Happy Labor Day

 It's been a while, but I finally got back up to the lake for a little while today. It was busy, as expected.

 But if you look a little bit, you can usually find a quieter spot. The cove I usually go to had two huge houseboats anchored in it, so I moved on a little further to the north end of the lake.

There was a fair amount of boat traffic, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There were still boats coming in as I was leaving. A beautiful day to be out on the water!

Burn pile didn't

 I went out early this morning to light the burn pile. We need to get it done before the horses come back in a couple weeks.

And this is about all that would burn. This is the scrap lumber I tossed on to help get it lit. I know the rain earlier in the week didn't help, as well as the heavy dew we got this morning, but I really did expect more than I got to burn. I guess we'll have to try again.

Made it to the lake today

 I finally made it back to the lake today. I launched from Longbow and followed a couple of pontoon boats part way out to the main lake. They both stopped about halfway at a flat beach area.

 It was remarkably smooth for most of the way out the channel towards the lake. It was overcast, but not really any wind.

 The lake was a bit more churned up from boat traffic, but still wasn't real bad. I ran the boat all the way to the north end and back.

I parked here for a little while and got wet. This cove has a nice sandy bottom .

New steps for the porch

 I had started the step replacement yesterday and finished it up today after work. The new ones are a lot more solid feeling than the old ones were.

Most of the reasons are visible here. The boards were getting a bit rough and warped.

Ugly, but it worked!

 The drive belt on the tractor broke just before I was finished mowing the back yard.

 The blades and motor still ran fine, so I popped the hydro drive into neutral and found another drive source to move it with

It wasn't very pretty, but with Heather's help, we finished mowing the yard. I'll pick up a new belt and get it changed before I start the pasture.

Finally lake time

 I finally made it up to the lake today. We've been having a lot of storms, but I got up before they started today.

 Being a holiday weekend, it was busy, but I did expect that. My north end cove was empty when I got to it. That surprised me, but I took advantage of it.

 The water was way warmer than I thought it would be, even considering the hot spell we have had. I was expecting mid 70's, but it was mid 80's. It felt great floating around in it for a couple hours.

The storms were closing in when I took off for the launch ramp, but I beat them back. I hit a few sprinkles on the way home, but most of it waited until after I had the boat put away. It was a nice day!

Tomatoes planted

I got the rest of the tomato plants picked up this morning and planted after I finished prepping the last two buckets. Nature took care of watering them today. We have a Beefsteak, an Oxheart, and two Romas. I hope they do well.