Hi, everyone!
We’re finally starting to have some cooler weather! That gave Grandpa the chance to finish cleaning up the leftover lumber from redoing the back deck in Fairport. Most of the lumber had to be thrown away because it had rotten spots or other damage. Look at the round burrows the carpenter bees made in the bench railing pieces!
A week ago, Grandma and Grandpa’s church had a picnic instead of their regular church service. Grandma took me along, so I got to see a lot of my choir and baking friends! My travel buddy Mike-san just got back from a trip to Alaska and he showed me some pictures on his smart phone. It was fun to see James’ Peacemaker teacher again!
After the picnic, Grandma and Grandpa and I went out to Sodus. We finally had a big rainstorm! Then on Monday, I helped Grandma and Grandpa haul the Javelin sailboat out of the water. The water level in the bay is dropping, so we had to get the boat onto its cradle while we could still float it into place. It took us most of the day to haul, clean and wrap the sailboat, but we got it done! The plastic tarp on the outside of the sailboat wrapping had more splits in it this year, so we needed to repair it with tape. Now the sailboat wrap looks like it has racing stripes! While we were working down by the water, a big branch came down near the house! We had already carried the mast upstairs and the branch just missed it.
Last Friday, Moose-san and Tilly came out to Sodus with Nancy-san and Joe-san. Yesterday morning, Nancy-san and Grandma went kayaking and took us along. This was the first time Nancy-san had been kayaking since she hurt her back, and everybody was very happy that she could paddle! Then Grandma cleared some more weeds out of the boathouse and made a big pile on the deck. Moose-san was really excited!
On Saturday afternoon, we had the young families from church out for apple picking at Cracker Box Palace. There weren’t very many apples left on the lower branches of the trees, so we really needed the long-handled apple picker! I helped Grandma get some Honey Crisp eating apples way up on the top of the trees and some Crispins for apple pies, too. I made sure we left the apple picker where everybody else could find it to use!
After we picked our apples, we went across the road with my church young family friends to see and feed the farm animals. Tilly hadn’t been to Cracker Box Palace before! Nancy-san had lots of apples, and the big horses ate them all up! My friends found a tree to climb that even had some board steps nailed to the branches! When we were done feeding the animals, we went back to our cottage for boat rides. Then we had chili and cornbread for supper! We had a good time all day!
Guess what? I have two new cousins! Bill-kun and Karin-chan have a new puppy, named Mocha, and a new kitten, named Shadow! I hope they’ll want to be friends with me when I get to meet them!
Love,
Lion-san
It was good the branch missed the mast. We all had a good time last weekend. Nancy-san was soooo glad to get to kayak, Moose-san liked his aquatic weeds and Tilly liked the apple picking and the animals. It was fun seeing the young families and all those girls climbing the tree. I hope the puppy and kitten like you too.