October, 2023

 

Operation "Not Fogotten"

Taylor County, Florida  

Here we go again. Another hurricane, another disaster and many more lives ruined. I got the call to grab my ‘GO’ bag’ (the other two are in France and in California) and head to the airport to join a strike team with Team Rubicon to 'save the world, one hurricane at a time' :) When we landed, I was surprised to see many people heading towards us. I stopped one to ask what was going on and she said they were running away from a disaster.

We were running towards it.

Disasters pretty much all look alike after a while

It was named because this is the part of Florida that does not attract many tourists and tends to be 'forgotten'. Of course the damage done by Hurricane Idalia, with maximum sustained winds of 125 MPH (205 Km/h) was staggering. There were downed communication towers, structural damage, major flooding along the coast from substantial storm surge, and downed trees from high winds. The hurricane had done it's thing and we were there to deal with the aftermath. Same old story for us, mind numbing shock for its victims. We were at ground zero, mere miles from Perry, Florida, on the 3rd wave of this operation. 

You get the idea

Each 'wave' works for a week then is sent home and is replaced with a fresh group. Disasters anywhere become old news to the rest of the world after a few days as there are more interesting things to report on. But not for these folks. Out of a total of 8 deployments, this was my 4th to Florida, this time in the panhandle, again. That is, the North West corner of the state on the gulf side. I really like Florida but I am beginning to think it is a little disaster prone.

For the first time, I was not in the flood zone but in an area where 10's of thousands of large, tall, old growth trees had been blown over as their root ball was shallow and in sandy soil. I could tell you the whole truth in that there were hundreds of thousands of these trees but I would understand that you would not believe me. Even weeks after the hurricane had hit, we were cutting trees that had fallen over people's wells and pumps, making it impossible for them to be repaired so they were still without water. 

One man had a tree fall over his cattle pen and was unable to load his stock to take them to market. He was quoted $16,000 by a local firm to remove the enormous trees and was getting ready to take the money out of his retirement savings. We sent 3 saw teams and a skip loader and the deed was done in a day. In all, we had $80 million of logistical equipment on site to service 70 Team Rubicon members rotating one wave at a time. This, including FEMA shower trailers, toilet trailers, massive generators and housing trailers.

Meanwhile, back at the island, Janice was holding down the fort. With friends checking in on her, picking her up to take her to social events and generally just living it up, she probably hardly noticed I was gone!

The transition

Man, if there seems to be some repetition to this, it is because there is. We pull up stakes every 4 months and move on to a different lifestyle in a different country and / or continent. We have been at it for a while and we realized the other day that this is the 57th time we have done this since I retired. When anyone asks, we jokingly say that when the bills come in, it's time to pack our bags and skip town before they can catch us. We love where we are but love where we are going too. We return to where 8 months ago we had set up and organized the things we want to get done when we return. 

Still, transitions, especially here at the island, are no walk in the park. Pulling boats out of the water, winterizing and servicing engines, having our pontoon boat shrink wrapped, tarping the jet ski, covering Tecumseh, our Birch bark canoe, the BBQ, bringing all the outdoor furniture indoors, draining the entire water system so pipes don't burst when they freeze, removing all canned goods and the printer (the ink cartridges would freeze) and on and on... Whew! Then there are all the indoor tasks like emptying the fridge, tossing all the partially used condiments and food items only to buy them all over again in 24 hours when we land in California.

It is not an easy life we lead. Is it all worth it? Absolutely!!

A part of the outdoor furniture that is brought in on the porch

Canvas to cover the entry to protect it from the sun and falling branches

Birch bark canoe covered to protect it from the snow

RV antifreeze to protect the plumbing system

BBQ covered

Cover the chimney to keep the critters out

Jet Ski dock sheltered in Pirate Bay

Tecumseh is off duty until next summer

Little flower boat

Runabout boats

Jet Ski boats

Boats, boats and more boats.

Finally, all tucked in for the winter. See you in 8 months. 

Next stop, the airport and home sweet dome

As usual, we found the house in great kit. We are extremely fortunate to have a great property manager and couple of friends who constantly rescue us when little emergencies show up as they regularly do. As great of a job as they all do, when we show up after having hosted a few hundred guests over the past 8 months, there is a lot of maintenance to do to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Meanwhile....

Now I ask you, what could possibly go wrong?

September, 2023

 

Incoming...

So, last year I meet a couple while on deployment with Team Rubicon and Janice and I visited them at their home in Florida last winter while driving cross country as we were on our way to France. Then, Keith and Lisa accepted our invitation to visit the Bee and spent several days with us this past month.

Applying to be a new recruit at Fort Henry. 

Probably going to have to lose the shorts...

We made the usual rounds of "must see" places, including Singer Castle (of Singer sewing machine fame), the Parliament buildings and the Canadian museum of history in Ottawa, Fort Henry (built in 1832 in Kingston (the original capital of Canada), plus some island touring. Not bad for 4 days.

Singer Castle

Canadian museum of history

This was followed by a visit from my aunt for a couple of days. Nice time altogether.

Then we had a visit from daughter Kami from New Orleans who spent several days with us. She had a few of her friends drop by also.

Cocktails

One of the fun things we have taken to lately is to get on our new boat (well, a year old) in late afternoons and go get lost in the middle of a bunch of islands. There, we turn off the engine and drift for an hour or so as the wind or current takes us while we visit, read and have cocktails. The US boating laws allow for the consumption of alcohol while boating (obviously not being under the influence) while Canadian law does not. So, technically, since our island is a mere 20 feet (7 M) from the border, we could drink in the bow (front) but not in the stern (back) as our boat is 22 feet (7M) long. 

I don't think I would want to test the authorities on that theory, but we usually avoid that behavior on the Canadian side in the first place. 

Usually.

Most often. 

But areas with names like "Lost Chanel", "Molly's Gut", "Needle's eye", "Horse Thief Bay" and Fiddler's Elbow" are just too cool to pass up. Meanwhile, as an alternative, we have done a little work on the new island we acquired next door to ours. We call it Pirate Island, although unlike Honey Bee, it is an unofficial name. With a friends help, I built a small dock on it, created a path to the top of the island and built a viewing platform. This gives us yet another option for a place to take in the beauty of the undeveloped back bay, no boating traffic and yes, another option for enjoying a cocktail. Crimeny, you would think that all we do around here is drink! Honest, we don't!

                            Viewing platform on "Pirate Island", our new 2nd island

Projects

We did manage to sneak in a few minor improvements around the place. Nothing earth shattering but nice little additions. I put up a couple of live edge shelves (one in the kitchen) laid a bit of flagstone at our entry, prepared an entry point on our new island (Pirate island) to a new swimming hole, and built a refueling station for our boats at our dock which will make my life a lot easier.

Live edge shelf

Flagstone entry

Secret swimming hole

Floating refueling station for boats

August, 2023

 

Thousand Islands summer fun

A summer luncheon

It’s funny how often when you meet people, you enjoy their company but sometimes know very little about them (or only superficially) for the longest time. It’s easy to miss out on knowing some really interesting history or accomplishments in their past by keeping the conversation light or just current. The few times I accidentally came across what I found out were fascinating people or experiences I have cherished it and felt quite privileged.

Like the time I in avertedly met and chatted with a Billionaire. Yes he is a man like the rest of us but a conversation with him was like no other. A real one off for me, even if I had stars in my eyes. I wrote about it  HERE in The Epistle. Just scroll down to “Welcome to our modest abode”

Another time we were invited to an undisclosed location for dinner where we met another couple where one of them was a Supreme Court justice. (Am I sounding vague?) Don’t think that would not have been a great story for The Epistle but I was asked not to write about it so I didn’t. I would love to tell you much more, but then, I would have to kill you.

This month, we had friends visit. She is the editor or our local Thousand Island Life magazine, and has humored me by publishing a few articles I have written in the past. Her husband, Marceli, a real gentleman’s gentleman always shows up dressed in a dinner jacket, his idea of river casual. Not a prolific conversationalist, he comments when it counts and sets an example for the rest of us that perhaps we should listen more and talk less. I had a feeling that there was much more to this fellow than I knew and later found out that yes, indeed there was.

Turns out that he was four years old when World War II started. He was a Jewish-born ‘hidden child’ who was handed over to an unknown Catholic family before the Krakow ghetto (in Poland) was eliminated in 1943. His 14 year old brother was shot by the Nazis but his father survived the Auschwitz death camp as number 5 on Schindler’s List 👈. His mother did not survive.

Marceli retired in 1985 from the National Research Council of Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He wrote about light hearted dinner conversation topics like “Facsimile and areal integration for weather radar”.  😏

·  👉Schindler’s list. Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist, credited with saving 1200 of his Jewish employees during the Second World War, keeping them from ending up in the gas chambers in Auschwitz and Dachau. We have visited both sites as well as have gone the Schindler factory which still exists. In 23 years of writing the Epistle, I have never recommended a movie before now. “Schindler’s List” is a must see. If you do see it, remember that one of the little boys handed off portrays Marceli, and # 5 on Schindler’s list was his dad. They both survived and were accepted as Canadian refugees in 1952.

From bottom left: Janice, friends Beverly and Bud, Marceli and Susie

Potty talk

You know it has to be a slow month around here when we have to resort to write about our toilet. Really. Well you would have a thing or two to say about it if you went without one for 10 days also. 

One of the unique things about island life is that some systems run differently than what you have in town. Like waste management. And I am not talking about your kitchen sink food disposer either. For years, we had a holding tank that we had pumped out twice a season. When it started to rust out we had to replace it with a composting system. Without getting into the weeds, it has a vacuum pump just like on the big cruisers that macerates the waste into a tank for it to turn into compost. Fair enough. Until like all mechanical devices, when it doesn't anymore. 

Call the vacuum pump repairman, right? Good luck with that. It took us a week to find one locally, and 3 days to get him out to do the deed. Janice was a rock star putting up with it all. So seriously, what do you do for 10 days when your toilet is on the fritz? Don't invite anyone over and pretend you are camping.

Not getting deployed?

I have been asked by a few folks if I was going to get deployed to Hawaii after the big fires. While I am ready to go on a moment's notice, I suspect it is unlikely to happen. Team Rubicon is set up to help after a disaster. But there has to be something productive and helpful we can do. Are there any trees blocking the roads preventing first responder's access that we could make short work of? No they are all burned down. Any homes we can patch up to get people back in? No, they are all burned down to the ground. Any roofs we can cover to keep the rain out? What roofs? You get the idea. We have nothing to work with so we don't want to get in the way.

Editor's note: I reviewed a previous edition of The Epistle and I was appalled at the number of spelling mistakes I found. I would fire my spell checker but the grandchildren would never forgive me so I will cozy up with Google and include their input.

July, 2023

So how are we spending our summer?

Having a picnic on a Parks Canada island only reachable by boat.

Not much point in having a party boat if we are not going to have a party!

 

So I built a little console table in my free time

Helped a friend build a deck on his island in my free time (after carefully thinking through the process)

Added a dock for our jet ski in my free time.

Having family (including our neice and nephew) visiting

Making the little pirate brother walk the plank in...

Pirate's cove

Marooned on their own island

Happy US Independance day

Yea, I know, It was 11 days ago.

Regretfully, I was not born born the US, but I earned my citizenship by serving in its millitary for 3 years after a heartbreaking failed attemp to defect from Canada. See The Epistle HERE scrool down to 'The Defection'. In some ways, that is why it means so much more to me than to someone who simply crawled out of their mother womb to be here.

There are many who claim that America is the best country in the world but don't really know why. Man, do we ever have issues that make me cringe but before anyone starts casting stones in our direction have you seen what is happening in yours?

I have always felt that America is where God sent his favorite people and is simply the absolute manifestation of what God wants us all to be. 

Some see America as arogant in the world and should apologize. Arrogant? Apologize? Clearly, we have not always gotten it right but we might remember that after WWII alone we had 104,366 Americans burried in European cemetaries. Sometimes we need to be reminded of their sacrifice and not confuse arrogance with leadership.

Refresh my memory again.... How many French, Dutch, Italians, Belgians and Brits are burried on our soil, having defended us againts our ennemies? Oh wait, thats right....zero.

Still, there are some who are so unhappy with the state of the country and its shortcomings that they say they would like to leave. If you know any, you can tell them you have great news!

                                  The jet is ready and they are boarding now.