Lew Pitcher's blog

In "Haul Out", I showed the float assembly for my haul-out. That float has been anchored with a temporary anchor (a "killick") for too long. I wanted a heavy anchor that couldn't be easily dragged or lifted from it's final resting place. A boat anchor wouldn't do; it would be too light or too expensive, and a heavy anchor would be very difficult to get up to the cottage to install. So, I made my own anchor from stuff I had around the cottage.

Since I installed the "Dock In A Box" dock, I've continued working on the cottage, cleaning up fifty years of cruft and making repairs. The last few trips have been rewarding, and have resulted in some significant improvements around Fugawee.

At the start of May, I trekked up to Kimball Lake to open the cottage and see what the winter had done to the place. The cottage suffered no damage; the winter was mild. However, the dock that I've been building for the last two years was crushed beyond repair. It would take all season to disassemble this mess, and then another two or three years to rebuild. Time for "Plan B".

While others may enjoy the freedom of letting someone else account for their expenditures, I learned money-management differently. I regularly balance my own accounts, confirming deposits and withdrawals, and derive my own running balance, independent of my bank's online tools. To do this, I use a "cheque register", a small booklet that mimics an account ledger, that my bank freely provides to it's customers. However, lack of demand has caused the bank to cut back, and they no longer make or distribute these "cheque registers".

Over the past few years, I have developed a web-based recipe program to replace a couple of programs that I used to use.

Last year, the code reached a point that meant that I could begin to use it as my primary repository for recipes, and just yesterday, I added a facility to "export" to a PDF file all the recipes that I had accumulated.

So, if you look below, you will find a PDF file containing all the recipes in my recipe file.

I spent another couple days at the cottage, cleaning up. So far this year, I've removed

I spent this past week at the cottage, continuing my construction of a new dock. There weren't many other cottagers around, and the weather was (mostly) warm and sunny, so I got a fair bit accomplished.

This spring, the makeshift haul-out that I had installed two years ago finally decided to give me trouble. The float, an old boat fender, has folded in half, and the haul-out rope broke with the winter ice. It's time I put in a more permanent solution.

So, I bought a buoy, a length of anchor chain, and a few other odds and sods, and put together a proper haul-out buoy.

Fugawee is open for 2015.

I took a few days last week to drive up in my new Jetta and open the cottage. This trip was both a necessity and a test.

About a week ago, the ice finally left the lake, or so I am told. The weather is fine, and the time is right. It's time to open the cottage.

I've got a lot planned for this year at the cottage. This year, I hope to