Our New Canoe

Back in the spring, my husband bought a canoe from his cousin.

After finally getting the roof rack purchased so we could actually take it somewhere and picking up the life jackets from my parents, we managed to get out to the local lake.

Swamp would be a better description of said body of water. It used to be a mill site and when they shut it down, they just dumped all their leftovers in the middle of the lake. This means that in addition to a million geese doing their business everywhere, the lake is full of logs.

Anyway, the first group went out and was back in a couple of minutes. My friend felt the canoe was too 'tippy'- worse than any other canoe she'd ever been in and didn't want to go out on it anymore.

Elijah, Jeremiah & our friend in the inaugural voyage.

By this point, Graham was back with the rest of the life jackets that I'd forgotten at home- so he took out the next batch of kids.

Jeremiah, Samuel & Graham.

Now, I grew up going to camp and learned how to canoe since it was one of the week's activities. Granted, it's been a while, but I still remember the general points of what to do and how to do it. I even did a canoe trip in college.

Graham on the other hand, has had NO training whatsoever on canoeing. Yet, he bravely ventured out onto the lake with the boys. Thankfully what Jeremiah lacked in size he made up for in knowledge- he too has been to the same camp that I went to and has had a (read single) canoe lesson. So, he was able to at least give Graham some pointers!

But he also went out without factoring in two points: his paddling buddy is 10 and it was a windy day. 

Did I mention it was windy? On a lake filled with hidden and not so hidden logs?

Needless to say, they got out into the middle of the lake and had a really hard time getting back.

And while I was waiting for them to get back, I managed to get a really cool picture of a dragonfly.

It finally landed and stayed there long enough for me
to get a picture. Love my longer lense!

When they finally got back, Graham insisted that I go out with him with whoever was left wanting to go out. Wisely, Rebekah declined and Noah, against his better judgement, finally agreed to come with us.

Now, I'm not really sure what happened- except that I know it ended up like this:

Graham baling out the canoe with a small cup.

The dock that we were at wasn't really a proper dock- just some wooden landing. So when we got into the boat, it sat on the bottom of the lake. So after we were all in and sitting, we had to push ourselves out onto the open water.

It took mere moments after we were bouyant for me to feel like I was falling over- which I was. 

Right. Into. The. Lake!

Somehow, Noah managed to stay in the boat and only got his pant legs wet. Although from the way he reacted you would have thought that I'd burned all his toys while making him watch! He's still upset about it.

As for Graham and I- well, let's just say that we were pretty soaked from the chest down.

When we tried to stand up, there was at least a foot or more of muck on the bottom. Every step required us to reach down, grab a hold of our shoe and pull it out with our foot otherwise it would still be there. Graham eventually gave up and took his shoes off and threw them into the boat.

People walked by and stared and some nice old man grabbed the rope and tried to help us bring the boat back to shore so that we could get it emptied and out of the water.

All in all it was pretty hilarious- although Graham wasn't too impressed. But that might have something to do with our canoe trip from last year (which you can read about here).

It even cost Graham his shoes- he's refusing to wear them again.

Graham's shoes filled with lake muck!

On the upside, the kids (except for Noah), thought it was absolutely HILARIOUS that I had somehow tipped the canoe and sent both Graham and I into the lake.

Needless to say I had nightmares of ever taking the canoe out again- only to have it tip over again with not so hilarious results.

I'll need to pray through that.

Anyway, there you have it. The whole story about our first trip out on our canoe.

On a funny note, this was what I started reading in my 90 Days Through the Bible tonight (Ps. 69:1-3). I thought it so fitting that I'll share it here with you:

1 Save me, O God,
    for the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in the miry depths,
    where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
    the floods engulf me.
3 I am worn out calling for help;
    my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
    looking for my God.

Keeping it real, by the grace of God...

Tammy