Our Alto R1713 in Florida

Our Alto R1713 in Florida
We're lovin' it!

Pages

Monday, November 24, 2014

2014 Nov 20 -23 - Boys' Weekend at Mark's Lake House on Lake of the Ozarks

The cast of characters included Mark, the leader of the pack; Mike, Mark's college buddy from Morris, IL; Kevin, Mark's friend from K.C, who he met when they lived in St. Louis; and me, just along for the ride. And what a ride it was! This has become an annual event where we all get together on the weekend before Thanksgiving for as much "cuttin' up" as men of our vintage can stand in one weekend. Somehow, between trips to the tavern(s), we manage to get a few chores done around the lake house.

Mike drove down from Morris on the evening of the 19th so we could get an early start on the 4.25 hour drive to the lake house. The weather was looking pretty iffy and Thursday, the 20th, looked like the best day to blow all the leaves from Mark's property, and the neighbor's, down toward the lake for burning. After stopping for a bite to eat at Tooter's in Mt. Pleasant, MO, Mark, Mike and I arrived at the lake house about 1:30 to find Kevin already there. 

We hauled all of our clothes and "supplies" into the house and quickly got busy blowing leaves. Mark and I used our backpack blowers for the bulk of the work while Mike and Kevin did the fine tuning with their rakes to get the leaves in a pile designed to create the maximum affect when torched. Adding a few things that were made of materials not to be mentioned here, in case the EPA has hacked my blog, added to the overall excitement as the fire burned.

On Friday, we finished blowing the neighbor's leaves down to the fire and took the motor off of Mark's fishing boat and hauled the boat up onto the dock and turned it over so it wouldn't be full of "stuff" in the spring. After some rest and relaxation, we went to Oh Tommy's for a sandwich and a beer or two.

Saturday was an electric day! We ran a wire from the utility pole up the hill to the shed. Digging the trench was the toughest part, even though it wasn't very deep. We covered it with lots of rocks. There is now an outlet and a light in the shed. Mark is happy!

We celebrated our success by going to Oh Tommy's for cocktails and h'ordeuvres before going to the Branding Iron for drinks before going to Hurricane Dolly's for the atmosphere. Then it was back to the house by about 7:45 where Kevin cooked four racks of ribs for our 9:00 dinner. Delicious!

After the ribs, it was impossible to stay awake. Some of us went to bed while others fell asleep in their chairs and woke up at 1:00am to go to bed.

Sunday morning, we were up and on the road by 8:35 because Mike had to attend a party (again?) back home that afternoon. It was a great weekend. We got a lot of chores, and other stuff, done. Can't wait till next year!







































 PICTURES FROM MARK BELOW

















1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, I think there was a lot more burning and brews that work done but I think that was the point!

I noticed that the party increased by one this year - I am seeing a trend. Add more people so the work load is less per person and more people to contribute to the bar tab!

Works for me!