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Family Stories
A potpourri of stories about various family members or events
From dock to dock
Before Marcia and I bought the cabin from Becky and Denny, when we rented the cabin from either Mom or Becky, we used the dock to load the family into a canoe or boat or to swim off. I didn't give the dock much thought. It simply stuck out in the water and held us until we could get into the canoe or boat or jump off to swim.
When we bought the cabin, the advice from Becky and Denny was that they always left the dock in the water in the fall and didn't do much else (except bring in the ladder). But the next spring, I could see that a few of the poles that supported the dock were now tilted toward the south, presumably from being pushed by ice by NW winds. Also, I noticed that sometimes the dock needed to be raised or lowered if the water level of the lake had changed. If all of the poles are straight, there is a "dock winch" that can be used to help raise or lower the dock. But to straighten the pole, one needed to "unscrew" it (after loosening the bolt holding the pole to the bracket on the side of the dock). Often, a pipe wrench was necessary to unscrew it. Once unscrewed, simply screw it back into the spongy bottom of the lake in a straight fashion. For the poles at the end of the dock, the water can be up to my chin. And the water can be cold, if early or late in the calendar.
In 2023, after talking to Ed about the prospect of a simpler dock, he suggested checking with the dock producer on MN 38, about 4 miles south of the Outpost. When I stopped there in August before leaving for the summer, I found that a new one, with the same size and features as the current one, could be built for about $1600 (plus transportation costs to bring it to the lake, perhaps). It sounded a lot simpler since it was on two central wheels, and so it could be pulled in before leaving in the fall. This would eliminate the need to deal with ice-tilted poles. It would also be much easier to raise and lower. Both of these would make a big improvement. I was intrigued.
In 2024, I decided that I should buy this dock, but the summer was slipping away, and I decided it could wait until 2025. When I got up here, Ed mentioned that he was thinking of getting rid of one of his docks. First, it was going to be his floating one and then later his stationary one which was a lot like what I was thinking of buy: aluminum frame with 4'x4' sections of boardwalk that can be pulled up at any time; wheels by the middle set of poles; two other sets of poles, one for the front and on for the back. It looked good, and we recently finalized the sale and transfer.
Old dock
Wednesday morning (8/6), Ed came over about 7 and we went over the pros and cons of his dock and how to get it here and install it. We also agreed on a price. I worked on removing some of the things on the dock so that it could be moved: ladder, paddle boat, kayak, teapot, gallon of water, and thermometer. I came over at 10, and we pulled the dock out with Ed's tractor and then proceeded to slowly pull it to my place. Halfway there, I started noticing that the right wheel was starting to slide inwards, and I quickly tried to get Ed's attention, but he couldn't hear me in time, and it dipped on its side just as Ed was trying to stop. The center post on the side that tipped got bent ever so slightly, but enough that it would not likely slide up and down as needed. We righted it and placed a nail in the hole in the axle that holds the collar, to keep the wheel in place. We then proceeded even more slowly. When we got to my place, we took off all the wood sections of the dock and piled them up, and then we pushed the dock down the hill. Ed mentioned that we are going to stop and line up the end of the dock against a tree. Ed then got the tractor, and we hooked a chain to the post with a slight bend. He then slowly had the tractor pull on it, first until the front of the dock ran into the tree and then slowly pulling only on the post, since the rest of the dock was stopped by the tree. This was a smart method of solving this problem, and kudos to Ed. We then pushed the dock past the corner of the porch, swung around, and then turned to go through the former garden that had been fenced in (but removed for this event). We left it there until I could finish removing the old dock.
Transition - you can see half of the new dock on the left, 3 poles still in the water from the old one, and parts on the ground being dismantled or subdivided.
The old dock was designed with two 12' sections, and each of these had 4' boards placed perpendicular to three parallel 12'x2"x6" boards and nailed into them. These sections were supported by brackets that slid up and down on a pole that could be screwed into the lake bottom, which also had a bottom plate above the screw portion to provide stability. The brackets were also slotted into and screwed into the 2x6 boards from both the bottom and side. At first, I thought all the screws were lag screws, but when some didn't retract, I learned that they were bolts with nuts (after a hint from Ed). Also, at first, I forgot about the screws in the bottom of the 2x6 boards. Once I got the closest section separated from the poles and brackets, I could lift it out of the brackets and float it toward the shore. The second section came more quickly after learning from my mistakes on the first. I then called Ed to help me pull the second section up on top of the first section (which I had, mostly, pulled up onto the shore). Then, Ed wisely recommended cutting the 12' sections in half, if I wanted to save some portion, so I did that and saved one 6' section. For the rest, I removed each 4' board that went across the 2x6 boards, being careful to collect all of the nails. Since the water on the lake had been high since I came back from SC/NC, the bottoms of some of the boards were a bit wet, so I stacked them up in a way that they could dry out. I unscrewed all the poles and brought them to shore. I put a new bolt into the axle by the collar that had slipped earlier, and then it was time to put the new dock into the water. Ed and Al (neighbor) helped with that. I then dropped the posts at each end, and Ed helped me attach the landing section that transitions from land to dock. After Ed and I had it in place, I dug up some soil where the edges of the landing section were so that it would flatten out more. I finished the task by placing each 4'x4' section in its place. The whole transition took large portions of two days, though it could have been shorter if I hadn't made some assumptions early on (lag screws and only from the side). It looks nice and I expect it to function well.
New dock
Published 2025-08-08.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
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