The Future II

October 18, 2025

The events that ended this blog were certainly a shock for us. We went from the thought of a fun spin over to Spain, to be followed by a great birding trip to Costa Rica and then a Spring jaunt around Spain and southern France, to hobbling on a cane, having to be rescued by our friend Juergen, and being bundled onto a plane to be dumped back on our farm.

From that point the question was whether this signalled a huge and permanent change in our way of life. Dodie, who had distained our EV suddenly needed coaching on how to drive the thing. She would need that for ferrying me around hospitals. And how would we stay on the farm anyway? Would we become clients of the grocery delivery service of the supermarket in Mill Bay? Dodie hated the idea of having someone else select the best produce to put in our bag.

We had intellectually predicted this kind of situation, but based on models like Tricia and Ken Graham, we gave ourselves another ten years before having to begin thinking about it. And now, in the space of two days, the future seemed to have arrived.

Meanwhile, my strength seemed to be returning. Still, had the original problem been a mini-stroke, there was a good chance of a relapse. Our provincial medical system seemed too busy to look into it, at least for the first month. But ultimately they did wake up enough to say that they really had little idea of what had happened. That, perversely, was good news. At least they could not name some immediate, disabling ailment.

In early September, it's not clear the guy could do it. (This shot from the previously reported 'Mailbox" challenge.)

But I just carried on getting stronger, although as of now, never quite back to where I was at before leaving for Germany in August. Quite quickly, though, I was able to eject Dodie (to her relief) from the driver's seat of the EV.

And then we noticed one of the giant trees that inhabit our island and farm taking liberties about leaning on a barn. In so doing it joined about a dozen others, either dead or leaning. It was time to call in one of the several arborists that handle trees like that in our area. We chose a new one, calling his business Tree Beard in a nod to Lord of the Rings. Each of the arborists is remarkable, as they climb very tall and scary trees and take them down in pieces. Tree Beard left us with very many pieces.

This was our signal to begin bucking, splitting, and stacking the often huge logs. Dodie is the stacking specialist, while I get to lift huge rounds onto the hydraulic splitter. Splitting with an axe is simply not on on this island. The trees are just too big!

You need courage and the right equipment

These lumps need to be cut up, split and stacked

I managed to burn up one of our three chainsaws while handling all this wood, and then had lots of fun researching a replacement. For a time this was able to drive my usual interests: ebikes, EVs, and smartphones out of my head, until I settled on a 58cc 20" Chinese clone of a Japanese chainsaw design. There are dozens of reviews on Youtube of such saws, and I watched them all. But significantly from the point of view of this blog, was that I assembled and used the saw, moving about the forest debris, and failing to cut off a leg or otherwise injure myself. This was certainly an improved performance over hobbling by cane and weaving down the corridors of the airport hotel in Leipzig.

With the wood all stacked, the question then became - now what? Ok, we invited the Paxman's to come and help pick apples. And we also invited Jo and Karla (visiting from Leipzig) and Marius and Sandra and baby Ferdinand to come and make juice.

Marvin uses a pole to shake apples from the tree.

But Erika sticks to a traditional ladder

These are "Braeburns" but mostly we used Russet for the juice.

Laurie and grandkids Avi and Violet came at Thanksgiving, with Laurie and Avi running in the Victoria 1/2 marathon. And Violet had just done a 5 km Personal Best in Seattle. It was lots of excitement.

Laurie and Avi after the run. They are pleased with their performance. The guy behind seems not so much!

Avi and Violet are a lot bigger than on some of our more famous bike rides with them.

And yet, for long term fun, the thing for us is planning and then doing future cycle touring. Juergen kindly dragged our bikes back from the guest house in Calbe. They are back asleep in his garage in Markranstadt. It would be really wild to jump back on a plane and restart this whole thing from there. Right now, we should be in Provence. No, too many days and too much money has been lost to pick up the threads. We need a new plan.

So, we pulled out the Bike Fridays. And we pulled out our recollections of the Mexican Yucatan peninsula. This was not hard to do, since we and the Fridays had been there in 2023. Yucatan is not all that big, and it's hard to cycle more than 1500 km there, or to stay more than a month. But that sounds just fine as a place to see if we can still do this.

Even Yucatan features some of the classic cycle touring problems. Like how to get the bikes there, and especially where to store any boxes or cases that are part of the arrangement. And if we want to leave from Vancouver to take advantage of a cheap flight, how do we get ourselves, the bikes, and any luggage to Vancouver? Solving these, and all the other questions (what to wear, what tools to bring, where exactly to go, ...) will give us an activity until a departure, likely at the end of December.

So stay tuned for that. The blog could be called something like "Grampies Find Their Legs", indicating that despite losing them in Germany, they were not amputated subsequently by a chainsaw, and we still presumably remember how to use them to guide a Bike Friday.

Violet checks out grapes from our vines. Normally we don't get to see these, because we are at some remote spot, like France, when they are ready.

There are actually quite a few vineyards nearby. Our grapes never turn out really sweet, but others do seem to have success.

Dodie spotted this Pileated Woodpecker on a snag that Tree Beard missed.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	11
Comment on this entry	Comment	7

Scott AndersonYou guys! I've been wondering if Yucatán might be a possibility. Good luck!
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Patrick O'HaraGreat to hear an update from you fine folks.
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Janice BranhamI am just now reading of your ordeal, and admire your fortitude dealing with the travel and medical system. I'm so glad to see you back in the saddle and exploring the Yucatan tour idea. Happy planning!
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Bill ShaneyfeltReally interested in seeing what new stuff (or even old stuff we've seen before) down in the tropics!
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonNice accent on the án!
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Andrea BrownThank you for the update, Steve and Dodie. I'd been wondering how you were faring. It's not surprising that you found plenty to occupy yourself at home (Is that ever done? We have a week to find out.) and now some fun planning ahead. All the best.
Reply to this comment
3 months ago

Keith ClassenGreat to have an update on how you two are doing. We have been wondering how things were going. Certainly not lying on the couch so that’s a good thing. Hope the health issue is just a minor bump in the road and Yucatan works out for you.
Reply to this comment
3 months ago