For H

Not that I have anything to blog about, but in the interest of working the poo picture down, I'll think of something.



Ouch.



This is hard.



Still spending much of my "free" time spiffing the home front. Melanie contributed about 20 feet of new stone wall and brush and leave clearing down by the boat shed and created a beautiful space there. she raked out the dirt that X moved. We couldn't get her to stop. X moved about 5 yards of good dirt, reducing the dump truck pile to nothing and creating a large area that will add to our mowing area. Maybe not too smart. She also manned the chainsaw and cut some logs. Even Sean moved about 2 tons of sand down at the beach, then helped move dirt. The thing is, it would have taken Paul and I about 4 days and a lot of sore muscles to do what we all did on Sunday, and we wouldn't have had nearly as much fun. We had a big bonfire to burn brush and leaves and the remnants of the sauna which Paul removed, and we had fun with that although my house smells like camping.



We've had no interest in the house, even with a $100,000.00 reduction in price. But that is okay, because it's looking pretty snazzy, and I like it.



Last week Paul and I were on the deck and he thought he heard a loon call. I didn't think there were loons on our lake, but later I drove over the causeway where the public beach is and I was pretty sure I saw a loon on the lake. I stopped to take pictures, but I have a dinky camera and it was sort of too far out to see for sure.

Five dollars if you can see the "loon". Hint, it is in the reflection of the houses and trees in the water. This photo was taken from the public beach in Rhode Island. The houses in the pic are on a point. We live on the other side of the point, in CT.

This lake is about 400 acres, and is the cleanest I've ever seen. In some spots it is 60 feet deep, but averages 20 ft deep. The DEP stocks it with fish, but we don't fish much. Paul tried our first year here, but caught only one keeper, which was delicious, and I can't remember what kind it was. On a still day you can see all the way to the bottom, even in the deep parts. One side of the lake will never be developed, it is in a trust. It is surrounded by state forests, both RI and CT, so there is hiking and camping galore. I should take more pics, cause it is really pretty. We see osprey, mallards, canada geese, herons, cormorants, egrets, king fishers, merganzers and on the other side of the causeway there is a beaver den. Sometimes Paul and I kayak under the causeway to the other side where there is a rock that we hang out on and jump off of into the water. From our shore we can swim to blueberry island and hang on the beach there. Once we climbed the waterfall that is not too far from our beach. I'm not sure where the water runs off from, but even in the middle of summer, it is frigid! We've been here 3 years and each year has brought something new for us to enjoy. This is our backyard.

X & Mel come visit and enjoy. Mel won't swim in the water because there is growth on the bottom. We just wear water shoes. If we end up staying, which is okay, we'll get a real good canoe so she can go out and have fun. She enjoys feeding the ducks, though, and sitting around the fire at night. We got a paddle boat last year, but that is only good for around the shore...its pretty hard work navigating that sucker. The canoe we have only has one seat, the other is broken. It carries one small person, although Paul and I took it out one New Year's Eve across the lake to find out where all the goose honking was coming from. We don't use it much. X likes to swim and kayak. Gabe doesn't live here, and Sean couldn't care less about having a 400 acre lake to play in, or miles of state forests to hike in.

I wish my children had all grown up here. X & Gabe are the two I'd never have seen if they did. They would have been gone all day, exploring and playing. And the one child who had half an opportunity to is not interested. The downside to living here is that it is a haul to civilization. It is expensive in time. The upkeep also steals a lot of the leisure time we have to enjoy this spot, and we spend a lot of time in our cars commuting or keeping appointments or shopping. Don't ever underestimate the value of time. Something I did before living here.

So I guess the moral of the story is that everything is a tradeoff. Our continuous dilemma is in choosing elements with the least loss and the most gain. Sometimes we can put things in place and see how they pan out, and not actually make the decision. Like H. Not knowing if she should go see her aunt or not. H can simply ask her aunt if she would like H to visit. The tradeoff is not visiting and risking guilt and regret, or visiting and risking debilitating stress from family drama. So place the decision in aunt's hands, and let Fate work her magic. We've put the house on the market. The tradeoff is pretty even - if we sell, we lose a very special place to be. But, we also lose continuous and backbreaking effort to keep the place in good condition, and gain lots of time back to do other things with our life, as well as greater financial freedom. If we move to a multi-family back in civilization, we won't have such a serene vista from our windows, but lots more time to do other fun things, like vacations!! Like painting! We've only put things in place for Fate to take her course. The house sells, cool. The house doesn't sell, cool. Its all a tradeoff.

Peace