Hi, everyone!
Happy August! From the middle of July on, we had very hot weather and not much rain! There were lots of days when it was at or near 90 degrees F.! We’ve been spending a lot of time at the bay. It’s a little bit cooler by the water! I guess the eagles like being by the water, too, because a young one and an adult one have been spending time in the dead trees near us. Every time the young one moves to a different tree, there’s lots of squawking and screeching!
Bill and Karin and Aunt Emi spent July in Japan, but Uncle David drove down to Sodus to spend the weekend with us two weeks ago. He brought Mocha along. Uncle David had two big packages sent to us for him to pick up! They were scooters for Bill and Karin, and Thomas helped Uncle David unpack them. Then Thomas made a house for himself out of one of the boxes. He had a sleeping bag in it, and even a night light!
Even though the water level in the bay is still high, Grandpa figured out a way to put out the dock! He bolted the first section to the decking that’s still underwater, so the other sections could extend out into the bay. Uncle Steven and Uncle David helped him with the extensions and decking. When the water goes down a little more, we’ll be able to walk out on the dock without getting our feet wet!
It was fun having Uncle David visit! Thomas and I had a fireside chat and marshmallow roast after dinner when Uncle David built a fire. The next day, Uncle David and Uncle Steven and Grandpa and I enjoyed some “guy time” on the porch. Mocha and I got to know each other better, too!
Uncle David drove his Corvette down from Ottawa for the visit, and I wasn’t sure there would be room for him to take the scooters back with him. Uncle David showed me there’s lots of room in the trunk of a car with no back seat! The Corvette doesn’t have a lot of ground clearance, so Uncle David was careful about driving around the ruts in our road! When we went to watch sunset after Uncle David left, it was very windy. There was a kite-surfer on the lake!
The weather forecast was for two dry days in the middle of the next week, so Grandma decided it was time to restain the deck. The porch floor had never been restained, so Grandma decided to do that, too! On Tuesday, Grandpa helped Grandma clean and bleach the porch floor, then Grandma cleaned the deck. She had to do a lot of scrubbing to get all the moss off! On Wednesday, she did all the staining. Now everything underfoot has a new coat of protection from water!
While Grandma was staining the deck, an island floated by on the bay! A big patch of reeds broke off from some shoreline wetland and got blown south. Grandma took me on a flower discovery adventure! First we looked at the lilies blooming in our yard, then we took a kayak paddle to see the flowers blooming along the edge of the bay. We even found where the island of reeds had come to rest — right in front of one of our neighbor’s dock!
The water level in the bay has dropped enough that one corner of our deck is out of the water! Pretty soon, Grandma won’t be able to float the kayak off the deck at all, so it’s good we have the dock out! The young eagle is hanging around again and being noisy. We had calm lake conditions for sunset over the weekend, despite there being a big storm cloud passing over.
Last Saturday, Grandma joined the community weed-harvesting crew to pull more water chestnuts out of the bay. Then on Sunday and Monday, she kayaked back to the clean-up sites to find and remove any chestnuts that had been missed. She came back on Monday with a pile of water chestnuts and seven drink cans she’d found floating in Clark Creek! Grandma says that water chestnut patrols are now officially over for the year! Meantime, Grandpa has been working on the supports that will allow him to raise the boathouse walls. When that’s done, we can get the powerboat back!
When James’ family went to visit his friend Anna’s family in Seattle, Anna asked James to bring along his Lion-san. Anna was sad about Lion-san leaving at the end of the trip, so Lion-san decided to stay with Anna. Grandma has a supply of my not-quite-Lion-san cousins, so we got one out to take to James. Not-quite-Lion-san made himself at home at James’ house right away!
Last Tuesday, Grandma and Uncle Steven and I took James and Thomas to the Strong museum. We had a very nice time! First, I spent time with James. He was in a building mood! I helped him make a castle with magnetic shapes. Then, we put shingles on the house near the space climber. James played a game of chess with Uncle Steven on the giant’s chess set, then we had a snack. After that, James built another castle with the magnetic shapes and added to the Lego wall.
Thomas and I made a Lite Brite design, then Thomas put all the black pegs neatly away in one of the bins. While James finished his Lego design, Thomas and I built with the foam blocks. We had our usual finish to the day, at the carousel. James and Thomas are both big enough to ride by themselves now!
The last few days have been a little cooler — low 80s and high 70s and lower humidity– so it’s been more pleasant to be outside. Last night Uncle Steven’s family came over for dinner on the back deck. Thomas helped me set the table, Grandpa grilled steaks, and we had corn on the cob. There’s a lot to like about August so far!
Love,
Lion-san
We are back from Maine now. It was nice up there also. We didn’t do as much as you but it was fun! It was nice you got to some time to spend time with Uncle David. It is also nice that the water is down and the dock is in. Grandma did a nice job on the deck and porch.