Lackey Sailing | The Lodge: April 2023

Trip#3: April 6, 2023 – April 22, 2023

30-yard dumpster count: 5

We were excited for this trip for several reasons. First, we’d missed being down on the shore since November. Second, this was the first time we’d actually be staying at the Lodge itself, now that we’d gotten the rooms cleaned up and painted and ready for habitation, and had the new mattress set ordered and ready for delivery shortly after our arrival. Finally, we were planning on staying two weeks, which seemed lavish and fun. And we’d be focusing largely on the outdoors, which, for Maine-bound souls during the winter, sounded like Xanadu. We were also the shiny new–and sole–owners of the property, as in December I’d formalized my purchase of Amanda’s half.

Knowing the extent of the outdoor cleanup required, and the substantial amount of material that needed to be moved, I knew we needed another tractor and loader for the property. In November, back in Maine, I’d found an old JD 755 like the one I had in Maine (and similar to the 855 I had in PEI), and bought it, preparing it during the winter for the journey south. I love these old, sturdy, mechanical machines, and knew exactly what I wanted. I decided to hire out the transport of the tractor to Virginia, since the trailer I had, while fine for short hauls, was probably a bit lightweight in capacity for the tractor on such a long trip, and I didn’t want to chance it, particularly running the gauntlet of CT/NY/NJ/DE as required to get there. At a minimum, I wanted to add trailer brakes first, and after looking into the brakes and the time required to install them, and then all the other related worries, I decided it was money well spent to hire out the job.

Thursday, April 6, 2023

We had quite a bit to bring down this time, from household goods to clothing to tools needed during our time there. Since most of the back of the Acadia needed to be kept open for the dogs, Heidi had the good idea to get one of those trailer hitch receiver cargo carriers which, in addition to the overhead Thule rack we had, would provide substantial capacity. I began the trip preparations by assembling, then installing, the new cargo holder, which took longer than it should have because I’d installed the receiver bracket upside down by mistake and had to remove the three bolts and turn it over. I’d also bought a spring-loaded hitch pin that was purported to prevent side-to-side sloppiness in the receiver (it did), and I found this a bit fussy to install the first time, at least. Later on, I installed the Thule rack. I washed the car, though it was muddy at home, because I hate heading out on trips in a dirty car.

The person I’d hired through Uship for the tractor arrived as scheduled to pick up the machine. We’d meet him down there on Saturday afternoon.

Friday, April 7, 2023

I spent much of the day packing the car. I started by vacuum-bagging sheets, pillows, comforter, clothing, and whatever I could, compressing these bulky items into firm little packages. Then, I shoehorned in whatever I could between the folded-down rear seats, then installed some bulky items, notably some framed charts of the Chesapeake I’d given Heidi for Christmas, which I wrapped securely and tied in place along the driver’s side rear windows. I had planned to put the vacuum bags in the Thule rack, but the first one I put up there got punctured on something, and, not wanting to risk an explosive failure up there during the trip, decided instead to keep all these in the safety of the way back. I packed these bags, and more, tightly along the rear hatch, out of the way of the dog space, and tied everything in nine ways to Sunday. Housewares, Trug, shovel, and pole saw all went in the overhead bin, while I filled a large plastic toolbox with chainsaws and other bulky items and secured it to the new rear cargo rack with three ratchet straps. Heidi was still working, so I took a break to go to Bolley’s for takeout lunch (4 hot dogs with everything, onion rings, fries), then finished packing the car as needed. It was a nice day, and I used my Maine tractor to smooth out some of the ruts in the driveway; maybe in two weeks with no one here the mess will finally dry out. All done with prep by 1500 and ready for early departure.

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Departed Maine at 0120. No problems with the load, but the car did feel heavy at first–particularly with the weight on the new read cargo holder. But I soon got used to it and we had an uneventful trip with the usual stops: Charlton for wee; James Gandolfini for gas and wee (and dogs), then some random place in MD somewhere on 113 when Heidi needed a stop. We were at The Lodge by 1230 to find things in good shape. I got the car unpacked, then got the Prius running, since the fellow bring the tractor down had also agreed to bring this back up to Maine and to Amanda’s household. I had a new jump pack with which to start the car, and no other issues.

I texted David Garcia, whom Debbie had recommended for doing general labor–clearing the attic, in our case–and he came by in the afternoon to look over the attic and talk about the work. We scheduled the attic for Thursday, as I had scheduled the first dumpster to arrive on Wednesday. Jim and the tractor arrived about 1630, and in short order the tractor was unloaded and the Prius ready for the trip north.

Because we didn’t yet have a bed (coming on Tuesday), we had rented The Choog again for the first couple nights, so once the tractor was here, we left for the Choog to clean up before heading to El Maguey for our traditional first night. They make good margaritas. Burrito Loco for me, shrimp fajitas for Heidi. Back to the Choog for an early rack time at 1930.

Sunday, April 9, 2023 (It turned out to be Easter…who knew)

We were up early for a trip to Walmart for a varied household shop, by way of coffee and breakfast sandwiches (at McDonalds…Hardees was closed for Easter). An interesting side-note of our Virginia days: We became Walmart people. I in particular had always scoffed at the store, but on the shore, there were limited options, and to boot, the store in Onley happened to be a darn nice one, a newish supercenter with everything under the sun including a full grocery store. In time, in fact, we found that the Walmart grocery store was better than our other local option (Food Lion), which turned out to be kind of dumpy even though we tried both stores located within reasonable distance.

I digress.

Back at the Lodge by 0830-0900, we unloaded our purchases, then I went to start the Cavalier, which was in the way of the aqua shed and where the dumpster would to. During our time away, the car had grown a frightening array of mildew inside, but I covered the seat with a tarp and wore gloves. I moved the car to an out of the way place for now. Since November, the estate attorney had finally gotten access to the safe deposit box which contained, among other things, the car titles, as hoped. So the cars were officially ours to dispose of as we saw fit (i.e. the Prius to Maine). From here, we did some outside work, using the tractor to remove small stumps along the walkway to the house, and cleaning up some of the brush near the house–so easy with the tractor. It was a nice day, 50+, clear, and windy. I removed an old chest of drawers from Dee’s room (the office), as the drawers were so infused with mothball smell that we couldn’t open them–clearly the piece would never be usable. Out with it!

We worked till 1530, did some small jobs inside, then showers, a frozen pizza dinner at The Lodge, and finally back to the Choog around 1915 to hang out a bit before bed.

Monday, April 10, 2023

I started the morning preparing for a meeting we’d set up with Tommy Arnold. We met Tommy through the contractor Matthew Freeze, that we had been talking to about possible renovations to the Lodge; retired from contracting, Tommy now worked as a consultant to help with engineering and permitting issues and had visited the site with Matthew over the winter when we were not around. At this time, we were still seriously considering expanding the house by adding a simple second story, an idea I liked and which would have given us a large upstairs room as a bedroom, with space for a deck facing the water. To this end, I drew up some better sketches based on the rough ideas I had, which I gave to Tommy during his appointment. This plan also included some ideas and a layout for a new kitchen that, in this iteration, would span the front (water side) of the house, replacing the existing kitchen and Dee’s small bedroom. These were nice ideas at the time.

Following this meeting, I called Nathan Iseman, a dock builder to whom we’d been referred, and with whom I’d made initial contact a bit before we traveled down. He was apparently free and came by in the afternoon to look at the project and give us some information. Dock costs are a flat rate of $55/sq. ft., plus $2000 to remove and dispose of the old dock. We had initially thought to build the new dock off the end of the existing concrete steps leading down the bank (the existing dock was weirdly off to one side at the bottom of the steps), but he gave us some food for thought about some other ideas, such as building the dock off a nearby bank then doglegging over to the existing deep water, and even paddled out the old aluminum canoe that was on the property to check water depths at the end of the dock. We entertained these ideas for a while, but soon decided we preferred our original, simple plan for a 40′ long dock, same as the original. He gave me the name of a person who could help us through the permitting process, who I planned to contact soon. We eventually did use her to complete the permits, and while it was not inexpensive at $1500 (plus some additional county and state fees we had to pay later on), it was well worth it because it was a complicated, and many-faceted, process.

During the remainder of the afternoon, we did some odds and ends outdoors, mostly some consolidating of existing piles of debris (for later disposal) and other related work.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

We headed out early to the grocery store, and a Hardees biscuit, then returned home to put away the groceries and organize the kitchen a bit. I changed all the triple tracks to screens for the summer ahead. Today we had scheduled a meeting with Matthew, and he arrived on time at 1000 to discuss possible project ideas. I was used to being able to talk with a builder about concepts and ideas and have it turn into more of an actual plan, but again with Matthew I sensed not so much as reluctance, but a very sort of long-term approach, with no sense of immediacy, and perhaps some hesitation on action without concrete plans or drawings. That said, he seemed receptive to our ideas and to the job at this point, and while it was moving slowly, at least it was moving somewhat forward.

Our new mattress and frame arrived; we had ordered a rug online to arrive at the Lodge, but it hadn’t arrived in time, so for now we had the crew just set up the bed on the bare floor and would have to install the rug later. The rug arrived via FedEx at around 1845, too late to put in place this day.

I’d noticed throughout the past couple days that the water pump seemed to be turning on frequently (it’s quite evident in the house from its soft hum and a clanking of pipes whenever it shuts off). This was happening when no water seemed to be running, so I wasn’t sure what was happening. But I noted it. I made my first real meal at the Lodge: pasta with sausage sauce for dinner, and we enjoyed our first night in the transformed bedroom.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

I started the day by installing a blind I’d bought for the bathroom, some hooks, and then the new bedroom rug and pad, which looked great. The nook on the right side was still bare, but I found a matching runner online and ordered it to fill in that space. I did some work organizing the kitchen (one of many subsequent reorganizations), and inspected the piping beneath the bathroom sink as I hoped to be able to easily turn off the supply and replace the drain, meaning we could buy a new vanity and sink sooner than later.

The dumpster I’d ordered arrived at 0900, after some frustration when the poor phone (and worse phone/internet/data) signal meant I couldn’t get in touch with the company or even know that I’d hear from the driver en route. But all worked out well, and by 0930 I was at work on the aqua gambrel shed, cleaning it of all its accumulated junk–lots of styrofoam meat trays, newspapers, and junk. I’d bought some inexpensive metal ramps at Walmart earlier in the week, which I’d planned to use to get the tractor into this shed for storage, but now I pressed them into service so I could drive the tractor right into the dumpster–very handy. But these ramps were junk and clearly not rated for enough weight: they crumbled with my very first load into the dumpster. But I made them work as needed, eventually propping them up with bricks beneath for support, and scraps of wood on top.

The shed eventually filled the dumpster almost halfway, and that was with me packing it carefully and compacting the loads with the bucket each time I dumped. As I’d noticed with the way things had been stored in the house before, some of the “saved” items, particularly newspapers in this case, were at least originally very carefully stored and organized; the newspapers, dating back many years, were separated by year and by newspaper brand. But at some point it had all gone wrong.

It was a beautiful, warm day, and meanwhile, Heidi worked around the property to start pulling the tarps (and other covers) off some of the myriad piles lining the driveway over most of its length. Again, these piles of random stuff–mostly wood scraps and kindling–were “protected” in what had originally been careful and thoughtful ways, though in the end the tarps only promoted dry rot that turned most of the wood into dusty, crumbling uselessness. But one of the three sheds was cleaned out and viable for use going forward–very satisfying.

After finishing this round of work around 1530, and cleaning up, we took a late-day trip to Walmart for a basic (temporary) shelf for clothes in the bedroom, an extension for the dryer vent so we could vent it outside where it belonged (we’d been using it with a filter box led to the inside), some kitchen stuff, a small tabletop grill and more.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

David Garcia, his son, and one other helper arrived around 0815 as scheduled to begin the attic work. We set it up that they would bring items down from the attic and place them by the front door, where Heidi and I could go through them as needed. Then, I could load things in the tractor to bring to the dumpster. As with most of the rest of the house, there was an abundance of Cathy’s clothes, old newspapers, and lots of just plain junk. Unfortunately, there was very little worth keeping, though we did keep several things. Most went to the dumpster, though I set several things aside to take to one of our favorite places here–what we call the “give it away” section at the local transfer station. (Insert Red Hot Chili Peppers song here.)

Afterwards, I offered David the title to the Cavalier if he wanted it–no cost. I got it running after a little (unanticipated) difficulty, then kept it running thereafter. He was happy and returned later in the day with his brother to pick up the car, and I signed over the title. A good deal as far as I was concerned; the car had basically no value and was a burden to us, but it did run well, and if they wanted to clean up the mold and mildew inside, great.

The attic contents filled the dumpster (with a pile left over), so I called Davis Disposal, and they were here with a replacement by 1400; the driver dropped the empty in the field across the street, then came in for the full one, then switched them back out at the field, and brought in the new empty replacement.

With a fresh dumpster, and after loading the remainder of the pile from the attic, I was excited to turn to the rusty, broken-down metal shed nearby, a real scourge on the landscape. I hand-loaded some items from outside the shed, and started ducking inside to pull items out, but this got tiresome quickly, so instead I used the tractor to break down the shed, then load it (and its contents) in pieces into the dumpster, crushing down the metal effectively along the way. By the end of the day, this left just a pile of old kindling from a little lean-to that had been behind the shed itself.

Also during the afternoon, David from Bundick Well and Pump arrived at 1300 to inspect the septic and well. He’d already had a previous visit (unbeknownst to me) and had done some research beforehand, so was well-prepared and informed. The septic tank and a pumping station turned out to be in the weird pit near the house, and the pump was in good working order; the tank did not need to be pumped. The leach field was somewhere down the driveway, according to the septic plan on file, and he told us that if there were no signs of leakage or wet spots, that we were fine and to leave well-enough alone. The well was located under a pair of flat stones I’d found earlier, over by the fence leading to the northern neighbors.

Friday, April 14, 2023

During the morning, I continued work filling the dumpster with the remainder of the old kindling and debris from behind the old metal shed. As I worked, I uncovered a sort of platform and soon discovered that beneath it was an old cast iron tub, with an old water heater inside: these were the appliances that had been in the house when Dee bought it, as seen in some of the old photos. With the tractor, I dug this out and eventually got it into the dumpster, where it formed a nice barrier to help me load more in front of it (or behind it? Further in the dumpster)

I continued working, picking up various piles of wood (kindling and stacked survey stakes), old tarps and some old masonry, till the dumpster was as full as I could get it, after which I called for a replacement at about 1041. (The replacement arrived at 1445.)

In the meantime, I took some time to move a pile of firewood that was in front of the Lodge to another place where there was already an existing pile, more out of the way. Then, we loaded up the car and took a full load of stuff from the attic to the give-it-away pile (dishes, old chairs, and more). Once the new dumpster arrived in mid-afternoon, I worked for the rest of the afternoon at loading it with bricks, stakes, logs, and lumber piles from alongside the driveway, just working through the piles as logically as possible.

Saturday, April 15, 2023

After an early-morning trip to Walmart for various needs, we were home by 0730 with sausage biscuits. When it was time to go to work, I got started by pushing the big brush pile near the turnaround–where I’d pushed all the brush that had been cut (by others) from around the house and elsewhere, and which was a real eyesore–into the dumpster. I’d asked whether brush was OK and received an affirmative answer, and at the moment we didn’t really have a good or known option (this was soon to change). In any event, it was very satisfying to move this unsightly brush pile, and it made a big difference to the feel of the whole area.

When I’d pushed some brush over some of the leaves in the turnaround area, I noticed a wet spot on the ground, most likely a leak related to the increased pump cycling I’d noticed earlier in the week. The location more or less made sense given the nearby well location. I’d have to call the well company on Monday.

When we’d broken down the old metal shed, I’d found and removed several containers of old paint–mostly 5 gallon containers of old roofing paint–and set them aside for “proper” disposal. We’d noticed at the local waste disposal area there was a sign suggesting old paint must be taken to the dump in, appropriately, Painter, a bit further away, but the hazmat area was only open for specific hours on Saturdays. Since it was Saturday, we decided to take the paint there. At first, I had a bit of a problem convincing the attendant to accept the paint, since some of the cans didn’t clearly identify their contents, but eventually good will prevailed and I was able to leave the paint there for disposal. Phew. Afterwards, we drove randomly around the area: Painter, Pungoteague, Boston. As was common in the area, we found there were few places where we could actually see the water (which was, as always, our goal), but when we could get a glimpse it was always fun to see neighboring creeks and other waterfront properties.

Returning home a bit after 2, I went back to to work loading whatever I could into the dumpster–more wood and brush piles from along the driveway–till it was nearly full. I closed the rear door, leaving room for a bit more stuff over the top before calling for another new one. Among the areas cleaned up was down by the waterfront near the house, where there was some debris that Dee had apparently thrown in there to help shore up the bank: Old plastic shutters from the house, boots (there were more random rubber boots scattered throughout the property than I could believe), old underwear (usually just the elastic tops), and that sort of thing. This was getting to be old news by now, but still got us chuckling and/or shaking our heads. Oh, Dee.

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Thinking that we wanted to replace the old vanity in the bathroom, I measured the Acadia to see if a new one would fit inside: it would. So this meant we could go shopping for one soon. The old one was pretty beat, and buying a basic replacement seemed like it would greatly dress up the bathroom for the immediate term.

To fill some of the time before I felt I could go outdoors and make noise (0900 on a Sunday), I moved some excess things out of Dee’s room/office to the shed to clear the decks, then painted the old drawer fronts and now-open interior of the old kitchen cabinet to keep spruce it up some more for our current needs. I certainly looked forward to replacing all this and more in the kitchen, but for now it was what we had.

I attacked this old wooden truck body, which Dee had repurposed as a storage area for some of his survey tools (stakes, hammers, ribbons). In my zeal to dismantle and remove this thing mostly with the tractor, I ended up spilling a couple coffee cans full of little nails all over the ground but I got them cleaned up without repercussions. I got all of this into the dumpster, filling it nearly flush from front to back. While I was doing this, Heidi and the dogs cut some small brush from the end of the driveway where the brush pile had been.

Later, we worked on the waterfront, removing several smaller trees and limbing others to continue to improve the view. Many of these overhung the creek, so to allow us to pull in the cut branches I devised a weighted line using a folding grapnel that Heidi had found somewhere, which let me get a line on the branch before cutting with the pole saw. We cut these branches into manageable lengths and stacked them for later disposal, since the dumpster was too full for them now.

Later, tired of the ragged clothesline (and more elastic underwear strips and old boots) festooned along the dock, I ventured carefully out the rickety structure to cut down the lines, a nice improvement if far from perfect. It was nice to get out there for the first time, however briefly, but it also gave me some confidence that maybe I could cut a couple of the big pine branches drooping over the dock another time.

Monday, April 17, 2023

I called Bundick at 0800 about the water leak, then called Davis Disposal and left a message to have the dumpster exchanged again. Tommy from Bundick arrived a little after 10, having drawn the short straw for this small job. After some rather extended and careful hand digging, he finally found the leaking pipe: It wasn’t really where expected. The pipe ran straight out from the well towards the trees next to the old metal shed location, right under the turnaround. Somewhere in there it must also make a 90-degree bend towards the house, but it wasn’t in the area he’d dug up. He repaired the problem quickly and was done at 1315 ($297). The full dumpster got picked up about 1100, but he had to take it to the landfill and return with the same container, as there weren’t spares on hand. The empty dumpster was back and in place by 1230.

Working from the dock during the afternoon, I carefully cut several branches overhanging the area, which we’d secured with lines and the throwable weighted line before cutting. We also cut quite a few more small trees from the bank on the east side of the house, leaving others for another time–taking an incremental approach to our clearing needs. I got all the piles of cut brush from the past day loaded into the dumpster via the tractor, then picked up and loaded several more of the messy brush/lath piles from around the gray shed, filling the dumpster about 1/3 by the end of the day.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

It was a beautiful early morning, clear and cool with pleasant dew points.

We headed up towards Salisbury to the nearest Home Despot in our search for a new vanity. All we wanted at this point was something inexpensive to renew the appearance and function of the bathroom–not necessarily a “forever” piece. As we drove through Pocomoke City, we passed a Lowe’s on the right, and decided to turn around and go there instead. This saved us 30 minutes or more each way, and this happenstance finding revolutionized our future shopping needs too. We found a 30″ vanity that was all inclusive, with a cultured marble top and sink, along with a new faucet and some drain parts. The old vanity was 36″ wide, but we could make due with the slightly smaller one.

Back home around 1115, I got right to work removing the old vanity, which went right in the dumpster. The new vanity was easy to install, but I had some issues getting the drain to work because the existing drain pipe exited the wall at an angle and created clearance issues with the new sink drain. I couldn’t make the parts I had on hand work, so we went into Exmore to Ace to get some caulking (for installing the top) and additional plumbing parts.

These parts still weren’t the right thing to fit this unusual situation, so I abandoned the drain for the immediate moment but got the countertop installed and bedded.

We worked outside for much of the afternoon, cleaning up various piles, and Heidi cut down some raspberry cane-like stuff growing along the driveway. I was using the tractor to clean up some messy brush and debris piles near the street but managed to drive over a big nail that was in part of an old fence that was buried in the pile, causing a flat. I limped the tractor back up the driveway towards the shed where I could take the tire off and figure out where to take it for repair.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Headed out on the early side alone to go to Ace for more plumbing parts, then over to Coastal Tire when they opened at 8 to hopefully get the tire repaired. They were very helpful there, but told me to go up to Onley to Tractor Supply for an inner tube needed, so I drove up there, found the tube, and returned to the shop, where they fixed the tire immediately for $20. I was hope by 10, where I finally finished off the sink drain with a flexible, adjustable piece of piping; even this was a tough fit, but it worked.

I put the repaired tire back on the tractor and got going loading more stuff in the dumpster, including the pile near the road (this time by hand and looking carefully for nails). Later, I was trying to scoop up a large pile of bricks and broken mortar located halfway up the driveway, but had trouble getting any traction. At some length I determined the 4WD had stopped working for reasons unknown; there had been no bad sounds or anything. The tractor was fairly hobbled by this, and I couldn’t even get it up the ramps into the dumpster any more. Discouraging. Our internet was virtually nonexistent, so I couldn’t do any real troubleshooting. I thought it might be because the hydraulic oil level seemed low, and since I had none on hand we drove to the nearest John Deere dealer up in Pokomoke to buy some. As it happened, the oil wasn’t low, and this wasn’t the problem. Home around 1700.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Early in the day I spackled the wall near the new vanity, in the narrow space left from where the original had been, and painted it with some white paint on hand. I installed some nonskid strips in the shower after cleaning and drying it carefully.

At work outside, I finished filling the dumpster with brush piles from further out the driveway, along with additional piles and old tarps from some of the other piles. I had to do a lot more hand loading since the tractor wasn’t as useful in RWD only. By mid-day, the dumpster was filled once more, and I called Davis for what would be the final pickup this time around, as we were heading back to Maine on Saturday early.

Near the top of the driveway, we cut down some large limbs that were overhanging the driveway (and dead), storing them in an ongoing brush pile on the property for later disposal. One branch saw me standing on the tractor seat with the pole saw in order to reach the branch. I had tried to set up very carefully, but as this branch fell, it took a weird mid-air turn and hit me…ended up OK but not a good situation to repeat. Heidi cleaned up the edges of steps to the dock and some of the creeper vines crawling up the house.

Later on, we loaded up the various plumbing parts I’d bought but not used on the sink drain project and we returned them at Ace, then went to Tractor Supply for some real ramps that I could use going forward and to get the tractor into the shed (I’d thrown the beat, broken, and bent ramps in the final dumpster). On the way home, we stopped at a few of the many antique stores in the area, and found some interesting books, some vintage corning ware, and then at the Exmore Emporium found a nice pine chest that was perfect for the bedroom–only $97.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Last day, and a bit loose-endy. I took a zillion pictures around the whole property to document where things were at this point–lots of progress this time.

I also documented the inside of the house for posterity. With things changing every time, an ongoing record of progress was nice.

With some difficulty, I got the tractor stored safely in the shed (and noted some minor modifications to make next time, to open up a bit more space), then stowed tools, set up the car with tailgate rack and overhead rack, packed, cleaned the house, and generally killed time. We planned to leave in the wee hours, so we had an early night.