Monthly Archives: September 2011

Fishing Alternatives

Saturday stayed foggy all day. Kathryn’s brother, Tim, visited us for lunch, games of euchre and a short hike through the woods. Tim brought their new dog, Abby and Abby had a good run with Scout. It had been many years since I played Euchre and it was Eric’s 1st time.

After Tim left at 5pm I cleaned Elderberries which Kathryn made into Elderberry/Apple jam. Kathryn had frozen the elderberries bunches that she had picked and my job was to separate the itsy-bitsy, little, tiny frozen berries from the stems.

Sunday I assembled camping gear in anticipation of a 3 day canoe trip through the head waters of West Sacandaga River. I streamlined and re-organized my emergency kit and 1st aid kit. If you’re looking for a great place to buy everything you need for fishing, click here!

Trevor came to play with Eric in the afternoon; with temperatures in the 80s the boys wanted to go swimming in the pond. They boy’s enjoy the water enough, I’ll consider sport fishing when they grow up as a great bonding activity. Since they love the water, I’ll consider visiting the surf shop.

Once there they saw fish swimming around and tried to spear the fish using cat tails. Needless to say they were unable to spear any fish using the blunt ends of cat tail spears. We arranged great lures for new fisherman.

So the boys tried a 2nd tactic – jumping on top of the fish. Challenging to say the least.

A little later we tried more conventional means of catching fish using traditional fishing supplies – hooks and worms. The boys were trying to catch bass. Trevor caught 5 or 6 medium size bass. Below he gives one a quick smooch before returning it to the pond.

After a fashion Eric gave up on fishing with a bobber and caught 3 bass.

Sunday evening Kathryn froze 16 packages of acorn squash.

Tent Platform at Cookout Corner

I have long been planning on building a tent platform at cookout corner. I planned on re-using the pressure treated lumber from the east side deck after it was removed due to re-modeling. There were two 12′ beams made of 3 2×8’s nailed together; lots of 2×8’s for joists and an assortment of decking boards of various lengths. I pulled nails and sorted the wood out by size and dimension.

I bought 8″ concrete blocks for footings along with joist hangers and nails. I decided on the 8″ blocks because I wanted the front of the platform to be raised enough to serve as a seat. It took one evening session to clear an area to the west of and in front of the fire pit and get the frame roughly level.

We had an afternoon cookout on Saturday following Eric’s and Trevor’s soccer game. It was a good opportunity to fasten the frame together, tweak the footings and hang the joists. I managed to get the frame roughly level.

I spent 5 hours on Sunday nailing down the re-cycled decking boards. The platform is 12’1″ in width and I pre-cut 10 boards that went on quickly. After that the work went a little slower as I had to cut two boards to span the width.

The finished platform is a little over 12′ by 12′ and suitable for overnights and some winter camping. A little work remains to bolster the footings.

Full Moon Weekend

Eric and I were bachelors this past weekend as Kathryn went to Rochester on a multipurpose visit:

  • Lunch with long time friend Debbie
  • Shopping for new clothes
  • Dinner with high school friend Judy
  • Irish-fest with brother Tim and niece Sarah
  • Going away/deployment party for nephew John and wife Danielle
  • Brunch with long time friend Kathy

Eric’s buddy Jack got off the bus with him on Friday after school. Jack’s dad picked him up shortly after 5pm, so the boys only had about 90 minutes to play together – not a lot of time but psychologically it is a good TGIF get-together. After Jack left Eric and I grabbed a quick bit to eat and hopped into the car and drove to Sonne’s to get Eric’s bike which was being repaired for a flat tire and minor tune-up.

Saturday morning was the Eric’s 1st soccer game of the fall season. This year Eric is playing U10. This is a traveling team which will normally play 7v7 with a goalie on a much larger field. The team has 13 players – which is way too many. I concentrated on the roster rotations. The opening game was versus the other HP team. The game ended up as a 3-3 tie. Trevor came home to play with Eric after the soccer game.

Barb and Joe pulled into the driveway right behind us as we got home from the soccer game. After a quick tour of the home remodeling project we all ate lunch on the deck. Barb and Joe took a tour of the yard; checking out the garden, grape vines, blueberry bushes and elderberry plants. I gave them each a taste of Kathryn’s elderberry tonic. Barb took home items loaned out for Billie Jo’s wedding, 4 packages of decafe coffee and a draft copy of The Guide to Winter Camping to review. The boys played in the pool all afternoon.

In the evening Eric, Trevor and I went to Grande’s and sat on the plaza, played pitch and ate pizza.

Sunday afternoon Kathryn returned home and Trevor re-joined us to play with Eric and go bowling at ADK Lanes.

Afterwards I walked down to the pond under the light of a full moon to feed the fish. It was a gorgeous evening.

As the fish food starts to hit the water the tranquility of the water is disturbed by the bass and catfish cruising for food.

The catfish are particularly aggressive scooping up floating fish food along the surface.

The New Back Deck

Nearly finished the new back deck bridges the gap between the ipe decking tiles on the south side of the house and the garage/mud room.

It provides a very sheltered area from the wind and we moved the table and chairs to this area.

Inside work continues on the attachment. The knotty pine is being modified to 1/2 height with a chair rail. A frosted glass pocket door is being installed in place of the curtain. Hopefully, the frosted glass will provide light, but some privacy from viewing all the way down the hall. Linoleum is being installed within the attachment. The bathroom is on the immediate left with the laundry next on the left across from the large closet.

First Day of Third Grade

We shipped Eric off to school today. He took it well.

Yesterday his buddy Trevor was over in the afternoon while his mom, Ellen, took his younger sister to an kindergarten open house.  Kathryn said she heard this exchange: The cynical third-graders Eric and his friend Trevor, commenting on Trevor’s sister’s kindergarten orientation today:

“Those kids are so excited about going into kindergarten…”[a sad but wise shake of the head], they just don’t know!” “Yeah and then by the time you get to third grade it’s too much work!” [said most emphatically].

Labor Day Weekend

Thursday night all the AYSO soccer coaches met at the HP Library for discussion and to pick our teams.  I am an assistant coach working with Doug Wynne this year.  Our U10 boys team has 13 kids.  This year they play 7 v 7 with a goalie.

Friday I worked.  We got the lawn mowed and I worked in the garden.  I cleared out the pole beans and picked tomatoes.  The tomatoes have continued to produce and we are getting overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes.  We have 4-5 decent sized pumpkins, a dozen or more acorn squash.

Saturday was hot and humid.  I moved dirt fill from the pasture to the north side of the new attachment as settling had occurred.  We ran to the HP Farmer’s Market and bought corn, eggs, plums and raspberries.  We made a connection with Jennifer Romer to acquire meat chickens for our freezer.  At Turner Lumber we bought lattice for under our back deck and materials for the 12’ x 12’ tent platform to be built at Cookout Corner: 8” concrete blocks, deck hangers and nails.

Kathryn picked elderberries and made several jars of elderberry tonic: elderberry juice, honey and brandy.

In the afternoon I pulled nails from the rest of the 12’ 2”x8” which will form the joists for the tent platform.  Kathryn worked on cleaning out the attic and organizing the upstairs family room.

Saturday night Kathryn, Eric and I went to Pizza Hut in North Utica.  It was a night of violent thunderstorms to the south of Utica including a tornado which crossed over the NYS Thruway. Service was slow and we played pitch while we waited for our chicken wings and pepperoni pizza.

Sunday was hot and humid.  I awoke early again and watched TV.  As Eric and Kathryn awoke we watched the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and ate leftover pizza for breakfast.  Eric and I installed our old wooden steps pond side.  Eric helped install the left over decking slabs under the dog fence to keep the pipes from rusting.  In the afternoon Kathryn was trimming our bushes on the west side of the house and was stung by several ground bees.  She shed her shoes and shorts and came running in the house to shower and apply vinegar.  Simultaneously our neighbor Gary drove in to discuss running drainage tile into our pasture and digging a small ‘duck pond’ in the SE corner of the pasture.

Monday it rained all day and Eric had his buddy Jack over to play.  They have used the pool, despite the cooling temperatures. When we set it up in July we were concerned it collapsing due to the bulging, but it has worked out well.

I read Game of Thrones; the first in the series of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin.