CANOEING, STUFFING AND NATURE

Meg and I just came back from 3 days paddling in Algonquin Park. It was a great experience (at least some would say that) and a shortish trip down Smoke Lake, across to Bonnechere and up to Head Lake and that back across to Smoke Lake. Between the driving rain, 1C temperatures and howling wind, we had snow! On top of that, somehow I forgot to pack our camp stove. Meg and I had to madly forage around for any dry wood that we could find. Fortunately, we were able to chop up a dead cedar and strip away some birch bark from an old downed tree to make enough dry stuff to get a flame going. The hot tea and lip smacking garlic pasta with red hot chili really hit the spot after our first day. There is nothing in the world that can rival smokey camp food to comfort a grumbling stomach.
Canoe traffic was negligible and the colours were brilliant. Algonquin Park is actually just passing its prime but the red and oranges are the best they have been for years. Our colours at Foxwood haven't quite peaked yet but are just about to.
Chinook, our straw bale cottage, is now getting stuffed...just like a scarecrow. It's looking more like a home now, well perhaps more like a barn with all of the bales stacked in the living room. The crew should have it all closed in and plastered in a few weeks time. We'll try to do a more thorough update with photos in the near future.
Last week our friendly neighbourhood fox got at 6 of our chickens. In the span of about 30 minutes they were gone, chicken heads torn off and dragged off in to the woods. It was quite shocking when we discovered the massacre about 29 minutes too late. Oh well, that's nature for you and unfortunately, is what a dog's presence likely could have prevented. At the age of 13 Shayla, our bordie collie, huskie, coyote cross sadly succumbed to cancer at the end of August. She was a great friend, and like Howie our chocolate lab who passed away a few years ago, was a tremendous partner in our family and played an important role at Foxwood. Now all we have to guard the place are our two cats, Martha and Zazoo. They are hardy what you would call ferocious, but nevertheless loved members of our family.