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This was a good year for our garden.  Other than the dogs eating a row of peas things worked out well.  This weekend I made the last harvest: a shopping bag of green beans, 3 nearly ripe tomatoes and a dozen cherry tomatoes.  A few lesson’s learned are worth noting:

• We got 9 volunteer pumpkins and I feel lucky they came up.  Eric enjoyed watching them grow and they are great October decorations.  Note to self - make sure to plant pumpkins next year.
• We had 3 volunteer cherry tomato plants.  Our one purchased plant that grew in a pot on the deck didn’t do so well, but the volunteers, although late came on like gangbusters.  Note to self - try to plan for cherry tomatoes next year.
• The spinach grew fast, hung on long but was rarely eaten and is probably not worth repeating next year.
• Avoid the climbing peas.  Despite the panel field they overgrew everything, matured quick and we missed the 2nd planting as they matured too quickly.
• Eric’s carrots grew quickly and we need to harvest them earlier next year as a lot of carrots were thrown away being too big and splitting.
• Multiple plantings of beans worked well.  Almost too well, according to Kathryn.  We froze a couple dozen packages of green beans and had green beans available to eat from July - October.
• A new system of tomato cages is needed.  These were too light and put into place too late.

Next year I want to try planting a small area of Indian Corn with pumpkins and gourds interspersed.

Eric has been showing in the Barneveld Horsemen’s Association (BHA) lead line classes all summer.  Sunday they had the last show - the make-up of the make-up Hunter Show.  Eric shows courtesy of his buddy Trevor and Trevor’s mom Ellen.  Ellen lets Eric use Onyx, a 16 year old mare who is bomb proof.

In the equitation class the judge asked Eric for his age (5), how long he had been riding (just starting), his horse’s name (Onyx) and if he planned to do jumping (when he grows up).  In this class the judge decided to give all 5 lead-liners a blue ribbon and their choice of a toy or sticker book.  In the lead-line suitability class, judging the ‘worthiness of the mount’ the participants got a blue ribbon, a chocolate candy bar and a carrot.  If I was judging I would award all blue ribbons too.  All the horses are dead quiet and great started animals for the kids.  But it did throw a wrench in calculating year end awards as everyone got an equal number of points.

Since Eric and Trevor have been showing all year they were in the running for a year end award and somehow Trevor knew that.  What Trevor knows, Eric knows and the two boys were walking around saying that Eric is close to a champion and Trevor is close to a championship.

After the show Trevor came over to our house to play with Eric and when Ellen picked him up she confirmed that Trevor won the year end lead-line championship and Eric was reserve by 4 points.

That means the camping trip with the local ADK Chapter that I was tentatively planning to attend on Saturday Oct 25 will be pre-empted by attendance at the BHA Annual Banquet so I can see Eric and Trevor get their awards.  It should be fun.

Sunday Kathryn and I took Eric and Trevor to the Remsen Corn Maze.  Trevor was a little anxious that the corn maze would be scary, but once in the maze his concerns were largely forgotten.

There were four posts with colored magic markers that we had to find.  At each post we would mark the map to indicate where we thought we were on the map.  Eric and Trevor were responsible for running down the dead ends to determine if there was a post hidden down there.

We found all four posts as well as a couple of uncharted paths that threw us for a loop.  The boys won a post card picture of the corn maze for their efforts.

The West Branch of the Sacandaga River is a nice stretch of water that is extremely popular. This stretch of flat water is approximately 8 miles in length and generally parallels NY Route 10 to the Shaker Place in Hamilton County.

The launch site for this stream is where Route 10 crosses it just north of Arietta. Canoes can be launched on both sides of the stream, and limited parking is available. Going downstream, you’ll come to a point where the river bends to the left at a big pool. Look for a channel on the right side of the pool–just wide enough to get a canoe through–that leads to Chub Lake. Further downstream on the Upper West Branch, you’ll find Trout Lake, which can be reached via a channel entering the river. For an overnight trip, campsites are located along the three lakes.

The Launch: The popular area to start your trip is a small bridge and small parking area.  There is a lot of parking space and on weekends in the summer months you will find many cars here. 

Description: The West Branch of the Sacandaga offers beautiful flat water paddling. The river travels through a broad valley of marshes lined by mountains.  Trip distances will vary according to the number and length of side trips into Chub and Trout Lakes.

The one-way route begins at the bridge and ends at a steep bank where NY 10 comes close to the stream. About 0.2 mi farther is an old Civil Conservation Corp camp dating from the 1930s known as Shaker Place. At present there is a locked chain-link fence blocking Shaker Road, so canoeists and kayakers can no longer use this area to exit the river.

An interesting side trip is to paddle upstream to Good Luck Lake.  The paddle is short.  You will reach a fork in the river shortly after heading upstream.  To reach Good Luck Lake, take the right fork.

Downstream from the launch the river here is noticeably wider and deeper. Within a few minutes you will come across Chub Lake on the right.  According to books on the subject, there is supposed to be a large rock on the lake where you can stop and rest or picnic.  As you proceed down the river you will come to the outlet of Trout Lake approximately 2 miles from the bridge.  Depending on the time of year and resident beaver activity, sometimes you are able to leave Trout Lake and enter Little Trout Lake. This is dependant on the water level.

Takeout: Depending on the trip you choose, the takeout will be either back at the launch site or at a steep bank on river left where the stream comes close to NY 10 prior to the Shaker Place. There is a rough trail up the bank where others have lifted their canoes or kayaks to the road. A few cars can be parked beside the road in a narrow pullout area. The cars can be seen easily from the river. By car it is 6.0 mi on NY 10 from the second bridge to the takeout. 

Saturday Eric and I attended his 8:45am soccer game and then drove over to the Sacandaga put-in to launch at 11:45.  We were trying to join up with Skip, Bob, Matt, Len, Rob and some of Skip’s friends.  However, they launched about 45 minutes ahead of us.

This was the maiden voyage using my fiberglass Jensen 18′ with a new drop in seat that I purchased from Spring Creek Outfitters.

It allows me to sit near the center thwart and paddle the Jensen as a solo.  That way Eric could paddle at his leisure - which he did.  I estimate that Eric paddled 25-33% of the trip - all on the left side.  Other than rapping my knuckles repeatedly on the clamp unit I was very satified with new seat and the ability to paddle with Eric.

The temperatures were warm with sunny, clear skies.  The fall colors were beginning to show with deeper reds and maroons.

We paddled for two hours to reach a nice rock where we pulled out, snacked, and played UNO.

We never caught up to the other group, but I had a great time paddling with Eric.  Other than getting a little antsy before reaching the rock, he did great.  We pulled out on IP Land, caught a ride back to our car and were packing up as Matt, Len and Rob were leaving.  Eric and I had a hot dog and burger with Skip and Bob who were staying over at the camp.  We left a little after 6pm and Eric crashed on the way home.

At the end of August I received an invitation to the SUNY Oneonta Geography Department touting a picnic for Faculty, students and alumni.  It advertised an opportunity to meet with past faculty including Paul Baumann, Martha Corry and Tom Gergel.

When I attended (71-75) Dr. Martha Corry was the head of the department teaching primarily Economic Geography. She had a large, rather pampered black Labrador retriever that I took care of at times when she was out of town.  I remember feeding the dog 1/2 of condensed sweeten milk with it’s food.  I can’t remember it’s name, but it was overweight had the slickest black coat you could imagine.  It was also quite strong and not exactly leash trained.  I am not sure who was leading whom along Main St, Oneonta on the Sunday walk.    Martha is now approaching 90 years of age, mentally sharp and in good shape.

Tom Gergel was one of my favorite teachers.  He used to live on East St or vicinity - it was within walking distance and I remember him arriving in his office huffing and puffing from his frantic hike up the hill.  One of my scariest memories was riding in a car with Tom driving.  We were destined for a field trip to some bog and Tom was quite the sight see-er.  We would bomb along within the speed limit with Tom checking out all the scenery and pointing out and describing interesting geomorphologic features while infrequently making casually glances at the road.   It was a miracle to behold.  Tom was also always reading horticulture articles about growing apples.  If I remember correctly he had started an apple orchard before I left.  I learned that Tom lost a thumb cutting wood in his orchard and it prevented him from another passion - playing violin.

After graduating in 1975 I worked for two years within the Geography Department in a cooperative project between Schoharie County (where I lived) and the Geography Dept.  We were building an early Geographic Information System under the guidance of Paul Baumann. Paul set up the whole arrangement and gave me my 1st professional job.  Back then everything was programmed using FORTRAN and COBOL on Burroughs mainframe computers.  Card punch units and manual data entry ruled our project.  We had boxes and boxes of computer cards stacked in rows 12 wide by 4-5 boxes high.  After awhile we transitioned to computer tapes.     During my stint at graduate school at University of Washington I returned to Oneonta for a summer job - again arranged by Paul - whereby we conducted a study of emergency services for the City of Oneonta.  We lived in Paul’s house for the summer as he and his family were away vacationing for the summer.  Paul was a valuable professional reference for my 1st jobs.  He was an important mentor for many, many years and a good friend.

Friday I drove to Oneonta in the rain to attend the picnic.  It was a nice low key affair.  I got to meet the new department chair - Dr. Tracy Allen, and current faculty Ben Dixon, Jim Greenberg and Wendy Mitteager.  Below I pose between Paul Baumann and Martha Corry.