Photos from our October trip. It's a magical time of year, between the colors and the solitude, arguably the best time to be at Starkey's Point.
 Legend is this boat hauled all the materials to build Starkey's Point. It's a 25-foot Grumman pontoon, new in the '80s, with a 45-horse four-stroke Honda outboard. It has no benches, no sun shade, no radio. We love it.  The boat as we first saw it, suspended for the winter in a Cranberry Lake boathouse. We now have the boat winterized and shrink-wrapped by Bill at Cranberry Lake Dry Dock and Marine Services. Joe W., who witnessed much of the process of building the camp, told me that at the height of work Hugh even took the guardrails off. The boat could have been seen 25 years ago barging timbers down the lake, so weighed down that the deck was nearly underwater.  Hemlock 6x6s for boathouse cribbing from Steve F.'s sawmill.  Another man's treasure? June 2012, shortly after our purchase of the camp, on the way to the transfer station.  Timbers for repair projects.  Taking on another load of materials for the camp...  ...and unloading on the other end. Seems like an endless cycle. Here's to another 30 years of trusty service.  Someday all this will be yours!  New paint on the doors, windows, trim, and siding, and wood preservative on the step. This year we painted the main camp's south side. Even with the overhang, the doors have taken a beating from the sun and were in desperate need of protection. We've decided to simplify the color scheme here by painting the doors, windows, and trim in the plum color already used on the windows.  Pre-re-juvenation. We power-washed the siding, scrubbed and sanded the doors and windows, and got to painting. The live edge siding is getting another coat of semi-transparent stain.  We're very pleased with the finished product! Next year we'll get to the north side. We also had to make some emergency repairs to the boathouse central walkway. Unlike last summer, when low lake levels were perfect for repairing cribbing, the water levels this year were above normal and air temps on the cooler side. Still, this project went quickly and we now have a much sturdier gangway.   More structural repairs were in order for the south side deck, which was feeling kind of spongy under foot near the east side railing. We pulled the deck boards off, shored up the joists, and added a concrete support under the rim joist.  Despite appearances, I am not a master of plaster. We took the opportunity to replace some cracked deck boards, then put everything back together before doing touch-up painting.  |
