Visitors!


Martin - a former colleague from Bristol - and his Montreal girl-friend have come to visit!  In true 107 style, we started by taking them shopping at Rona .......But they soon got into the swing of things (usually, - house restoration permitting!) at 107 and headed off for lac des Mauves in the canoe.  Fortunately they are both well-experienced paddlers; Martin in canoes, Ala in dragon boats!

Supper was a leisurely, drawn-out affair, with Martin in particular enjoying his first taste of freshly-picked ble d'Inde!

And the weather is warm again - hooray

Progress - of a sort.....

The guys came Tuesday to finish the blasting; it's the best it can be (and that is very good :-) ).  We've now started the wood protection phase - nothing much to see there, clear, water-based liquids so far.  But we have been systematically testing colours on some of the bits of log that were replaced for the rot hole.

Colour samples - very Josiah Wedgwood

And this morning (Wednesday) we have refilled the bird-food dispenser and seen some very hungry visitors.

We expect visitors tomorrow from England and Montreal; so we have a lot of cleaning and tidying to do, as well as the ordering of materials and further work on the back doors!

Whoever thought this was a holiday?!

Big trip

Stopping off at P&N in Ottawa on the way home.  Camped beside the Outawai (Ottawa) river on the way up to Sudbury, in Algonquin National Park on the way back.  Mixed experiences.  Can't reduce the photos now.

Big event in the middle was Lila's Christening.  Great day, lovely service, good food and company for lunch, hot weather but a breeze :-)

Pics when we arrive home.

We left on Friday morning on the long trip to Sudbury, intending to shop for Lila on the way.  Our first stop at  Tremblant drew a very frustrating blank, and we headed on for Gatineau in the outskirts of Ottawa, three hours away, where we had a similar lack of success :-(.  So we resolved to shop either in Sudbury or North Bay on Saturday and, for now, to press on westward to a campsite, as yet undecided!  The curve of the Ottawa river makes a straight line to Sudbury difficult; there aren't that many crossing places between "here and there", not least because, although the south shore - Ontario - is moderately undulating and farmed, the north shore - Quebec - is much hillier and forested, so there is no great call for crossings anyway.  No road really follows the river, the 17 plugs westward for mile after straight mile, except for the excitement of a police-enforced detour through farmland to avoid a burning lorry!

Eventually, the need for lunch / supper overcame us and we stopped at Logos Land!  http://www.logosland.com/Restaurant.html  This very low key evangelical establishment had its restaurant in an Ark!  And had a good book shop!  Yaaaay, some of the shopping done; and good food!

Pitch at Driftwood

Encouraged by full tums we pushed further west and came to "Driftwood", an Ontario Parks campsite on the banks of the Ottawa river.

Ottawa nocturne

It was a very peaceful spot with good flushing loos  and lovely views over the river towards Quebec on the north shore.  We slept fairly well, no alarms or excursions, and were on the road again soon after 9.  Last year, when we went to Sudbury for Thanksgiving, we fought miles of road works before Mattawa. They've moved; the road in to Mattawa is now great, elsewhere has gravel top awaiting its asphalt before the winter.  I'll write something about roads out here another time.



Mattawa is the great fork in the river where the Ottawa swings north and west, whilst the smaller Mattawa river continues west.  There's a very homely restaurant here, overlooking the river, with a view that could very easily be the backdrop for Tom Thomson's "Pointer boats".  http://www.artfinder.com/work/the-pointers-tom-thomson/in/gallery.hart-house-permanent-collection-university-of-toronto/ We, however, were more concerned with breakfast - despite early filter coffee courtesy of the wonderful Trangia stove!

The Hungry Man breakfast!

(Please notice the healthy addition of orange slices to the plate). 

It's only about 2.5 hours from Mattawa to Sudbury so we stopped to finish our shopping in North Bay, on the north-east edge of lake Nipssing.  It was the home of the slightly ill-fated Dionne Quints and their Homestead is preserved, now alongside the main road, as a museum.  We didn't visit.

(Much) more later.....

Welcome, Lila!

Good to meet up with G&J&L and C&R.  Supper was a great pot roast of wonderful beef. Sleep was very welcome!

Sunday dawned - late!  Service was due to be at 10.30 and we woke at 9.15!  A lovely service when, by chance, C's Co-worker's child was being baptised at he same time as Lila!  She has a certificate that says "Baptised into the one, Holy, Catholic Church, "in the tradition of " (my words) the United Church of Canada" (which I thought was rather lovely!).  Then back to the house for another of those spectacular Canadian feasts, before we sadly had to leave at about 15.00 for the first part of the journey home to 107

Back to North Bay, then south down the remarkable, newly extended 11 to Huntville.  This road is fabulous; beautiful and bold, it sweeps down the west side of Algonquin, headed for Toronto.  A real case of building for the future.


And then to the fabled Algonquin National Park!  The first national park in Ontario, spiritual home of he Group of Seven, probably site of Cache Lake ( of the book - the "real" Cache Lake is not the same thing at all!).

Welcome to the fabled land

We didn't choose our camp site wisely; pushed for light as the time moved on, we chose Tea Lake - and a nearly road-side site with a group of vocal young men adjacent....  At 01.30, A got up to give them a piece of her mind - and they finally subsided.  Morning saw rain but we're quite good at dropping camp in the rain - all Brits are!

But it is a beautiful area and we shall definitely hope to return.  Even the necessarily commercial outfitters at Canoe Lake (really - the actual Canoe Lake :-) )  is tasteful and the best provisioned souvenir shop we've seen.

Sad to leave, we headed for Egansville, where Canadian Log Home Supply have their only Canadian outlet for the wood treatment system we have settled on for 107.

AN HOUR LATER, we left, having spent a small fortune (as a down payment - worth every penny) and been given innumerable free colour samples to come home to try out before we choose the final stains and top coats for the house.

LISTEN, it's just blooming logs!

And so, re-crossing the Outawais / Ottawa at Portage du Fort, we came again to P&N and were given a wonderful, welcome supper.  We were SORELY tempted to stay over, but 107 called deeply  to us and we fought sleep and ill-temper (me) to return at 10.30.

And a good thing too.  Why - well, you'll just have to wait for tomorrow to find out!

Sun shade!

Phew, what a scorcher!

The log-repair man arrived at 07.30; fortunately, so did Denis, so we could understand each other.  So we now have a log where the gap was!

And then our delightful perfectionist paint and chinking remover arrived soon after and the day began.

And the temperature rose,  and we had to put up a tarpaulin to keep the sun off as we worked -


although our stalwart remover just took his shirt off as he worked in full sun on the South side....  And then we took our shirt off - well, not Ali of course!

And then he went home; and then we finished;

The last bit of old sealant removed!

and had supper;

and had a shower;

and are now typing this

and shall go to bed very soon!

Coo!

PS - off to Sudbury tomorrow for  Lila's Baptism :-)  Back Monday night.

A busy homework day....

Only one of the guys came today - but he's been busy non-stop pulling green goo out of the Checks in the wood; as has Ali.  I've painted frames again.  They have stopped using oil based paints here; it's all acrylic (emulsion to UK readers) and doesn't cover at all well.  And doesn't shine!

I thought you'd like this picture of a 3 inch bug!

Sleep well :-)

Di dah dah dah, di dah da dah...  (The Stripper ;-)

Well, we’re well in to it now!  The guys arrived at 08.30 and were well in to their stride by 09.00.  They are doing a beautiful job!   

The detailed removal of all of the old “checking” (crack) sealant, previously packed over oakum (sort of jute fibre) is taking an additional age, however. 

  

And the internet has taken over everything; you just cannot order specialist materials in any other way these days; which, even with UPS, adds a couple of days to delivery and makes shopping trips disappointing.

However, it looks wonderful – the house we always thought it was!  I hope you agree.

Brilliant trip

Sunday evening - just arrived back from the weekend +1day  in the USA.  Wonderful trip seeing Jeremy and Rachael and Beckie and Lucas.  Same probs with the photos but I'll back edit in due course.

More later.

We left on Thursday last to overnight with Rachael's parents in Alburg, just south of the US Canadian border.  A long trip with huge road works in Montreal.  You have to go through the western edge of the city to get to the Champlain bridge that crosses the St Lawrence.  The authorities are reparing some of the fly-overs.  I'm afraid that the view of those not yet under repair from the one we used is not very inspiring.  Evidence of concrete rot (steel rusting within the concrete structure and bursting the covering concrete off) is not at all reassuring....

Anyway, once over the bridge we made good time down to the border and had about an hour's wait being processed through by a very chatty, pleasant border guard.  We're permitted to stay in the US until November, so who knows, if this weather continues, we might fly down to Florida! (JOKE!).

Actually (Monday morning) the weather has improved, the guys have arrived with a huge compressor so we should be OK for the sand blasting today!

Anyway - back to the trip.  We met up with Molly and Joe at their place and all went out to supper at the hotel where Ali and her parents had stayed for J & R wedding.  Fancy food, lakeshore venue.  A nice evening.  And then Joe introduced me to his observatory - a real one!  We looked at Saturn, hardly visible in the evening sky, but there it was, just like a paper cut-out!  He guided me and some visitors around the zodiac with a laser pointer that made identifying stars really easy.  If I’d had one of those when I was originally trying to learn the  stars – that would have made life much easier!

Friday morning J & R and Co arrived and we set off, via the stores for money, petrol (gas!) and provisions to the Adirondacks.  Pretty country, a lot like here but with higher hills (some up to 4,000 feet) but poor; miles of more winding roads than here but tiny settlements with no visible means of support and many with peeling paint and a bit tumbledown.  I guess there would be more lavish parts, it’s cottage country after all, but it all felt a bit tired.

On to Saranac, then Lake Clear, until we came to Follensby Clear Pond. 

 A bit of a panic as people we met at the first parking spot said that all the camp sites they had tried were full!  On to the next parking spot, off with the boats for a reconnaissance paddle and we found two sites straight away. We chose the one marked here in Yellow.

Mind, it was obvious that the lake was well used; and well organised!  There was a signing in (and out) book, and clear signing of individual camp sites, with cleared areas and fire circles already in place.  We had to take firewood in with us, but we’d already dealt with that on the way – a wide variability of prices at individual racks along the road side.

Excitement here as the sand blasting begins – more later!

First side, stripped

B and L pitched their family tent whilst the 4 adults went back to the landing to load up the canoes with the rest of the gear.  It rained just after we’d set up, and the strong, cold West wind blowing directly on to the site was a feature of much of the weekend!  Other than that, things were really very good.  

"Brown" potato dinner.....

Big fires, (a bit too much smoke L ), camp cooking from the ancient (“brown” potato dinner in the Dutch oven, Raisin Bannock (a sort of camp bread) potato chips (crisps) in the cast iron skillet), to the modern (Pasta primavera cooked in the bag with water that the jet boiler took about three minutes to heat!), and all those camp fire comforts in between (Smores, pancakes.....).

And paddling and portage through wilderness trails.  Great – real Swallows and Amazons.  And an adjacent lake that was side by side trailers all the way round with a Karaoke and a Harley Davidson convention....  

Coooold!

Never was wilderness less wild!  But it didn’t matter, we all had real fun; the $35 tent held up well, the quilt from the cottage worked fine and the spare we had taken was just what the others needed!  

HOW many layers of clothes?

And we used nearly all of our gear – especially the axe (big grin!).

Portage (Green arrow on map)

Sunday, after a magnificent pancake breakfast by Rachael -

The last pancake - a bit of a monster ;-)

 was a long drive home over the bridge at Ogdensburg and through Canadian immigration to Ottawa – for coffee and very welcome cakes with P & N before the long run home.  There was torrential rain leaving Ottawa, but it had thinned to a spatter by Montebello

Coming home...

 and we arrived in the dry – although it obviously HAD rained!   

Home - Monday morning

And then, right at the entrance to the drive – an adult Racoon, with three small ones, caught in the headlights.  THAT’s what’s been raiding the bins!  From now on, it’s a rock on top of the bin!

So – I’ve painted another coat of poison on the windows – only the backdoor ones so far :-(  - and the guys are having lunch.  And I've just remembered that I have cables for my Olympus - I've been using the Sony!  
Time to get the boat jet-washed before we can launch it here.  There are “invasive species” in the Follensby system, which we do NOT want here.

Off, off and away (again!)

... this time to Northern New York State - to the "Finger lakes" in the Adirondacks; not far from Lake Placid - to meet up with our nephew, niece and family for a "wilderness camping" weekend!

Park the car, get your boat out, paddle 1/2 hour to the island camp site.

However, don't think that this is "roughing it"; the kit list is silly - whoever took a screen-room on a wilderness camp?  Mind, there are plenty who would have wished that they had!

And - essentials - a corkscrew?

Ho hum, should be fun.  Back Sunday night all being well :-)

Roxy is not coming with us, sadly; we are handing her over to Audrey tomorrow morning.  She (Roxy - and Audrey for that matter!) is welcome to stay any time :-)

Girls and their horses, Eh!

A delightful dog; we went for a couple of hours trail ride in the most beautiful woodland today, just in the back of the town hall!

Almost in the  middle of town!

I now have a new adapter - thanks G!

The maple leaves are just beginning to be infused with a slightly yellow hue, instead of the full green of a week or so ago.  Prompts for a poem - I'll work on that.  And the weather has again been kind - in fact a bit humid.  The fly screen frames on the big kitchen windows are off being painted - so air circulation is reduced; only 20 degrees right now (20.24) but sticky.

Back to normal - at last!

So, it rained this morning - but the barn has become the new poisoning shed where I can apply the evil wood treatment; Nahahahahah!

And mid morning we had a lovely surprise Skype with them "oop Noarth"; and then timidly at first, but finally fully confident, the SUN CAME OUT!  So we have demolished the external window surrounds - MDF used outside, in this climate!  And we have discovered one completely rotten log, which, considering the fact that the house is made of them, is a bit of an issue; and we have tidied around a bit more; and A went for a ride - taking Roxy to follow at foot; and we had a barbecue!  Yaaaaay!

Wish I could show you pics of all of this but the carrier for the camera card, which fits into the the PC, seems to have gone off the boil.  But you can take it from me, it has been a MUCH better day!

Oh! - remember I wrote about fire-warning signs at the entrances to the villages?

This was ours two days ago - I told you it was wet!

Absence!

Well, my last entry was Thursday - it's not that we don't love you, it's that we've been house-bound by a series of steady, torrentially wet days!

So, much of the outdoors work has had to go on "hold".  The wood protection system for the windows that we are returning to their natural state is full of such foul chemicals that it makes your eyes sting; and I only have so many tressles to use in the barn - three of them being taken up with boat-building in the basement!  So progress there is rather slower than we might have wished.

Not sure where Friday went; Saturday was supper at L & A with "Heston burgers" and a jolly time was had.  So much had it rained that we met at least two frogs crossing the road as we drove home, just on their track! 
Sunday saw some change in the weather - Church in the village again; a different, older, traditional priest who moved through the mass at speed!  The afternoon across the way for the closing festivities of the Olympics, and (more) burgers and simply wonderful Indian (Sweet) Corn.  Yum!

We are borrowing a dog; M & S have to be in Montreal for the week whilst S has some radiotherapy.  So we have "Roxy" staying with us for the week :-)

She's a Doberman mixture, very sweet and presently shattered!  We took her for a walk along the trail at the back and she started a ruffed grouse - and shot off after it.  Well, I think the Grouse laid low and Roxy was just - like GONE!  More than five minutes later, she came back, panting a lot, and the grouse decided to wander off to another part of the forest......

Those of you who do, please hold M & S in your prayers?

Oh!  and the man for the paint removal who should have come today - rang this evening to say he was on vacacation - back tomorrow :-(  Hmmmmmm.

Bits and bobs!

It's rained today - nearly all day and quite heavily, too.  “So, what’s different?” my British readers cry.  Well, it’s not supposed too, not just yet, anyway; but it’s a good thing that it has because the signs at the entrance to every village or Parc indicating fire risk http://www.castanet.net/content/2012/5/NSD101033488_low_p890431.jpg have been at “Extreme” all over.  We have now started to see a few come down from the red sector to the merely “Severe” orange !   

Not that the place looks paper brown, far from it, but the underbrush has died back and there are signs of out and out leaf death, notably along ridges and isolated immature trees, perhaps beside a road with much of their root system thereby obviously still further deprived of water.  Not sure what Fall will look like, but there are already dark mutterings about the poor prospects for the Maple syrup season next year.

So, restricted to the house as far as “estate work” was concerned, we went in to the village to post the fee for the internet connection, to buy some plumbing essentials (it’s that sort of a stay!), and to buy some food.  We’ve started to use the freezer.  This is the first time it’s been worthwhile doing so; in the winter, you just chuck stuff into a snow-drift; in past summers we haven’t been here long enough to bother! 

Canadians – at least some of the ones the ones we've met – are, in the nicest way, gossips.  Things that you might have told a friend in conversation, you will subsequently find used in introducing you to another; “This is P, he has a house in the Laurentians and another in England”.  That sort of thing.  The latest is that “Everyone I told how much you pay to get the paint removed off your house, they  say, “that’s a really good price””.  Amazing!

We have an election called in Quebec; posters are beginning to go up on telegraph and power poles.  Lots of parties represented.  I have no idea what’s going on.

Little Kate is nearly at the “all the planks joined in pairs” stage, and a cover has been made for the internet connections in the “blue room” – it was a VERY wet day.  Not all bad, then :-).

Back to base!

We had a great Monday in Ottawa - I went paddling again - and had the pleasure of meeting Bill Mason's widow, Joyce, as well as a quite complementary lesson with a portage from Meech lake in to "Little Meech" - and a brilliant paddle back, with newly learned leaning and under-boat paddling skills, and a revitalised "J", all combining to cope with an increased wind and wave coming down the lake, directly across our track.  Terrific!  Set the bow at 30 - 40 degrees to the wind and go for it.  Almost as good as sailing ;-).  All I have to do now is practice!

In the evening we went out for an Italian meal - with sadly slow service - and then on to a quite wonderful sound and light at the Parliament building.  http://www.ottawafestivals.ca/festival/film-media/sound-and-light-show-on-parliament-hill/  Thematically not unlike the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics!

Tuesday - home to 107, the (very) scenic way through Parc Papineau Labelle - 30 Km of dirt road.  Tired but happy to be home.  We had a great time in Ottawa - but there's work to be done here.

So Wednesday we have stripped some more windows, painted some, (all under a Basha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basha_%28tarpaulin%29 as protection from the sun – 30 degrees again today but raining now at 9.00pm); 

weeded the last corner around the house (Ali)

 

and even begun to bond Little Kate’s planks together (P – who else?).

The chipmunks seem happy that we’re back; 

the humming birds have taken to the feeder again – the flowers are thinning – 

and Wagner’s on the CD – how could it be better?

Stooging around

We're planning a camping trip in a couple of weeks' time, so put me anywhere near Canadian tire, or MEC, or anywhere where there's "gear" on sale and I'm all agog and likely to spend money as some folks do on shoes ;-).  So, Noel and my trip to the shops resulted in more floating cordage, some new tent spikes, a ground-sheet (called a footprint here when used under a tent!) and various bits and pieces.....

Wonderful to receive a Skype call from M&D today.  Thanks P for making it possible!  A bit chaotic but hey! 

More vicarious sports today for others, but a very pleasant and warm walk beside the Ottawa river at sunset, after the torrential rain had stopped.

Picture courtesy of  Pam :-)

Someone I know is still a kid at heart - here's the evidence!



Another paddling lesson tomorrow :-)

Lazy day - for some :-)

Well, faced with the incredible preformance of Team GB, and the fact that the temperature rose to 38 degrees  - effectively 40+ with the humidity - nobody did very much of anything today. 

Fortunately for us, there is a pool in the back yard, so we resorted to that when the sun went behind the house.  Yum!

Becky Mason "edging it"

Taking a class with "Becky".
Bill Mason wrote books and made films about wilderness camping and canoing.  He, along with his family, regularly made trips to the far north of Canada.  

He is seen as someting of a national legend here, along with "Jack-rabbit" Johansen - who did the same for cross-country skiing, and others who have made the wlderness accessible to a wider audience of Canadians.  

His canoe was donated by his family to the Canadian Canoe museum in Peterborough, Ont., on his death.

He would take his kids, Paul and Becky, along with his long-suffering wife - on these trips with him - at least once a year. Paul has been an international white-water open canoist; Becky is something of a legend in her own right, and an internationally known canoe instructor as well.

So, while Ali delighted in all sorts of vicarious sporting activites ( the Olympics! ),  Peter drove the half hour up into Gatineau (National) Park to Meech Lake for a lesson with this delightful, gentle, interesting and skillful teacher.  A real highlight!

Playing Voyageur

Picture courtesy of Pam :-)

We've come to Ottawa - to Aylmer actually.  Ottawa - the National Capital City of Canada, where the parliament is, is actually two cites on either side of the Ottawa river; Ottawa - in Ontario, and English speaking, to the South and East as the river turns, and Gatineau - which becomes Aylmer further West -  in Quebec, to the North and West.

This evening we drove still further west to become part of a Voyageur team paddling a Canoe de Maitre (well, a fiberglass replica anyway) a 12 seater of which the original would have gone from Grand Portage at thehead of Lake Superior, up to the Northern trading outposts.

The River is huge at this point, very flat tonight and easy paddling; but even then you coudn't waterski behind the canoe!



Coming back to shore late, two original Cedar and canvas canoes came out from shore with kids in; being kids.  No life-jackets, not much contact visible with the shore; maybe 6-10 years old.  Swallows and Amazons - lucky them!

We're staying with Pam and Noel for a while, and I have a paddling class tomorrow!

Off to bed.

Christmas come early!

All those little trees that grew?  Well, I'm trying to let some light in behind the house as I said - anyone want an early Christmas decoration?

This is barely a half of them and there are LOADS more to fell.  I bought a chain(saw) sharpening device earlier in the week and managed to convince myself that I had bought the wrong one - so I went back to the garage to check, to be taken into the workshop and very patiently, but in VERY difficult Quebecois, to be given a lesson on how to sharpen my chain!   Other clients were waiting, other money-making jobs were coming in; but my lesson went on regardless. 
 

In the North, "it takes as long as it takes". Wonderful!

We're full of admiration for Bradley Wiggins and his Tour performance and now his Gold in the time-trial.  Such a sportsman, and, on the Tour, such a gentleman!  These games, from here - seem to be about sportsmanship.  (They sadly aren't about GB winning medals in the way that we might have hoped.  Come ON Team GB!)

 

The Chipmunks are getting tamer; not as tame as Denis' which climbs all over him in the search for peanuts, but ours seem to spend and inordinate amount of time searching for fleas - so perhaps I'm not too worried after all!

Hot as heck again today - the day started with some rain but now (18.35) it is 24 degrees and humid.  More thunder?