After fishing we were joined by Skip, Bonnie & Cindy for a cookout in the woods.   Below Bonnie loads up the wagon with soaking sweet corn.  Erin, Eric and Andy wonder how much water will slop out and Cindy brings more stuff.

We grilled hamburgers, salmonburgers, hot dogs and corn. Skip, Andy and Eric await the final grilling.

We sat around the fire and had a nice chat.  Ron & Jody joined us around 9:30pm.  Afterwards, Skip shot off bottle rockets for our grand finale.

Saturday morning Skip & I went in the Woodsman’s Field Days Canoe Race 3.2 miles upstream on the Black River Feeder Canal.

We were beaten in the C2 class by Paul Olney and his daughter Joanne and
Joe Siegel / Mark Olney.  Paul Olney set the ADK 90 Miler record in 2004 when Skip & I paddled the race.

Saturday night Kathryn and I went to Matthew Tryon’s wedding.  It was a nice ceremony.  Matt was joined by several members of his Civil War renactment troop, that added to the atmosphere.

Sunday Eric & I went in the BHA Hunter Show leadline classes.  Eric got a 2nd in the Equitation Class, out of 6 participants!  I credit Eric’s good posture, my draped lead line which enabled Eric to ’steer’ and the mare Onyx with all contributing to Eric’s win.  In the Leadline Suitability class, I believe the horse is judged as being ’suitable’.  Eric got 4th as the class order was nearly reversed as I believe the judge was just trying to even things out.  All the horses in the suitability class were quiet and well behaved.  Eric got a red ribbon and sticker book in the 1st class and a carrot and chocolate bar in the 2nd class.  Below Onyx enjoys her carrot, models the ribbons, and Eric is a happy boy.

A common theme over the summer was our shifting line-up as we utilized 15 different players and the substitute team played in 31% of the games. While I greatly enjoyed playing with the large number of friends, it did have it’s challenges as we all worked to understand one another’s strengths and tendencies.

Some of the highlights were:

• The temporary return of Becca early on as she fulfilled a local nursing internship
• Rob’s injury in early July that sidelined him for the season
• Julia (or someone looking like Julia) showing up on the night of her birthday celebration
• The mid-season addition of Rachael, our ninja setter
• Scott T.’s “It’s on!” after taking a hard spike to the chest

We won 2/3rds of our games and went into the playoffs seated 4th in the 10 team league.

We got a 1st round bye and faced Matt Sudol’s team with a team of Jim, Kathryn, Julia, Rachael, Josh, Scott T. and Ron.  We missed serves, botched passes and did everything we could to hand the game over.  Down 10-6 we called time out, re-captured the serve and pulled a tie and finally pulled out a 15-13 win.  The 2nd game we jumped out to a 9-0 lead and coasted to 15-6 win.

In the semi-finals we faced #2 Parson’s team and again played poorly, giving the game to Parson.  Unfortunately our time out did not change our fortune and we limped to game 2 licking our wounds.  Game two was competitive, but our mistakes again caught up with us.  We lost 15-12 and bowed out of the playoffs.

Ron, Kathryn and I hung around and watched the finals (there were only 3 other spectators) and Swingers easily beat Parson’s in two straight games.

I want to thank everyone for being part of the 2008 Sand Fleas volleyball team.  I especially want to thank Josh, Joe, Dan, Becca, JoAnn, Scott T., Scott A. and Stephanie for helping out during the season. Thanks to Kathryn for acquiring and making T-shirts.

While I was disappointed in my individual performance and our team performance in the playoffs it is really about the journey – not the destination.  The journey was great.  I got to play decent volleyball with a bunch of great people.  We got better as a team as we went along.  I already look forward to Sand Fleas 2009.

This is the last week of the park program and they are going out with a bang.  On Tuesday 30 kids and parents boarded a bus for the Old Forge Water Safari.  Eric was on the go from 10am-3pm doing the rides.

Thursday they get a visit from the Zoo-Mobile and have an ice cream party.  Friday is a pizza party and water balloon toss.  A great program!

We called to confirm on Thursday night and the forecast had dropped to probable rain Friday night, but clearing to 20% rain during Saturday with rain likely coming in on Sunday afternoon.  We agreed to go ahead, meet early at Hoss’s General Store in Long Lake and try to get on the water at Little Tupper Lake early before winds became a problem on the shallow lake.

We had planned for company for dinner on Friday night and so began our packing early in the week.  Friday afternoon we loaded canoes and packed the car so Saturday morning we only had to add our sandwiches and food packs.  Kathryn & I arose at 5am and got Eric up a little before 6am and were on the road soon after.  We met Jason and Beth at 8:30 as planned.

We counted 28 cars in the parking lot at Little Tupper Lake and decided to return to the nearby empty Round Lake parking lot.

We dropped our canoes in the Little Tupper outlet which drains into Round Lake.  It was a pretty little stream lined with white lily pads.

Below Kathryn, Eric and Jim cruise down the outlet stream.

We found Round Lake devoid of other paddlers as we explored the eastern shore examining the potential campsites.  Several of the campsites are located at old hunting camps built by the Whitney’s.   Most sites are located back from the shore line and have P3 toilets.  We ended up staying at site #4 which was on a prominent point with several large white pine trees and copious blue berry bushes.  The only drawback to the site was lack of level tent sites.  We managed with our two tents, but more or larger tents would be a problem.

Eric, Kathryn and I went swimming while Jason and Beth basked in the sun.  Below the swimmers threaten a passing canoe.

We found a large rock that let us play King on the Mountain before we cooled enough to call an end to the swimming.

After our swim we took short nap and then a walk to scout the nearby campsites.  Beth demonstrates our voting technique:  Everyone that wants to take a hike put their hands on their hips!

As we prepared for the hike Jason noticed an interesting bug on his leg.

After our hike gathered firewood and baked biscuits using our Outback Oven.  We had afternoon tea and biscuits so we could delay dinner until later in the evening.

After our snack we swapped canoes and explored more of the lake so that Jason and Beth could test out the Wenonah Minnesota II. It was a beautiful evening for a paddle.

For dinner we had a vegetable tortellini salad and turkey chops grilled over the fire with marshmallows and s’mores for dessert.

We tried to stay up and look for meteorites, but Kathryn, Eric and I crashed about 10pm.  Beth and Jay stayed up until midnight buring wood, watching the fire and looking for meteorites.  They saw a total of 14 during their watch.

We slept great and heard loons through out the night.  In the morning we added fresh picked blueberries to our three berry muffin mix and then began our leisurely packing up to head out Sunday morning.

It was sprinkling lightly as we paddled out.  As we were loading up Ranger Coons stopped by to talk.  We told him where we stayed and talked a little bit about Round Lake.  He characterized Round Lake as without the winds of Little Tupper Lake and without the portage of Lake Lila.  I asked him about the illegal introduction of   largemouth bass into Little Tupper Lake.  He said they have spread through out the watershed and it doesn’t bode well for native trout.  I asked him about the navigability of Shingle Shanty Brook.  Ranger Coons referenced recent advice by Kenneth Hamm NYSDEC, Office of General Counsel  in the June issue of the NYS DEC Conservationist Magazine. He jokingly asked if we wanted to provide a test case.  We also talked about the portage trail connecting Round Lake to Low Lake/Hitchins Pond.  Another trip……

We stopped at Hoss’s for a milk shake on our way home and thought we had parted ways, however, we later saw Jason checking out canoes in Blue Mtn Lake.

Arriving from the East towards our barn and house.

Right overhead looking down at the house and barn.  If you have superior eyesight you can see Eric, the blue dot next to barn waving…..

Looking down at the house and deck.

They were up in the air about 45 minutes and also captured a nice view of the sunset.

Kathryn said the take off made her a little nervous as the ultralight was swaying a bit.  Once in the air she said it was great.  Although they approach a landing at less than 30 mph and land within 15 feet she said the landing seems fast.

• Once on Barton Hill in back of my parent’s house where they brough everything- pillows, dinosaur books, flashlights with dead batteries and two cook kits, “because I didn’t have to wash one”.  Needless to say Kathryn and I remember carrying our stuff and a fair amount of their’s as well.
• Once in back of their parent’s house where I famously forgot the matches for the fire to toast the marshmallows.

After a successful trip to 13th Lake it was decided to take Eric and Nathan - the next generation - camping again.  We chose Spy Lake as our destination, canoing in on Sunday afternoon and  coming out on Monday. Mark, Nathan and Matt occupied one canoe and Eric paddled bow in our canoe.  For his 1st ‘extended’ paddle Eric did quite well.  Upon arrival we set up tents and the boys enjoyed a snack ’sitting’ in their chairs.

During the afternoon Matt, Nathan, Eric and I took a short hike exploring a near by stream.  Nathan packed his snack bag.

Uncle Mark took a nap.

On our return to camp the boys decided to put the snack bag to good use.

In the evening we had Mac & Cheese and hot dogs or Brats. Below Mark & Matt check on the food preparation.

While the cooking was going on Nathan & Eric worked on sawing serious wood for the fire.

Nathan and Eric eat their Mac & Cheese while the Brats are being roasted by Matt & Mark.

After dinner we enjoyed a game of war.  Below Eric stacks his deck while keeping one eye on his chocolate cookie lest Dad grab it!

Afterwards we enjoyed a spendid sunset.

Matt proved he could not only throw a bear rope over a tree, he also has an artisy side.

About 9pm the mosquitos came out in full force and we retired to our tents.  After a brief story everyone was snoozing.  During the night we got a brief shower which had Mark, Matt and I scrambling to zipper up rain flies - there was a two minute stretch where the sound of nylon zippers dominated. sleeping bag, tent, rain fly, tent, and back to sleeping bag).

Everyone slept late the next morning.  Mark made breakfast burritos and the boys had hot chocolate and oatmeal.  It was a nice trip and Eric & Nathan make great camping companions.

Scout, on the other hand, is a squirming, lap dog, suck up.  Brush me! Brush me!  Ohhhhh…..you are paying attention to me…….ooohhhh.  Scout just celebrated her 1st birthday and was 78 lbs at a recent Vet check up.

Recently I tore up concrete slab from our walk way that goes no where and transported them to Cookout Corner to make a safer fire pit.  Tuesday night Eric, Kathryn and I used local transportation and took our dinner for an inaugural meal.

Our new fire pit is huge and much safer.  Below Trey checks for food scraps.

We have a home made table that I plan to move over to the area and we need to work on some semi-permanent seating.  If I get creative I will try to craft something ‘Adirondack-ish’using the chainsaw and logs.

We were on the water at 3:30 and at Fall Lake 30 minutes later.  We had several rain showers as we paddled.  I donned my rain coat for the 1st hard down pour, but embraced the cooling showers thereafter. There was only one hard rain that caused us to pull under a hemlock tree for a little protection.

Above Fall Lake we encountered a few beaver dams that required exiting the canoe and lifting over. The photo below looks SW and depicts the relationship of Piseco Lake in the background, the airport on the right with Fall Lake in the foreground and Fall Stream draining towards Piseco Lake.

We arrived at Vly Lake at 5pm and surveyed the two campsites along the north side of Vly Mtn.  Both had a nice view of the lake, but were markedly different.  The eastern most campsite had a fireplace and two areas cleared and leveled to accommodate solo tents. Unfortunately, i had brought my Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3 person trip on it’s maiden voyage and needed more space.

The western most campsite had been “improved”.  It had a  an old canvas chair, a gas barbeque grill sans the gas tank, two flag poles, a half buried 5 gallon bucket (clean and 1/3 full of water), and a lot of garbage.

The last residents had left a smoldering fire and left toilet flowers all over the woods.    They had cut a large spruce tree off at 4′ that was apparently obscuring their view and dropped it into the lake.  They dumped crackers on the ground, burned their cans in the fire and dumped beans on the ground.  We ended up taking 2 grocery bags of trash out with us on Saturday.

All this aside, Vly Lake was beautiful.  It was hot, hazy and still as the sun set and the bugs (mosquitos, deer flies and gnats) were swarming.  Skip went swimming while I cooked dinner: corn bread using my Outback Oven and Spanish Rice with tomatos, onions, peppers and  hamburger.  Dinner was one of my better meals.

While Skip washed dishes I went swimming and washed off the sweat, sun screen and bug dope.  Although it was a full moon and bright the overcast kept the moon from being seen by us.  We turned in at 10pm.

One nice feature of the Big Agnes Emerald Mtn 3is the amount of mesh on the tent.  We slept with the sides open and had a nice cross breeze through the night despite recurring light rain sprinkles.  During the night we heard a owl close overhead.

We awoke at 7.  Within minutes after arising we could hear rain coming across the adjoining woods and across the lake.  We packed the tent in a hurry and donned our rain coats.  10 minutes later the rain passed and we had coffee and breakfast.

At 8pm we paddled over to explore Mud Lake which was interesting, but didn’t offer any opportunities to exit a boat.

Our paddle out was uneventful.  We arrived back in Piseco in time for me to walk into the airport along with the finishers of the Piseco Triathalon.  Once loaded up Skip & I did a scouting trip on nearby Fawn Lake and returned home.

I tried to capture some of the fireworks with my digital camera, but it was difficult given the lag time in my Canon Powershot camera.  Kathryn would announce when a flare was going high, and I would try to capture it. Some of them worked out OK.

Rachael holds the horse and Eric keeps a hand on Maggie. Everyone was happy that Maggie stayed awake this time.  In a show a month earlier Maggie fell asleep in the warm sunshine as she was being led into the class despite Rachael and Eric’s best attempts to keep her awake.

Below our neighbor Andrea holds 30 year old Katie, who holds two year old Julia.  Julia was ready to rock & roll- she kept telling Andrea ‘RIDE’ while waiting for the class.  The judge asked Julia what her number was (a three digit exhibitor number pinned to her back) and Julia patted the mare and said ‘KATIE’.  In the Lead Line Suitability class (where the horse was judged), the 30 year old Katie took 1st place.  Good for her.

Below Eric shows a smile (and missing teeth) during one of the laps around the ring on Onyx.

Eric got a 2nd prize in equitation - a red ribbon and a coloring/sticker book.

It starting raining as we finished our classes.  We posed quickly for the picture below and then beat feet. They ended up canceling the rest of the Hunter Show.

and then roll down.

Needless to say the end result is a lot of accumulated sand on the participants which then requires cleaning.  There is a small beach and swim area that the boys enjoyed.

There are also several short hikes to nearby waterfalls which offered opportunities to climb around on the rocks (and throw sticks and rocks into the stream).

Later that night we cooked hot dogs and salmon patties over the fire.  Here Eric and Trevor share a chair by the fire.

And later at night the boys roasted (burnt) marshmallows for a good sugar fix before bedtime.

Everything went well except that Trevor fell out of the camper during the night and Kathryn had a conniption.  She went to check on the boys and he wasn’t in the bed.  We did a search and found him sitting on the ground outside half asleep! He had squirmed between the bed and the canvas side of the pop-up and ended up on the ground.  Funny now, but we were in full panic mode for a few minutes.

As we were packing up to leave on Saturday night Trevor reached into the fire place to pick up a stone and burned his thumb and fingers badly.  He cried like a banshee until he fell asleep on the ride home. Like I said - it went well…..

• Over the past 4 years I have focused on the garden, adding peat moss, leaves, and horse manure to the soil to loosen it up.
• This year I actually used restraint in planting peas and beans and staggered my plantings to enable harvesting over a longer season.
• We have had timely thunderstorms giving water at needed times.  This plus the abundance of horse manure compost have kept enough moisture for the plants.
• I got a some volunteer plants from last year’s crops, namely pumpkins and cucumbers, that I didn’t plant this year but were desired by the family.

Let’s take a look. Starting on the far right is a row of 10 rhubarb plants leading into a row of asparagus which has gone to seed forming big green bushes.  In the foreground are about 10 tomato plants.  On the far left you can see the edge of a volunteer pumpkin.  In the center back are carrots, beans and peas.  In the far back is what’s left of a pickup truck load of horse manure which I have been using to compost between rows as they emerge.

This is pretty much the same scene from the other side with a row of carrots,  1/2 row of yellow wax beans and 1/2 row of spinach in the foreground; a row of late peas, and the tomatoes and pumpkin in the background.

I haven’t grown carrots before because  they are so cheap to buy, but Eric wanted carrots and they are doing quite well.  You can see there is a lot of horse manure between the rows.

The tomatoes are starting to show on the plants.

This picture shows our volunteer sunflower standing at the end of what used to be a row of peas.  I planted three rows of peas in early April and we have been eating peas for about a month now.  Eric and I would eat them out of the garden and throw the empty pods to the dogs, who relished them.  The dogs made the short leap from being fed empty pods to picking pea pods themselves.  Unfortunately when they picked the pods they usually yanked the whole plant out as well.  Within a week they had destroyed the outside row of peas!  So I replanted the row and I am hoping to get some early September peas.

My pea trellis consists of hog panel fence.  It worked well for the shorter peas, but as you can see I have a row of peas that required 8′ poles.  These peas had extremely long vines and folded over the top of the trellis.

A couple years ago we had a bumper crop of concord grapes.  The grapes need to be moved because the trees around them have grown so much they are shading the grapes, but that is a project for this fall.  For now they are doing what they are supposed to - making grapes.  The concord grapes come out late (to avoid frost) and mature late (I picked our bumper crop the last weekend in October).

For my birthday this year Mom gave me a gift certificate to Miller Nurseries which I used to purchase some new grape vines - table or eating grapes this time.  They got planted out in the full sunshine and are awaiting a trellis to climb - another project.

Kathryn planted three different types of clematis next to the deck.  The tallest one scales the lattice to the top and has deep purple blossoms.

The lower clematis are along the stairway up to the deck and are showing pink and red flowers.

My bee balm has come from a variety of sources including my mom, my aunt Marie and The Garden Factory.  It is just starting to blossom and is attracting hummingbirds.

For a couple of weeks we had been seeing a doe in early morning and evening come to the tall grass just below the pond below our house.  I was pretty certain she had a fawn hidden there.  I had not seen the doe for the past week and now I know why - she had moved her fawn into our pasture.

I had mowed about 6 of the acres and Sunday I was prepared to finish the mowing.  I took one swipe along the exposed edge and saw a small fawn run deeper into the grass.  So I avoided mowing that area any further and went to the opposite corner of the pasture where momma deer heard the approaching tractor, popped up her head and took off for the neighboring pasture.

I mowed all but the section I thought the fawn occupied and then recruited searching help.  Eric, Kathryn and I searched all through the remaining tall grass in hopes we could ‘herd’ the fawn towards the neighboring pasture.

No luck, so I carefully mowed the remaining swatch and decided it was a mystery.

Upon leaving the pasture I drove by this thin line of tall grass which filled a swale I deemed too wet to mow.  Out popped the fawn who ran back to the area where I first spotted him/her.  The fawn sniffed around trying to find it’s previous hiding place.  As I left the field the fawn returned to the swale and laid down to await further instructions from momma deer later that evening.

The youngsters found appropriate attire and were busy through out the night ensuring our defense.

The multi tattoo-ed Martha absconded Karen’s birthday hat.

More folks gathering around the grill.

Linda looks on disbelievingly at Robert’s story.

Mom & Marie share good food and conversation.

Bob was also taking pictures everywhere.

Robert, Karen, Jim, Barbara and Jeanne.

It seemed a lot of work when I don’t particularly care for rhubarb, but Jim says the juice is good when mixed with ginger ale.  I also have a recipe for rhubarb margaritas and maybe he will try that someday. And I must admit there is something very gratifying in looking at those gleaming, filled jars.  I imagine my mother might have felt that way after canning all that fruit she used to do.   Meanwhile, I only used half of the rhubarb we cut, so I expect I will repeat the whole process tomorrow.

After finishing my canning,  Eric, Trevor and I headed into the woods in search of wild strawberries.  I had scouted out three good sized patches when I took my walk this morning.  There were scads of ripe berries and the boys thought it was just too cool to be able to graze our way along.

By the time we got through the third berry patch, the boys claimed they were getting full.  We headed home, at which point their appetites revived enough for bowls of macaroni and cheese as a follow-up.”

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.

Rachael gave Eric some help tucking his coat sleeves.

Even three year old Maggie was ready to show. Unfortunately she fell asleep horseback as we were all entering the class and couldn’t be wakened to participate.

Eric and Onyx on the way to class.

This is why they call it lead line class.  Believe me- it was a hot day to wear a dark sports coat in the full sun.

The judge asked each rider to drop their reins, touch their nose and then pick up their reins again to determine if they knew how to get proper hand position and length to their reins.

Fortunately the judge didn’t make us parade around in the circle very far.

Eric got a 4th in lead line equitation and a 2nd in lead line suitability along with a candy bar and a model horse.  Onyx got a carrot.  In this picture she is looking for the remnants in my hand.