2016 year end wrap-up!

Bonnie and me were able to have another weekend together to close-up the cottage for the season. This is starting to be a tradition, nice!

Friday night we hung out with the neighbors downtown. The weather was unseasonably beautiful on Friday with a high of 75 deg!

Casino Marina - absolute weather perfection for Nov 18th!

The island is still full of changing leaves. Bonnie took this amazing photo from Titus road heading east.

Titus road - Photo by Bonnie

Saturday afternoon, we watched the Buckeyes game in Captain Ron's barn. This is also becoming a fall tradition. Funny, the weather turned on us from being so nice on Friday to cold and windy for Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday morning, we winterized our cottage for season. Around 2:00 pm, we were done!

2016 was another great year for the cottage. Major project accomplishments included:

• Staining the deck, retaining wall, cistern, catch-basin and picnic table
• Hanging the great-room ceiling trim
• Installing the washer/dryer back
• Extending the drain pipe in the back lot to fix the yardscape

I seriously think the only thing left on the original big list is to paint some interior doors and a little trim paint.

This year, I finally got to spend some time with family on the island instead of working on the cottage 24/7.

Summer 2016 - Happy Family

Already looking forward to 2017...

Election Day - 2016

Donald J Trump has been elected as the 45th president of the United States

Kids Halloween weekend

This was one of the last family weekends planned for this season. The 4-H club hosted the annual family Halloween party including food, games and a hayride.

Me and Anna on the hayride

As the season slowly comes to an end, not much else to share for now...

The Cleveland Indians are headed to the World Series!

Late trip

Haven't been to the island for a few weeks. The weather was absolutely perfect and I got some work done around the cottage. I stained the catch-basin top and the retaining wall.

The Cleveland Indians have a 2-0 lead in the ALCS and hopefully will be making a trip to the World Series...

Harvest Fest

Had a nice little weekend with the family. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and warm all day and cool at night.

Camp fire and sparklers - oh yeah!

This has been the summer of fishing! Of course, no one caught anything EXCEPT Sophie, who always catches fish. Here is a little perch she caught right off the pier.

Sophie - lil perch

Sunday was such a beautiful day. Here a photo looking north towards the Bass islands from the Kelleys Island State Park pier.

Looking north from the pier

Sophie, lil Neil and Christina spent hours working on a secret hideaway fully furnished from random stuff they found.

Children of the corn

Anna's girls weekend!

Last weekend, Anna brought her crew up to stay at the cottage. Good time had by all. Hopefully this will be a new annual tradition for her... Love you Anna!

Anna and her school friends

Guys weekend

Had some fun with the guys last weekend. Brad and Winstone came up to party. I did get the ceiling/ wall trim finally hung as well.

I still need to paint most of the interior doors, but not much else to do other than maintenance.

See ya!

Labor Day Weekend

Had a fantastic time with the family last weekend. Nothing is better than a looooooong holiday weekend. Plus the weather was absolutely fantastic!

Here is a sneak peak of a family photo from a series that will probably be used for our Christmas cards this year.

Family style

The Appledore IV tall ship was docked at Kelleys Island all weekend. We wanted to try and get a tour but we kept missing the schedule. So here is a photo of the ship all tied-off in the harbor.

Appledore IV - me and Bon

KILA Homecoming

It was the KILA Homecoming this past weekend. We were in the parade and had a great time all day on Saturday.

Anna - getting ready for homecoming!

Sophie and Neil and fox snake!

Fishing on Sunday afternoon

Family weekend

For having no major island event planned, we still had a jam packed weekend with the extended family. My mom came up to stay for the weekend and Bob and Judy Trapp came up for the annual party at their friend's house on the east side of the island. And last but not least, John, Amy and Ethan came up on their boat for the weekend.

Friday night Bon got ahold of the crossbow. She had the best shot of the night!

Later Friday night, we went out with my mom to meet John on his boat and then downtown to see the band at Bag the Moon.

John, Mom and me - Bag the moon

Neil, Anna and Sophie - marshmallow time at the Arnold's

Ethan, Mom and Neil

Sophie and Neil at Westbay Inn

Circus with friends

Last weekend was the annual Kelly Miller Circus. Big fun and we had our neighbors from home up Sunday through Tuesday.

Quiet before the storm, Bon and Anna came out with me on Saturday afternoon to see a band at the Casino.

Bon and Anna

Sunday afternoon, we went on a long hike thru North trail.

the whole crew

The little explorer. 

Anna and Sophie beach hiking and tree climbing

Circus time on Monday. The kids got to ride the ponies and the camel. Fun show as always.

Pony ride

Tuesday afternoon we were chilling out at Camp Patmos during the kids swimming lessons. There is a great view from the Patmos shoreline looking north.

Camp Patmos view

shady spot

The drain pipe extension, part 1

Finally got to extending the drain pipe in the back of the yard. This is not very exciting at all, but something on the cottage "to-do" list. The idea is to add more symmetrical grass area to the back yard while covering an open muddy drainage ditch, that the kids gravitate to making me crazy!

Since this job required major hand digging and the area is laden with poison ivy, I had to hire Winston (pictured below) to get it done.

"hell yeah ?!?"

Here is the new section of pipe installed by not back filled with dirt yet.

Lay some pipe

Pipe installed and 1/2 covered with dirt. I hope you can see the intended vision of more grassy yard by the woods edge.

1/2 dirt covered

Bonnie and Anna spent some time down town for the Island Fest representing KILA. Bon is on the ballot to become a legit member this Fall.

Bon & Anna - KILA

I found some cool mounts for the kayaks on Amazon. Here is the final product all mounted up tight on the shed. I think it looks super cool.

kayak mounts

July 4th weekend with the family

We had a fantastic extended weekend starting at Cedar Point and ending on Kelleys Island. Too many great memories to share here in the blog...

Cedar Point - here we come!

Fishing on the Kelleys Island State Park Pier

Having a fun summer so far. I need to do some work on the cottage some time soon!

Musicfest

Just a nice mellow "Musicfest" weekend on the island. It was great to not have any solid plans, so we could just hang-out and do whatever...

Anna and Bonnie

Sophie and Neil - Ice cream time!

Portside Marina

State Park Pier

The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Looking forward to a long 4th of July weekend coming up...

Cleveland Cavaliers - 2016 NBA Champions!

On Father's Day, June 19, 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers did the impossible and came from behind to beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals!

The city of Cleveland had gone 52 years without winning a sports championship and I have been waiting/hoping/praying for one for nearly 40 yrs since I was a little kid. The wait is over!

The Cleveland Cavaliers - 2016 NBA Champions!

This is me at the Cavs NBA championship parade downtown Cleveland on Wednesday, June 22, 2016.

All In!

I heard the crowd was over 1,000,000! Think about that...

Anniversary/Father's Day

Bonnie and me celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary this past weekend with our annual day trip to Put-In-Bay. Then the family came up to Kelleys on Sunday for a Father's Day party.

Bon on the Jet Express

Of course we stopped at our new favorite place - Mojito Bay. We got to listen to an acoustic three man band that played our requests all day long. The hanging rope-swing bar stools with sand underfoot is the best!

Bon - Mojito Bay