Hi, everyone!
The last few weeks, I’ve been helping Grandma and Grandpa get everything at the bay ready for winter! The water level is getting really low and there have been a lot of windy days, but Grandma did kayak over to Clark Creek again. Guess what? There was a whole family of muskrats feeding in the creek! Grandma has never seen them there before! She didn’t get good photos because the wind was blowing her kayak around.
Over Columbus Day/ Indigenous Peoples weekend, we had to figure out how Uncle Steven’s family and Grandpa and Grandma could all have time at the bay without being there together! Uncle Steven’s family decided to go on Friday and Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa and I went out on Saturday afternoon and stayed until Monday. We overlapped with masks and social distancing long enough to store two kayaks and haul in the dock sections. I enjoyed looking at the pretty leaf colors while I helped Grandma clean the kayaks before we took them inside!
Aunt Kara and Uncle Steven helped Grandpa with the dock sections. After the decking of each section is removed, the frame is winched in and the legs removed. Someone has to be in the rowboat to lift on the end of the frame, because the legs are stuck in the mud! Then the dock sections are stacked for the winter.
Thomas decided to get in the rowboat with Uncle Steven to help. In between sections, he and I made sure the rowboat didn’t float away! Thomas got really interested in rowing, so Uncle Steven gave him a lesson and let him practice after the last dock section was in.
Once the rowboat was back in the boathouse, Thomas helped hoist it into its storage position!
After Uncle Steven’s family left, Grandma and Grandpa and I had dinner on the porch. Grandpa said he thought that might be the last time this year it was warm enough to eat there! The rest of the weekend, I enjoyed looking at the pretty fall leaves!
When we got back to town on Tuesday after the long weekend, Tilly and Moose-san sent me a cauliflower! They had been at a farm and found a really nice one they knew I would like! They got a pumpkin for me, too! Grandma said we could invite Joe-san and Nancy-san to bring my friends to the bay for last weekend. I helped Grandma pack all the ingredients she said she would need to cook for us all! Then Grandma and Grandpa filled out their mail-in election ballots! Because of the bad virus, everybody in New York is allowed to vote by mail for next month’s election for President. I made sure Grandma and Grandpa followed all the directions, so that their votes would count!
Tilly and Moose-san came out to the bay with Joe-san and Nancy-san on Friday afternoon. We all decided that our pumpkin friend didn’t need to wear my face mask! On Saturday morning, we heard machinery outside. Our neighbor was digging a trench to bury a big drainage pipe! Of course, we went out to watch!
Next we had something to watch inside! Grandpa decided that he wanted a bigger television set at the bay, so he took down the old one and got ready to install the new one. While he was doing that, we helped Grandma and Nancy-san with the jigsaw puzzle in the shape of a fish!
Just before lunchtime, we helped Grandma and Nancy-san break up some of my cauliflower to make cauliflower cheese soup! I had to explain to Moose-san and Tilly how much stirring the soup needs while it is cooking.
The afternoon was lovely, sunny fall weather. Uncle Steven texted that he was bringing Thomas out for more rowing practice. Because we were all social distancing, we put the life jackets outside on the deck so Uncle Steven and Thomas didn’t need to come inside. Grandma said we should put out some party mix snack, too! Then we waited by the window for Uncle Steven and Thomas to come and watched them get ready to go rowing. They ate party mix in the middle of the bay!
Before he left, Uncle Steven brought Grandma’s kayak upstairs to store. Waterfowl hunting season has started, and Grandma doesn’t want to be mistaken for a flock of ducks while kayaking close to shore! Tilly and Moose-san helped me dry the kayak before we brought it inside. Then we helped Grandma and Nancy-san make a lasagna for dinner.
After dinner, we watched the streamed Philharmonic concert on the new television. Then Moose-san and I showed Tilly the photos from our trip to Japan four years ago for Karin’s shichi-go-san ceremony. It was fun to remember that trip — even the earthquake!
On Sunday morning, we had very pretty light in the trees at sunrise! After the on-line church service, we went outside to enjoy the fall foliage. Our neighbor’s drainage pipe was already covered with soil and grass seed!
After Moose-san and Tilly left, Grandma and Grandpa cleared leaves off part of the lawn. They made me my first leaf pile of the season! There will be lots more leaves to rake soon, both at the bay and in Fairport!
Love,
Lion-san
It’s interesting to hear about putting the dock away. What a process! Glad you had a nice weekend with Tilly-San and Moose-San. How wonderful to have a house by the water.
I hope you are ready for raking…
Love,
LaVache.
You have done quite a lot lately. You’ve seen a muskrat, Thomas’ rowing lessons, supervising getting the dock sections out and stored properly. Then you ran a cooking school and taught Moose-san and Tilly how to properly make cauliflower cheese soup and lasagna. Moose-san, a devout vegetarian, looked for farm stands that may have cauliflower so he could make some back home. He couldn’t find any so he is sending Joe to the public market next Thursday with a mandatory order to bring some home. It is nice to play in leaf piles and just remember to pick dry ones! Have fun!
Exciting to see the muskrats! That was a huge cauliflower! I’ll bet the soup was good. Loved the autumn photos.