Home Made Raft: A No Python Adventure

With all the rain and wet weather, we decided we needed a little fun to go with it.  We figured if we had a lake, why not build a boat?

We took some black plastic barrels we had and set them under an old pallet.  This provided a great base.

Next we needed a way to secure the barrels to the deck so that they didn’t float away.  I got some toggle bolts from the local farm store and put two into each barrel.

Once the barrels were secure with toggle bolts, I also put a ratchet strap around each set of barrels just for the sake of redundancy.  Then we needed some other accessories.  We attached a rope onto the front with an eyebolt, shortened the legs of some old kitchen chairs and screwed them to the deck, then made a set of oars from stair railing and scrap lumber.  

The only other thing we needed was a flag.  Cash took care of that.  

We spent about three hours floating around our new ‘lake’ and had a lot of fun.  After launch, Cash and I had a little bit of a hard time controlling the rig.  We had to stop to make some minor modifications to the oar system, and then we were off.  We paddled through the flooded fields and into the woods.  It was really surreal to float through the trees.  It felt like we were in some other place in the world.  Cash was a little worried about getting attacked by pythons, but I told him if we did I would take care of that old such-and-such rascal and show it who was boss of these waters!

I was a little concerned that we might get hung up on the fences, but in the end the water was so high we just floated right over the top of all of them.  

Gertie followed us into the water, and got stuck in a floating debris field in the woods.  In the end we had to rescue her.  (Silly pup.)  

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the raft in action.  I was not so sure of our raft’s seaworthiness.  I didn’t want to risk dropping any electronics into the drink!

Our maiden voyage being a great success, we now are waiting for the water to go down far enough that we can fit under the river bridges.  Then we will take a journey down the North Skunk to Grandpa‘s house.  We still don’t have a name for our vessel.  We are open to suggestions!  Comment below if you have any good ideas.