Northerners, how late do you keep going out?

[Billtex2000]

Lake Wallenpaupack - Eastern PA. Done the second Wednesday in October...my marina closes.

 

[Chillypilot]

Still hoping for one last good weekend, the fall colours are amazing on Lake Simcoe.

 

[dgfreeze]

Most of the furniture in the house came from Gary at Dutch Craft furniture in Berlin. Enjoy the day and have some pie at Mrs Yoders for me.

The Amish make great furniture, no doubt. My mother actually grew up Amish, so while most of my Amish relatives are in Belle Center, close to Indian Lake, I’ve got a few more distant ones also up there in Holmes County. And our destination is Twin Locust Furniture, but I’m sure they all know each other. Lol

 

[Glen]

Looks like a decent next few days for some boating. Going to get the kids from school tomorrow and go out for a while and then the weekend looks good as well. Had to pay for storage before, and this weekend would be the "put in" date for the pontoon to go into hibernation but being able to store the boat at home gives me the opportunity to keep the season alive. How late are you northerners going to keep going this season?

for the last few years we’ve found a day between Christmas and New Year to get on the water (70+).
always fun.

 

[Babin Farms]

@Glen, Same here for winter weather, past few years we've had February days in the 60's just never had the opportunity to go out.. Have to see if the DW is going to want to try it this year. So do you still winterize your boat or just plan an taking it out in the winter once or twice?

 

[biffdotorg]

Put a fork in it for us. We had roughly 4" of snow on our lawn last weekend. It has all melted to green grass again. But that is the game Mother Nature plays with us here in MN.

Fall colors are best enjoyed from the SXS during tweener season. Give us another month and we will be rockin' the sleds.

 

[BDOne]

We brought ours home to Cincinnati from Lake Cumberland last weekend. Columbus Day weekend is typically our last planned outing, though we do stay on the houseboat for a weekend every month or two in the off season.

I guess it's just as well that we still have some good weather left after we brought her home. I have a list of upgrades (SeaDek, bilge pump, flush/tow valves, etc), plus winterization to get through before putting her in storage in my BIL's barn in Liberty, IN. All of my neighbors are away with their campers this weekend, so I will have no distractions to keep me from working on my boat.

 

[Babin Farms]

Went out today and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! Took the tower off to get it in the garage but still hoping for another good day or two to go out yet.

 

[Babin Farms]

Kids had a good day

 

[dgfreeze]

Wow, your trees are still green. Ours here on Alum Creek in Columbus are turning all kinds of colors. Was a beautiful day, but I’m not holding my breath for another outing. This was probably it for us, but I’ll hold off on winterizing for another couple weeks just in case.

 

[Plpbecks]

Awesome day here in NE Ohio, made it out on Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. May have been the last day of the season (But next Sunday currently showing 70 and 10%, so maybe not? One of the gifts of being a trailer boater, the marina doesn’t dictate when my season is over!

 

[Sbrown]

We were just out yesterday, hoping it wasn't the last trip of the season.

 

[Speedling]

Camping season now. Cleaning garage to store boat this year. Hope to install trim tabs, fix up some sound system stuff, and maybe get some upholstery done. Had blown tower speakers so need to install the backups i had gotten a while ago.

 

[Babin Farms]

Yep, trees still green and grass still growing. Not going to winterize until I have to. Wife has been talking about going to Clinton Lake since we got the AR. We'll have to wait and see if there are more good boating weekend days left this year???

 

[biglar155]

30 miles north of Milwaukee here.

I COULD keep boating into October but when the kids are back in school we start getting busy (and the bugs start going through the house).

Normally I take the first nice Saturday I get after mid-September to pack her away. I've actually boated into late-September once or twice - and it's very nice - but that was back when we had time. (You know, back when you didn't think you had time but now that you're older you realize how much time you actually had compared to how little time you have now? Rinse and Repeat.)

It's partially because I refuse to fool with a garden hose when the temps get below 50 and partly because I need to stuff the boat in back of the storage unit so that I can pile all of the "summer stuff" (deck furniture, lawn mower, etc) in front of it and still have room to jam the Daysailor in there.

The Daysailor has to go in storage because it sits in the driveway in the summer. A blocked driveway means I can't get in the garage and not getting in the garage means I have to scrape windows in the morning.

I hate scraping windows in the morning.

My goal each year is to be parked indoors by trick-or-treat weekend. I've hit it roughly 90% of the time we've been in the house.

I've got to re-arrange storage and move a bunch of things around this coming weekend but I intend to be parked inside by Sunday night. Trick-or-Treat will be on the 26th.

Achieved my goal!

I took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend to shift things around storage and the garage. By 3:00 p.m. yesterday I had my garage floor clear and swept and the Expedition parked inside with room for the "Traversty" next to it.

I looked at my wife and said "There. Now the weather can turn to $h#%^ all it wants. We're ready."

It wasn't 60 minutes later that the temp dropped to 47 degrees and a cold fog rolled in. It was actually kinda spooky.

One last thing to do to get ready for winter: Prep the snow-thrower. Belts shall be adjusted, clearances shall be checked, loose bolts shall be tightened. She's 20 years old and still going strong.

 

[buckbuck]

I guess I should do that before I actually need it.

 

[Babin Farms]

Get it ready so it won’t snow or don’t get it ready & it snows nonstop, isn’t that the way it usually goes??

 

[biglar155]

Get it ready so it won’t snow or don’t get it ready & it snows nonstop, isn’t that the way it usually goes??

EXACTLY.

One spring I was loading it up in my utility trailer to bring it back to storage. As I was putting it on the trailer, the Fredonia Marshal was driving past. I saw him making "wave off" signs at me. I stopped and looked at him quizzically.

He rolled down his window and said "Don't do THAT! You're gonna make it snow!"

 

[Babin Farms]

Yep, prob won’t snow much here this year. Late last winter took the sled in for TSB for fuel tank cracks and told them to go through it & check entire thing over while they had it. Got everything on the list fixed and ready for this upcoming season so we’ll see

 

[biglar155]

Yep, prob won’t snow much here this year. Late last winter took the sled in for TSB for fuel tank cracks and told them to go through it & check entire thing over while they had it. Got everything on the list fixed and ready for this upcoming season so we’ll see

Seems like the cycle around here. I watch guys sell snowmobiles just before a near-record winter. A year later I see others go out and buy 3 sleds and a trailer and we have nothing but little skims all year. Can't even run 'em in that.

Here's to hoping you have a decent season.