Yesterday cousin Pat brought her two grandaughters, Emily and Addy, out for a canoe ride. I have been trying for years to convince Pat to come canoeing with me. She apparently had a bad experience on a much rougher and wilder river, many years ago, but I finally convinced her that in order to get in trouble on our stretch of the Chippewa, you'd have to be passed out and land face down. I've tipped the canoe exactly once in 50 years, and that was when a 14-year-old friend and I were goofing off. The bigger problem here is dragging bottom, or hitting a rock in the shallows, and if that happens you just step out and pull for a few feet.
We took the shortest cruise option, which usually takes just an hour, although it went a bit long with 4 of us in the canoe, only me paddling, and a stiff headwind. At any rate, the girls and Pat all seemed to enjoy it, as did I. The highlight of the trip for me: We saw a gawky baby great blue heron, about half-adult sized but still covered in yellow fluff.
When we got back to my dad's house, Pat and I had to drive back up the river to get her car, and the girls, who had never been to my dad's house before, wanted to stay behind and explore. By the time we got back, my dad was down by the river with the girls, pushing them on the old swing on the oak tree. Then he took them for a ride around the property on Big Red, his ancient Honda 3-wheeler. I don't know who will have better memories from this day, the girls, my dad, or me, seeing him enjoy himself this way. I hope they will come back out to visit him!
Our afternoon entertaiment was a trip to the dump. Dad really can't do this on his own anymore, so this was an eight month accumulation of cans, non-returnable bottles, newspaper and magazines, just enough to fill the pickup (1974 jeep, still runnning!) Then back to shovel out the ashes from the old burn barrel and haul them out to the field, and replace with a new burn barrel, in which today we're burning several years of accumulated trash from the garage, barn, and B-8.
Hmm, not sure I've ever written about B-8. This is a sizeable wooden building, probably 20' X 40', my dad bought from Dow Chemical many years ago for $40. It cost him something close to $700 to have it moved, but still... it's SOLID and just a beautiful building. Heavy old timbered floors, an attic, an old pot-bellied stove, workbench. It's just classy. I wish I knew its history from Dow.
The dark side is that when he first bought it, the lead-based paint was peeling, and one of his cows ate enough of the paint to be mostly blinded before he got them away from it. I'm sure at some point that cow must've made it into our freezer.... ??? Oh well, can't be too much worse then the lead shot we used to come across in the wild game we ate.
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