That’s a Truck Load of Dock…

We continued our vacation adventure with Dad spending a few more days with us.  Early in the week  Cheryl's friend Carolyn joined us for a day and evening at the cottage. Since we had four people that also meant we could spend some time playing cards in the evening. 

The end of vacation and then the end of the summer began in earnest after guests left and we began perennial event of removing the dock and preparing the cottage for hibernation over the winter.  This year my time involved with end of season activities was both good and less so; depending on how you look at it.

The next morning I made myself scarce by taking a golf lesson and then playing eighteen holes with my brother Bill.  What I didn’t realize was that while I was out playing around Cheri and Papa were busy pulling out the boat and cleaning the bottom—although the pictures seem to show that someone worked while someone recorded the event, I was told that everyone helped clean the bottom…you draw your own conclusions.
 
 

But then on Friday Cheri headed for the coast of Maine to spend several days partaking in the annual Basket Ladies’ Ritual on the Beach—a good heading for a separate posting by a guest blogger.  That left me alone for a final sail—with a fair wind—a swim and bringing the float in to shore.   

  

Later I taxed myself with some reading, a quiet dinner, a beach fire, attempts at night photos of the moon over the water and of course a little college football on TV.

   

Saturday morning I was up fairly early, and after a cup-o’-joe started moving floats, tubes, chairs, ski-vests, and the sunfish into their winter resting places.  It wasn’t too long before Papa showed up with his truck and we used a little engineering and brute truck strength to get the dock onto land.  

We were less gentle this year since we had earlier made a decision to in the spring, replace the existing 30 year old, pressure-treated lumber structure with a newer and lighter aluminum dock complete with cedar inlays.  In addition to “pulling the dock”  we used my chainsaw to segment the pieces, loaded up the truck and disposed of the evidence in the construction debris section of the Andover Transfer Station—forcing us to get a new dock…takes any questioning of the decision out of the equation.

After a few more hours of laundry, cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator, and general straightening up of the cottage I gathered up Calvin—yes he made the trip with us to the cottage—strapped my bike onto the car, and headed south to Connecticut.

The summer chapter of this year’s adventures drawing to an end…on to autumnal adventures!

…one last look…