Friday the door and windows went into the living room. It provides a lot of glass on the south side and a great view.
The roofing joists went on the addition today.
Roof Goes On
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Garage and Siding
We returned from our weekend camping trips to find the concrete block walls in place and the back filling of dirt around the walls.
Next the floor for the garage was poured, the walls framed for the garage and attachment and wrapped with Tyvek.
The laundry room and bathroom will be located on the right and a closet located on the left side.
A double door will lead to a small deck and the rest of the decking.
Footings were poured for the porch and steps leading to the front door.
Vinyl siding was installed on the west side of the house. The color is a greenish grey called Sage Brook. You can see in the brighter light (top right) it looks grayer and in the shade (left side) it looks greener.
Four Days in St Regis Canoe Area
We packed on Monday and departed early Tuesday to meet up with Matt and Nathan at the McDonald’s in Tupper Lake. The weather called for rain and we had sprinkles on the way up, but we were counting on a break in the weather before getting a campsite on Long Pond in St Regis Canoe Area. We were to meet Skip at the trail head at noon. We were on time for both our meetings.
Eric, Kathryn, Scout and I were in the MN II. Skip paddled my Solo Prism and Matt and Nathan paddled their Coleman. As we packed up our canoes and started paddling across Long Pond the dark clouds rolled in behind us. It rained on us as we sought a campsite. In 2010 a major campsite work project was conducted resulting in closing some campsites. We were last in the area in 2008 and were using the original version of the ADK Paddlers Map. We ended up staying at campsite #10.
Concerned about pending rainstorms we quickly set up our tents and two rain flys for protection. We used Tarpology 101 to ensure a drain. Of course, by erecting a couple of tarps we were ensured that it would not rain.
Nathan and Eric entertained themselves by building a fire bow and trying to start a fire like Survivor Man to no avail.
Later I gave Nathan and Eric each took a turn starting the evening’s fire using a flint & steel shedding sparks onto a cotton ball swabbed with Vaseline and birch bark. Watching the boys making sparks was entertainment for the adults as well.
We did a baking each afternoon as a snack. Dinners were Pasta Primavera, Chicken and Biscuits and pasta.
Wednesday was a quiet day, below Kathryn and Scout take a snooze.
Wednesday afternoon Matt paddled the solo and Jim, Skip and Matt paddled over to Hoel Pond. Upon our return Matt took Nathan and Eric out for a tour of Long Pond.
We took a short hike along the shore line. The picture below depicts the group just before Eric stood on a ground wasp nest. He was stung 5 times while none of the rest of us were stung. The wasps got into his clothes. Even after he got back to the tent for Kathryn to apply medicine he got stung on the belly by a wasp hiding in his clothes. Fortunately the medicine (Anti-Bite and Benadryl) and a quick swim in cool water calmed the stings.
In the evening our campsite was visited by a beaver that swam along shore and nibbled on the lily pads. The boys got a close up look and pictures.
Wednesday night we improved on our design for hanging our food by suspending the food between two trees. Having a carabiner or two is critical to the design.
Thursday AM Matt and Nathan enjoy a breakfast of heated up something.
After breakfast Matt and Nathan packed up and headed home.
We, on the other hand, packed lunches and water and headed out to paddle what is called the Floodwater Loop in Dave Cilly’s Adirondack Paddler Guide Book. Skip paddled the solo. Kathryn and I paddled the MN II with Eric and Scout as passengers. It was a good opportunity to give Scout an entire bay in the canoe and get her more familiar with getting in/out and laying down in the canoe. We headed east from our campsite and did the short portage into Slang Pond. We had to line our canoe into Turtle Pond and carry over the railroad tracks into Hoel Pond. Traveling across Hoel Pond I got a little nervous as Scout shifted around and wouldn’t lay down. From that point on, however, she got comfortable and would sit still or lay in bottom of the canoe.
After a short misguided portage out into the golf course we did a course correction and carried into Polliwog Pond. We portaged up and over the esker into Follensby Clear Pond where we took a break for lunch and a quick swim on the 1st island. Leaving the island we paddled south and portaged over the esker into Fish Creek. We paddled Fish Creek north westerly passing Little Square Point and went into Floodwood Pond. Fish Creek and Floodwood Pond had a lot of casual boaters and we passed many, many people. In total we probably saw 100 people during our paddle – not exactly a wilderness experience. From Floodwood Pond we portaged back into Long Pond and turned to the west to retrieve additional food and beverages from our cars in the parking lot.
We left our campsite at 9:30am and were back on Long Pond six hours later completing what the guide book touts as a 3 day camping trip involving 10-15 miles.
Lunch time on the island in Follensby Clear Pond.
Mama and baby loon on Follensby Clear Pond.
Upon our return to our campsite we decided to take a quick swim to cool off. Eric wanted to jump out of the canoe so we emptied the boat and I paddled out to let him jump out. We did three trips. Notice how lax the canoeist is at holding his paddle in the water.
On the 3rd jump that lax paddle position caused the following result. Fortunately we all wanted to swim.
Friday we packed up and headed out after breakfast. Our timing was good as it started to sprinkle on our way home and Friday afternoon it rained hard.
Soft Maple: 4 Kids, 2 Adults and 1 Dog
Kathryn took the pop up camper to Soft Maple and was met by Wendy, Hanna and Olivia. She left Friday AM and returned on Sunday evening.
Eric’s Basketball Camp
Eric finished basketball camp today – the last of four 9am-noon sessions. Community Ed did a lousy job of scheduling and booked their soccer camp the same time as the basketball camp. Eric was waffling back and forth until his friend Thomas told him about a soccer camp at SUNY IT in August. That removed his dilemma and he got to pursue two of his sports.
However, the number of participants in the camp was low due to the conflict with soccer camp. The coach is the HP Varsity Coach, Barry, and he was very encouraging. Below Coach Barry outlines the next drill for Eric and Trevor.
Below Eric leads a bounce pass to a cutting Trevor running a back door play for a layup.
Kathryn’s Bee Sting
Kathryn got ‘tagged’ in the arm by a bee as she was walking to her car this AM on her way to a dentist appointment. Talk about adding insult to injury. She came back in the house and asked me to extract it with tweezers. It was a big sucker and clearly the bee gave up its life to attack Kathryn.
Foundation is Backfilled
When I came home Wednesday afternoon Troy Cole and company were just finishing up back-filling around the foundation walls. This is the view from our kitchen door. In the future this will exit into the mud room attached to the garage. We’re planning a kitchen remodeling after this project is done, so that things are arranged in a way that the door makes a bit more sense and links well to the addition.
This is looking west towards the two car garage. Concrete is to be poured for the floor next week.
HP 3rd and 4th Grade Lacrosse Team
Eric’s lacrosse team finished strong losing by 1 goal to Whitesboro in their final game.
Return to Rock Lake
With temperatures predicted in the high 80s we headed back to Rock Lake to spend the weekend swimming and staying cool by the water. Scout joined in for some swimming but going out to the rock was too much for her.
We were plagued by deer flies and stable flies aka ankle biters aka Adirondack Meanies. The deer flies were annoying, but mainly buzzed about our heads and they were slow enough to enable swatting. The stable flies were another matter. They were numerous, fast and vicious – especially attacking Scout.
The stable fly or biting house fly is a blood-feeding pest known to attack almost any kind of warm-blooded animal. It looks like the common house fly except that its mouth parts are adapted for biting and sucking blood. The stable fly feeds by inserting its proboscis (beak) through the skin and then sucking blood from its host. The proboscis is long enough to penetrate some clothing.
Females can live up to a month and may require several blood meals during this period in order to continue laying eggs. It is a daytime feeder, with peak biting occurring during the early morning and late afternoon. Stable flies prefer to attack people around the ankles; hence being called ‘ankle biters’. Fortunately, it does not appear to be an important vector of any human diseases. The immature stable fly (maggot) can be found breeding in many kinds of moist, decaying organic matter. The variety of breeding sites, and the fact that the adults fly several miles to feed but spend little time on the host, make it difficult to manage stable flies. They didn’t seem to be daunted by repellents or the bug lantern employed by Kathryn.
Eric worked the fire to provide a full on smoke attack which worked, however.
Speaking of the fire pit we pulled broken glass, aluminum foil, cans, Coleman propane bottles, and a broken golf club out of the fire pit and campsite; yielding about 10-15 lbs of trash. Below is the before and after versions of the fire pit. We ended up leaving six metal grates as Kathryn expressed her limit of what she was willing to pack out.
If you’re looking to minimize smoke exposure while still enjoying a crackling campfire, then consider getting the best smokeless fire pit.
Dinner consisted of chicken and fresh baked biscuits – a definite keeper. In the evening we were treated to an evening sunset.
On our way out we experimented by putting the dog in one of the last sections in the canoe. We paddled over to the site where we stayed last week to see if the bugs were as bad there. They were less annoying, perhaps due to less vegetation or a more open site. We saw a rough legged hawk hunting over the swampy inlet, although Kathryn had to consult her bird book to be sure.
After lunch we paddled across the lake and loaded up for the portage out. Eric astounded us by volunteering to double carry the kitchen backpack and the cooler backpack the last 2/3rds of the way out so Kathryn could continue to pack the Bill’s Bag and trash.
I See You First!
I have long played a game with Eric “I see you first!” that stemmed from me picking him up at the babysitter’s house. In the morning we would review the day’s schedule and I would say that I would see him at Molly’s and I would see him 1st. It evolved into a game where one of us would try to sneak up on or ambush the other in order to be the 1st to declare “I see you first!”. Over the years other kids at the babysitter’s house have joined in, but none more enthusiastically than Molly’s son Michael. Today I packed my camera and caught a picture of Eric right after he popped around a corner and got me and the picture of Michael in the act of declaring “I see you first!”. He wasn’t sure how this new element of the game, taking pictures, effected the overall strategy.
