The Accidental Tree Hugger

The hubs had been whining about having a place on the water for ages. (He would call it "pining" not "whining", but that's why it's my blog.) A place where he could just hang out, not have to take care of a house or anything, maybe just a lot with a garage, a place to park his car & put a small boat in.

Now when it comes to the environment, admittedly, I'm a little slow on the uptake. Until last year, I didn't even bother to recycle or return bottles. Sometimes I'd leave returnables in the alley for someone else to pick up if they wanted, but mostly I thought that 5c deposit paid for the haul-away.

So last fall, when I picked up a monthly throwaway & saw an ad for an island in the middle of Kinderhook Lake, I never noticed my life was about to change. No bells clanged, no firecrackers went off, and the little exclamation point never showed up in a balloon over my head. I called the Realtor, got some pics, and told Steve about it, but he sort of grunted and ignored me because he was busy. Finally, on Christmas Day, when we had no other obligations, I made him take a ride out to the lake. By this time the lake level was lowered, as is done every fall, and there was no way to get on the island. So we drove around the lake so we could view thru binoculars from different angles, and I called the broker. Somewhere in the dead of winter we closed on a property we had never come more than 200' near, and waited for the lake association to raise the water levels in spring.

What we envisioned in February as a kick-back place where we had no maintenance, in June is becoming a lesson on micro-environmental systems, interdependency, and recycling, all pretty much born of necessity, because there isn't an easy way to get stuff on or off the island.

It should be an interesting summer.