CrossRoads Farm

The 'New' Canoe

23 May, 2005 - 8:32 am

Last week D and Kurt participated in a silent action for some used canoes. There were six of them, I think, and each of the guys bid on two of the canoes. Now each family has a fiberglass canoe big enough to hold the whole family.

I’m just thrilled. D used to have a canoe when we met and although we only took it out together a few times I loved it. Nellie, is not so thrilled. And I’m not really sure why. When I talked to her about it Thursday she felt that D and Kurt would just leave them in the garage collecting dust and taking up space. And she warned me that once we own a house and start to do improvements that all of our weekend will be consumed with the house and the canoe won’t ever be used. I disagreed and told her that although we had a busy weekend coming up D and I still wanted to take the kids over to the floating bridge and take the kids out for a bit. She was skeptical so we dropped the topic.

On Friday I went up to the mall and looked around for the other things we needed for our maiden voyage. Life vests, paddles and a patch kit that I got at an auto parts store. There is a gouge in the bottom of the boat but it doesn’t go all the way through. It needed to be repatched but would be fine to take out once or twice before addressing. So D and I took the girls out Saturday morning just as we had hoped.

The canoe is heavier than it looks and it will take a little practice, confidence and strength to get it on and off the Jeep but other than that we had a wonderful time. We loaded up, drove over to the Floating Bridge and took our little boat around the north end of the pond.

It was wonderful. We just wandered aimlessly across the water. The girls dipped their fingers in the cold water. It was breezy but peaceful out there on the lake. We checked out a pile of sticks and mud and speculated whether it was a defunct beaver dam or just a pile dumped by people. And we saw an oriole in the trees, that we never would have seen otherwise.

The girls love it and can’t wait to take the boat out again. They want to learn how to paddle.

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