Friday, April 29, 2011
The picture is of Orla's first ever kayak outing. John was the one who took the picture. He offered to paddle us around. I didn't even have to lift a finger to paddle - just hold onto Orla.
The weather was gorgeous all day so in the morning I went outside and started raking. I raked 8 wheelbarrows full of stuff up and out. I put it in the ditch behind the Hemlock cabin where no one can see it. The birch tree by our boat ramp littered 4 wheelbarrows full itself. They sure are messy trees.
After raking I got the chance to work on varnishing Birch's old wood floor. I went to the Warehouse in town and bought some marine varnish that expands/contracts with the heat and cold. It is for decks of boats, etc. so should be good on the floor of a cabin that is closed in the winter. Dave had finished sanding the floor, so he took the sander back to Mercer Rentals, and on my way to pick up the varnish I paid $74 for the rental. After spending another $32 on the oil-based polyurethane, I took it all into Birch cabin, vacuumed the wood floor, walls, anything that might have dust on, and then wiped down the floor with a tact cloth. I vacuumed all the walls, etc. because I didn't want to brush up against anything or have a window open and a bunch of dust or sawdust blow onto the floor. Finally it was ready. I took the 4" brush I had just bought and put a heavy coat of varnish on the floor. It soaked it up pretty quick.
The floor was put in in 1938 when the cabin was built. Sometime in the 70's it was covered in very durable carpeting. When Dave took it up for us, we didn't know what the condition of the floor would be. It turned out that it looked great. I loved varnishing it to see all the old grain come out. It will be beautiful when it is finished. The picture on the right is the before pic and tomorrow, or whenever I can walk into the room, I will post a picture of after.
While I was varnishing, John was removing big trees from our main trail system. He took Orla and a chainsaw and went to work. He removed barricades he had set up to stop snowmobiles, and cut up and moved several trees off of the trail. He then went to our neighbor, Harry's, and spoke with him. Years ago Harry had shut down the snowmobile trail that went thru his property first, and then ours.
John ran into Harry's worker, Jay, who is a little bonkers. He threatened to "kick John's ass" if he ever set foot near Harry's land again. John told him he was there to visit Harry, and that would be pretty impressive for Jay to beat up someone who has a disability. Harry told Jay to stop it, and then Jay walked away. Jay has some kind of mental disability, and Harry is the only one who can put up with him. John was pretty upset by the incident, which I can't blame him, but Harry said to just ignore Jay. Yikes!
I was pretty tired after all that varnishing and my hands were sore from the raking and varnishing with a brush. So around 5 p.m. John offered to take me kayaking. He said I wouldn't have to paddle, just hold Orla. So we did. She did very well for her first kayak trip. In fact, 2 loons were curious about us and came up to us pretty close. I took a video of them and posted it on Facebook.
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