Tuesday, December 5, 2017

YOLO at Higgins Lake Sept 2017



We were rushed to get to the lake and get some housekeeping done and get the storage garage straightened out.  There was no room in it for our stuff we were bringing off of YOLO. We came home with another van load and were supposed to be heading back to VA after the holiday for a showing of YOLO.  Our broker called just before we were to head back and the showing fell through.  One couple did a 'drive by' and the other interested party wasn't ready to pony up the funds to make the offer realistic and didn't want to view the boat until that was resolved.  So we stayed in Michigan and had the best weather of the year!  The whole area was having an unseasonably warm streak and we finally got to enjoy some summer while we were there.

The neighbors left their dock in until late in the month and the workers got lucky with a calm, warm day to pull it out.
We had a couple of cloudy windows replaced in the dinette area.  They'd been cloudy for decades, but Jason wanted them replaced. They are now so clear you don't even notice the glass.

We also had some trees cut down at the cottage.  Big, old, 100-year-old maples that had reached the end of their time and were partially rotted.  We didn't want the winds of winter to bring them down on the cottage.  There were some dead ash trees, too, that had succumbed to the emerald ash borer that decimated these trees in Michigan.  This old maple had a gaping hole in it from the portion that we'd cut off the year we bought the place, twenty years ago. 
 It reminds me of a cartoon tree hole.  This is the one we found the rock hanging in.
 The maple is the only one with leaves.  All the others are evergreens.
 The workers put big rubber slabs over the windows to protect them in case the limbs bounced or blew out of control.  They didn't.
 This little Dingo forklift moved the limbs out to the truck to be carted away.
 Some of the top branches of the maple were showing color already.
 They piled the six-foot logs in the front lawn until they could move them back to the truck or trailer to cart them away.  We kept a few of the smallest ones to cut up with Jason's chain saw, but we still have wood that was here when we bought the cottage, so we really didn't need the wood for fuel and we don't have the skills or desire to do woodworking with it, so we had them take it away.
 The maple was rotted out so it was a good thing we had it removed before it fell.
 I don't really think it would've been much danger.  These trees have stood up to the winds for almost a decade and probably could've handled a few more years.  Better safe than sorry, though.
 Karen selfie showing the logs from one maple in front of the cottage.  It took them the entire day to deal with this one tree.
 Some pretty interesting designs in the core of the wood. Very arty and abstract, eh?
 You can see the guy in the cherry picker heading for the top of the other maple we had removed.
 Mushrooms were growing in the cavity of the rotting maple trunk.
 Jason decided he could fell this little pine all by ourselves.  He tied the water ski rope to the tree and I was to pull when he cut the base with his chain saw.
 I'm keeping the line taut as he saws.
 It's a long line just in case he miscalculated.
 The little pine just fell sideways at a slant.  I basically pulled it off its base and we knocked it down.
 Jason, Cathy and Floyd at our picnic table after the tree felling.  They're from Florida and their home had just escaped the wrath of Hurricane Irma.  I made homemade key lime pie and lasagna for dinner and we talked about it all.
 Cathy and Floyd, our friends from Bonita Springs, FL.  They have two homes on the other side of the lake and we enjoy their company.
 The tree cutters chewed up the front lawn with their equipment.
 The tire tracks from the dingo carrying the heavy loads of logs.
 Cathy gave me a pot of herbs, very sweet. She claims they are hearty perennials,so I planted them right in the front of the cottage where they'll get some sun.  I hope they survive the winter.
 Jason checking out the big stump, all that's left of the maple in the front yard.  The base of the stump is all mushy.  It was rotten.
 A very calm day at the cottage.  We even got into the water and picked out some zebra mussels and weeds growing on the bottom.
 Some red berries growing on the shoreline.

 The tree workers came back the next week to remove the maple from the back.  They dropped this huge chunk of the trunk right onto the septic field. They checked to make sure they didn't damage anything, though, and gave it a thumbs up.
 They carted several of these trailers away, loaded with the wood from our trees.
 They sprayed the places where they'd banged or rubbed healthy trees so they don't get infected or sick.
 The tree by the garage that had been hit by ligntning years ago.  You can see the split all the way through is black.  Not sure if it is mold, rot, or insects, but it cleaved the trunk in two.
 Karen with another selfie and the logs. This one was the big lightning pine on the edge of the driveway.  I was glad to get rid of that one as it always was a close call backing out past it.
The cottage was in good shape to leave it now and we headed back to Virginia on my birthday.  Another birthday driving, how boring is that?

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