June, 2021

 

Local businesses parking lot welcome

I hate to beat this Covid thing into the ground but life here is close to a flash back to early 2020 when the sky was falling. We are done with our quarantine, and can now venture out further than going from the kitchen to the bedroom to the living room and back again. Now we get to go out to where everything is all but closed, currently till June 21 but has been extended by a month each month since March 2020.

I get that the US is light years ahead of many countries in vaccinations but, shezam, it is like living in a time warp, in another time and place. Having gone through the whole early days of 'mask up or die' thing, and being totally burned out on it, it has been hard to keep looking Canadian (like a masked bandit all the time). Or, to pretend that we have not been vaccinated for many months, have taken more Covid tests and been quarantined more than a Russian dissident while ignoring the current CDC protocols to knock it off, get a life and carry on.

We are not in Kansas any more, but when in Rome......

And so it is. The fact is, is that many Canadians would rather that we not be here in the first place is another subject for another time. Truth be told, we hear that it has been much the same in Europe where we will be heading to in October. I am beginning to think that we are gluttons for punishment. 

Meanwhile, we don't have too many big projects planned for this summer. A fellow could get used to being a layabout. Still, it is hard to whine too much about our life  here. After 21 years, we still pinch ourselves at the sights out of every single window in the house. Water, water and islands everywhere. What's not to love? The geese and their goslings are splashing off our dock as I write and I can see the beavers heading to their dam 200 feet (70 meters) away. Wildlife abounds, and I am not talking about me. As soon as I stop writing this, I will head down to the dock to kick back, read and watch the boaters go by with a cold beer to prevent dehydration from setting in. It is not an easy life we lead...

Speaking of working hard, aside from having to replace a dishwasher, we only have a few islands to clean up this summer (next story).This is allowing me a lot of free time to catch up on a ton of little maintenance items that have been on hold for ages when I didn't have time to deal with them because I was too busy flying. Regrettably, I now have plenty of free time.

4 down, 1860 to go

People often ask us where we are exactly, as they may not be familiar with where the Thousand Islands are located in North America. So, for giggles and grins, here is a quick locator.

To start with, we are on the right side of the continent

The first of the 5 great lakes is called lake Ontario. We are right at the mouth of it where it flows through the St Lawrence river to the Atlantic ocean.

The area where the lake meets the river is called the Thousand Islands. It maybe called that but it is not true. There are not a thousand islands, there are 1864 islands but that does not roll off the tongue as easily.

Honey Bee Island is in an area called the International Rift. It is between two large islands (one Canadian and one American) right on the border that runs through the middle of the river.

There are 1864 islands in this 50 mile (80KM) stretch of the St Lawrence River. Up to this month, we owned one. In yet another dismal failure in our ongoing attempt at downsizing, we bought 3 more. There is an island behind ours that we have coveted for years that is only 50 feet (15 M) away from us. We have been concerned that while no one can ever build on it, someone could buy it, put a dock in, pull up a house boat and erect a tent. Next, the boom boxes would come out and all the nubile young girlfriends would be running around naked, close enough for me to hold their towels. The first possibility was absolutely unacceptable but the second definitely sold Janice on the purchase.

The red arrow points to our island, and you can see how close the line is to the border in the river. In fact, when we dive off our dock that you can see on the lower left, we come up in US waters. The white arrow is one of the islands we bought that is directly behind us.

Below are the 3 amigos

The owner only wanted to sell the 3 islands (the other two are nearby) so it was a package deal or nothing. Well you can’t become a mogul if you don’t own property, so we jumped in with both feet. Hey! That means we now own a chain of islands! Take that Jeff Besos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates!! There’s a new kid in town! Truth be known, the other two islands are not necessarily anything to write home to mom about but we have a plan for them that could help minimize the cost of the one we actually wanted.

So what is the big attraction of being on the river?

Photo credit: Doug Rawlinson

This, for one

We are really sorry kids, but Christmas is cancelled this year. We had a really bad case of island fever.