Aug 21 - cleanup time

Well, compared to many communities in Ontario we lucked out. Hundreds of homes demolished, one person killed ... what's a few downed trees compared to that ?

Chainsaws were busy yesterday. Dennis across the lake had help, with 7 or 8 guys there, but then he had the most trees down. Jim Matthews, Art Ysseldyk and I started work at Robinson's place and then two came over from Troup's to help. About 2.5 hours later we had the brush hauled up to the end of the road and the tree -- a basswood -- cut up into movable sized pieces. Art and Jim moved on to work at the tree at Stan Wrosz's place; Jason gave me a hand moving the basswood to my driveway where it now awaits splitting for firewood.

Moving the basswood pieces took quite a few trips with the small trailer, but having a larger trailer wouldn't have helped. The wood is heavy and at times took Lorraine's help too, sitting on the front of the ATC with Jason on the back, to provide enough traction to pull the trailer up the driveway. The pieces at the base of the tree are more than 12" across. An hour later we were finished.

While Jason and I were cutting some of the basswood into movable size with my chainsaw (more on that later) a tree-sized limb broke off of the maple tree at the shoreline. Later, while I was moving wood from Stan's, Jim and Art cut that one up.

Earlier, as Jim and I were hauling brush to the end of the road, Stan was doing the same with brush from his tree while Art was cutting. Stan's friend George, up for a visit, was helping. Stan offered the downed maple to me -- I accepted. What the heck.

I headed over to Stan's to start moving the pieces of maple and found Art and Jim working on another tree at Jim's, so I gave them a hand with that, first piling the brush and then moving firewood to Jim's pile. Afterward I moved Stan's maple to my driveway. Some of the pieces are massive -- almost 18" across at the base -- quite large for a maple. Solid, weighing a ton, for some of the base pieces I could only get three in the trailer standing on end. I have quite a pile by my driveway. I now have to cut any larger pieces into firewood size and then Jim Matthews will bring his splitter over. I expect that this will yield 4-5 cords once split. That will be a good day's work at $80 per cord, which is what I paid Halle Brooks for wood.

Robinson's driveway is impassible with the big tree uprooted and underlying rocks moved. Her insurance is paying for Dale Brooks to repair the driveway -- my understanding is that he was coming last night to look at it. Her insurance won't cover damage to the dock -- when the water went down and then up, her dock came off the rock crib below. My advice to her was to not worry about the dock -- new buyers will have to deal with that.

Some of my purchases are smart and some are dumb. Let's start with the smart. That Honda Foreman 500 ES (electric shift) ATC was a smart purchase. Boy does it have a lot of power. Jim had dug himself a hole with all four wheels trying to pull the trailer full of brush with his Bombardier; I hooked my Honda to the front and with some extra weight on mine for traction (people sitting on the machine) pulled his machine out of the holes and both it and the trailer up the hill. It's a great workhorse. I should really get a few sand bags that I can load up, front and back, so that it has more traction when I'm working alone.

Moving to dumb purchases. There are many, but that Homelite chainsaw was high on my list after yesterday. Gutless ... I'll have to tinker with it to see if I can adjust the mixture or something to make it work better. It's paid for itself a few times over but I need to look for a better saw. I also have to adjust the chain before doing any more cutting -- which will be in the next few days as I tackle that basswood and maple.

By then it was mid afternoon and I came back and tinkered with my new woodbox, trying to decide on how I would finish it. I had originally intended to use plywood on the sides and back, which would provide structural strength -- bracing -- but found that I didn't have enough plywood of any given size lying around. Instead, I'll use the miter saw and cut a dozen braces. Once I get those in place I can stack the firewood inside and then finish the outside. A 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood mostly covered the roof ... I need to cut a 6"x8' piece to finish it. Well, that won't finish it -- the last task will be to shingle the thing.

I'll go for a bike ride either today or tomorrow. Monday, of course, is mostly a driving day -- to Guelph, Mississauga and then home again. I'm tempted to get on with my woodbox work and save the ride to tomorrow. Today I'm boxed in by Mass time at 4:30.

Sandy spent most of yesterday working in the garden. She weeded six rows. Given my druthers I'll cut wood rather than do weeding ! She was tired by the end of the day. When she was in Sudbury she bought herself a new toy -- an electric rototiller. She's anxious to try it but the earth is still too moist. I hope that it turns out to be better than my chainsaw ! In general electric appliances of that sort don't have enough guts but she's planning on using it on already worked up soil, not for breaking new ground. Huh -- this is probably the only context where "breaking new ground" is not being used as a metaphor !

While we were working at Robinson's, Bonnie was busy making muffins and feeding us. She, Deloris and ladies from the Troups' were out there watching. Bonnie was taking pictures -- I'll have to get copies from her. Oh yes, I still have to get across the lake and take pictures too, but that's not going away any time soon.

At various times yesterday the sky threatened, but it never rained other than a few drops. Black clouds gathered ... we heard distant thunder ... but nothing materialized, which was good. Perhaps nature has expended itself for the moment, but today is another day and nature has boundless energy. We, on the other hand, do get tired of this. Jim said at one point -- "this is not how I had planned to spend my day" -- and I answered -- "yes, that's what it's like living up here" -- and his response -- "that's why there's a For Sale sign on my driveway".

There are now three cottages for sale on this road -- Wayne, beside Ernie Bain, which has been for sale for a long time. My understanding is that he is asking too much. How much is too much ? We won't know until something moves. Jim & Bonnie are asking 5-something; Deloris is asking 275 or thereabouts. In my opinion 275 is too much, in the context of Jim's 5-something. Part of the Robinson's driveway is not on their property; it's a very steep lot; the cottage needs work (some rot in the back corner) -- it does have: a new septic, a drilled well ... as a cottage it's ok, but it would have to be torn down and rebuilt to live there. The liveable area at lake level is small. The septic and driveway would have to be relocated for a rebuild.

What next ? Ernie Bain has to be 80 now, his wife has been ill for sometime -- he cannot hang onto the property forever. Ken Sherar is the same age -- I'm not sure if his daughters would keep the property. There are a few more of the same generation. If properties don't move soon there will be fire sale prices. Donnie and Claudia have only really been up once this year and even that was abbreviated. Will they keep the property ? I get conflicting stories. Would Robinson's be a good deal at 200 ? I don't know ... probably ... and it would probably move quickly at that price. With three properties for sale that represents almost 10% of the cottages ...

That's it. Sandy's up. I think that I'll move the miter saw out the back and cut some braces.