Labour Day Weekend

At the lake, of course! This was our first full-length trip with both dogs together in the back. Zach can't yet comfortably see out the windows, so he tends to crash out at the back. This was taken on our way back. Clearly, if he continues to favour that spot, we are going to have to do some load re-arranging.

From The Dogs

We finished clearing brush along the stream. We cut down the weeds-masquerading-as-trees/shrubs so long as there are young, real trees to take their place. This is so we don't make the streambank susceptible to erosion. This will give the real trees an opportunity to grow. At the same time, I trimmed almost all the low-lying branches over the stream, and all the dead ones. I also got rid of the various cement blocks/pieces of cement blocks that were here and there. They have no business in the stream. Looks so different now. Before the snow flies, we hope to be able to remove the old bridge over the stream. We have to carve a new footpath at the end of the Sugarbush Trail so we stay on our property. The cedar logs they used are likely sound enough for us to re-use to make a bridge over the drainage ditch when we do that. We'll build the new one in the spring, likely. We have enough full-length used hydro poles, and 4' length ones for the structural elements, and will likely be able to do the actual walking surface out of either the 2x3's or the two remaining picnic table 'roofs'. 

We also removed all the branches that flowed out of the beaver dam(s) either as the beavers were building them, or as we were dismantling them. Since the lake was only up about 6", we left the dam alone. We also did trail maintenance on the Sugarbush Trail. There were several evergreens that were lying across the trail. DS has turned into a wood-burning crazy! ;-) Anything bigger than 1.5" diameter gets cut into stove-lengths*. Anything resinous will go to friends for their outdoor fires once dried. The rest stays for our stove.  

The boys - Duster and Zach - got bored of this activity real quick. They spent their time 'sploring the woods around where we were working. Duster is great, really reliable: if we whistle, he comes. Zach, with his shorter legs (for now) is slower. He eventually would show up, except one time. After a few minutes of calling for him, we still could hear no movement in the bush. We told Duster to 'Go find Zach'. DS saw him sniff around, pick up the trail, and take off. He came back two minutes later with Zach in tow. Now THAT's a big brother!

Saturday was the traditional Family corn roast, this year hosted by two nephews. Weather was sunny, but with a cool wind. No one went swimming. I got into the Mott's Caesars at the early end of the evening, and got a little tipsy. It's been a heck of a long time since that happened. A good time was had by all. Since the dogs had been alone for several hours on Friday, we set ourselves a limit of 6 hours.

Moka and her moms came over again on Sunday. We all prefer our socializing to be done at our place. The dogs can run free with no worries, there. And, E & C find it as peaceful and re-energizing as we do. But, they were uncomfortable with us always feeding them. So this time, they hosted us at our place. It was kind of weird, sitting there and letting them do everything, and being asked "do you want a drink?" but it worked out really well, and it will likely happen again.  

The kids had a great time. Moka is so high-energy Zach didn't know what to make of her for the first couple hours. He eventually joined in on the fun, though. It works out well: Duster and Zach tag-teamed Moka so they could each take breaks. I got this shot close to sunset:

From The Dogs

I compared Zach's hind leg musculature to Moka's as they are one week apart. He is a bigger breed, though, so his legs should at least be as big as hers, if not bigger. He's not quite equal to her, but he's very close. Such a big change in just 3 weeks.

Zach had no accidents in the house while we were up at the lake. Then again, the boys didn't spend much time in the house.

We left around noon, after taking a 'short walk' around the lake. DS' idea, and she thought the growth was about knee high. I knew it would be more like waist high, but was a sport and went along. We could tell where the boys were by the waving grasses lol. It was good exercise for everyone.

There was a purpose to this madness: DS wanted an up-close look at a large poplar the beavers have been working on. She'd spotted it from her 'yak. Turns out it's about 16" or more diameter. We'll let them topple it and remove the branches, then we'll scavenge it for firewood.

The To Do list for next visit:

1. install the door on our bedroom
2. put up the motion-sensor light
3. put up the markers for snow clearing

I'm sure there's more but it's not coming to mind just now.

*DS also does the same thing with the beaver dams I de-construct. We got 1/4 cord of wood from this year's residents.