Here I thought Fall was officially here when I tore the garden out October 1^st…..nope…I was wrong.

Fall officially arrived this morning, October 14^th.  The day the boat came out of the water for the season.  

The day dawned gray and gloomy, fittingly enough for such a sad task we had to do today.  The cloud cover was so low, you could almost reach up and touch the water laden clouds. As we had our tea and coffee first thing in the morning, I picked up Saturday’s paper, which had spent the night on the coffee table unread until this morning, and I noticed an article/warning from the local Conservation Authority indicating that heavy rainfall was in the forecast for today through to Monday.  A total of 40mm to 60mm of rain was expected.

Damn….so much for lounging in my pj’s on a Sunday morning with the paper, tea and a bagel.

I throw my clothes on and hubby gets into his ‘boat launching’ clothes and we head out the door.  A light, misty rain is starting to fall and the lake is calm, which was the first time in almost 2 weeks.  We have had monsoon winds lately and have been unable to get out fishing at all due to high winds.  Fishing season ends tomorrow and we grudgingly liberated the worms yesterday to the garden.  They had spent the past month locked into their styrofoam jail cell and were on a shelf at the back of the fridge.   At least they were now happy to be back into the soil instead of threaded onto a jig and plunged 30 feet down into the dark, cold waters of the lake to become pickerel morsels.

Hubby hooks the boat trailer onto the car and heads next door to the Cottage Camp that graciously allows us neighbours to use their ramp for personal use.  He backs the trailer into the water and walks back over to get our boat.  The rain starts into a light drizzle and I pull my hoodie up over my head….bedhead plus rain make for a lovely hairdo, good thing no one is out and about this early but the ducks.

I slip the fore and aft lines off the cleats and he shoves off in reverse, then swings around and slowly cruises around the island out front and heads over to the Camp’s boat ramp.

I walk over and meet him and grab the ropes as he sidles up to the dock.  The ropes are soaked from overnight rain and my thin gloves are instantly saturated.  Hubby climbs out of the boat and gets ready to step into the water to attach the boat to the trailer and hoist it out.  His ‘boat launching’ clothes consist of shorts and sandals.  He takes his sandals off and steps into the lake…BRRR…the water is 47F according to the fishing graph located on the dash of the boat.  Better him than me I thought, I’d rather be holding soggy, cold boat ropes than stepping into the frigid lake water and having my feet go numb.

In less than 3 minutes, the boat is safely secured to the trailer and he pulls it up the ramp.  As I follow behind, I look at the back of the boat –  perfectly centered on the trailer…. wow, first time in ages we have done that.  It is usually askew to one side or the other.  I hop into the passenger seat of the car and we head back over to the Homestead. 

I get out of the car at the end of the driveway and guide hubby as he backs the boat up the long driveway and swings it in beside the garage.  The garage is too full of stuff right now for the boat to fit.  Once he winterizes the motor and we clear a spot, it will be parked inside until next Spring out of the winter weather.

He climbs into the boat and zips up the cover, then unhooks the trailer from the car and settles the boat down on the driveway. 

We head in to finally eat breakfast and we are no sooner inside when the skies opened.  The remainder of the day sees the rain come down hard, as promised.  I look out the window later to see the ducks heading over to eat the remaining cracked corn I put out earlier…Good thing they have webbed feet, as the puddles on the lawn are getting larger by the minute.

Fall is officially here indeed…..