Again, such a long time

Summer is over and we are soon on our way back to Florida. To try and summarize our activities we offer the following.

First, our health situations. I am doing quite well with my knees, not 100% but quite well. Getting down to my knees and back up is still a hassle, but is getting better. The knees do allow me to work fairly well as you will see from the rest of this blog. Everything else is pretty good, as I am on minimun medication, to lewer Cholesterol and maintain  a steady heartbeat.

Laura suffered from two different mishaps with the Criket, but is mostly recovered from them and with additional time should be ok. The first, and most severe injury was apparently a pulled hamstring. The second was a rather strong knee sprain accompanied by oncoming arthritis. With warm weather and walking more, she is getting better.

Back to the summer. We thought we had the boat motor fixed, but alas, not so.
Derek helped to put the poles in for the boat at the Vikings, so we had a place to berth it, but after several attempts to use it , it was determined that the lower unit was badly worn. The motor ran fine but it would not push the boat at anything faster than idle speed.

 After looking for a replacement motor, withou success, we were referred to the Findley Lake Marina, where the operator was quite familiar with Force motors. He said he believed he could repair the lower unit at a cost of about $300.00. But it would have to be done between  other jobs and take 2-3 weeks. Well, he fixed it and only charged $238, but it took 7 weeks and now there was no summer left to use it. So we put it away in the pole barn and are looking forward to having a  boat to use next summer.We repaired the seats,  changed the controls to the right side, rerouted the fuel and electric lines, made supports for the top, and e repaired the glove box lock. It should be an OK boat next year.

New roof.  We started out by doing 2 /3rds of the mobile home roof and then when that was done, decided to complete the mobile home roof and do part of the add on section, and then to do more of the addon section. This much has been completed , with minor details to complete next year. So we now have a pretty new Ocean Blue steel roof on the entire mobile home and 2/3rds of the add on section. It is  more than originally planned, but good to get done. It took a lot of time early and later in the summer(too hot during the summer) but it got done.

Lat in the summer, we found a shed we liked at Home Depot.  It was a kit in a box 2 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft long and weighed probably close to 1000 pounds. We got Ray to pick it up and deliver it to the Vikings.  It took a couple of weeks to get it together(Derek helped to finish the floor and install the walls). We got it all together and put a nice blue steel roof on it, so now we have a place to store lawn mowers, tools, ladders and stuff. It is very neat looking and complete with upper loft and shelves. As mentioned this took some of our time. 

Last year, we acquired a roll-up awning for the Vikings. Earlier this year, Derek came out and helped to install it, so now we have a nice awning over our deck. Now that the Vikings is our only lake connection, it is turning out to be quite nice.

The last project to be completed, just happened, when Lester brought his ditch-witch over and dug a nice ditch between our solarium and the pole barn. We buried two polypropylene tubings in the ditch and closed it up with a plastic water pi[e in one and electrical wiring in the other. Next year, when we return, we will connect them to appropriate water and electrical lines.

This summer, when Jerry, and Alison and kids stayed over, Jerry looked at our ailing furnace in the basement, and talked to his furnace man about the problem. His advice , basically, was to undergo an extensive cleaning program.
I took a shop vac and some tools,  including a hammer, and subjected the furnace to blowing and sucking with the shopvac, along with some tapping with the hammer, and guess what? It works fine now. Thanks Jerry and your furnace man!