Update on Kevin ... and county "stuff"

He has had his first physio appointment, and it was a great help. He has a number of exercises he is carrying out, and he is able to bear a little more weight on his left leg every day. He has also been able to straighten his leg a little bit more without crutches (for instance, he can totter about our kitchen now and make a meal without using crutches!). This is good, because he's feeling somewhat on the useless side (although he isn't). For some reason his incisions were hurting last night; I think it's just a "two steps forward-one step back" process.

One of our good neighbours came by and blew out the driveway yesterday in the early afternoon; however we've had much snow, and some wind since, so I will be bundling up shortly and hopefully Kevin can coach me on using the snowblower. Right now both cars have snow banked up in front, and Alison is due to leave for her job at the stable at 9:30. We have to leave earlier than usual because our normal 15 minute route is one of "those" county roads ... named for the family that live at the end, no services, no hydro, inhabited by 700 wild turkeys and as many deer, but unlike most roads here it is very hilly. It is plowed "eventually". So I have to drive out to the highway, out to the Skyway Bridge, then back in Northport Road.

Just so you get an idea ...


Wow ... hard to draw that. Just for interest's sake (tee hee, not sure if anyone actually IS interested, but ...) , I've also drawn on the four access routes to the county (from left to right, blue lines):

1. The swing bridge at Carrying Place
2. The Bay Bridge at Belleville
3. The Skyway Bridge at the Mohawk Reservation/Marysville
4. The ferry at Glenora (pretty cool; this ferry is the only ferry that is part of the Ontario highway system!)

I've added this because last Thursday, we had a flash freeze/high wind warning for the county. A tractor trailer BLEW over on the Bay Bridge (stayed on the bridge, thank God). All the other bridges ended up closed for about eight hours. The only way off may have been the ferry but I'm not sure if it was running either. The cool thing is, when Kev first moved to the County back in the 80's, he actually met seniors who had never been as "far" as Belleville; had never been off their beloved isle. We are actually very self-sufficient here; it's a neat community.

You'll also notice that I've used a winery map here ... and that we are well removed from winery activity in the county. When we arrived in the County, realtors were already selling properties based on their close proximity to the bourgeoning wine industry. As an ex-research chemist who worked with fungicides, that was my cue to look as far in the opposite direction as possible. Now, the County has an ideal climate for grapes ... long, hot, dry summers, which does minimize use of fungicides. But not completely, and I knew that if we were drinking from a well, I wanted bush and pastureland in my backyard, not vineyards :-).

Hoping for some snow photos soon!