Putting In the Pier

I am not a lover of chores, but there's one I truly enjoy, and that's installing the pier at our Birch Lake cabin. That's partly because of all that the job portends: a seemingly endless spring, summer and autumn, filled with fishing, swimming, sunset watching, visits from friends and family. Perhaps that makes the sheer mechanics of it, enjoyable in themselves, all the more so.

The first time we put the pier in, three years ago, it was a bit of a project. The whole thing was new, and my son and I had to figure out how to assemble the various components, notably the main supports. That meant screwing baseplates onto the posts, sliding the crosspieces on, and setting them in position. Then there was the matter of bolting on the rails that would hold the cedar boards, and getting everything meticulously square and level. Now that we have the main supports assembled, it's just a question each spring of moving them into position and bolting the rails on. Because I put the supports back in the same order each year, only a modest amount of leveling is required.

I put the pier in this year the Saturday before Easter, which was April 7. It took all of an hour and 15 minutes, start to finish. Square, level, crescent wrench, 5/16-inch socket wrench -- that's it. Eighteen nuts to thread onto bolts and tighten down. Carrying the cedar boards from under the screen porch down the steep slope to our waterfront was a bit tiring, but the pier is only 40 feet long, so at two 2-foot sections per trip, that's 10 times up and down. I spread that out over two days, and so it wasn't taxing.

Now the pier is in place. I bring my boat to the lake on opening day of fishing season, Saturday, May 5. A pleasant chore is done and done well. A long open-water season lies ahead.