If you are lucky to live in New Hampshire like we are you have surely seen the leaves POPing lately. It is just starting at camp…
Just splittin' some wood...update
Well I learned last week that when you stack wood too high it is likely to come crashing down. Just a couple hours more of work restacking and organizing and we should be good for the long haul now!
Time for some camp fires and s’mores!
Just splittin' some wood...
A friend of camp had to cut some trees down at their house and they donated some wood to us! Time for a fun project!
First step, getting all the wood to camp. It took two trips with the ol’ F-150 to get all of the logs here to the property. Then I borrowed a wood splitter and cleared the schedule for a day.
(But first!) I needed somewhere to store the split wood. A quick stop on the interweb pointed me to this remarkably sturdy yet cheap and easy wood storage rack concept. I used scrap wood from around camp and two (then three) cinder blocks to create the rack. It will keep the wood up off the ground so it stays dry, stacked and ready to fire up!
Whoa the wood keeps multiplying! One day of splitting turned to two but talk about instant gratification!
A quick break to see us committing wholesale genocide on an ant civilization. (Sound off, it’s just the log splitter roaring in the background.) I had a lot of surprises while splitting open logs (mostly grubs, beetles and ants) but these guys were next level. They immediately began ejecting their eggs and trying to save each other…it was crazy! Sorry fellas.
Oh just me in lumberjack mode.
The finished product. One tree sure yields a lot of wood! That stack is roughly six feet high by eight feet wide. Plus the mini stack in front and another bin full of wood a little further away. Lots of fun campfires in our future!
And now…a grasshopper:
Wintery Camp
Last week I had a chance to spend some time up at camp. It was blanketed in snow…as expected in February in NH!
It was a beautiful bluebird day at the lake and I started by doing my rounds of the buildings and making sure everything was OK. This has been a super mild winter so far with not much snow but enough to look nice!
The cabins were all in great shape. As I finished checking on everything I grabbed the below shot from the porch on cabin 5. You can see the frozen lake beyond the trees.
With a bit of time to spare I decided to run up Mt. Molly (the mountain that many of our campers have climbed with us to take in views of Merrymeeting Lake).
The path up was mostly untouched so we (Tuckerman and I) had to break the trail. Once up top it was limitless views and lots of sunshine.
On the way out I stopped for a quick shot in front of the clubhouse.
It’s always fun to get outside!
-Evan
The future is here!
Boat talk is a constant at camp. MasterCraft, Nautique, Malibu, wake size, wake shape, seats, hull, tower, cupholders, engine…I could go on. That is why news like this is so exciting:
https://plugboats.com/nautique-electric-wakeboard-boat-seattle-show/
Electric wake boats!
Here are my top 5 reasons why electric wake boats are the future:
Weight - ‘There’s no replacement for displacement’. Forget about lead weight and fat sacs when you add thousands of pounds of batteries to the mix. What may be a downside to electric cars is a benefit to electric wake boats. Designers could place battery banks strategically to boost the wake size/shape and supercharge wakeboard and wakesurf wakes.
Instantaneous Torque - Just hit it and rip. No more launch control (or old-school launch control having passengers shift around to get to plane faster). Electric motors provide instantaneous torque so as soon as the throttle is pressed the electric motor transfers its power to the propeller.
No More Boat Exhaust - We have all gotten a face full of boat exhaust surfing on a chilly morning. Surf pipes kind of worked to divert the exhaust but how nice would it be to just eliminate it entirely? An added benefit - no more engine noise! Hop in to the water and all you hear are your friends and music from the boat and nothing else.
Rethink Boat Design - Remove the engine and boat designers could radically rethink the cabin, cockpit and hull. No more fire suppression systems or fuel tanks, no transmissions, no oil changes! Bring on the future and remote joysticks that let you drive while coaching at the stern!
Save the Environment - If you know Water Monkey you know we are obsessed with saving our planet. Imagine a charging station at your dock hooked up to solar panels and mini wind turbines on your property. Imagine saving thousands of dollars a season on fuel…money you would surely pump right back into new equipment and boat toys! Save the planet, save money, a win-win for boaters.
Of course there are some big question marks. What happens when you swamp a boat loaded up with batteries? How long will the charge last and how long will it take to recharge? Will I miss the sound of the engine firing up in the morning?
One thing is for sure, though, the future of wake boats is electric.
-Evan