July, first half

Evelyn doesn't like bandages, but she is ok with wrapping up paper towel around her wound instead.

She made a wall hanging for a friend. She was flattered, as well as a bit confused about the purpose of it.

We celebrated Canada day with a dear friend and her children...still awaiting the formal status of being Canadian...since the citizenship process has been delayed because of lockdowns.

Philip got the slide up and running in time for our Canada Day party.

We just taped the garden hose to the side if the slide, never mind the extra plumbing.

Lots of fun!

Of course we have to get back to regular life and that includes weeding.

And harvesting. It was nice to get an early harvest in! I'm trying to figure out how to maximize my growing season by making use of more versatile veggies. Lots to learn there!

Matthew had an online Air Cadets program, so he spent a lot of hours on the computer!

Evelyn dressed up nicely in a dress that was made specially for Melanie. And it still looks great, even on the third girl in the family!

More screen time for Matthew.

In July the kids still had some of the "three rs" to work on. Here Melanie is helping Evelyn with her math.

We decided to move Jennifer out of Evelyn's room so she could be on her own, and Daniel and Evelyn could share a room together. In order to switch rooms we needed to do a lot of organizing.

And clean up. There was a stage in the process where you could hardly find a place to step safely on the floor!

Things had to move into the hallway as well.

Boy these kids have way too much stuff stored in their rooms! Not with all this in the hallway there was room to move some furniture from one room to another.

Getting there--the kids are hard at work with this nearly overwhelming task.

Wow! The room is tidy! I am hoping that if this room is painted neatly that the kids will feel it is worth keeping it tidy.

Jennifer's "new" room looks really big and empty now! She really likes having a room to herself, and we think that having some personal space may be good for her.

Daniel in his "neat" side of the room. The floor is tidy, but the desk and bedside table, not so much.

Matthew busy with his program. He spent so much time on the screen during a one week intense program that I ended up calling the doctor (I do like not having to go into the office for every little thing, and having a telephone visit!) and chatting about his red eyes. Turns out his eyes were getting dry from staring at the screen too much.

Yay, the veggies are growing nicely! The corn looks like it will be amazing. If the raccoons don't get it.

It's a pretty big garden this year, and, for July at least, the weeding seems to be under control and the plants are looking good!

Matthew getting some fresh air. When his cadet program was done for the intense week, he would frequently ask for work to do around the house. I really enjoyed that!! We did our best to find things for him to work on.

Evelyn let Jennifer come into her room and enjoy her bunk bed. She gets the whole bed to herself. If she needs to change or wants privacy from Daniel, she has her own curtain to close.

Melanie offers to help make fettuccine Alfredo more often...especially if my menu sounds questionable. Evelyn loves to help. They both love noodles for dinner!

Daniel working hard on his school. Even in July he has to do a little. But don't worry, it really doesn't take long, and there is plenty of time to play!!

Algonquin June 26

Time to pack up, it's the last day! Kinda dreary looking weather, but it is relatively dry while we pack up.

We tried repack the bags so that we wouldn't have to double back for another bag. Can you carry that Daniel? He said "I think so" but really, he dragged/hauled it with much drama later and said he couldn't after all. It WAS pretty heavy for his size.

Out on the lake, heading to the "highway portage".

All right, time to go down Potter Creek. We looked at our map. Which was quite old. There was a choice of several longer portages, or to go down the creek and have two portages less than 100 meters each. It seemed the obvious choice to take the creek!

We thought the creek was really shallow though...I guess it will get wider and deeper further on? We lined the canoes down the first part, hoping for a better wider deeper around the next bend or two.

Well, we found a beaver dam. And hunted around for the portage sign and trail. It might be here, right? Or maybe it's just a new beaver dam here and the portage is later? We waited by the dam while Philip checked out further down stream...will it get deeper? Maybe we can just line the canoes through this spot, and then climb back in, since we can't find the portage? The kids had to bushwhack as they were too heavy to sit in the canoes.

Okay, so this is the creek, not widening up yet. Yikes, it still looks small. But it's on the map, so we should just keep going. It's bound to get bigger later.

Well, we found more beaver dams later. Did I mention that our map is really really old?

Oh look, another beaver dam! We got really efficient at climbing out, taking the bags out, dragging the canoe over, filling it up again and paddling on.

The creek did get wider, but the number of beaver dams was pretty high! And there was a section where the brush was really heavy overhead so you couldn't paddle for all the branches in the way!

Finally out in the open and close to civilization! We did find the last portage too, thankfully. A proper trail is much easier than bushwhacking!

We were pretty tired and hungry by this time. We always though, just one more bend, we are almost there! But it was usually just another beaver dam or another bend. We stopped by the remnants of an old bridge for lunch. It was started to drizzle by the time we were done.

We paddled across Canoe Lake all the way back to the access point. It is a big lake. And the drizzle turned to rain. And the rain got heavier and heavier. We even bailed the canoes out at some point as they were getting really wet in the bottom.

Pouring buckets, we are all sopping wet!!

Ugh, someone has to finish emptying the canoes and stack them up and yuck whatever else is soggy clingy clothes.

But we had washrooms to change in (flush toilets!!) and dry clothes and towels. So soon we were warm and on the road to home. Looking forward to seeing how Nathan survived.

 

Algonquin June 25

Time to pack up, today is a big day! Dad planned this trip, and wants four portages done, just so we can be tough and ready for the "big trip".

Packing up seems to take a very long time. Even with helpers!

Still packing. It takes over an hour, easily, sometimes two, to get the tents, sleeping bags, clothes, cooking gear and everything else into the bags for the day. Watch out where you put your raincoat! You want to be able to find it later.

Evelyn fooled around in the pine forest with Daniel while we were hard at work packing.

At last, it is time to fill the canoes. This can take a lot of time too, especially if only one person is swinging the bags in.

Last canoe is ready to go in the water. Goodbye!! We didn't mind leaving. There were people camping not far from us who brought a radio. And played it loudly. Late. Why??? If you want a loud radio, please don't go in the back country!

Off we go through Tom Thomson to find our portage. It is easy to find, since there are really bright signs at the portage that you can see far far away! And if you are not sure where you are, they even, in Algonquin, tell you what lake you are on and where you are going, and how long the portage is. Our "big trip" will not have any signs. I worry about how much we rely on spotting the campsite and portage signs to navigate.

We are almost there Mom!

Our first portage of the day is the longest one. 1 km. And buggy.

Waiting for the second load of gear to come across was very annoying, with all the bugs.

We zipped across a pond do our next portage.

Lots of lily pads often means lots of bugs.

Only a half kilometer this time. It was a bit muddy. We had a few dirty feet and some very unhappy camper. All the wildlife disappeared...and hopefully some character was build?

We had Pathfinder Lake to paddle through, now it wasn't much bigger than the pond, really.

But we stopped for lunch anyways. We found a spot next to a small island where we could hang on to something and catch a breeze. Bye bye bugs. Everyone enjoyed having lunch on the water for a change.

We are hungry!!

And then another portage (200 meters) to Potter lake. Finally, a biggish lake to paddle on where you can be out of reach of the bugs.

Soon enough we are nearing the last of the portages of the day.

Note the bright sign. Can't miss it! (Well, actually, we may have missed some signs in the past, but let's not mention that.)

After a steep jump up we are on a highway again. It feels a bit lame, after 5 portages, to realize maybe we could just have driven here and dropped off our gear. We are hoping it will be quiet tonight.

It was very buggy here, and we were tired and hot. But we kept moving quickly...otherwise you felt like you were dinner! Melanie wore her rain coat and sweated lots, as she preferred that over being bitten. I preferred being bitten.

Hurry up and load so we can get away from the bugs! Our campsite is on this lake, almost there!! We rejected the campsite that was closest, it was way too close to the bugs at the portage.

This campsite marker for the only other site looks sketchy. It turns out we have another portage to just get to the campsite. Only about 40 meters, and definitely worth it.

Big, open, flat.

Nice view. Steep drop though. Wouldn't want to camp here if the kids were toddlers!

There are no bugs. But. There is rain.

When the rain let up, we found, after some searching, a sketchy pathway to down where we can pump water. It really is a long way down!

We hung our food up here. The food bag net is all ready to go for the night. We wonder how we are going to manage to hang two weeks worth of food on our "big trip".

Try to warm up your wet spots around the fire.

I thought we should collect the rainwater, instead of pumping. It certainly is less work, and the pans filled up pretty quickly!

We discussed this plan. As well as the cleanliness of the tarp.