July Is Here!

                                                   July 15, 2017

It had been a cooler and rainy spring and so far summer in Northern Michigan.

The Farmers Almanac had predicted a cooler and wet spring/summer for us and they were right on. When we put our dock in, I was complaining that it was way too high up. (Felt like 1 1/2 to 2 feet above the water). But I was so glad they did because by mid July we were inches from the water. During the prior week, during the Boyne Thunder boat races, we watched the large waves produced by the boats, shoot through the slates from end of the dock to the shore section. The waves pushed up a few end slats at the post. Joe had to jump on the dock to get them back in place.

Just a picture of my youngest granddaughter Madalena. Her Aunt Tiffany had taken her, and Noah (Maddie's brother), and Lennox (Tiffany's son) to Fat Daddy's, an arcade place. Maddie is showing off her wins from the claw machine. She is the Queen of the claw machine. She got, I believe Tiffany said, 8 stuffed animals that day!

One of the many projects I had been working on this summer, was making a sign for our home. Joe found an old board for me, after painting it white, I stenciled the letters on it. I'll show the finished project later.

My neighbor who comes from down state every 2 weeks, asked me if I could take a picture of a flower that she had not seen in years. She didn't even remember the color. It seemed to always bloom while she was gone. I texted it to her as well as a couple more.

Oh my gosh, where is our dock? Did the waves take it out during the night?

Just kidding! I decided to get a new dock and here it came. In the previous picture, the old dock had just been pulled out.

I had been wanting a new ladder and kayak racks for our old dock, so we visited the local dock/ boat lift business in town, Bullmann's Docks.

The kayak and ladders would not attach to our old dock because their docks have channels on the sides that attach these add on's.  Unfortunately I didn't get the kayak racks because Joe convinced me the water was too high and we would have to just drag the kayaks over to where the row boat is that has a boat launch area. So instead he but the kayaks on saw horses next to the boat launch area.

We had been using a regular ladder, as seen in a 2015 picture down below.

We called this our "Red Neck" ladder. Joe was content with the dock and ladder. While looking at the new docks and realizing I could not really add on to our exiting dock, I said to the salesman, "Maybe I  need to buy a new dock then". He gave me a quote on a new dock, and I decided if I wanted a new dock, I would never get one from Joe. So I said yes to the new dock, and paid for it with my savings.

Now that's what I call a beautiful ladder! With 4 people in my family with handicaps with getting into water, I wanted something that made it easy for them. I have a double amputee sister (who has never got in the water yet), a mother who has two knee replacements, a daughter who had a ACL, MCL, and Meniscus injury all at once (also called the Unhappy Triad in the medical world), and a son in law who had a bilateral patella tendon repair. Actually this is not called a ladder but a staircase. Our new dock is four foot wide instead of 3 foot compared to the old dock.

And it looks prettier than the old brown dock.

Temperature on July 18, not a big deal but when you have had a cooler summer, it's something to shout about!
Another reason I got a new dock was because I wanted one I could add on to in the future. After a week of the new dock, I thought, why wait a year for the patio I plan to get. I called our sales guy, told him I wanted the 6 foot x 10 foot patio now instead of next year. Once added it looked to small. So once again, I called Jeff and said I want another 6 foot x 10 foot section added to the patio, and while he was at it, please add a ladder and the triangle piece on the corner. I wanted a ladder for the other side of the dock. I think he was losing patience with me, as we kept asking for the discount he gave us on the first order.

I am sure you know, nothing is 100 percent perfect. Joe had told me, my white dock was going to look dirty when it rains, compared to our old brown dock, and it does. The dirty dock is still worth it to me!

Love the staircase! As a side note, Joe and I have enjoyed many rides on the wave running in July and into August, when we finally got some heat. It was a great way to cool off. I always rode behind him. I haven't got my nerve up to drive the thing yet. Maybe next summer.

So now I have a dock with a 12 foot x 10 foot patio with a ladder on the other side of the dock. Joe payed for the umbrella pole attachment. He sweats a lot!

During July we decided to try out a new restaurant in Boyne City that opened last summer, but never got to it yet. It's called, "The Tap Room" Note the list of beers on the menu sign above the bar.

Joe got the smoked brisket sandwich.

And I got the fish tacos, and yes I would definitely order them again.

Good Morning!

Just another early morning sunrise picture on the lake.

Our neighbors house being built is moving at a snails pace!The large mound of dirt is where they put in a new $35,000.00 septic field.

Our side-(front to us) door.

Here is the sign I made this summer. I knew I would never find a sign that said this, so I had to make it myself.

Another hot day. Time to get on the wave runner!

I was trying to keep it a secret from the girls about the dock. Tiffany had been bugging me last summer about when we were going to get a better ladder so it would be safer for her to get into the water. I had been bragging how beautiful the lake looked this day and sent this picture to the girls by text and than realized part of the white on the new dock showed. I prayed they wouldn't noticed. They didn't! Whew!

After having the patio put in, I decide once again to have a bench attached to the dock. Our salesman definitely was not the friendly guy he was when we put in our order the first time. He was thinking I am sure, " Lady you could have saved us 3 trips if you had just put all this in on the first order"! Hey it took me awhile to ease into spending this much money at once. Docks are not cheap! We already had the umbrella in our garage from our days in Cedar Rapids, Ia., so Joe just drug it out from the garage and dropped it into the add on umbrella holder.

We have not had a lot of time to do our boat buying education this summer, but we had to go to Traverse City to pick up my mom, so Joe made a couple of appointments set up to see 3 boats on our way there. We saw 2 of the boats in the same marina in Elk Rapids. This boat was is 1986 Chris Craft for $9000.

The other boat was right next to it and it was a 1987 Carver for $17,000. I like this one because the the fly bridge was very large.

This is the Carvers inside cabin.

Most fly bridges have room for 2 persons at best.

This fly bridge had room for numerous people. The owners are selling because they used this boat for a weekend get away, but also have a home on a small lake. Recently they inherited another lake home making the need to let go of something because the 3 places were too much for them at their age.

The 1986 Chris craft is in view from the Carver fly bridge.

This marina is located on Grand Traverse Bay.

There is at least 200 slips in this marina.

View of the Carver from the Chris Craft.

The Carver is a 28 foot, but by the time you add the sun platform it is about 30 foot. Both boats are about 11 foot wide.

Next we stop and saw a boat that was not in the water. It was a newer boat, but the boat was much smaller as far as room for number of people. We both liked the Carver, but we just don't like buying a boat as old as it is. The boat shopping education continues......but first we need to get to the airport!

And here comes my little mom.

An interesting looking bug I have never seen on our deck railing. And it flies, not what I expected. I guess kind of like my mom, June Bug, that flies too. Until next time..........