29.   The Labour Day long weekend traditionally marks the end of the summer camping season here in Newfoundland, as usual it arrived all too soon.

28.   Once again the crew headed to Maffer & Chrissy's cabin in Tors Cove to celebrate another successful summer. This year was very special  we were also celebrating the recent birth of baby Gavin who is the son of Maffer and Chrissy, the first baby in our crew!

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25.   French brought up his '99 Polaris Sportsman which was recently outfitted with fancy new Mud Bug tires, I had Project Foreman, and Long picked up a rental Polaris Scrambler 4x4. The three of us managed to log quite a few miles cruising the trails of the Southern Shore without getting too too tangly this trip.

24.   Up until this trip, we always had bonfires in front of the cabin, which made parking a pain. Today we decided to clear away the Alder Bushes out behind the cabin and build a new larger, safer, more comfortable fire pit back there.

23.   Using the bikes with a couple straps & cables we hooked onto the alders one by one and pulled them out with ease. We piled them up over by the well to dry out and burn next year.

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18.   During the course of this operation, the fragile UV-ray weakened plastic well cover got damaged (most likely by Sooley), so we cut up one of our new water barrels and made a repair.

17.   With the fire pit moved to the rear of the cabin we had way more space and flexibility parking vehicles. With rain in the forecast we quickly threw together a tarp awning on the front deck to keep us dry while barbequing.

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8.   There was one large rock in the middle of the driveway that always had to be avoided by anyone driving a car. Sunday morning Maffer, Sooley French & Bill got out the shovels and started to dig. This rock was like an iceberg, the worst of it was below the surface!

7.   With the rock dug out and loosened Mark got out his tow chain, hooked it around the rock and onto his Dodge Dakota. With a little finesse in 4-low they had the rock extracted just like a bad tooth!

6.   With the rock removed and hole filled I started grading the road. I  hooked onto the old cast iron woodstove with Project Foreman and drove up and down the lane levelling out all the high spots. 

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3.   Towards the end I use French as ballast and we did a fine job of fixing up the driveway. 

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1.   All in all it was quite a productive weekend. The wet rainy weather eventually cleared off enough to test out our new fire pit, and everyone had a great time.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith