Escort being escorted

Heather's car blew up a little over a week ago. We got it back home yesterday with the help of Lisa and Jim's flatbed trailer. After it gets completely cleared out, we will find it a new home. Heather is looking at a replacement for it. We stopped to test drive it yesterday.

Window replacement

 After the very unexpected gift of a whole weekend off with no rain, Heather and I jumped at the opportunity to get her window swapped out. 

 After a couple of hours of digging, unscrewing,  prying and pulling staples out, we had the old window out and moved out of the way.

We had to make a trip to the hardware store and Lowes for a few supplies to make the opening slightly smaller to fit the new window. We were all finished and cleaned up before 4, so we are getting a little quicker with each one we do. With the new window out of the way, I also have a bit more room in the shed.

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.