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