Summer is over and maybe fall too

Lodge this morning

Cabin 7 and Cork

Looking across narrows

Cabin 3 and boats pulled out of water for the winter

 Boathouse. Just the Lickety Split and two fishing boats left in lake

Here's the scene this morning at camp. A couple of inches of snow have fallen and more is expected today. The temperature is only predicted to rise a couple of degrees above freezing and the long-term outlook isn't much better.
There is no one in camp this morning other than Brenda, Cork and I but the trouters are due back today after taking the weekend off. They would still like to catch a couple dozen more fish for the spawning project. It could be tough sledding (pun intended). It is no fun to be in a boat when it is snowing or after a snowfall.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what I will be doing in a few minutes. We are out of firewood and that means I will be taking one of the fishing boats down the lake and cutting down standing dead jackpine trees. I will buck them into 48-inch lengths, pile them crosswise in the boat until the load is above the gunwales and slowly motor back to camp. There I'll haul the lengths up the hill, make a neat stack in the yard and cut each into three, 16-inch pieces. These I'll split and using the wheelbarrow, haul them to the cabins that will still be used this fall and to the lodge. If there was no snow I would use the golf cart and wagon but these are useless with snow on the ground.
In bitter conditions like this we have two woodstoves burning in the lodge and can melt right through a woodpile in no time flat.
Our family arrives this weekend for a week of moose hunting. We will have three cabins plus the lodge to heat during that time. Brenda and I will be here for a week or two more, closing up. I also have Cabin 4's roof to finish. About one-third of it has been shingled.
I also have a bunch of dangerous trees to cut down, especially around Cabin 9. I got a start on this last weekend but have a bunch more to take down. These are huge, heavy, quaking aspens that easily weigh a ton each. I hate to cut them down but they are so big now and so old that they are tipping over. They are also full of pileated woodpecker holes and some of them are breaking off in high winds where the holes have been made. It's just been lucky that none has hit the cabin. These will provide firewood for next year and probably a year or two after that. I think each tree contains about a cord of wood. We use about five cords a season at camp.
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