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Closing up the Garden

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We did some canning/freezing this year.   A dozen jars of tomatoes, tons of acorn squash and wax beans in the freezer.  Kathryn made an elderberry-honey-brandy “elixir” which turned out quite nice.  Kathryn’s motto now being “spoon your way to health!” a la Lucy Ricardo.   Kathryn also made some elderberry-apple jam that is a knock out.  Having discovered numerous patches of elderberry on our property, she has been determined to make use of it.

I hoed the garden in an effort to minimize the amount of weeding that I will have to do next spring. The dark spot in the middle of the garden is the left-over leaves from the worm bucket.  I released those fish worms that did not end up as catfish bait.

All that’s left in the garden is a row of Brussels Sprouts.

They will continue even past the 1st snow.  I think they get better after a few frost.

Chipmunk Hunters Feast

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Previously Eric had been in conversation with Trevor about hunting and ended up chipmunk hunting, to no avail.  This past weekend when Trevor visited he brought his hunting bow and extra arrows.  Before they left the house to go hunting Kathryn teased them by saying she would return the burgers and hot dogs to the freezer if they were going to be getting meat.

After a short talk about hunter safety I accompanied the boys on their chipmunk hunt.  After 45 minutes with no success we were stalking our way back when the two boys isolated a chipmunk in a small apple tree.  Trevor’s shot struck it’s target and he was ecstatic, yelling “I got it! I got it!”.  They returned home proudly carrying the chipmunk and informed Kathryn they brought home lunch for our cookout.

Kathryn told them she wouldn’t clean it so we headed outside where Trevor gutted the chipmunk and a group effort got it skinned.  We washed it out and took it over to Cookout Corner where it got grilled and eaten.  The boys ate ‘drumsticks’ and pronounced them as ‘filling’ and ‘tasting like chicken’.

 

Afterwards a short game of “I Doubt It” was held on the tent platform.

Clockmill Pond

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Matt, Mark and I wanted to plan an easy backpacking trip where we could take Nathan and Eric.  After many emails discussing the benefits of lean-tos, driving distances, and potential bug problems we settled on Clockmill Pond.  We met on Rt 10 at the outlet of Big Bay and proceeded on the Powley-Piseco Road to the trailhead  4.3 miles southwest from NY 10.  We ate our lunch at the trailhead and started our hike.

The start of this trail from Powley-Piseco Road follows the old logging road into a wet area.  At 0.1 miles there is a grassy vlei on the left.  A snowmobile bridge is crossed at 0.2 miles over part of this wet area.  A small stream is crossed and then we crossed another snowmobile bridge that took us over the southeastern portion of the vlei. A descent takes usover a swift moving stream on a wooden bridge at 0.5 miles.  At 0.6 miles another stream goes under the trail through a culvert.  Soon the trail climbed a gentle grade and then descends to another snowmobile bridge at 0.9 miles.  At 1.0 miles cross another stream before entering a large open grassy meadow at 1.1 miles.  Here there is a poorly marked fork in the trail.  The unmarked trail on the left travels 0.5 miles to Clockmill Pond on a well worn trail, that sometimes can be hard to see in this area.

The right fork is the continuation of the snowmobile trail that goes on to Rock Lake as well as Kennels Pond.  Some hikers bushwhack to Black Cat Lake and Iron Lake, a couple of trail less, remote wilderness lakes from the main snowmobile trail.

It was hot on hike in and the boys requested several breaks.  This one occurred at a convenient boulder.

Our campsite location had a large rock extending out into the pond.  Below Matt, Jim and Mark pose with Natalie, Nathan and Eric in the front row.

Temperatures were in the high 70s on Saturday, high 40s overnight and it was cool as Eric and I had breakfast on Sunday morning.  We met the rest of the group at 7-ish and things warmed up once the sun broke over the tree line.

The fall colors were out in display in the early morning sun.

The hike out was comfortable and quicker than the hike in.  Despite 9 hours of sleep the night prior, Eric slept most of the car ride home.

Chipmunk Hunter

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After talking with his buddy Trevor, who was going turkey hunting with his dad, Eric decided to go hunting as well.  We started out with his homemade bow and 1 arrow.  First, he decided he would need two turkeys in order to have enough for a Thanksgiving dinner.  After seeing a deer track he stated that one deer would be enough to feed everyone at Thanksgiving.  But when we passed a chipmunk in the brush the whole focus changed.

A chipmunk taunts Eric.

We didn’t bag any chipmunks, but we had  a fine walk and sat on a log and had snacks.

Stittville Corn Maze

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My three day canoe trip to Big Bay-Piseco Lake-Fall Stream-Fall Lake-Sacandaga Lake-Lake Pleasant was canceled due to rain and low temperatures.

Saturday Eric had a noon time soccer game in cool temperatures (low 40s) with wind and rain.  The kids were chilled, even when playing.  They scored a 5-0 win vs Oneida.  Afterwards Trevor came over to play with Eric and spend an overnight.

I cleaned out the hog wire supports that I used for peas and tomatoes.  I picked 6-8 acorn squash and left another 5-6 for later harvesting.

We invited Skip and Steve for dinner and all played pitch afterwards.  While Trevor had played on teams before, Eric had only played with Kathryn and I.  Other than a couple of overly aggressive bids Eric did fine.

Sunday afternoon we tackled the Stittville Corn Maze which this year featured the USA Flag with the Statute of Liberty and an eagle superimposed.  The goal was to find three mailboxes; each one contained a portion of the overall map.

Trevor, Eric and Kathryn prepare to enter the maze.

Trevor and Eric would run down the intersections as advance scouts and return with valuable information about intersections and dead ends.

Jim kept track of the group’s location on an overall map.

 

Trevor and Eric display the three map sections they discovered.

Fishing Alternatives

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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

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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

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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.