That’s BO-KET. Not sure why it’s pronounced like that. We used to joke about the power of the Boquet River which flows under our road. Until it wiped out our bridge. It had been dried up to a mere trickle again until the recent rains. Yesterday it was boiling over a dam and sending mist 20 feet into the air.
The Mighty Boquet
Rainbows are magical. They occur when there’s a combination of moisture, in the form of fog or rain, and sun. They are fleeting and elusive. If you don’t look for them, you might miss them. This one was spotted when we left home this morning from our road. For a moment it touched both hills, but I am hiding that photo.
Rainbow from home
Later in the day we were driving through Vermont and caught this one, which was a full rainbow over Starbucks; again elusive.
Vermont rainbow
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
A step back in time. I wonder if the whole fleet will arrive.
Something I experience often but seldom see.
Morning Fog
Me and the foliage. The fall colors are at their peak. So am I, both in psyche and in weight, but today is day 2 of a very successful diet. Maybe I can create a blog about foods I didn’t eat! No more bread, cinnamon rolls or cookies for me or Tim. Tonight we had an apple for dessert. It was a luscious Macoun, regarded by many to be the most delicious eating apple and I agree. The hills don’t need to make any sacrifices for their beauty however.
Fall colors
Colorful hills
Marcy field
striped hills
We made it home but not unscathed. I was scathed. Our black cat, Loki put up a big fight because he just didn’t want to leave Seguin. While we began taking our stuff outside, I saw a black lump under one of the beds and thought, “no problem, we’ll load up and then I’ll collect him from his hiding place”. Well actually the first thought I had was, “we better box Loki before we do anything because he always gives us a hard time”. This tops them all.
He fooled me. He bunched up a t-shirt and left it under the bed to look like he was sleeping there and then hid in a crawl space behind the basement. The basement is bad enough but this place has a 2 foot high hole in the wall to get into it and then is a crawl space full of 150 years of debris. I tried luring him out with tuna, while a film crew unloaded their gear for a film they were shooting on the island. When it was time to go and we still didn’t have Loki, I had to go in. I donned foul weather gear to protect my arms and head from all the fiberglass and dove in. I had Ethan’s friend Christian, as back-up and he saw Loki dive out when I dove in and ran across to the other side of the basement and dove into the identical, gross crawl space there. In I went again, I got him out but he got away and then got trapped in a window, behind a dresser and under a couch before he was finally captured due to the heroic efforts of all.
So there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. This morning brought a beautiful sunrise and fog is now settling in the valley. Why do we keep leaving?
Sunrise over Otis
Home team colors
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.
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.
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
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 