It's been some more crazy kind of days around here.  Still very warm and very smokey.  Here is the sunrise this morning.  Sorry about the spots on the picture.  It appears the lens on my camera has been scratched.  I would like a new one because I have to change the computer settings every time I want to downloaad pictures.

You can see how smokey it is.  It is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, but that has been forecasted before with no results.  We'll see.

Grant finally got his water working.  He ended up buying a new jet pump, bleaching all the lines and buying a new filter system.  Unfortunately he ended up falling out of his small boat while trying to straighten his line with the pike pole.  He dropped the pole, the pole started to sink so as he lunged for the pole the boat tipped him into the lake.  He did get the pole but the boat kept running.  It circled around him then headed for the shore.  Mary had to swim out into the lake to get the boat.  I wish I had been there with the camera!

Yesterday Dennis, Grant and another neighbour Steve worked on setting our pump upright in the lake.  The pump sits on a tripod, with the intake sitting on the high point of the tripod.  The tripod is to keep the intake out of the mud.  Wave action and spring ice movement can move the pipe line and topple the pump.  We need to fix it permanently with some weights on the bottom of the tripod, but at this point I am happy to just have the thing upright in the lake.  It took several tries as the weight of the pump continually turned the whole thing over when they dropped it into the water.  Steve figured out some kind of knot that he could un-do by yanking on it, so they tied the rope on, and with Dennis on the pike pole and Steve on the rope and Grant operating our boat, they managed to get the pump on the bottom of the lake in the upright position.  Yay!  No more clogged filters!  They have to remove the rope since the ice in the spring will grab it and take the pump who knows where. 

The pump now sits right on the edge of the drop off in about 15 feet of water.  That is excellent as the lake is at it's lowest right now. 

We had to move Ben down to the house area because he was just getting too friendly with the ewes.  He is such a good sheep, although you don't want to ever turn your back on him, that we can just let him wander the yard.  The dogs must be either in the house or in the kennel because the border collies will just want to work him and Ben will be curious about the old dogs and could hurt them.  Rhaq is not pleased that Ben has come too close.  You can see that Ben isn't concerned in the least:

Ben really likes Dennis.  If Dennis calls him he actually calls back to Dennis.  Pretty funny.  I think Ben will be a permanent resident with us.

My project for today is to finish the foundation for the generator.  This has been a whole summer project but now I finally have the dirt to fill in the dip.  That dip fills with ice and snow then in the spring the water seeps down the foundation wall into the basement.  I figure if I fill in the dip with dirt, then place a solid foundation on top, then the generator, and then cover the generator with a roof, it should solve the drainage problem.  I am determined to get the foundation finished today!

Last night after the pump was sorted, Grant and Mary came and picked us up in their boat.  We went down the lake about 20 km to Noralee Resort for supper.  It was a great boat ride.  The air was so warm that we were in t-shirts!  A nice way to end the day in good company and good scenery.  Ok, I'm off to work!