Back in Time

A bit of catch up. Some projects just aren’t super interesting, and in the early days, there were a few of those.

The summer of 2020, I basically left my tent pitched on the shoreline and different friend groups came by every weekend to get out of the city, where there was simultaneously not much going on and way too much going on.

Still, most projects were solo endeavours between visits. There remains no real plan for developing on the land besides “have fun with it.”

Dock

A dock was obviously at the top of my list as soon as I had firewood covered. As usual, minimal research was done and I have little experience with docks. Here’s what I thought I knew:

• Fixed docks, meaning docks that sit on the bottom of the lake as opposed to floating, are more enjoyable. They don’t move as you walk on them, with the waves and wind, etc.
• Fixed docks and frozen lakes don’t really mix, unless you lift the dock out before winter, either by hauling them out manually or using a large winch system that lifts them above the water. The former requires several people, the latter is costly and ugly.
• My lake is very small. The issue with docks and winter seems to be ice movement. Now, I haven’t yet seen a winter, but I don’t think the ice will move much on a body of water this small.

The easy path forward is a floating dock. While you can build docks around sealed plastic barrels for floatation, I found some floats near by that make building the dock very easy. These floats sit within the dock frame itself.

Building these went fast. The biggest challenge was building the first section, as I have nowhere flat to work. Once I’d cobbled together the first section and the “ramp” to connect it to shore, I launched it, and built the second section on top of the first.

The only contenders for decking were cedar and composite. I don’t like the look of pressure treated for decks, and it isn‘t necessary in a dock beyond the frame, which is more prone to getting (and staying) wet. Composite has a habit of getting hot under the feet (and is expensive). Cedar is also pricey, but is good looking, long lasting, and easy to work with. I coated the deck with a cheap sealer from a local shop, but that sealant failed within a year and the decking is now a typical “silver” cedar. It‘s due a sand and re-finish with a better product.

Lastly, I didn’t incorporate any kind of “ground anchor” in my original plan. I have two concrete anchors at the end of the dock to keep it from drifting too far, but this dock was simply resting on the ground for quite a while before I got around to improving that end.

Shelter

No, not for me. I like tents (for now). The shipping container is great for water tight security, but it’s small. I realize now I probably could have gotten away with a bigger one, but my thinking was that I didn’t want to do anything that could potentially tilt the scales against my favour with a building inspector having a bad day.

I found a vinyl carport for around $700 and figured that would make a good rain/snow cover for a while. I learned that 1) yes, you can put one of these up solo with a single A-frame ladder (but my tolerance for improvisation while working solo is high), and 2) you absolutely cannot allow snow to build up on these things.

I wound up ordering around 18 new pole sections to repair this after its first winter, and it met its final end two years later due to an unexpectedly large snowfall. These things probably work well if you anchor them very firmly across both sides and are able to push snow past a few inches off right away.

More exploring

For reasons I‘ll hopefully get to another day, I had a wildlife biologist walk through the entire property with me. He just about knew the land better than I, having reviewed aerial imagery and having a general familiarity with this part of the province. We walked through 5-6 zones of interest and he recorded flora & fauna species (including birds, by sound), density, and other things a little above my pay grade.

While the entire time I had him was fascinating, one particular moment stood out. We visited a corner of the property I would have assumed I‘d seen by then, but apparently had not. While most of the property is hilly with a pretty dense understory (saplings abound) or marshy, this far corner gives way to steep rock, very old Eastern White Cedars, and moss so deep you wouldn’t want to drop your phone for fear of losing it.

The couple acres in this corner are by far the most beautiful and I was thrilled to “discover” it last. I routinely visit despite the 25-30 minute walk each way.

More photos