On Sunday, August 27, at a secret location near ______________, I found this large "Kozak", or Scaber Stalk, a mushroom of the genus Leccinum. It weighed in at about a pound. Remarkably it was free of any insects or worms. I cut it into thin slices and hung them on a thread behind the fridge to dry. We'll see next weekend if the results are satisfactory.

Well, here's the latest news from the weekend.


Sunday it rained most of the day.


Anna, back from Central America, chilled and read a biography of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.


Louise knitted a few more rows on my beautiful new sweater.


The high point of the day was when some men came from the phone company to bury our cable.


This is is now our line to the outside world. We are out or reach of any wireless services, and the phone company does not even offer high speed internet out here.


It was the kind of day that would not really be spoiled by squeezing into the crawlspace to inspect the joists. There was less room than I expected and I chickened out after crawling in about 2 feet.

46.1 N : 76.9 W

Last weekend we set out on another adventure, deep into the boreal forest, in search of the elusive Salvelinus namaycush. This time we did not go up the Dumoine River, venturing instead into the neighbouring "unorganized territories" of Quebec.


Even though we were going for only three days, much preparation was required to ensure our survival in the wilderness.


Our destination was at the end of 50 km. of dusty gravel north of Fort Coulonge.


Two more kilometres through the bush and we arrived at our camp.


And there, at our feet, lay Bear Lake, one of 20,000 untamed lakes scattered across the Canadian Shield.


Our camp provided some basic comforts, including a couple of women to light the fire, start the generator, do the dishes and clean the fish.


Sylvain's boat was just right for trolling in the deep northern waters.


And in the end we caught just enough splake (a cross between speckled and lake trout) to save face and consider the trip a success. Final score: Louise 2, Chris 1. Louise won in the weight category with a 48 cm. 3 3/4 pounder, while my 49 cm. catch was longer but lighter at 3 1/4 lbs.

Lettre de Philippe

Hello Jad,

La situation au Liban est catastrophique. Les villages chretiens de Ain ebel, Debel, Rmeich Kawzah sont soumis a un blocus total. Plus de medicaments, pour le coeur, l'insuline, pour l'hypertension....

Plus de farine, de pain, d'eau. Dans les jours, ou les heures qui viennent, des civils vont mourir au sud liban.

Israel empêche le CICR d'arriver sur ces lieux. Des villages entiers, musulmans sont évacués de force je cite, marwahin, kfarlila, aitaroun... on estime a 10,000 les refugiés. il ssont dans une situation terrible, plus de lait pour les enfants, ni de nourriture et médicaments pour les vieux.

Les villages susmentionnés, que j'ai pu contacter pour la dernière fois hier, émettaient un SOS de désepoir. depuis, plus de lignes téléphoniques.

Des familles sont enterrées vivantes sous les décombres et les israeliens ne permettent pas de les sortir des décombres, vu la pluie d'obus. On est passé d'une guerre classique à une extermination et massacre des populations du Sud. Je veux bien certifier ce point. Il ne s'agit pas d'une attaque contre le hezbollah, ni contre les civils chiites, mais bien contre tout le Liban, touz les libanais.

L'usine de production de lait au Liban a été totalement détruite. avec le blocus, nous allons bientot manquer de tout. Ceci n'est plus une guerre, c'est un massacre organisé du peuple libanais, toute tendances confondues.

A tous ceux qui ont le courage et la conscience, nous vous prions defaire connaître au monde entier la vérité de ce qui se passe chez nous,

Philippe