What are some ways you would "use" water on a lakefront lot other than fishing?

Sailing
Water skiing
Snorkeling
Party boat (pontoon boat)
Rowing / kayaking / canoeing
Swimming
Just sitting with a gin tonic and chillin’, and watching others on the lake or the weather itself

Watching thunderstorms over a lake, and all kinds of storms, in fact, is alternately thrilling and relaxing.

Sleeping on a three-sided screened porch next to the water is unbeatable. Wet, too, sometimes, and still the best way to sleep.

Gardening.

How would a lake assist gardening? Sorry to sound dumb. lol

For disaster planning I would install a gas driven deep water pump to get water up into or near the house and install and hand pump bypass. I would have a spare bunker box filled with a sein net, 50 lb woven trot line lots of hooks to catch fish to eat. I’d waterproof matches cast iron skillet and a dutch oven in there as well. Spare soap water and first aid kit. Gas, fuel water and some canned rations. Extra meds and pain relief medicines, Anti diahrheah pills are a big must have.

I don’t drink anymore but a bottle of whiskey might help calm the neighbors down. If it was very remote I would have flare gun, flares, and air horn. A wool blanket or two and a tent big enough to hold my family. 3 rolls of Duct tape, 200 feet of good rope, a bowie knife and extra ammunition for my guns. A couple of books, flashlights a solar windup radio, extra batteries would be an ideal disaster stash on my acre lake front pad.

WOW ! Thanks for that, Mr Long Lost ! Some of that would need translating such as the “spare bunker box filled with seine net.” And best of luck with the sobriety; hope it lasts forever!

Mr. Laureth is a homebrewer. One step in homebrewing involves quickly cooling down a bunch of liquid in a container. If we ever buy property with a stream, we were considering making it into a place where we can mostly-submerge this container to cool it, as the water flows by. Perhaps lakefront property could be similarly used.

@laureth yes, I could see how that would work for you. Where we live the water tends to be warm, though. But if you’re in Montana or Wyoming it would be perfect.

@Aster A bunker box is a storage container that has a chance of surving the house being damage ala tornado or hurricane or in rising waters can be quickly grabbed during an evacuation. A seine net is those long fine netting typicall two peole use to sweep trought the shallows to catch bait fish for fishing. A trot line is a heavy fishing line you attach multiple hookd too and toss out in the water with a 1–2 lb weight and go read a book and check every hour or so for cuaght fish. It is illegal in many waters but hey…its a disaster and all bets are off.

@Aster For watering the plants. Irrigation.

There are a number of great camps on the shores of Lake Placid without road access that pump their water, including what they drink, from the lake.

The lake gets deep very quickly and is clean; our pump was about 40 feet deep. We had the kids snorkel down to check the mechanism and the shore owners’ association tested the water every spring for run-off and potability.

We also shared a long fire hose and submersible pump with our nearest neighbor that we could use in case of fire.

The camps were build in the 1920’s out of wood and had a tendency to blaze up. When we opened camp for the summer we always had a fire drill. Run to the boat house, plug in and drop the pump into the water, and gallop several hundred feet dragging canvas fire house. Luckily we never had to put it to the test. The kids thought it was hilarious.

But the only other option was to call the town offices and wait for the fireboat to chug out to us…a twenty-minute prospect on a good day.

Skinny dipping.

Disaster planning: I’d have 400 ft of hose and a 3 hp gasoline operated pump so I had water for fires, flushing the toilets, washing, and drinking.

Enjoyment: Every July 4th, I’d invite my friends and have the biggest fireworks display I could manage.

Heck, when we were kids we took our baths out there, washed our hair out there, and washed our clothes out there. We also swam and played and took naps on air mattresses. What fun memories.