Welding the Dock

Bulletproof Swim Deck

15,000 Watt Beast

How would you go about getting a 400+ pound generator onto a dock? Frank and my Dad took the beastly generator over to George’s Cove and then loaded it onto the 18-foot pontoon (after taking the boat’s front railing off). Once the generator was on the front of the pontoon, they had some difficulty getting the boat off the shore! But eventually, the generator made it to the swim deck, where Frank, Kevin and Buddy-Jack worked for several hours welding steel reinforcements onto the dock frame. The broken steel dock piece has been fixed and the entire swim deck is now steel-fortified. Mission Accomplished!

Norfork Lake Levels…

…are coming up from the recent rain, so Frank and I went over to George’s Cove this morning to adjust the courtesy dock and pull it up out of the water with the truck.

Before

After

It was such a pretty day! It’s finally warming up, and I do believe that just maybe Spring REALLY IS going to show up after all.

(Norfork Lake is currently at 549.23. Normal Pool is 552.00.)

All Copper

Record cold temperatures + River of water flowing out of the gameroom = broken pipe!
Yes, thanks to the prolonged frigid temps, we suffered a broken pipe in the resort laundry. (By the way, shop-vac muscles are definitely hamstrings!) The offending pipe was behind our new commercial washer, and ran up in the ceiling. But order has once again been restored in the land — Frank has replaced the old pipe with new copper pipe, wrapped and insulated, and included an easy-access shut-off valve.

Blizzard

There’s a blizzard here at the resort! Not snow…LEAVES! As much as I love fall, with the colors and the cool weather — it’s a definite pain in Frank’s back dealing with the aftermath of a bazillion fallen leaves. After 5-1/2 hours of blowing, the resort is beautiful again!

Rain, Rain

…go away, come again another day!

Enough is enough, already!

Frank Scores

Trash-Raiding Critter

Peanutbutter did the trick…

And before you say “Awww, so cute!”, just know that this guy can growl, hiss, and bare his teeth better than Kujo.

SCORE:

Raccoons 1, Frank 0.

Give or Take a Few Grains of Sand…

My sand.

This is how much sand I bought for the resort. 6 bags. No more, no less; what I figured was the right amount to top off our 2 sand boxes.

Frank's sand.

This is how much sand my husband bought for the resort. 12 tons. Delivered by gi-normous dump truck, and requiring Dad to drive the Kubota over to help spread.

Dad & the Mean Machine

Thanks Dad!

Building up Edges with RR Ties

Oh well…what’s a little difference of perspective (like, 11.99 tons’-worth).

Steve’s Satellite Delivers

Woo-Hoo! Out with Cable — In with satellite TV.

A giant Thank You to Steve’s Satellite for bringing us the clearest, crispest picture we’ve seen in a VERRRRYYYY LOOOOOOONNGG time! (Cable company was thee worst!)

Looking so forward to having the Discovery Channel, HGTV, E!, the Animal Channel — will have to carve out some time in the day to actually watch TV!

Code of Ethics for Fishing?

Is it just me? Or should there be a certain code of ethics amongst local fishermen, such that they don’t constantly fish the brushpiles of private docks?!

I am so annoyed.

Three local fishermen like to pull their shiny, metal-flake-painted fishing boat up alongside our dock, and catch fish one-after-another. Now, I do regretfully realize that I do NOT own the fish in Norfork Lake. However…we spend a lot of TIME and ENERGY and MONEY taking care of our dock, sinking brush piles, etc., so that our PAYING GUESTS, not local-yokels, not neighbors, not acquaintences, can have some fun catching fish off the dock. Which is why when I see this really fat guy yanking fish-after-fish, it makes me grouchy. Heck – they have the ENTIRE expanse of Norfork Lake! Yet, they fish our dock! Not cool!

Makes me insane!

No laws protect us. Unless these guys are “touching our private property” — there is nothing we can do. (Oh, if I only had a helicopter-flying license — you can guess whose house I’d be hovering over!) Same thing!

I pray they’ll find another place to fish.

And in the meantime, I choose to vent on my blog.

Thanks for listening.