Final pour, ATV trail and the freeze

Yesterday we did the final major pouring of concrete. They did a smaller pour this morning but only about 8 bags, pouring the pads for propane tanks. About mid-way through yesterday's pour, the cement mixer died leaving the rest to be mixed by hand. Boy were we glad for all the teens here that day to help out! They had off school for parent-teacher conferences so they were volunteered to help. They certainly did a man's day of work yesterday! Below are Carlen with the hose, Robert and Sergei mixing, with Nate cutting and dumping bags, though if I'd have taken the picture at another time it might have been set up differently. Everyone took turns doing different jobs.

They extended the chute to go the extra length from this distance and dumped the cement from the Bobcat bucket down to the catchers at the bottom who then carried the buckets to where ever they needed to fill. They had built a platform inside the room so that you could work easily up at a level close to the top.

I think my old Olympus is dying. It isn't handling low light conditions well any more. Too bad. This picture of Andrei is priceless! His hair was grey from the concrete dust and so was his face! The other boys had the sense to wear hats in the cool weather. The hats certainly served and alternate purpose for this job!


I took quite a few pictures of the ATV trail, but, well, it's a trail. Sometimes you can see far down the trail like this shot, but most of the time you can't. It winds and turns and goes up and down. Most of the pictures look alike, but they don't really reflect what's there. It is truly a beautiful thing. The part coming down the hill to the house is pretty steep but I haven't been able to capture that yet with the camera. I'll try to get a picture of someone going up or down to see if that will show the incline. We will need to go back through and clean up here and there, but it certainly works well right now! It works so well we have a constant stream of visitors! Ok, maybe not constant, but we do get a lot! A lot of people are curious about what is going on so they walk out to check it out. THEN they come on the ATVs! I ran into someone twice again today!


This shows the corduroy road that Rodney built. Lots of small trees gave their lives for this section ;)


This is the best view on the trail. I HAVE to stop every time I reach this spot just to admire the view. I hope I never lose that sense of awe.


This shows how close we are to freeze up! It is coming closer every day! We've had beautiful blue skies during the day and no wind so the cold nights are working their magic! In some ways I hope this trend continues so we get clear, smooth ice. On the other hand the snow would insulate the earth so the ground doesn't freeze down so far. My heart wants the clear ice so we can skate and see down into the lake once it freezes. My head knows we need the snow to keep things from freezing too much.