My patient is well.
Last month I wrote that Janice was going in for a "li
Da Plane
Hours before she was admitted, I quickly completed my ground school before this month long hiatus, so I am officially a licensed and certified armchair pilot. I guess that means I can now make airplane noises while I flail my hands in the air, simulating airplane moves, as if I had any idea of what I was talking about.
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| Click on any of the pictures ONCE |
I practically have the flying part whipped since I already had my 1st lesson. I can now start the engine all by myself after yelling “CLEAR PROP!” out of the cockpit to prevent decapitations. (We surely would have had a close call with that one before my traumatized instructor taught me that trick) I also got to taxi down the runway a bit, some of it near the middle. I am sure we will have much more fun as soon as he stops yelling at me*. If that ain’t pickup-truck nirvana, what is?
Lifting off was magical. My testosterone was pumping like Henry VIII eating a turkey leg and demanding a new wife to behead! I have a friend that refers to flying as “the privileged view”. True, but I would add “for the privileged few”. I know, I know... many people have flown, but there is a huge difference between being in a 100 foot long aluminum cylinder and flying like the Wright Brothers. Only 2/10 of 1% of Americans are active pilots and barely half of those own their own airplane. I am extremely grateful to be joining their ranks.
*Note to instructor: Dude, lighten up; I was just kidding about the yelling thing!
The Little Free Library
Several months ago, we saw a TV news story reporting on a volunteer effort that some guy had put together in memory of his mother who had been a school teacher. He built a small box to look like a school house, and then put the box on a post on his lawn by the sidewalk of his house. He put a bunch of books in it with a sign offering them to people to take. To see the NBC story, click HERE
The idea was to encourage people not only to help themselves to a book, but if they wished, put another in its place for others. It was a “pay it forward” kind of thing and we thought it was very sweet. We looked the organization up online and saw that there were no two Little Free Libraries that were alike. With a lot of TV publicity behind it, the idea had really taken off. There are now 2,000 Little Free Libraries in a dozen countries.
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We decided we were in and so we built our Little Free Library this past month and inaugurated it with friends and some adult beverages. Ours is registered with the organization as # 1335. The kicker is that they then told us that we are the first Little Free Library anywhere that is boat accessible only.
Right about then, the Los Angeles Times was doing a front page story about the Little Free Libraries featuring one in their local area. As they interviewed the organizers, it was mentioned that they were all over the world and that there are no two alike. “In fact” they said, “there is even one on an Island in the Thousand Islands”. The L A times reporter contacted us to confirm what she had been told and included a reference to our Library in her story. To see the L A Times story, click HERE
Within days, Janice had made the front page in our local paper on the Canadian side in the "The Brockville Recorder and Times" (HERE) and the "Thousand Islands Sun" in New York today. We have not seen today's paper as we drove down to the Hampton's on New York's Long Island this morning. More on that in a minute.
By the way, the new oversized hanging flower planter above the Little Library is suspended by the arm I forged in France this past winter. Since I am to do whatever the little voices in Janice's head tell her, it has been decided that what our dock needs is a second one, so I will be back at it again next winter.
The Hamptons
Every summer, we rent our Island out for two weeks to allow
us to travel somewhere on the East coast, while having our entire yearly
overhead costs paid for by the rental. Depending on your point of view, it is
either being cheap or efficient in the use of our property.
This week, Janice brilliantly arranged a home exchange in the
Hamptons on Long Island outside of New York City, where we drove to yesterday.
It certainly lives up to its reputation as being a playground for the beautiful
people who are rich and famous, with money to burn.
We are fitting in as best we can, except for the part about
being beautiful, rich and famous or having money to burn. Still, it looks like
we will have a great week with new places to explore and adventures galore.
SS Honey Bee
Last month we “invested in our security” and acquired an addition to our fleet. [Isn’t that how the government explains spending money?] Janice has been hankering for a canoe she could handle by herself, so we bought one that had seen service as a vessel used by smugglers and abandoned somewhere nearby. As the owners could not be located for the past year, it was put up for sale.
I promptly repainted it in the appropriate color and made it otherwise seaworthy. She (the vessel) is the third to join our armada and will remain under Janice’s command as real men don’t paddle, we throttle up.
Every year, thousands of people are drawn to the area to celebrate “Pirate Bill" Johnston days, held sometime in August. It is a 10 day celebration of a Thousand Islands smuggler, river pirate, and War of 1812 American privateer. He so annoyed the British in the 19th-century Canadian colonies that they called out the army every time his name made the newspapers. He was the man the British most wanted to hang. They spent a fortune hunting him and preparing defenses against him.
Please, bear with me. There IS a point to this story. In 1838, he served as admiral in the rebel forces that repeatedly attacked Upper Canada. For his efforts, 500 British and American forces and at least four steamships hunted Johnston throughout the Thousand Islands.
In those days, the lightly inhabited islands were heavily treed and offered Johnston refuge and concealment in numerous groves and grottos. During his decades as a smuggler, he had discovered every trail, portage, cave, and hidden cove. Many of his cavern hideouts are gone. Some survive. Others surely remain to be rediscovered.
In 1838, one of the commanders returned from a Johnston-seeking excursion with a discovery he'd made on one island. He found his bivouac on an almost inaccessible islet near the narrowest part of the channels of the Thousand Isles at Fiddler's Elbow, and cleverly constructed inclined planes upon which fast-rowing boats had been drawn up.
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| Johnston pulled his boat up here |
He never named the island but his description held several clues: it is near Fiddler's Elbow; it has a gentle inclining slope where a boat ramp could be constructed and concealed; and, it has a deposit of tourmaline resembling coal. (Tourmaline is a rare crystalline mineral found in many colors but most commonly black.)
I had read of this account by Shaun McLaughlinin in the "Thousand Island Life" this past winter ( much of this is from his article) and recognized that the area was a mere 5 minutes from our island. I had to see for myself if I could find what this commander had discovered 174 years earlier.
Leaving Honey Bee, I steered my small aluminum boat into the roiling, turbulent waters of Fiddler's Elbow, the narrow channel between Ash and Wallace Islands to Lyndoe (a.k.a. Lyndoch and designated Island 79 in 1884). I circled the island, past the navigation light and around the west end. On the south side, I found the sheltered bay.
Pulling up on a stony beach, I discovered a wide gently inclining slope, concealed by shore-side shrubs, leading up into a pine stand. Climbing to the island's igneous spine, I had a close and clear view of the western end of Fiddler's Elbow. In one area, I found shards resembling anthracite, the hard edges of its crystalline form (like quartz but black shiny version of coal).
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| Johnston could watch for the ennemy's approach |
In the War of 1812, Johnston enlisted with the Americans as a river scout and raider. Fiddler's Elbow was then a principle route for boats supplying Upper Canada. On the spot I stood, a few armed men could command the channel's upstream approach. And, spread before me to the northwest was thousands of acres of open water. Any rebel or smuggler on my perch could see boats approaching long before they presented a danger.
He was right! Pirate Bill Johnston had holed up here. Why study history when you can walk through it?
Buddies Joe and Tony, just hanging out.
To hear about and see more of life here CLICK HERE
