Note: This is a thread about some work that I did in 2004. I have added a update about what I did in 2005 to compensate for a goof that we talked about in 2004.
A recently revived tradition is to go up to Pellow's camp with my brother John the week before Labour Day and spend the week fishing, playing cards, cooking and eating gourmet meals, and undertaking various maintenance tasks. We are usually joined by from 2 to 6 other people.
By the way, if any members would like to join us next year, please contact me.
This year, the four main tasks (from a potential list in excess of ten) were:
1) Cut down about 15 dead trees, mostly black spruce and two of them in dangerous positions).
2) Dramatically increase the reserves of firewood (to be partly accomplished as a byproduct of task 1)
3) Replace the landing and front steps on the main cabin
4) Advance the deck construction on the Sauna / Guest Room building (and, if really lucky finish the project).
Before describing this year's projects, here is a bit of context: Pellow's Camp is an island of about 1 hectare (a little more than 2 acres) that my father bought in the late 1920s. It is located about 15 kilometres by car and 3 by boat north of Hearst Ontario. My father and several friends built a large log cabin on the island in the 1930's and, when I was a boy, we lived on the island about 5 months of the year (living in an apartment over our hardware store in Hearst the rest of the time). In 1959, the original cabin burnt down. I built a smaller replacement (from a Pan Abode Kit) in 1975. Since then, I have added other two buildings of my own design -one a storage shed / workshop / bunkhouse and the other a sauna / guest bedroom as well as installing a water tank for gravity fed water. There is no electricity other than a generator used for tools.
Here are some photos intended to show the context:
(1) My brother John and Scott Lewis the son of our friend Chris with a pike that Scott landed two years ago.
(2) A lot of the island and the main cabin
(3) The shed
(4) The water tower
(5) Sunset looking north from Pellow's Camp