Labor Day Weekend 2009

With such a gorgeous day, Dad and I thought taking a hike would be an enjoyable activity. We decided to hike Hadley Mountain, where there is a fire tower offering a fantastic view. Rated "moderate" we thought we could handle it easily. Ha! The first half of the hike, according to Dad, is like climbing a wall! Certainly, it was like climbing stairs for nearly 2 miles and usually it was steeper than stairs! At times we walked on solid slabs of granite for several hundred feet at a time. Other times the trail had built-in steps made from rock or logs. Needless to say, we were pushed to our limits! However, we made the summit and enjoyed the fabulous view as we snacked and rested. After about 45 minutes, we had the energy to climb the fire tower. The picture of the white spot on the mountain is a picture of a cave. Dad took one with his telephoto.



The last two pictures are of the camp...we set up the batten boards to mark the house. Unfortunately, we are still waiting on the elevation certificate. You may notice someone decided to have bonfire on our property....hmmm.

Demolition Is Finished

On a very rainy Saturday, August 27, 2009, Dad and I went to check out the demoliton and straighten up the garage to prepare it to receive construction materials. The entire piece of property is mud now...no pine needle carpet anymore and not many pines left to provide a new carpet. However, the trees close to the road still provide a frame to the lot and make the view from the road pretty.

Two of the big pines had to be topped before they could be cut down, so Ernie had to hire someone to do that. Even so, they still reached to the dock, as the pictures show. The big pine you see in the picture is the one down by the shoreline.

Dad and I took the last free haul for the year to the dump, which included the picture windows. We cut them up to manageable pieces. (the first one shattered and another one cut Dad's finger, but other than that we managed ok.) The garage floor is just about cleared for the construction materials. We just need the building permit. However, on Friday I learned that we now how to have an "elevation certificate" because being on the lake puts us in a flood zone. Evidently, this law had been overlooked in the past and this past week or so had begun to be enforced. Just our luck--more red tape! We couldn't reach our surveyor on Friday, so hopefully we can reach him on Monday, so we can get the process moving along. Our builing plans arrived on Friday--so we just need permits to start the excavation process!