Andy's working on the fish shack on Thursday

December 5, 2014 - Friday

21 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

You might know it. As soon as Andy and I get the fish shack finished and ready to put on the lake, the temperatures warm up where we'd probably prefer to sit out on the ice and enjoy the nice weather. For the past three days, comments were made that we wished the shack was complete so, regardless of the wind and weather, we could go fishing. Now that it is, well.... No doubt, it will be used a great deal this winter. And if building it made the unseasonably cold temperatures go away, it was well worth the time and effort.

Brutus thought we were building for his entertainment. Throughout the day, we had to continually tell him to move out of the way. He's never far from my side and that's how he's trained to be, but obviously, he's never heard that familiarity breeds contempt. 

Construction began yesterday morning around 10 AM and we didn't finish until early evening. Andy did most the work and I'm not even sure I did a very good supervising. Mostly, I was the gofer boy, cut an occasional stick of wood, and stuck in my two-cents, whether it was needed or not. 

I felt bad that Andy would spend two of his vacation days building, but as he said, in his job and working as he does offshore, he has no place to do this sort of thing and he reiterated several times that he doesn't consider it work. He thinks it's fun. The acorn never falls far from the tree.

Cutting foam insulation

Like I told Andy, it would have taken me a week and a half, probably two weeks to have completed the shack by myself. Thanks, buddy.

Brutus wasn't the only critter to try to help build the shack. Jimmy, the chickadee, and his buddies were frequent visitors in the barn, though I don't believe they wanted to be a part of the construction crew nearly as much as they hoped for an occasional sunflower seed fished from one of our coat pockets. 

And so the day went by. The frame was constructed on the new floor, siding from the old shack was cut again to fit the new, the old door hung in a new frame, and foam insulation was cut to fit between the studs and ceiling joists. 

By late afternoon, the construction was complete. A new, light-weight, two-man, shack is now ready to for action. There'll be a shelf or two to make and little things to complete, but once the skis are attached, the building should be ready to set out on the ice.

Sargie brought home chicken wraps for last night's supper. After, it was a pretty quiet threesome that tried to keep their eyes open in front of the television. Sargie had worked all day and Andy and I had about all the fresh air we could absorb in one twenty-four hour period.

Sargie works early today and it should be home early tonight. Andy and I are going fishing. PERIOD. We've spent enough days doing projects around the house and in the barn. Now it's time we separate the boys from the Boy Scouts and go out and put meat on the table!

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...