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edenfallingYesterday was Labor Day, in honor of American workers. Yay for myself? *wry*
Anyway, I did nothing in particular, aside from walk the dog in the afternoon. Mom and Dad took the second mattress-and-boxspring pair over to the marina so they could be picked up today. They stopped by the grocery store on the way back to purchase this and that.
In the evening, Mom and Aunt Cara had an epic struggle with a roaster chicken, which drew Dad in to argue over how to determine whether or not it was done. I stayed well out of the mess and in the other room.
Today Dad and I put leafy branches on the raw earth under the new steps down to the dock, so as to hopefully retard erosion until some scrub and grass take root and anchor the dirt. We also hauled the two new mattress-and-boxspring sets up from the dock when they were delivered. And after lunch, we set out to do trail maintenance while Mom and Aunt Cara stayed home to read and nap.
Background: Star Island is mostly part of Chippewa National Forest, aside from some patches of private land here and there. As such, the Forest Service is supposed to maintain the trails. However, the Star Island Protective League, which is an association of cabin owners (okay, cabin lessors, technically), is deputized to take care of a lot of issues since it's rather hard for the Forest Service to get out to the island -- there are no bridges, you see.
So Dad and I took the two-person saw and cut down a tree that had fallen over a path at chest height. Then we took the log we chopped out of it and used that to help shore up a temporary plank bridge he, Mom, and I had built over a part of the path around the east shore of Lake Windigo that had been completely washed out. (Lake Windigo is the lake within Star Island.) We also cut a lot of grass that had been growing over the extensive planked path the Forest Service put in a few years ago.
After that, we decided to see if we could reopen the highland detour that bypasses that whole swampy section of lowland path. It turned out that the path had been blocked by three fallen trees and clearly had not been used in a couple years. So we clipped a lot of brush, stamped out a detour around the most intractable fallen tree, and cut up the other two. The highland path is once again open. Go us!
We came home, took quick showers, and then all four of us set out for the mainland and drove south to Walker to eat at Boulders, a very nice local restaurant. Dad and I split a calamari appetizer, Mom had a house salad, and Aunt Cara had mussels. For the main course, Dad had the lamb shank special, Mom had the crab-crusted grouper, Aunt Cara had the gorgonzola ribeye steak, and I had the pork in bourbon sauce with fettuccine alfredo. It was all delicious. :-)
Soon I will be off to bed. Our plan for tomorrow is to take a long hike -- perhaps to circumnavigate Windigo -- and then to do touristy things on the mainland in the afternoon. We shall see how that goes in practice.
Anyway, I did nothing in particular, aside from walk the dog in the afternoon. Mom and Dad took the second mattress-and-boxspring pair over to the marina so they could be picked up today. They stopped by the grocery store on the way back to purchase this and that.
In the evening, Mom and Aunt Cara had an epic struggle with a roaster chicken, which drew Dad in to argue over how to determine whether or not it was done. I stayed well out of the mess and in the other room.
Today Dad and I put leafy branches on the raw earth under the new steps down to the dock, so as to hopefully retard erosion until some scrub and grass take root and anchor the dirt. We also hauled the two new mattress-and-boxspring sets up from the dock when they were delivered. And after lunch, we set out to do trail maintenance while Mom and Aunt Cara stayed home to read and nap.
Background: Star Island is mostly part of Chippewa National Forest, aside from some patches of private land here and there. As such, the Forest Service is supposed to maintain the trails. However, the Star Island Protective League, which is an association of cabin owners (okay, cabin lessors, technically), is deputized to take care of a lot of issues since it's rather hard for the Forest Service to get out to the island -- there are no bridges, you see.
So Dad and I took the two-person saw and cut down a tree that had fallen over a path at chest height. Then we took the log we chopped out of it and used that to help shore up a temporary plank bridge he, Mom, and I had built over a part of the path around the east shore of Lake Windigo that had been completely washed out. (Lake Windigo is the lake within Star Island.) We also cut a lot of grass that had been growing over the extensive planked path the Forest Service put in a few years ago.
After that, we decided to see if we could reopen the highland detour that bypasses that whole swampy section of lowland path. It turned out that the path had been blocked by three fallen trees and clearly had not been used in a couple years. So we clipped a lot of brush, stamped out a detour around the most intractable fallen tree, and cut up the other two. The highland path is once again open. Go us!
We came home, took quick showers, and then all four of us set out for the mainland and drove south to Walker to eat at Boulders, a very nice local restaurant. Dad and I split a calamari appetizer, Mom had a house salad, and Aunt Cara had mussels. For the main course, Dad had the lamb shank special, Mom had the crab-crusted grouper, Aunt Cara had the gorgonzola ribeye steak, and I had the pork in bourbon sauce with fettuccine alfredo. It was all delicious. :-)
Soon I will be off to bed. Our plan for tomorrow is to take a long hike -- perhaps to circumnavigate Windigo -- and then to do touristy things on the mainland in the afternoon. We shall see how that goes in practice.
