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When my brother was about 10 years old he was fishing at Schoharie Creek and came crying back to the house.  He had been fishing for carp, found it boring and set his fishing pole down on a rock while he played nearby.  With his attention diverted a large fish took his bait and dragged his pole into the river.

My mom asked me to help him retrieve his pole, so as the dutiful older brother I donned a mask and flippers and went swimming.  I remember the river being so muddy I couldn’t see past my outstretched arms.  Through blind luck I came across the fishing line and we were able to recover the fishing pole.  The line had snapped and any fish was long gone.

What recalls that moment, you ask?  Last night Eric and I went fishing.  Specifically we wanted to catch a couple of the larger catfish and clean them for eating - to date all our fishing has been catch & release.  I caught a large catfish and was cleaning it when Eric caught a bass.  We returned the bass, replaced the worm and Eric cast back in.  He was intrigued by the fish cleaning and set his pole down on the ground about 6-8′ from the water’s edge.  (You can predict where this is going, right?) With his attention diverted a large fish took his bait and dragged his pole into the pond.

Eric let out a holler, but couldn’t grab it in time.  I thought it would get snagged in the mud and so took the time to shed my work boots before going in the pond.  That delay permitted the pole to get dragged out deeper than wading depth.

Eric and I went to the barn and got my solo canoe, a garden rake and the 17′ roof rake used to scrape snow off a house roof.  After four passes with the canoe dragging the roof rake I snagged the line, retrieved the fishing pole and handed it to Eric who reeled in a large catfish, still attached who benefitted from our regained catch & release philosophy.

I can confirm that much of our pond is 16-17′ deep and the water is getting cold.

This weekend I celebrated my 55th birthday. It began by taking some time off work early; going to my friends Jim & Pam to get a load of aged horse manure for the garden. While Kathryn and Eric visited with Pam it took me about 1 hour to fork a heaping load on the truck, tarp it and lash it down. Below the “compost” is ready to be deployed as mulch between rows, once the plants are coming up. At this point there are 4 rows of peas just beginning to show through the dirt.

Saturday was a work day as we picked the house, cleaned and did loads of laundry in the morning. In the afternoon we raked a couple of the nasty areas on the lawn and transferred deck furniture from the barn loft to the deck.

Sunday Mom, Barbara, Billie Jo and Dakota joined the Kathryn, Eric and I in a chicken & biscuits birthday dinner capped by yes, Tomato Soup Cake - rich and spicy and filled with raisins, walnuts, and topped with a cream cheese frosting. I calculate I have probably had Tomato Soup Cake for my birthday for about 40 consecutive years now. I may have missed one or two in their, but I can’t recall the misses. Just the cakes.

You ask how could a cake come from tomato soup? and what on earth would possess someone to ever conceive of including it in a recipe? My research reveals that during the Great Depression many ingredients were not readily available to homemakers. They “made-do” with what they had… some depression-era homemaker went through her cupboards to see what she did have, and laid them all out before her….flour, baking soda, sugar, raisins, nuts, spices. A bit if this and a bit of that, and a humble can of Tomato Soup. When there were no eggs, she came up with things like Tomato Soup Cake. And thank goodness for that moment.

I was honored to receive a basketball & net, gift certificate to Miller’s Nursery (for grapes), a GSI Dualist cook kit, Home Depot gift certificate and fish worms as presents. Eric gave me the fish worms so we had to cap off the day by going fishing. He caught a nice big catfish ~16″ and a 12-13″ bass.

Saturday we took Eric and Trevor to the Wild Center, the Natural History Museum located in Tupper Lake.  It was a 3 hour drive there, including our stop in Inlet for leg-stretching, brunch and bathroom break.  The boys played Power Rangers in the back of the car and watched Madagascar on the DVD player.  Somehow the movie ended just as we reached the museum parking lot.

There are a lot of hands on exhibits at the Wild Center and there were staff walking around with Screech Owls and a Raven for observation and questions.  There are pond and bog environments, a trout stream and otters to examine. The boys ran from exhibit to exhibit so fast that we went around the museum twice and they saw all new stuff the 2nd time around.

Here Eric and Trevor check out an aquarium with Adirondack Sturgeon and Lake Trout.

The otters were very active (and hard to catch on camera).

After two hours at the museum we hit the Tupper Lake McD’s for happy meals, loaded another DVD and drove to Old Forge where we took a break at Mountainman Outdoors.   It was a long ride for the boys, but they did great and hopefully learned a little.

We have had a female puppy in our house for almost a week now. She is pretty well behaved - for a puppy. The biggest issue is sleeping at night.  We are so concerned about in-house accidents and so are attuned to waking up to put the puppy outside multiple times during the night.  Between hearing the puppy stir and/or Eric moving around we are waking up hourly during the night.  It is like a sleep lab experiment where they wake you frequently in the middle of dream cycles.  It’s great for remembering your dreams, but doesn’t feel so restful in the morning……

Scout ’scouting’……

Going Fishing…..

My neighbor decided to transform the wet ground in the pasture just south of our house into a pond.  I guess one can never have too many ponds.  This is the result of three days of bull dozer work.  It will be interesting to see it develop over the next year. I am sure we will have (more) geese next year. Eric has already questioned him about what type of fish will be in the pond.