mrsD is leaving for vacation soon:
 

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! :rolleyes:

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

Vacation
 

Take me with you, Mrs D. :icon_lol: 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.:hug:

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

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!

Have a great time
 

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........................:cool:

Mrs D? You are going to be 'almost home' w/o the 'connection'
 

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! :hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:+ more! - j

Have a great Holiday Mrs D.

have a great vacation and watch getting in and out of those boats

MrsD, I have only 2 words to say:
 

YOU ROCK!

Stay safe and enjoy every minute of your well deserved break! You're what makes this forum tick.

Have a good time up there--
 

--and watch out for the coyotes. :D

Vaya con Dios
And have a good trip

Wishing you a peaceful and relaxing vacation. I love the picture you have up too.

Have a safe and enjoyable vacation

Bon Voyage~! :)
 

Have a wonder time of R n R MrsD.....
Sounds like the perfect getaway!! I'd lOVE to go to an island for while and hide away......especially the island Johnny Depp owns :p (will i ever grow up)

We'll try to mange without you.....but when you come back and if the forum is empty, we'll make sure you get the memo on which psyche ward we all ended up in.......http://dl7.glitter-graphics.net/pub/...kkc1srvkop.gif
Be Safe!
Rae
:hug:

Have a wonderful vacation!

Hi
 

:o:) Going to miss you sweet lady,but already have,been in ICU for a month, and hospital for 2 more...:eek::eek::eek:. Well one way to get children to visit...Have a wonderful time my dear lady,many hugs and kisses..

I'm thinking of moving back to Mi. to be closer to my oldest son and his wife Dr.Amy.. so take lots of pictures for all of to enjoy and many blessings
to your family,,we are all getting older:rolleyes: Hugs Sue

We've moved the leaving date to Monday... hubby feels better about the weather and traveling for that day.

Saturday is supposed to rain...Sunday the marina closes at 2 pm and we can't make it by then, so Monday it is.

Gives me a couple of days to get the house in better order...it has been so flaming hot lately neither of us is doing much physical work.:o We lost the weekend to a power failure...so we couldn't even have fans those days!:p

I enjoyed your pics of your summer home MrsD. :) I don't know how you make it without electricity and running water though! :eek:

Have a good time!

LOL I don't know how we do it either.

Part of it is, we live a more "simple" life!
This is a vacation after all.

If we had to work, and do the stuff that goes along with that, it would be much harder. Longer days in the summer up there, mean more light, later at night. That helps.

I wouldn't be able to do it if I had other responsibilities and it wasn't summer. And we remind ourselves that the "locals" just got electricity up there in the late 60's, themselves. Thinking about living there without power year round... does not appeal to me at all! (most of us islanders are using their old propane refrigerators, that we bought from them, in fact!)

The air is so much cleaner. Everyone who goes up there has a sleeping attack, and takes naps all day long etc. It is quite dramatic. Last summer my son slept most of his short one week away! Once you see and feel the difference between pollution and clean air, you never forget it! With the new medical information coming out about nanoparticles from combustion of gasoline engines, I am thinking many of us are ill because of this invisible pollution (which contains heavy metals too).

I used to be so tired and stressed from work, I'd crash up there too. But since I retired, the sleeping thing is less for me, but I do take naps often that first week. It is also very quiet, and no city noise, no sirens, no zooming motorcycles in the night, etc.

Instead we have screaming mink! Yes, they start with their territories(the kits grow up and fight amongst themselves--often at night) and fight something awful...and they mate too, and hold the eggs until spring (like bear do). It is called delayed implantation. You never heard such sounds...like from a horror movie. Took me a while to get used to THAT. We always have mink, and with the water level down this season, they might be back under our old dock that we don't use anymore. The mother brings the kits over when they can swim to live with us! LOL Mink are solitary animals and very territorial and the fights start as soon as the litter which is usually 4 of them, breaks up into adults.

One year one juvenile took over my pontoon boat, and he'd lie around in it, groom himself and poop on my rug! He even chewed thru the strap that holds the battery on the back and I had to replace that. Mostly they eat fish tho.

Holy COW! I don't know if I could stay up there alone! Geez, don't you have gray wolves up there?? Sheesh.....vacation?? Sounds like 'Survivor'.:eek:

However, if my kids keep coming home, maybe I need to consider accomodations such as yours.:p

Have a restful vacation!:D

Yes, we had wolves for several seasons. They came to our island with cabins on it (we saw their scat), only during winter. But the other island the family owns is very close to the land, and one summer, near the end of our stay, I saw a wolf swim off and over to the better hunting grounds. I was taking plaster casts of their footprints and I knew they were there, I have one on my shelf here over the monitor in fact.
That summer we heard the wolf cubs whining when we went there to explore and picnic. Mom must have been away...

Then the locals decided the wolves were eating all the deer. The marina owner described to me one winter watching black and gray wolves running down a deer on the ice! Then poof...the wolves moved on. I guess the locals fixed that problem!
So that is why now we have many ...too many... bunnies, that Oreo now catches!

Now I am concerned about the cougars... there are websites for our state, showing cougar photos, some very close to where we are! We've always had bobcats, but they don't bother us in summer. Cougars...that is a much bigger cat!

Mink screams!!!

http://www.entertonement.com/clips/m...ams-AudioMicro

:eek:

LOL never thought to look for a sound bite online...

Ours seem much louder, and intense than this one which seems more like the sounds the kits make when cornered. The territory fights are much louder and the screams are much more intense.

You know mink have stink glands like skunk. We had a ginger cat years ago who wanted to catch a young one, (they den under our old dock) and she cornered one under a rock once. It called for help from Mom like the sound bite for a while, and we kept calling to her to leave it alone.(they can really deliver a fearsome bite). Just then, the huge jets came screaming overhead (before Iraq war they would come down to 500ft and zoom over us in training exercises, and they were truly deafening..we cover our ears), and this combined stress set the little minky off and he sprayed our cat. You wouldn't believe the smell. Just like a skunk. She managed to clean herself off but it took a day and a half. I wouldn't let her in until the smell was gone!

Thanks for putting the link up!

Bonjour....and don't get 'voted off' the island! Have a great time!

LOL

Thank you, we are leaving early tomorrow morning. I may not get online then.

See ya all in late Aug or Early Sept.

Have fun!!!

Well, seems like we're getting a little taste of the wild right here in our little city yard. I was sitting on the patio reading yesterday when I saw some furry movement in the background right above my book. Fully expecting to see a cat, I looked up, and right there, four feet from me was a groundhog! I was too afraid to move, not knowing if they tend more toward fight or flight, so I waited until it moved a good distance away before getting hysterical.

So I set up a humane trap last night (we had one a few years ago too) and awoke to a catch this morning, but it wasn't a groundhog...it was a possum! The city came right away and took it, and yes, I know what they will do with it and feel really bad, but a.) I'm terrified of animals, even dogs, and b.) you can get a really stiff fine for transporting animals and letting them loose because of disease concerns around these parts.

So now the trap's set up again for the groundhog.

We were wondering what was devouring our little garden.

I'm not so sure how wary it is of me. When I started flapping and screaming, it just looked at me for a moment, then waddled into my day lilies at a very leisurely pace.

We suspect that it's taken up lodging under our shed, which is resin and a good 15 feet from anything else that it could undermine. If I see the shed getting shorter and shorter as the days go by, I'll know for sure.:eek:

Hello everyone! Just an update....I plan on being home soon, perhaps next weekend. It will depend on the weather and how rough the water is up here.

We are relaxing but there are rubs too this year. I will go into more detail later when I have better internet access.

But I am puzzled by my feet... The first 2 weeks were rough...all the rocks and uneven areas we have to walk on.
But then.... all the pain stopped! I don't know if it is the new high dose methyl B12 I started...I bought the new Puritan's 5mg methyl B12 and brought it with us... taking about 4 or 5 per week. I never took that high dose before, because my blood levels are over 800.

I haven't needed my walking stick for 2 weeks now...and I have no more burning either. I wonder about the air quality too. The air here is not polluted like in the big city where we live. With all the new alarming articles on nanoparticles and illness I have to wonder about that now?

Anyway I have some new pics on my profile today, so take a look if you are interested. ;)

I'll catch up better when we get back home, but I will look around here a bit if I have the time after loading those pics.

MrsD-

Have the best possible time on your well-deserved vacation, but we'll be very happy to welcome you back! Have fun, and hope you're feeling okay.

Best wishes,

Sheltiemom

Mrs D? We've missed you soo much? But WOW!
 

Between a vacation and feeling SOME relief? What a present in life!
Enjoy every last crumb! I'm looking forward to pictures, Please??????
:hug::hug::hug::hug:'s - j

Well there's our Answer!
 

:highfive:
If the island is doing THIS much good for your PN (!) then.....
certainly you, being of such a saintly caretaker by nature, will find it no inconvenience to allow for say.......15-20,000 of your closest PN friends to come live there, yes? :Crowded:
We can all pitch in for an even bigger fridge ?

I call dibs on a bed/couch! :)

Sarah Mae gets the couch!
 

AND perhaps if we all agree to wear a TOGA (?) this would help keep the line from getting too congested at the laundry mat!

.......and don't worry about the plumbing :)
I come from humble beginnings.
I do know how to put a bucket to good use ! :icon_razz: