Had a great night last night out on Woods Island. Ben, John, Newton and I ate well, talk to well… And Sang not so well. I woke up at 4 AM just feeling thankful for everything in the world around me

I managed to go back to sleep until 730 and Ben and John we’re already up making breakfast

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We all enjoyed jumping in the lake at least this picture isn’t too revealing

I went on a run around the island. It’s about 2 1/2 mile loop… From what I could tell we were the only ones on the island. There was one other boat it was just taking off

It’s such a wonderful trail. The other side which was much sunnier and buggy or… Had great raspberries

We spent several hours doing absolutely nothing which is just what I needed

I had to leave the island around noon to get back for an event later today. The other three guys escorted me back to the mainland. On the way we spotted this bald eagle. I’m not sure you can see the pictures here but I am including them all in the case that your eyes are sharp

In contrast to Yesterdays choppy waters… Today it was like glass

We moved my boat to newts truck and the guys refilled their water before saying goodbye to me

As soon as I hit land I jump back into work mode got on several calls. I had time to drive the hour home take a quick shower and then head to my good friend Ann’s retirement gathering at the waterworks

And has been a professor at that Champlain College emerging media center for 20 years. I worked with her closely right after Sam died and have become a very good friend and sometimes collaborator. They were about 60 people gather there today to share messages about Van, our impact on students, and well wishes for her next adventure. It was a great gathering

And his inspired so many people… She certainly inspired me. I can’t wait to see what she does next

I know what I’m doing next… I’m going to sleep. More tomorrow

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Greetings from woods island , VT – aka ‘hogisland’ . I’m on our annual kayak camping trip into the remote Champlain islands . Woods is about 3 miles off of burton island . It’s an uninhabited island with 6 really nice camp sites . Tonight ITA just me, john b, Ben and newt . We paddled out here with a 1ph headwind and 1-2 foot waves . It was really pretty exciting !

We got a late start… Jana Newton came by our house around 11 to pick up my kayak…We went over and packed up at Ben’s. Tati had made us a wonderful lunch of borscht , smoked salmon, and olives .. yum

Ben showed us A new Flavor of ice cream he’s in bed it for Bernie’s campaign… Can’t release the details here but it’s pretty cool

We then I’ll strap the boats together and headed up to Saint Albans

It was almost 4 by The time we launched. The wind was pretty fierce

It was a beautiful crossing but pretty rough. It was nice when we finally found our campsite

Quite a bit of our stuff and gotten wet because of the way. That was despite wearing spray skirts and using dry sacks. We hung out with stuff up to dry as we cooked

on the menu tonight was cheese fondue and grilled shrimp… Really tasty… The rum helped as well

After dinner we sat around the fire and Sang… Interesting that none of the four of us can sing at all

Now alone in my tent to the wind and waves… So peaceful out here.

I love being out with my friends

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

I was supposed to be out kayaking today… But our trip was delayed a day. The upside of that is that I was able to help stack the wood today. It’s never a fun job but between Diane our housemate Hunter our housemate Izzy, Angela and Elliott who stop by we made pretty quick work of it. Five cord in less than four hours.

Between that and the one cord we still have that’ll keep us warm next year. It’s certainly warmed is up today stacking it

I spent the rest of the day getting ready for the kayaking trip… About five Deb came over and we headed to our friend Letitia’s for a wonderful meal and a fantastic chamber music concert. Letitia and her husband Brian have an amazing concert space made out of two shipping containers that are welded together. They also had an amazing collection of chickens and pigs. They had a whole bunch of new piglets which were amazing to watch. So cute

It was pretty buggy out there and I had forgotten to Bring a hat… Luckily one of Letitia’s daughters had a wonderful green leprechaun hat which she let me wear

The meal was really nice and we all ate outside

The concert venue was so cool.

They played pieces by Haydn, Debussy, Gershwin , Florence price, And a few other pieces which I can’t quite recall. There were two violinists including Letitia to cello player and a violist. It was a wonderful concert.

Now home and ready to sleep. More tomorrow from a kayak

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

I ended up working all day… Which wasn’t my plan. I had planned to be out today and prep for my kayaking trip… But that got put off a day. It worked out OK because there were some emergencies at work that I had to attend to.

Around seven I headed to Waterbury to meet up with my friend John B. He’s part of the organizing group of a maker space called makers fear and Waterbury. Currently it’s an artist collective… But they’re looking for space to build a studio. That generator we always relied on the help of other maker spaces to get us going. I really look forward to helping these guys in anyway I can.

They were staging a meet and greet event today in connection to Waterberry block party. Waterberry had blocked off all of stove street and had a band and food vendors… It was so much fun. My job was to run my flamethrower Within eyeshot of the party to Luer people over to learn about the maker space. It really worked. They had a full house all night

I particularly loved watching people smile when they hit the button on the flamethrower… There’s something about that warm glowy smile they get

OK it’s after midnight in time for bed. We have a lot of wood to stack tomorrow.

Night all, nights sam.

– me