Work has begun to repair the boat house

Before leaving for England, I had a weekend at the cabin.  The boat house is leaning more and more towards the lake and I have not been able to store the boat inside for over a year now, so I decided (with help from Teres’ dad) to begin repairs.

We attached a winch between the back of the boat house and the concrete foundation under the sauna and pulled the boat house backwards until it was reasonably vertical.

I have then screwed fast horizontal and diagonal supports to the walls and roof  inside the boat house to keep it vertical once the winch was released.

This is just a temporary repair so that the boat house survives the winter.  Nest year the real work will begin to re-build it!!

Preparing for winter

Last weekend we were at the cabin and there was much to be done.

Logs had to be split and I had to build a new store for the logs.

Emma helped to carry the split logs (some of which were almost as big as here).

There were also a lot of branches

that had to be gathered up and burnt.

Emma and myself had a boat building competition.  First boat to cross the lake won……it was hers!!

I found a new bird species for the cabin list and a significant record for the north of Sweden.  On both Saturday and Sunday at around 2pm a party of 10 Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus) appeared, moving briskly through the tree-tops.  It is very very rare to find them inside the Arctic Circle!

I did not manage to get a photograph, but you can click this link to see some pictures.

https://www.google.se/search?q=Aegithalos+caudatus+caudatus&client=firefox-a&hs=svy&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=c49VUp2nFM-v7AaA7YG4Dg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1143&bih=526&dpr=0.9#q=%22Aegithalos+caudatus+caudatus%22&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&tbm=isch

 

A new jetty at the cabin

Last weekends project at the cabin was to build a new boat jetty.

My friend Jon had helped me build a simple jetty in 2007 when we were there on holiday.

But after heavy rain and high water levels the jetty has been destroyed.

This wasn’t going to be an easy project to do on my own, but I had planned and prepared how I would do it.

My first task on Friday evening was to mix 12 buckets of cement to make a base  on which to build the jetty.  I inserted 2 steel threaded rods into the cement to use to fix the jetty to the concrete.

At 6am on Saturday morning I began construction of the jetty.  I wanted to build it above the water level (which is currently high) so I used two plastic cans to support the runners over the lake.

I needed to drive 95 x 95mm posts into the bottom of the lake the support the jetty and I was concerned that this would not be easy because there are many large stones in the bottom of the lake, but the first post went in straight and easy (I used the two clamps to adjust the post if it started to twist as I knocked it down).

The second post was much more problematical due to stones.  Eventually I managed to get it driven in, but not in the position where I wanted it to be.

It took 7 hours to get all the posts knocked in and then screw the decking boards in place.

I have made the jetty longer than originally planned, so as a result I did not have enough decking to cover the whole jetty.

On Sunday built a slip-way at the side of the jetty, using two halves of a telegraph post to make it easier to pull the boat up out of the lake.

I spent Sunday afternoon fishing, but caught nothing!