Thursday afternoon Kathryn left for Long Lake where she met up with her pal Jane. She stayed at Shamrock Motel so they could depart at 4am for a day of serious birding with Adirondack Avian Expeditions, an Adirondack guiding service. From 4am until 5pm on Friday Kathryn had her birding expedition at Massawepie where she saw 63 species, including 17 warblers. They saw moose tracks and were shown a video of a mama bear and her two cubs following them down the dirt road (Kathryn was completely unaware of their presence).

While mowing the lawn on Friday I found a clump of feathers in the lawn under the evergreen trees. It wasn’t there on Thursday evening when I walked the dogs down to the pond to feed the fish. It appeared that a crow met it’s demise under our evergreen trees.

Eric and I poked around in feathers with a stick looking for clues. We found the crow’s skull and an owl pellet. Now we know why crows hate on owls during the day.

Eric and I went out for pizza on Friday night, and hit the hot tub at night as Kathryn told us of her trip.

Saturday morning Eric’s AYSO team played Oneida 2 under hot, sunny conditions. Eric scored one goal, had a nice assist to Aaron and HP won 7-3. The kids were running out of gas in the 4th period.

Saturday afternoon Kathryn and I played in a volleyball tournament at ADK Lanes to benefit the American Cancer Society. Temperatures were in the 80’s and we consumed copious amounts of water and Gatorade. There were 5 teams that modified rosters throughout the afternoon to keep games even and competitive. Saturday night we crashed early.

Sunday Kathryn mowed her trails and hit the grocery store. Eric had his buddy, Trevor, over for a day of play. It was a perfect day for a nine year boy. Eric and Trevor played baseball, football and tennis over the clothesline. They did target shooting with Trevor’s new BB gun. We set up a safe shooting environment in the woods, reviewed hunter safety / gun safety rules and shot into a large cardboard box. Trevor’s BB gun had a lot of power and only a few BBs were captured inside the cardboard box.

In the afternoon the boys went swimming/ jumping in the pond, netted minnows from the stream and generally had a great day.

While Eric and Trevor were practicing their fancy jumps I checked out the pond-side lilacs and saw 6 eggs in Tree Swallow nest box.

I worked on raking the fill dirt on the south side of the garage and picking stone in preparation for seeding grass and applying mulch. Of course, while all the work is going on Cullen hung out under the deck to stay cool. He is getting his adult hair and color around his face and ears, but retains his puppy fur on his body.

We capped off the weekend by attending a quiet cookout at Skip’s house.