The Damnation Of The Beaver

Posted on September 13, 2025November 12, 2025 by Greg Washburn

Here I go again jumping around and skipping blocks of time like a Star Wars movie. There’s so many stories backed up now that I barely know where to begin. But writing “backed up” reminded me of my most recent adventure here. I think I need to supply some better background information. This story truly began back on June 29th. In one of my past posts I mentioned a “new lake and a new adventure” while writing of my experiences on the Rivière De Jardins on Saturday June 28th.On Sunday June 29th I ventured back up into ZEC Restigo to explore a pair of lakes. Lac Charette and Lac Sairs are their names. This story will take some to tell.

On June 29th after traveling the dirt roads of the back bush country for the second time in two days, I arrived at the launch at Lac Charette. There were other vehicles there with empty boat trailers and other random vehicles as well. Something was obviously of interest to people given the number of vehicles.My guess was good fishing. Gracie and I set off across the rather calm lake and did a little fishing on the far shore. I bagged a couple small pike right off the bat. Surprising as it was almost noon and rather hot. Not ideal conditions for catching pike. I noticed that there were two big beaver huts along the shore. One was massive. Beaver were obviously plentiful here. Normal for Quebec it seems.

Our destination was the outlet of Lac Charette. Paddling down it would bring us to our main destination:Lac Sairs. Brennan Lake in English. As Gracie and I entered the outlet of the lake it was obvious that the beaver were busy trying to dam it up. But why? They had the entire deep lake at their disposal. Why a dam? Interesting creatures these beaver! A narrow,open breach allowed us to pass easily over the dam in some fast moving water. Down the windy creek towards Lac Sairs we passed through a couple of other beaver dams. Easy going and not a problem. But the beaver had been interested in taming the creek over the years. Given the amount of water flowing down the creek it was a difficult task for them. Good for us though that they couldn’t block the creek. Crossing beaver dams can be a pain!

We eventually reached Lac Sairs and the size of it was rather intimidating! There were some waves but nothing we couldn’t handle as we set off for an island to the east of us. Lac Sairs was very sandy with several beaches exposed on the wooded shorelines.Snag free fishing with a sandy bottom I surmised. Nice! A boat with a small motor suddenly came out of the creek and passed us with two older fellows in it. We waved at each other.They headed over to a spot, anchored, and began fishing. They obviously knew what they were doing I decided. I made a mental note of their location. Easy, as they were near the mouth of the Kipawa River where it enters the lake. They obviously knew something about the lake.

We found the island , we had first spotted after exiting the creek, unoccupied and explored some of it. Obviously well used as a camp site by lots of people. There were the usual things you find at a well worn site: Nails driven into sap bleeding pine trees. Axe hacked trees and stumps of those that had been felled. A crusty fire ring with burnt beer cans and cigarette butts scattered about. Tent rope tied between trees for clothes lines. There were an assortment of old metal grills hanging from nails on one big pine tree. Yes this site had seen a lot of use! A couple of old plastic buckets sat below a fish cleaning station someone had built. Pretty typical really. It was a beautiful location though! Sandy beaches on both sides with shallow water access for watercraft. I could see why it was so popular. But I knew firewood would be scarce at such a location and made a mental note of it.

Gracie and I hung out on the island for a time before trying our luck fishing near it but we had no luck. We could see a group of campers far down the lake on another sandy point. The lower part of the lake was huge and not very inviting for canoeing. I was a little nervous about the return trip across the big part of the lake in the rising wind and waves so we headed back to the creek inlet and fished there while. The older fellows passed us again and headed back up the creek. I thought it strange that they left so quickly after only fishing for an hour or so. Could they have limited out that quickly? Perhaps. It does happen. They had obviously targeted a certain spot and had never moved off it. Interesting! As for me? All I had caught on Lac Sairs was another small pike.

As Gracie and I paddled back up the creek two more boats passed us. Something was definitely happening on Lac Sairs! People were working fairly hard to get boats towed into Lac Charette to access Lac Sairs. Given the rough roads it must indicate good fishing! The bugs were a little annoying but bearable out in the sun. The bugs didn’t seem to be deterring people from coming here. All this was rather perplexing and I began to think about returning to Lac Sairs. But when and how? I could never pound my boat and trailer over those rough roads for a few walleye! And the canoe was rather small for large Lac Sairs. What to do? I decided to mull over it later once I could better concentrate on the subject in the comfort of the truck on the drive back to Camp Sparrow Song. Home base would provide better access to the internet and maps.

Gracie and I fished more on Lac Charette once we exited the creek. I had a fish on that looked like a walleye but it threw the hooks before I could get it to the canoe. Further up the lake there was some fast moving water below a beaver dam that was entering the lake. The waves were bad out on the lake so we fished below the beaver dam in the rushing water. I caught 5 more small pike and they were pretty scrappy in the fast moving inlet. Fun times! But no walleye were caught that afternoon. I left the lake a little frustrated but happy to have caught and released 7 pike. It would have to do!

Below the beaver dam. Denied easy access to what lies beyond.

So that’s a detailed description of the Lac Charette to Lac Sairs probe adventure. I later spent a lot of time considering options for a return trip and how would I do it. A small boat would be ideal. Smaller than my 14’ Alumacraft and with a smaller motor. But time passed and I came no closer to solving the logistics of getting any boat into Lac Sairs. But then I got to thinking about canoe camping there as one final adventure before I leaving Quebec in the fall. Remember my post about the failed hike into Turner Falls? The Forgotten Path post. What if? What if I paddled to Lac Sairs and set up camp near the river? Turner Falls is upstream past a lower set of rapids that can be portaged I had read. I could manage that expedition right? And possibly seek out some walleye while I was there. So the plan began before I even returned from taking my boat home recently. I returned to Quebec last Tuesday after one week home. The weather was promising and moose hunting season hadn’t begun yet. There was still time to make a Lac Sairs expedition happen!

Wednesday morning I got packed quickly and got ready for canoe camping on Lac Sairs. I packed plenty of food and warm clothing. I even found room for my portable fish finder! Talk about priorities! I pulled my ZEC permits Wednesday afternoon and off we went up the “819” bound for Lac Charette once more. Traffic was light but I met a log truck with its huge billowing clouds of dust. Wow! I pulled over till it passed. BTW. They have the right of way.

The “819” is very familiar to me now and I cruise it fairly fast. After the turn at kilometer 38 the next 10 kilometers are washboarded bad! The truck jitters all over the place. So I slow way down. The final stretch to the launch is ok but slow going. Haste makes waste the old saying goes. The truck is the only way out so I protect it from damage. Common sense is beneficial in the back bush country.

At the launch I quickly unloaded the canoe, carefully packed it, and parked the truck. Off we went across the very calm lake. We were pretty heavy but very stable. This was going to be easy! But I was wrong about that! As we neared the outlet to the lake where the creek started a pair of otters dove off shore and surfaced nearby watching us. Very cool! Things looked rather tricky at the formerly breached beaver dam that we had floated over in late June. Two large piles of sticks lay on either side of the former breach. People had been pulling out the dam over the summer to get their boats through but the beaver were winning now. This was a bit of a dilemma for Gracie and I with our heavily laden canoe.

Beaver dam!

I managed to slide the canoe over the dam with a great deal of effort and some tricky balancing. Gracie never budged so I had her 80 plus pounds to lug also. But we made it! I noticed right away the level of the creek. It was super low and much different than it had been in late June. But it was passable at least, lucky for us. That is until we hit the next beaver dam. It was an old one fortunately and mostly flat but I still had to wrestle the canoe across. Quite the workout! Almost more than I could handle alone! Those damn pesky beaver I thought!

We encountered one more old beaver dam in the creek but managed to just scoot over it. Eventually we reached Lac Sairs and were greeted by a very altered shoreline. The water was rather low. The formerly submerged sand bars and beaches had grown to larger proportions. There was the odor of wet vegetation that had been exposed to the air and sunlight. A very different lake now existed. It was obvious that the water was dropping almost daily.But the lake was still massive at any rate.

There were no big waves so we fast tracked directly to the island we had visited in late June. No one was there so we claimed the campsite and got camp set up. Step one was complete! I found a nice flat spot for the tent.There was a picnic table also that hadn’t been there in late June. I had brought a folding chair which I planned to put to good use.

It was time to explore after a quick search for firewood. Firewood was in short supply after months of people camping on the island. Toilet paper clumps weren’t scarce though. They dotted the shoreline and were all through the woods. It was obvious that a big rain storm had recently scoured the island. A grand flushing of sorts that I was thankful had happened.Human waste is disgusting to camp near. Yuck!🤢

I named the island “TP Island” after that. Not to be confused with Teepee. There’s a big difference. I set out cleaning up the campsite by starting a garbage bag. People had disrespected the island I’m sorry to say. I found a bucket with several rotten fish in it with a collection of bones. Pretty gross and I dumped the mess far away from the campsite. Yuck! 🤢

As for firewood? Lucky for me there was old dry driftwood hidden in the brush left by the higher waters of spring. How people had missed it all summer is beyond me but I managed to collect enough of it for the evening fire that I hoped to enjoy. I also found some nice pine resin wood that I cut off an old dry stump. A bonanza on the wood depleted island. I would manage I decided. I also found some hollow birch bark logs that I salvaged for tinder. All was well in the firewood department. But only for one night. Hardwood was difficult to find but I did find some to use for cooking. Provided that I caught a walleye or two!

I got my fishing poles ready and set up the fish finder. My goal was to reach the lower rapids in the Kipawa River. Not too far a paddle from the campsite I soon learned. At the time I couldn’t hear the rapids because of the direction of the wind. We left the campsite beach much lighter with the gear now on shore and paddled to the entrance of the river. It started out slow moving and was very dark. Only about 12’ deep on average. I passed a dry beaver house sitting up on the bank. They were beginning to work on it for winter and had collected some green brush to start their winter feed pile. But if the water didn’t come back up it was going to be rather tough for them. Did they know something? Was this a normal occurrence or unusual drought situation? Quebec had been getting some rainfall but nothing drastic. The beaver might need to make some housing adjustments if the water stayed low.

There was a huge landslide of trees and logs that had slide into the edge of the river. Continued erosion of the sandy banks it appeared from the high waters of spring no doubt. Ice out must be wild here I mused.

Water certainly is a powerful force and it’s evident in the piles of debris and sunken logs that lay under the surface of the river. I watched for sunken “sleepers” that could potentially tip us over. Always a possibility. Sunken logs can be rather creepy at times I find.

I rounded a weedy curve and thought it looked fishy. I tossed a Mepps Aglia and caught a small pike next to shore. Further up a huge lagoon sat below a tall sand bank. Obviously eroded by years of high water. It was eerily unstable looking almost. No place I wanted to climb around that’s for sure. The whole location was spooky for some reason. I had another small pike poke at my lure near the lagoon next to a heavy weed bed but it lost interest.I ended up just below the rapids but due to the low water they were fairly tame. I fished around in sections of them but only caught one more small pike. There were plentiful snags in the rocks and I soon tired of the location. I made a note of the portage trail below the rapids. Thursday’s planned excursion.I floated down to the curve of the lagoon. It was an impressive 30’ deep in spots. Some fish showed on the sonar near bottom but they didn’t bite. I decided to get back to the big lake and try my luck there. The lagoon made me nervous for some unknown reason. I was happier away from it.

The rapids. Turner Falls lies somewhere upstream.

Down where the river enters the lake, I encountered a most unexpected and unusual thing. In line with TP Island a sandbar practically blocks the flow of water! A narrow rift exists that is only about 8” deep and is fast moving. A person could literally walk across the lake here! I named the main section “ The Rift” and quickly realized that good fishing might lay just off a drop off where the big lake widens out more. I tossed a worm covered jig head behind me as the inches deep water changed rapidly to eventually 30’. My line got heavy and tight suddenly. I reeled up and was rewarded with a fighting fish! I soon netted a nicely colored, legal 16” walleye! Dinner was secured! Soon after I had another fish on and it was a fighter! But it was a medium sized pike that I released after a feisty battle. After that the bite died and I fought the wind and small waves in the rift current until I tired of fishing in it. The Rift showed potential and I was glad to have noticed it.

Back at camp I cleaned the walleye and started my fire. Once I had enough coals I lightly battered it and cooked it up. Yummy! Picture perfect as darkness overtook the campsite. Golden, crunchy goodness that only the taste of walleye can deliver. I sat by the fire until I ran out of firewood after feeding Gracie. She enjoyed one small piece of fish that I was too stuffed to eat. One walleye was all we had needed.

And that’s how the day ended. Warm and fed. The tent nearby with my sleeping bag ready to go. No air mattress though. That was hard. Literally. But my sleeping bag is rated for 20 degrees Fahrenheit. I would manage. Loons called and the wind flickered fire danced on the tent wall. My day was complete. I had called home on my satellite phone. All was well! The adventure was well underway and time was passing. But I was still rather irritated at the beaver because of the dams. I felt more connected to the otters I had seen in that moment. Quite a difference for me the lover of all things beaver. But otters? Yes! Fishing and eating fish! Roaming and frolicking a long the lakes and creeks. Carefree and happy not burdened by building dams and industrious tasks. Was I more like the otters in my moment? Yes!

But I still respected the beaver for what they bring to nature. One splashed near the canoe just as I was dozing off. Ok beaver I thought. Now I am irritated again. But it was of little concern. I was the invader of their world actually. What right did I have to be irritated? Perhaps they were irritated at me! 🤣

Sleep came slowly in my new surroundings but not because I am afraid to sleep in the bush. I sleep with two knives and an axe. I’ll come awake ready carve a fillet off anything that invades my personal space. That’s the mindset anyway. I was overexcited I suppose. Over stimulated by the location and the experience. But the calling loons eventually serenaded me off to sleep as they answered each other around the lake. Gracie was lying close by outside the tent. All was well and tomorrow was another day. No rain and no bugs! What more could a camper wish for than this? ✍️

What’s Been Learned?

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Greg Washburn

July 17th and lots has been happening here since my last post. I returned to Quebec with the boat on June 20th after a week back home. Zane and I had tried out the new 15hp Honda motor and it’s quite the powerhouse! It trailered up well and there were no incidents fortunately. I launched it that night and went out for walleye but only caught a couple little smallmouth bass that I threw back. But it was a beautiful evening with a spectacular sunset! Catching fish isn’t everything after all.

The next day would become very memorable! Gracie and I set out on rather calm water to try for lake trout in a couple locations. After quite a bit of trolling I finally caught a small throwback 17” long. They must be 26” long to keep here now and your limit is one. 25 years ago you could keep two if they were 20” if I remember correctly. We had good luck catching them back then.

I was pretty happy to have caught a lake trout despite the fact that I wasn’t sure which lure to use. It’s no longer legal in Quebec to use the frozen real minnows we used for bait years ago. That gave us an edge I guess. They worked well! I heard a William’s W60 blue and silver spoon was a good choice for lakers here so I planned to buy one or two locally if possible.

Gracie and I headed in for lunch and a break before considering our move for the evening walleye fishing. It was looking like rain and a possible storm. I got to talking to some fellows in a rented cabin down by the outpost docks. They had two big boats for four guys. They were planning on trailing their boats to a section of the lake where they had fished in the past the next day. So they were sitting around having beers and talking. Nice people!

It started sprinkling but I decided to put my rain suit on and head out anyway. The lake was rolling pretty good and there were some big waves to travel as we headed to the “Beauvin Narrows”. I had a spot in mind there to try. A point that jutted out into the narrows. I had seen a boat there on Friday night.

There were no other boats around as I attempted to anchor the boat in 20’ of water on the point. I couldn’t get my anchors to grab. I was forced to hunker down behind an island nearby where I could hide from the waves. I had one bite but that was it. The wind and waves subsided some so I made a second attempt at anchoring on the point. I was successful that time! The rain had stopped at this point and I was happy about that!

Almost immediately after dropping my bait float and leech combo, I had a bite that I missed. But soon after I caught a beautiful 17” walleye! A fighter but I managed to net it. Shortly after that while tossing a jig with a worm I caught a second 17” walleye! This was great and I felt pretty fortunate! The bite suddenly stopped though as the wind picked up again.

A gust suddenly lifted my new hat off my head and I tried to hook it with a jig. No luck! I was forced to lift anchor and give chase after my fast moving hat! I retrieved my hat and suddenly noticed the black sky and fast moving clouds. Soon after I felt stinging rain drops and decided that I needed to get back to the dock! But I was suddenly hit with wind and a heavy downpour. I could barely see to steer the boat and the wind whipped up huge waves. Thunder and lightning added to the moment although it was off in the distance.

And so began a wild ride back from the narrows! I was soon soaked despite my quality Frog Toggs rain suit. But this was no ordinary rain storm! This was much more! I eventually reached the dock and one of the cabin renters came down to help me carry my gear to my campsite. Very nice of the fellow named Todd to do that! I was happy though as I had two nice walleye to show for my effort! I cleaned them in the rain and froze one.The other I kept out for a Sunday fish fry.

Sunday’s fishing was uneventful and I had no luck. But I enjoyed a wonderful fish fry! Yum! My neighbor Rick invited me to go in his boat up to a place in the lake called Lindros. Retired hockey player Eric Lindros has a fishing camp there. We would also fish a location called Sunnyside. It once was farmland they tell me. Flooded when the dam was built and the water rose to bury the buildings. Pretty wild stuff to consider!

Monday’s trip to Sunnyside was rather uneventful. We couldn’t find the fish on Rick’s high profile fish finders. He has all his favorite locations marked and numbered. It’s rather impressive! Rick managed to catch two small throwback walleye while I caught nothing. Any walleye under 14.5” and over 20.75” must be thrown back . It’s known as the “slot” size. Important to obey as the fines are steep for violating the rules. Anyway we tried and I now was familiar with Sunnyside and Lindros. I decided not to fish Monday night and take a break.

The next day I headed out early and tried out a new spot for walleye. I only got one that was right at 14.5” and I threw it back hoping for a larger one. A move that I would later regret but I was overconfident at that moment. I did not catch anymore after that. That afternoon I trolled for lake trout on an upper section of the lake. I was totally unsuccessful but enjoyed the nice sunny weather! Fishing was proving difficult on the big lake I was learning. Other people were struggling as well to catch walleye and a fellow named Randy said they had lockjaw! He’s a veteran fisherman here and when he’s not catching most likely others aren’t either. It was time for a new strategy!

A sunken snowmobile at an abandoned Squabe camp. ( local name for squatter)

I pulled the boat from the lake Tuesday night and removed the motor and trolling gear. My new friend Bob, his BIL Rick, and I were going to use my boat at a nearby remote lake to try for speckled trout. It was once a hotspot for them. We would use Rick’s electric trolling motor to move around the lake. The day was sunny and calm fortunately. The setup worked well but the trout were sparse. Bob and I both got 13” speckled trout. Bob gave me his. It was a fun outing listening to Rick and Bob share stories about the old days fishing there making large catches. The Canadian government no longer stocks speckled trout in the lake unfortunately. But I learned a new place and a new fishing technique. And the trout was yummy! I ate the smaller of the two.

The next day Bob, BIL Rick, neighbor Rick, and I took two boats to fish nearby Temiscaming Lake. We were headed to a spot called the “volcano”. The tree pollen was everywhere on the surface just like in Lac Kipawa. Some said it was affecting the fishing. Rick and I were in his big boat while Bob and the other Rick were in his. I catch nothing yet again and Rick managed to bag two throwback walleye in our boat. Bob got a feeder and Rick got a really nice 23.5” walleye. Another tough day of fishing for me. But another lake learned.

Pollen in the water of Temiscaming Lake.

Later that evening I drove back to the ZEC Restigo to scout out a new lake for possible fishing. The mosquitoes were horrible! But I reached the lake only to find a camp there. And a questionable bridge to cross as well. I decided to pass on the lake. I saw a cow moose on the way out though! Very cool!

Saturday morning I pulled my ZEC Restigo permit to paddle and fish down the De Jardins River. There was an interesting lake on the map that it flowed through. I packed a lunch and headed out despite the cloudy conditions. The river was running rather strongly and I was going with the current. The bush came right down and actually hung into the water. Tag alders mostly being a water tolerant species. I soon reached a wide swampy area where the Bleu River dumped in. I explored a little of it before moving downstream. There were moose stands on the edges of the bush, a salt lick, and even a camp up on an esker. Signs of people who hunted in the fall here. The river wound through an even larger wetland that became huge. There was no place to get out for a break unless a person wanted to stand on old rotten beaver huts. This was a wild place! Almost spooky in some strange way. I reached the lake I sought but it was nothing but a shallow, weedy place so I turned back. The wind and current made paddling difficult for me. I was disappointed and almost angry with myself for choosing this location. But after a moment I pulled myself together to be grateful for a location for what is actually contains. A thriving wetland that moose must love. Thickly forested bush on the distant ridges. No other people in sight. Just me and Gracie far from camp in a most remote setting. There were ducks and distant singing birds when the wind died down at times. By the time I had reached the point where the Bleu River merged with the De Jardins, I was ready to continue my adventure. I tackled the current up the Bleu, past the camp, and headed towards the sound of a distant set of rapids or waterfall. The river narrowed and the beaver were trying to dam it up. Unsuccessfully at the moment though.

Eventually I reached the rapids and could paddle no further. There was no way to portage around either as the bush was super thick. I wedged the canoe into the brush and started fishing. Maybe trout lived here! I soon had a strike but it was a small slinky pike. I kept tossing my lure and managed to catch more small pike. There was a calm eddy right on the edge of the rapids and it looked fishy. I managed to get my lure into it and was rewarded with a strike immediately! The fish turned out to be a 15” walleye! A keeper!

I stayed in the rapids for two hours or so. I caught 6 small pike and the walleye. I was eaten alive by biting black flies and a few deer flies. Mosquitoes also. But I was totally content. I had been in the canoe for hour as there was no good place to land. It was that thick there! I was a little wet from rain as well but didn’t care to put all the rain suit on. I leave the rapids and paddled back to the landing where the truck was parked. I was very tired and super sore. In the rapids by the launch I caught one more tiny pike that I mortally hooked in the gills. I quit fishing then. It was a memorable day and I sadly acknowledged that I probably would never paddle there again.It was just too rugged and there were many new places left to explore.

I ate my 15” walleye that night. I had worked hard to get it! I made a plan for the following day. A new lake and a new adventure. My sprit energy was refreshed and my spirit batteries were recharged. What had I learned? Many things actually. I had learned that this rugged area challenges a person. It is beautiful but harsh at times. Fish just don’t jump into the boat. You must work for them. And I ask myself if I am still tough enough for this sort of thing? I enter the bush full of energy and leave exhausted. Sometimes feeling down by my poor success at catching fish. But perhaps I put too much emphasis on my success in fishing. Am I missing something by doing that? What I am learning is to take the time to be grateful for this experience. This grand experiment that I have undertaken. The people and the places that make it grand. I have learned to catch my breath and smell the scent of sun soaked forest and tan colored water rushing over the rocks. Fish has never tasted so good either. I am strong and capable of making this happen. Someday I may not be so fortunate. Wanting more is not always the best approach. Just being here should be enough. But I do love the thrill of a striking fish tightening my line as it rushes away and the battle begins. That is addictive and thrilling. It is a complex spin I suppose. I have learned to enjoy the complexities of this spins and to let them give me cause to reflect.

So what have I learned? All this and more. I can handle solitude and being far back in the bush where I must depend on myself to get out. I have learned that Gracie the dog is a first rate companion to me and someone to talk to and listen to my profane outbursts at times. She doesn’t even pay much attention really. Selective hearing dog style. I can snap like a brittle twig sometimes. The bugs,the wind, a tangled fishing line, or snagged lure can push me to the limit. But in the end the scenery will quiet me and remind me of why I am here. Perhaps I am learning to slow down a little? Doubting that as I plan my next adventure chugging maple syrup infused coffee each morning. Time will slow my body down.Of this I am most certain but I will resist giving into it. Here I am free to run wild in wild country. It is enough!

Life At Camp Sparrow Song

Posted on July 1, 2025July 17, 2025 by Greg Washburn

Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦 July 1st sure arrived fast! I have spent this entire day playing catch up here at the outpost. I’m calling my base camp at the outpost Camp Sparrow Song. It’s connected to the random arrival of white throated sparrows at the Homestead back in the spring and the one who remained behind singing each morning for a it longer before heading north. I decided to join my bird friends here ultimately. One white throated sparrow greets the daylight here most mornings and the message wasn’t lost on me. Hence the name. I hear them every day here and they always boost my spirit energy.

Things get busy when I am chasing adventures and the campsite can get rather untidy. Not with garbage or anything like that but rather disorganized in a gear sense. Some things had never gotten unpacked since I arrived even. Wow! I sure did bring a lot of gear! But my adventures are rather multi faceted I suppose. And being prepared makes for the best possible experience! Things are flowing rather well as a result I’d have to say. And the details are numerous to say the least. Where to begin?

Getting the Airstream here was just step one of a bigger plan. I still needed my boat and motor here. I rented a boat from the outpost owners on my first two full days here so that I could begin to learn the lake. That was quite the experience unto itself! Kipawa Lake is huge! And while I didn’t get lost out on it, I did have trouble finding the narrows that I wanted to explore for a bit. It was a little intimidating out on the big water in a small boat that I later named “The Cork”. When the wind blows here the waves get big in a hurry! I tried a little fishing for lake trout after rigging up my portable down riggers and auction bargain fish finder. No luck catching trout but I got back into running my old lake trout fishing gear that has sat idle for 20 years give or take. I spotted fish on my sonar at a depth of 70’ mostly but they didn’t bite. I had to take a break from the waves in the afternoon but got out for the evening walleye fish. That proved unproductive as well unfortunately. But I had found the narrows and learned the lake some. It was enough.

Sunday would find me out again exploring further up the lake with my rented boat fishing for trout again. Boats were constantly running up the lake to the north past me. Apparently the walleye were biting in a place other campers called Sunnyside. Everyone said that the walleye wouldn’t bite down by the outpost until July and August. Strange to me really. Weren’t there walleye everywhere in the lake? But the boats ran north with a predictability that soon was commonplace. I got no trout that day either and I was the only boat fishing below the narrows for walleye that evening. This was proving interesting! The once elusive narrows was now mapped out in my memory and I had explored quite a big section of lake before heading down closer to the outpost. This place was huge was the revelation!

Monday was a rain day and I used it to my advantage to research the ZEC territories. The ZEC’s are controlled harvest, public access areas where permits are required to camp, fish, or hunt. I was curious about one in particular. ZEC Restigo. The closest to my location. I picked up a map from the nearby ZEC office in town and began my research. The ZEC Restigo isn’t entirely unknown to me actually as we have passed through it the past three summers to reach our bush fishing outfitter each August.

Tuesday would bring more rain and I would venture up the wide logging road known as the 819.It starts out paved for a few kilometers then becomes dirt for the duration. It’s a wild ride! Sometimes smooth and other times rippled from traffic. It takes focus not to spin out sometimes as you careen downhill at about 80 kilometers per hour. 48 miles for you non metric folks. I do the math automatically these days in my head as I am too lazy to switch my truck’s dashboard over to metric. It’s easy really! Multiply .6 to the metric speed limit and you have your answer.So 80 kilometers per hour equals 48 miles per hour. Easy right? No one follows the speed limit on the 819 anyway. Crazy drivers will pass you like you are standing still,flinging rocks and dust. Full glass coverage on your vehicle is optional but highly recommended. I love speeding down the 819 to a degree. It’s rather infectious in a dangerous way. And really gives you a true bush driving experience if you are into that sort of thing. Which I am, btw.

The 819.

So I spent the day exploring all sorts of back roads off the 819. Some were decent while others needed occasional grooming. I carry a bow saw and trimmers for just that sort of thing. I learned that 3 years ago. Trees and bushes are often lying across the these little traveled roads. Experience is a great teacher!

The week would continue to be rainy and not great paddling weather. I had brought my canoe and was wanting to use it back country. A nice lady at the ZEC office had mentioned free map downloads of the ZEC territories using the Avenza app. Totally free so I downloaded everything. I also got turned onto the GAIA app. GPS mapping that works even when you don’t have cellular service. Avenza works in a similar fashion. I suddenly became armed with a modern, double edged sword of modern technology in a remote part of Quebec. Always under the satellites that marked my location, I felt secure yet left with a pensive feeling. Not to mention that I was carrying. No, not a gun but something equally powerful. My Iridium 3 satellite phone that’s in my survival gear pack. It could be a game changer in an emergency. I came here to have an adventure not be a statistic. And while I know that I could die out here in a remote place, that wasn’t part of my plan. So the questions begin then. When I wear my blanket of technology am I a true adventurer? I suppose if I am not totally dependent on it. Let me tell you something! If you got lost in this bush, you would be really hard pressed to be having a great time! I love the bush. And I respect its power. It could break the strongest person with ease. And that’s the draw for someone like me. The power of nature outside my norm. Humbled and submissive to the environment. My technology is only as good as my battery supply after all. Chew on that for a moment. I stand humbled before the bush. It could break me like nothing.

The Rivière De Jardins. A future venture.

Armed with my apps, I set off one morning with my canoe intending on paddling somewhere. The places I reached just didn’t feel right for some reason. There were camper villages set up next to the boat launches. Absent of people yet not exactly what I had expected. I kept moving and eventually settled on a quiet river landing near a bridge. We had been there in 2022 when we were hopelessly lost trying to find the way through to reach our outfitter for a fishing trip.What a day and what a story! I told that story in an older blog post.

My river destination was known as the river Pin Blanc. It connects two lakes as it meanders through bush country.On the map it looks tiny. It’s actually much larger. But that’s what I am learning here. Everything is huge! Lakes. Rivers. The bush. Gracie and I set out to explore the Pin Blanc and did some fishing a long the way. I got bites immediately that I soon learned were tiny, voracious northern pike! Slinks or hammer handles we call them back home. I ended up catching five of them eventually. Fun as they are scrappy rascals! And it grew late and the skies were gray and ominous. The bush seemed oppressive then and the water was almost scary suddenly. And I felt small and insignificant in the midst of it all. It was humbling yet empowering in the moment. Thrilling in the intensity of my fragile nature. Nighttime was approaching and I would be miserable if trapped here. The truck was a welcome sight but ironically I was still many kilometers from civilization.

It was Thursday night and I needed to return to New York on Friday to grab my boat and take care of business back home. Step one had happened. The Airstream parked and my base camp was established. The realities of the size of this country were just beginning to sink in. Had I made a good decision to come here? It was far too early to say. And there was work to do here still. A big lake to learn. Rules and regulations as well. Was the romantic dream still the same? It’s the kind of thing that can’t be answered overnight. It will take time and living the life to know for sure. Deeds not words some say. My days are measured differently here far from my comfortable surroundings in the St. Lawrence Valley. This country will measure my true resolve of that I have no doubt. Will I hit the “slot” or become a throwback? Time will tell. It is on. ✍️

Operation Overland

Posted on June 16, 2025June 16, 2025 by Greg Washburn

It’s been a rather hectic time since my last post! I have been recovering from my knee scope procedure that I had done on May 15th. My knee has signs of major wear and tear. My doctor repaired some damage and cleaned up things as best he could. The bottom line is that my knee has a finite amount of time left in its present condition. I will life with that and move forward. Recovery has been quite fast though and I only had about one week of major downtime. I continue to begin to resume normal activities but my decisions on how to spend summer 2025 are anything but normal. It’s a rather complex story that continues to unfold with each passing week.

My friend and I were wanting to return to Quebec this summer for our annual fishing trip but had been unable to connect with our outfitter. I began searching for other alternatives when I stumbled upon an outpost close to the same area that rented Rv sites. But before that happened , I was looking out at the Airstream one morning with the truck parked close by, when I realized that I have not been using them to their full potential. In fact the Airstream never even left the Homestead property last year. We did use it there in a certain capacity for a time but not for traveling. So an idea began to percolate. What if? And one thing quickly led to another after that.

Research of the outpost prompted me to call the owners there. It’s called Kipawa Outpost. Located on the shores of Kipawa Lake near Temiscaming, it is about 70 miles from our summer fishing destination on Lake Dumoine. I considered the possibility of establishing a comfortable base camp setting using the Airstream and then branching out for other activities. It offered a possible win,win opportunity. Kipawa Lake is a place I know to a degree. Over 20 years we fished out of an outfitter in the nearby town of Laniel on the very same lake. The lake is mammoth in size and that’s part of its charm. I have fond memories of fishing there on three different occasions. So what if? What if I could combine a blended experience of exploring the surrounding bush country for a custom adventure? I was hooked on the idea quickly!

A phone call to the outpost owners sealed the deal. They had a site that they would rent me for the entire season at a discounted rate. The rental would run from May through September. It seemed like a solid idea. Take the flexibility of a long rental season and build a series of adventures around the dates. I booked the site! At the site I would enjoy full hookups and a place to rent to dock my small boat right on their lake frontage. There was a bath house and laundry available. In the town of nearby Temiscaming, I could buy groceries,bait, and gas. The base camp plan made total sense. The big question was when would I arrive?

Post surgery recovery was the big variable but one that was quickly resolved after my follow-up visit to my doctor. I hoped to leave for Quebec no later than June 13th. But could I get everything ready in time? I created an extensive list of tasks that I needed to complete. Itemized into separate categories they helped me make an organized list of things that I needed to accomplish. The Airstream generated a decent sized list by itself. Insurance upgrades, spare tire concerns, inspection, and registration to name a few. And there was a similar list for the boat. I decided that my 22 year old 9.9hp Johnson outboard was not going to be big enough to tackle Kipawa Lake. I ordered a 15 hp Honda 4 stroke outboard motor. The Johnson would be held in trust for the time being. I felt no need to sell it for what I could expect to receive for it. So the boat, trailer, and motor were made ready to travel to Quebec. My friend offered to tow it up if his schedule permitted. I had numerous other details to wipe out that I will not bore you with here. Things like fishing gear, food, clothing, and many others. Gracie the dog would accompany me as well. That meant updated rabies vaccination and dog license. One by one I began to cross off the items on my list. A costly venture unto itself as I soon found out.

It soon became apparent that my friend couldn’t tow my boat up to Quebec until sometime late in June. So I revamped my departure date to June 6th. It really tightened my schedule up though and I had a lot to get done! June 6th became an important date for me as it coincided with the date of the 1944 D-Day invasion of World War 2. With the present state of political instability in the world and in our own country at the moment, I found a certain irony in my decision to launch a friendly invasion of Canada on June 6th. I named my adventure “Operation Overland” in honor of the 1944 D-Day invasion that was called “Operation Overlord”. Not to mention that I could quickly rename my adventure “Operation Overload” if things went horribly wrong. So the planning continued to ratchet up as I readied for my departure. Knowing that I would be returning for the boat helped a lot. If I needed something more for the trip I could grab it later.

Thursday June 5th. A packed truck and Airstream were ready to rollout Friday morning. I felt flustered but quite well prepared. How would the border crossing go? Had I forgotten important things? Was this adventure still a good idea? All these things kept me awake that night. But I knew certain things were fine. Zane was settled in and doing well at lineman school. The camp would be watched by my sister. The Homestead was secure and should be fine. People keep an eye on it for me anyway. Oh wait! Where was my boating license? I had taken the required course to satisfy NY state law while recovering from my knee surgery. The province of Quebec would honor my credentials I had learned. I remembered then that I had already stashed it in the truck so I found something else to worry about!

Friday morning started early for me and I was anxious to get moving. I have been living at Camp Edith since Memorial Day weekend so I made the quick drive to the farm to hitch onto the Airstream. I got Gracie settled in the back seat of the truck and did a quick light check on the trailer once I was connected. All was well! We were ready to roll! Taking off on this adventure with just Gracie for company was something that I had been a little apprehensive about but my choice of destinations had made all the difference! In the familiar turf of the Temiscaming region on Lake Kipawa, I felt certain that I would manage just fine. And establishing a base camp would be an easier approach to finally beginning to think about hitting the road with the Airstream. A small step with big possibilities. A chain of events had been set in motion and there was no turning back now!

We reached the border and crossed the bridge after paying the higher toll required for having extra aisles. $8.50 Canadian that costs. We rolled up on Canadian customs and only had a short wait to approach the booth. Things went very smoothly and we had a very amicable customs officer. He asked me the usual questions and inquired about Gracie’s credentials. I had deliberately not brought any milk, eggs, or cheese like I usually would do. The regulations were a little confusing actually. I exchanged some banter with the customs officer and he handed me back my passport before wishing me a good trip. I recently read that American tourism to Canada is down this year and vice versa. The provinces are working to present a more welcoming tone for people desiring to travel into Canada. Having a smooth and seamless entry into the country certainly helps with that! So just like that we were in Canada!

Traffic was light at first headed north on highway 416 towards Ottawa but became brisk as we got closer. All was well and the trailer was towing like a dream! Airstream’s have a reputation of being great rigs to tow. With the camera system mounted to the rear of the trailer I can easily keep track of what’s behind me. As we got near Ottawa the highway split and we headed west onto highway 417. It was jacked busy with 4 lanes of fast moving traffic. I picked the safety of the second lane and maintained a steady speed while traffic zipped in and around me. After a while the highway drops to 3 lanes then to 2 and eventually becomes a single lane highway where you meet oncoming traffic. The transition is gradual and little by little the volume of traffic disappears as the city scape and buildings that make up suburbia fall behind to the east. The highway winds through mostly farm country with streams and rivers showing up periodically. Traffic was light and there are sections where an additional lane allows traffic to pass you and surge ahead. I maintain the speed limit mostly although 90 kph seems rather slow. Translated it’s 54mph. So I towed at about 100kph. 60 mph is a good towing speed. Nothing over 65 mph is recommended. Having power brakes on the trailer with a decent quality weight distributing hitch system helps immensely. I use a “Blue Ox” hitch system. Mid grade quality and price range. It performs well. Things were going well. It was warm and mostly clear as we moved west mile after mile. We had left the Homestead around 8:15 am.Our eta was calculated for around 2:00 pm. A trip of some 327 miles total.

Rear camera test at the Homestead Friday morning.

We eventually reached the small town of Mattawa and had to get gas. In Mattawa we pick up highway 533 and headed north again. It’s a shortcut route to Quebec albeit a windy, bumpy one. Our progress slowly dramatically once we reached the mid section of the shortcut as it gets narrower and has many curves. Eventually the highway opens up and gets wider before connecting with the road towards Quebec albeit. I stopped and let Gracie have a roadside break before we ventured onto the final leg of our journey. The route we were driving is very familiar to me as I have driven it several times over the years. I was feeling a sense of relief as we neared the Ontario/Quebec border. Things had gone well! No traffic jams or accidents. No blown tires or mechanical problems. All was going well. I finally got tired of listening to music after the hours of traveling so I turned it off. We began to catch glimpses of sections of the Ottawa River as we neared the border of Quebec. As we dropped down towards the river crossing ,the large paper mill complex that employs quite a few workers there became visible. Its large presence sits near the river and crossing the bridge over the river brings you close to it. We picked our way through a small section of town and headed uphill towards Kipawa Lake. We were close now! It was all a little surreal in a certain way. Back in Quebec again!

We soon reached the lake and followed the gps to the outpost. This area was new to me and more settled than I remembered. Numerous houses and cottages dot the lakeside. The outpost soon appeared and my camp site was the closest to the road. I recognized it from photos that the owners had sent. We had arrived with no incident. Getting the trailer backed in was easy but getting it level took some effort. I was finally ok with it and detached the truck. Then the process of electric and water hookups. I didn’t bother with the sewer line at that moment. I put down the outside camping rug and set up my outdoor cooking table. It’s a repurposed gem from the Lake Clear garbage transfer station. I found a place for Gracie’s runner and got her settled. My site is semi shaded and the black flies began to attack us.

I located the owner and paid her for my site in cash. A funny story of many small bills that were all the bank had that day. $20’s and $5’s making up a total of $1200. That made for some counting! After setting up camp we headed to town for groceries, bait, and my fishing license. Back at the camp site I made a simple dinner and got settled for the night after meeting with the owners briefly. I made plans to rent a boat for Saturday and Sunday. Things had come together. I wandered down to the dock and ended up talking with a fellow who had been there all week fishing with friends while staying in one of the two cabins the outpost rents. They had had some luck fishing but the walleye were hitting far up the lake at the northern branch. The vastness of the lake became very apparent as I gazed out over it. This was some big water I thought to myself. I settled into the Airstream well before dark and considered the day. As was well! Operation Overland was a successful venture! I had many unanswered questions that perhaps could be answered on Saturday. It had truly begun! The adventure was real now! The planning had paid off and I settled! It was enough to consider as I drifted off to sleep in my cozy home away from home. I had everything I needed and more. The adventure was just beginning! Time to charge my batteries! ✍️

May Morel Moments

Posted on May 19, 2025May 19, 2025 by Greg Washburn

It’s been a rather detail oriented month so far as spring continues to ramp up. I have been occupied with a list of items that I needed to complete before my knee scope procedure that was done last Thursday. Creating lists is easy but completing the tasks on them takes some doing quite often. I have assembled an impressive series of lists which encompass a larger vision of a 2025 summer adventure but that story will wait for the moment as the recent foraging for morel mushrooms has been my focus. It’s been quite the season!

I started looking rather early this year as I knew my window of opportunity was somewhat shorter than normal. Surgery on the 15th would basically keep me out of the woods for an undetermined period of time. Early searching for morels came up empty and I felt that it had been a little chilly overall. We had two nights of frost just ahead of May 1st and that isn’t actually the best for morels to sprout. Fortunately we have had an abundance of rain which always works out for better foraging. I knew that it was only a matter of time before the first morels would be found if I spent the time searching for them. Success would arrive small scale on May 2nd when a rather intense search yielded up a dozen small ones. They were in a location where we have been finding them for a couple years now. They were actually showing signs of age so we decided to pick some of them. I think the frosty nights had kept them a bit subdued. But we were happy to know that they were turning on! Fried up in butter and served with venison steak, they were fabulous! Not to mention that we had some fresh cowslips to eat as well, that we also foraged for that afternoon.

We hunted again on Sunday and found a few more on that outing. Some we had left on Friday had continued to age without growing further so we added them to the count. I returned to the hunt on May 5th in the evening in a random location near the Homestead that we hadn’t visited over the weekend. I decided to check out a small elm tree surrounded by brush that had died in the last year. I struck a bonanza rather suddenly and unexpectedly! I scored a nice haul of over 60 morels scattered across a small area. They were decent sized and I left a bunch behind for seed. Or spores for morels. I checked some other locations after but that was to be my big find of the evening.

My enthusiasm for finding the abundant crop of morels was suddenly curbed when I spotted a white ash tree take appeared to be stricken with the EAB. Emerald Ash Borers. They have been active nearby for the past several years but I had never seen any indication of them on the farm property. I have yet to confirm my observations but will investigate shortly when I recuperate from my knee procedure. White ash are not a dominant species around the farm Homestead property but dot the forest here and there. One small section of pasture does contain quite a few smaller ones though. If the trees are indeed infested then they will die and add to our collection of dead trees that are a standing reserve of firewood. A reserve that is much too large to completely harvest or use in a reasonable length of time. If only dead trees could be saved longer. But I do consider myself fortunate that the red elm trees last for quite a few years before rotting away. We have targeted them quite frequently these past two winters for stove wood for the cabin. Also for Camp Edith firewood last fall. Having the white ash for firewood really wasn’t necessary. We will know more shortly.

The big find of morels on May 5th would supply me with more morels than I could possibly eat by myself. With my foraging partner Zane away at school this was a given. So I borrowed my sister’s dehydrator and dried a bunch out to save for Zane. They turned out great and I stored them in a small glass jar. I returned to morel hunting again the next day and got enough for my dinner that evening. I was needing to hunt hard for them and they weren’t showing up in places where I thought they should be growing. But it’s important to remember that it was still very early in the morel season. They often grow well into the month of May. My grand total numbers were growing nonetheless and I was happy to be finding them. I knew that Zane was missing our annual hunting forays as much as I missed him being there with me. But such are the responsibilities of life for a young man working towards a career. I decided that I would continue to search for morels to dehydrate even though I needed to continue to complete my projects. The draw to go to the forest was strong!

It’s important to note that the ticks are a continuous concern while foraging! We employ different sprays and techniques but they still manage to get on us occasionally. If found early, they can usually be detached. I have removed several this season before they deeply imbedded. Gracie has eaten her Braveto flea and tick tablet also. Too bad there wasn’t a human version! A new idea this year that I tried was white Tyvek coveralls. My first pair was cheap and was soon ripped to shreds but they did work well for spotting crawling ticks. My second pair lasted longer but still were unable to survive the thick brush of the forest. But it was money well spent each time a crawling tick was spotted and tossed before it reached my skin. Diligence is key to avoiding ticks. And necessary these days.

On May 8th I decided to go hunt morels on a friend’s property after he said I could hunt them there. We had hunted there in 2024 with a certain degree of success so I wished to return. After several hours of searching I had found 23 nice ones that I cleaned and prepared for him to try. This involves gentle washing and halving. A true morel is hollow from the stem up. Insects love to get inside sometimes so a thorough inspection is always needed. I soak the halved morels in a slightly salted water bath. Any insects will generally show themselves if the rinsing missed them. Morels can be rather fragile so a gentle touch is always recommended. After returning from my friend’s property and eating a hearty lunch, I decided to hunt for more morels. I just couldn’t get interested in doing much else actually. It was a cool,cloudy day anyway and the black flies weren’t bad. Not to mention my white Tyvek suit is easier to tolerate on a colder day. I searched for hours through familiar turf and my morel count continued to grow. My number for the day was respectable and I was really enjoying myself but beginning to tire. But stopping was difficult so I decided to continue into a final location before calling it a day. And my persistence would pay off with a mega find of 58 in one location! Big ones too! It was the perfect way to end my day of searching and my daily total was impressive. But I had spent my entire day just hunting morels. But I knew that my lists of tasks would remain long after the morel season had ended. And that is what is truly important to embrace!

So as my day of intense searching ended, the work began. More morels to clean and dehydrate. I ate some for dinner and saved some for the following day. I contacted Zane and let him know that I was putting more way for us. He had hunted some for morels near Kingston but had not found any. We left for an Adirondack camping trip that Friday so morel hunting was put on hold. Zane come home briefly for Mother’s Day and managed to hunt the farm property for morels for a short time. I was happy to hear that he found some! His passion for one of his rural heritage traditions runs strong still. I am looking forward to hunting morels again with him someday. Following the camping trip, I took some time last week to hunt morels one evening after a busy day of roofing work at Camp Edith. I found a few here and there but at my last location as darkness approached, I hit a respectable patch. The tree frogs were singing all around me and I knew that this was most likely the end of morel hunting season for me with the impending surgery that Thursday. My count that evening totaled 42. Enough for dinner and some to dehydrate. And more time had been invested to my hobby with carefree regard mostly. This annual event of spring builds MOONTABS of a special nature. Each season holds promises of further connections to nature. Foraging brings one closer to the earth in the time spent afield. I have had a wonderful morel season this year! We will enjoy the dehydrated ones in a different season and the memories will remain. That’s what MOONTABS are all about. Connections to nature. It is enough!✍️

Wading Into The Sugarbush

Posted on March 7, 2025March 7, 2025 by Greg Washburn

Yes it’s that time again! Sugaring season has begun! I have been preparing for a while now actually. It started with getting the sugar house plowed out after the blizzard a few weeks back. I haven’t seen snow this deep in years! It took some time and serious tractor work but I got plowed out. Trying to break out the old road that is our main sap haul road was a different matter. I got part of it passable but it was rather futile. I decided to wait and let nature melt some of the snow which happened last week fortunately. We kicked off our sugaring season by building some strings of sap tubing down on the steep ridge near Beaver Creek. I wore snowshoes the first day but it was a total pain so I just waded through the deep snow the following day. We got about 40 taps in that first location. Our next stop was on the Gap Ridge across the meadow from the cabin. It was super tough going there as well! I managed to get the tractor across the meadow after the snow started to melt. Unfortunately I got the side by side stuck! But it was easily pulled out with the tractor. We gained an additional 20 taps in the second location. Progress was slow but still progress!

The warm spell had settled the snow so I made another run at the old road hoping to break through which I did. I made it up onto our neighbor’s property and went down one of the sap haul roads for a short distance before deciding to turn back. Getting stuck would be no fun! The weather was turning cold so I took the weekend off spent it in Saranac Lake. I picked up some syrup supplies in Hermon to get further prepared. Every little bit of preparation helps. Zane and I had started to set up the evaporator and piping systems. That’s a necessary preparation also.The weather was promising Monday so I began putting out some mini tubing runs up on the neighbor’s property. We take them down each season and flush them out before storing them. They are numbered and named as to their locations. Mini tubes pick up several trees and flow into 15 gallon containers. What a time saver! Not to mention we build them where the trees are difficult to reach. Our father started building them quite a few years ago. We had quite a few at one time before the big sugarbush die off in 2016/2017. Most of those mini tube strings are worthless now. I have started repurposing them for parts.

It was so difficult getting around the woods on Monday that I decided to hang buckets beside the main sap haul road on Tuesday. Wading through the crusty, knee deep snow was exhausting and frustrating. Working beside the road was much less challenging. Zane showed up to help me and we got quite a few buckets hung before the rain drove us in for the day. We got back out on Wednesday and managed to do mini tubes and buckets in a section of woods on our neighbor’s called The Great Northern Loop. We got rained out again by lunchtime but went back out before dark and got more buckets done. The sunset was absolutely beautiful! We were pretty tired from wading through the snow but were happy with our progress.The tap count was growing!

Thursday would see a lot of snow melted and mud was beginning to appear in spots. We had gotten a lot of rain and the trails were tough going for the tractor. We tapped the remainder of what’s known as The Southern Loop. It’s a fraction of the size of the GNL. After lunch we decided that we needed to get the trailer set up to gather some sap before the cold snap hit. The weather was changing fast and the temperatures started dropping. We worked fast and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Then a light snow started. We ended up with about 120 gallons of sap that we got unloaded at the sugar house. It had been an eventful day fighting through the snow with the tractor. And also wading through it! But we were once again happy with our progress. We finished setting up the evaporator. Our tap count was now 386. We plan to have over 500 eventually. I like to hold some of the sugarbush in reserve in case the weather turns cold for a while like it is doing this weekend. The wind really howled last night and we got a little more snow.

Today was a little more laidback. With the colder weather there’s no sap to gather. I put out 23 more buckets near the sugar house in what’s known as Zane’s Bush. It really suffered during the big die off. Many tree were lost and that’s unfortunate because it had held such great potential given the number of young maples. We harvested so much wood out of there after the event. There are more trees needing to be cut as some continue to die.Some are barely living but we have so much wood around the farm that I will leave them for now.

We may tap more trees tomorrow but haven’t decided just yet. The weather warms next week again and we expect to see some sap runs. Late in the week the temperatures approach 60 degrees. Not ideal sugaring weather but the snow will certainly disappear. Sugaring seasons can be fickle these days. They have become more compressed and unpredictable. But we have to accept that which we have no control over. What we can do is blitz the forest with taps for a big play for sap. Wading through the snow has been challenging. I am happy to once again be outside every day making a play for maple syrup. We are down to our last half gallon almost. Putting it into my coffee each morning goes through it! But I need that battery charging to keep my spirit energy surging! It’s great living here on the farm and engaging in my rural heritage hobbies! It is enough I often write. And it truly is a blessing to be living in this moment. The transition is underway now. Soon all will look different here. And we will have gone through another syrup season. We still don’t know how bad the evaporator is going to leak this year. It’s a tense moment for me that is coming soon. For now we will continue setting taps and waiting for the big sap runs. Then we can begin the next step. It’s going to be a push! But when wasn’t it? It’s in my blood this sugaring obsession. And I am a most fortunate man to have experienced this annual event. I may not get time for another post soon. But I will eventually get you caught up!✍️

IPW 2025: Ice Palace MOONTABS

Posted on February 10, 2025February 10, 2025 by Greg Washburn

February is moving forward and winter is holding fast to the north country. It’s a welcome change after last winter’s up and down weather. We did hit 37 degrees last week for one day but the warm spell was brief and temperatures dropped down again shortly after. I am presently here in Saranac Lake for another day or so. There’s an appreciation dinner tomorrow night at a local restaurant for the volunteers who worked on the Ice Palace. This was year five for me volunteering and I put in my biggest group of work days ever since starting in 2021. Being as my GF (Amy) lives in Saranac Lake, I didn’t need to rent places to stay this year and that was a huge part of spending more time here in the first place. Saranac Lake has gotten to be like a home away from home here in the Adirondacks and I have spent a considerable amount of time here in the past several years. As December of 2024 drew to a close, I watched my emails closely for word of the date that the Ice Palace work would begin. The first start day was targeted for January 22nd as crews stayed busy clearing the ice cutting field clear of snow to help it grow. This was accomplished with shovels at first until the ice was able to support a 4 wheeler with a plow. We needed about 10” of ice typically to begin the build. The time was rapidly approaching!

The ice field in Pontiac Bay, Lake Flower.

Things got a little spun up for me when I received an email that the start date to begin the Ice Palace had Ben moved to January 17th. I was still finishing up the second ice saw that I would be bringing with me. It had been given to me in 2021 by a lady who volunteered at the ice palace build. It needed sharpening and a new handle. My chainsaw shop friend took care of the sharpening and my Amish friend Levi built a handle from a sturdy piece of ironwood. It was then up to me to wire brush the rusty saw clean and spray paint it black. I also stencil painted “JGO” onto it. Short for the Facebook group “Just Go Outside”, it was a surprise for my friend Patrick Bourcy who created and manages the group. I also spray painted my ice saw with MOONTABS so we would have a tandem pair of tricked out ice saws! I got the ice saws ready just in time and got my car packed to travel up that Friday morning for day one. It was on!

I met Patrick at the project site where other volunteers were already busy getting things ready for day 1. It takes some time the first day to open up the ice field and the float channel that leads to the cherry picker that lifts the blocks from the lake. We waited patiently for our chance to saw once the grid was scored by the gas powered ice saw. We cut the remaining several inches of ice by hand to create blocks that make 3 separate pieces once they are spud free by the 4 person spud crew. Each block weighs close to 600 lbs average. The blocks the first day were about 10” thick. Later in the build they were over 13” thick. Some say they even made it to 16”! We cut about 400 blocks that first day give or take. 10 rows of 40 pieces. We got plenty of sawing in on day 1 as we had to saw the length of the ice field to free the first row of blocks properly. It get easier after day 1 once the channel has been opened. A certain amount of overnight freeze will leave a thin section to open each morning next to what becomes the new first row. It’s rarely more than 1” of fresh ice.

Once the ice was cut for the day, Patrick and I needed new jobs to keep us busy. We helped fetch and pile fresh snow for the slush makers. The slush makers mix water and snow which is placed into buckets and sledded up to where the blocks are being placed for the walls. Day 1 gets a basic footprint established based on a blueprint design created months ago. Slushing is important as it helps hold the blocks together. As it freezes the palace walls get super strong. It takes a lot of snow to make all the slush that is required during the build. I ended up helping with slushing ice blocks before the day was done. Day 1 went smoothly and the Ice Palace had begun to rise! And I was just beginning! My volunteering run was to last for 6 days!

Day 2 was pretty much a repeat of Day 1. Cut ice in the morning. Take coffee break thanks to the ladies who bring it each morning! Then haul snow and slush up to the wall builders until lunchtime when a local caterer brings us “Roll and Bowl”. Hot soup and a nice big roll with butter.Yum! It’s always so yummy! Afternoon was spent with more slushing of blocks. Patrick had returned and worked with the slush makers. It was another busy day for everyone. I left early to spend time snowshoeing with Amy up Baker Mountain in the village. Things had continued to take shape and the walls were growing!

And that’s pretty much how things went for the next several days. I cut ice each morning then found new tasks to stay busy. I got to do some chainsaw work installing a conduit for the hidden electrical wires for the ice palace lighting. I also helped cut two large arches through the front walls next to the street. That was really fun and made for a bunch of scrap ice to clean up after. A local photographer caught me on film in action!

Zane came up to help on for a couple days this year and stayed with us for two nights. Out on the ice field he rejoined the spud crew like he had in years past. He never cared much for cutting ice so usually sticks with that. We split early for snowboarding on nearby Mt. Pisgah. It was a lot of fun but the conditions were a little bumpy overall. I didn’t fall all that much despite that but did take one rather tough tumble onto my side. Dinner was at the Rivertrail Beer Works right near the Rail Trail in the village. Walking distance for the three of us. We walk most of the time actually when we do things around town. It’s great exercise! Things were great and it was nice volunteering with Zane again! Just like old times! He returned to the ice with me the next morning and it was very cold! And another morning was spent engaged in various tasks. Zane left early to return home and I ended up staying all day until 3:30pm. I got drafted to work with another individual setting ice blocks up on a 10’ section of walls. It was tricky work and required micro spikes to maintain traction on the walls. Tractors were lifting the blocks up to us and we maneuvered them into position with ice tongs and shavers. Shavers are like ice spuds with thin pointed bottoms. They are great for prying stubborn blocks into place or shaving off rough edges. Guess we know how they got their name! I found working the wall fun but very tiring. I left the project sore and tired that afternoon.

Spud-man Zane in the muskrat hat.2nd from the left.

And that’s pretty much the story really. Daily ice cutting then working at other tasks. I had to leave after my 6th day of volunteering and return to the valley for two full days. But I returned on a Saturday morning to cut ice and stayed until I had put in 9 days of volunteering. That Sunday I got to cut 8’ blocks and work with others as the crane lifted them from the lake. Very fun! They were placed to span some structural places were tunnels were being created. Very neat! I worked with the ice carvers a little that weekend as well. Helped them move blocks around and cleaning up their work areas. They make a lot of noise carving with their chainsaws but I don’t mind that. Patrick returned on Monday which was to be my final day of volunteering. I nearly took a swim that morning in the float channel right on a corner of it! I caught myself on the far side of the channel and crawled to safety without even losing my shaver! One leg got a little soaked! A true Icewalker type of thing! The day passed quickly and I worked with the ice carvers again. But it was time to get back to necessary tasks in the valley. I left the project sore and tired but with a great feeling of accomplishment. It had been yet another great experience! A time to volunteer with people I knew and with people that I just met. Everyone works well together and the Ice Palace always gets built! I was sad that I couldn’t stay and help to the very end but it just wasn’t possible. The final Ice Palace is incredible! And just like that it was time to move onto something new. It’s truly MOONTABS In Motion!✍️

Why Have I Stayed?

Posted on January 28, 2025February 2, 2025 by Greg Washburn

January has moved right along but that’s understandable as I have maintained a rather full schedule. I just worked my final day on the Ice Palace project in the Village Of Saranac Lake, New York yesterday. I was able to spend more days volunteering there this year but I will follow up with a featured story of my time there in the future. It’s worthy of one. Another post worthy topic is the work I did logging with my former neighbor on January 15th and 16th. It’s a story best suited to compliment my Run Of The Mill series at some point. Today I am rather entranced by some muses on winter so I think this post will be justified highlighting some of those thoughts! It all started on the way home late yesterday afternoon. Two hours of driving home from Saranac Lake gives a person plenty of time to think!

I left the village around 3pm yesterday and headed down Route 3 like usual on bare,salted roads. Somehow a car had plowed into some guard rails several miles before the Village Of Tupper Lake. Strange as the road was completely bare! Much later on during my drive I left Route 3 in the Town of Fine to head west on Route 58. This takes me to Gouverneur where I take a series of roads that lead me to the Homestead. Route 58 has many open sections where farm meadows come down to meet the road. The wind had picked up and snow was blowing into the road in places. I remained vigilant as the bare road was deceiving at times. Snowy patches would suddenly appear and I would inherently slow down to navigate across them. My 4 studded tires give me excellent traction but there is a limit to any set of tires with the right conditions. Near the Village Of Edwards a car had slid off a snowy corner in an open spot. Good fortune for the driver as he hit nothing expect the ditch full of snow. He was about to be towed out as I went past. The wind was intense as I neared Gouverneur. After a quick stop for groceries, I continued on to the Homestead on increasingly snowy patches of road. Zane was there and had the wood stove going which was a welcome sight to me! The wind was howling across the main meadow and hitting the cabin full force. It was great to be off the roads! We had plenty of food and firewood! We were set for whatever happened you hoped! But before I could settle in I had to disassemble the Chop Shop tent that covers the outside tools. It had blown loose from its corner posts and was in the process of destroying itself. Luckily my tie down anchors were frozen into the ground and my ropes were strong nylon material. After some cursing and wrestling the tent was safely flat and secured. The tools themselves were now exposed but I didn’t bother trying to cover them in the gale force winds. I grabbed some extra firewood from the cabin’s front lean to woodshed and headed into the warm, inviting interior. Life was good!

Sometime after dark it began to snow while the wind continued to whip against the cabin walls. We enjoyed a simple dinner of hot turkey sandwiches with gravy that I was able to quickly prepare in our temporary makeshift kitchen. This is the second winter of having a makeshift kitchen and this one is slightly different then last year’s. The new addition is now open to the original cabin and heated. It’s full of stored construction things at the moment. Tools and screws mostly. All work has been sidelined lately given all the other volunteering. I have a cot set up for sleeping downstairs when Zane is home. He occupies the loft for hanging out and sleeping. It’s very warm up there! I passed the evening watching a movie on my tablet. I don’t have a tv in the downstairs of the cabin. It’s not necessary really and I often read. A quick look out the window as the wind continued its onslaught showed a decent snowstorm in progress. It was a good night to be hunkered down! We could stay warm even if the power failed. That’s something I had wanted in my cabin plan.

I went to bed fairly early but got up around 12:30 am to put more firewood in the stove. Outside it was still blowing and snowing hard. The snow looked like it was accumulating but it was difficult to tell as it was really swirling around out there! By morning I had put wood into the stove two more times. It was 9 degrees with a rather brisk breeze giving a minus 2 degree windchill according to my phone’s weather app. The sky was dawning clear and bright though. Outside the expanses of untouched snow resembled a giant art canvas. Nothing stirred except for a few birds visiting the feeder behind the new addition. Zane needed to leave and but needed me to plow the driveway first. We had gotten around 10” of new powder snow and there were scattered drifts around the vehicles and in front of the cabin. Zane plugged in the tractor’s block heater for me. Without it , the chances of it starting were questionable. The tractor is kept in the bottom of the Big Red barn out of the weather. During the colder months I keep anti fuel gel additive in its diesel tank at all times. All important steps that help us deter the winter problems that might arise. Keeping the tractor functioning is key to surviving winter.

The Main Meadow. Post snow storm this morning.

I plowed snow for a long time before I finally got everything cleared. I did a thorough job on the driveway and parking areas. This was only the second time that I had needed to plow this winter! I can’t complain about that! I also plowed up to the warehouse and made a large parking area there as well. I also plowed behind the cabin by the woodshed as we will be in need of firewood soon. The supply of hardwood slabs stored in the upper woodshed continue to disappear. given the rate that we burn them.It’s time to get to the forest for some winter wood firewood cutting. I plan to skid trees log length right to the woodshed to save time. We did it last winter and it worked well. I broke out the tractor road to the upper meadows beyond the gap ridge and skidded down a log that I had left behind last winter. It’s red elm and should dry quickly once cut and split. We have plenty of snow for skidding logs but not so much to cripple moving around with the tractor. I need to install it’s front tire chains though. That really helps its traction.During sugaring having the tire chains on is usually a necessity.

It was truly a beautiful January day with blue skies and a warm sun when I was out of the wind. Icicles were melting off the cabin as I worked to bank it with snow to help keep the floors warmer. There’s more of that to do depending on the weather forecast. I decided I had enough firewood for another night and mentally dedicated Wednesday for a firewood day. It looks like we might get more snow tonight. Did I make a good decision? Time will tell. I love being outdoors but had spent enough time out I decided by 1:30 pm. Tomorrow was another day and I was happy with my accomplishments. While I was out and about on the tractor I noticed very few signs of life on the surface of the new snow. I spotted a few squirrel tracks in the sugarbush and those of a weasel. The weasel had come from the sugarbush over to the big slab wood pile next to the sugar house. It had gone into the sugar house and then out the far side.No doubt hunting mice for dinner. I could visualize it’s tiny white form hopping through the fresh snow. The winter white ermine that is brown in the other seasons is a lethal hunter! I wondered if it had caught its dinner? It moved on at any rate heading through the woods to somewhere. It’s tiny form edible to an owl or hawk if caught in the open. Not even hunters are invincible when larger predators occupy the same territory. These are hungry time I suspect. A time of great energy expenditure in the snowy,frigid conditions of deep winter. But rodents are plentiful it seemed last fall at least. And good hunters probably manage just fine. All this as darkest comes again and suddenly cloudy skies where the wind has picked up again. Inside the tiny cabin the hungry wood stove demands constant fuel. But we have it ready and inside for the night. My own body will demand fuel later. A hot dinner from the makeshift kitchen will take some time to prepare but will be satisfying next to the wood stove. And an interesting pattern of thoughts had presented themselves to me today as I took what winter had brought us into stride. And a most intriguing question. Why do we stay here in this cold,frozen place?

The hunter left it’s sign. A weasel ( ermine) leaves a most obvious set of tracks.

I first asked the question this morning as I put on layers of heavy winter clothing before plowing snow. Wool socks over regular socks into gripping rubber boots well suited for snow. High and flexible they are a winter stable. I wear my rabbit fur Bomber hat for working typically reserving my muskrat hat for more leisurely type activities although I usually wore it working on the Ice Palace. Heavy gloves are a must for my hands. All this gear takes up space in a house and takes time to don! This morning inside the super frigid, unheated barn I had stepped onto a very cold tractor that started with a whiny protest. Why do we stay when it’s so much more difficult to do even simple things? Why do we stay needing to move mountains of snow each winter? Why do we stay when it takes extra energy for everything? Fuel for snow removal equipment for our homes and highways. Fuel for our bodies for shoveling snow and wading through it. Winter exacts a higher cost in all types of energy. Fuel to heat our homes and businesses most certainly . It’s all rather perplexing when you really consider it. Wouldn’t it be easier to leave with the summer birds and head south? So I asked myself again: why do we stay? I think I know why I have stayed.

Thinking back it’s rather obvious really. I stayed as a child because home was where my parents chose to live. Home was here in this four season part of the world.It’s what I knew and I never thought or needed to question it. I was taken care of and taught how to dress for winter. Fortunately I had a family who could afford me all the attire I needed for winter. Winters came and went as I grew up. I never thought about leaving. My family never traveled to faraway tropical settings. We stayed here and tackled each winter like icy warriors going into battle with the elements. Things weren’t always easy and things sometimes went wrong. Frozen pipes and frozen equipment that refused to work would impend winter tasks severely. We endured some very cold weather. Minus 20 below and sometimes colder. Why did we stay? We stayed because our jobs and schools were here. Our families were here often as not. Grandparents and siblings. Our homes were here. Our farms and property. Perhaps our livestock as well. That’s why we stayed.But this story must return to a more personal journey for me to tell it properly. For I assume many things about other people. This is my story and maybe some of yours.

Why did I stay? The childhood part is pretty self explanatory don’t you think?But when offered a chance to head off to distant colleges in warmer states after high school? What was the answer to that. And after college? Why did I want to find employment here and make a home here? Why did I seek out like minded women and desire to share time with them here? That’s a complicated story line for me and one that will need to remain somewhat hazy for the moment. For it is a lengthy tale with many turns and twists. Difficult to fathom at times even for myself. Perhaps I avoid some truths there that I might rather not face. They aren’t dark or filled with shame deeds. They simply deal with large passages of time that has gone by now. Time. That subject that I promised by written intention to visit differently on this page in 2025. Many of my stories are from the past but when told properly won’t revolve around time as a central topic. And I have strayed from my subject as I am prone to do at times. Let’s cut to the chase.

I suppose that I could write a very lengthy manuscript on this subject as I examine it further. But a summary might be best for the moment. A glimpse through a window that might be a door. I can easily tell you more reasons why I chose to stay in this frozen winter landscape hen ones why I shouldn’t. It’s really quite simple actually. This area has always been my home. I never lived anywhere else. Sure I have traveled south in the winter and spent Easter breaks there. Many times over the years. And I suddenly realize that there’s a much larger story within this story. To truly answer my own questions I must ask more of them to deliver the answers. So consider this part one of a two part story. I have presented a case against winter here at times. Given it an almost criminal element. But winter is innocent until proven guilty. And with Mother Nature defending her seasons there will be no winning this case. After all ,we humans have chosen to live here and face winter each season. I think I am spinning in circles here. Time to rest and deliberate. It is enough. ✍️

The Wind Down

Posted on December 27, 2024December 27, 2024 by Greg Washburn

I have recently been writing a daily post on Facebook to highlight the past 12 months. This 12 day writing exercise has been fun but people have gotten bored with it I believe. Good thing I am into the final 4 months of 2024! I found it beneficial for myself to reflect upon the year and wanted to share my thoughts in a hindsight type series of posts. It’s sometimes difficult to gauge peoples interest. That is an aspiring writer’s challenge I suppose. For this post I am focused on facts and recent events that make up a timeline of living.

The past few weeks have been rather busy running back and forth to the Adirondacks. Usually once a week on the weekends. We try to get outdoors for some sort of activity that gets us engaged with nature.We have visited some beautiful places recently to commune with nature! I will showcase some of them sometime. The day after my last post we traveled back to Adirondacks post Xmas party morning. We headed to the Vermontville area near Saranac Lake to cut a Christmas tree. It was a place my companion knew well and I liked it immediately! There was quite a bit of snow on the ground and the trees had a light covering but not so much that we couldn’t look for one properly. We walked uphill to the furthest reaches of the tree farm. I remarked that this a requirement and a sure sign that TCCS was about to afflict me. Remember TCCS? It was featured in a blog in December 2020. TCCS or tree cutting conundrum syndrome is very common when searching for a Christmas tree! Finding a perfect tree can be maddening! There’s a Goldilocks parallel attached to it quite often. Feeling confused? Not too worry! Sufferers of TCCS are totally confused in their search for the perfect tree! It’s always the same problem: this one is too big. That one is too small. Too bare and spindly. That one is the wrong species. That one is crooked… the list goes on and on! But we were fortunate! We were searching for a balsam and found a few possibilities fairly quickly actually. And then suddenly there it was! A balsam standing out in the open in the distance. It seemed too good to be true! How could such a tree have escaped the eyes of so many tree searchers?We closed in on the tree after wading through the snow. It didn’t take long to reach an agreement. This tree was fine! Not perfect but beautiful and totally worthy of gracing the house! So it was soon on our sled and on its way to the truck. Mission accomplished and with no noticeable TCCS! Later after the tree had thawed out and the snow had melted from it, we got it into its stand. It smelled wonderful! There’s nothing like Adirondack balsam scent! Now 3 weeks later the tree still stands proud and green. And for me who had not cut a tree in a couple years , the moments had been secured. MOONTABS! It was so special to share that experience with someone special!

Back in the valley the wood stove project nears completion. The stove pipe parts I ordered showed up and I got everything together finally. But the wood stove couldn’t be used until I installed a brace on the roof to support the outer double walled exterior stove pipe. This project was a little tricky and involved a few tricks. A rope and a ladder over the peak to give me a safe place to stand after getting up the roof on another ladder. The side by side provided a safe footing for the longer ladder and a solid tie off anchor for the rope. Inside I kindled the first fire once the bracing was complete and burned off the stinky oils that coated the wood stove. Things went well and we are very happy with it! It requires firewood in the 10” range and doesn’t hold a lot but it’s really an efficient unit. We think it will perform very well overall. It’s a Dwarf 5K unit manufactured by the Tiny Wood Stove Company located in Idaho. Go online and check out their cool lineup of tiny stoves!

A big part of the wood stove project was the repurposed brick extension that got the wood stove 14” higher above the cabin floor. It’s so much easier to tend the fire that way! Understand there’s even some room to store some wood. The old antique Drury brick is very classy I think and fits the cabin theme nicely. I didn’t mortar any of it and chose a stacked dry fit construction for the base support structure. Sand fills the cracks between the base bricks which are setting on Durarock cement board material. Fireproof and safe. The back wall behind the stove features Drury brick on edge glued with construction adhesive to Durarock backer. The overall amount of brick makes a thermal mass to some degree and should hold heat longer.

What is Drury brick you may be wondering? It’s antique brick that I was given last spring in Saranac Lake for free while helping with a tree removal. I Goggled it recently and discovered that it was made in Vermont from the 1880’s through 1972. I believe mine to be very old. Possibly 1900 era. It is beautiful at any rate and exceeds my expectations for the hearth I had envisioned. I have several different styles of Drury brick all mixed together and it’s a nice look!

I don’t believe that I ever followed up with the progression of the muskrat pelts we collected last winter. Zane and I received our muskrat hats just before Xmas Eve! The pelts had been sent to Minnesota in August and we weren’t sure that the finished hats would arrive in time. I am wearing mine since Monday and love the warm addition to my winter attire! Zane seems happy with his also. It was a good choice and a wonderful example of our rural heritage here. Trapping the muskrats then preparing the furs to ship and then wearing our hats to stay warm as winter continues to progress. There’s nothing like natural fur for warmth! Some people do not approve and that is their prerogative. We respect their position and simply ask that they respect ours. Wearing fur is a choice not a necessity. But trapping is part of our tradition here where I grew up. I no longer trap fur to sell but will continue to add fur garments to my collection as time passes. Gloves and a vest may be my next investment. The beaver population continues to grow in this area as no one traps them much anymore. Harvesting a few won’t even make a dent in the population. For now we don’t require any additional muskrats but these prolific breeders of the wetlands are there if necessary. Nature keeps them thinned out by some rather harsh diseases at times. Winter mortality of muskrat populations in any given marsh is a scientifically proven fact. Nature will keep a balance regardless of any trapping we might do. That goes for most of the species here. My position on hunting, trapping, and fishing is rather clear on these pages and within my posts. It will remain so.Much of my love of nature stems from my time afield engaged in numerous types of harvesting that spans decades. Plants,birds, fish,and animals. These days I rarely hunt or trap though. I prefer a different interface with nature. One of observation mainly. Call it a winding down of sorts. The nature of my sport pursuits has modified itself. Teaching Zane the rural heritage traditions has been important though. Even said perhaps as this topic has been mentioned here before. Given that there will be some upcoming changes to the blog site posts that have continued to accumulate for 4 years now, I feel the obligation to refresh certain topics.

It’s great to have a functional wood stove again after using just the electric heater for all the cabin heating since we moved in. Now we have both. We have plenty of dry firewood at the moment but will need to get more ahead eventually. That’s always a great winter activity!

At this point I wish to mention my recent Christmas gift from Amy! She is rarely mentioned here as her privacy remains important. But I would be remiss not to acknowledge the work she put into something to give me on Christmas day! She painstakingly edited the entirety of my blogs and printed them into a spiral notebook that is arranged like a book! Not to mention imprinting them onto a thumb drive. I had expressed concern to her about archiving my work as blog posting moves forward. Gerry my administrator,friend, and cousin keeps all this saved, running, and functional for me! And hosts a safe site for you to visit!So many continued thanks to him! Keeping dozens of blog posts and photos up online takes up a lot of space. I came to the realization that I might need to retire older posts to make way for the new. The thoughts of deleting work gave me a strange feeling however. No doubt connected to losing my journals in the house fire of 2012 somehow. Better exam that under a psychological microscope sometime. Amy did something that I know took her hours by creating a “clean” blog post book of sorts. Something real and tangible that I can hold in my hands. Hours of my own creativity in black and white. To see it moved me. Perhaps this is the feeling that a writer gets when they see their first book in print? I openly thank her here for caring enough to do it! And for her overall support of my creative endeavors. It has prompted me to reconsider my writing hobby.And my future in general. So I began a list of intentions. Those that I list in two different categories. The two categories are “main” and “cloud”. What are cloud intentions? Lofty goals and dreams that I desire but may not accomplish in the short term. To keep it real the main intentions were kept short and sweet. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination. But a different mindset begins to show itself. And I strive for change. Wait. Have I said this before? Maybe. Time has been a reoccurring theme in my writing. Change is a reoccurring reality in my life. Nature is the central theme here. Look for some new ideas and new directions here as 2025 arrives. I am busy reflecting as 2024 winds down. It’s a journey. And an adventure. MOONTABS in motion.✍️

The Last Night

Posted on November 23, 2024November 23, 2024 by Greg Washburn

It’s a drizzly night outside here at Camp Edith and the wood stove is cranking out some serious heat! It’s difficult to regulate the temperature inside at times and it generally too hot inside most evenings. Nothing throwing the porch door open for a few minutes can’t help solve! Our answer to a thermostat. Wood heat is rather free so it doesn’t really matter. We have trucked wood in several times so far this fall to keep the camp heated. We supplemented it with some dead white blocks from a tree removal project from awhile back. It’s been a nice addition to our hardwood supply once we split and dried it some. Most recently we brought in some large dry red elm chunks that hold the fire well throughout the day and night. The bark less red elm is burn ready as soon as it’s cut. The ultimate farm to wood stove commodity that we ferret out on a regular basis. At the moment we are harvesting from beside a field at the farm called “ The Long Narrow Meadow “. It certainly lives up to its name! Sheltered by a steep ridge on one side it contains nice stands of dead elm that needs to be harvested.

We hadn’t planned on living here at Camp Edith this late in the season but it’s remained mild enough to do so mostly. Last week our pipes gently froze three nights in a row as the nighttime lows dipped down into the 20’s after midnight. But they thawed each day and we survived the minor inconvenience. But with the temperatures that are coming next week it is definitely time to close up the camp and move to the farm. So this is our final night here for the season. Tomorrow we will begin the move to the farm where Zane will occupy the unfinished cabin and I will stay in the Airstream for awhile. We just pulled it out of the warehouse recently. I was shocked to discover that mice had gotten inside and had made a mess of things! They had tore up napkins and paper towels plus dragged in a bunch of hickory nuts. There are numerous droppings to clean up as well. So far I have spotted no major damage for the moment. Plus I haven’t smelled any mouse pee. They sure can wreak havoc in a place! I have kept a bucket trap in the warehouse for months and it has eliminated a fair number of mice. A recent check of the freshly baited trap yielded 8 mice in two days. I set a trap inside the Airstream but it hasn’t been tampered with or caught anything. That’s good as maybe the resident mice were all caught in the bucket trap before the Airstream left the warehouse. It time for a good cleaning at any rate before moving in .

Mice have also been busy wreaking havoc in the farm cabin. A recent addition of mouse traps only yielded one casualty. The traps were stripped clean by resourceful mice reminiscent of Mr. Jangles the mouse of my Canadian bush blog posts of 2022. I built a second bucket trap recently to use in the cabin and it just got two mice yesterday. We may be turning the tide in this war with our tiny rodent guests. Plus Lilly the cat has returned to the farm to patrol and hunt down the infiltrators. I wish the mice could be kept out but it’s nearly impossible to accomplish that. Hopefully winter will slow them down some at least. Maybe the rodent hunting weasel will return and pitch in. It doesn’t come around when the cat is there though. Nature sure can challenge us!

Moving out and closing up camp will keep us occupied all day tomorrow. The water pump and intake line pipe to the lake must be drained.The remaining pipes and the water heater must be drained down also.That takes time.

There’s food and clothes to move as well. Plenty of things that we haven’t even thought of yet. It’s going to be a big change but we will adjust quickly I hope. There’s a lot of unfinished work in the cabin and we have laid out a lean to addition to enlarge the cabin. The new space would be a bedroom for me. Zane has the post holes mostly dug and we hope to set the posts Wednesday.Then cement them in place. Phase one ahead of dropping temperatures. Zane is not working presently as his seasonal job ended recently. We will work together to bring the cabin project forward again. Today we removed the old wood stove and pipes . The new one is still boxed up and waiting to be installed shortly. There’s lots to do! Work tied up most of the past several months but I am fine with that. It has served a valuable purpose. No need to look back now .

As for other activities? I have been venturing into the Adirondacks to hike some and take time to attempt to right some wrongs of the summer. I won’t go into details but it was important for me to do this. Trying to be a better version of myself is a journey. But worth the effort. Writing new chapters where I am “Always The Same Book But Never The Same Page”. A moving song by the band “A Day To Remember”. It’s powerful lyrics never fail to remind me of the challenges of human interaction. But for the story to continue to be written I must survive and move forward. And always try to make the best decisions. I will fail at this. I may succeed at this. I will be hurt and sometimes hurt others unintentionally. I will wilt and wither at times yet live so that I may continue to grow. And some things I will never understand. About myself and about others. Life teaches us some hard lessons at times. And what have I learned? That I will never stop learning. Often the hard way. ✍️