The road crew returned, put a few more boards and supports down and announced the bridge is unofficially open. With a running start we may make it over the hump.
I took advantage and went shopping to buy some of the heavy items we’ll need on Seguin Island next week. Time to plan for a couple of weeks’ provisions. I just have to take the Deal Island, Tasmania list, convert it from kilos to pounds and divide by six. Maybe I can just divide by 3 and call it even.
On a recent trip to Washington, DC I almost became a prisoner of the Metro Station. I enjoyed using the Metro and it took me all over the “District”, Arlington, VA, and Oxon Hill, MD but I never understood the toll system.
The stations were clean and quiet and I got a seat on several trains. The platforms were too dark to read the paper but perhaps that doesn’t matter anymore since most people were reading backlit I-phones and Blackberries. Or maybe it’s just MY eyes.
The curious part to me, however, is the payment. Unlike the NYC subways, you have to swipe your card again to leave the station. I guess it’s more like the thruway where you pay for distance traveled. This was never clearly posted.
On one trip when the swipe machine stole my card, I thought, “No big deal” because it let me enter the station. When it came time to leave, there was no way to open the turnstile. I was chastised by the clerk who let me out. My next trip, I held tightly onto my card, only to find there wasn’t enough money on it to spring me out. I posted bail and finally was released.
You think you had a hard day?
We are headed south to Apple Day at Terhune Orchards and to test drive a few boats along the way. It was 42 degrees F this morning and the wind was blowimg. I finished this hat in the car just in time for our first sail. It’s an original. Terhune Orchards
The Mabey bridge is here. Or, Mabey, the bridge, is here but it’s the abridged version. We can walk across the span but there are still some pieces missing and it sits a little funny. Right now it’s steep and a car would probably be airborn heading outbound.
On the other hand, the local kids will enjoy the higher rails next summer, when they attempt to break limbs by jumping off it into the river. 
I look forward to the ribbon cutting ceremony. Perhaps Governor Cuomo will officiate.
Fresh bread
I maintain the habit adopted on Deal Island of baking almost all our bread, english muffins and bagels. I’s a good thing since bread always gets crushed in the backpack and we still have to walk over the bridge. There’s actually very little hands-on time for bread baking and I use a fool proof recipe that for better or worse, tastes like Wonder bread. This is a far cry from my early days of bread baking in the ’80’s when failed loaves could kill the chipmunks that found them tossed outside the house.
It requires about 20 minutes of attention during a day when I’ll be around the house for at 3 hours. Ten minutes to mix it up, 10 minutes to knead, 1 minute to shape the loaves and that’s it. The rest of the time is spent hanging around and waiting for it to rise in the bowl, the pans and then to bake. The secret is to add the flour gradually because it’s much easier to add more flour, if the dough is too sticky, then to add water, if it’s too stiff. I found this bread recipe on the internet, which makes two large loaves and swear by it. I splurged on two bread pans from Williams Sonoma but the old, well-seasoned pans on Deal Island which worked just as well. They just need to be large with square corners.
After the dough has risen in the bowl, you divide it in two and pat each portion into a rectangle. Then roll it up, pinch the ends and put them in the oiled pans to let them rise. That’s it. Nothing beats the smell of fresh baked bread. Bread machines create the same fresh baked smell but the loaves are awkward and small. There’s something magical about working with your hands and yeast to create something so delicious.
Kneaded dough
Doubled in bowl
Shaping the loaf
In the pan before second rise
Oven ready
Plural lights and singular dark. I finished sewing the blocks for the kaleidoscope quilt I began in the spring. The pattern creates optical illusions, which intrigue me. I followed the lights and darks of the pattern obsessively with the intent of piecing the four different blocks: A-B-A-B…C-D-C-D; very orderly , very simple. Not! When the blocks were carefully laid out in order, they looked too orderly. I was stumped. Every time I went into my work room, I moved a few pieces around. Then I slept on it, not literally on it, but in spirit, and when I woke up I decided to throw order out the window, mostly, and just lay them out randomly. Now I’ve been moving the random pieces around so they are almost ordered. I didn’t expect such a contrast from the the lights and the dark. The light components jump off the quilt while the dark ones recede and go into hiding.
A-B-A-B...C-D-C-D
I’m not sure which version awaits me. I think I just have to stop looking and start sewing.
The other light is an outdoor light fixture I have puzzled over for several hours, took apart the light, the switch and now Tim has tested it with different fixtures. Apparently it’s the wiring. We’ll leave that one in the dark for now.
Latest Arrangement
Sideways, random order
We awakened to the sound of heavy equipment on our fifth wedding anniversary. Wood is the traditional gift and I revealed to Tim that my gift to him was a new bridge. OK not really wood but close enough. Sadly the bridge has not been delivered yet but all the preliminary work was done yesterday including pouring four cement pilings for its support. With a mere meter wide path remaining down the middle of the bridge approaches, what better time to decide to go canoeing, with the boat 1/2 mile up the road. The wheels worked fine on the trip out and the road crew was very accommodating, even offering to carry the canoe over the bridge. I would have liked to take one of them with me for the portage! But alas they wouldn’t fit in our new little canoe.
Paul Smith's campus
We left from Paul Smith’s College located on the Lower St. Regis Lake. It was a perfect day and a lovely paddle, we took a loop through Spitfire Lake, past Rabbit Island where Dr. Trudeau conducted experiments on the effect of the environment on TB in rabbits, Upper St. Regis Lake, North Bay and then….the carry. It started steeply with lots of roots and the wheels didn’t work as nicely as on our road and I was wishing for the road crew. I wimped out and Tim ended up becoming a canoe head. He had the canoe on his shoulders but he couldn’t see much and his voice sounded like he was in a tin can. But it did the trick. I was sure we were going to drift over the falls at the put-in and back paddled furiously, much to Tim’s amusement. Along the way we heard several loons, lots of yapping little dogs, saw beautiful boathouses and camps, a heron fishing at the falls, oodles of mahogany lake boats and stately Adirondack gaff rigged sloops. They are Idem sailboats designed specifically for the St. Regis Yacht Club in 1899 to race in light winds.
Adirondack sloop
I am preparing for a medical recertification exam and am reading reams of information about menopause. Some studies have amazing observations. Here are two which come to mind.
Menopausal women who drink small to moderate amounts of alcohol seem to stave off osteoporosis. However if they drink too much they fall more, so in the end they have the same amount of broken bones.
Tim was reviewing my material as well and he came across this astounding fact. Women without partners have less sex! 
More precisely we’ve lost our bridge and now the main road near our house. It was severely eroded from the flooded river after Irene and the edge continues to fall away.
The State has installed two traffic lights placed about a half mile apart to close the disappearing lane. Our car enters the road in the middle betwwn them so we have to guess which way traffic is flowing by looking at the backs of the traffic lights.
The good news is the new bridge work may begin tomorrow. Today’s food was brought over the river and through the woods by wheelbarrow.
Island and North Country Life 