Tornado

The TFF experienced a small tornado the last week of July 2010. Small I guess is relative depending on whether or not you were affected. Some Island campers were badly injured and many of the campsites had to be closed.
We lost a half dozen trees and had some damage to others. Neighbor Jim didn't fair so well, about 30 trees, mostly spruce required 25+ loads with a 12 ft trailer piled as high as possible were hauled to the dump. The neighbor on the other side lost a few really nice old spruce trees. The five red pines on the south side of the cabin only had a few broken branches, any of these would have wiped out the house.
So instead of four days of fishing with my new GPS enabled bow mount trolling motor (Virtual anchor - awesome!), we had a day and a half of decent fishing and spent the rest of the time cleaning up.

Dock Work

My annual dock installation routine started early this year to take advantage of the very low water conditions at the TFF. The bottom of the steps leading to the dock had no support on the non railing side and the hillside under the stairs was beginning to erode. The main improvement was to add the two large rock shown just below the steps and the rearrange the rocks on either side. I also graded the slope leading up to the steps from the lake.


The lake is typically high enough to float the dock section into place. This year there was about 10 feet of sloped shore to deal with. Notice the large greenish rock just past the dock, it was sticking up a few inches and looked to be a in the way so after an hour or so of digging the rock was extracted from the lake bed. It's a nice rock though, I'll find a use for it.


Now for the real challenge. The dock secton is 6'x16' and weighs about a ton. I had just enough pieces of chain, tow straps and a come-along to reach a huge maple about 75' up the hill. Winch, pry, lift, shove was the trick. I used the come-along to put as much tension as I dared on the system, then E and I used pry bars to lift and shove the dock toward the shore. Progress was slow but in the end the dock was in place and secure to the shore with some new chain clevises.