Fast forward to May 3rd. Joe and I head up again. My friend Ross, who lives about a half hour away, met us up there as well. He is going to work on the stairs going down to the lake for us. It was a nice warm day up there. Finally. The ice just went out a few days ago.
We all, of course, crack open a beer to help prime our creative process. We head down to the ol' boathouse to take a look. After pondering a few minutes, we decide how to get the boat out....since none of our vehicles have a hitch to hook the trailer up to.....two old guys and one young guy, manage to get the boat out in the water (without getting wet...only one beer in us now). We wheel the old trailer down to the shore and proceed to slide the boat up on shore and up onto the trailer. We need another beer. There had to be an easier way. Yeah, a trailer hitch would've helped...
We crack open another beer and marvel at the accomplishment...that we didn't get wet again! We move our attentions to getting the dock in. We succeed, again, without getting wet. Time for another beer.
We now start to focus on a design and structural strategy to create the opening for the bar in the side of the boathouse. No actual construction to start today. This was only a meeting of the minds, no power tools today.
We did good. Got the boat out, got the dock out. Had a few beers. We started to walk up to the cabin when I mention that I want to chop off a dead tree by the steps and eventually carve a tiki face into it. Expert tiki face carver that I am. Not. Anyway, Ross says "let's take it down now". Joe and I look at each other, with our beer smiles, and say "what the hell, why not!"
We go to the garage, grab the chainsaw, and pull. And pull. And pull. Ross says he can get it going. He pulls. And pulls. Hmmm. Chainsaw not working. Ross says, let's just use hand saws. Who invited Ross anyway....
We grab a ladder and a hand saw and head to the tree. I wanted to cut it off at about 6 feet. So we prop the ladder up, precariously, and start to saw. Of course, we have to reach around to cut the notch because of the hill. Hmmm, the tree is thicker than I thought. My arm is tired, next! Joe climbs up. I get more beer. Joe's arm gets tired. Ross! What would have taken 5 minutes with the chainsaw is now an hour into it. That has to be enough. We tie a rope as high as we can get it and try pulling from down below. We pull. And we pull. And we pull. Consensus is more sawing needed. And more beer. Thank god the neighbors weren't up to witness the three stooges at work. Another hour later we get it down. My old body is gonna hurt later.
I think the tiki gods were watching out for us. How you say? It would have come down so quick with the chainsaw. Ahhh, but three stooges with bellies full of beer operating a chainsaw? No good they decided....
Next trip up, power tools.....no beer...we'll need the rum!
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