Celery Consciousness: Work - damn near closed down !

Greetings !!!

SO the place that I work is mostly closed down and ready fo the Winter - Three of us - 5 days/8 hrs for nearly - what - 20 days,, plus a little bit of help from others to get it to this point.

- ~40 - 25 foot long 2" pipes that hold the dock "fingers" in place have been pulled out of the MUD - yea we use a winch - and those get stacked on a rack in the Marina. Nasty Job - heavy pipes and one end has been stuck in the river mud for 6 months. ugh !

- The Electrical feeds have to be disconnected from 2 panels. The one set gets pulled back to the Shore - bout 100 feet and coiled up on 4 pallets (a Back Breaking job , even when we have 4 or 5 guys doing it) , the other sets gets flopped over to the a-joining section as that is where the Sailboat dock gets split.

- The water lines have to be disconnected and blown out with compressed air to prevent freezing,, and damage from frost.

- once those pipes holding the fingers are removed the Dock fingers attached to the sailboat dock section, are unpinned and floated over to the Boat ramp and are picked up by a Backhoe with Pallet forks attached to it and they are stacked in the Parking lot- fingers are about 20 feet long and 3 feet wide,,, stacked two deep and two high takes 1/2 the parking lot. NEVER walk on a finger that is unpinned unless you plan on Swimming !

- The Septic Pump out has to be disconnected and flushed our several times. Once complete that platform dock that it is on can be unbolted from the man dock and towed around to the front of the Marina where it stays for the winter.

- 80 Water circulators / Ice Eaters are installed around the Marina, to the Pylons that hold the Main dock and along the Side of the dock that faces the Shore - this is to prevent Ice build up . They are also installed under the fixed pier for the same reason... these Ice Eaters look like a white 5 gallon pail that is open on both ends, it has a 1 1/2 Horsepower motor inside -and an 8 inch propeller attached to the top. They weigh about 50 pounds each ! They are suspended from the docks using the same cleats that boats are tied to during the boating season.

- The sailboat dock is split into 5 pieces about 100 - 120 feet long each and they are towed over to the area between the 2 main docks, they are tied off so that they do not hot the dock or each other ,,, yea - it's pretty cool to ride the dock over into place.. as its pulled by the marina work boat.

- There are 4 Ramps (to the Pumpout dock, to the Sailboat dock, the Kayak ramp, and the main boat launch ramp) that need to be removed - three are pulled onto the shore and one is lowered to the Pump out dock. a dicey process of unbolting the ramp from the shore and then pulling it up to the land while someone rides the dock in - hoping to hold the Ramp onto the dock section, without falling in or letting the ramp slide off into the water until it gets mostly on the shore ,,,

- A plywood box is built around the wire that was coiled on the Pallets, and the wire that remains on the dock is covered with tarps, as is the Septic Pump out,

- the comfort station has to be winterized, plumping disconnected, toilet flush-o-meters removed, plunged down with Antifreeze, Water feed turned off, Shower plumbing removed and drained.

- An old row boat gets pulled out to the end of the main dock and flipped over - just incase its needed to slide across the ice for any reason.

- the Marina Boat gets removed and towed up to the Storage barn, after scrapping off the zebra Mussels and power washing the bottom. the work float that is used to pull the Pipes is disassembled, Winch removed , engine removed, and stored in the Shower, The work float tied off between main dock fingers - it can freeze in, the Kayak ramp is also relocated to a slip for the big boats , and tied between them,, it can freeze in also,, the Kayak ramp in winter seems to double a have for the beavers as they can get them selves up the onto it, and sit there in the sun grooming them selves and Sleeping !!

- Water the the Picnic are and office are disconnected and drained out. That Picnic area is locked off from the Marina side and all the Trash cans around the Marina/Picnic areas are removed, the Dumpster is locked.

unlike the last two years , I am taking to Winter off from the Marina. I have been doing some carpentry work - building sheds etc with a local guy that has a good business going doing that... and have at least one building to finish right now. I know he has other to get started - even in the Winter - last winter we sided a house in Cold Spring, and started a shed build in Pok, as well as built garden beds and small bridges out of Cedar trees for a guy in Highland falls. So we will see how this winter goes,,,,,, I have a few things around here to do also.....

I'll give you a couple that are not in the main stream ,,,

Remember the Show - HOUSE M.D. ?? Hugh Laurie - you did know he is a world class musician ?