Carleton Island Past & Present - Renovation of the Villa

Julie: 0:05

No one ever said life is easy, but I believe by giving yourself permission, you will find you have more control over your life than you realize. I'm Julie. I hope you will join me by taking responsibility for yourself, by only controlling the things you can and letting go of the things that you can't. By doing this, you will have discovered the secret to having happy, healthy and more fulfilling relationships. This is Nearest in Dearest Podcast. I'm Julie Rogers and you are listening to season two, episode 15, Carleton Island Past and Present - Renovation of the Villa.

Julie: 0:50

This is my first ever interview. This episode is the third in my special series about Carleton Island. This huge undertaking is being done by Ron Clapp and Janaina Leite. A special thank you to my husband, Woody. Not only is he my life partner, but he is my captain and co-producer for my podcast. I couldn't do this without his unconditional love and support. Woody and I, along with our friends Ron and Janaina, took our boat Knot For Sail over to Carleton Island to get a personal tour of the Carleton Villa, once famously known as the Wykcoff Villa. This interview is recorded right here on this historic property. Never before has this been done. I'm excited to talk about this inspiring journey that they are undertaking. Welcome, Ron and Janaina.

Ron: 2:00

Thank you for having us.

Julie: 2:02

How did you come across the sale of the Wyckoff Villa Ron?

Ron: 2:07

Well, because I've been involved in real estate for quite some time. I get emails from realtor. com, and it was a seasonal one in regards to Halloween. It was basically own your own haunted house or something like that. Not that I was looking for a haunted house, but I was just checking out the different houses and I saw this one and it just caught my eye right off the bat, not only because it was just cool structure, but then it was also on water. Being from Florida, you always want to be on water, so it's always great.

Julie: 2:43

So have you ever been up here to the northeast of New York before?

Ron: 2:46

We had never been here at all, so I was born in Massachusetts, but basically I've been a Floridian since I was five years old.

Julie: 2:54

Wonderful. All right. Can you share about your experience when you came here for the first time, Janaina was with you, right? How was that feeling.

Ron: 3:08

It was really a surreal situation, because there's a walkway that comes kind of through the woods and you can't see the villa as you're approaching the house and then all of a sudden, basically the woods end and then there it is, and the very first instant when I saw the house, there was actually a graffiti up in one of the upper windows and it actually had my name, Ron. That's crazy. And so I immediately stopped and I just turned to Janaina and I said you're never going to believe this. And basically I pointed up to the top window and it was you know, because the house has that haunted kind of story behind it. Yeah, but as a Christian I got such a peace about the the house it's. It was you know. Yes, it was very cool to see, to see my name, but it was just more of a positive sign that. That's why.

Julie: 4:11

I love that there always are signs. You just have to pay attention to them. Right, Absolutely Okay. What other projects have you done before that were challenging?

Ron: 4:23

Well, I've. So I've been involved in real estate for now 20, 22 years, so I've had lots of renovations along the process nothing to this scale, but I'll say I was bored in 2018 and and I went out to. I had gone to Hawaii the year before and was just intrigued by this open, vast land that was at the bottom of Kilauea. Basically the, the whole area had gotten devastated with lava and it was just covered with black lava, with an ocean, wow, ocean front and and the Kilauea volcano in the back. ( Ja. - I h a b t for sure i

Ron: 5:03

And so and so, basically, when I, I kind of I said somebody's got to own this land, so I kind of began my research from there and actually I built in 2018 I built a cargo container duplex, basically out of three 40 foot containers and it's all off-grid so it has a catchment tank for water and solar powered. But once you actually go inside the cargo container, you'd actually have no idea that you were in a it's you know fully drywall.

Ron: 5:33

You know, fans in the window, fans in the ceilings and just beautiful decor.

Julie: 5:38

Wow, that's lovely. So that's open. Is it like an Airbnb or VRBO?

Ron: 5:44

vacation rental.

Julie: 5:50

nice, I'm gonna add that on my show notes.

Julie: 5:55

If they're interested, they can look at that. Absolutely wonderful. All right, what's your goal for this renovation and can you explain why it's a renovation and not a complete restoration? What's the difference?

Ron: 6:07

Well it's, it's really, that's a really good question because the fact is that it is a renovation, but it is also a restoration in the fact that we want to keep as much of the integrity of the look and feel of the villa of the origin of Carlton's, and you know wonderful that we want to keep as much as possible, but we also want to add those, you know, modern things like electricity.

Julie: 6:34

Yeah, washing toilets.

Ron: 6:37

So this, you know, and we're going to. You know, yes, we're gonna make it our own, but it's also it's going to be. You know, our goal for the property is to. The original thought was to have it as a bed and breakfast, and then I realized that I had to feed the people that are here, because you can't just be hungry and go go down the corner, no, the street. So we have to have a Restaurant to some to some degree, and I figured that that was actually a great opportunity because the boating community is so huge up here.

Ron: 7:05

Yes, it is that there's going to want to be people that are just gonna, you know, come here for the, for the restaurant. The other aspects of that, or the another bonus of being a restaurant, is the fact that Not everyone is going to be able to or want to stay, stay the night in the bed and breakfast, mm-hmm. And so the restaurant opens it up for more opportunity for people to to come and visit and experience the villa in what will be all it's, you know, grander.

Julie: 7:37

So absolutely well, woody, and I will be one of your first ones to do that. Just say so. You bought the property from Charles and William Miller, correct? They still have a home and property here as well, right, correct? Why do you think that they chose your offer to buy this villa?

Janaina: 7:57

I think it's timing. I think a lot of it was also timing for them, right.

Ron: 8:02

Yeah, it had been for sale for a number of years. Yes, um, you know, frankly, I don't know why nobody else bought it. You know, yes, it is a big endeavor, it's and this is not for the faint of heart, um, I just, I just know that I can do it and it's just, let's go, let's move forward. But I think that they want to see it come back to life. They actually grew up next door. Their families have been actually. Their house was built in 1879. So it's actually-.

Julie: 8:42

So many generations have been there. It was built before the villa.

Ron: 8:49

So I think that that was an important aspect too. But as far as why they accepted our offer, I think we made the biggest offer that you know.

Julie: 8:58

And they probably saw the timing and that you have that drive. They could see that you were serious about undertaking this right. Absolutely, Absolutely. How has the community here in Cape Vincent been supportive? How have they shown that to you?

Ron: 9:11

Coming from not to downgrade Florida at all, because I love Florida, but the community up here has been Incredible, Absolutely incredible. There's-.

Julie: 9:22

That's great to hear.

Ron: 9:23

And it's not just because of the supporting of the villa, right, they've just been really great neighbors and that's you know. That extends to everywhere. I mean we're Everywhere. We're playing pickleball with people up here, and it's just you know, such a welcoming environment here.

Janaina: 9:41

And just everyone goes over and above to help everyone else.

Julie: 9:45

Yes, it's a tight-knit community, for sure, absolutely.

Janaina: 9:48

Yeah, and they're so excited about what we're doing and it's just been wonderful.

Ron: 9:54

Everybody has seen the villa. You know if they're from here. They've seen the villa over the years and a lot of you know and we see the feedback on Facebook and Instagram of you know that they're sad about the decline and, yes, I wish that there was somebody that came before me that you know had stopped the deterioration, but unfortunately there wasn't. But they're just so grateful that the deterioration is going to stop.

Julie: 10:23

Yeah, and Woody and I, you know, when we saw that it was sold, and then reading more about you guys and following you on Facebook and seeing your determination and all of that was just so refreshing because we never thought that somebody was going to first buy the property and then try to save the villa, which is a whole nother thing to take on, sure because it's one thing to buy the property just to own it and to have it, yes, and it's another thing to actually restore it.

Julie: 10:50

That's right, slash, renovate it Exactly, which is so great, cause you can do both. Right, there's no rules about that, so awesome, all right, you guys are not afraid to get dirty. Last fall, you began cleaning up the basement right below where we're sitting right now, and when I saw that, that spoke volumes about your tenacity, your willpower and the vision that you both have to make this renovation possible. You are true visionaries to me. Thank you. What keeps motivating you?

Ron: 11:24

Well, it's not done yet. So that's the major contributing factor. Right, I got finished. You know, in Florida I have year round, you know, perfect weather work, and so this is definitely an interesting different animal in the fact that I can only really work from May to maybe October. You know end of October on things. So you know that makes it an extended schedule all by itself, not counting that it's going to take time to do this. Right, you know I would love to have this done in three years. You know it's going to take five years. Baby, I don't want it to take any longer than that. No, I want it up and running and being able to be In three years.

Ron: 12:11

Yeah, I think that's great. I think all of the things that we're doing right now, you know a lot of people are seeing it and saying, well, I don't see any change yet. Well, unfortunately, that takes a lot of planning Absolutely To get to that point, and I've really hoped to be, you know, swinging hammers next year.

Julie: 12:28

And to only have six or seven months to get to do things you know is definitely not, it's half the time, like your projects in Florida, right Because of the, or even Hawaii, right Because of the weather, for sure. Correct, which leads me to this next question. So we know the process is a huge undertaking. You've done 3D drone scanning, a full property landscape survey, diving into the river to survey the bottoms of North and South Bays. So tell us about those happenings and why it takes all of that to even get you started on this blueprint.

Ron: 13:02

Well, because of the original. I would have loved to have had the original drawings of the home of the villa, but from what we understand, they were burned in a fire somewhere along the way. We don't know if that happened at Cornell or if that happened, because, basically, the original.

Julie: 13:20

That's sad.

Ron: 13:20

The architect of the was basically the first architect of Cornell, yeah, and so he did a number of property.

Julie: 13:28

That was William Miller, right, william the General, yeah.

Ron: 13:31

And actually one of his descendants has reached out to me.

Julie: 13:34

Oh, how wonderful.

Ron: 13:36

On social media and basically he was excited to see it and so he's like our family had forgotten about this one kind of thing, because he's done a lot of oh sure, sure, so it was cool to have that.

Janaina: 13:50

I only had a lot of the Wykovs reach out to us. Yes, yes, I've been able to.

Ron: 13:56

I'm an honorary member of the Wykov Family Association on Facebook, yes, and so I've been able to share the process with them as well.

Julie: 14:06

That's great to have all that support from all Absolutely All across the board. So you've talked about your Facebook page and you have Instagram, which has allowed viewers a chance to see what you guys have been doing, and I think it's great that you're sharing that process firsthand because it gets people excited. They want to see the progress. Do you think you're also reaching a broader audience besides the Thousand Islands?

Ron: 14:30

Absolutely, and actually we've had people that have reached out to us from Australia, from Texas, from all over the United States that basically have said, hey, we're following the process and the other thing, that and why. I was not on social media prior to owning the villa. I was proud to say that I never went on Facebook and I had a page but I never did anything with it. It was nothing. But because of the significance of the villa, the what we've discovered about the community wanting to know about it, yeah, shared the things, but what is also, you know, kind of my tagline for the Carlton Villa is giving history a new life and I want other people to realize that they can do this process. You know they don't need to go to this scale, to this grand Bob, but they can say let's take that step, let's renovate that house, and you know in all of this.

Janaina: 15:28

Yeah, let's preserve it. Let's just take actions and steps forward to. This is just so sad to see. It is, it is yeah.

Ron: 15:37

And all of my renovations that I've done. You know, I've never had to do a 3D scanning. You know, with a drone flying around the property we never had to do the. You know the special cameras that we had go inside to create the you know the floor plans and that kind of stuff. But basically that's what. Why we did those 3D scans and the special photography was because we needed to create and that's the great part about technology, which again is great timing for the renovation of this property, exactly Because otherwise people would have had to be painstakingly measuring everything to create new floor plans, but because of technology these days, with a drone flying, it's just phenomenal.

Julie: 16:17

It is amazing to see all that technology and how that can make that happen.

Ron: 16:21

So it's really down to an eighth or a quarter of an inch accurate which is just incredible.

Julie: 16:27

It's mind blowing, isn't it?

Ron: 16:29

So and then even with we just recently had, like you said, the we did a topographic survey and a bathymetric survey for the bays, that we used a LiDAR that was on a drone flying over the property and giving us the you know that topographic, the topography of the land, and that's amazing Again, never did that before, but I'm sharing it online so people can understand it too, understand it and see the process and see, you know, it can be done.

Julie: 17:02

It can be done, that's wonderful. Okay, you guys camped in a tent overnight recently, right here I mean not inside, but outside.

Ron: 17:12

I wanted to do it.

Julie: 17:15

I understand, girl, I totally get it, and you had some friends that came along as well. It's a two part question. First, was it spooky? And second, what else did you discover while you guys were here for that almost a day and a half?

Ron: 17:30

Basically, we spent two nights here. Oh, two nights, Okay, Perfect, and so it was really two and a half days that we're here. Basically, we camped out on the on the side yard, you know because of the story about, you know, the villa that basically the the original owner, William. Oh, Wycoff, right. You know, he basically sadly, he, his wife, died the month before it was complete. Yes, and he died after the first night staying here.

Julie: 17:57

It's such a tragedy, such a tragedy.

Ron: 18:00

So we took the opportunity that you know we needed to confirm.

Janaina: 18:03

To make sure that we were going to make it after.

Julie: 18:05

That's why I'm like was it, was it spooky at all? Because you know all that history, right, I wasn't worried.

Ron: 18:12

I wasn't worried about it. How are you?

Janaina: 18:13

Janine, that was spooky. I didn't feel like it was spooky, I felt. I felt like it was actually beautiful, wonderful. You can see from the tent, you can see the top of the villa and the silhouette of the villa and you know, I didn't see any eyes looking back at us no negative vibes or anything like that.

Julie: 18:32

Negative vibes which was the way?

Ron: 18:34

No, we had like you said we had some friends out that came out, you know, one of the day, one of the nights, and we, you know, set up a little fire and just just had a good time and I was eight, had had some dinner, you know, cooked on there.

Janaina: 18:45

And it was, if anything, it was extremely serene and it was really beautiful and peaceful. And then you know, it was really great.

Ron: 18:54

And we got some really cool night shots. You did. Those stars were just magnificent Because you're far enough away from you, know not that Kate Vincent has a lot of light pollution, right, you, you definitely don't have any light pollution out here on the island.

Julie: 19:09

No, you're even more removed from it because of the water surrounding it. To have that clear view. I mean, it's just, they were beautiful, it was beautiful.

Ron: 19:16

It was great.

Julie: 19:17

Awesome.

Janaina: 19:18

So fall is discover anything new. Oh, yeah, yeah, so yeah, what did you discover?

Ron: 19:22

So, actually, one of the one of the other days we had a tree the tree survey being done. Yes, and he actually, matthew from Ramshorn Survey he basically came out with his family and so he and his wife worked together in regards to doing the tree hugging and measuring the trees. Basically, we were surveying trees that were 12 inches or greater, sure, but his kids, they were actually down by the water in the North Bay and the beach and the beach just enjoying it, which was great for me because of the fact that, you know, just having seeing families, you know, happy, and just kind of just the kids having a good time all on their own, without you know, without any issue, and so that was great. But they also we didn't know it, but they were, they were being little treasure hunters, yeah, and they, they found a whole bag of, you know well, they created a bag of just different pieces of pottery and different that they found. They just found.

Julie: 20:21

Found on the. They took it upon themselves to do that.

Janaina: 20:24

They sure did. Wow, I love that.

Julie: 20:26

So it was cool the little ingenuity there yeah.

Ron: 20:29

Absolutely.

Julie: 20:30

And North Bay is special to Woody and I and our friends and a lot of the locals here and we will take you know, not for sale in some of our other friends boats and we will go and hang out for a couple of hours and picnic on the boat and listen to a little music. And it's a special bay, you know. It has that really serene vibe to it, Absolutely.

Janaina: 20:47

And what I loved, what I discovered personally, but during that trip out here, is that there are a lot of berries and grapes. Wow, so I love that.

Julie: 20:59

Yes, the natural fruits, and. And it's still here, growing and Sure All on its own. So nature has a way of doing it. It will always find a way to still survive. So, but the villa needs help, so that's what you guys are doing, so that's great.

Julie: 21:14

The villa is in great disrepair, as I jokingly say that's true, but you can still see that vision of knowing that that's why you guys are such visionaries. So here's my last question what is the biggest challenge at this moment that you're dealing with? You know, it's kind of a tough question. There's no right or wrong, because I'm sure there's a lot of them, but, like, what really keeps you awake at night? Nothing, okay. Nothing keeps me up at night because I really have.

Ron: 21:47

you know, my faith has brought me here and so my faith will bring me all the way. So that's, I really have a great piece about it, you know. You know, I do my morning devotionals in the morning over at East End Park while we're up here, and I just look over here and I it's, it's his plan. So I may be, it may be a slower schedule than what is what I'd ideally like to have, but it's God's timing, not mine. So, and I'm going to try to help facilitate that timing as much as possible, but that's, that's what it is. I have a great piece about the property and I and so many things over this time period have, you know, I'll say, green lighted this, this whole process, and just shown that it's that this is what we're, what we're supposed to be doing.

Ron: 22:41

So, so, really, you know, will there be stresses down the line? Yes, but is it? Is it over consuming me? No, not right now.

Julie: 22:52

That's wonderful to hear, because you don't. You don't want to be stressed about. You know it's going to be an undertaking. You're you're saying three years, but maybe it'll be five years, but it doesn't matter. Every day you're, you're working on something, even if you can't see it, you're working on behind the scenes, and that's what's important. That's what you got to do every day keep moving forward and, before you know it, you know those three years will pass and you even a year from now, and you'll say wow, look at what we've accomplished. Even you guys coming back this spring and summer and seeing the work you did last fall Right, right, like you know, you did that.

Ron: 23:25

And it was instrumental and it was really important what we did last year. You know again. I, we had never done the 3D scanning before. So I wanted to try to clean up as much as possible, because I didn't know what the cameras were going to pick up Exactly and and we, just we just did it. You know we had tried to, you know, get a few contractors out there to do some cleanup process. Couldn't line them up Right.

Janaina: 23:47

So you know what we will do it. We'll do it ourselves.

Ron: 23:51

We're here to, we're here for this project, yes, so that's. You know, that's what I'm here for. If I, if you know, I'm not big on swinging hammers in regards to the the work, but if that's what it's going to take to get certain things done, then then so be it. This is what we're we're doing, but we're, you know, we're actively working on it. We're, we're hopefully having a kind of a land ramp for barges to be able to come in, you know, in the coming days. So we're, there's things that are moving forward to get us ready for for next spring. So we can, we can do some things, that's wonderful and I'm a believer of any project.

Julie: 24:28

Even if it's your own home that you're going to live in and it's an older home, you have to go in and do the work, Like you have to start with a foundation of, like whatever needs to be cleaned up or whatever. So the house knows, or this beautiful villa knows, that you guys are in it for the long haul and that's the connection. I think that you guys have One more thing, I guess, because this is reminding me when you showed us around the property, when you guys came that first day and you looked up, can you tell my audience what you saw when you looked up, when you, when you first walked that path and you looked up first saw the villa.

Ron: 25:02

Yes, oh, I saw my name done spray painted in the in the upper window it was definitely a very surreal situation.

Julie: 25:09

So when that was but it was again it was just a sign that that was we would like to know who the Ron from 82 is 82, in the middle of the the, the oh of the Ron we need to put that out there, like maybe on your Facebook and Instagram, say listen, anybody remember 1982 Ron doing that? And you'll be surprised now with social media and you might be able to, and that's kind of cool.

Ron: 25:33

Yeah, we have discovered that because everybody's. There's a lot of pictures of the, the inside with the graffiti, and there's a a Pablo was here over the staircase. We have confirmation. We have confirmation that there was no Pablo His. His name wasn't Pablo. They just had white paint and they painted it on the on the wall.

Janaina: 25:54

So we found the culprit and his name was not Pablo.

Julie: 25:57

He doesn't know why he did that Just being funny. Yeah, just being funny.

Janaina: 26:01

Yeah, yeah, but just the fact that the you know, would it be an? Abandoned for so long? You know, the inside was covered in graffiti. So for that to be the first, first, seriously Piece of graffiti that we saw, that was actually just perfectly written. It didn't really even come across as graffiti. No, and it was.

Julie: 26:21

It's on the outside, it's projected from the outside and it's bold that those letters are bold, right, right, I mean.

Janaina: 26:30

Or to just say Ron, and it'd be within the first 10 seconds of seeing the villain in person. That was just overwhelmingly amazing.

Julie: 26:41

I can imagine. I can imagine Well, is there anything else that either one of you would like to share with my listeners? Or how about this Is there? Is there anything like if people want to help out, or are you doing any kind of fundraising or anything like that that you're thinking about in the future?

Ron: 26:59

I'll let her start if she wanted to say something about it.

Janaina: 27:02

Well, I wanted to thank everybody. I wanted to thank the Millers, I wanted to thank all of the people that live here on the island.

Ron: 27:10

The Kernins.

Janaina: 27:11

The Kernins, you know all of the people that live on this island, everyone in Cape Vincent, for your support and for your kindness, and that that really goes a really long way. We, being from Florida, the last thing that we wanted to do was come in and disrupt a town that has is so tight knit and so beautiful. That's the last thing we wanted to do, and so that, to me, is just. I'm so grateful for that and I wanted to thank them.

Julie: 27:44

Thank everyone Well we bottom of our hearts. Well, we can feel that, we sense that. We thank you guys too, because you know, timing is everything and for you guys to come in and Cape Vincent is doing some more things to make our little community even better for for our locals and for tourists coming in, and we're a special little town and you guys are fitting, fitting in perfectly. So we thank you for coming in and believing in us. Thank you, so, thank you.

Ron: 28:12

Yeah, you mentioned in regards to you know what's what's coming up and what's you know is there fundraising aspects? Yes, there, there is certainly a component to this of the fundraising. You know, and just because of the I want to be, as, in tech, have as much integrity in regards to the process that this is why some of the planning stages of what we've been doing to show that this is really, you know, there was actually GoFundMe pages created way before when they were trying to just buy the property.

Julie: 28:47

Oh really, I never knew that Okay.

Ron: 28:49

Where that money? Went I have no idea, but I didn't want to do fundraising too early on because I wanted to basically be able to demonstrate and show that this is actually really going to happen and you're committed Very serious. And that's been a great part about people that have reached out already to volunteer their time. Unfortunately, it's almost tough to have volunteers here on the property just for safety sake. Oh, absolutely, but there's definitely going to be that component for volunteering. We want to involve the community with this project.

Janaina: 29:22

And so many people want to help so many people have offered their help from all over the place. It's really been overwhelming right.

Ron: 29:31

Yeah so, but we're working on some things to help start to raise some funds. You know Whether it be you know we've had some t-shirts made and people are like oh well, can I buy one of those t-shirts? I haven't made them yet, but I'm going to. We actually just finalized a new logo for the Carlton Villa.

Janaina: 29:55

And that's been one of. That's actually that when you'd mentioned. Has there been a challenge? Yeah, so, ironically enough, that's the only one that I have found to be a little tough is finding the right logo that represents what this beautiful, beautiful structure is.

Julie: 30:12

Because that's branding and you want that because that'll be it, and they were always t-shirts, bumper stickers, whatever right. So it is a big to do to make that decision, so yeah.

Ron: 30:21

But there's going to be, you know, I want to say that in the in the back of my mind, for all the different ideas and that kind of stuff, I think there's going to be opportunities for you know we'll say, a major donor to be able to name a room. You know that's within the villa, so that's it's really there it's there.

Julie: 30:39

Oh, people will love that. So I think that there's different.

Ron: 30:42

You know we can certainly do the bricks and that kind of stuff that we can have. You know, people put their names on it, sure, and those are. Those are the things that you know we're going to do. But you know there's an opportunity, there's potential that we're going to try to build some cabins and that will be able to allow people, while we're in construction, to be able to actually experience the property. There's a great big wooded area that's behind their property that we do own, and so there's an op you know that's in the in the works as well, that we're we're trying to figure out if we can do it. That's fantastic, but it's it's the way that somebody's going to be able to say, okay, let me give. Let me give to the Carlton Villa, because I know it is going to the restoration, but I also get a night stay.

Julie: 31:29

Yes, it's a bonus Right.

Janaina: 31:32

Because of those other front page and stuff like that. We just make sure we're clear with everyone.

Julie: 31:39

Absolutely, because is it nine, nine acres, 6.9 acres, 6.9 acres?

Ron: 31:44

And basically we back up right up to Fort Haldeman.

Julie: 31:48

So, there's.

Ron: 31:49

There's also that tie in too in the fact that people are going to. You know not that there's much up there as far as you know the Fort structure and everything, but you'll be able to experience the, the height of. You know what the fort was overlooking. You know you've got incredible views up there. Yes, there are still some remnants of the chimneys that are up there but you can see some of this the, the shape of the fort and that kind of stuff. Absolutely.

Julie: 32:15

Well, for the history buffs and there are a lot out there, and Woody and I are definitely history buffs and for Fort Haldeman to be your neighbor and to make that more accessible. You know, I'm sure that that could be done in the future. What a great opportunity.

Ron: 32:26

And, from what we understand, there are artifacts from from Fort that are in museums that are not anywhere even remotely close to here, and so you know if we can bring some of those items back to the to Gula for a display. I think that just helps the tie it all together. You know the museums, you know Cape Vinson Museum has a great little display for the Carlton.

Julie: 32:53

Gula yes, they do.

Ron: 32:54

In there, but they've got a lot. There's a lot more to Cape Vinson as far as the history, Absolutely, and it just allows more people to get involved in in the history For sure. And so, yes, there's, there's lots of opportunities that are going to be coming.

Julie: 33:07

Wonderful. Well, I can't thank you both enough for letting me interview you here. I mean, it makes me feel like I don't know. It's just a real moment. I'm still like in shock about it. So I thank you for allowing that today. Thank you so much, and we're just looking forward to all the progress that keeps happening and we support you guys so much and we just know it's going to be amazing.

Janaina: 33:35

And the only thing I was going to say is to look out at night towards the villa and island. It's a little secret to look out, during the winter, I guess, and starting in October.

Julie: 33:49

Yes, it's a surprise, Awesome, Awesome. And you one more thing. I guess you want to stay. You want to see a little bit of snow, maybe before you go back to Florida. Right, I'm staying until we see snow. It could happen in October, probably not, but it could. You never say never when it comes to the North country.

Ron: 34:09

I can consistently tell you she's the only niece to see it one night, because this is already, you know, considerably colder than what you're turning into Exactly.

Julie: 34:18

Exactly, all right. Thanks again, guys. You're welcome. Thank you. Be sure to check out my show notes and links on my website, nearest and dearest podcast, or from wherever you listen to my podcast there you will find hyperlinks for more information about this episode. Thank you for listening. The views and opinions expressed by nearest and dearest podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of nearest and dearest podcast. Any content provided by Julie Rogers or any other authors are of their opinion. They are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything. Thank you,