Island Life

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The two most common questions we're asked about life on our remote Canadian island are

How can you stand being without running water and electricity for a whole month?
What do you do all day?

While we pretend to be rugged, back-to-nature folks, in reality we've made a pretty comfortable existence for ourselves. That bit about no running water? All relative. The water in French River is clear and pure. We've built a tower of lodge pole pines and placed an old horse trough on top. We pump river water up to it with an old lawn mower engine. Voila. Running water:

We don't even notice that we have no electricity. Who needs air conditioning, TV, or a computer when you can live in a place like this? As for the conveniences, propane makes up the difference. We can run a refrigerator, stove and hot water heater with propane. The result is instant luxury:

The Luxury of Propane Appliances

Our Kitchen with a View

Which leaves only the indelicate question of the outhouses. Yes, we have them (I'll spare you the pictures), but we don't use them any longer. Thanks to the the composting toilets of SunMar and the genius and hard labor of Denny Smith, then President and CEO of Paul E. Smith Plumbing, our tower now supports both a flush toilet and a hot indoor shower (again, I'll spare you the pictures. You already know what they look like).

As for the question of what we do all day, here's the answer to that one:

Cruising

Danny at the helm of our awesome Merc 9.9

Picnic

Jennifer holding down the fort on the "big boat" at Campbell's Bay

Paddle Tubing

Kendall and Natilie paddle Aunt Chris out to sea

S'mores

Jenny conducts the cousins around a Weber campfire

Battle Tubing

The Hepburn and Valentine boys return from another duelling tube engagement in the main channel

Kayaking

Kendall digs in. Aimee is chasing her. That's Pete's sign in the background, firmly anchored to a shallow rock. It says, "ROCK." Pete's a very concrete thinker.

Reading

Look closely. It isn't even a comic book.

Napping

What we all do best.

Morning Mist

"Peace I Ask of Thee, Oh River"

Good Night

The nights are the best. There are no electronic distractions. Peter and I play echo Taps on our trumpets. We do whatever we can do by kerosene lamps--Monopoly, Scrabble, Tripoly, read books, and even, God forbid, talk to one another.

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