Realism - more than Patriotism

[michaelmaltby]

Four Generations .....

I'm off to have dinner with my niece, Emily, who lives with her mountain guide husband in Chamonix, France. In honor of that occasion here's a trip down memory lane. Emily at 15 in 1981, the year we bought the land at Meander. Leks at 15 during his summer visiting Em and working in the micro-brasserie that she helped launch with 3 friends in Chamonix. Four generations at the cabin in March 2008. And her son Mikho and this old guy.... Life is a wheel, eh?
Three days of steady rain ahead ... much needed.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

I see a resemblence. Of course, it could be just the pate. I sport similar airconditioning.

 

[Matt308]

Great pics

 

[michaelmaltby]

Osprey nest, Canal Lake causeway (Trent Canal system)

Boat channel on the left side of the road

 

[michaelmaltby]

Climate Change ..... no ... Autumn ...

Three Brothers Falls - moving downstream I, II III - three in one

 

[michaelmaltby]

KINMOUNT, Ontario: Mill town. Rail town. Then ... and now.

Logging the forests of the mighty White Pine, my wolf-tree legacy, and ... engineered roadbed for access.

BTW - Today's gazebo/band shell is situated where the station turn-table used to be.

 

[michaelmaltby]

New Lawn Mower .....

... my sister . Once she gets started .. there's no stopping her. Born on the same day as me, 9-11, 3 years earlier. She's certainly fit. It was +30C.

MM

 

[michaelmaltby]

Kinmount Fair ... Labour Day weekend:

They come from miles around .... This fair like countless others throughout Can-USA celebrates small town values and virtues .... When Kinmount was a Boom Town, before the 1914-18 war, they had horse races on the oval fenced track ..... used for Demolition Derby and Tractor Pulls today.

Tiina and I got married on the Fairgrounds in June, 1982 ..... by the pond (winter shot) ... with the reception in the hockey rink.

 

[Matt308]

People behave themselves during the fair? Reason I ask is that we have a small town locally (Roy, Washington) that has just shut down an area that is typically used for camping during their annual rodeo. Roy only has two full time police officers and the hundreds of makeshift camps were turning into a drunken fight zone and became unmanageable. As you can imagine, many of the local small businesses were upset because hundreds of camps = thousands of customers.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Last year a fair ground fight spilled out past "Security" - 2 guys followed a third to a nearby town and beat him to death .... but THAT is not the norm - nonetheless, Kinmount is known locally as "Dodge City".

I haven't been to the fair for a few years - once Leks lost interest - so I don't know how visible security is - but 2 of them were ahead of me in the Liquor Store - and they were huge.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Kinmount: off-season and peak season

The cinema owner, Keith, has 5 theaters attached to his house -- he's open from May 24 to Canadian Thanksgiving. Once he can no longer get film as 35mm prints -- and has to upgrade to digital projection he will close down the business. he says. Pity. Very successful tourist attraction for Kinmount.

 

[michaelmaltby]

The Bridges of Victoria County:


Kinmount Main Street bridge (over the Burnt River), Town of Burnt River, northern exit, Old Iron Bridge just upstream from where the Burnt enters Cameron Lake, (Fenlon Falls)

 

[michaelmaltby]

More Bridges ...

Main Street bridge over the Burnt. You see the relationship between the river and the railway. Where the Gazebo-Bandshell stands was where the old turntable was installed that allowed the locomotive to be reversed. The site is now a Seniors Community centre with an HO gauge model of the old RR. On weekends in summer the space also houses a Farmers' Market on Saturdays

 

[Matt308]

I see an opportunity to sell flood insurance. Beautuful pic.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Not in Kinmount, but downstream in the Village of Burnt River it floods about every 11 years ...

 

[Matt308]

Yeah... beauty has its repercussions.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Firewood 2012:

Winter is coming and my friend and good neighbor Willy (seen with his grandson here) decided that my un-split piles of year old Balsam and Spruce (seen behind Leks) were an eye-sore, and needed splitting .... so I arrived at Meander to find this winter's supply of softwood waiting to be picked up and tossed into the wood shed and out of the weather (contained in walls of seasoned Maple hardwood purchased last fall ($225.00 a bush cord, delivered). I will post the finished results when achieved ...

Willy being Willy - and Swiss - he built his own splitter from parts he scavenged. The splitter wedge is a ripper tooth from a Cat D-??? dozer.

For someone like me who makes short visits year round, having generous quantities of softwood is a great benefit. It lights easily with almost no kindling required, burns fast and hot in open draft situations and is the only way to warm the cabin in an hour or so .... at nights the hardwood is the burn of choice, for coals to start the next morning's fire.

None of my stoves are "air tight" or fancy -- but I have no creosote build-ups or chimney fires.

Travel Advisory: The Hummingbirds have left for warmer climes ... and the Ospreys are on their way now to the Jersey shore and seaboard south.

Safe trip.

MM

 

[michaelmaltby]

Softwood stored, (as promised) ...

.... patterns of growth. Willy's land from the highway , entrance to Meander - AKA the wormhole - from the highway, Kinmount by the bridge, Sunday afternoon.

 

[michaelmaltby]

From the air

looking south west. The cabin is situated facing due south ... with the river on the north side. Look carefully and you can see moi on the west deck .... looking up.

 

[michaelmaltby]

-2 over-night ... time for colours

Dogs - other people's - and other friends. Saw a black bear cub on the drive in - just off the highway. There's never a photo-op because whether it's moose or deer or bears - you see them and they step into the bush - which is right up to the road - and they are "invisible". So - sorry - no bear cub photo of mine ...