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We had a very nice camping trip on 13^th Lake. We did not rush out on Friday morning since the weather looked so questionable. We stopped to purchase fishing licenses and checked out a camp on Adirondack Lake that we used to rent.

The lake itself was quite windy and somewhat choppy but we were OK. We got the best site on the lake at Elizabeth Point - a beautiful large site on a point, a rock to sun on and beautiful views in three directions.  There was another campsite adjacent to it, and we fended off a few interested parties so that nephew Mark and his wife Danielle could have it.  I hate doing that, but we did it anyway.  We figured nephew Matt and my great-nephew Nathan could share the large site with us.

13th Lake is a very pretty lake.  It is easily accessible so in years past it has been heavily used and there were other canoes and fisherman on the lake, but it was quiet.  As we were canoeing in., an osprey that had just caught a fish flew right past us, not very high up.  We could see the fish was still wiggling.  It was cool.  There was an American Three-toed woodpecker at the campsite, which was also very cool.

We got there about 2:30pm.  We cut wood, played camp bocci and did some fishing. We saw a monster dragon fly. 

Eric has had a loose tooth for weeks, which finally exited while we were camping. Fortunately he was OK with saving the tooth until we got home.  I am not sure the tooth fairy was prepared for a camping trip.

The others did not get there after 7 (they said they got a late start then ran into heavy traffic).  It was a long wait, for Eric who was anxious to play with his cousin.  By the time they set up and we ate it was dark and bedtime.

We hung around Saturday morning since the weather looked so nice.

Fortunately we left the rain tarp up as we got a thunderstorm and quite a downpour around lunchtime.

We got another downpour when we were almost - but not quite - to the take-out.  So we and all our gear were wet when we got home.

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.

We took an early morning walk around our property Sunday morning starting at the garden. We have three rows of peas coming up. This weekend I put up hog panel fence for the to climb and mulched between the rows with horse manure.

Below the garden there were two Canada geese swimming in my neighbor’s pond. You can also see that we decimated the rhubarb as we cut a shopping bag full prior to the walk.

We checked out the lilacs and tulips growing below.

We walked across the road and heard/saw a variety of birds including Orioles, Oven birds, a drumming grouse, and the most exciting- a blue winged warbler or a Brewster’s Warbler - the blue-winged/golden winged hybrid. Kathryn has plans to return with her warbler calls and get a visual confirmation.

We found purple trillium in blossom.

The apple trees were in full blossom.

We saw two Orioles and have had Orioles coming to our oranges to feed. But with the caterpillars coming out the Orioles will soon switch to this food source.

Thanks for coming along

This past weekend (29/30 March) we still had considerable snow. It was a little depressing coming back from Melbourne, FL to arrive in Syracuse and see the ground covered with snow. There was relatively little snow until I left Route 365 and proceeded up our hill. We still had a lot of snow. Kathryn went skiing on Saturday and Eric and I went sledding on Sunday.

The temperatures climbed into the low 40s in the afternoon. I cut up the limb of our shad tree that was blown down during the week.

We saw a big (red-tailed?) hawk circling above our house taking advantage of the warm winds.

Wednesday I was home from work tending to Eric and his stomach bug while Kathryn went to work. Before she left for work she urged me to take the dogs for a walk. We had received 12-14″ of new snow overnight and my old snowshoe trails had been filled in. It didn’t take long for the dogs to stop romping and fall in line behind my snowshoe track.

I always take my camera with me on walks because, well, you never know, but on this day I made a conscious decision not to. I figured with all the freshly fallen snow and it being so deep that I wouldn’t see anything.

On my return loop back to the house I saw where a turkey had landed in the snow. The snow was so deep the turkey sank in the length of it’s legs and it’s wing beat was recorded in the snow. It was so clear that I could see nearly every feather of the 2.5 foot span. It must have happened within an hour as there was no snow filling up the image.

It looked like this, but way bigger, but of course you will have to take my word for it because I didn’t have my camera.