Monthly Archives: November 2008

Eric & Jim’s Bachelor Weekend

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My neighbor leases out a couple of corn fields in back of our forty acres.  He is building a new house and has a new shale driveway.  I think he didn’t want the tractors and wagons to mess it up when they picked the corn.  So I gave permission to use our lane to access the fields.  I underestimated the number of trips they would be making and the size/weight of the wagons.  They rutted it up pretty good in a couple of places. Friday afternoon I took my tractor and back blade across the road to try to smooth our our lane.  I was able to scrape the bank gravel fill back in to semblance of a road, but there are a couple of ruts where the hay field runs into the woods that are going to need a lot more work.  Next year I will be wiser.

Saturday morning Kathryn went to Old Forge with her gal pals for the weekend.  They went shopping, drank wine and played cards.  Saturday morning Eric and I went to his basketball skills & drills session and then he stayed in the gym to ‘just play’ for another 40 minutes.  Teaching basketball to kindergarten kids is like teaching chickens.  Everyone in awhile someone moves in just the right direction to be encouraging.  He seems to have a good time – but it is play time – not sport that is motivating him.  That’s OK.

After lunch Eric & I took the lawnmower in for servicing and fix an intermittent starting problem – probably a bad coil and we went to see the Madagascar 2 movie (not as good as the 1st one).  On the way home we went to WalMart to buy Pokémon cards.  Eric had a couple dollars burning a hole in his pocket.  He doesn’t understand the whole Pokémon thing, but a couple of his older buddies are into them.  He & I had dinner at Applebee’s and played our version of Pokemon while waiting for the food.

Sunday Eric cleaned Kathryn’s car – vacuumed, washed all the inside plastic and cleaned windows inside & out.  He worked diligently for about 30 minutes – I was impressed.

In the afternoon Eric’s buddy Trevor came over for a little while.  The boys played inside for about 1 hour and then we went outside.  I made ‘bows’ from ash saplings and bailing twine and we cut ‘arrows’ from goldenrod so they could shoot bows and arrows for a while.  I ended up taking Trevor home early as he complained of being cold.  We went inside and had lunch and he still said he was cold, despite wearing a t-shirt and sweat shirt.  I am not good at feeling foreheads to determine temperature.  He said he had a headache, so I called Ellen and told her I was going to bring him home early.  When I dropped Trevor off Ellen said he had an ear ache earlier in the week (like Eric) and maybe was still running a fever. Later Sunday night Ellen called and said they had found a tick on Trevor and to check out Eric (none found).

Kathryn got home around 4pm with some Christmas shopping done.

We got a little snow/sleet last night.

Halloween Weekend Report

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Friday I cut two large limbs off the Honey Locust tree. The limbs overhung our driveway and with rain or snow the branches drooped to the point of blocking the driveway. K & I dropped off my car for an oil change, brake work and to get the snow tires installed.

Friday night Eric the werewolf went trick or treating to a couple of neighbors and then joined in the parade through the village of Holland Patent. The village blocks off streets and firetrucks precede the parade. Those houses along the short route get hammered by visitors unless they have their porch lights turned out. Eric got to see some school pals and came home with way too much candy.

Saturday I took Eric to a Community Education program to teach basketball skills and drills. In the afternoon I set our night crawlers free in the garden. In the spring we collected a muck bucket full of leaves and as we purchased, and didn’t use, fishing worms the lucky ones were kept in the muck bucket. They grew to the size of small snakes. These worms were the really lucky worms as they didn’t get selected as bait and managed to get set free prior to freezing weather.

I mowed our lawn for hopefully the last time. Much of my motivation was to mulch leaves. I mowed the leaves into a strip which we raked up into piles. Before they got dumped onto the garden Eric had to burrow into the pile.

After mowing Eric blew all the clippings and leaves off the mower and, of course, had to play with the blower.

Saturday night we went to the Steuben Historical Society dinner theater. Great meal. The play was a little long for my experience in the folding metal chair.

Sunday Kathryn and I went on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad Murder Mystery ride: “EXPEDITION TO DEATH!” An interactive mystery, train journey & dinner at Buffalo Head Restaurant in Forestport presented by The Mystery Company of the Finger Lakes, The Buffalo Head Restaurant, & the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. The story line is that Lt. Columbo has decided to take a much needed vacation. His cases are caught up and his superiors are demanding that he take some time off. He’s decided to join an expedition that is going to explore ancient Incan sites. His friend, Lucy May got him to come along because, sugar plum, archeology is her passion. Also among the group is a wacky gal who says she can see ghosts, a gallery owner who used to be a soap opera star, and the expedition assistant who seems to be afraid of everything. But uh, just a minute. just one more thing….Could there be a real treasure involved here that only certain people know about? Is there something worth killing for on this trip? Is there really a curse attached to the whole expedition? He will definitely need your help. The train departed from Utica’s Union Station. Kathryn & I rode outdoors in the baggage car for the 1st half of the hour long trip.