Twenty One!

That's how many large bags of leaves Ruth raked up yesterday! We brought a whole pickup truck load of them up to the dump on the other side of the main road. She says her hands are a bit sore, but that's about it. She uses this new high tech looking ergonomically correct rake. What did we do in the old days?!

While Ruth was raking, I did a variety of things. I installed all the signs that had been taken down last fall. I guess they remove them for the winter to prevent vandalism or graffiti, or maybe even theft.

They had numbered the back of the signs, and numbered the corresponding signposts around the campground. You know, things like "Handicapped parking" and "No Dogs Allowed On Beach". There were maybe a dozen signs in total. I had three leftovers that I couldn't find the signposts to! Two of them had to do with the docks, so maybe I'll figure them out once we get the docks into the water.

A couple of the board members came down to try and get the water running. They had to redirect the water from one well, and the hose that goes to the shower building was clear so they fill up a huge holding tank (I think it's 1,200 gallons) that then supplies a steady source of water to the campground. The lines to the campground are still frozen, but the line to our cabin was open! So we now have water to the cabin. We ran a garden hose to the restaurant and store from the house, so they now have some running water too! Another week and the water to the campground itself should be good to go.

The campsites are pretty basic...they are 30A electric only. No water, and no sewer. But there are three or four water outlets around the campground, so apparently people just run a garden hose to the nearest outlet when they need to fill their water tanks, and the campers who have seasonal sites use "blue boy" style tanks to haul their sewage to the dump station when necessary.

I spent some time with one fellow who explained the operation of the water system. It's a fairly complicated array of pipes, valves, and filters that has been changed and added to many times over the last fifty years. It could be much simpler if they tore it all out and started from scratch, but it works the way it is, so it's best left well enough alone!

After lunch, Ruth and I did a walk around with four of the board members just to get a better idea of what needs to be repaired, and to discuss some of the bigger projects that they want to get accomplished this year.

I did some more equipment maintenance. And now that we have water, I rolled up the fire hoses that we had  strung down to the lake to pump water up to the cabin.

Before we knew it, it was 5:00pm and getting on time to call it quits! We're fairly far north, so it stays light here until about 9:00pm. Still lots of time left to relax and enjoy the day, although when things get busy there will be evening duties as well.

Watched a great movie last night. "Life of Pi" was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and won 4. We've learned before that just because a movie is critically acclaimed, it doesn't mean it's worth watching, but we have to recommend this movie. Really enjoyed it, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole movie. And the computer work and filming is really good. For those of you who have seen it, did you know that the main actor was never in a boat at the same time as the tiger during filming. How do they do that stuff, when a huge part of the movie relates to Pi being in the boat with the tiger?? Amazing. I guess that's why they make the big bucks.

Today's header picture. Sherman, free camping at Steel Creek Park near Kopperl, Texas.