Adirondacks

Sandy swung west

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And missed us. Many others were not so lucky. I was glued to the weather channel and CNN as water swept over some of my old haunts and harbors. 8.5 million people without power for several weeks due to damaged wires and transformers, which exploded. Cars floated in lower Manhattan and houses were destroyed by floods or fires.

We were spared but the County had taken emergency preparedness measures: schools, offices were closed and a talk I was scheduled to give today was postponed. And it turned out to be a beautiful day with a mild breeze.

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I finished a pair of felted clogs for myself, which I may embellish with embroidery.

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Then I headed to the wood pile and chopped wood until I couldn’t stand up straight. Maybe a week’s worth.

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Batten down the hatches

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Tim has been filling cracks in the log cabin. There’s a large storm forecast over the next several days with high winds, possible gusts to 70 mph.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency states:

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This will be a test of the cabin! We installed the last window (we still have to cut out a hole for a front window) and the door and sealed it up.

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Well not exactly sealed but close.

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NYC is taking steps for a disaster due to high seas breaching sea walls and predicted wide spread power outages – 10 million people! Fire Island has been evacuated as well as parts of Long Island, Manhattan, Connecticut and New Jersey because the ocean is predicted to funnel into New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. My thoughts are with family and friends in the storm’s path.

Deer whistles

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My new deer whistles must be working.

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The license plate was crumpled before I installed them. They are the two black things mounted on the bumper. One is “open” and the other is closed but I can’t hear anything. Perhaps the deer can because none have jumped out at me on the road since I installed them.

The one big problem is they make me drive faster. I am (perhaps falsely) confident I won’t see any deer and that by driving faster, the wind will flow through the whistles at a higher velocity and make them louder.

Oh yes. And apparently moose can’t hear them!

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Impromptu helipads

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I manage to live and work very close to helipads. They aren’t used often but when they are it’s an event.

On Seguin Island, the bricks marking the helipad, which is still used, were unearthed a couple of years ago. We keep the are cleared and mowed.

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The pad is very close to the lighthouse and after a warning buzz, no phone calls here, it sets down on the pad.

It’s a different story at work, where I have participated in helicopter landings twice. By “participate” I mean move my car from the parking lot, which also serves as the helipad.

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An announcement comes over the intercom that a helicopter is landing and immediately, the workforce and visitors grab their keys and head out the doors to move their cars. At least here we get a phone call so its not really a scramble.

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I just have to remember where I parked my car at the end of the day.

And on the sixth day

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I have been relieved of cabin building duties and returned to the loom. I left Tim on the roof, the shiny metal roof, which lies on top of ceiling boards, strapping and felt paper.

I am the cutter extraordinaire (except I hate the circular saw, which has too much kick back for Ii’l ole me) so I don’t cut strapping or the metal roof. Mostly I am ballast at the bottom of tall, unstable ladders because I don’t climb on roofs either. Good help is hard to find.

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So six days and 500+ weaver’s knots later, I am weaving again. I’m not sure if tying onto the old was a big time saver because I had a lot of repairs to do before all went smoothly.

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They say you can tell how a weaving project is going by looking at the back of the loom where all the repairs are obvious. Here are mine.

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The weaver’s knot came in handy on the roof. I used it as a sheet bend to tie two ropes together, which held the ladder on the roof. Life imitates weaving.

Getting ready to tie one on

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Tie one onto my loom that is! I have been so busy. My floor loom is languishing and has been sitting there with my last project still threaded so I can use the same stripe pattern for a new batch of towels.

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Last week we were blessed with perfect weather and went sailing for 5 days on Lake Champlain. It began warm, got very windy, rained a little and cooled off. I swam 2 or 3 days off the boat (our hot water shower is not) and love fresh water.

We spent two nights at Valcour Island and explored the trails, lighthouse and other ruins. I thought I was tracking bear scat but now think it may have been coyote. In the late 1800’s, there were camps, the lighthouse and a scandalous, free love commune on Valcour. During the Revolutionary War the island was the stage for the first naval battle in the United States, when Benedict Arnold was an underfunded hero.

No approach shots because it was so windy but here’s a typical rock island with evergreens.

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The lighthouse had its light removed in the 1930’s and was replaced by a steel tower as happened in several lighthouses along the lake. Happily now, the steel tower is an osprey nest and the light is back where it belongs.

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The wind was behind us when we headed north and then spun around and followed us home, which made for a very pleasant sail.

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Roofing 101

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I’ve been hijacked from my knitting, quilting and weaving. Tim got a big boost on the cabin last weekend when Andre and Doug visited and helped figure out and lay the roof.

Then they left and he was stuck with me to finish up. I’m not much help since I don’t enjoy teetering off the tops of ladders or hanging from the rooftop.

Yesterday we were racing the weather. Sparks were flying.

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Thunderstorms moved in and I didn’t think it was such a good idea to be on a hill, the highest point on our property, standing on an aluminum ladder while holding onto a tin roof. So I quit.

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I have to admit, it was very cozy standing in the cabin, dry, while the storm moved through.

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Today we finished up one side of the roof (check out Tim’s blog for photos) and I finally had a chance to play with fiber.

I finished a wedding quilt,

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built a copper loom and had a chance to try tablet weaving. I borrowed the idea for the loom from another weaver.

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Tablet or card weaving is so simple but can produce wonderful results I even had an aha moment.

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Caught in the crossfire

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Last night’s encampment at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum ended in a war this afternoon between the British and American navy ships and we were caught in the crossfire.

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It began with British ships rounding the point into our anchorage. Cannons were fired from the shore and then there was a slow paced melee.

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Small planes and helicopters flew overhead.

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But we were able to sail away, unscathed, and our flag was still there.

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Ah, big city life

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It’s so strange to me that we venture off on our boat and spend time in harbors busier than home. We’ve heard barking dogs, Johnny Cash covers and tonight, classic rock, with a lot of Jimmy Buffet thrown in.

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The night sky is obliterated by lights and this morning we awakened to a triathlon in Burlington, VT. That white line is swimmers on the 1.5 k course.

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We encountered a time warp when we walked through the Lake Champlain maritime museum and found a reenactment of an historic encampment. Now they are out on a replica boat near us shouting hizzah! Where am I?!

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