Break Time

We have been doing as much work outside as possible considering the rainy and windy weather, not to mention the fact that Dave has had a respiratory virus that seems to have turned into bronchitis. Now I feel like I am coming down with a cold, so if I am not writing on the blog it is because we are recuperating and getting all the "routine stuff" done. Don't worry, I'll be back! At least spring is springing now...

His & Hers

His side of the backyard, after Dave used the Billy Goat blower...

My side of the backyard, before I took over using the Billy Goat...

Now both parts look the same. It does cut down on time and overall work, but it is a bear of a machine to push and pull, especially on our uneven ground. It would be impossible to clean up this huge area otherwise though. Thanks Billy!

Bulk Pick-Up

In our town, bulk pick-up means leaving all your big items that don't fit in the usual garbage cans, out on the side of the road for the town to pick up. This happens once a year. Today we gave it a different meaning...major leaf pick up. This does happen once a year with us, but after a winter of blowing around and getting stuck in corners of the house, we had huge piles to collect. We've been waiting for calmer and drier weather but that hasn't happened (especially the wind), so we decided to get the bulk of them loaded up in the specially made dump box of the New Holland tractor. It was challenging with 25 mph winds, but we were hoping they would at least blow back in the woods where they belong.

We were so happy yesterday when we woke up and saw that the previous night's storm had blown a lot of the leaves away, but by afternoon the wind had switched and blew them all back. Oh well, we will continue to get the bulk and leave the detailing for later. At least now all my spring flowers can start to come up.

North Country

There's snow in them thar hills! It may have been a balmy 70 degrees today, but up in the Adirondacks there was still snow and ice.

Schroon Lake was still frozen with just water at the edges.

This is the church in the village of Schroon that burned this winter. We were sure it wouldhave started to rebuild by now. So sad to see.

Eagle Lake was frozen too. I guess we won't be kayaking quite yet!

Once we got down in the valley, Ticonderoga was warmer and Lake George and Lake Champlain had no ice. However, the snow melting and rain made Lake George's water level high, so water was being diverted down the LaChute River to Lake Champlain. The falls were quite dynamic and beautiful.

Our house had no difficulties except for lots of downed branches. We didn't turn on the water or heat yet since we are pretty early into the season. It was a great day to be up there though and a perfect first road trip.

Home Again

Wow, we finally made it home after a very long day of travel yesterday. We were up at 5 AM for final apartment prep and an early morning ferry departure of 6:50. However, when we got to the airport, we discovered that they cancelled our Silver Air flight from Marsh Harbor to Ft. Lauderdale. The ticket agent was great at his job though, told us to go have a seat and he would get us other tickets. About 20 minutes later he had us fixed up with a Bahamas Air flight at 10:20 to West Palm Beach, then we had to wait until 3 PM to fly United to Newark, and then another 3 hours to wait until we flew into Albany. It worked, but was tiring, and Newark is a huge airport with shuttles and monorails to different terminals. While waiting at our gate in WPB, 6-8 armed sheriff officers were standing around talking. When the plane we were due to depart in arrived at the gate, they all stood around the entrance and waited while people disembarked. I saw one officer nod his head at another and they cornered about a 30 year old lady who acted like she didn't know what was going on. One officer stayed with her while a few went on the plane, and others were stationed around in case whoever it was they were after tried to escape. Finally a man in handcuffs was led off the plane with the same women talking on the phone right behind him...probably calling her lawyer! It looked like a scene from Seal Team and everyone at our gate certainly was intrigued with the what was happening.

Anyway, since we were late add-ons for this flight, they couldn't find seats for us together, so I sat behind him...with a young couple and about an 8 month old baby in their laps. Oh joy. All of you who really know us know that we don't have kids so don't know how to act around them.😉 Before take off, the baby started fussing and then crying and no matter what the parents did, the little girl wouldn't stop. Thankfully, as soon as we lifted off the ground the baby fell asleep and remained that way for almost the whole 3 hour flight. When she did wake up she was much happier and we made friends with each other, as they were teaching her to say hi.

We were so glad to get home, thanks to Jim who picked us up at the late hour, but then the work started at 11 PM. Luckily the heat in the house went on no problem, but when Dave fired up the pump, a pipe had burst so he shut it down. It couldn't have been too bad because he did fix it and everything else in the system seemed to be okay, except for very little hot water coming out of a couple of faucets. Having well water really builds up the minerals and corrosion so we will have to soon take off the faucets and clean them out. At least while he worked on the house systems, I had time to totally unpack and get everything put away. By 1 AM we finally called it a night and hit the very cold sheets. It takes so long for walls, furniture, etc. to warm up after a cold winter.

What a shock I had when I opened up the refrigerator to find the inside was loaded with yellow. All I could think was that some animal had gotten in and peed everywhere (we leave it open a crack to air out). I then saw that we had left some Mountain Dew cans in the door and 3 of them exploded. One went right through the plastic shelf that I had put it in case it did split and thought it would catch the soda. I never expected them to explode like this!

The lids were on the glass shelves...

The soda had hardened on the bottom and it was like rock candy, having to scrape it off with a knife in places. We won't do that again!

Now it's time to organize and do tons of yard work. It must have been super windy up here this winter with huge branches down everywhere. Dave says the trails in the woods are a disaster. So you know what we will be doing. Tomorrow though, we head to Ticonderoga to check the house up there and see what's new.

Putting The Toys To Bed

Goodnight Dandy...now hauled out and hibernating for the summer:

Goodnight Walkabout...ready for next season's adventures:

Goodnight kayaks... snug in their covers and tied up on our porch:

Goodnight Plover...Milton's boat that Dave takes care of:

Goodnight Sunrise (Milton's other boat)… a sight to see when hauled out. After a great season of racing, it is now happy on its new cradle that I scraped and wire brushed and Dave painted. Dave had to fit it to the boat for the first time:

Goodnight Suja. We had a fantastic final sail and now it is high and dry for the hurricane season.

Goodnight Safari... our trusty skiff, now all cleaned up and ready to be stored:

Finally, goodnight from the Bahamas to all my faithful readers. Thanks for checking in and look for posts from back home!

The Aquarium

This winter we have been feeding the mangrove snappers from the bridge to Mouth of the Harbour Cay, which is a short walk from where we live on this side of Hope Town. The creek runs through to the pond where we keep our boats and at high tide, the fish all come out as soon as they detect that we are walking out on the bridge.

Usually we feed them bread, but they also like cooked rice and hamburger. They were a little cautious when I sprinkled the burger in the water, but once they tasted it and realized it was meat, they went crazy, jumping out of the water. Cooked spaghetti is a real treat for them too, and funny for us to watch as they grab it in the middle and swim off, making it look like they have whiskers. The needle fish that hang out on the surface of the water love the bread and have no trouble eating it with their long snouts.

There is always a curious barracuda that tries to get in on the action, but the snappers get so excited that they ignore him and pretty much push him out of the way.

It's a fun little pastime when the wind blows from the easterly quadrant, but not so much when it blows from the west, since it is wide open to the Sea of Abaco. Today was perfect and almost makes me not want to go home.

Then again, we will soon have our goldfish pond at home!

17 and Counting

Dave added two more Hope Town Sailing Club glasses to our collection yesterday. For the final cruising boat race, he and his crew won third place. Then when the points for the season were tallied, Sunrise received 2nd place honors for Boat of the Year! Now we have 9 third place glasses, 4 second place glasses, and 4 first place glasses, all displayed on our kitchen shelves.

Congratulations Dave on a fantastic year of sailing!

Surprise!

Dave has really been working hard at getting the last minute projects taken care of. I went down to his work area in the boatyard and was talking with him this afternoon, when I noticed a curly tail lizard hanging out on the concrete.

Dave said that it hangs out there a lot, but as I watched it, it didn't move much and when it did, it dragged its back legs and its tail was flat on the ground. Dave and I continued talking and when I looked down again, the lizard had laid an egg...surprise!

By the time I got my camera to take a photo, the egg had started to wither. That's a bummer, but we certainly couldn't keep it in an incubator, and from what I read, it would be June when it hatched. Oh well, it was still a rare occurrence.