Our painted turtle, Painter, has quite an appetite and has been visibly growing. He prefers fish worms to almost all other food and will eat them from a hand if you move slow and dangle the fish worm where he can see it. A measure of his growth is evident in the wide light gray areas between the scutes on his carapace.
Friday we took the two 1st graders, Eric and Trevor, camping in our pop up to Soft Maple (near Stillwater). They did a lot of swimming and playing in the water, despite the water not being that warm. There were some other kids at the ‘beach’ for them to play with as well. It started raining during the night and rained on and off continuously until noon on Saturday when we decided to pull the plug. We had planned on staying until dinner time and then returning, but we ran out of things for the boys to do and it was a little cool-ish. So we came home. We got Mercer’s ice cream on our ride home (yum-Burgundy Cherry) and Trevor came to the house to play for a couple more hours, so they were OK with that.
We set the camper up under the shed, opened it up and got everything out that needed drying. We did 3 loads of laundry and unleashed a lot of sand into the washer.
Sunday we picked stone around the house and got at least a big portion of the lawn ready for re-seeding. We mowed some of the lawn and Kathryn mowed a portion of her trails – which are quite wet.
We dropped K’s car off for servicing and went to play volleyball, but it was more party than volleyball (slightly different group of people) so we took Eric to the local ice cream shop and called it a night.
Today K is taking Eric, Trevor and Dakota to Linda Boucheron’s camp for the day and I return to work.
Our new foundation wall was completed. We are also thinking about getting Earthquake Retrofitting Services to make it sturdier and more resistant to seismic activities. But for now, here is what the new north wall looks like from the inside. The plan is to install shelving units where the two lights are shown.
Here is the view from the outside. In addition to new blocks on the north wall the west wall was parged and new drainage was installed. The downspout from the gutters was run into the drainage lines.
Afterwards fill was replaced and the foundation plants were replaced.
We also had to re-plant the peonies that got dug up. We now have a 72′ row of peonies between the driveway and fence line.
Then we begin picking stone and hand raking the fill. And there is a lot of fill – this is the view from our driveway showing the new driveway leading to the location where the attached garage would sit.
The fill forms a ‘mow-able slope’ that extends across the old driveway and nearly to the honey locust tree.
Here is the view from the south.
We at about 3/4 done picking stone and raking with plans to re-seed grass this weekend.
The north wall is removed and tarped off. We got a little wind and rain on Monday night. The sound of the tarps flapping in the breeze was reminiscent of camping.
The concrete blocks and sand are piled up outside for the construction.
Our foundation plants have taken a beating in this process and may not recover. We will see.
Skip and Bob helped me move Kathryn’s desk downstairs where I set it up in the computer room. I moved my computer rack, re-adjusted the height of the shelves and set up my old Dell computer running Ubuntu.
After the BHA Hunter Show Trevor came home to play with Eric. They found some Spiderman tattoos and applied them to their arms and faces. Note to self….in the future discourage the face tattoos as it took a lot of scrubbing to get the tattoos removed.
We have a whitetail deer coming to the pasture just below our house on a regular morning/evening schedule. I am pretty sure she has a fawn hidden among the tall grass. Last year there was fawn in the same spot. It is ideal; a little too wet to mow for hay. Trees and shade. Pasture for Mom to snack on. Ponds nearby. I just hope the fawn stays put and doesn’t migrate the 300 yards over into my pasture. I would like to mow it soon.
For the past year or two Kathryn and I have been going through the anguish of long term planning. Given Eric and semi-stable jobs we decided to plan on being in the area for the next 12 years. Specifically we decided we like where we live; the specific location and land despite winters and snow. The issue is that our current domicile is not very handicapped accessible; one has to climb a set of stairs to get into the house and then there are still issues. Primarily, one small bathroom and laundry facilities in the basement. We considered looking at other homes for sale or building a home but kept coming back to how much we enjoyed our current location: a great view, ponds and wildlife, no neighbors in proximity, available land, existing landscaping, etc.
If we wanted to stay in the same place long term we needed to make some re-modeling decisions. We engaged an architect, which has been both rewarding and frustrating, and came up with an initial set of plans. Given the economy and the hit our retirement and investments took we broke the remodeling into phases.
Phase 1 involved improving the drainage around the north wall of the foundation and bringing in fill to permit a garage and mud room/half bath/laundry room to be constructed on the same level as the house. I wanted to get the fill in to allow it to settle for a year prior commencing any further phases.
Well as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men…..
We began phase 1 on Monday and it is evident why new drainage was needed was needed along the north wall. Even without any recent rain there was water laying next to the foundation.
When the foundation was dug out it was evident why new drainage was needed. The existing drainage pipe was clogged, had no stone around it and the basement wall had not been tarred or sealed. With water laying next to the foundation blocks for 59 years the bottom row of blocks started to deteriorate and need replacing.
So already our ‘drainage’ project has expanded into a ‘replace the wall’ project. This weekend I remove the internal shelving and walls adjacent to the north wall such that next week the wall can be demolished and rebuilt.
Meanwhile, fill was being brought in to level the east side of the lawn with the existing house.
We need a lot of fill. This is looking from the existing driveway, near the barn up the new drive way towards the house. We are going to end up sloping this fill down towards the honey locust tree so we have a ‘mowable’ slope. But we can use other fill for that.
A panoramic view of the situation. We are removing the remaining lilac trees and relocating a temporary driveway over about 8-10′ so we can still get to the house with the car as needed. Hopefully, this slope will tie in with the slope near the barn when everything is completed.
This is our 3rd recent Splash, Bump & Beach team. We were the 15th team in a 30 team field. We had a 2005 and 2007 version who’s stories are told in a 2005 pdf/2005 pictures here and 2007 posting here.
Honestly, I was going to let the 2009 opportunity go by but back in January when we were visiting Howe Caverns I saw and talked with Sparky. Sparky related that Beth so enjoyed his description of the 2007 that she wanted to try the Relay Race. It sounded like fun; a team relay race, an easy paddle down stream rather than fighting wind across a lake. Of course, in 2007 Sparky did a 4.25 mile leg…..
So I started recruiting, searching for a stock aluminum canoe and organizing our team. I asked our previous team members; of which Skip, Connie, Sparky, Vanessa, and Kathryn all agreed to participate – except Kathryn declared she would not paddle the 1st leg again. Past year battling with aggressive competitors and being hit and swamped had her justifiably concerned. In addition to Sparky’s partner Beth we recruited fellow Winter Camper Len Fudge and a friend from volleyball, Beth Bohlman. Steve and Vanessa volunteered to supply the canoe and I wbrought my bent shaft paddles and a spare. Steve applies our race number to his Sea-King canoe – quite likely the only time this canoe has seen a racing number applied.
The race is approximately 30 miles in total with all 5 legs starting/exchanging on the left side (south) of the river going downstream. Skip and Beth were volunteered to tackle the 1st leg and the notorious strainers in back of Hannaford Markets; the rest of the race broke out accordingly.
Water flow was moderate and while it didn’t provide a big boost we didn’t anticipate excessive shallow areas.
As the 15th entry we lined up on shore starting in the middle of the pack with all the action. This year the start was moved up to 11:15am. Below Skip and Beth position the canoe along the shore.
The start of the race is frantic, with everyone striving for optimal position as the river converges in a narrow chute beneath the Route 23 Bridge. Below Skip and Beth are located centrally ahead of 7 other canoes.
It starts to get a little crowded as the team pass under the bridge.
And even more crowded coming out from the other side of the bridge – a four way. Now just stop and take a moment to compare the width of the three Grumman canoes to our Sea-King. See a difference? Perhaps in the width of the canoe? As Steve aptly stated later in the race “I have been looking at these canoes and ours seems to be pushing more water”. Hmmm…. note to self, next year a narrow (and faster) canoe would be nice.
Good bye Skip & Beth. See you in 30 minutes.
Sparky stops the canoe, Beth disembarks, Jim holds the canoe, Beth is amazed and Skip exits.
A quick dump of the canoe to rid it of accumulated water.
Sparky & Beth are off on their 9 mile jaunt. They passed one team, they rammed shore, they questioned why they were doing this race.
Sparky and Beth declared they were happy to keep the bottom of the canoe in water. Beth said “We did go backwards down one set of rapids, which was my fault. There were three to choose from and I chose the lowest, but as we approached the canoe in front of us went sideways. In an effort to avoid hitting them, I decided to take the middle rapid, only it was too late. When the current caught us it turned us around. Of course, there were three spectators sitting on the bank. I yelled to them that we just wanted to give them a little excitement. They yelled back that we weren’t the first!”
All that could be heard by the spectators on the banks was Sparky saying,”I want to be over there in the current.” and Beth replying,” I know, I’m trying.”
Sparky does admit putting his paddle down 3 times for rests.
Below, Skip enjoys being done with his portion of the race during the cool of the morning.
Sparky and Beth come into the Wells Bridge Fishing Access. They only looked moderately tired. (See how broad the canoe looks?). After wards Sparky showed off bruising along his forearms from banging his arms on the gunnels.
This exchange point has a slippery clay bottom and it is deep near the stairs where most teams exchanged. We opted to change just a few feet downstream where we could stand without falling. Skip and Kathryn secure the canoe. Sparky and Beth had shed their life jackets mid-leg.
Kathryn sets the pace, Skip gave a push, Sparky realizes how much one uses their legs during paddling and Beth washes up. At this point we could barely see a group of four teams ahead of us in the distance with close to a 1/2 mile lead.
Kathryn set a great pace through out the 8.75 miles. She stopped her pace at two points: once to pull up her knee pads so she could brace her knees on the boat and once to cram two Oreo cookies into her mouth for a quick sugar boost. Slightly away from the exchange we declared passing the last boats of the group in front as our goal and passed three of the teams. Team Blue Lining was the 1st to be captured after about 40 minutes of paddling. As we were catching up to them we were caught by a C-1 canoeist with a red cap. He told us to stay right through the current section of the river and we would have no problem passing the next team. We tried drafting on the C-1 but he easily out paced us. We passed Blue Lining and quickly passed a 2nd team who were caught broadside in a shallow riffle. As they re-positioned their boat we skirted around them and were re-passed by Blue Lining. I kiddingly told them “Have you no honor? We passed you once.” Shortly downstream we picked a great line on the far right through a shallow riffle and left Blue Lining behind. We found and passed one other team who were wearing grey T-shirts, straw hats and fake mustaches. They were choosing good lines through the current, but lacked the pace that Kathryn maintained. The final member of the 4 canoe group we set out to capture maintained their lead throughout and we were never able to catch up to them.
There were several bridges in the 1.5 miles approaching the Unadilla Fishing access. We were hopeful that each one would be our exchange point. At one point we asked spectators how far it was to the exchange and got the not-so-helpful “Not far”. Come on people; time and/or distance estimates would be nice.
Finally, we pulled into Unadilla. Len holds the canoe, Kathryn swings a leg out, Skip is ready to help dump, Connie gets ready to enter, Eric checks the water depth, Sparky helps dump the canoe and Jim disembarks.
Len (rocking his WinterCampers.com t-shirt) and Connie head out on their 4.25 leg to Sidney. Kathryn finally gets to drink from her water bottle and Skip snaps a picture of the departure.
Skip provides a little balance for Kathryn. Sparky observes as Eric gives Dad a high five.
Len and Connie come into the Sidney exchange. Connie swapped the bent shaft paddle for the straight paddle that feels more normal to her.
Steve and Vanessa battle the wind as they come in under the finish line with a total time of 5:22.
After wards we enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner, talked about our race and watched the teams behind us come in.
The table below depicts the year we raced, our cumulative time, the times of the 1st and 10th place team, the time difference between our finish and our desired Top 10 goal and finally our overall placing. You can see in 2005 we were in 15th place less than 15 minutes out of 10th place – after dumping on the 1st leg! I still think a Top 10 finish is achievable.
Over the years we have gotten better (or the water flow has improved), but so has the competition. Graphically it looks like this.
What will it take for us to make it into the Top 10 and get a trophy? About 40 minutes. A faster canoe? Maybe shuffling our lineup around? A couple of practice sessions? A better starting position?
Regardless I think Steve said it best; “It was a great way to spend a day”.
Applicants are being accepted for the 2010 Splash, Bump & Beach team. Commit early!
Tuesday night K made a great and innovative chicken pot pie with lots of vegies. We sat on the deck had dinner and remembered it was the day to vote for a new school board member and the HP School Initiatives: budget, new buses, and expanding the school board from 5 to 7 members. After we voted I saw Kathy Davis, HP Superintendent who gave me a tour of the remodeled HP Pool and said it should open around 16 June. We came home, changed clothes and took the chainsaw over into the hay field to cut up an old dead elm tree that had fallen over the winter. I anticipate Kraegers will be cutting hay there soon and wanted to get it out of the field. K took Eric to bed and I worked in the garden, hoeing and planting the 12 tomato plants we got through a school fund raiser. So far the garden has two rows of peas and a short row of carrots coming up. In addition to the tomatoes I planted a short row of green beans last night as well.
K had taken 3 screen doors and one window to JK Lumber for repair from various dog/kid abuse tactics. They installed ‘dog resistant’ screening (heavier material) which looks blacker as well. I re-installed our 3 door screens (instant ventilation) and the window.
That let me cross a couple of items off my to-do list.