I went to the lake alone on Thursday. I think last year I spent one night alone there too before Steve came up? I know its animal free for the most part so I know its safe to sleep in a tent and not get freaked out.
I really didn't sit around much the 24 hours I was at the lake by myself. I planned a lake project but before I could do my projects I had to set up all the camping stuff myself. It took about 2 hours with a break to eat lunch. I took my time not rushing since I was in no hurry! It's pretty easy to set up, I have a cart that helps to carry all the stuff down the hill to the lake where we set up our tents. We used to camp at the top of the hill when we had a camper. Its always more freaky at night when you're in the woods. Now that we camp down on the beach I feel much safer and never scared since its a lot brighter at night not being in the woods.
I was soo tired from not sleeping well Wednesday night and then setting up all the camping stuff myself that I slept great! Perfect temperature to sleep, not too cold and not hot! The morning was a bit chilly in the 60's so I stayed in the tent for a long time just looking at my cell. I went to town and picked up the supplies for my lake project, solar lights and mulch for our driveway walking path that cuts through the woods. Turned out really nice and didn't take much effort. There isn't a whole lot of light that reaches the ground next to the path, so a few of my solar lights will need to be moved in order for them to light up at night. I could have used a few more bags of mulch but will wait till next summer to freshen it up. I did get the mulch bags on sale for $2.50 each and could have gone for the cheapest black mulch for $1.50 per bag but decided on just hardwood mulch instead. Great to get discounted prices but it is the end of the season and we won't get much more use out of the path this year. I'm just hoping it will need a little touch up next spring. I just don't want the mulch to be washed away from a hard rain. I would have rather put down crushed rocks but that would require a delivery of rocks and Steve isn't ready to add more to the driveway. That too needs to be fixed since all the heavy trucks crushed the sides of the driveway making it slope down on either side instead of being flat. It's not a huge expense as they only charged $350 to drop off and spread out a few years ago. Maybe next summer? Along with a new aluminum 20 ft dock sections. We will slowly get the area ready to build a cabin in 5 years. We have lots of trees to remove, the septic/well and electrical to all add. I'd like to just pay as we build this way we will have zero debts.
The last project of the weekend was to clear out the branches /wood pile we made next to this tree and our picnic table. I brought all the branches to the top of the hill and made just one pile for our firewood. Its huge now as we cut down tree and piled up all the branches from the storm a few weeks ago.
I found a before picture of the branch pile in front of the tree, behind our picnic table.
It gives us so much more room to go around the table and looks better all cleared out of debris. Now we just have one large pile of branches out of sight in the woods. I want to wrap the branch that extends out over our table in solar lights. I think it will look nice to have the picnic area more lit up at night. I did purchase a large solar light to put on top of the picnic table at night. I just set it on the beach to charge up and flip it over on the table to provide night time light that last till morning. Worked perfect!
The tree solar lights are only $7 per tree. We don't have electricity so this is the best option to provide a lighted beach. I did lose one tree of lights and half of another one already. I might have wrapped the tree too tight with the lights? Its a bummer that some sets already don't work. Not sure if they will last through the winter but at least its not a huge money investment and it provides great ambience! I'll just be sure to order enough right away instead of ordering two boxes at a time. I haven't found them in the store, only on line at Walmart. Two sets of lights for $14 I ordered another 4 boxes to use in our yard and add more to the lake maybe next summer.
The new beach shore line wall held up great since we built it two weeks ago. We only had a few small rocks fall back into the water and the sand held in place. The real test is going through a winter! Next spring will be the true test if the sand / beach holds. I'm sure there will be a few of the smaller rocks to re-stack and more sand to refresh the beach. That can be easily added.
It kind of feels like we've had the shore line finished for years instead of only two weeks. Doing it half at a time made the project more do able and not so overwhelming. Its so much nicer and cleaner feeling going to the lake and camping on the shoreline. We now can use the entire beach instead of just half. I also added a ton of tiki torches along the rock wall. We have one more spot on the other side of the beach to add one more tent. I was thinking of moving the middle our dark sleeping tent to the other beach area on the right. We can set up the screen porch in the middle by the firepit or over the picnic table if the bugs are bad or rains. At least we have more options and space if we ever do have more camping with us.
I had a fire by myself Thursday night. I tried watching for falling stars staying up till 10pm. I was just far too tired to stay awake. Steve and I did more star gazing Friday night and I saw one falling star but missed the other two Steve noticed.
One of our favorite things to do at the lake is make breakfast lake side. Steve has his big flat stove top grill and the cooking stove to make a great breakfast meal. He cooked up a bunch of papers and onions to make some tacos for dinner /lunch. I'd like Steve to make a wood kitchen area on the beach. This way it will block out the wind and give us a more permanent kitchen area where we don't have to bring an extra cooking table. Also more projects to do in the next few years.
I am off work till Thursday so my plan was originally to stay up at the lake Thursday - Wednesday. I'd be alone Thursday, and again Sunday night - Wednesday. I decided after two really windy days Saturday /Sunday that I too was ready to come home from the lake. While it was nice to have a day alone, I think that was enough for me. Maybe two days max before everyone comes up. I'm just not ready to spend more days by myself in a tent. Maybe once we have a cabin or if I had a lot more projects to do? It was nice having the option of staying I was just done with the crazy wind and since the forecast was more wind up to 20 mph, I wanted to come home! I am just glad the first two days was calm and had zero wind at night and in the early morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment