Popular Demand Requests....

...that I post some pictures. I guess that should save me a thousand words or so.... Oh that's too bad since I don't usually have problems with words. :):) This is one of all of us at the top of Ragged Falls just outside the perimeter of Algonquin. It is just a small hike to get to but the flora was spectacular. The river comes around a bend at the top and flies into a little narrow channel with rapids just like you see on tv. It's up quite high and gave me the heebie-jeebies....but the lads just clambered up and down like mountain goats with nary a care in the world. Only moms worry about that kind of stuff. The dad went and did the same thing. The rapids empty over a rock jumble at the bottom and then into a creek that emptied into the lake. It was very scenic paddle( for about 20 minutes in the creek) ,with a nice slow current, easy to paddle and about a 45 minute paddle from our cottage. Ray's mom and I kayaked it one afternoon. It was very relaxing. This is a shot of Craig and I at the bottom of the rapids....
One of Ray's favourite things to do each day was to go fishing at the crack of dawn. The lake, first thing in the morning was soooo peaceful. I loved to sit on the firepit benches with my coffee and just sit. I hope everyone got to do something like that at least once this summer... You notice all kinds of things when you sit there by yourself. The guy on his gator at the beach of the resort across the way dragging a rake over the sand there to make it look nice and tidy, the duckies swimming around, the loon that comes around the bend ducking under the water and surfacing a fifty feet further down the shore where you weren't watching because you thought she would only go about 12 feet. I love the perfect mirror image reflection and the deep blue of the sky. I love the stillness, okay then, minus the gator. And slowly, as the day begins, the wind picks up and the small ripples begin, as if when the mirror is gone, it's time to get going. The quiet calls to you when you sit here, on this half log, and you know you will sit here later, as darkness falls. ...when it is campfire time, the wind dies down, and the peaceful stillness returns.

Now a little pic of our casa, our home away from home. The windows on nearest corner were for the boys bedroom. There is a latch one side that locks them and they swing open on hinges into the room like little doors. What an awesome breeze, right at bed height. The second window to the right was in our living room over the futton couch, which faced our fridge....not that scenic. Then the door....which opened into an open concept, livingroom, diningroom, kitchen combination. The next wall had two big picture windows in it which gave you a view through the trees of the lake. Notice how our entire cottage is surrounded by tall, mature trees? That meant that we didn't get much full sun on our place, which kept it nice and cool, but meant that drying the laundry on our clothes line was the pits! We always brought the towels to Ray's mom and dad's cottage which was right by the water and in full sun. Dried in a flash. Our cottage was fairly modern and had some updates, like cupboards, countertops and carpets. Some of the others were a bit more rustic.
This was the view from our deck, and basically our view from the front windows. There was one cottage on the right had side by the shore, and Ray's folks were right beside it. That cottage had a very quiet family in it. They fished a lot but didn't have much better luck than Ray. His luck changed when he switched from lures to worms. The boys didn't do any fishing this year, but that's because there weren't any signs of life near the dock. The boys spent a lot of time swimming with their cousins and playing things on the beach. Of all things, we also had fun flying kites!!! When's the last time someone told you to "Go fly a kite!" and you did!!!! It had been years for me and I did it a couple of times. One night it was really windy and we couldn't get them to go up. And a few days later there was barely a breeze off the water and you were down to just the spool in no time at all!!!!!

And this is Joe taking a long walk on a short pier. I was supposed to capture him leaping into the water....but I just caught his entry, right behind the motor boat....and it's NOT a 10!!! The water was the colour of iced tea, many of the lakes in this area are that colour, I wonder if you "steep" in it if it would change the shade of your tan.....

That's our holiday in review. Our last memorable stop was for lunch on the 400 at the "famous" Webers. Everyone always talks about it so we succumbed to peer pressure and checked it out. A good homemade burger with no filler. Real meat, cooked real tasty....but still just a burger. Imagine though, that you've just spent 10 days in the bush, living on de-hi(dehydrated food) and this is your first meal! That changes the context just a bit!!! It was still a lot of fun and now we are just like EVERYBODY else! I suppose there are worse ways to conform.....

Home Again....

We have climbed back up from the edge of the face of the world and are home from holidays. We were in Oxtongue Lake, about 10km from the West Gate of Algonquin Park and it was way fun! There are some modem issues at home lately so I am at the library. High speed ROCKS!

Our week up North was great. Our resort had lots to do. A little beach to swim at and make sand castles and sand dragons. Paddle boats, kayaks, canoes AND destinations! There was a great waterfall a half hour paddle away and closer by there was a cliff. Lots of water toys for the kids to swim to and climb on, they had a great time. The cottages were okay too, some a bit more rustic than others. The weather was fabulous, cool nights , warm days and only one evening of rain. The best part was going into the park for day and doing some hikes. They were by far the high light of my trip and it is the wilderness that I miss a lot right now. We even went to an organized Wolf Howl in the evening of that day. Almost 1800 people participated. The guide would howl and they succeeded in getting the nearby wolf pack to respond. We drove out to the site and all parked on the highway, in a very methodical fashion, they shut down the highway and there you stand in the pitch dark in absolute silence. The stars were amazing that night in a clear sky with little moon. The milky way as sobright . The educational programs and organization skills are second to none.

Anyhow....just wanted to share that we've returned.

...and that I have an MC gig coming up in October.
...and that our next Korean student is coming September 8th and his name is Kevin.

They're Home!!!...and so is their laundry...

But you all know that I LOVE laundry. It is four pm and I am on the last load. The socks that have soaked in bleach all afternoon and hopefully they are now some shade of beige instead of black.

What an adventure... Ray contacted me via cellphone around 3:15 to say that all the boys had finally been evacuated and that a headcount was taking place before any boys would be released. It was a long afternoon of waiting for everyone. At around 7 o'clock they finally hit the road but shortly after that....the bus broke down. They were around Barrie on the 400. They waited for a couple of hours for a second bus to come, transfered all the gear they had on board and got underway again. Ray advised me to go to bed, which I did, and I received a call at 1:30 am, which I relayed to another parent, that the bus, boys and counsellors would be at the church in an hour. I slept in my clothes so I wouldn't have to change, and went to the rendezvous point.

When I arrived, the trailer full of gear was there and as parents we unloaded it and lined it up on the sidewalk. I had brought a flashlight and had the very important job of shining it into the trailer since there were no lights inside....the driver had long since unhooked and gone home to bed. The boys Rubbermaid totes came off right away but it was a while before I spotted their hockey bags. A friend offered to load up their van so I wouldn't have to make two trips. Later I spotted Ray's canoe pack, the cot, the bag of dry clothes I had sent (which I had added a name tag to as an afterthought!), but Ray's hockey bag was in another truck. Ray worried about this since his new tent was in there and he had to pack in there wet. A moldy tent is not a pleasant thing to behold. I assured him that it wouldn't rot overnight since it was not a particulary dry evening around here. I had to wipe all the windows since they were covered with condensation....

So the boys are home, went to the library with friends, will go for a swim, tell their adventures to each other all afternoon and play baseball tonight! So exciting!!

I have completed the laundry process...a process, since this would not be a simple task. I sorted the clothes and gear into piles: "caked on mud", "just wet and muddy", and "wow, still fairly clean". I had filled up the now empty Rubbermaid tubs with water and set up a rinsing station at waist height (my back isn't what it used to be) out in the backyard. The caked on stuff went in to soak for a spell, then rubbed and scrubbed with a brush to get the most mud off and then into a second rinse, then to a laundry basket. The wet and muddy stuff really only needed a rinse and the fairly clean stuff could go straight to the machine. I brought the whole kit and kaboodle downstairs and presoaked it. Especially the socks,since the fragrance of organic matter can linger long....therefore the bleach. A lot of the really stained stuff got presoaked in a pail or tubs with warm water and detergent while the fairly clean stuff started to get washed. I managed to get all but one load onto the clothes line and my drying racks. I also had to wash all the hockey bags since they had to sit in the mud somewhere along the line. That was a fun little scub job too. While this was going on, Ray washed and scrubbed the boots and shoes, rain pants and his tent. He actually stayed really dry in there....a bit of water came in from above but NOTHING at the bottom and he was really sitting in water. (That is Ray's boot beside his tent...)People felt sorry for him.
The military was on call in case things went from worse to even worse, but with the help of the community they were able to get the job done. I think if the there had been no towns nearby they might have deployed the armed forces or if lives were at stake.

So this saga is over. What an adventure....it was really hard to get back to sleep after picking the boys up. They showered had a snack and went to bed....Ray told me all kinds of stories because he couldn't sleep either.....it was neat to hear the events to fill in the blanks of what was on the website. At 8:30 we were up and at 'em.








This is Ray's little buddy Kermit, sitting on the groundsheet that comes with his tent. See the water in the grass below. Wow. I can't believe he stayed dry!
And now the laundry is all done....time to make some supper.