Heading out on our new adventure......

Our Location: Walmart Front Yard, Sudbury, Ontario

The last few days have been busy as we’ve been preparing to depart on Wednesday. A number of chores including propane regulator changed, laundry done, visits with various folks, and just a number of things to accomplish. 

These are the roads to and from friend Linda's Camp in the Providence Bay area, they include Blue Side Road with it's ONE LANE bridge, as well as the Manitou River on the Government Road.

Today Wednesday May 30 found our temperatures reaching 84F/29C on the first day of our newest adventure. To say it was hot would be an understatement but the humidity is what was so difficult to handle. The morning started warm at 6 am with temperatures at 57F/14C and just continued to rise. 

Welcome to the wide spot in the road that is Tehkummah. (Tack - a - ma)

We finally pulled out of our temporary spot on the green at 9:30 am after coffee time, a walk, showers and packing up, hooking up and heading down the hill. A quick stop at Dad’s house to say our see you in a month or so and we were off to the hamlet of Manitowaning to pick up my sister Jan as she’s coming with us this time. A stop at the local Information booth/used book stop to drop off some books, then on to sister’s house to load up her necessaries before pulling out around 10:15 am, leaving her partner Rick behind to mind the house, garden and cats. 

The small town of Mindemoya, we do laundry here.

The day would be a short one for us, our destination about 2 hours away. Only one stop for a top up of the Big Dog’s water bowl at $1.29 per litre (approx 4 litres to a gallon, you do the math). 

This turtle was crossing the green where we were parked. Only one we noticed.

We passed through Sheguaindah, Little Current, Birch Island, Espanola, McKerrow and past our usual turn off at Lively (Linda and Randy are at Camp) and motored to Sudbury and Mr. Walton’s front yard. We arrived before 1 pm and were unhooked and headed out to the blood lab, bank and Cosco for a quick couple of errands. We managed to have a quick lunch at Cosco before coming back home. 

The road during part of our travels today. Included as you can see are the blossoms just now showing themselves. Also the 'other' view but this one coming down Ten Mile Point hill toward the town of Sheguaindah.

The afternoon passed with us running all the fans, having all the windows and vents open seemed to keep the heat at least manageable but a shopping excursion into Walmart for some groceries and a few little things helped us cool off a bit. Sis and I  finally retreated outside to the shade of the Igloo as the heat inside wasn’t abating much but it was much cooler outside.

The town of Little Current located on the North Channel is the only gateway that allows one to drive onto Manitoulin Island. The Channel is accessible by a swing bridge that opens during the summer months, every hour on the hour for 15 minutes as needed to allow marine traffic to pass. Riley managed to snap a picture as we crossed the bridge, a picture of the North Channel that leads out to the waters of MacGregor Bay/Kilarney area. Another picture into the North Channel shows a large cruise ship docked at the down town docks of Little Current.

Here it is 7:35 pm and outside has cooled off some, hopefully the night time air cools off as well so we can sleep. As we sat outside Darren from Winnipeg, Manitoba sat with us and chatted away for an hour or so.  Darren and his wife Joan (whom we didn't meet) are parked behind us in a Class A motorhome. Around 9:30 pm we three ladies journeyed back into Walmart to just wander around and finally came home at 10 pm when the store closed for the night. The air is cooling off but it's still pretty warm. The three of us are finding it difficult to get to sleep. 

Highway 6 North, this is part of the drive between Little Current and Espanola. This particular stretch is called the Willisville Hill.

Thanks for stopping by. Today’s pictures are just some of the views out the window as travelled over the last few days including today. 

This is an extremely steep grade which finally gets us to the top of the above mentioned hill.

Until next time….. take care, be safe,

Deb

This week on the rock in the middle of Georgian Bay.....

Our Location: Lakeshore Rd N, near South Baymouth, Ontario

We’ve been keeping out of trouble and busy for the most part. The days are spent doing nothing in particular but yet we manage to get a number of things accomplished by the end of the day. A major accomplishment for me has been to get the nose cone de oxidized and at least one coat of wax on, which I managed to finish up this morning. I’d like to put a couple more applications to it but that may have to way for a bit, but at least it’s a good start.   I also managed to get a new propane detector installed. This required a bit of work as the new one required a hole, instead of just mounting on the wall. I have one more fair major project I’d like to do before we leave on Wednesday but we’ll see if I manage to get accomplished. I have the part purchased and just need to exchange the old for the new. So half of the battle is complete at least and I’ll have it with me so I can possibly do this while we’re away.

 

When I say I walk over the rock, along the fence line this is the trail I take.

The bars that you see in the bottom picture are across what used to be the 'old road' way back when my dad was a youngster growing up here.

There are now 10 cows in the pasture. The picture on the top right corner is the end of the trail over the rock, one walks out to the old orchard, and the view is the back of the houses (Dad's, brother Rick's) and the pasture where you see the cows. The bottom left road is our only way out of the location now without opening a gate, we use the cattle guard in stead. Bottom Right is also what was the 'old road' which is now gated but we still use it here on the farm from time to time.

We’ve been doing a bit of visiting, a bit of puttering and like I said, keeping busy. The weather has been good, nice and warm, with a couple of days actually warm enough for shorts and t’s. We’ve had a couple rain showers as well, but we need the rain, everything is dry, even with all that snow melt it’s still dry. The leaves are still coming out, but the bright lively greens are more the norm now. You can see them off in the distance and where once was a dull dreary, drab landscape is now filled with lush green in vibrant shimmering displays. Tulips are plentiful, reds, yellows and a few whites as well. The daffs are starting to dull and turn brown as the flowers are almost over for another year. The dandelions are popping everywhere, the honeysuckles are out, wild strawberry blossoms are starting to show themselves as are the small violet wild flowers abundant in our wooded back yard. The yellow Marsh Marigolds are evident along the road sides but I haven’t seen any Lady Slippers yet. Ferns and Fiddle Heads are also starting to show off their delicate designs as they appear in various places.

 

Welcome to Dad's house. The drive shed (not originally here in 1927, dad bought it from elsewhere and reassembled it here), the old garage, the house and the wood pile (which is actually in the pasture above). This is the house where I grew up. Brother Rick's house can't be seen from this angle but he lives just a few hundred yards on the other side of this house in what used to be my Grandfather's house (Dad's dad).

These pictures show the driveway leading to our summer location. It's a pretty steady uphill climb, we put the Dogsled in low gear and have lunch while we climb. No just kidding about lunch, but we do use low gear, the hill is steeper than it looks.

I’ve witnessed a number of deer in various places on my morning walks, but all fairly significant in size, no fawns are noticeable so far. We’ve had one quite close to the Igloo walking up the drive/path before hurrying off into the wooded areas nearby. The spring scent of skunk has also been whiffed a couple of times but no sign of the critter yet. We haven’t seen any porcupines yet either which we usually see at least one each spring but since we aren’t in our usual spot that could account for that. A dull coated fox strutted across the road in front of me the other day on my walk, soon winter coats will be shed and they will once again be glossy, sleek and beautiful. The rabbits are plentiful once again this year, the robins, cardinals, junkets, chickadee’s, humming birds, blue jays, as well as numerous other birds are also making themselves known. Wood peckers are hard at work in the  area as well. 

This is our current spot. The nose cone isn't yet shiny, shiny but at least it's not that awful oxidized white colour either.

 

A couple of walks through the sugar bush, over the rock along the fence line hasn’t netted us any morrells, not even a hint but it has found tons of black flies and a few mosquitoes as well. One needs a black fly jacket/cap with mesh screen if one plans to be in the wooded areas for any length of time. The black flies seem almost to come through the screen door later in the evening, so we’ve been closing it up by 8 pm. One of the drawbacks of northern Ontario is the bugs. 

These pictures are from in and around the small town of Manitowaning (Manitou - wan - ing). The speed and distance signs are in KILOMETERS, 80 km = 50 mph for our non metric friends.  The town sits on edges of  two bays, and the only land mass that connects the largest Indian Reservation  (Wikemikong  pronounced Wik - em- i- kong or Wiky for short) to the rest of Manitoulin Island. The small peninsula of land juts across the water for a short distance which effectively divides north and south bays, the northern bays reaching into the North Channel and the southern bays reaching out to Georgian Bay at the South Baymouth Ferry dock. Wiky takes up the entire east side of the Island but joins only in this one small area.

 

Main street heading into Manitowaning. Views of Manitowaning Bay at the end of Main Street. Some spring tulips, a barn quilt for Al, which isn't on a barn but an old garage. A sign that is more at home in the USA than here in small town Ontario, Guns and Pawn, it has only been open about a year now.

 

I haven’t been feeling quite like myself the last number of days, not sick, but not really well either, no energy, a headache, nauseous, even a bit on the dizzy side . Wednesday morning after coffee time at Dad’s I cut my walk short and hurried home to spend some quality time hugging the big white throne. After that I crawled under two fleece blankets and didn’t hear a sound until shortly after noon and when I woke up I was still snuggled under both blankets. The 3 hour nap seemed to help but I spent the rest of the day in my chair reading, resting and nibbling on some crackers. A bit of a fever kept me trying to figure out if I was hot or cold for the rest of the day. Back in bed by 9 pm under all the blankets and when I woke at 5 am Thursday morning I felt like my old self again. Hopefully whatever it is has passed. This morning Dad was feeling a bit off so I’m sure it’s something just going around.

 

Some of the lovely new green leaves we seen along Highway 6 and Bidwell Road.  Aunt Shirley lives on this stretch of Bidwell Road, in fact the last picture will find her house down near that cross roads you can see.

 

Talked to my friend Linda for a bit, she’s at Camp and enjoying the time there. They’ll be there for a week or so and hopefully we get up to visit before we head out on our own adventure at the end of the month. Also had a text from sister Jan, her laser eye surgery went well and she appears to be doing good. I couldn’t take her Wednesday as I was just not up to it. 

 

I love these two road pictures. The first picture is taken as we approach what is called Ten Mile Point from the north side. It's on Highway 6 and has a small scenic pull off with a spectacular view out over the North Channel area and off into the MacGregor Bay/Kilarney  area on a clear day. The second picture is actually taken from a back road after leaving my aunt's house and heading out to the small bump of Sheguaindah (Sheg - a- win- dah) which straddles Highway 6. The road you see in the top part of the picture is the road from the first picture.  If you look closely you can see the white patch. Of course next time I'll take the picture in reverse, showing the view from Highway 6 to the side road. It's just a neat view. The last picture is the small trading post/gift shop at the top of Ten Mile Point.  Ten Mile Point is located at approx the ten mile mark between Manitowaning and Little Current. Sheguaindah, also a reservation is located on the Little Current side of Ten Mile Point and stops/starts depending on your direction of travel at the bottom of that big long hill in the first picture.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Today’s pictures are varied over the last few days. They range in location from Sheguiandah to Lakeshore Rd N. They include a walk over the rock along the fence line, our summer location driveway, Dad’s place, along with some beautiful views from around Sheguiandah, Ten Mile Point, Manitowaning and the roads we travelled to get to those places.  I hope you enjoy the views!!!

The views from Ten Mile Point Look Out. If these pictures look familiar it's because we had a couple of quick pictures on our way home this spring that shows ICE out there completely locking up some of the islands.

 

Until next time….

 

Wild strawberry blossoms, small purple violets, honey suckles, hens & chicks, ferns and fiddle heads, along with our Innushuk.  The hens & chicks survived the winter in our rock garden, and the snow didn't knock Rocky Innushuk down, the others are all signs of new growth for a new spring.

 

Take care, be safe,


Deb

 

 

 

 

A busy week....

Our Location: Lakeshore Rd N, near South Baymouth, ON

The last number of days have been busy with various errands, jobs, and visits. We’ve travelled a bit to place like Espanola, Little Current, Manitowaning, Mindemoya and Tehkummah but we have yet to visit the little hamlet of South Baymouth. We will though and I promise to remember to take the big camera instead of just my phone.
 

Waiting for Dad at the bank in Little Current. Ahead is a small glimpse of the water front, which is the North Channel.

Tuesday found Riley and I securing a new family doctor in Mindemoya as our Hamilton family doctor retired and we don’t care for the new fellow. We’ve slowly been switching things to the north and have now joined with Dr. Maryna Harelnkava at the Manitoulin Health Clinic.

This is the local OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) building. No town cops, just provincial and Native ones on the Island.

Wednesday we travelled to Espanola with Dad as he wanted to do some grocery shopping, and we too managed to find a few items we could use. Isn’t that always the way though? You don’t need anything and $50 later you leave the store. The ride is about an hour and a half from where we’re located, we must cross the swing bridge in Little Current and continue along Highway 6 north bound through a couple of reserves.  We travelled through Birch Island Reserve, Whitefish Falls Reserve and weaved our way through the rocky outcroppings of Willisville and passed into Espanola just before 10 am. We managed to pass the time at a few stores, lunch and before we knew it we were home by 2:30 pm. Not a long trip but a nice slow pace and a few laughs along the way. 

My view of the morning sun as it greets the day.

Thursday  had Dad and I travelling to Mindemoya to have his 2 week old hearing aid back at the hearing clinic there. Seems they have to send it out to be repaired, and it’s only 2 weeks old. I’m not sure what to think about this little issue but we’ll see how long it lasts when it comes back. We did a few little errands while there in Mindemoya as well. 

This fella and his partner (she's in the ditch among the weeds) may be nesting in this location. Lots of marshy areas here.

Friday has us visiting Aunt Shirley during the morning and sister Jan on our way back home.  We also stopped at the local body shop where my long time friend Blaine did his magic on a stone chip we picked up over the winter travels. 

One of my morning walks, I walk up to the bend in the road which is where our gateway is located.

Taking a few minutes most days I’m also working on the oxidization issue on the nose cone and hopefully will have it finished by Monday and be able to apply some wax to bring the shine back. We shall see how that goes though. I’ve been walking a bit more now that we are back, although the mornings are pretty crisp still but I’m sure they will get warmer soon. The snow and ice are now all gone, with no signs of lingering any where. A walk over the back trail to the Sugar Shack didn’t find any Morrels in the spots I noted them last year and I think it’s too dry. Hard to believe with all the snow they had here but the ground is dry and crunchy in places. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow so hopefully we get a nice gentle rain over the evening and night. It would be most helpful. 

This is taken from our regular parking spot, as you can see we're quite a bit lower down.

Our Canadian long weekend is about over with today being Monday. Rain on Saturday had us doing some inside chores and reading. Sunday found me finishing up not quite all of the nose cone, about 15 more minutes should complete the oxidization removal and then I can apply a couple of coats of wax and be finished with that particular job. We have a few things planned for the week and hopefully a bit of warmth finds the wind/breezes that are constant here on the rock. Things are starting to show their spring colours more and more with daffs, tulips, crocus, and hyacinths showing their bright spring colours. 

We normally park right back there along those rocks and trees on the right. In fact you can see the outline of the out door mat we use toward the left of the picture.

With the long weekend comes the cattle into our little piece of real estate. They should arrive today and be here for summer pasture. All of the gates are now closed, and we will start being more aware of the things we leave outside. Cows will chew anything, we’ve been fortunate enough to only lose the occasional solar light to their destructive ways over the years so we can’t complain. 

You can see the lake from here, but we don't park this high. That's our fire pit down there below on the rock.

So there you have it folks. Nothing exciting but we’ve been busy. I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Quite the view from up here but we can't get this high with the Igloo.

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Walking across the old orchard you can see the back of my brother's house, my dad lives to the right behind that tall pine tree. You can barely see the David Brown Tractor on the extreme right but Dad's there splitting wood for next winter's heat.

 


Deb



(A note: I've found that posting a daily blog right now just isn't possible as my mornings are too full and the internet speed at night is disgusting so I'll be posting when I can, I'll try for once a week but who knows. I'll be catching up with everyone's posts at some point but I can't tell you when. I hope you all have a wonderful summer!!!!)



 

We've arrived.....

Our Location: Lakeshore Rd N, near South Baymouth, Ontario

(sorry pictures won't load, I'll try tomorrow)

A few days of travel have since passed since I last posted. We've been busy doing a number of things and I've been a bit lazy too. We've had great weather, although a little windy today, a bit of rain last night but other wise sun and warmth have been filling the days. 

  

We left Parry Sound on Tuesday morning, taking our time, arriving in Lively, Ontario near my friend Linda's home around the noon hour. We parked and settled in for a night's stay. A visit with Randy and Linda during the evening hours, had us straggling home to the Igloo shortly after 10 pm. A late night for us. A quiet night there but alas I think our stops there will be limited for a time at least as there is construction trailers now resting near the spot we like to park and a chat with a couple of the workers/foremen makes me think they will be using it for quite some time so we may need to find a new parking place for our next couple of trips through that area. 

Due to the incoming dump trucks around 9 am on Wednesday morning (courtesy information from the two foremen the day before) we were hooked up and pulling out by 7:45 am leaving Lively in our rear view mirror. The roads in Northern Ontario leave a lot to be desired as they are horrendous, rough, pot holes, heaves from the frost, poundings from the big trucks, gouges from snow plows and so forth. Not nice at all.

The trip from Lively to our summer location is at best a 3 hour ride. We managed to drag it out a wee bit, not arriving until around 1:30 pm. We stopped along the way to do a few little things like fill the diesel tank, dump the Igloo tanks, a bit of shopping and a visit with my cousin Karen. We spent more than an hour catching up with Karen and enjoying a few laughs. Hopefully she comes for visit over the summer months when we are on the Island. 

All of the above was accomplished in the little town of Espanola, a paper mill being it's main source of employment. The drive now turns from west back to the south as we head down Highway 6 toward the ferry terminal at South Baymouth. We are not right in the little hamlet of South Baymouth but a short 10 minute ride away. 

This drive netted us sights of ice still on the rock cuts along the road, a few sightings of snow still here and there in the bush off the road as well. The temperatures were warm and the snow/ice is in those hard to reach places for the sun but will eventually melt. The big news is there is still lots of ice in the bays and channels, not enough for ice fishing but still a great deal. Although the North Channel is clear (the town of Little Current sits on the shores of the North Channel) the others are still ice choked and just now beginning to show signs of breaking up. A good strong wind for a couple of days, some good hard rain or some very warm sunny days, or a combination of the above will get the ice moving quickly and once it starts it'll go pretty fast. 

We passed through the wide spots in the road with names like Sheguiandah, Manitowaning, Hilly Grove and finally ended up just past The Slash where we turned from Highway 6 to Concession 6, then onto Lakeshore Road North and right quick we were pulling in at brother Rick's house to fill up with fresh water. As we're doing that brother Rick and Dad were pulling into Rick's yard as well. Rick had a medical procedure and Dad had been the hired driver. Filled up, quick visit with Dad and on the road once more for a 3 minute drive to the our front gate, through the mud and mire and only half way up the hill to our regular summer location we pulled off and settled for a different location for the next couple of weeks. A couple of soft spots going up the final approach made me think that for a short time we could park further down. So we pulled off onto the grassy top and put down the feet. We've arrived home after a very long time away. We left here Sept 24, 2017 and arrived back May 9, 2018. It's nice to be back. 

After a quick set up, some lunch we headed up to visit for a bit with Dad and get caught up on a few things. We managed to get a few little quick visits in before night fall, all with Dad of course. He dropped by after his dinner as well.

The rain started just before 9 pm last night (Wednesday) and fell off and on until around 3 am. After that it was just cloudy with the winds picking up again. Today has been a bit on the breezy side but the morning fog and cloud cover were completely cleared up by noon. I woke up around 4 am and was finished sleeping for the night. Finally got up around 6 am, did a couple of things very quietly before heading out to Dad's house for morning coffee with Dad, Rick and Barb. 

Back home Riley and I had some breakfast before climbing into the Dogsled to get a few things accomplished. A quick trip to the little hamlet of Tehkummah where we stopped at the little country general store, the used book store and the post office. Tons of mail, which I hate having to deal with. I wish I could do everything on line, with no more paper but alas that is not the way it works just yet, maybe at some point though. Back home once again we managed a 5 minute visit with Dad while dropping off some things for him and then settled in to deal with the mail. 

The trusty Auto Club showing it's face with a long ago paid bill had me on the phone dealing with the mess that was made with my account. It was still not fixed properly but you'll love this part, they had simply cancelled my membership, no notice, no refund, just written it off. Can you say ticked off? However I was very nice to the lady and explained what had happened ONCE AGAIN, but this time I wasn't talking to the road assistance people but someone that was actually able to pull up my entire account. When I asked why they hadn't transferred my payment from Southern Ontario to Northern Ontario when they transferred the membership she explained they can't transfer payments like that. The old membership has to be cancelled and a refund cheque issued, and I would have to sign up for a new membership with the Northern Ontario branch and pay for a full year to start the whole thing over. She had no explanation as to why they would do what they did and not tell me. She could easily see that I had paid and that no refund had been issued but that Southern Ontario had simply just written the membership as cancelled. Which means I would have no coverage of any kind, with no knowledge of the cancellation. She in fact fixed it completely, so I now am having the proper Northern Ontario numbers/card being sent to me and billing will be totally on line, etc. Yeah me!! 

A call to the credit card company had me confused as to why a new card was issued with all the exact same information as my current card. They are no longer using a rebate card, now it's called cash back. Really? They couldn't just honour the card until it expired and then send out a new one? Anyway, that was also taken care of, again yeah me. 

Trying to change our family doctor from Hamilton to the Island is also an experience. Our family doctor in Hamilton retired and we truly aren't too happy with the new one, so we're hoping to change to a local guy. We'll be getting some information about that on Monday. Hopefully it works out well, but we shall see. We will also be looking for a new eye doctor up here in the north as it's inconvenient to have one in Hamilton.

My sister showed up this afternoon for a visit. Haven't seen her since we left the Ottawa area last Sept after her daughter Britt's wedding, so it was nice to catch up with her as well. She didn't stay long as she had some other business to attend to this afternoon and evening. 

So there you have it, the last few days of our winter travel. It was peaceful and quite relaxing as we made our way home once again. I haven't taken any pictures of our spot here yet but I will for the next post. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

Deb

A rainy day here on the Rock......

Our Location: Lakeshore Road N, Tehkummah, Ontario

A warm night but a wet one as well. The rain started in the wee hours before dawn this morning and continued pretty much all day. Not a hard rain but a nice soaker which of course we could use as things have been pretty dry here for a while. The last rain was a huge downpour which basically only managed to moisten the top layer as it simply ran off without soaking in. The day time temps were chilly today as well, reaching a high in the hours just before noon of about 16C/62F but dropped steadily throughout the afternoon to a temp now of about 12C/54F. More rain in the forecast but Saturday is looking like a nice day!!

That brownish coloured thing is a Morel. Not many around these last number of years.

I've been slowly getting things worked out for the Dogsled, by next week I'll have Ontario Insurance and will be able to finish the Ontario Registration process as well. June 1 the Dogsled goes under the knife to have the heater replaced in the BluDef Tank as the engine light code points to that issue. Covered under warranty. I'm extremely happy about that. So we will be heading to the small northern town of Espanola to have that issue fixed. An afternoon appointment time of 1 pm with assurances of having it finished by 5 pm. I explained I'm from an hour and a half 's drive away, this is my only vehicle and I would require a loaner if they can't have it fixed in one day. Hopefully it's just the couple hours he assured me it would be. 

 

Some Marsh Marigolds along my walking route.

I've been walking pretty much every morning after coffee time at Dad's. I leave the Igloo around 6:15 am for the short walk to Dad's house for coffee, leave his place around 7:15- 7:30 am head out for my walk returning home around 8:15 - 8:30 am unless I take the longer walk around the block which then gets me back around 9 am. It's a wonderful walk, quiet, peaceful, some very beautiful sights to see along the way. I even walked this morning in the light rain. 

I walk this road pretty much every morning. To the left is Leeson's Bay.

I've been slowly working my way around the Igloo working on some drafts we've found. It's amazing how some places just get totally missed when they are putting these things together. We've found a somewhat big draft from the vent on the stove. I've even closed the flaps outside but it doesn't stop the draft, it slows it down but not enough to make me happy. ~laugh~ So I'm trying to figure out a way to fix that issue as well. I'm blonde and a slow thinker so it takes awhile. ~laugh~ 

Leeson's Bay

For dinner a few nights this week we've been experimenting with different variations of a chicken dish. I've used boneless, skinless chicken breasts chopped into bite size pieces sauteed  with a few different kinds of dressing. After the chicken/dressing has been browned I add whatever veggies we want, usually mushrooms, green beans, red, yellow, orange peppers, and/or asparagus. Let that simmer away while I cook either rice or pasta. Finally I toss the two together, add a bit of parm cheese and that's dinner. We've tried Roasted Red Pepper, Sundried Tomato, and of course the stand by of Zesty Italian. So far we like the Roasted Red Pepper best. Adds a really nice flavor to the chicken. 

To the right is the road to Dad's, straight on just before the bend is the driveway to the Igloo.

A call today to the Verizon folks has got the internet connection working much faster and we're thinking of going with the unlimited data plan. It works out to be a bit cheaper than our current plan with no connection fees each time we turn it on. So we're considering this plan but we'll give it some more thought as it works out to be approx $100 US a month which for us Canucky's is about $130 CAD. That seems a bit high to me but then again, maybe it isn't when I factor everything in. 

This picture is taken from the same spot as the one above just in the opposite direction.

Spent a couple of hours on the phone with my friend Linda the other day just catching up. Looking forward to having a chance for a longer in person visit in the up coming weeks. Always fun to see her and Randy. 

Okay on that note, I've rambled long enough. Today's pic were mostly taken on cloudy overcast days and therefore do not do justice to the route I walk. At some point in the future I"ll take some pics on a bright sunny day to show you how truly nice it is. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time....be safe, take care.....

 

 

 

Is it Monday? Feels like Monday.....

Our Location: Lakeshore Road N, Tehkummah, Ontario


This mornings temp was just under the freezing mark at 5:30 am but warmed up to the freezing mark around 8 am. No wind made it feel chilly but not overly. Mittens and a hoodie along with my light jacket were enough to keep me warm when I was heading up to Dad’s shortly before 6:30 am for coffee time with the crew. Short walk, about 10-12 minutes but it was muddy in places although I managed to find a few patches of gravel in all that mud and tip toe my way across. Tomorrow I’ll take the longer route but it’ll be less muddy. The day was a nice day, not bright blue skies but with the hint of sun and little wind, the temps weren’t too bad at all. Two nice days in a row, is it possible we have turned that corner?

Coffee time included Dad, brother Rick and Rick’s wife Barb. We enjoyed a few laughs, a couple of stories and possibly a few lies. ~laugh~ It’s coffee time, what do you expect? 

No new green. Stopped for construction between Sudbury and Espanola

I left dad’s around 8 am heading out for my usual (when here ) morning walk. It takes me around the hour mark which makes it about a mile. It’s on a gravel road, a nice country stroll with a number of rolling ups and downs. I didn’t see a single soul when I was walking or even see a single vehicle, in fact the only wild life I seen this morning were some ducks on the water, that’s it!!

Back at the Igloo around 9 am I gathered up my goodies, heading  to my brother’s house to take a shower. While parking here in our summer location we shower at my brother’s house and in exchange I do a few little chores around the house which is excellent for me as it keeps me from being extremely bored, it helps keep me out of trouble, and I enjoy helping out. They both work out of the house and so the little things we do may help that ‘burden’ of work that still needs to be done.  I was back home around 10:45 am so we could start our day.

 

After calling my sister to ensure she was home and up for a quick visit we climbed into the Dogsled to start our errands. Our first stop was at the post office in Tehkummah  to pick up 6 months worth of mail. Hmmmmm…..not as much as I expected but still a lot of mail, chatted with the nice post mistress for a bit before heading on to our next stop. The beautiful little town of Manitowaning is situated on a hill over looking Manitowaning bay, the water is a dark blue at this time of the year as it’s cold and icy looking. Across the bay is the Wikemikong Reservation which is well known for it’s annual summer PowWow drawing many dancers from great distances. We stopped at the pharmacy along one of the main streets,( sister in law Barb works at this location) where I left a prescription to be filled, crossed the street to the only grocery store in town to pick up a couple little things and then worked our way to my sister Jan’s house. We visited with her for about an hour, taking a walking around the block, picking up her mail, and just getting out and about for a bit. It was great to see her again, I’ve missed her. We’ll visit a lot more  over the summer.

Lots of water laying around.

From my sisters house we headed out to do some errands associated with the Dogsled and it’s registering in Ontario. I’ll give you the nut shell version, broker didn’t give me all the paper work, Service Ontario rep won’t let me register until the sends the paperwork, broker says S.O. Rep doesn’t need it, S.O. Rep wants the original, broker says S.O. Rep doesn’t  need it. I yelled at broker, he yelled back and I still have ‘Bama plates and US insurance on the truck. Salvage yard weighed the Dogsled, weighs just over 7000 lbs. Stay tuned…..like sands thru the hour glass…..~laugh~ 

 

From there we headed home, it was getting late and we were starting to think maybe we should have some lunch soon. About 10 minutes after leaving the Service Ontario Building (registration  place for the Dogsled) we happened by this young person on the side of the road with a sign saying SOUTH, and considering we were heading south and were only about 15 minutes from the very southern tip of the island and that would be about 5 or 6 minutes from the Igloo we stopped to offer a ride. Turns out the young man is deaf and so communication was almost none existent but we did manage to find out that he wanted to go to that exact southern most tip and catch the ferry boat. He pointed on the map so I knew where he wanted to go, and within a short period of time we had delivered him to the front door of the ferry terminal. Our good deed for the day.

Home to the Igloo we settled in to open mail, have some thing to eat and kind of just wind down. To say that opening the mail was time consuming would be an understatement. I think I was about 45 minutes opening up the mail. I made two phone calls as a result of the mail,one was handled instantly, the other I’m waiting for a call back. I managed to get everything sorted out and stacked into piles that I will figure out what to do with over the next few days.

One of the many rock cuts on our drive to the Island

 

We kind of just grazed from one thing to another and so when dinner time showed up neither of us were hungry. We kind of just skipped it. Not a good thing I know but oh well, that’s just how it worked out. ~laugh~

After that Riley headed off to her room, I read for a while before sitting down to do my blog. I can tell you that todays outing was a day of wild life sightings, 2 ground hogs, 1 deer, 1 minx, and a number of vultures. Spring is in the air, and the animals are stirring.

Tomorrow, well who knows what tomorrow will bring. However I’m pretty certain whatever it is will be dealt with, just as every thing has been dealt with, one step at a time. A letter in my inbox this afternoon from the Dealership in Alabama about my old truck. They want to sell it and need some kind of form, information about where i crossed,  and did I fill out such and such a form. US Export office told me when I crossed  that the dealership won’t be able to sell it until it passes customs down there. I didn’t know that at the time of trading it, and I didn’t tell them that in the letter today either. Hm…..it is a tangled mess. ~laugh~ 

No green hints but the odd bit of red can be seen.

So there you have it, our day. To say it was exciting would be true in some ways, seeing my siblings and my sister in law was fantastic, it’s been a long time. Getting back into our routine here is comforting. I’m looking forward to the first camp fire of the season which I hope will be soon. We need to get the things out of storage here and set up the ‘yard’, we are both looking forward to seeing my niece and nephews along with their families  and significant others. Getting back to walking will be nice, it will help relieve the stress. To say the day was also stressful would be accurate with more stuff than just the crap with the Dogsled going on and needing attention. I believe Forrest Gump had it right, or maybe it was Mamma Gump, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get until you bite into it. ~laugh~

 A wise man told me once that if we didn’t have bad days we would never know to appreciate the good ones. So keeping that in mind, this too shall pass! 

 

I've been kind of busy and haven't commented on any comments, nor have I read any other blogs. I will get to them in the next number of days answering comments and also reading/posting.

Until next time…..be safe, take care…..