July 20

Here we got all of these boats with our house and Doug has no time to use them.  He is barely home and has no idea where anything in the house is.  So, July 20, I sent him out with the boys to check out the boats.  He took Brenden down to our boat dock and jumped in one of the boats.  About an hour later, they came walking home.  I asked if they had fun and Doug said no, all they had done was rowed from our boat dock to the neighborhood boat dock not all that many feet away.  I guess there is something wrong with the lag bolts or whatever holds the oars on the boat and they kept flying up and about whacking Doug in the head.  They came home for a motor.  So, we loaded up the motor and took it down to the dock, but there was a problem with the motor.  We ended up taking our snowmobile trailer down to the dock to get the boat and bring it back to try to get it all figured out.  Finally, Doug had the motor up and running and I drove them back to the neighborhood dock (3 houses down the road).  

Please note that this is July and I am wearing a hoodie.

On they way we saw a bull moose and twin calves and we had to stop and take pictures for a while.  So, then, the boys were headed out.  This time Doug decided to take Nolan and Brenden.  I waited to make sure they had the motor up and running and they were off.  

I drove back home and got Ethan bathed and in bed.  Several hours passed.  I was mad because the boys were very late for bed.  Then I was worried.  Then I was mad and worried.  Finally, Doug called me on his cell phone around 11:00 and told me I better come get the boys at the boat dock because they were tired and he was too and he was not about to carry them home.  Somewhere out on the lake, they stopped to fish and Doug turned off the motor.  When he went to restart it, he didn't know his own strength and he yanked a little too hard and pulled the starter right out of the motor.  He had been rowing for hours with the oars that would not stay in place and kept coming unattached from the boat.  So much for all the great free stuff that came with the house.  

Doug just spent a large wad of money on a new motor (although I still contest the last one was fine and there was something wrong with the operator).