To The Camp

Attila had his post eye surgery check up this week, and all is well. He needn’t go back for a year. His eyesight has improved. The surgeon told him the procedure was even trickier than a corneal transplant. His eyesight was better than normal right after the surgery, and it has further improved, which is wonderful.

We made our first day trip to the camp last weekend, when the weather was warm and sunny. As we drove into the property two deer were feeding near the wood pile. They startled and moved a few yards away, to stand for several minutes observing us even after we got out of the car. When at last they realized we weren’t passing through, we were there to stay, they bounded off into the bush.

In Grace the trailer our mouse trap caught only one mouse over the winter, amazing. There were few droppings, so the clean up this year won’t be so intense as it has been. It helps that I removed all of the fabric window treatments. The mice were using the material for nesting, and with it gone they don’t seem as interested in the interior. I plan on removing all fabric from the trailer eventually, including the sofa bed, which will have to be completely dismantled to get it out the door. Of course it could be that the snakes we saw last summer have decimated the mouse population, that would be fine with me.

At the Camp, where there is only a partial burn ban, the fire permit allowed me to burn paper. Three full bags of paper documents were burned, three of ten full bags. The rain barrel at the Camp was full, so that there was plenty of water to keep near the fire pit, and to put out the embers when the job was finished. There is a complete burn ban at Mist Cottage, so burning at the Camp is the only option for the moment.

Our first meal at the Camp was cooked over hot coals, grilled cheese sandwiches made with homemade bread. There is nothing quite like these fire roasted sandwiches, they are so delicious I could eat them until I passed out. We brought along a jar of home canned coleslaw, so that the meal included vegetables.

The swamp at the Camp was not draining well, due to a buildup of leaves in the drainage ditch. Attila cleared out the leaves and the water level began to slowly subside. A large ironwood tree had come down in the bush near the clearing. It was hung up in some trees, so for safety sake Attila brought it down using the chainsaw. It will make very good firewood.

It was wonderful to spend the day out of doors. The sun was so bright that we had to seek shade in the shadow of the trailer, as there were no leaves on the trees.

I was delighted to find Mayflowers here and there throughout the bush, as well as blooming Coltsfoot near the swamp. Trout Lily leaves abounded, no blooms yet though. I hope we are out there when the Lilies bloom, so pretty.

I thought I had gone through most of the paperwork here at Mist Cottage, but Attila uncovered another few boxes of the stuff! So I am back at it, sorting, discarding, filing. And I just remembered another stash of documents that I had forgotten about, so they are on my to do list now. By the end of a document sorting day my brain feels numb. It really does seem as if it will never end!

The move here, now almost seven years ago, created a lot of chaos, as we moved on short notice, and into a home less than half the size of our Country House. There are still nests of chaos here and there, the pent up paperwork is just one of them. I am forcing myself to pursue the paperwork purge until it is done to my satisfaction, and this is taking way longer than I ever dreamed it could. I have my fingers crossed that I get through it before the truly nice weather arrives.

Yesterday was busy, with paper sorting all day, along with baking bread and strawberry rhubarb squares, making Switchel for Attila’s lunches, and preparing falafels for dinner. It is a good kind of tired at the end of these busy days.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Wed, Apr 19, 3:55 PM
6°C
FEELS LIKE 3
Partly cloudy
Wind 16 W km/h
Humidity 51 %
Visibility 22 km
Sunrise 6:17 AM
Wind gust 23 km/h
Pressure 101.7 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 7:56 PM

Quote

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”
Charles Kingsley
1819 – 1875

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Teri

Hi, Maggie! You must be busy, you duplicated your entry on the page.

Glad to hear Attila’s eye has healed well! My DH had his eyes checked on Monday as he’d noticed a change in his left eye. Doc says he’s starting on cataracts but isn’t at surgery level yet. He also has a thinning of the retina. Doc said it could be the start od glaucoma but DH has really bad nearsightedness, so that could be it too.

I shredded all our papers several years go, before our move. Since that time, I’m happy to report we’ve only generated 2 more pages – beyond taxes – that can be destroyed, that is.

W have deer and also coyotes in the fields that run to the side of our house. Oh! And wild turkeys. Boy, they can get big!

Teri

Maggie, I have an online friend who is a little farther along with cataracts. She says that now, a few years since the diagnosis, she has just gotten to the place where she shouldn’t drive at night. She anticipates a similar pause before it gets to the point of affecting daytime driving, and that’s when her doc would pull her in for surgery. Might be similar here but I don’t know.

I can relate with the paper shredding. When I did our pre-move shredding I went went back some 20 years- before DH and I had even met!

I would love to see a partridge! The other week we saw a trio of TooWhees on the corner of the boulevard as we turned in. They were facing each other in a triangle about a foot apart and singing together!