Field Trip

After a short blogging hiatus...
Several years ago, my son Curtis went on a youth outdoor wilderness adventure in Strathcona Park. Ever since he has threatened me with revisiting (via canoe trip) Buttle Lake. We made a commitment this spring for a late July trip... (seemed like a good idea at the time). The plan was, that he'd come up early in the week to help with (building) the house. Friday,
we left early for the park and had the canoe in the water by 10:30 (a.m.) Even though he'd told me that the lake could be rough and windy, it was dead flat and calm when we arrived. This turned out to be a good thing, as once we'd loaded the canoe with all the "necessities" (which weigh a lot when unconsumed) we had only a few inches of free-board. The lake is long and narrow. Our destination was a marine campground about a third of the way down the lake = 1.5 hours of paddling. We paddled up Wolf River for a few hundred yards and set up camp in the deserted 5 spot campsite. We spent our time hiking (uphill both ways) and exploring the area. Saturday we let the breeze push us down the lake for an hour or so.... then a very strong wind came up and we had to fight the wind and waves all the way back. (Curt had several waves land in his lap) Lesson learned= take the back seat of the canoe when paddling through big waves! Not much to report on the wildlife side... No sign of bears, only an angry beaver and lots of mice. We arrived home sore and exhausted on Sunday afternoon, and decided this should be a bi-annual event. Several pictures of our off-island adventures can be found here.

Straw Bale House Update: Depending on manpower, our time is split between garage and house. We have all the flashing materials on hand and have figured out how things go together, (for the most part.) The Garage fascias, soffits and windows installations have all been started.