©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com Not all island properties are as opulent as this but all are special in their own way (BTW, I performed magic for a fundraiser here once)
This is a wild place
The wildlife has really taken over the place. We have a chipmunk that feels quite at home, literally. He has found a way to access the kitchen through the screen door by raising the bottom of the screen and wandering in until he spots us. Then, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he looks panic stricken and bolts out the door the same way he got in.
Next we have a fawn who has meandered onto the island by swimming over from other neighboring islands and played hide-go-seek with me while I ran for the camera. He wanted to join the rest of the actors who love to hang out, like the beavers, geese, mink, muskrat and turtles.
I seeeeee yoooou
Finally, we arrived here last month to find an Osprey nest at the top of a tree facing our porch. This pair had been nesting for years on a neighbors tree top, but the tree came down in a winter storm. Our new residents cause quite a stir as we have endless boaters cruising by, stop aghast when they spot them, often misidentifying them as bald headed eagles.
Recently, they hatched a pair of chicks and we got to watch the male hunt for fish and bring his catch back to the nest to feed the litlle family. We have even had a fellow from National Public Radio come by in a kayak to record their cry.
Meanwhile, we carry on with our chores like cleaning and restaining our dock.
Show and tell
It has been said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. That being the case, I have flattered a lot of people over the years. I may have limited creative abilities, but I have done a reasonable job of seeing great ideas that others have come up with and shamelessly reproducing them. Our fireplace screen and doors below are a good example.
Click on any image to see the details
Over a year ago we scoured the internet looking for a screaming custom made set and came up with what you see. Then, I made a paper template of our fireplace opening, took it to France and set out to copy it at our local forge. Weighing in at 52 pounds (23+ kilos), I had to remove one of the doors and pack it separately in a second suitcase (airline weight limit is 50 lbs) to bring it home via the West Coast.
TSA (airport security) opened the cardboard, foam and plywood frame it traveled in, as it looked like a bizarre package to start with. “No worries”, I would say, “it is solid steel, so you won’t hurt it.” I completed the installation upon our arrival.
TIAF
(Thousand Island Air Force)
Well I'm back at it again, assembling Janice's hand crafted flying machine. I think if one more person asks me when it will be done or when I will start my flying lessons I will scream. I can't blame them for asking but it is more complicated and time consuming than imaginable. It will be done when it is done and I will fly when it all comes together. As always, I hope it is soon.
Recently it needed to go from the Skunks Works assembly facility to the paint shop, requiring a 30 mile ( 48 Km) trip. Once again, sheer ingenuity ruled the day.
Tarp wrapped aircraft floats on their way to the paint shopI have a boat trailer which travels a total of about 4 miles a year. 2 miles each way to launch and recover our boat from the river. I decided it was not earning it's keep, so I designed and built a removable conversion to temporarily turn into a road worthy aircraft carrier.
Wings were next
Does this look finished?
With all the bits and bobs ready to be installed after painting, it actually is not too far off. I spent two days at a body shop doing all the final prep prior to turning it over to them to shoot the paint. I discovered yet another career that I will have nothing to do with. As fussy as I am, I am probably unemployable. Stand by for further devellopments.
Waking up Catholic
I was raised a Catholic. In my mid-teens my parents and grandparents stopped attending church but I forged ahead with my faith growing ever stronger. When I meet Janice and we prepared to marry, many deep spiritual discussions ensued and the logic and power of her arguments persuaded me to go over to the dark side and become a Protestant. (OK, so she can be persuasive in other ways but in this case it was purely intellectual discourse)
Then, almost 3 years ago and without warning, I woke up one morning to have Janice tell me that she had decided to become a Catholic. Sensing a midlife crisis in our marriage, I greeted the news with the same enthusiasm as if she had just announced that she was having an affair or wanted a divorce.
Resisting the temptation to reach for a strait jacket, I thought that a calm reasoned approach was called for, in order to gently bring her back from the abyss and nurse her back to mental health. After all, she was not chanting "Hari Krishna"
Janice’s strengths lie more in the ideas department, kind of like the brains of the operation, while mine lie in the execution of things. So, I figured, simply leave well enough alone and the whole issue might just go away. It didn’t. There is no Evangelical Protestant church in our area of France, so we had resigned ourselves to attend services in the Catholic Cathedral nearby as doing the best we could under the circumstances.
In fact, we became friends with the good Father and have him over to our home socially. We didn’t quite find a good fit with the protestant church near the island either but again, we did the best we could and found another Catholic service that we both liked. Only in California do we feel “at home” in our home church of Protestant denomination.
When people decide to become Catholic, they often just start attending church, follow the teachings, feel, act and believe Catholic stuff and call it good. They don’t necessarily formalize things and make it official. They may not feel the need, think it is just too much hassle or know that they won’t pass official muster anyway.
But not my girl.
The following summer, Janice began contacting the local parish priest near the Bee and arranged to take a one on one class of Catholic teachings that lasted the entire summer. The stickler was that Janice had been divorced and as far as the church was concerned, it was an absolute impediment to her conversion.
To her credit, she decided to appeal up the hierarchy and worked her way through the maze of cannon church law to try to find an acceptable means to meander through the morass of rules and pass muster.
I would have thought that in order to gain a willing convert and financial supporter, they would have rushed in like a school of tuna hitting a chum stick, lean over backwards and bend the rules, but I was wrong. In fact, they gave her the bloody blues.
She had to go through a song and dance and jump through one hoop after another, filling reams of paperwork, getting testimonials, asking people knowledgeable of her sordid past to write letters (just kidding, honey) to the Archdiocese in support of her position (not character references) and run the whole shebang through the church’s appeals court gauntlet.
Finally, after over two years, the decision came back granting her annulment in her previous marriage, allowing her to gain membership into the church. She was happier than a moonshiner with new tires. There was no going back, it was a done deal. Trying to do so would have been like trying to un-fry an egg.
Will you mary me ...again..and again...?
Then, after 27 years of our being married, she asked me to marry her again to legitimize our union in the eyes of her church. I thought better of joking that this was just a scam to get a new dress or a golden opportunity for me to renegotiate a more favorable contract. Like more benefits or something…
Heck, I would happily marry this woman any day of the week and twice on Sunday, anywhere and anytime. I may believe that our marriage in the Protestant Church has all the legitimacy I need and want but I had no problem renewing our vows as we have done on a previous occasion anyway.
Listen, I realize that some folks reading this couldn’t give a rip one way or another, but it is a big deal in the goings on in the Laprade household so I thought you should know.
As to your obvious question, no I am not.
This month’s visitors
Well, we are off. This is looking like it is going to be a busy summer. We have friends and family coming from here, there and everywhere in between. First to land on our doorstep are longtime friends from California, Bobby and Maggie Arroyo. They were on their way to visit family on the East Coast when they took a few days out of their schedule to come hang out at the Bee. The weather gods didn’t exactly cooperate but we still managed to give them the nickel tour of the islands. As always, it was great to see them.
