The Brown Ghosts

Posted on June 6, 2024June 7, 2024 by Greg Washburn

June has crept upon us and there’s been lots going on! Writing hasn’t been one of those things though! I am so busy living life and doing things that I never write about those things in the present recently. But playing catch-up is a great way to reflect on the weeks that have sped past! May turned out to be an activity filled month that’s for sure! It’s important to note that the final day of April was spent trolling for brown trout on Lake Ontario with my friend Gary and his son. It’s pretty much a full day commitment and a long drive but super fun! We went a couple of times and came home with some nice fish on each occasion. The brown trout were tasty to a degree but will never become my favorite! I much prefer perch and walleye! But that’s another story altogether! Something much tastier would soon be filling our days!

I spent part of the first day of May working at the IRLC Ferrone Preserve with a friend and former coworker. We were joined by a fellow (Win) who had recently been hired by IRLC. One of his jobs is to develop a trail system on the 100 acre parcel that was donated to the land trust a couple years ago. It’s a very unique piece of property that’s a little unusual for the Town of Macomb. It resembles land that sits across Black Lake in the Hammond area. There are several very interesting features there that will be featured in a post at some point. For now I will leave a picture of one of the rock formations!

We had received a decent amount of rain in April. The muskrats had added to their huts several times ahead of large rain events. An interesting phenomenon that I sometimes write about here.May began with some increasingly warmer temperatures so I decided to start looking for some morels. I had been sent a photo of some small morels that a friend had found in the Waddington area on May first. I was curious to see if any were out yet in Macomb so I went out for a little scouting mission. I went to a location that had yielded some in 2023 and began finding a few! It was on! Definitely time to search in earnest!

I searched several areas but most of those I found came from the one location. But that never means much when the season is just starting. I picked a few leeks to add to my foraging adventure and cleaned my prizes for dinner! Yum! Zane would join me in the hunt a couple days later and our searching brought in a decent amount of fresh morels! We also foraged chives and more leeks. Zane made a chive and leek dip that we ate with crackers. Strong but delicious! I used the morels to top off grilled cheese burgers. They were so incredibly good!

I stayed busy that week sawing a few pine logs and putting lumber away to dry. I spent more time gathering a few morels that I usually ate with my dinner but I put a few in the fridge to save. Amy was coming down that Friday to forage with me for a couple days and I wanted to be sure to have some for her to try. It was nice to be getting some salvage logs done and taking time to enjoy the morel season while living at the farm. There were numerous other things that needed my attention as well and the days flew! I scouted out a section of ridge below a spot where I had found 14 morels one afternoon and was happy to see some nice big blondes there! I decided to use them as a training mission to get Amy accustomed to finding them. When she arrived I wasted no time getting her onto the morels! She took right to the foraging and found the big blondes easily. We hit some other locations before heading back to prepare them for dinner that evening. We found over 20 morels before stopping and we still would have all day Saturday to forage!

Saturday would find us up on my friend Gary’s property and we began finding morels shortly after we started searching. We hit the sections of woods around his meadows until about noon when it began raining rather hard. Our morning count was around 49. Back at the Homestead we washed and prepped our finds.Insects love to move inside the mushrooms! Especially ants!We got our rain soaked apparel dried out by the wood stove. We would eventually find another twenty something morels that afternoon before dinner. Morel cheeseburgers were again the main course and I soon realized how many morels I had cooked that week! Amy set some aside to take home to dehydrate for winter. We had been very successful! Life was good!

I didn’t know it at the time but that Saturday would be the end of morel season for us. It was time to take the sawmill up to my friend’s in Winthrop that Monday and the next weekend was a travel weekend. But we had been so very successful overall! Our final season count totaled around 173 morels! A couple dozen had been left in the forest to rot as we had found them too late to salvage them. And just like that the search for the brown ghosts of the forest concluded. But we had made special memories! MOONTABS as you already know. There’s nothing like the search for them really. Brush and ticks never seem to deter us! Amy actually found a tick on herself when she hit the shower that Saturday night. Luckily barely imbedded in her skin.It all seems like a blur now and it was only one month ago! But we have lived busy lives during that month. That’s how I choose to live in these days of retirement. Always moving and pushing forward. The time of the morels was not missed fortunately. It was a time that I thoroughly enjoyed! Eating morels about 6 times in one week! Cooking outside in the outdoor kitchen whenever possible. Life on the Homestead is rewarding and full. Each day full of promise and hope. It is enough!

Spring Has Sprung!

Posted on May 8, 2024May 8, 2024 by Greg Washburn

Spring continues to ramp up in the valley and things have gotten very green! The grass is really growing now and lawn work is way overdue!But priorities come in many different forms when a person interacts with nature! Lately it’s been a mix of work and play! Awhile back Amy came down for the weekend and we foraged for a variety of annual forage items. We started with burdock behind the barn. We have an abundance of it and the roots are edible if they are small. We got some decent ones! No worries ever running out of them! We have many!

We next targeted chives and leeks. Chives grow all over the open fields here in great numbers. Scissors work well to collect them into a container. For leeks we headed into the forest in parts of the sugarbush. They were still rather small but very potent so they would make a nice addition to the soup we were planning to create. There’s no shortage of leeks on the farm so we harvest the entire plant unlike what others do elsewhere. Some people only harvest one leaf from each plant! That’s ultra conservative but not something we need to ever do we hope. Our patches remain sustainable for now although two former harvest areas have all but disappeared since the forest die off of 2016/2017. We will continue to harvest responsibly and believe that we can manage to maintain a balance.

Our final forage item was the water loving species we call Cowslips. There’s a nice patch near the farm where it’s easy to quickly fill a grocery bag! Scissors also work well for harvesting these greens. We target the smaller leaves as the bigger leaves and blossoms are bitter. We were a little late to the harvest but still managed to find plenty of small leaves. Our foraging items were beginning to add up!

Now the work of cleaning our items began! Burdock is especially dirty and takes some time to prepare. Cleaned roots were chopped into small pieces that would cook down in the soup. Chives are super easy to clean and chop up. Also into the soup. The Cowslips were washed and then boiled to reduce their size. The water was discarded and our boiled Cowslips were added to the soup. We were going for an all veggie type soup so no meat was added. Potatoes were cut up as well as a few carrots. We had a nice concoction going! In the crock pot it shimmered away for several hours. The result was a hearty and healthy dinner! For Sunday breakfast I made eggs with added chives and 10 year old aged cave cheese. Interesting story there to share sometime! I also made French toast that we smothered with maple syrup! Life was good! We live in the land of plenty! Knowing how to forage enhances the connections to nature!

Cave cheese and chive eggs with French toast!Yum!

Amy had to return to the Adirondacks Sunday afternoon and I was missing her already so I decided to do some work up on the hill. There was a log that needed to be brought down for firewood that had blocked a sap haul road earlier in the season. While I was up in the Mother Tree area I targeted a bunch of invasive wild honeysuckles that were taking over the clearing. The Mother Tree was tapped this spring for the first time in years along with several others in the area. It’s a large three tree cluster that’s actually one set of roots. It easily carries 8 sap buckets! It sustained some damage during the die off but survived mostly intact fortunately. Most of the former Mother Tree Loop that we used to tap suffered grievous losses so it’s been abandoned. I got pretty wild ripping up the invasives once I got started. I may have won a small battle but we are still losing the war. See the old post “The Battle Of Evermore” for further details. Before I quit for the evening I also drew out a 16 foot butternut log that the tree trimmers had cut near the power lines by the road. It may make some nice lumber and needed to be salvaged regardless.

The week started productively and I put down the remaining 2” planks in the former woodshed so we could stack sap buckets in there to dry. My friend Gary came to help me wash buckets after I had done 100 the prior day. We finished all of them and some other sugaring gear. I hauled water from the spring like usual as I can pump it much faster that way. There’s still the main evaporator pans to pressure wash and the big storage vat. I am running behind! I have enjoyed two days of brown trout fishing down on Henderson Harbor and out on Lake Ontario with Gary and his son. He has a nice setup for trolling! I learned something new and even drove the boat a little! I caught my first two brown trout ever and ended up eating them. They are ok but not my favorite fish! It was a great experience though and we had the water mostly to ourselves!

I headed up to Amy’s on Thursday of that week to participate in a spring cleanse with her. It involves special food and drinks. Teas and no sugar to speak. We dined on a rice and mung bean dish called Kitceri although with vegetable juice we made ourselves. We were supposed to stay somewhat idle but we ended up doing a lot! I bought a bike from a local bike shop in Saranac Lake. What a great store and the owner John is awesome! Check out “Human Power Planet Earth Bike Shop”! I decided to buy local in the Adirondacks and support local small business. It was a great choice! I love my bike! We rode twice that weekend and visited the “Slow Turn” for some reflection time. Always a good idea! We also hiked into a somewhat remote pond for some water viewing nature time. Rain would slow us down at one point but we enjoyed a healthy spring cleanse that my body no doubt needed! Amy knows the ways of healthy living and she’s a tremendous help getting me to a healthier lifestyle!

Last week would find me traveling many miles! Returning from the Adirondacks Monday. Fishing Lake Ontario Tuesday. Picking up a friend at the Dexter airport Tuesday night and a trip to Cooperstown with him on Thursday. I found time to volunteer at the IRLC Ferrone Woods Preserve in the Town of Macomb on Wednesday where a new trail system is going to be developed. We had to remove some deer hunting stands and blinds as part of the transition here. It a lovely and unique parcel that I will feature at some point. Friday was spent getting caught up on some miscellaneous details. We all have plenty of those! Saturday would find me way up in Chateaugay at a memorial service. Later shopping in a favorite store in Malone. I drove up in the “Blue Bomb”. My former Ford Focus that I gave Zane that he has given back. My neighbor Mike The Mechanic has assured me that it’s road worthy again after a new timing chain and other repairs. It’s my grocery getter and farm vehicle for running errands. A new old addition to the fleet! So last week I totally romanced the road!

There’s lots of other things being planned and discussed right now. Time will reveal what happens next. Getting caught up some at the farm is a big part of that. But taking time to charge my batteries out in nature remains a priority and a place of focus. Writing and blogging often get tabled unfortunately. But my spirit energy is recharged through motion. Always staying on the move. My knee problem continues to be a serious condition. I manage with it. My life is shifting as part of my forward momentum. My beloved Adirondacks are once again a big part of the shift. Meeting Amy, a woman of the Adirondacks also part of my shift. Things have aligned in so many ways and life is busy but enjoyable in the push for adventure.

Discoveries abound in this new and exciting blend of sceneries. Life is changing fast just like the season. There’s something big happening right now! Worthy of its own blog post! They have shown themselves! The brown ghosts of May. I speak of the morel mushrooms! I found my first one of the season Friday. They now occupy my time and my refrigerator! So watch for my next post! It will showcase this special fungi and all it means to me! It’s hard to get it all written sometimes. I will try! Mornings are best for blogging! Fueled up with maple syrup infused coffee. Playing music. Enjoying the numerous birds who inundate my feeding area behind the tiny cabin. There’s always the trails amidst the trees here to explore. Sunrises and sunsets. Meals and mundane tasks to complete. There’s always time if we allow ourselves to catch our breath for a minute. That’s difficult sometimes. We are driven by a fast moving society. I am driven by other things as well. To seek and to learn. To expand my knowledge of the natural world. And to try and preserve my health and strength. I must learn to accept new ideas and new approaches. I must evolve in a sense. The old ways of my life that were harmful must go. It’s all so overwhelming if I let all those thoughts in at once.It’s all so very simple these connections to nature when I embrace that mindset and enjoy the simple things of life. Time and an older body may slow me down eventually but for now I won’t let it. I still have way too much energy to burn. 🏄🏻‍♂️🚀

The Wake-up Call

Posted on January 14, 2024January 14, 2024 by Greg Washburn

So here we are at the soon to be midpoint of January and so much has happened! So many things have and will change now. On January 1st just hours after my last post an episode occurred that I should not have ignored but I did. Post dinner I experienced rather severe chest pains but as I had no other symptoms I dismissed it as indigestion. Things settled down and I had a restful night. But Friday morning things were bad. The chest pains returned shortly after waking up and only stopped if I sat down. A walk to the warehouse and back left me seriously short of breath. I kept needing to sit down. Zane and I had already done a few things that morning. We had taken the truck and picked up some slab wood they had buzzed up for us. We were preparing to put up a mailbox also. I walked out to the road to help Zane and told him I wasn’t well. So after he drove me to the ER in Gouverneur it was determined that I needed to go to Syracuse to St. Joseph’s Hospital for a cauterization procedure. So that’s where I was from 10:30pm Friday night until about 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon. I am happy to report that I did not have a heart attack. My heart is in good condition. However I needed to have 3 stents placed in the arteries of my LAD. My RCA has some rather troubling plaque but functions beyond the placement of stents. I received excellent care at the hospital and feel fortunate to have dodged a major heart event.

So my new reality involves medication, new diet, and scheduling doctor visits. Honestly I am taking all this very seriously and will stay the course. I have come way too far in life not to heed this wake-up call! I spend a couple days recuperating at my Sister and brother-in-laws place at Black Lake next to Camp Edith. A huge wind storm knocked out power all over upstate New York and we were on generator power for awhile. They were still on generator power Thursday when Zane and I decided to move back to the farm where we had power. So after gathering up groceries, medications, and miscellaneous things we settled back into Little Red. We restarted the wood stove as the cabin had been being heated by its backup electric heat since Friday. We got pounded by heavy rains but the mild temperatures weren’t too hard to take. Zane and I resumed the mailbox project as we knew our days of unfrozen ground were about to change. He felt quite the sense of accomplishment in that small task.I knew it was because it marked a continuation of something we had started together and a move forward into the new reality. I felt it also. That strange sense of realizing that things could have ended much differently and the whole future would take different directions. I was ok. Things were going to return to normal. I just need to do my part to make that happen!

The Amazon drop box. No deliveries without it!

We had to cancel our trip to California unfortunately so that big adventure is off. We have spent our time regrouping at the farm and making plans as for the best way forward. I have suddenly become less obsessed with the cabin project as we continue to modify the space in a manner that better fits our living needs. We brought in an old metal topped table so we can better sit and enjoy meals.We added a second small fridge for all my healthy veggies and new diet items. The loft is working out for sleeping and we were smart to include it into the build. My new diet involves less cheese,red meat, and high fat foods. I hope to lose weight as I work my way back to a healthy me. The project can wait I have decided. It’s time to consider the present and how best to live in it. I can’t say what happened to me was good but it certainly wasn’t horrible. My body warned me that’s all. So here I am one week plus from the event totally reevaluating my life. It’s refreshing and I feel really good actually.

Being prepared never hurts! We may need our generator here sometime!

The last couple days have been all about small details given that another storm was coming. Groceries,generator gas, and going through things here in the cabin. We made a trip to a favorite sport shop of ours to grab some MRE’s and get some target shooting ammo. Zane and I the occasional round of skeet shooting here at the farm. Given the location it’s not bothersome to anyone. The storm hit yesterday as forecast. High winds and blowing snow throughout the night. I hunkered down and enjoyed the warm bliss of the cabin. There’s nothing like that peaceful feeling of being prepared!

Today the strong winds continued and we got more snow. There’s at a foot now and it keeps coming. It’s going to stop later but the wind is going to keep blowing. It’s feeling a lot more like January. This weather has been unbelievable in its strangeness. Black Lake is barely frozen over. All this snow will keep it from freezing properly in my opinion. I took a nice walk earlier close by. Up on the plateau behind the barn I gazed down onto Beaver Creek and wondered when it might be safe to trek there. I am going to stay clear for some time given all the fresh snow. I want to continue my “Tales of an Icewalker” series but not at the expense of falling through! So I will watch and wait. There’s other things that need my attention at the moment.

This is the last week Zane is off before his college resumes. We are going to need firewood for this cabin very soon. I also hope to put a temporary skirt around it so we can bank it with snow. I decided against a permanent skirt due to summer snakes, rodents, and the potential for moisture issues. Our ancestors frequently banked their buildings with snow. It’s the ultimate insulation if it’s abundant enough to throw up alongside your building. Living here within sight of the barn makes me think of years past. The barn was the sanctuary of our livestock. I have mentioned it in the past and there’s nothing like a patch of stormy weather to wake up those memories. I am enjoying this time here in the tiny and unfinished cabin. I hope to get my energy back soon and be able to enjoy the new me. All that restricted blood flow now makes perfect sense. It happened so slowly that I never noticed it. I’m serious about getting back to the better conditioned me. Syrup season is on the far horizon. Snowshoeing isn’t that far out either. Winter must be enjoyed while it is here. So far it’s been mostly absent but there’s still time! Time for “WHIMs”. Winter has its moments. Time for the Icewalker’s to take to their frozen avenues. Time for enjoying nature as this time plays out. It’s a time to reflect while sipping maple syrup infused coffee. Time to recharge the batteries and get back on track. Time to see the smallest details and the largest. But mostly it’s time to acknowledge the gift of life itself. To be present in the present. It’s a time for making MOONTABS!✍️

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2024January 1, 2024 by Greg Washburn

What a strange winter so far! Mild weather continues and there’s been almost no snow. It’s been helpful getting cabin work done so that’s a positive! Things continue to move forward inside and each week shows more progress. We expect to put the Airstream away this week which will mean a transition into the cabin full time. It’s going to be a little bumpy at first but we’ll manage. The new wood stove finally showed up so that’s on the list for January. The loft was the focus last week and it’s well on its way to being finished. I am happy to report that the whitewashed ceiling was a success! I created a custom look with a combination of primer.paint, and water in equal proportions.

We enjoyed some leisure time over the holidays which was nice. On Xmas Eve Zane and I hiked up to the mountain to have a campfire on the Low Point. It was very cloudy and visibility was limited but we enjoyed ourselves until well after dark. We chose an old pine stump for our fire and it made a wonderful blaze. The pine resin smells incredible and the flames were a bright yellow. At times they were tinged with green. The old stumps are what remains of the former pine forests that once grew there. Forest fires destroyed them and burned so hot that large sections of bare rock are all that remained. The bare rock surfaces of the mountain have changed very little in my lifetime. They are a favorite place of mine to reflect on the passage of time. The solid rock remains a constant in my life journey story. That is the draw. From the high ground the lights of the farm twinkled in the distance. Home for us these days. Hiking to the mountain was a celebration of returning to the farm full time after an 11 year absence. Dinner was waiting in the crock pot for our return.

On Christmas Day I decided to fly my drone a little. It was the replacement of the one that had crashed in Quebec last August and I hadn’t even used it once. It was a totally calm day so flying conditions were ideal. I still have a lot to learn about piloting a drone but I did ok with it. Eventually I hope to take it up to 400 feet but for now I stay below 100 feet. It takes good photos that go right to my phone. It also can copy to an SD card if I prefer that option. I safely brought it to a landing when the battery began to run low.Mission accomplished!

We fired up the sawmill recently and ran a monster log through. A 12’ salvage log from our neighbors at camp. One of those that was mentioned in my last post. It sawed out some beautiful boards and planks that will be used in the woodshed project at some point. It still needs a floor in one section. It will make a nice multipurpose building once we close it in more. The old Roundoak wood stove in the cabin will be repurposed to heat the woodshed eventually. But that project must wait for now.

I recently asked for a favor at a local restaurant where we hang sometimes. It’s called the Iron Horse Cafe and it’s one of the nicest places near us. Morristown isn’t a long drive for us and it’s easy for friends to meet us there. On their menu they had poutine and several different types of hamburgers. I asked the waitress if the kitchen would make me an “A La Poutine”. It’s a fully dressed hamburger smothered with gravy and poutine. They were willing to make it and it turned out pretty good. However their poutine is made with mozzarella cheese so I asked the owner if I could bring cheese curd for it the next time I ordered one. No problem he said! I first learned about A La Poutine in Quebec a couple years ago on our way home from our fishing trip. A local had suggested we try it! It’s a big entree and difficult to finish in one setting! I ordered several pounds of cheese curd from a producer in Clayton. The business is owned by the Bechaz family who uses milk from their own dairy farm to make the curds. It gets made on Thursdays so I made sure to grab it that same day! I took 2 lbs into the Iron Horse and gave one to the owner to try. The other went to the kitchen for my A La Poutine. It turned out fabulous! I couldn’t finish it so brought the rest home to share with Zane. I don’t know if the Iron Horse will ever have it on their menu but I do believe they will make it for us again sometime! Bechaz Riverdale cheese curd is the best I have ever tasted! I am getting hungry just thinking about it! I may try to make it myself sometime! It a hearty meal that just may be bad for my heart!Try it out for yourself!

So that’s pretty much it lately. Eating,drinking,and being merry to a degree.Lots of work on the cabin and lots of other miscellaneous details that come with life. As I reflect on the year just past I am amazed at how fast it seemed to go by. But it was a year of adventures and plenty of hard work. Each season brought many blessings to us. Good health and good fortune. Zane’s graduation was a big event as was his starting college. It wasn’t a big year for travel although our fishing trip to Quebec was epic! As was my 2 week Adirondack sojourn. I can say exactly when the cabin will be finished but it’s going to be awhile. There’s the remaining siding to complete and the remaining sections of the deck. I suppose I shouldn’t get so frustrated by the amount of time it’s taking. It’s a very custom build after all. Life is good here at the farm. It will be different not living in the camper but I won’t miss buying propane for the furnace. I am glad that I got good use out of the camper and have enjoyed it immensely.Perhaps I will travel with it in 2024. I am hoping someone will wish to join me but I am prepared to run solo if that’s necessary.

As for 2024 I am patiently waiting for the ice to form and the snow to fall for a return to ice walking. There’s an upcoming trip to California to kick off this year’s travel. As for maple syrup season I am not sure at the moment. We are seriously lacking firewood and there’s a few issues with the tractor. We will be returning to the Quebec bush in August once again. That reminds me that I never completed the bush living series I started! That’s ok as the photos will remind me of our special week and the memories will return like a film. My spirit energy will need a good battery charging soon that’s for sure. Each day starts with maple syrup infused coffee here at the farm. Life is good and the land grounds me with purpose and resolve. I can’t predict how tomorrow will turn out. All I can do is push forward and try to make good decisions. Writing will be a part of my 2024. That is a given. There are plenty of stories left to be told! MOONTABS await!✍️

Upgrades And Migrations

Posted on December 12, 2023December 16, 2023 by Greg Washburn

I can’t believe it’s getting close to the middle of December! The weather has remained rather mild for the most part but we are getting a lot of rain! We’ve had a couple cold nights but it’s never dropped below 15 degrees yet. I am still living in the Airstream here at the farm property but I winterized it some time ago. That means no water although I cook and sleep in here. I use a small electric heater to help keep the humidity under control and provide heat but the propane furnace does the majority of the heating. In the cabin the bathroom is nearly finished now I am excited to say! My plumbing project was a success and everything came on line fairly smoothly. The tiny utility room is packed but it’s working out good so far!

I have been heating the cabin with wood for several weeks now. Fortunately I had some stored dry firewood up in the old granary building that we cut last spring. We also had some “devil’s rejects” as we call them. Low grade chunks of wood that we kick out when doing wood for a customer of ours. They work well in mild weather but burn fast. Despite the fact the the old wood stove in the cabin is being replaced I changed out the outer sections of stovepipe on it. It was in horrible shape after 11 years of use. Good thing I did as I had a chimney fire first thing yesterday morning when I stoked up the fire. It really got going for a few minutes and I was preparing to water it down if necessary. We’ve had a down draft problem lately and creosote has been a problem around the outer stovepipe. Now I am super nervous and ready to get the new wood stove and roof stovepipe system in place!There is always the potential for a fire when burning wood. The new set up will be much safer and efficient.

Overall we have made pretty good progress on the cabin. We now have the beginnings of our natural white cedar deck at the main entrance. I really had to scour my inventory to get enough cedar to build what I did. I had some I stored away years ago. You guessed it! Held in trust! I sawed it into the dimensional lumber I needed on the bandsaw sawmill. I also recently added an attached wood storage shelf to the sheltered back of the cabin facing the road. I used some old blue flooring I had salvaged from an old house years ago up in the Spragueville area. My Uncle who owned it called it the Clarke house. I got a nice farm sink and primitive cabinet from there also.The wood storage shelf will hold over a face cord of wood so it’s a nice addition to the cabin. I used some old metal roofing I had but it may get replaced eventually. It doesn’t look exactly like I wanted it too but will work for now. How many times over the years have I said that?🤔

Zane and I did a bit more siding on the cabin after we found some additional inventory. But we have run totally run out of hemlock so we will need to wait until we can get some more sawn out in 2024. I spent a couple hours one day last week getting out a little bit of burn ready firewood. The ground was frozen and we had a tiny bit of snow so it was a primo day for skidding! It seems like everything is always a big hurry and I can’t ever get enough done. I try to keep going forward and follow the weather forecast for planning work days. Awhile back we spent 2 days hauling salvage logs from up by our camp on Black Lake. Our neighbors had 3 big pine trees taken down and gave us the logs. I had to haul the tractor up to be able to get them pulled out and loaded. We made 3 trips to get all the logs out before it was done. We have a nice collection of pine to saw provided there’s no hardware in the logs. That’s a potential risk with trees near buildings.It was amazing watching the tree trimmers at work! They really know their business!

Things have been really centered around the cabin project and that’s where most of my time is spent every week.The saws need to be kept outside as they won’t fit inside to do any practical work. I call the outside saw area the “Chop Shop”. We just moved it into a tent since it rains so much lately and the snow is coming. Running in and out of the cabin making cuts is time consuming but necessary. Plus the barn wood that is being using for the walls and trims is super dirty. All that dirt and sawdust stays right outside where it belongs. We have managed nicely so far but the weather continues to slowly head towards winter. Sometimes I work “under the lights” into the evening when I am pushing a part of the project. It gets dark around 4:30pm these days so that’s always a factor.

Using barn wood for interiors is very labor intensive but it’s truly a nice look! We used both silver gray and faded red for two of the walls so far. The bathroom is a mix of drywall,birch wainscoting, and a barn wood chair rail. There’s a lot left to do but things are getting better each week. I am anxious to move out of the Airstream and get into the cabin but as long as it stays mild it’s fine in here. Besides there’s still way too many tools and building materials in the cabin. The temporary kitchen sink where I do dishes for the moment is working out well. Having the stacked washer and dryer unit saves a lot of time. Well worth the space it takes up.

One nice thing about being outside cutting is seeing all the geese flying over each day. They have really been migrating recently in nonstop groups. I was finally able to spot a couple flocks of snow geese yesterday just before dark. They make a distinctive sound that’s different then the Canadian geese. It’s a sure sign of approaching winter and I know this mild weather can’t last forever. I have spent almost no time in the woods and I am missing my adventures there. But without the cabin I will be struggling to make it through the winter here. So it remains my focus for the moment. Not terribly exciting but you have to remember that we haven’t had running water and a toilet here on the farm property since May of 2012. All this is a milestone of accomplishment and a solid beginning of a new life journey here at the farm. I really enjoy living here again and cherish my freedom of the wide open spaces. Life will settle into some new routine again at some point and the farm cabin/campsite will serve as a valuable base of operations. Some day I may follow those geese south but not this winter.There’s still too many things left to do here! One thing remains certain: the walls of the cabin cannot hold me bound forever. I will need to get out and explore. And the adventures you have grown accustomed to will resume! We all must have shelter from the elements as the dark nights of December take us into winter. The tiny cabin project has challenged me greatly these past few months. But I have learned so much in the process. Never fear the unknown. Ponder and question your decisions but push yourself forward with no hesitation. That is how I see things with clarity and certainty. The energy and determination of the migratory birds humbles me. My project seems insignificant in the face of such an annual event. And there lies the resolve to drive the hands to achieve my goals. The dividends are many in their simplicity. And within I find an even greater connection to nature. And you thought it was just a project? Never. It’s much more then that.✍️

Little Red

Posted on November 15, 2023November 15, 2023 by Greg Washburn

A lot has happened since I last posted! Since returning from the Adirondacks life has centered around the tiny cabin we call Little Red. No it’s not red at the moment! In fact much of it has no siding at all. Just a layer of weathered OSB that was once covered in tarpaper until years of strong winds destroyed most of it. In this summers post Moving and Shaking I talked briefly about the cabin project. Well a lot has happened since we moved it!

I got settled back into the Airstream as soon as I returned from my Adirondack sojourn. Being parked right next to the cabin made for ideal working conditions. I could study the project while sipping maple syrup infused coffee each morning. After some initial wall demo at the front of the building I began laying out potential bathroom floor plans but kept hitting obstacles that would seriously impact the timeline of the build. There was no time to waste as it was now past mid October! But another design change would take center stage and it was necessary to go backwards before moving forward. I decided to lower the existing ceiling to create a small loft area. Space was at a premium in the cabin and storage is always needed. So after two days of demo and modifications to the framing the loft was roughed in. About this time I decided to totally move the bathroom where it would sit adjacent to the utility room. After hours of online research I chose a 5’x7’2” floor plan. The utility room would be a mere 21” wide! The bathroom would have a downsized 32” one piece shower stall, an ADA style toilet, a stacked washer/dryer unit, and a small hand sink. It would be tight but it would fit!

The first thing we did was insulate and drywall the entire length of the bathroom side of the cabin. No electrical or water piping was in the walls. The design of the wet wall kept plumbing simple and limited in distance. The kitchenette sink water lines were factored into the framing. Next Zane and I put down the bathroom linoleum in one unbroken piece to save time. The ceiling areas were dry walled prior to any interior walls being framed. Another big time saver.The walls of the bathroom were framed and set into place next.At this point some electrical had to be roughed in but it was a fairly simple process. Some drywall finishing began as soon as the drywall was hung. I had designed a wainscoting into the bathroom to limit the amount of mud and taping.We took a day to do some siding on the cabin as it was super warm one Friday.

For siding I chose some dry 1” hemlock that I had stored up in the hay mow of the big barn we call Big Red. It went on fairly quickly but we ran out of material by the end of the day. So it was time to start the plumbing rough in. Not something I had every really done so online research was required to get it figured out. I decided to start with the drains under the cabin. Installing the vents proved to be a challenge but was eventually figured out. I flipped the bathroom layout 180 degrees to better accommodate the exhaust duct from the dryer. The bathroom was taking shape!

About this time the weather began to get pretty cold at night. With the wide open space above the loft it was impossible to heat the cabin so finishes, priming, and painting could occur. So up went the plastic sheeting in what I call tent cities. The wood stove could now make a noticeable difference. All in all the weather has remained mild really.

Buying and assembling materials takes a fair amount of time. It was a weekly ritual and I tried my best to get things used up to save on space inside the cabin. Last week was devoted to pex tubing and the final details of the utility room. It would barely all fit in there! To top it off I needed to winterize the Airstream as temperatures were dropping into the mid 20’s by Saturday night. So there had to be a transition in shower and bathroom locations. Zane and I insulated the entire upper section last Friday with a nasty product called rock wool. It’s a great insulation though! Moisture and fire resistant. Very dense. That project took an entire day! The days have been busy and things seem to take longer then I think they should! And how can it take so long to complete such a tiny building? That’s very perplexing to me!

Insulation in the loft. Masks were needed!

So the water finally came on Sunday inside the cabin. Only two small leaks to fix. It had taken some effort to get the waterline and pump placed in the tiny utility room but it happened! My crown jewel of the utility room is the tankless water heater! I rigged up an old 30 gallon one as a secondary if needed. It also serves as a tempering tank for the incoming water from the spring. This will save electricity and help supply more hot water. The old Gould’s pump is a 1995 model that used to serve at Camp Edith before being retired and stored away. Held in trust I call that sort of thing.

In go the layers of equipment! There’s still lots more of everything that came after!

So here we are on November 15th. Situation: good. Functioning toilet and shower. Hot water. A still functioning travel trailer for cooking and sleeping. Just no water. And yesterday’s temporary addition of an old sink for doing dishes inside the cabin for now.It also once served for many decades at Camp Edith. I have been working to get more electrical done in the cabin also. Lots of small details being finished. There’s still a lot to do but now you know what my adventures have been! Cabin work as November creeps along and the night comes early. There’s so much more to this project then I even mentioned. But it’s home now here at the farm property. I hope to post again soon!

Many Chances

Posted on October 16, 2022October 17, 2022 by Greg Washburn

It’s a calm and cool morning here at Camp Edith but very peaceful. I returned to the valley yesterday after my sojourn in the Adirondacks since October second.The leaves have mostly gone by there now but are in full regal here. It’s like getting a second chance at autumn! It gave me pause for some serious reflection early this morning as the shots of duck hunters echoed across the lake waking me at daylight. It was going to be one of those mornings! The words were arriving even before that first sip of maple syrup infused coffee. I have a busy day of catching up after arriving home but wanted to get a few thoughts down before the events of the day could push them into the backseat.

It was cool inside the camp this morning and not especially pleasant. I had thrown a little wood into the wood stove at 4AM but it had been reduced to a few glowing coals by the time I finally got up. First things first though! Coffee! While waiting for it to brew I noticed the rising sun hitting the treetops across the lake on Bigge Island. A picture was in order. Coffee and the fire would have to wait. Time was of the essence so when I couldn’t locate my Crocs I slipped my bare feet into my hiking boots. I was quite the sight in my bathrobe but there was no time to waste. The bathrobe was no where near warm enough for this morning’s chill I quickly decided as I stepped out the squeaky screen door. But the pictures were worth a little discomfort. The morning was off and running!

The scent of coffee greeted me as I stepped back inside to tackle building the fire. It kindled quickly and was soon warming the interior. It had been 76 degrees inside when I went to bed last night and Zane had opened the porch door. I call the porch door “The Thermostat” in Camp Edith when using the wood stove. It works and wood fired heat is basically free for us. There were but two things lacking at this point. My tablet and my music. It was writing time.

One of my favorite Pandora music stations has been painstakingly created by the thumbprint process they offer. I named it “Band of Horses Radio” after the band by that same name. The first song up this morning was strangely ironic. “On My Way Home” by the Band Of Horses. It was about to be one of those mornings. Turn it up and let the horses run.

Music isn’t necessary for writing but often sends me to the deeper recesses of Tazmania. My personal place of creativity. A forest where each tree is a story. That’s a story all it’s own and people get lost in Tazmania all the time. Imagination runs wild there as do the memories. I never know where a path will lead or how times it will branch off. My go to place of music when writing is Indie rock typically. I discovered Indie rock in the fall of 2017 and have followed it ever since. It’s a never ending series of new bands and new music. These songs are special because there are no memories attached to them initially.They are freshly neutral and waiting for memories to be attached to them. Indie rock and 2017. The old life was falling behind and the new me was rising. It was a new chance and a new now. A breath of fresh air that would become a gentle wind.

People who follow my rambling storylines often find redundant threads with no chronological order. Kind of like the Star Wars movies. The first movie didn’t start at the beginning of the story or end with that episode. They jumped all around. I’ve always admired that approach! Filling in gaps and satisfying curiosity. The questions aren’t always answered immediately anyway. The big question this morning is where is all this leading? It’s leading to reflection and self awareness. When the chances come do we take them? Will we take them? Or let them slip away? That’s a place of reflection where each person must stand.

My Adirondack sojourn was productive and I was able to write quite often. But there was adventure as well. It reminds me of an old fashioned carburetor using a mix of fuel and air to produce the horsepower. This morning my thoughts are running back to times of challenge and decisions. I haven’t been able to pull a story together with any clear message. These past few days have been filled with list making, emails, and a gathering of intel. It’s time to put another date on the calendar. October 16,2023. One year from today. A day of comparison. A day of answering questions. Did I take the chances and run with them? Or hesitate? Or land somewhere in between? Don’t worry if you are lost right now. I wrote this to challenge myself and set a deadline of sorts. Consider it the continuing introduction.

Autumn is speeding forward and here in the valley the transition is in full swing. I am transitioning as well into a new living arrangement. There are numerous other small details to close out as winter approaches. There are lots of new plans being formulated and investigated. It won’t always make sense or nor should it I have decided. I believe in following the invisible energy and connecting the dots that lead somewhere. I believe in taking chances so I do. The experts say that living in the past breeds depression while trying to live in the future breeds anxiety. Living in the now seems to be a good approach. We are approaching two years of the blog site being created. It’s been fun and I plan to continue with it. The MOONTABS vision is much larger though. The stories of the past. Plans for the future. Adventure and challenge. Life in the now. Mark your calendar. October 16th 2023. It won’t be about where I have landed. It will be about where we have landed. A day of reflection for all of us.

I dedicate this post to all who support the MOONTABS vision. Those who support me and give me inspiration. One person in particular. I also wish to acknowledge my Uncle Kenny. His wise words advising me the importance of keeping journals decades ago has never been lost on me. It was the first rock of a foundation that was destined to be built upon. No need to be lost here but if you are never fear. I will lead you back with a story or two. Next time. ✍️

The Secret:Watching My Movies

Posted on September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 by Greg Washburn

It’s a rather chilly morning here on Black Lake as September 2022 ushers in its final days. This morning’s temperature will seem like a heat wave a couple months from now just ahead of the annual ice up of the entire lake. Autumn is one of nature’s most vivid seasons here in our four season climate. I am a person who loves to reflect deeply about the power and purpose of seasonal change. Autumn is a time for new discovery in the midst of the transformation. Beauty will be found in the smallest places and in the smallest observations. It is the time of the whitetail deer in this region to live out their finest moments of the year. Natural selection at it’s finest by mid November. The lessons of the deer will be waiting to be read by those who wander the forest.Today I doubt that the people who live in the path of hurricane Ian are headed off to school. They are probably not seeing beauty in nature at this moment. I am not there but I feel humbled in the face of nature’s fury. The power of nature is supreme. Those things that we as humans can not control. Leaves that will fall from the trees and lakes that will freeze. Nature is best represented by a circle. No corners or sharp angles. We as humans seem to live in a box at times. That’s a fun place to explore on a different day.

The other morning I had worked on dual subject post that was mostly lost. Exactly how that happened is still under investigation and people are being skeptical about the whole Mr. Jangles conspiracy that I presented. It’s best to sleeping dogs lay as they say. Besides this isn’t a debate page anymore then I have the ability to solve the unexplained. The truth always comes through in the end. Abraham Lincoln once said that no person has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. Smart man! Also noteworthy this quote by Mark Twain:If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. Enter my research project: the works of Mark Twain. Today is a good day to learn something new.

The first letter of MOONTABS stands for memories. Mine, yours,and everyone’s. Today my own as I try to get the stories of my journey of life told with accurate detail. It’s always bothered me what I can’t remember and how much I was forgetting as time passed. I think a lot people feel like that given conversations I have gotten into over the years. I have some good news for anyone who is getting anxious right now! We aren’t wired to remember everything. Ponder something I read once although I can’t remember when. The average person has some 70,000 random thoughts per day.Hmmm. It’s 8:12 AM and I feel like my count is already passing 40,000. Coffee’s great!At night when we sleep our brain shifts through them and imprints some to our permanent memories. The remaining multitude of information gets flushed down the proverbial drain. It’s much more complicated then that of course and I can’t remember the rest of it. Big tip! I can look up such random information again! To bad I can’t do that with every detail of my personal journey. Why is all this so important to me? That’s a slippery slope to snowboard down. ( I had my hands on my snowboard yesterday!) The importance of certain memories is a future post that I will write once I finish a family genealogy research project. I hope that you are remembering all the posts I have been promising to write for you up to this point. I have forgotten. But a promise is never broken until it is never kept.

If you follow and have read my posts then you are familiar with the house fire of 2012 that my family experienced. One of the worst days of my life. But also a new intersection in my journey that would profoundly shape the future. A day that would ultimately drive me to empty Quill writing pads and stuff the scribbled words into simply titled and stash them away. I would eventually write on Facebook and be led to blogging. This is getting complicated for me and I am the orchestrator of my life’s symphony.Time to hit the slippery slopes and head down towards the Secret.

This trip down the slope is tricky and if I take us over that big jump we will probably wipe out! Best to turn off and take that easier trail through the forest. We will get to the bottom of the slope that way.One word is as solid as a sturdy set of Burton bindings. Journals! Diary’s for some. Handwritten by most people. My ground zero of writing where pensive creativity hadn’t found me yet. My simple journals spanned decades of my life.It’s a story best told in greater detail. Not today though. Another story and yet another promise I know. Don’t worry I am writing them down on paper now. Maybe you should as well just in case I lose my list. Lists for me are still handwritten on paper even though I could go digital. As are all my rhyming story poems. That story must also wait. Consider it more tangible to me. I feel telling a story properly takes time and involves an intense retrieval process. The memories are all there. I just need to unearth all the myriad of small details. Then place them upon this page.Do you remember what Mr. Jangles said? And you thought being me was simple! Silly you!

Enter one part of the secret:Writing things down with a ballpoint pen on paper helps me remember them better. That’s always been an important component to me when writing journals and to hold an old one in my hands is priceless. Mine were mostly written in simple school three subject notebooks that were never the same size or containing the same number of pages. They would get bent and wrinkled by abuse. The quality of what lies inside something or someone can’t be judged by a cover. Some of my best rhyming stories started out on cardboard boxes. Written with a black Sharpe. When inspiration surfaces it’s got to be recorded quickly or the moment can be lost. If you’ve ever read the story behind the origins of the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge then that might sense. He was interrupted while creating it and the inspiration was suddenly lost. My inspiration comes from a far different source but I identified with something there. That being said it wasn’t the quality of the paper or the ink that was important. It was the words themselves. And in the small details that would live in them. But my tragedy was in the paper itself. There was no backup if the journals were lost. And lost they were. To fire. Don’t be sad! I longer feel that way. I went to the pity party for awhile but didn’t stay too long. I was bored there and it was so dark I couldn’t see. There’s a happy ending to this story that I believe I mentioned once. Things that shaped me show up over and over on these pages. I am going to need a digital tool to handle that redundancy someday.

What’s important right now is to begin to share the secret! The story behind the movie itself! Picture this: me sitting in my plush recliner in my office at the farm. The room was awesome! I had my personal stamp on everything. This my room and I had built it out with a rustic themed concept. It looked like the inside of an ancient barn. Hand hewed corner posts and a wooden ceiling with hemlock support rafters. An oak plank floor put down with antique nails. A decent sized window that looked out over our main meadow behind the house. My father and stepmom had used this very same room for a sitting room. My recliner was in the same place our father’s had been placed. I had an entire wall of bookshelves filled beyond capacity. A gun cabinet full of my guns and those that had belonged to my father. There was a tv as well but that was more for Zane then me. I had given him a place to stamp his personality into my small office. Just below my tv platform he had a child’s desk and chair. There was a section of wall for displaying his artwork and pictures. I wanted him to always feel welcome in my private sanctuary. In evenings he would come in and climb up into the recliner with me while I was reading. I read to him quite often and he had a section of the office for his own books. I also had an antique desk of our father’s that I used for my mail and financial paperwork. There was a large oaken chest and all my photo albums in the room as well. I could write an entire story about the 2008 farm house renovation. I put a lot of myself into that project and even managed to lose my job over it! I just added that story to the promised list.

Back to the recliner now. It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon and there’s no work till tomorrow. The cattle are all in behind the fences and they are feeding across the meadow. That’s a plus! When they get out? Yuck! It’s a private moment of quiet where I am getting ready to begin adding to my current journal. It’s not something I make the time for everyday and that’s why it’s special. Tomorrow I will jumping back into the fray of a Monday. Farming keeps me busy and so does work. There’s a bigger plan in the farming. A stash of “Mad Money”. Never entered into the family’s financial needs unless it’s an emergency. It’s my traveling money. Bush trips mostly but something much more adventurous is brewing. Alaska someday. I will need to cull the herd for that one I think to myself. The mixed breed herd is about 20 strong now and growing. They all have names that are as wacky as can be! I see Crazy Face and Gladiator. Snow Ball and Little Herf. South Dev and all the ones that I can’t remember now. The rain intensifies and I don’t feel the need to be outside. This is perfect. I could watch a movie on tv I thought. No I would rather write today. But before I start I think I will revisit an old journal in the stack. There’s a movie waiting right there for me. I already know how it ends but that’s ok. I can’t remember everything that happened and I haven’t seen it in awhile.

I open the journal and immediately smell the old dried ink left on the paper. There’s a starting date and an opening line. And the movie begins. It’s a strange thing I think. My eyes reading and my memories that flood in as the movie picks up pace. I am the main character but there’s almost always others. Although my writing sometimes dove to hidden levels of privacy where no other characters appeared. I kept my journals locked up and no one was allowed to read them. So what’s the big deal or the big secret of the movie? It’s in those small flushed details that I didn’t have a prayer of remembering. Reading the words that I had written brings them back immediately. Thus the term The Movie. I expect someone else has written about this but I have never researched it . (new addition to research project list). I read on and the forgotten details now are refreshed. Weather events. Work. Plans. Dreams. Hope. All there in the movie! Then the epiphanies. Oh wow! How could I have ever forgotten that funny moment or that awesome day? It’s a past me that I can examine with no chance of time buffering over the details. It’s all here. My real life as it was lived. I stop reading for a moment and pause the movie. Where am I now I ponder? Have I stayed on track? Then the echoes of the what “ifs”. What if I had listened to my inner voice? What if I had only known that? What if I had known this was coming and could have planned better? It’s not a place of regret. Nor longing for days gone past. I was much to down to earth to worry about that sort of thing or the rattling chains of ghosts from the past. They were harmless in my sense of now. My focus was on the future. I was strong and capable. Feet grounded on the acres of the farm and connected to nature. What was I learning while filming the movie?Was I the best possible me?What else? That was too heavy for a relaxing Sunday afternoon I would think. I could always revisit that subject on the way to work tomorrow if I got bored driving. I read on and the movie begins again. I would get lost in the moment.

Eventually I’d reach a point where I would stop reading and jump into writing in my current journal . Or maybe I would go outside and tackle some farm task. Any thoughts of writing books never occurred to me in those busy days of endless push. Dreams of retirement kept me dialed in and focused. Fast forward. The fire and post fire days. Many things were destined to happen and they did. But like any of us I pressed forward.Life got better and we were figuring things out. The Alaska trip happened. There were many days of mundane routine in that race to the future.But I was pretty good at getting time off from work when I needed it to reboot. Enter the first thoughts of the importance of leaving a written family legacy. Not just my story but my family’s story. I resumed some journal writing but in a different capacity. Bigger things were waiting for me and I had no clue. The words were building up far below my surface far beyond any small surge I had ever experienced. They were like a natural defense that would someday protect me in my push forward. Call it my spirit energy immune system. That’s heavy!😂

So that’s my secret in this my very personal continuing introduction. Why so personal? The Intersection series. That story needs to wait a bit as I piece it together.It’s connected to events and time with a two year set of details. It’s a tricky write honestly.My secret will sound familiar to some people. It may sound similar to something else you’ve read. Maybe it makes no sense at all. The happy ending? Not all my journals were lost. A few survived. And if I told you that 10 times alright then you know that’s it important to me. The rest is a little more complicated. That which I once wrote on paper is going to be easier to retrieve. Albeit it’s going to take time. Those words may be waiting on the other end of the line when I hear those custom ringtones I mentioned awhile ago. That’s pretty heavy too.I have helped build out many construction projects over the years. This is far different. MOONTABS will be by far my largest ever personal endeavor and it had to start with a foundation. My journey of survival is the foundation. Nature has taught me many things but most of all survival. Not of the fittest but as a part of a bigger whole.I hope to build something that others will enjoy as much as I enjoy building it.It’s not just mine to build or occupy. It’s going to take the cast of characters all learning skills and gaining insight.Building as we go. There’s a bigger place of understanding here that I don’t always recognize myself. So I don’t have all the answers yet. The search is very real as is the surge. The fictional forests of Tasmania symbolize my connection to nature in ways my imagination and curiosity can’t even begin to fathom. Each tree a story. The big and the small. The living and the dead. All things are connected by energy I feel. One more thing! Mr. Jangles is very real! He lives in Western Quebec! Or have you forgotten already?✍️

Bush Days:The Balance Is Struck

Posted on September 22, 2022June 5, 2023 by Greg Washburn

Today is a special for those closely connected to nature. The annual fall equinox. Equinox in Latin means equal night. That place of equal darkness and daylight. It’s always worthy of acknowledging I feel. This the first day of autumn. Nature didn’t wait for this day to start the transition though. It’s been underway for several weeks as summer days wound down. It’s easy to get too busy and miss things at times. But I had noticed. The small details of an impending autumn. As autumn arrived in 2021 I posted The Transition. My thoughts of autumn still hang there like leaves on a tree. I read it this equinox morning and found something in my own words. Nothing has changed in nature. It’s predictable here in a four season part of the world. Solid as a rocky summit. My life certainly continues to change. I draw strength from that in a complex study of time and existence. Nature will light the way once again with beautiful colors and a magical transition. The transformation I also call it. I will be returning to the Adirondacks soon to reflect as I assemble pieces to a bigger puzzle. It’s time to explore some new ground.I dedicate this post to a good friend who is fighting a battle.He likes heavy music. The band Breaking Benjamin song Down says a part of what I am trying to move past this morning. “Oh light carry me over the ground. Heavy won’t hold me down”.Got your back Bro! How ironic the equinox. Equal darkness and light today. But it’s time to get back to the bush. And run wild there in the light.

We woke up Tuesday in our home away from home bush cabin full of expectation. It was our final full day on the lake. We hit the water early fully stocked with water and snacks. The fishing was more for numbers at this point. We had cracked the 194 walleye record on Monday. Greg was talking a lot about returning in 2023 despite the minor but inconvenient problems with the cabin. The big variable would be our choice of a cabin. We had scouted the locations of some of the other cabins during the week to decide what would be our best fit. There were still numerous areas of the lake we hadn’t explored. It’s that big! We had decided on Monday that we would explore a southern finger of the lake after the morning fish. Raspberry Point was close to the unexplored section so it was a logical choice. We were wanting to find Cabin 3 to see if it was a possible 2023 destination. Typical of most mornings we were the only people out on the lake. I feel small in those moments in a wonderful manner! Big water. Big forest. Big skies. And a sudden provocative thought by me who had considered for a nanosecond tossing technology overboard: bring a drone next time. The vastness could be captured in a far different perspective than my words. Or better yet a mix of both! Or to really up the ante a triple dip. Words, drone footage, and a live presentation! Enter the challenge. Imagine bringing that to someone who had always dreamed of doing something like that but hadn’t. I know a guy! Time had run out and now he just couldn’t. A true explorer and adventurer himself but unable physically to make the trip these days. What an ultimate gift to give to a man who had inspired me greatly in so many ways. He told me once I needed to follow my heart with my writing and get it in gear. He’s here in the blog posts if you wish to ferret him out.

We were anxious to explore so we cut the morning fish short and headed south into the unknown. I was cognitive of our isolation and was being super cautious.Polarized sunglasses are a necessity when exploring bush waters. If you wear them sunken shoals and obstacles show up brown in the dark water long before you get to them. Not always though. It depends on the day. My depth finder doesn’t work well when we reach a certain speed. The cavitation messes with it. Note to self: get a better one! But the thrill of searching new territory supersedes any hesitation. Best not to let the mind wander. That’s actually a good thing.You don’t think of things like going home or all the responsibilities waiting there. The moment is all about safety and focus. We left a big open section of water behind and entered a section where my stomach churned with a mix of apprehension and excitement.Numerous small clusters of bare rocks jutting out from the points of small islands. I throttled way down and we probed our way into a section of bays with sandy beaches. We consulted the map briefly and tried to figure out how to reach Cabin 3. We decided that it must lie behind a long narrow peninsula to the left of the bow. I pushed back out into a larger section of open water and throttled back up. We rounded the peninsula and spotted a beach that begged cabin site. Yup! There it was! The person or persons who had decided to build here had chosen wisely. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to have been those people. To see the possibilities and set a plan into motion. The metric tons of work involved. The logistics of getting the materials into the bush. The logging roads we had traveled hadn’t always been there Eric later told me. Bush planes had been the norm. This entire lake had once been a fly in destination. The work they had accomplished was impressive and must have taken a lot of time.

We cautiously entered the bay that led to the cabin. I trimmed the motor up manually as I had done so often during the week and we eased towards. There were several strange looking groups of rock that seemed unnatural. As we approached them we realized that they were the remains of dock cribs.In some distant time there had been some sort of elaborate docking system here. The cabin looked deserted like no one had been there in awhile. A strange feeling came over me then. The deserted cabin and dock remains had a story behind them. We beached the boat and stepped onto a sandy beach with no human tracks on its surface. The area behind the beach was littered with old pieces of dock. Weathered and untouched for some time it appeared. There was a large deck missing it’s steps. It was entering a ghost town.The grass was long and weeds covered what had once been a yard. There was a leaning water platform similar to our cabin set up but much higher. There was no ridge to place the tanks on so the builder had built a tower. Still standing but a little tired. We entered the bush cabin because we knew it wasn’t occupied by any party of fisherman. There are never any locks on bush cabins. We follow the unwritten rules of bush etiquette. Never enter an occupied cabin without permission and respect others privacy. The cabin obviously hadn’t been occupied in awhile. There were signs of rodents everywhere. I thought about Mr. Jangles and doubted that he would like this cabin. Slim pickings and no humans to keep him company. No games of cat and mouse so it would be most boring for him. After all he was no ordinary rodent.In fact the term rodent was a bit below him. He was best represented by the word Muridae. It speaks of family and belonging to a higher order. It spoke of history and painful evolution. Nature at its finest moment. And what gives me the right to judge any life form? We as humans consider ourselves the God Species.Gods of arrogance perhaps. Best exit that unstable ground. More importantly was my twisted relationship with Mr. Jangles! I was ready for another round with him. I politely told Zane that he was out of the game. It wasn’t fair two on one! Funny the thoughts that were triggered stepping into that cabin 3.

The place had been rather nice once.Big for a bush cabin and on a remote part of the lake. With a good cleaning crew it could be brought back to life. The roof seemed intact and it was very well furnished. We pinched a nice cooking pot since our cabin lacked one. That’s bush life survival we adopted in 2016 when our outfitter didn’t provide us with everything they promised. Wrong maybe but we needed things and had no way to get them. I called it raiding and Zane loved it! I told him we were like Vikings storming a beach! We weren’t stealing since everything belonged to the same outfitter. We had found two abandoned cabins and helped ourselves to the firewood woodsheds. Our cabin woodshed had been totally empty and the nights were cold. We pinched a piece of cookware that time also. Shame on them and us! That is quite another story. Very real and a happy memory. Pure bush country MOONTABS.

We wrote cabin 3 off after that and headed back onto the lake. Eric was coming to fix the plumbing after brunch. We explored a few hidden coves before heading back. There was so much of it out there! I had hoped to explore the outlet of the lake. The map shows a set of rapids. I love waterfalls and whitewater. But there was no time for it. Greg had been clever this time around! He had brought his gps unit along and had our route mapped out. I simply followed the course it had plotted and we had full throttle cruising with no fear of sunken shoals. To think that I had considered throwing the technology overboard! Was I crazy? I do struggle with my own lemming like race into technology’s embrace sometimes. It’s recorded on these pages that live in the cloud. We are getting dangerously close to Tazmania and I would rather be cruising the lake.

The ride back was uneventful and beautiful like always. We were all thinking about leaving tomorrow I knew but we were dodging it like a squirrel crossing a busy road. The scenery drew me back into the now where I knew I was supposed to be. There was still time. And what a trip! Eric showed up shortly after we finished brunch and found the problem with the shower valve. It was plugged from debris that had collected in the gravity tanks. I liked Eric and envied his laid approach to everything even if I didn’t agreed with his idea of maintenance. But his true character was about to show itself in his disregard for convention and love of a lifestyle far from modern society. I volunteered to go help him with the leaks under the cabin. I used the opportunity to grill him with questions and soon began to build out the puzzle. The events of 2020 had really thrown the business into a tailspin. He obviously loved his girls and needed to provide for his family. 70 percent of their business had been lost over the last two years but he was counting his blessings still. Maintenance had taken the backseat by necessity. They don’t own the lake or the land. They pay an annual lease of some magnitude. He’s made it 25 years since the previous owner. I enjoyed hearing his honest testimony. Not complaining just accepting the reality. I asked him about the fish that were in the deep section of the lake. I asked if anyone ever caught lake trout here. Years ago he said but rarely now although a fellow had caught a 17 pound one a couple years back. We had been there a week and had seen very few people at all. We never saw anyone fishing for trout period.My mind began to percolate with possibilities. Things were continuing to add up.

We still hadn’t paid for trip yet and Eric hadn’t even mentioned it. We asked if they took credit cards but they weren’t set up for that. We had wondered about paying so we had brought fat stacks of Canadian money. Eric didn’t know that yet though. He said that he would tally up our bills right then and there. You can wire me the money when you return to the states he calmly stated. Talk about trust! They had never even asked for a deposit in the first place. His comment gave me pause for reflection. Such trust in these modern times! We said no worries we brought cash just in case! At the table he wrote up our bills and then turned it over to us. Sorry for all the problems with the cabin he said. I tweaked your bill. Is this amount ok? Greg and I took a quick glance then said absolutely! He had been totally fair. I then asked him the big question that I had been mulling on after discussions with my companions. How many people would we need to rent the big cabin 6? Four would seal the deal Eric said with no hesitation in his voice and no deliberation. A shock as it can accommodate over 12. I told Eric that we would discuss things and let him know.We had toured cabin 6 earlier in the week before the gun toting party crew had arrived. I immediately liked the size of it and it’s log cabin construction. Someone had taken pride in the building and it was still in pretty good shape. The ice house was adjacent to it as well. Enter another new character: Raquel. She was cleaning the cabin with one of Eric’s daughters the day we met her. On vacation herself and helping out. She was smoking on a cigarette and sipping a hard seltzer while she gave us a tour. I got a little of her story. She worked in a location that I won’t mention to respect her privacy. She fished with Eric’s girls and helped take care of them. She was French but spoke excellent English. I could hear the accent in her voice. I liked her friendly openness and hospitality letting us tour the cabin. After we left I asked Greg and Zane what they thought of cabin.They both thought it was nice. I said that I thought it was an upgrade from our cabin most certainly. We spoke of it occasionally throughout the remainder of the week.

We all enjoyed the newly functioning shower after Eric departed. Strange to think that all commuting here was by boat. I hadn’t missed driving a vehicle or had even thought about it to any degree. And just like that the day ticking forward. We decided to skip our naps and go all the way down to the outfitter’s landing. We would go right to the evening fishing locations immediately after. Our phones were all but dead. Our battery backup units were dead. We needed a generator to get things charged back up. It was a nice cruise although we hit some chop on the way while cruising the big open section where days before we had battled the storm. We recognized much of the landscape now. The familiar sight of Garbage Island rising straight up out a deep section of the lake. We had history here now. No longer greenhorns of the lake. Our walleye count was at an impressive 211! Greg was so far in the lead at this point the competition was over for Zane and I. But we all knew that it had taken a team effort to reach the count. What a week! And there was still time! The motor hummed with steady rhythm and I was awash in brilliant sunshine enjoying my surrender to the bush.

We arrived at the landing and cautiously approached the small house greeted again by the old grumpy dog. He was very protective of the girls and although I love dogs I never tried to pet him. Eric’s daughter came out to see what we wanted. We got set up for charging and learned that we could jump onto their Wi-Fi. The messages started dinging across phones as we reentered the modern world. Greg got word out to his wife on my phone as he had no service in Canada. I sent my sister a brief message letting her know that I was alive. I had a message from my foreman in Lake Placid. Enter the impending return to reality. Zane contacted his mom and just like that we were much closer to our lives back home. Raquel showed up by boat and I asked her if cabin 6 was available next August. She consulted the hand written booking journal and asked for a date. August 11th I decided after checking my phone calendar. And to think I had considered throwing my technology overboard! It’s open Raquel said. I asked Greg what he thought but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to decide so quickly. I mentioned that we should decide then or we might not get the booking. I knew both he and Zane were eager to return. They just needed a small nudge. Cabin 6 was open for the dates we wanted so I asked Raquel how much it would cost to reserve it. $100/person was needed. Raquel said we could send it after we got back to the states. I said I’ve got it right here! $300 Canadian that I don’t need back in the states. So just like that it was done! We would be returning in 2023. There was a comfort in that moment that’s difficult to put into words but I have a good idea what I was reaching for with impulsive reckless. Hope. That good health and good fortune would bring us all back to this special place with others whom we wanted to share it with. And me the pensive one felt something else. A chill below my happy surface. Too many times life had happened with no warning. Changed everything in the blink of an eye. Someday I will share portions of the story Escape Velocity. Written in May of 2018 it was as deep a place as I ever dove as a lover of words. I never finished it. It wasn’t meant to be finished I suppose. How do you finish what has just begun? But the sun was too warm for chills to linger long that afternoon.Inside or out. It was time to move past the brambles that scratch at hope.

We headed back towards the fishing spot and I took a slightly different route to mess with Greg. I knew that he’d notice eventually and I was full of mischief. Ile Quabie is massive and in my mind I had it all mapped out. This isn’t right Greg suddenly said! Really? I feigned ignorance. He caught onto my treachery when the familiar sight of Raspberry appeared with startling clarity. I privately reveled in the strength of my inner compass. It’s always been there for me.My imagination likes to think that I have some special connection to the magnetic poles. Probably it but I do know one thing thing. My compass does love to pull north.Someday I intend to head up beyond the trees all the way to Hudson Bay. I suppose my compass pulls in all four directions at once sometimes. That’s tricky.

Greg ruled the last evening of fishing although Zane and I did well. We had reached the point where we couldn’t keep any walleye so we were throwing everything back. Under sized fish were known as throwbacks. Sometime during the week Greg and Zane had started calling them “Becksteads”. In reference to a fellow colleague that Greg and I worked with years ago. (New character enter and exit). The walleye were turned on in a feeding frenzy and we were racing through our remaining bait. There came the time of the last worm. Zane got it and hooked a walleye with it. In the process of Greg netting it for him the worm dropped into the water where it began to slowly sink. I made a daring leap from my seat and made what’s know as a glove save. Wow! Greg was shaking his head and called me crazy! Didn’t go overboard though! I was down to my last leech just as it was turning dusk when I felt a huge weight on my line. I set the hook and the fight was on! The biggest one I had hooked for the trip! But it shook free without breaking my line. I was pretty bummed for awhile after that but forgot about it as we headed back watching yet another beautiful sunset. No two were ever the same. This was the final night! We settled into the evening routine a little later then usual and sat around the table while Greg tallied up the fish count. We had a combined catch of 240 walleye! A mix of keepers and Becksteads and an impressive catch on new water. We weren’t expecting any visitors but one showed up unannounced!

I was sitting in my usual spot at the end of the table when Greg nodded his head towards the stove. There he was! Mr. Jangles! But a shiver ran down my spine and I was frozen in my seat by what I was seeing! Mr. Jangles was hard at work trying to get an old smear of peanut butter from the trigger of one of the mouse traps! I hadn’t sprung them but I hadn’t baited them either. Greg thought it was funny but I watched in horror as he continued to feed. Mr. Jangles was a true master of stripping a trap. He was nonchalantly oblivious to the danger that he was in. I was worried that if I startled him it would spell disaster. He worked carefully though I soon realized. Like a safe cracker working the dial of a vault. His tiny whiskers accented his face perfectly. He had a look of elderly class. Well groomed with shiny fur unlike the other mice that had been killed early on . His eyes were small but intelligent and he made eye contact with me for a moment. Careful Mr. Jangles! Focus! It seemed like an eternity but he suddenly stepped off the trap and headed across the kitchen floor. To my great relief he ignored the other trap. Zane was headed out of the bathroom and was eager to engage Mr. Jangles but I ordered him to stand down. He obeyed my orders and Mr. Jangles disappeared into the bathroom. We never saw him again and I later regretted not trying to strike up a truce by offering him some peanut butter with crackers. Why did I surrender to Mr.Jangles? That’s tough to explain but I will take a stab at it. Perhaps I grew to respect his knack for survival. His reckless behavior. His almost playful and social demeanor. His energy of purpose when chewing through the cabin walls. A bush mouse has numerous predators. They come from all directions.Birds of prey by day and night. Weasels and mink by ground. Foxes too if they inhabit that part of the bush. A mouse’s life is short.Especially if it enters a human dwelling. Why is this so important or impressive to me? At this point in life I have developed a knack for survival. I was once reckless. I am playful and full of energy. As for predators in human society they too exist. Human not animal. Mr. Jangles shares survival with us. It’s just a different type. I see the connections to nature everywhere. They need time to show themselves on occasion. As for the mice in my farm warehouse destroying everything? Sorry! No surrender!

So we are almost at the end of this fabulous week in the Quebec bush! But it’s never over till it’s over as they say! Especially not with my companions. We had our final fish fry but not before having a campfire happy hour on the beach. We talked about 2023 and what things needed to be added to our packing lists. We had been adding to them all week. It would be time in 2023 for classic 6 “Ps” doctrine. “Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance”. I have huge plans for 2023! A generator and Keurig coffee maker. Tools and repair items. Extra phone battery backups. Who knows what else. A satellite phone would be nice. That drone set up too. Vlogging kit along for the ride. And me who had considered throwing technology overboard! We’ll be introducing some new characters we hope and checking up on some old ones. My chill had been beaten back by all that was possible. It seemed funny as we went to our bunks that we would be sleeping back home the next night. I had taken the mouse traps out of commission. We packed quickly the next morning after coffee and breakfast. Eric had dropped off a second boat for us Tuesday night because we still had to hoss a lot of freight even though we had used most of our supplies. We did the dishes,swept up, and took out our garbage. Leave no trace principles inside.We loaded our boats carefully and took a last look around. As we were leaving Zane and I were overcome by laughter that hurt. Greg couldn’t get his boat started and it was so hilarious watching him! We laughed so hard we had to move away from him! He got his motor going eventually and made it out into deeper water but stalled out. Being a team player we headed over to help him.Not! Being who we are we approached him at full speed and turned suddenly hitting his boat with a huge wake! More laughter till our sides hurt! Greg got going and decided to retaliate in kind. It was on! Bush lake chicken fights! Our heavy boat was no match for Greg’s but he was a good sport and hit us with numerous wakes. It was the perfect way to end the trip! Full of life and making the most of every moment possible. We settled into the long ride back but encountered some heavy waves in the biggest section of the lake. It was cool and cloudy when we reached the beach and said goodbyes to the family. We loaded the truck and gave the girls a tip for helping us. As I stood there I said a silent blessing to the sky. May we return to this beautiful and special lake. May this family survive all obstacles and their business survive as well. May we be blessed to return together… I don’t think that I have ever left a bush camp without being changed in some manner. I would think of this place often and picture it as we left it. The drive out was long and uneventful. We stopped on a large bridge above a place Eric called a walleye spawning sanctuary. In the spring when the ice leaves the lakes their glowing eyes number in the thousands at night. That is the draw here. The walleye and the hunt for them each day. But something larger finds us there. I have told you what it meant to me. The bonds we made together can not be broken now. It happened. We made it real and fun. I grew as a father and as a friend. I experienced something familiar in a new location. Back in the valley someone will always ask: why waste all that money and go so far? We have walleye right here. I nod my head and say yes! You are right! Then walk away to hide my knowing smile!Not everyone charges their spirit battery the same way! MOONTABS aren’t for everyone.✍️

We wrote

Up To Speed

Posted on August 15, 2022August 16, 2022 by Greg Washburn

We all know the old term “ getting up to speed”. I use it to give you the latest intel in this case. It’s been a rather strange summer in ways that I will leave silent for the moment but promise to explain in depth in a later post titled “The Exchange.” Today exchange meant money as I traded U.S. dollars for Canadian cash for our upcoming trip to Quebec on Wednesday. I stopped at a local bank rather than taking the time to do it at the duty free shop.Canadian money is interesting stuff! I love the way it looks and feels! The exchange rate was ok today but it’s been better recently. Maybe Monday morning isn’t the best time to exchange. My teller at the bank made the whole process simple and fun regardless. She shared family information and we soon realized just how small the world truly is sometimes especially here in St. Lawrence Co. Exchange took on a new meaning at that point! Try getting that from an ATM! Human interaction still means something to many of us!

It’s been a busy time recently for me but that’s nothing new for most of us really. I have continued my work in Lake Placid and have been involved in some side projects back home near Black Lake. My time at the Olympic Center project grows short and I anticipate leaving there in the next month or so. I doubt I will be a “Forgotten One” though! My friends there seem to like my Taz-mania! We have a lot of laughs! What a crew! It’s going to be tough leaving my friends and coworkers quite honestly. It’s been a “good run” as we say in construction.I think I should live in the now and say that it’s not over yet. There’s still time to make some memories!

Up at Rollins Pond and Fish Creek where the Airstream has been parked most of the summer my work camping weeks leave little time for adventure. There’s always a chance at a wonderful sunset and some campfire time though! The daylight grows less and it’s more noticeable now in the early morning. There’s a chill in the air and mist sometimes rises from the surface of the ponds. The hoodies of spring come out of the Airstream storage cabinets once again. No more the days of just wearing t-shirts. But summer temperatures prevail and it’s been rather hot some days. We are just past the halfway point of summer and there’s lots of beautiful weather still to come. But there are signs everywhere of the change to come. Dried weeds and grasses gone to seed. Soft maple trees starting to change color way ahead of the others. Velvet antlered bucks are sporting ever larger racks and are very noticeable now. There are two near Upper Saranac Lake that I see regularly recently. It’s weird seeing two of them feeding together alongside the highway. To recognize the change is to feel connected to nature in my opinion. Lately my connection to nature has been short circuited much too often by life itself. A seemingly never ending series of decisions that must be made and weighed carefully. There are things in these lives of ours that we will get but one chance to get right. Lucky for me my connection to nature is sinewy strong and resilient. I know that I will find my way back to the hard and durable surfaces of adventurous paths where my spirit energy will synch with the season. Nature rarely disappoints. Changing seasons are very relevant.Change is inevitable. So are life’s unforeseen and unpredictable circumstances. I see the comparison to them in the mountain ponds and lakes. A ripple can become a wave and a once calm surface no longer throws back a beautiful reflection. The waves are harmless if you are prepared for them but we can’t always see the storm approaching. A storm will often wash in prized pieces of driftwood and other treasures despite the damage it has wrought. Words can be compared to the grains of sand on storm beaten beaches. Piled in layers and created by forces more powerful then ourselves. A mystery of time long past and a promise of days to come.

The last day or so has been all about preparing for our next adventure. The date and booking for our fishing trip were set several weeks ago. Far different then the previous three which were booked eight months before we went.It was a spontaneous decision for me.Usually born of the need to get out and explore new turf. The trip was our friend’s idea initially. He said he really wanted to return to the bush and disconnect for a week. I pondered it for awhile as we sawed some logs one day this summer.While taking a water break we began throwing dates around and found a potential window of opportunity that worked for us. An opening would be difficult to find though we feared this late in the season. But his persistence paid off and a booking was found in a region of Quebec somewhat familiar to me. A new outfitter,a new lake, and many unknowns. But three old friends and Zane would be reunited for the first bush trip in six years.But one friend was unable to make the trip after deliberating the timeline. We will be a party of three just as we were in 2015. I have never wrote of the Canadian bush trips of years past very much. But I will in time. For they are the stuff of grand memories and short bursts of living unique experiences. I have found a greater connection to nature in those far off bush settings. A home away from home where I gained insight into a future I hoped to fulfill. It’s amazing to think that six years have passed since our last trip to Quebec. It’s still got that same old thrill! Heading into the unknown. There is a parallel to my present situation that feeling of heading into the unknown. Not all is always thrilling however. But I know in my heart that the small blessings will find me and bring greater insight into my life experience.It is the nature of manifestation. To seek out the positive is key. For in depths of negativity there lies only more of the same. There is truth in what is known as the Law of Attraction. It took me years to understand certain aspects however. My life lessons are far from over. Of that I have no doubt.

I suppose this short post answers a few questions and raises many more. So be it. It’s best to simplify and clarify the larger picture. In adventure there will be memories made and forever secured with a good friend and my adventurous son. We have embraced the possibilities. Raised the funds for our adventure through hours of hard work. Quickly planned and prepared for it. The time grows closer with every passing hour. And what will be written or captured in our many pictures? Who knows exactly?It always comes back to the same thing with me. The other side of the hill. I always want to see what waits there for me. For us. For we never know when we will get that next chance or if we can even reach the other side of the hill. I know that I will always try. For it was planted in me by some force so many years ago now. Why think that the best days of your life are behind you because of the passage of years? They may truly still be waiting for you to add to the ones you’ve already lived. And who knows just how far we will reach or what we will need to overcome to get there? But most importantly the dream of the Grand Wander seeps into my well of thoughts with its endless possibilities. It’s MOONTABS In Motion once again! A battery charging event that waits for us beyond the border crossing. Wait for the story! ✍️