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We did a lot of home projects over our holiday weekend.  Friday I mowed all our lawns while Kathryn and Eric went shopping.  Saturday we went to the family picnic at Mark & Danielle’s new home.  It was windy, but the temperatures were moderate - especially when the sun was out.  We played boccie, extreme croquet and took a short hike on the Poison Ivy Path.  Below Nathan and Eric join the big boys for some lawn boccie.

Matt, Mark, Frank, Cody, Nathan, Eric and I used the whole lawn for some extreme croquet.  The game lacked a little something which I attribute to the sprawled out nature of the course (note to self: next time compact the course to increase the potential for collisions); the “I’ll knock you through the wicket” approach taken by a certain pair of brothers; and finally, my own “the game be damned- I will get them for that” strategy that had me break course and go head hunting (note to self: head hunting ruins the game for the head huntee).

Saturday we worked cutting wood in “cookout corner” - our picnic grounds in the 40 acre wood across the road.  We mostly dead wood and had a small cook fire to roast hot dogs and marshmellows.

In the afternoon we went to Syracuse and delivered Izzabella’s birthday presents.  We hung out at the park with Ed, Kelly and Bella.  Eric and Bella worked out the swings -

while Ed and Kathryn debated the new world order.

Below Bella models her crown and earrings that Eric gave her.

Monday morning we went birding.  We took the call tape for the golden winged warbler and blue winged warbler across the road and called in a Brewster’s or Blue Winged warbler.  Later Kathryn packed for their trip to Seattle and I worked on a new trail through our woods.  The “Ridge Trail” forms a connection between our new Trillium Trail and the Musical Rocks Trail.  I moved the downed tree tops and brush to a point that I could get my tractor and brush hog through.  Then I mowed the trails through the woods.  I capped off the night by taking Ibuprofen and hitting the hot tub.

Today we worked at making a short, new, trail through our 40 acre woods. We wanted to be able to walk along the stream bed as it offers a great place to explore and discover. The stream bed was clogged with limbs from past logging and old junk. We found old metal cans, buckets, glass, and 3-4 tires.

While we cut limbs to make a path alongside the south side of the stream Eric found a large log that made a nice bridge to cross the stream for a branching trail up the hill. Crossing the log we found the largest group of trillium I have ever seen. We counted nearly 20 separate purple trillium in this patch.

In adjoining areas we saw a half dozen Jack-in-The-Pulpit plants.

Last week Barb and Joe found a Eastern Painted Turtle hatchling - probably only 2-3 days old.   He was tiny and likely destined as a food source.  They asked Eric to raise the turtle until he was a little older and had a better chance at survival.  Eric named the turtle Painter and after a copy of fretful days he/she has started to eat.  Painter ignored the fruit: blueberries and strawberries but took tiny bites of soaked dogfood and a bite of an orange.  Yesterday while Kathryn was working home alone she said she could hear the faintest sound of smacking and looked to see Painter eating a mouthful of dogfood.

In the picture above Painter is in ‘basking’ mode.  At night Painter hides under the vegetation.

A few weeks ago Eric mastered counting to 100.  It is a process that, once requested, can not be shut off mid-stream.  My mom asked him to count to 100 and when Eric reached the 60s she was impressed enough and decided tried to abort the process - without success.

Recently Eric went for his kindergarten evaluation where they tried to determine his skill level.  The teacher asked him “How high can you count?”.

Eric looked at her solemnly and replied “This could take awhile.”

“In that case, just count to 30″ replied the teacher, who had probably been down that path many times before.

Have you ever gone on a camping trip that looked like a disaster from the start? Kathryn and I and were invited by our friend Rich Roman to go canoe camping on Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondack Park.  It was sprinkling lightly as we loaded our VW Rabbit with our canoe, dog and camping gear.  As we drove from our house to Stillwater the light sprinkle transitioned to a heavy downpour. With a feeling of impending disaster Kathryn and I made up this poem as we bounced through potholes on the dirt road into Stillwater. This is sung to the Cowboy Ballad “I Ride An Old Paint” (I lead an old Dan).

Crazy Rich Roman had a wonderful thought:
“Let’s go canoeing with the maps that I bought.”
So to Stillwater Lake we all did proceed,
now it looks like some dry clothes we all soon will need.

Chorus:
Ca-noe-ing, Ca-noe-ing in the rain.
Our hands are all callused, our shoulders in pain.

We paddle on the left, we paddle on the right.
Jim calls out “Hup” and we paddle through the night.
It’s dark and it’s gloomy, the clouds fill the sky.
We search but we can’t find a campsite that’s dry.

Chorus

Everyone got wet, but only one didn’t care.
That one was Choice* with the waterproof hair.
He sat in the middle with a smile on his face;
The rest of us wondered why Rich chose this place.

Chorus

*Choice was our yellow lab/golden retriever dog who loved the water.