laurieland

Closing up

Made the last trip of the season to Chezzetcook today. It was two full months since we've been down so it was time to get things done. It's amazing how busy life has been since Kharim is back to school, I'm back at work and Diego is in daycare.

It's a gray, rainy day so there wasn't much reason to hang out. Kharim drained all the water lines in the Avion and I cleaned out the fridge. I think Diego was excited to be there walking around the yard. I forgot to take the camera so there isn't any photographic evidence of the shutdown. Too depressing anyway.

See you next summer.

Phew!

We made it through unscathed. Relieved is an understatement. I called our camp neighbours Andrea and Dwight yesterday morning at 10:30am and things were wild but they didn't have anything to report. At around 2pm Dwight called me to say he had just done a walk-around the properties and other than a few big branches we were still holding up. They lost two trees but neither hit the house or shed. Dwight thinks Kharim's rope work on the trees helped keep ours from crashing down.

Holding down the fort

I took a photo today of Kharim and his handiwork. There's another rope behind him attaching the tree to another big one. That one makes a good clothesline. Our power was on this morning in the city so we had no trouble getting packed up to go to the camp. We arrived about noontime and it was very sunny and still very windy. That surprised me a bit because it was hot and calm in the wake of Juan in 2003. The bummer was that the power had just gone out an hour before we arrived.

After Kharim upgraded the poo pipe, we had lunch and then made our way over to the beach. We ran into Doug, Mary, Steve and Tracy on our walk out the road. There are a few more trees down on their properties. And some that were probably leaners from Juan. I think that was a big factor for a lot of the trees on East Chezzetcook Road. We saw a lot down and a lot more leaning. The chainsaws down there have been busy because it looks like many were crossing the road, but were cut and cleaned up before we drove through today.

Anyhoo, the ocean isn't bathwater warm anymore. It's still nice, but not that pre-hurricane warm that I was hoping to get in on. Diego was still liking the water and waves though. The wind was high so we had to bundle him up in a towel after an hour of playing because he started to get too cold. 

I was really hoping we'd get power back so we could spend the night but we were out of luck. After a nice visit to Mary and Doug (and their great baby swing!) we had a yummy barbecue dinner and packed 'er in. 

I did get the driveway mowed and Kharim secured a vent on the trailer and paddled his surfboard across the lake. All in all a good day. Just not as long as I'd have liked.

New sand bucket and lots of waves

Praying to the tree gods

Hurricanes Earl, Fiona and Gaston 

OK, so I'm freaking out a bit. I'm scared shitless that Hurricane Earl is going to hit and wreak havoc at the camp. There are still a lot of trees there and one I'm particularly worried about. It's the tall, weathered tree behind the camper that I'm worried will come crashing though the roof.

Tree in question: skinny one, back left

It's a pretty innocent looking tree in this photo. But it's bigger in reality and I'm pretty sure it could do some damage if Earl pushed it the wrong direction. So I've been agonizing over whether or not to hire someone last minute to chop it down. I'm against chopping any remaining trees because they've become so precious, even when they have that east-coast-past-their-prime-weathered look. 

So Kharim has volunteered to use some rope to secure it against some other trees there. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that we get out there in time to do it and, in the chance that the winds hit hard, it keeps the tree off the camper.

What I don't want is a repeat of this:

Boathouse tree fell into driveway in 2009.

Property in 2009. Skinny tree, back left is pictured.

And the crazy thing is that six trees fell last year. Significant yes, but nothing compared to the 40-plus that we lost in Hurricane Juan. I have some some great photos of the aftermath but they're not digital. I'll try to get 'em scanned in.

So (at the risk of pissing off my friends in Yarmouth) I'm hoping Hurricane Earl stays south and continues up over the Bay of Fundy while dying off.

And while I love hurricane season for the warm ocean water and big waves, I tend to get nervous about this time of year. Fingers are crossed that Earl, Fiona and Gaston are kind.

Wish us luck.

Neighbours

D & Papa post-swim

The weather this summer has just been unstoppable. When I woke up on Saturday morning it was gray and I thought, “Oh, it’s going to be our first cloudy day at the camp.” But by 9am it was sunny and warming up to be a scorcher. 

But it's the abundance of beautiful days that has helped us get out and about and meet our Chezzetcook neighbours. Whether it's on a walk over to the beach or taking the green bin out to the end the road, I'm definitely feeling like we're beginning to be part of the neighbourhood. 

We met Dwight and Andrea first. Then Tracy and Steve. John a couple of weeks ago and more recently Doug and Mary. We even had a visit and tour (beautiful gardens and inspirational bunkie!) of their place when we dropped in to say hi the other night (the baby swing out front was calling!). 

And all that socializing paid off too. When the truck wouldn't start Sunday morning (we left a door open overnight) the entire neighbourhood came to our rescue. I'm kicking myself now because I didn't take any photos. It was my job to get Diego to sleep so I forgot to get a shot of the narrow driveway-two-sets-of-jumper-cables-strung-together set-up. It was one of those "oh shit" situations that was solved lickity split. 

But our first two-night weekend included lots of other fun too! Diego is loving playing in the waves during our beach walks. He wears his swim trunks so we can dip him in and out of the water. 

During Kharim's run with D, I mowed the driveway and lawn. After a couple of months of chopping and mowing I was able to lower the blade today. The lawn is looking more like grass and less like hay these days so that’s reassuring. My favourite part is mowing the driveway. It’s so pretty. Afterwards I took out my (pink!) loppers to trim the trees in the driveway. I filled the green bin so I bought some orange compost bags for extra green stuff. I have so many tree cuttings it’s hard to keep up. In some ways I think I should just chuck all the cuttings next to the boathouse where I want to put a load of fill. But I’ve decided against it because it’s too messy looking. There’s enough scrappy looking stuff on the property as it is, tree cuttings I can at least clean up. It’s all about the little things I can control.

Speaking of control, Diego’s nap schedule has turned into something I can’t. He was so good for so long but this week it seemed he had boycotted the whole nap concept. But today he had a marathon nap from 11am-4pm! Perhaps playing in the waves combined with country quiet is the perfect recipe. The lovely downtime gave me a chance to finish my book (The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Joyce Carol Oates) while Kharim paddled his surfboard across the lake to check out the surf on the other side of the sandbar. I don’t think it was surf was high but he had fun all the same, despite the nasty cut he got from a wipeout.

We had a late run into Porter’s Lake for supplies: water, duct tape, band-aids. The guy at Home Hardware even gave Kharim a short length of wire that he was going to use to clean the hot water heater pilot light. Unfortunately the little wire was just in the bag loosely and ended up being (mistakenly) dumped in the garbage with a poopy diaper before we made the trek back. So hot water is on hold till next time. (But with the hose sitting in the sun I had a pretty long hot shower today.)

Me & D after our swim to the sandbar behind us

Before dinner the whole family swam from the point over to the sandbar, which is roughly 200 metres. Kharim and I swam, Diego drove his little police boat. The water was beautiful. A wharf would’ve made the launch smoother, but I used my Crocs to help ease into the water instead.

After our social call to the neighbours we finished off Saturday night by popping open the wine the McLeods brought us last week (Jost Prima Rosa). Yum. We'll have to get some more to take with us for our next baby swing adventure. Who knows when we'll need to be rescued again.

Hodgepodge

Mom, Janice, John M., Diego, Kharim and John Z.

I will have to upload an audio file at some point. After living downtown for years the cars, buses and construction have become regular background noise. It's not until I relax at night and hear ocean that I realize how stressful regular city noise can be.

I came to this realization around 10pm on Saturday night after Diego had been asleep for about an hour. I was alternating between reading, doing the dishes and writing this entry. Elton John was playing in the background and Kharim was studying different types of poo on some type of iPhone medical text application. It's such a peaceful sound.

So to do the dishes I’ve just been heating up water in the kettle. But I’m hoping that’ll change in the near future. We had John and Janice—the previous owners of the camper—over for supper tonight. To round out the dinner party were John Zareski and Mom. We ate my first attempt at hodgepodge (successful) and John Z.’s loubeigh (check spelling) and a few beer to wash it down. It was a pretty basic set-up, plastic chairs in a circle on the lawn. But the day was so beautiful it didn’t really matter. Even the mosquitoes cooperated and were barely noticeable.

Kharim and John M. tackling the pilot light

Once bellies were full talk turned to camp operations. First up: How do you get the hot water working? John M. got to work showing Kharim where the pilot light is and how to work it. When they were working on it I was testing the taps and could tell the difference between the cold water and the lukewarm water but it didn’t get much further than that. The pilot light kept going out so we didn’t hit hot on the dial. So we’re hoping a good cleaning will fix it up good as new. A hot shower and hot water for dishes for next weekend would be dreamy.

Tim, Rosa, Jill and friendly dog

The dinner party wasn’t our only excitement for the day. We had early visitors too. Ten minutes after I planted my new garden (lilies, hosta and decorative grass. I forgot to take a photo) in the post-Juan fire pit, Jill, Tim and Rosa showed up. They made the trip all the way from Hubbards! Diego was very excited to see his girlfriend, especially since she has a cute new haircut. We had a great walk to the beach, and both of the little ones checked out the taste of sand. Mmmm, gritty.

Rosa and Jill

There were quite a few people at the beach today.  The water was warm, the wind was mild and the air was hot. And the tide was out so there was lots of sand to walk on.

The perfect mix: lots of visitors and perfect weather.

Sunday we ventured back to the market for coffee and treats and then drove out to Martinique. It was hot and sunny again. We walked along the water's edge with Diego and he loved the water and the crazy amounts of seaweed in the water. 

Kharim, Mom and Super Nanny

Back at ranch, er, camp, we had yet more visitors. Mom and Super Nanny made the trek down. I think Super Nanny got a kick out of the camper.

To round out the weekend we got in another beach walk, ate some leftover hodgepodge and packed up and came home.  

100% Patterson owned and operated

The new deed for the camp arrived today. It's been a long time coming but we finally got rid of the third (and deadbeat) owner. Laurieland is back to being solely Patterson-owned for about the cost of a funeral. Wishful thinking perhaps, but there you have it.

So we have another check in the box. It's nice to finally get that done. I've officially succeeded in doing everything I wanted to do in year one of the five-year plan. More in fact. The camper was a bonus. It puts me ahead of schedule considering I can live there comfortably while working on little projects and dreaming of bigger ones.

Speaking of that, wouldn't a wharf be a nice addition? We lost the old wharf when the ocean breached the sandbar this past winter. Check out the first picture under Ramps and Floats on the Altantic Wharf Builders website. I'm putting it on my Christmas wish list and buying that lottery ticket we talked about yesterday.