Eric attended his friend Colby’s birthday party at the Whitestown Recreational Center. A highlight of the party was the ice skating after wards. After flopping a few times, Eric used a traffic cone for balance.
Eric has joined the Wolverine Ski Club which meets Thursdays after school at the Trenton Fish and Game Club to play games and practice Nordic Skiing. Below Eric crashes into the back legs of a fellow skier.
The red-bellied woodpecker has been expanding its range north for the last 10-15 years. We finally got one at our feeder. The Red-bellied woodpecker is a skittish eater. We all have to freeze when he comes to the feeder.
Eric turned 8 on 7 January.
This holiday included Legos, Pokemon and Nitendo DS games. Kathryn bought a Star Trek Lego kit that involved an instruction booklet that had 4 phases of 30+ steps each. Eric and I worked on it for several nights in a row to finish the model.
His Nintendo DS requires a lot of concentration.
To celebrate we held his birthday party at Adirondack Lanes Bowling Lanes.
I grew up across from Howe Caverns. My dad used to cut hay from their land. When my ponies escaped we would frequently find them at the Caverns mooching treats and affection from the tourists. One of the reasons I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 18 was due to our proximity to Howe Caverns. With no shoulders along the country roads, my parents were sure if I was riding a bike I would get hit by a tourist. So from age 5 on they entrusted my fate to Nip, my pony. I guess they figured his sense of self preservation would extend to me as well. In 40 years the old farm house and apple orchard is gone, as is the pig house, chicken coops and lower barn where we used to swing on the rope and make tunnels and forts in the hay. The ‘night lot’ where we used to put the cows at night is over grown with saplings, but the upper barn still stands.
When I was in High School I worked as a tour guide at the Caverns, leading groups of 40 people through the cave on 3-4 trips a day. It was a great job for a teenager; it paid well, it taught me some public speaking skills, I got introduced to a wide range of ethnicities that one wouldn’t normally encounter in rural Schoharie County, working with other teenagers provided the potential for lots of pranks and it got me interested in spelunking.
Yesterday, we took Eric and his buddy Trevor to the Caverns.
The tour is a little different than the spiel we used to give. Some of the formations we used to describe are now ignored. There is an emphasis on taking family pictures – like the one above – as a revenue stream. So other parts of the tour are a little faster and the Cave History Spiel is no longer given in the Bronze Room – where it fit so well.
The boys enjoyed the whole trip. The only place they got a little spooked was hearing the running water at the end of the boat ride (start is shown above). They were amazed by the experience of total darkness and really enjoyed walking through the winding way. All in all a good trip.
I got to see Sparky, Rich Nethaway and Bob Holt to chat a bit. It was a nice day.
Our Christmas Holidays were strung out over several days. On Saturday December 20th we journeyed to Barbara and Joe’s to celebrate with all the Mullers and Hays. Below Nathan and Eric pass out presents.
Christmas Day was spent at our house. This was the year of Pokemon, Legos and Nintendo DS for Eric.
At noon Billie Jo and Dakota showed up and stayed until 6pm. On Friday Ed, Kelly and Izzabella visited for the afternoon.
On Saturday, Kathryn, Eric and Scout left for Rochester and I went to the cabin at Shaker Place with Skip, Bob, Matt, Mark, and Scott.
After much delay I finally got the prizes from the Return to the Outdoors contest: a nice Northface fleece jacket, a Camelbak Hydration Pak, and a pair of Ahnu water shoes.
Once again we cut a tree too large for the house. It was actually a top from a tree from a Christmas tree farm just down the road. His trees aren’t trimmed and they are getting away from him.
Later in the weekend Trevor and Eric decorated Christmas cookies.
Kathryn prepared the food.
Eric supplied the decorations for the dining room.
Before and after the meal the kids went outside to slide down hill in the snow. CT, Eric and I built a snowman, as well.
Unfortunately I didn’t remember to take pictures when Ed & family, Barb/Joe & grandkids & Mom were at the house on T-Day. But I did capture a couple the following day when Billie Jo and Dakota came to visit.
Eric thought Dakota was an annoyance and mainly interested in getting into his toys until she taught him how to climb the walls. Dakota was fast climbing up door jams or bridging the walls in the hallway.
Eric had a new found respect for her then.
Saturday we journied to Rochester to have lunch with K’s Dad and brothers.
My son Ed recently got online and sent me some pictures of our grand-daugher Izzabella – age 3.
