The raft story. Typical Hornepayne story. I had wanted to build a raft to have at the camp, but had put it off. One day, while driving past Pat Jean's house on Marathon, I saw that her entire deck had been removed and was sitting on the ground. I proceeded to check it out and it was not too bad. So, I asked her what she was doing with it. She said she was looking for someone to take it to the dump. So, I volunteered, with no way of getting it there. I made a bee-line to Alf Wernham and asked if his big trailer could accomodate moving it. Of course, it could, and we were part of the way through the plan. Then, I had to get it on the trailer. With the assistance of a few high school students, we loaded it on the trailer and took it out and sat it on the ground. Next was the dock barrels, which Robbie Walton had many of, so for a decent price, I purchased 6 of them. Then came the tough part, of getting it to the front of the camp, so I could flip it over and put the barrels on. I fiddled with it a bit myself, but it was quite heavy. Scott Werden then offered to help and with the assitance of Russ, Crystal and Chris, from Forde Lake (www.fordelakeair.com), we rolled it on the barrels, to the front. Then Scott helped me strap on the barrles, using clothline and he and Clayton and I basically dropped it in the water. The rest is history. It spent its first winter in the water and I lost two barrels, but Marilyn Smith saved one for me, so really I am only out one. I suspect I will winter it in the same manner again, but in a slightly different spot and see how it goes.

Anyway, the raft was quite popular, hosting a few afternoons in the sun and makes a great platform for kids diving and taking shots of all the airplanes coming and going from 2nd government lake.

In this shot, it shares the early morning spotlight with a toy that provides a different type of fun at the lake.

Stay tuned for further posts.