I've put up my vacation avatar, already, and we will be leaving soon, July 24th. As that date nears I have loads of work to do for the moving of stuff and cleaning up of the house, so I will be online less as that date approaches. I have pictures in my album for new posters who would like to see where I live in the summer.

We don't have electricity (but do have a small generator), no running water, but it is very restful and beautiful there. The laundromat in town (1/2 day trip) has a free wifi, so we usually log on briefly there, and use their electrical outlets to recharge our batteries, etc. Sometimes the wifi has crashed...so it can be unpredictable to get online at all.
Hubby's business computer has a 3G card, but his computer is highly encrypted and very very slow. We bought an external battery for all our stuff this year, so maybe we can get online from the island better than last year using his. It can take 15 minutes just to get to IE on his machine and his internal battery is very short now.! And the tower there wasn't hooked to 3G yet so it defaulted to 2G and was slower than old dial up!

So anyone with questions or comments directed to me, please do them while I am still here. We'll be gone for 5 weeks or so.

Hi Mrs D your summer sounds bliss, have a wonderful break - you deserve it after all the good work you do on here - hope the weather is fine

Take me with you, Mrs D. I don't eat much and I just refilled all of my meds for 3 months. I need a break!!!! Nonetheless, have a great time and see you when you get back.

Enjoy your summer at camp. Kitties will too. I am sure they love it as much as you do.

Mere

Thanks.... yes the kitties do like it up there. Oreo the most I think. This may be Sheba's last summer up there, as she is showing kidney failure now. She is really OLD. (we have to take our special foods for them, and us, since it is a whole day trip to a large store like WalMart.) Sheba is now on special kibble called active maturity by Science Diet.

They do not enjoy the trip however, and catching them to put in their cages is very stressful on US. We had a cat run away into the woods one year when we left up there, and it took 3 hrs to get her back!
They don't cry much after the first hour. But it is a long haul for them. 8+ hrs. Its getting to be a long haul for us too!
I have so many flowers in the two vans, that the locals up there call us the Botany mobiles! But having something to do with plants is part of my vacation, so hubby is kind to help with all that extra effort!

This is a funny story: Back when we were first married, in the first 5 yrs...we brought back some tall ostrich ferns for the yard. Getting our stuff over to the car (we only had one small car back then) is difficult, so we brought them back early and the marina let us line them up in the shade along the boat house (we also had a small boat). Well several days passed, and it was early morning and I went to gather up the black garbage bags filled with ferns, and I leaned over to lift one and a HUGE frog leaped out and hit me in the face! I let out a scream that is memorable to this day! (and the ferns are still going well back along our fence today).

i am glad you are going, i was wondering if you had decided not to, it seemed to be getting late in the year.....regroup and recharge!

Wow! 5 weeks! That's a nice, long vacation! Enjoy it! I'm sure you deserve it! =)

Yes, I am not up for staying alone out there much longer. We are having frig problems...propane frigs are not reliable.

Back when my son stayed with me all summer, we did lots of projects, painting, stone work...but now he has a job with only 14 days vacation, and he only saves 7 for us. Hubby gets 5 weeks and used to go back and forth, but I really can't stay alone anymore. Too old, not safe. Last summer was very cold and stressful, and until hubby retires, it will be shorter vacations for a while.

While it is beautiful, it is like living 100yrs ago! Very primative, and some of the storms up there are nasty. I was alone one year near Labor day, before our son was born, and the house was hit by lightning! missed me by 4 ft.! That was horrible in the middle of the night, alone with only one cat, dealing with THAT!

Hope you feel great at least most of the time, try not to worry about all us kids, and thankyou for all your knowledge and advice........................

And you will be at your best in thinking and taking glorious pics and making all of us almost feel as IF we were there with YOU!
But, you too, need that break and a time to 'recharge'! So you and the critters go and do just that! + more! - j