December 2008

Le Chateau De Quintin

Built in the 12th Century, this castle is a wonderful backdrop for many Christmas events. Lit up at night it is simply magical. It is about an hour away from home

Transitioning again

Reporting from an undisclosed location while in political exile, we have temporarily left the Golden State behind yet again while we continue on what seems like ‘Pee Wee’s’ big adventure. After my visit with Kami in Los Angeles, we flew to Seattle Washington to catch up with Vance and Amy and 5 of our grandkids, arriving just in time to celebrate my man Christopher’s second birthday.

Kami and Dad

Many have asked how he is doing and the long and the short of it is that he is stable, whatever that means. He is not in the hospital and that’s good. On the other hand, he is at a stage where he is not making huge medical progress either. As you can see from the photo he is still on a humidified oxygenated ventilator with his trach. As a result, he is unable to make a sound, cry out loud or speak so he has begun to learn the very fundamentals of sign language. Christopher is quite adept at asking for his favorite cartoons and loves to operate any remote control. He has a feeding tube as he is still unable to swallow, is in a wheelchair as he is unable to walk and will need 24 hour nursing care for quite some time to come, perhaps permanently.

He maybe disabled but he’s no dummy. He is a mischievous 2 year old, a handful under the best of circumstances. Lately he has taken to disconnecting his ventilator, knowing full well that the monitor he is also connected to around the clock will sense a problem and set off a warning alarm. This in turn will cause Dad, Mom or the nurse to come running to his side to reconnect it. As a two year old it’s fun to ‘snap your fingers’ day or night (by disconnecting) and watch someone run to your bedside. Mr. Funny Guy is scheduled to meet his behavior modification therapist shortly……

Typically, if there is such a thing, he will make most of any medical progress he is going to make between his 3^rd and 5^th birthday. This however, is by no means assured. While this little boy will clearly have a special place in heaven, I believe his mom and dad will have earned a place right next to him for have knowingly, willingly and lovingly turned their lives inside out to meet his every need.

Kayla, grandma and Cassie

While visiting with the rest of the munchkins, we drove down to Oregon for a week to spend time with daughter Cassie and the newest, sweetest addition to the family, Kayla Marie. Both Cassie and Amy are blessed with their youngest that seem to want little more than to be fed, changed and spend the day smiling from ear to ear.

We did not get to see son in law Matt as he was off to Texas working on the installation of commercial wind turbines. It was great giving another one of our kids a little mom and dad face time, helping with ‘honey do’s’, having mom cook and help with laundry and get to spend some time with Kayla and 5 year old Marilyn who followed me around like a magnet. It was wonderful seeing Cassie’s cute little house and giving her a much needed break from being a brand new mom alone at home.

Glad to be home

Few things put a bigger smile on my girl’s face than to be boarding the plane to go back home to France for Christmas. We love spending time with the kids but flying to Europe marks an almost uninterrupted 5 delicious months of no responsibilities. Then again, the Bee does that too…

Within 24 hours of our arrival we had restocked the larder** and put up our Christmas tree, as well as decorated the house for the holidays. We are among the last here to do so as the village had all its seasonal decorations up already.

Lannion (the nearest little city) literally rolls out the red carpets on its sidewalks for Christmas shoppers. This month’s blog is being posted on the fly as we will not have internet at home for perhaps another week as it takes a long time for the phone company to reconnect us. Having just arrived, it is too early to contemplate any ‘projects’ but I am beginning to see the gleam in my bride’s eyes. I know trouble when I see it.

The big news here is the giant peeing contest between the French president Sarkosy and his detractors over a new law he is trying to pass regarding allowing people to work on Sundays. The French, who seem allergic to work, fear that simply allowing people to work on Sundays will encourage employers to put pressure on them to fill those positions. Even the provision of double time pay won’t budge many into messing with their traditions. By and large it is a replay of last year’s battle over a proposed law allowing people to work more than a 35 hour work week.

**Every six months when we transition from the Bee to Europe or back, we clean out our refrigerator and pantry and give or toss any remaining contents. Then we fly 9,000 miles and restock everything from scratch. When we reintroduce our home in California into the mix we will get to do it every four months. At least the ketchup won’t go bad…

Treguier

Last winter I wrote about our little village called Langoat. (Invariably mispronounced by English speaking people as ‘Lan-goat’. The correct pronunciation is more like ‘Lawn go at’). This month I thought I would share a little about our adjacent town called Treguier. It’s only 4 miles from us but is within a larger area known for its rugged pink-hued granite coastlines, incredible beaches, fertile farms, and mysterious moorlands. Of all of France’s provinces, Brittany is the least “French.” Fiercely independent, Bretons are loyal to their families and traditions, while sharing the Celtic heritage of Ireland, Wales, and Normandy.

Brittany only officially became part of France in the fifteenth century, a relationship that remains precarious to this day. Road signs are in Breton (a Celtic dialect) as well as French. Roman ruins and aqueducts are tucked into many of the hills. ‘Menhirs’, tumuli, and dolmens (giant stone monoliths) erected between 4500 and 2000 BC dot the landscape. The area drew Gauguin and fellow painters of the Pont-Aven School, and later even Picasso and Matisse. As on the coast of Britain, it’s never too hot and there are no bugs.

Clearly, Brittany is a food lover’s paradise. Within an easy drive from the house are the great salt marshes of the Guerande peninsula, where the famous fleur du sel (sea salt) is harvested. The surrounding bays and estuaries are plumbed for oysters, scallops, shrimp and mussels. The farm lands grow artichokes, as well as leeks, lettuces, potatoes, and cauliflower. There are sweet grasses for cattle grazing, goat and sheep that produce Brittany’s distinct milk, butter, cheeses, and lait ribot (buttermilk).

One of Janice’s favorite walks is down by the flax ponds. Many of the Manoirs ’in the area dating from early in the last century were built from the profits derived from the highly sought linens that were extracted from the flax harvested then treated in these ponds.

Designated a Cite de Caractere (city of character) by the French government, the sixth-century walled city of Treguier is a port for sailboats, small fishing vessels, and yachts from around the world. It is located on the Jaudy River, where it developed around a monastery and served as a capital for the Tregor region. Built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, La Cathedrale Saint-Tugdual, a spectacular cloister of forty-eight arches and three spires that stands above the city, is a masterpiece of Breton religious Gothic architecture.

The Cathedral houses the tomb of St. Yves, the patron saint of lawyers. The town’s maisons à colombage (brightly painted houses of wood beams and plaster) from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and hôtels particuliers en granit (residences constructed of granite) from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are typical examples of the region’s architectural character and style.

Other cool Treguier factoids; it was where the first French/ Latin /Breton dictionary was ever printed in 1482. Also ‘Le Guindy’ stone arched aqueduct built in 1610, named after the river that flows under it is on the edge of town.

Happy Holidays to all and please write when you can.

November 2008

Ms.Kayla Marie DeSanti

“Houston, we have a baby!”

Grandchild number 6 was born on October 30^th. Miss Kayla Marie DeSanti, daughter of Cassie Anna and her husband Matt weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/2 inches long (about ‘this’ heavy and approximately ‘so’ long in metric as I have no clue). She joins her big sister Marilyn in the DeSanti family. We will meet this latest brown haired and brown eyed beauty in a few days when we arrive in Oregon.

As smooth of a start as it may have been, it quickly became dramatic as little Kayla was returned and admitted to the hospital within 48 hours to be treated for Jaundice. This required Cassie Anna to spend 3 days around the clock with her newborn until she was released.

On the other end of the spectrum, we are thrilled to announce that my favorite mother in law Lorraine remarried this month to Vern Jackson. They immediately flew off to Fiji and Australia to snorkel off the barrier reef for their honeymoon. The lifestyle at their age makes them our personal heroes.

Moving on

Barbara and Wayne Terry

Days before we pulled up stakes at the Bee we made a quick trip to Ottawa to visit with our friends Wayne and Barb who we expect will join us for a visit in Europe this winter or Spring.

There is a certain sadness every year when we close up the cabin for another season. It is part of our yearly cycle but like kids, we don’t like putting our toys away. Every year the process of winterizing has gotten a little better, easier and faster but clearly I still have more to learn. Since we won’t be back for 7 months we don’t heat the cabin and so it freezes rock solid during the winter months. It’s hard to describe to people the lengths we have to go through to protect the contents from freezing damage.

Things like draining the hot water tank and pipes as well as removing all canned goods are obvious. Less obvious are things like draining the water out of the traps below the sinks and pumping RV antifreeze in the dishwasher and washing machine. Really obtuse little details and one that I had missed last year was cleaning out the pump soap dispensers in the kitchen and bathroom. Liquid soap is largely water and when it freezes the little pumps crack and won’t work when we arrive in June. It took me 3 seasons to finally figure it out.

As I have become faster, more efficient and comfortable with this whole winterizing thing I have begun to take on new tasks. This year I boldly went where I had not gone before and winterized both our boats. Like most things, it’s not rocket science and it’s not particularly difficult but following the proper steps is crucial if you want the engine to ever start again.

It’s pretty straightforward once you know how but until you work out the proper sequence of things you are working inefficiently. Next year I expect to get this task done in about a third of the time. Sadly, gone are the days of just docking our boat and throwing the keys to the attendant saying “see you in the spring”. Very civilized, but a little pricey.

For years we have wondered what the island would be like in the winter, buried under all that snow. Of course, we will never know as we make a point of leaving before it gets really cold. Or so we thought.

We got caught flat footed this year with a rare snowstorm on the day before and day of our departure. It is not unusual to have to bail out our little boat after heavy rains but this is the first time I had to shovel snow out before we could load our suitcases into the boat. It snowed a total of 6 inches (15 cm) before we could get out of the area.

In the last few weeks before leaving I also took the time to finalize a few details that will be important upon our arrival next spring. I mentioned last summer that the clock was ticking and that my flying days were slowly approaching. The plan is on schedule to begin assembling my Challenger II LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) amphibious airplane upon our arrival next summer.

To that end I have meet with my flight instructor, secured a warehouse (and two backups) where I can assemble the plane and finalized researching the licensing requirements that will allow me to fly cross border. It is astounding to me that I will have to upgrade my pilot’s license to be able to enter 30 feet (10 meters) inside Canada’s jurisdiction. Think of it. That is less that the width of your house and how far inside the Canadian border our dock is.

OMC

Sometime last winter I woke up one morning with a pain in my left shoulder. It was one of those inexplicable pains, as I could not recall anything I had done that that would have caused it. As is often the case, we find ourselves at a time in our lives where we not only have more of these little medical issues but seem to spend time in doctor’s offices on a more frequent basis trying to address them.

Then we have to listen to other old farts going on and on ad nauseum, describing all their aches and pains and hear all about their doctors visits. Boriiiiiiing!!! I for one am getting pretty tired of lazy incompetent doctors trying to make excuses for their inadequate medical skills by always claiming my issues are directly related to how many darn candles are on my birthday cake and are just another OMC (old man complaint).

Being in France at the time, I tried some type of useless new age therapy with a therapy that involved little more than waiving a rubber chicken over my head and thinking happy thoughts. Surprising, since French medicine is usually very good. By the time I got back to America this summer and worked my way through the gauntlet of referring physicians and was referred to an orthopedic specialist, it was fall.

Finally, I was sent to a physical therapist with little expectation that I would get much help. Amazingly, within a week I was doing considerably better and was on my way to a full recovery. I came home singing Emily’s praises daily and Janice soon began to lament that Emily was probably petite, blond and had a healthy set of lungs. (Editor’s note: I am paraphrasing here. After all, the Epistle is a family publication) I of course told her what any smart man would say under the circumstance, which is that she was old, fat and ugly. “Besides”, I said, “her middle name is probably Olga”.

On a different medical topic, our daughter Mandy told us recently of an attempt she made to raise extra money by offering to participate in medical drug trials. The conversation soon ended though when she asked them if they could guarantee that she would be in the group that received the placebos!

Oh, by the way, while she clearly won’t need it, I do want to wish Emily luck in next month’s swimsuit competition at the ‘Miss New York State’ finals in Albany…..

♫♫ On the road again… ♫♫

Ian

We left the Island for the season and headed to our friend Ian’s home near Montreal where we finally got to meet his lovely wife. We stayed for a few days before heading off together for a week long home exchange in Maine. As I have mentioned before, Ian is the fellow who has taken all the spectacular aerial photos of the Thousand Island that we include in our blog each month when we are there. He has self published 3 hardcover books of photos of the area over the past several years that have sold well over 50,000 copies to date. He is currently working on a new book that he hopes will be out by summer.

Ironically, he has spent a good part of his youth in Kennebunkport and the surrounding area so was a perfect companion to have along to show us the in’s and out’s of the area and act as our personal tour guide.

Bush family compound in Kennebunkport

We visited all of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, numerous beaches and saw the Bush family compound. On one day, Janice and I peeled off and spent the day in nearby Boston. We had lunch at the ‘Green Dragon’, a 351 year old pub (est.1657) where Paul Revere, John Hancock and John Adams concocted the strategies that led to the Boston Tea Party. Before leaving, he introduced us to friends of his that are lobster fishermen. Naturally, we spent a couple of hours steaming and gutting dozens of lobsters for him to take home.

4 years?

Wow, how time flies when you are having fun. I celebrated my 4^th anniversary at being retired the other day. You would think I would be used to it by now but I am not. I still feel like a kid let out of school for the summer. NO HOMEWORK!!! YAHOOOOOOOOO!! We absolutely love this life, are very grateful and feel so blessed for every day. We don’t know how long we can keep this up but in 40 years when I am old I hope the stock market will have recovered so we can still have a few dollars left to play with.

One self imposed chore we have continued working on is packing family videotapes, slides and picture albums that we have stored at home in California and take them on the road with us. We pack right up to the airline’s allowable weight limits and take them to Europe. Then, over the winter we scan the pictures into the computer and to an offsite backup storage service as well as converting our old family videotapes to DVD’s. It’s one of those ‘someday I should get around to doing this” projects and we have been working on it slowly but diligently.

When we return, we bring all the albums and videotapes back to store at home in California and take a new bunch to Honey Bee to do the same thing over the summer. As we always transition through California, those go back also upon our return in order to get a new bunch to take back to France yet again. It is a slow process as we have a family’s lifetime of memories we want to protect. Slow but sure, we are getting there. I hope to upload them online sometime this winter to make them available to all our kids.

Yea, Yea, I know…….

Yes, I know. We had a little election. No matter where in the world we are, we have always voted by absentee ballot and this time was no exception. Our side may not have prevailed but we sure weren’t going to simply hand it over to them. I may disagree with the outcome but it doesn’t mean I have to be disagreeable.

Despite the outcome, it is reassuring to see that at least we are still capable of a peaceful transition of power. I reminded myself that I spent 3 years in the service of my country to help make this kind of outcome possible. You know I have other strong political opinions to share here but I endeavor to do it while deferring to my mother’s advice when I was a kid and she said “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all”

Any questions?

We are back home in sunny California having visited with many friends in the area. I spent a few days with our daughter Kami in Los Angeles for some dad and daughter time. She is an avid shooter so we took in a gun show as well as a friendly competitive round at her favorite indoor shooting range. We kept a sharp eye out for the many large fires nearby which are consuming hundreds of homes in the LA area even as I write this.

Our home is doing fine as we are 250 miles North of LA (400 kilometers), our renters are happy and we are finishing our scheduled maintenance chores that we wanted to get done this go around. Time to fly off to Washington and Oregon to see more kids and grand kids.

See you next month

October, 2008

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

Medical dept:

“Look Ma, no baby!

As we go to press, our baby girl Cassie has not given birth. Her doctor is stalling as long as her health will allow and so we wait. If we don’t have a birth to announce by next month, I will be reporting on a medical miracle.

Meanwhile, Janice and I have wiled away our leisure hours by getting our colonoscopies done. We will die, we are told, just not from anything remotely related to…. eh… ’that’.

Finally, Janice checked herself in yesterday for her dreaded Gallbladder surgery. Other than some serious post-op nausea, it all went swimmingly and I returned her home for a period of recuperation under my tender loving care and culinary treats.

Gotta go, the hot dogs are ready…..

Projects dept:

With the economic situation being what is as of late, Janice was disappointed that we were too poor to build a 3^rd story onto the cabin so we could jump out of a window that was high enough to make it worthwhile. If this keeps up, the airlines will go out of business and we will have to take a cargo ship to Europe!

Be sure to 'double click' on this photo!

Our projects this month included sprucing up the BBQ area by laying flagstone and building a base for a granite counter top. Actually we have had the slab for 2 years but have only now gotten around to putting the whole thing together. The base is made of log cut outs from the cabin when we added the large view window.

The counter top was acquired when the granite people erred in measuring our kitchen and showed up with a slab that was 6 inches too short. Thinking ahead, we made them a silly offer they were in no position to refuse and we snapped up a matching counter top for our outdoor kitchen.

Next, I built platforms to put under our beds with 6 sliding drawers in each for storage in both rooms. Pretty handy when you realize we have no space for dressers. Finally we finished the last of our window trim and Buckskin covered window treatments in the bedrooms.

Not so fun dept:

This is the time of the year when the water levels in the river drop like a rock. While there are no tides to contend with, the river authorities release an enormous amount of water through the locks and dams throughout the summer months. The difference in the high water mark in June and low water mark when we leave in November is as much as two feet. (65 cm)

This means that as the water level drops, shoals and other underwater obstacles of every description become a threat when they are out of sight and out of mind the rest of the season.

I know this because I had an unexpected encounter earlier this month. I was cruising along on my way to the pharmacy (virtually all businesses here have their own docks to accommodate island residents) when I approached a shoal marker. Being a prudent kind of guy, I gave it wide berth but evidently not quite wide enough. I hit the submerged shoal at about 20 MPH (30 kph) with the effect similar to hitting a brick wall……under water.

Needless to say I came to a grinding stop, drifting in the middle of the main shipping channel. (fortunately “she who must be obeyed” was not with me) With no ocean going vessels in sight and all but out of power, I limped back to shore to the nearest marina. The good news was that the boat didn’t sink. The bad news was that I feared that I had torn out the entire out drive.

Quick! What's wrong with this picture?

Once in the marina, I was fortunate that they were equipped to be able to lift the boat right out of the water and swing it onshore to where the entire bottom could be examined. Fortunately there wasn’t a scratch on the bottom but the propeller was thrashed. Further examination determined that no additional damage was done to the shaft or gears. So, with a new propeller in place, I was on my way back into life in the 20MPH lane……

Business Dept:

For the past 3 years, the local property assessments here have been ‘frozen’. Like many areas, communities have struggled with rising property values and taxes that worry many homeowners that they will be taxed out of their homes.

Here, property assessments and property taxes are handled by two separate departments. Once the municipality knows how much assessed value it has to work with, it determines the tax rate and that determines your tax bill.

In the islands, that is often quite a bone of contention. Although clearly seasonal residences that enjoy few city services (No roads, water, cable TV, trash pick up, snow removal or municipal police services) we still pay all local taxes, including school taxes. The kicker is that because it is waterfront property (duh! It is an island) it is assessed at a higher value.

We know this because the new and improved assessments have just been released and ours doubled since the last one just 3 years ago. I can hardly wait to see our next tax bill….. Ironically, even with a very healthy 6 figure drop in our property value in California due to the thriving economy, our property taxes there will remain the same due to a much slower rise in taxes than anywhere else we live.

Fun dept:

Every year over 30,000 scuba divers from all over the world come to what has been dubbed ‘Canada’s Caribbean’, the Thousand Islands. Largely because of the zebra muscles, this is some of the clearest freshwater diving in the world.

Looking out from one side of Honey Bee

There are numerous shipwrecks to explore; including some you can snorkel to. Just last month one of the largest, oldest and best-preserved wrecks was discovered in Lake Ontario; the HMS Ontario, a 228-year-old British warship that sank during the American Revolution. I have to hurry up and save my allowance to pay for my airplane so that I can go scuba diving next!

Looking out from another side of the Island

Speaking of having fun, a friend of ours was commenting recently on our prolific use of home exchanges. He was saying that we are not in either France, California or at the Bee as much as 2 months out of the year. Sure we like to exchange some, I thought, but lets not exaggerate.

This is what we have to put up with every day :)

Then, we counted the weeks and he was closer to the truth than I realized. In the past 12 calendar months we have exchanged homes from Cape Cod to Spain, from England to the Netherlands and places in between a total of 9 weeks. Is this a great gig, or what?

Enough already dept:

Last month I wrote about the last of our pursuits in following the long saga of our family tree. We were done, I said.

Or so I thought.

No sooner had I put it to rest when I got an email from our daughter Mandy in the Netherlands. She sent me a copy of a document that her boyfriend Markus had found online while doing a little personal research on Mandy’s family. (Probably trying to confirm which side of the prison bars I was on.)

It seemed that he found a lengthy document containing names of people that I had never heard of but was clearly laid out in a ‘family tree’ style. Buried in this lengthy document were the names of all our immediate family including my children with many personal details about each. Since the authors email address was available, I wrote him and pointedly asked, “Who are you and what are you doing with all of my family’s information?

I got an immediate reply from a ‘long lost relative’ who I have never actually meet, but who turned out to be my fathers cousin. He explained that he had spent many years researching my grandmother’s side of the family (my fathers mother) and had some 1600 relatives on that branch of the tree meticulously cataloged going back to the 1600’s. YIKES!!

I never knew he or the results of his research efforts existed, but this has added a whole new dimension to our body of knowledge. Thank you, Cuz!

September, 2008

Just one....of our Thousand Islands
n Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

River Rats

It’s that time of the year again. September rolls around and the tourist and summer weekend people all go home leaving the river to us ‘river rats’. The boating traffic has been cut down by at least half from the summer highs. Like the departure of the geese, the other half will disappear gradually over the next several weekends and by the beginning of October the river will be ours alone. The only boaters we will see during our last month here will be the occasional border patrols. It becomes an entirely different island experience, which we look forward to every year.

All in all, we had a rather easy month. Mandy flew in from the Netherlands to join up with Janice’s mother who had flown in from California in Philadelphia. There, they took the last leg of the flight together to Syracuse NY where we picked them up. During their 10-day visit we had the clearest, warmest, sunniest days of the entire summer. We swam twice a day, went boating all over creation, BBQ’d up a storm and even spent an overnight in Ottawa to visit the capitol.

We also got the news that Janice’s mother was remarrying a fine fellow by the name of Vern who is a local resident in her park. We had met him on our last visit home and he is a great choice for her. They will honeymoon in Australia and Fiji in November. It was a super visit.

The day we drove them back to the airport they had their respective flights home 6 hours apart, so Mandy had time to do a little more clothes shopping. (She showed up with the clothes on her back and a backpack and returned with two suitcases and a roll on with 130 pounds [59 kilos] of ‘stuff'). Heading home within minutes of leaving the airport, Janice suddenly had a serious gallbladder attack. You will recall that she has been seeing her doctor regarding this for the better part of the summer. She has had blood and urine tests, ultrasounds and more recently a cat scan to try to positively confirm that this was in fact, the problem as her doctor was still hesitant about the source.

Janice said that is was the most pain that she has ever had in her life. Pain beyond 2 ‘C’ sections giving birth and more pain than chemotherapy. Although she was scheduled to see her doctor the very next day to have the latest results read and to make a decision to proceed I put the pedal to the metal and off to the emergency room we went. As we walked in, I could see about 60 people in the waiting room with all manners of pain, injuries and trauma. This was not looking encouraging. When the receptionist saw Janice bent in two in pain and crying she called the nurse over and he quickly had her in a bed in one of the emergency room bays for further examination.

They drew blood and took a urine sample and sent it to the hospital lab for analysis. Then we waited……and waited…….and waited. Her attack subsided after about two hours and 10 ½ hours after we arrived the doctor said that the results did not indicate a bursting gallbladder or anything else that was imminent. He said that since she had that previously scheduled appointment with her doctor in 6 hours (it was now 3 AM) we should see him for further treatment. So, we went home for a few hours sleep and returned to see her doctor that same morning. Prognosis? Gallbladder! Her surgery is scheduled for October 14th.

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to our little man Christopher who underwent yet another cranial surgery this month to relieve pressure within his skull. Doing better afterward yet again, he seems to have no limit on what he can endure and ‘keep on ticking’ like the proverbial Timex watches. There will be a very special place in heaven for that little boy some day.

Last but hardly least is our baby girl Cassie Anna. She has developed a condition in her pregnancy called ‘preeclampsia’. It is a pregnancy-induced hypertension in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine. As a result, she will be induced 3 weeks early, on October 3^rd. Boy even when they grow up and go off they still manage to keep you up nights…..

More news

This has been an easy month with little productive done around here. We did put a little backsplash in the kitchen. It is made of polished river stones that match the Brazilian Maranace granite counter tops.

And you thought Michael did all the work....

Then, our TV died. Poof! It had been a great TV that had been donated to us by my mother a few summers ago when she moved to California. It had some years on it but worked fine. Coincidentally, it died a few weeks after my sister in Toronto generously offered us a 36” much newer TV as she was replacing it with another flat screen HD TV. (Must be nice, huh?) So, on a weekend visit we loaded the 175-pound (80 kilo) beast on our boat trailer and took it home.

I had two friends help me take our old TV to shore on the back of my boat and while they prepared the new one to be off loaded from the trailer, I removed the straps that held the old TV to the dolly we had carried it on. It promptly slipped and went off the back of the boat into the water. I never would have believed it but it floated like a cork. Donning a swimsuit I keep in the boat for emergencies (floating TV’s) I quickly got it to the dock where the fella’s helped me get it up before it sank. I never take anything I carry on the boat lightly but you can be sure that we were wide-awake with the new load going back.

New and improved!

Last fall I wrote about an improvement we made of sorts, with a new location for a shore slip. It was a better, closer location and considerably cheaper. This year, we had the chance to explore our options some more and have made yet another big stride. We found a place that is a little lower on the food chain in opulent luxury and amenities (read basic) but is closer to fitting our needs. Starting next summer, our shore dock and winter storage will be on the US side of the border.

This has many distinct advantages for us. First, it is about half the price of what we currently pay. Second it will allow us to do virtually all our shopping (groceries and other) where we like to go without having to clear customs (both US and Canada) by car where it tends to be a little more time consuming. We will continue to have to clear customs, but with a new system that allows us to phone in instead of reporting in person it should go a long way towards simplifying the process. We continue to be dumfounded how 100 meters can make such a huge difference in the price of everything….from gas to groceries to services of all kinds. We rarely see less than a 30-40% discrepancy in prices between the US and Canada. Yet, few Canadians immediately on the border seem to want to take advantage of it. Understandably it is less practical for those who live inland.

We have a number of friends on both sides that seem intimidated by the process of crossing back and forth. Going ‘to’ Canada or ‘to’ the US, depending on which side they are to begin with, seems like an event for them. We do it so often that it is merely a formality (an important one though). It does tend to minimize the cross border excursions for many though and it’s a shame as it cuts down on commerce.
September 11^th changed everything.

The Epistle August 2008

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

The Thousand Islands

Doesn't this just make your heart go pitter patter?

4 rnt: 2 br lg cbn on pv Is

As we have come closer to wrapping things up (construction wise) we have wanted to give ourselves a few weeks each summer to travel somewhere on the East coast. So, Janice and I had been considering the possibility of making the Island available for rent the weeks we are away, maybe starting next year. Following the success we have had in renting out our house in France during our absence, we thought it might be nice to kill two birds with one stone so to speak, by having someone here pay a hefty share of the overhead (taxes, insurance and marina fees) while we are gone anyway. We decided to limit it to two weeks per summer maximum, as we want to spend the rest of the time here ourselves.

Of course we initially thought this would only happen when we were ‘finished’ with everything so it would be next year at the earliest. Then, Janice thought “what the heck, let’s advertise it this year and see if there is any interest at all. We could rent it cheaply to start as we still have bits and bobs that are not finished in the cabin and we can increase the price next year if we see that there is any demand. After all, we only want to rent it for two weeks…”

So, on a lark and without even a web site, we put a little posting on line just to see what would happen and to get a sense of the level of interest, if any. Within hours of our posting, ‘WHAM!’ we had someone who wanted to rent it for a week for their honeymoon. Shortly thereafter we booked the second week and continued to receive inquiry after inquiry—more than we had for the house in France.

We have stuck to our two-week limit but it would appear that we will have little difficulty in booking two weeks every summer while we will be off traveling. The island thing is clearly our gig but it was heartwarming that our first renters have described the property as “absolutely magical”. To take a peek at our little posting and see many updated photos of our little cabin in the woods, click on the link below:
http://www.ontarioclassified.com/webpages/cottages/383.htm

On the road, again…

We have been away a few weeks in the past month. We spent one week with family North of Ottawa, beside our current rental week. Predictably, we lined up home exchanges (the only place we exchange is our home in France) during our rental periods. So far, this summer’s travels have taken us to Stowe Vermont where we stayed at a terrific cottage (Click on the link below)

http://www.beckwithrentals.com/html/properties/Stowe/1Guest/SteepleCottage.htm

(scroll way down on the link to see tons of great pictures of the place) with the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory nearby.

We also stayed at a breathtaking penthouse loft in historic old town Montreal, overlooking the St Lawrence River. To see it, click the link below....

http://www.homeforexchange.com/Canada/Quebec/6020-Charming-gardenview-loft-in-old-Montreals-old-port-historic-district.html

Old Montreal in front of our penthouse loft

Last winter I wrote about visiting a few villages in France where my ancestors had come from in the 1600’s. At the time I had also mentioned that I had read in the family genealogy that there was a creek named after my g-g-g-g-g-g-g-grandfather, the first Laprade to come to Canada from France, just outside of Montreal. I had looked it up on the Google map and sure enough, it’s there. So, while in Montreal we took a little drive and found it.




Safe to say it is out in the boondocks, beyond the dark side of the moon, but it is there. “Rang Ruisseau Laprade” is not only a creek but also a 1 mile long (2 Km) rural road. I now feel that I have gone full circle on the genealogy gig and will now give it a rest.

Every year Montreal hosts the international fireworks competition. While there we were fortunate to be able to have a front row seat (from our rooftop patio) to Australia’s display. The competing countries go at it until there are 10 finalists. Then over several weeks during the summer they each give it their best shot to determine the winner.

After rounding up our two nieces Jessica and Emily (my sister’s kids) we drove to Pennsylvania where we currently are, for a week long home exchange there. Staying at a stunning home in an upscale residential area of New Hope, the girls had a 2nd floor suite with bedroom, bathroom and private lounge with TV, sofa and reading area.

The girls at you know where

Using it as our ‘pied-a-terre’ we visited everything from covered bridges to steam powered grist and saw mills. We walked the tow paths along the Delaware river's adjacent barge canals and where George Washington crossed with his troops in 1776. We walked through a Revolutionary war battle site. We toured Philadelphia where we saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall where the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were signed as well as visiting Benjamin Franklin's digs.

In New York City we took the ferry ride to Ellis Island to visit the Statue of Liberty. We then drove to Manhattan to stroll 5th Ave, Broadway, Central Park, Times Square and ground zero. Being paid to be on vacation is hard to beat. Is this a great country, or what?

Timberrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Last summer I had wanted to do some serious pruning to our 80 some odd trees on the island but like my appetite, sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I didn’t get around to it. I don’t think the trees have ever been pruned and many still have visible damage from the big ice storm of 1998, which snapped the tops off of many trees and broke limbs off others. There are a number of ‘widow makers’ hanging by a thread.

After getting an estimate on the cost of having them all pruned (several are in the 30 to 40 foot range [10-13 meters]) Janice decided it would be much better for me to risk life and limb and do it myself. So, I bid for and ‘won’ a complete set of professional tree climbing gear including climbing Gaffs (the spikes that strap onto your boots and allow you to climb a tree ) on E-Bay and instantly became a self appointed lumber jack.





Now armed with everything but rippling muscles, experience and common sense, I am ready to trim the big fella’s down to size. Like all boys, I have climbed my share of trees but I must admit that it has not been with 25 lbs (12 kilos) of gear and seeing just how high I can get before I hear the last “crack!!!” ……. I will ever hear. It reminded me of my sky diving days in college. I loved every jump but as I would prepare to take the big plunge I would quietly ask myself “remind me again, why are you jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?”

While visiting my aunt and uncle’s cottage last month I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to practice with a little adult supervision. They had a number of trees that were dead that needed to come down and there were enough of us around to get the job done. I spent a lot of time yelling “TIMMMMMMMMMBERRRR!!!!” ---- sometimes because a limb I had cut was about to fall but most often just so that anyone in the area would know that a real lumberjack was at work. After all was said and done I believe I have found yet another occupation that I have no intention to pursue.