About Brandon Loomis

Brandon Loomis is editor of the Adirondack Explorer.

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  1. Richard Monroe says

    I’m all for maintaining and restoring lean-tos. But why dismantle and move an existing lean-to when all it really needs to stay right where it is is a new roof? “It’s an old design, it’s a safety concern- it’s too low and people bump their heads.” Well, how does moving that same lean-to to a new spot solve that better than a little landscaping work would? Or a jack? I guess folks will just occasionally bump their heads someplace else. Also, folks who move lean-tos or reorient them need to fully understand and appreciate why the current one is situated the way that it is. Turning a lean-to towards a lake to “enhance the view”, sounds like a great idea, unless you happen to be someone who camps there regularly, & know & could tell folks “If you do that, the winds off the lake will blow straight into the lean-to, along with the cold, rain, smoke, bugs & snow. Another consideration: lean-to’s and their fireplaces work together as one unit. Moving or reorienting the lean-to without doing the same to the fireplace (a-la Martha Reben) seems to me to be an unfinished job. A great lean-to with no useable fireplace on cold nights. Folks will just build their own- out of necessity, or start bringing in propane heaters, or actually building fires In the lean-tos, or shoveling coals under them (all of which I’ve seen at least evidence of being done). Seems to me those are safety concerns too. It is hard to convince me that it is more cost effective to totally dismantle one lean-to, take it somewhere, refurbish it, then relocate it somewhere else, while concurrently constructing a new lean-to, dismantling IT, hauling it to the vacant site of the one just taken down, and putting it up there. Why not just put a new roof on the one that sits fine where it is, and put a new one in the other spot. If a fresh coat of wood preservative is needed, like the new ones have, I’m pretty sure that can be pretty quickly done on site too. A new roof, some minor landscaping, maybe fixing a fireplace, and a new coat of wood preservative sure seems a lot easier & more cost effective to me than building dismantling /moving two lean-tos. Further, each of those lean-to’s has significant history. Much of it etched into their logs.”Wind Rain Fish”, “Beware the Winds”, “The He-man Group was here” MEAN something at Bull Rush Bay. The He man Group (that’s not me, by the way- I just use them as an example) weren’t “here” someplace else. MY recommendation would be, that public input be sought from those who use those structures, perhaps a “Lean-to Advisory Board” of some sort, in the planning stages, before work is done. Otherwise, the best of intentions run the risk of producing something less than the best of results. And yes- I WOULD (gladly) “put my Money where my mouth is” and volunteer to help with maintenance & restoration of the Bull Rush Bay lean-to in place. In fact, my brother and I already have. Our offer was turned down.

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