We Battened Down The Hatches

Hurricane Lee had been announced for a couple of days, and finally he is here, though he abandoned the hurricane status and lessened into a tropical storm. When Lee entered the cold waters of the Bay of Fundy he lost a lot of his power. While average windspeeds were still predicted to be around 60km/h (40mph) it diminished to (now) 51km/h.

But we were prepared!

Loose porch furniture had been stowed away into the basement, doors of our sheds were secured, our greenhouse plastic had been secured with 1x2 wood strips. In case of a power outage our generator is ready on the porch, even a lot of our tomatoes had been harvested from our greenhouse and finally Bea has been cooking "storm soup". 

What? You don't know "storm soup"?  One makes storm soup when a power outage threatens. A soup is easy to be warmed up on a camping stove or, in our case, in our trailer. So it is an easy way to get dinner going, and with all of our home-grown vegetables from the garden, it is a delight, when the weather has unleashed its powers.

And tomorrow, we still get a summer day with lots of sunshine.

But vegetables haven't been the only thing going on here. Bea restarted her Monarch Butterfly raising program. Monarchs are threatened by extinction and Bea is making sure at least some are getting a good start in life. Collecting eggs and caterpillars from Milkweed plants in nature she has been successful in raising them to full-grown butterflies.

From the days without rain: Some reflections of a by-gone summer:

Yet, we know that summer is running out. Another month from now, we will have just 3 weeks left until the hitch-itch is all over us. California is calling again!

Depending on weather conditions we choose our best travel route. With winter approaching we will go south along the east coast, but if we'll have an extended fall season we might go the shortest route through Indianapolis. 

The truth of the matter is that this summer was nothing to write home about. Rain and dense fog have been re-occurring weather patterns, keeping me on my toes with lawn mowing. 

The season started in May with cruise ships visiting at Eastport, Maine. One of the most beautiful, and biggest, ships was the "Zaandam" of the Holland-America Line.

More ships will be visiting in October.