Thoughts and stories, by Pal

They Call It 1000 Islands Just Take a Look What is There Aerial view showing some of the many islands of the Thousand Islands. The Thousand Islands is an archipelago consisting of exactly 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about 80 km on St. Lawrence Seaway, but the largest clustering of islands falls between Cape Vincent and Alexandria Bay in the United States and Kingston and Rockport in Canada. The islands range in size from over 40 square miles to smaller islands occupied by a single residence, to even smaller uninhabited outcroppings of rocks that are home to migratory waterfowl. The number of islands was determined using the criteria that any island must be above water level all year round, have an area greater than 1 square foot, and support at least one living tree. The largest of these islands is Wolfe Island which is about 29 km long and 9...

                       Childhood on the farm:      My earliest recollections on the farm I guess was the summer I turned 6 years old.  (This would have been about 1914, and the summer before her father died in October.) We were living in a little log house close to what we called "the wash."  Often there were immense floods that came down this wash, from Casto Canyon about 2 miles to the east.  These swift torrents would cut in at the bottom of the wash, and soon a big section of the land would slide into the flood.  I remember this summer watching my father walk along the side of the lucern patch which was sliding in piece by piece, as if his walking there could stop the disaster.   Each flood left its deposit of sand in one bend, which we joyously played in calling it our "sand patch."  It was the most beautiful white sand I've ever seen.  I wonder if I were to go...