Sunday, August 26, 2012

Fix it weekend

That was the plan and I managed to stick to it for the most part though the originally planned scheme was to finish the weekend off with some kayaking. That didn't happen but the rest of the weekend was on the upside. Saturday was planning out what we needed for a supplies shopping trip through Windham. Started at Lowes then Walmart to Pet Life, Lee's RV and finally to Aubachon Hardware for what we couldn't find at Lowes. The smaller hardware stores do carry a lot more of the odds & ends variety than the big box stores. Finished the day grilling two steaks and couple of ears of corn, washed mine down with a Harp. Began the day replacing one of the garage door openers for the second time this year, third in two years. Hope it wasn't the installers fault. Then with Carol's help moved on to replace the oven fan vent on the camper, re-chalked a trim piece along the bottom front, then followed up boring a hole though an interior panel of the camper's entertainment center to run the power cord and HD cable for a BlueRay/DVD player out of sight within the cabinetry, also fixed a wobble in the dining table. Next was combing out the dogs and trim their toe-nails, not a popular activity for any of the participants. With several other smaller tasks the weekend has run out of time - we're definitely over due for a camper get-a-way.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

just a little sweat was enough

Work, errands, task, projects, weekends, vacation - the road blocks to a workout but I got stubborn and made it to Planet Fitness after work today. Almost feel guilty leaving the office though it's been maybe three and a half weeks since the last time I was able to do a routine. I have the resolve to workout regularly but time for it has been a rare commodity. Targeting Friday, that and a couple more scheduled sessions and I may be trending.

Monday, August 20, 2012

August vacation wrap up

Thursday morning Ian left to return to Portsmouth, we had a send off Swedish pancake breakfast at Margaret's. Ian worked at perfecting his skill at cooking Swedish pancakes focusing on flowing the batter to the edges of the traditional circular skillet, "well done" lad! When Carol and I returned to the camp we began our projects for the week replacing the "hall" ceiling and touch up painting in the bathroom. While removing the old ceiling I was assaulted by dried up raccoon scat, forunately no raccoon was in residence. Followed that by going back to Margaret's and locating an air mask and goggles. Once that problem was remediated we were able to finish the job though it took the better part of the afternoon. one consolation to the time spent was that it was a cloudy day which gradually  became light rain followed later by heavy rain. This night's grilling - Brats.

Raccoon nasty place to be, poly covered and new ceiling in place.
Friday is get it all in day and the weather cooperated completely. Reading, kayaking, reading, biking, reading. Grilled sirloin for supper.

Carol is quite a paddler, I could barely keep up.
Lonely boy, still having fun though.
Carol and I with the fine additions to our camp vacations.

Not much of a sunset but if that's the only problem today so be it.
So Saturday is upon us as we say goodbye to another vacation at Madawaska Lake. I'll be back in October with Lois and Jim to shutdown the camp for the winter.


Loaded to leave, Patches is in there somewhere, in the cab.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Vacation at Last

Truck loaded up for the week

Mid-August and here I am at Madawaska Lake again, this time with Carol and Patches. We arrived Sunday and Ian pulled in Monday morning after driving up from his new apartment in Portsmouth, NH. We’d hoped Ali would have been able to join him here but a possible job interview had nixed that plan. Leading up to coming this week the weather has been forecast as a mixed bag. Cloudy and spots of brief light and heavy rain escorted us during our trip her. Margaret was on board for the ride as she’d been down our way for a short visit so hitching a ride home with us was nicely timed.
Monday began very foggy – the lake was entirely shrouded in it. As the day progressed the sun came out and mostly clear skies dominated the remainder of the day. After Ian got settled in we all took a bike ride along South Shore Road. Late in the afternoon Carol and I made our first Madawaska Lake foray with the new kayaks. Grilled some steaks for supper. Shortly after we walked out to nearby Route 161 which gave us a clear view to the northern sky where we were able to view a 4 minute passing of the International Space Station.

View towards the east of the camp



First tee and fairway at the Caribou Country Club
(Panorama view)

Patches hanging out during
the afternoon reading and
nap time. We celebrated
his thirteenth birthday a
few days before.
Tuesday was a near perfect day, Ian and I made it out to the golf course in Caribou for 9 holes. I lost only two balls, one irretrievable and the other vanished off the face of the earth right beside a forward tee, a wayward shot to be sure. Not to matter, just great to be out on a nice course with Ian. Afterwards he changed into bike riding gear and got on his bike which he’d thrown in the back of the truck and peddled his way back to the camp 14+ miles. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent reading and napping lakeside. Supper was grilled chicken thighs with a garden slaw Carol put together the she uses vanilla yogurt to bind together.

Passing canoeists enjoying the calm water


Sunset
Ian beginning our morning's kayak trek.
Wednesday began with clear skies, Carol went off to accompany her mother to a PT session so Ian and I took the kayaks along the south shore camps until getting to an uninhabited section of woods and then drifted along there until getting to a wetland and a thin rock outcropped area that we can see from the camp across the lake.

Seagulls with no sea to be seen and
a tern for good measure.

Hung around there a bit watching a nearby loon and a small colony of “landlocked” seagulls that a tern seemed to tolerate keeping company with.


We then crossed the lake directly back to the camp. By noon Carol had returned so the three of us took a drive up to Fort Kent for lunch at Shirley’s Diner where my mother and I ate during last year’s vacation. The return trip was along Route 1 to Frenchville where we turned off to pass through St. Agatha (pronounced san-a-get), Sinclair and Cross Lake. As we neared returning to the camp we ran into a thunderstorm barreling through the region and once back at the camp found the porch had taken in a lot of rain through the screens soaking the padding of the chairs and everything else left there. Margaret and her sister Carolyn stopped by for a visit bringing freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. For supper I grilled a couple of pork loins – Carol did up a batch of her homemade raspberry ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Anniversary of sorts


Seems like I'm crazy busy all day lately then crazy tired by evening and too brain tired to put together enough words to call it a blog post. I did want to note that today is the 35th anniversary of my father's death and I hope he knows that he's not forgotten and I think of him often. (oops, my Mom finally read this post today, 8/21, and saw that I had the date wrong - it was August 22, 1977. At least I had the year correct)