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!