1987 Pine Island July 10, 1987 (11 am)

     11 AM: It is day six of our summer holidays. Sarah, Kyle, and Angela are casting off the dock. Rachel and Joanna are paddling around in rubber dinghies. Steven and Jennifer have returned to their sleeping quarters (the floor and the couch in the living room.) They have been very patient with their siblings, who have had a very noisy breakfast with many arguments. Joanna 10, Kyle almost 10, Rachel 7, 8 in September, Angela 7,8 in January, Sarah 11, Steven 14, and Jennifer,14.

     Jim and Susan went into town last night and Suzanne and Wilfred. John had to take Michael in for baseball and Brendon in for hockey. Mary Jane is working and in and out.

     I am sitting in front of the cottage refereeing when necessary. The children are catching more snags than fish. It is a dull cloudy day but warm and breezy. We rented the Rossi’s cottage which is on the mainland behind Pine Island. 

The cottage

Not as good a location as Humbug Point last year. The swimming right at the cottage is not good a mucky bottom and bloodsuckers, but the boat is busy ferrying them to a rocky island close by.

Rachel Punch

    John has the sailboat anchored offshore “The Stitch”. After he brought it down from the Sault the other day and had it settled, he relaxed on a chair in front of the cottage leaned back and looked out at the boat and said "Now it is summertime!"

    The other night I had nine people here. Brendan 16, Kirk his friend 16, Christina almost 16, Michael, Joanna, Steven, Kyle, Rachel and me. I broke up a giggly Scrabble game at 1 PM with the four teens, but they get along very well, all of them in spite of the constant younger ones arguments.

     On Sunday Catherine McIntyre and Tarryn, Mary Anne Wilson, Lauren and Megan spent the day with us. Mary Jane was here and John and Suzanne and Wilf.  Donna, Michael, Kyle and Rachel came later back from a week sail to Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin, Bruce mines, and Hilton Beach.

Mud fight

Dancing in the rain

Boating back from the rock

John Steven and Michael

John's boat the Tanzer 22
 Kyle is now outnumbered on the dock. When he brought the dinghy in Joanna told him how to dock it much to his chagrin. He is going to commute to the Sault for sailing lessons. I don't know how that is going to be worked out but it is not my problem. That's the nice part about being a grandmother, no responsibility for their final outcome, concern of course, and many many prayers.

     I try to convince Wilf when he is nagging and nattering at them, that we don't have to bring them up, but he still pounces on them the way he did with his own children. He has to nag, he has to be the king, is so afraid that he is not going to get the giant share of the food.He feels very neglected because I am down here! I am not his mother! I am not responsible for him, concerned for his comfort, but he is not neglected and has never been. But he has the negative Rheaume attitude, always dwells on what he does not have, can’t seem to count our many, many, blessings.

    To get back to Sunday, the motor wasn't working so the expeditions to the island were curtailed. John got the spark plug plugs, and fixed it on Monday. Steven ranged the islands, and John took the charts and checked the channel because it is quite narrow. Then he took the smaller ones over to the island to swim.  When backing off shore the propeller fell off the motor and twirled to the bottom in about 20 feet of water-$84 later the boat is in commission again.

    They are having fun in the dinghies. We have a two man dinghy and a one-man dinghy, a larger one that goes with the sailboat and a small plywood one also for the sailboat, the Tanzer 22 "The Stitch ". John is again playing in a group “The Night Shift” but he is on holidays until the 20th.

Steven Hoarding the dinghy

    Mary Anne’s children are, one Wilson, Lauren age 4, and one McIntyre, Megan age 2. Megan is very much like Sheila in personality although sturdier. Lauren is a sprite, big blue eyes, wide smile, dimples and a will of iron. Tarryn, Catherine's son is pure McIntyre, a clone for Patrick at that age. He hippity-hops, he jumps, he dashes, he doesn't know what the word “no” means. He should, he hears it often enough! He has just recovered from a fractured arm acquired when he fell off the monkey bars in the park.

    I had better go in the house.  Sounds coming from it indicate that lunch is being organized- hot-dogs. We have the microwave which a boon. I have just contributed to the organization by yelling “lemonade no pop!”

     Sarah just blasted by me to the dock with the fishing rod. “Kyle is weird!”  Why, I do not know!

     It is getting cooler and threatening rain. I should have a sweater on but I hate to go in. The place was fairly tidy when I came out, but it won't be when I go in. Steven has aroused from sleep with the remark “Big, fat, hairy, deal!” It is interesting to listen to the remarks.

Angela Punch

   Jimmy brought a contraption for blowing huge bubbles. I got some pictures of them. 

Joanna and Angela

Joanna Angela and the bubbles

    How do you use the microwave?  I better go in 5-4-3-2-1 countdown chorus!  Someone knows how!

    There is a frog chirping in the bulrushes, and a bird, I have seen a snipe, Red-wing blackbirds, many robins. The children saw a Heron in the bay close by, and Steven saw one on the far shore. There are bats in the evening, a skittering chipmunk under the old porch, and raccoons, if we don't sometimes remember to put the garbage in the small shed. There is a bullfrog too who harrumphs!

    Don’t put plastic in the microwave! I have to go in!