure we weren't being unsafe or making any mistakes. We pay close attention to safety, always.

Wood.

There has been a lot of projects being worked on, one of which is an ongoing project that started when I first arrived, Wood. From tree length, to rounds, to the splitter, and stacked. It's quite an operation.  The wood is not nearly done though, we have four cords left to be stacked at an unknown date. Anyway I wanted to make mention of a job that screams winter like no other.

Tearing the shed down

Today Dad decided to Demo the two old shed's that have cast a very ugly shadow for far to many years; Five years. It was some rotten stuff, including the deer mount that can't seem to find it's way to the dump. ( I fully support keeping the deer mount!) We took down one shed and took the wreckage to the dump, keeping any useful items that were found. The rest of the day was spent rounding up fire wood and moving it to be split. I split about half the pile and took shaemus for a short run before dark. Rain tomorrow, good sleeping weather!

Shaemus the most chill dog on the planet

Today was a cloudy day but pleasant. I ran this morning without shaemus, i thought he might need a break after a few days in a row of long runs.  He is such a good dog, he has such an interesting personality, kind of a wonder. Anyway I wanted to post a picture of us hanging out together after working up at Abe's farm in York. what a great time he had there when I stayed for a few days. Oh and thanks a lot to the Zacherias family for putting us up for as long as you did!

Out for a sunset cruise

Every nice night after work I head out on the lake for a sunset cruise. I can't help but feel like I'm the luckiest guy around. What a wonderful way to end each day. It is a constant reminder to me how amazing it is to live up here. seeing the ebb and flood of folks coming here to vacation for the week or two at a time each year, my house being where they want to spend their coveted time off. sigh.......... Anyway tonights was not as great as some I have been out to see, but any sunset is great.

The porch

These are some shots of the Porch near completion, and a one of cabin 6, which is our ultimate goal for a finished cabin 5 . It may be the best built one yet!

The septic tank

My Dad dug a big old hole for our new 1000 gallon septic tank. we took out some stumps and all kinds of other trees and brush to make way. Dad wanted to put this stump on top of an already full truck. With protest I did it. Ultimately, it came off and was taken on the nxt trip to the dump.