Welcome to the Island

I for once am writing a non-craft post.

See my family has this summer home in Indiana. Its on an island. In Hudson Lake.

An island.
How cool is that?

Well long story short, the water level went down 6 feet. Not 6 feet from the shore, but literally 6 feet in depth. 6 years of the water slowly getting lower and father away from shore. The island became part of the actual shore. You could walk from where you park your car, to the island. Of course.... it would be in mud... but still.

The water level finally got back up to normal this year, actually even a little higher which is nice. But by now, everything is overgrown, mice have taken over the house, the roof is failing, the gutters are falling, the pontoon boat needs new floor, helm, and captains chair, the screened in porch needs new screens, windows need replacing, and everything needs a good intense scrubbing.
So for the past three weeks my brother and I have been pushing to get out there every weekend, just for a day, to completely submerge ourselves into making this place livable again. I mean, I am about to graduate college. How much fun would it be to get my friends over to the island, relax by the bonfire, swim in the middle of the lake, have a couple drinks, and just all out relax and enjoy each other?

Alot of fun. Duh.

So Greg and I pushed dad (who can sometimes be a little stubborn) to start helping us make this happen. And so Greg and I went the first week, cleaned as much as possible on the inside. Mice are nasty devils. And totally disgusting...

The second week I had work, so dad and greg went. They finally got the well working, but the water was not going to the inside of the house yet. They boarded up broken windows, and tried to fix the riding mower.

This weekend, Greg brought his friend Milosh, who did an amazing job, and I brought my friend Mark, who also kicked ass. With Greg, Milosh, dad, Mark, and I, we kicked that islands ass. Got the mower working, got the water to get inside the house, picked up all the fallen sticks and trees, cleaned off the paddle boat, emptied the gutters, trimmed bushes, deleted a whole bunch of growth all together. Over 9 hours of just straight work, and we did so much of improvement. On the outside that is. Next weekend we will be going back out there to clean the inside. I mean really clean. So clean we could eat off the floor.


Yes. That clean.

But for now, heres some pics from this last trip.

This is Milosh holding up the roots to the bushes Greg and him were cutting down. See.. when the water level lowers for so long, stuff grows there. Then the water rises, and now all that stuff is under water.... shitty to drive boats through... soooo lets get rid of it all!
Using the paddle boat to ferry around the things they ripped out. Thats my brother Greg. He looks so happy to be in that water.

This is a very artsy picture that portrays the idea of how much crap we burned Friday. Books, sheets, pillows, plastic bags, glass, leaves, branches, bushes, trees, anything that was garbage. cause there is no garbage service... on an island...
One of my favorite pictures of the day. Thats Mark standing there. If you look realllly close you can see my wonderful brother flicking everyone off with his stylish yellow gloves. what a good day.
This is how Greg and Milosh emptied gutters and trimmed overhanging branches. I'm sure balancing on a precut branch is extremely safe....
See we found this machete... its a shitty machete... doesnt cut shit. But dad had this great idea for some poses. Sooo... there you go.
Mark and me, we just so cool.
Some before and after pictures, this is how the side of the shed looked before Greg and Milosh attacked it. Mind you, dad found some poisen ivy there as soon as they finished. They got lucky.
You cant really tell a difference on the first picture there, but look at the bottom half of the tree, all the grass is mowed and leaves are raked and its just tons cleaner. The second set is of our paddle boat. Looks brand new now. I cant wait to go fishing.
Before and after of the front door,all those leaves raked up, and those stupid overgrown plants completely cut down. The second ones are of the front stairs that according to my brother were the "dateline" stairs. Now they are only somewhat creepy.


Thats all the update I have about that for now. I will be back there next Friday, and depending on weather may be camping out there for the night so we can do another day of work. We need a couple people to help out, so heres a call out to my friends. If you want to get a good workout, and you have nothing better to do come on out! Once we get the place to a good standard we will be throwing a BBQ on the island to all those who helped!

Ohhh ps, I also sold a sewn purse in my etsy store. 4 sales so far! keep it coming people!