We did a lot of home projects over our holiday weekend. Friday I mowed all our lawns while Kathryn and Eric went shopping. Saturday we went to the family picnic at Mark & Danielle’s new home. It was windy, but the temperatures were moderate – especially when the sun was out. We played boccie, extreme croquet and took a short hike on the Poison Ivy Path. Below Nathan and Eric join the big boys for some lawn boccie.

Matt, Mark, Frank, Cody, Nathan, Eric and I used the whole lawn for some extreme croquet. The game lacked a little something which I attribute to the sprawled out nature of the course (note to self: next time compact the course to increase the potential for collisions); the “I’ll knock you through the wicket” approach taken by a certain pair of brothers; and finally, my own “the game be damned- I will get them for that” strategy that had me break course and go head hunting (note to self: head hunting ruins the game for the head huntee).

Saturday we worked cutting wood in “cookout corner” – our picnic grounds in the 40 acre wood across the road. We mostly dead wood and had a small cook fire to roast hot dogs and marshmellows.

In the afternoon we went to Syracuse and delivered Izzabella’s birthday presents. We hung out at the park with Ed, Kelly and Bella. Eric and Bella worked out the swings –

while Ed and Kathryn debated the new world order.

Below Bella models her crown and earrings that Eric gave her.

Monday morning we went birding. We took the call tape for the golden winged warbler and blue winged warbler across the road and called in a Brewster’s or Blue Winged warbler. Later Kathryn packed for their trip to Seattle and I worked on a new trail through our woods. The “Ridge Trail” forms a connection between our new Trillium Trail and the Musical Rocks Trail. I moved the downed tree tops and brush to a point that I could get my tractor and brush hog through. Then I mowed the trails through the woods. I capped off the night by taking Ibuprofen and hitting the hot tub.

Today we worked at making a short, new, trail through our 40 acre woods. We wanted to be able to walk along the stream bed as it offers a great place to explore and discover. The stream bed was clogged with limbs from past logging and old junk. We found old metal cans, buckets, glass, and 3-4 tires.

While we cut limbs to make a path alongside the south side of the stream Eric found a large log that made a nice bridge to cross the stream for a branching trail up the hill. Crossing the log we found the largest group of trillium I have ever seen. We counted nearly 20 separate purple trillium in this patch.

In adjoining areas we saw a half dozen Jack-in-The-Pulpit plants.

Last week Barb and Joe found a Eastern Painted Turtle hatchling – probably only 2-3 days old.   He was tiny and likely destined as a food source.  They asked Eric to raise the turtle until he was a little older and had a better chance at survival.  Eric named the turtle Painter and after a copy of fretful days he/she has started to eat.  Painter ignored the fruit: blueberries and strawberries but took tiny bites of soaked dogfood and a bite of an orange.  Yesterday while Kathryn was working home alone she said she could hear the faintest sound of smacking and looked to see Painter eating a mouthful of dogfood.

In the picture above Painter is in ‘basking’ mode.  At night Painter hides under the vegetation.

A few weeks ago Eric mastered counting to 100.  It is a process that, once requested, can not be shut off mid-stream.  My mom asked him to count to 100 and when Eric reached the 60s she was impressed enough and decided tried to abort the process – without success.

Recently Eric went for his kindergarten evaluation where they tried to determine his skill level.  The teacher asked him “How high can you count?”.

Eric looked at her solemnly and replied “This could take awhile.”

“In that case, just count to 30” replied the teacher, who had probably been down that path many times before.

Have you ever gone on a camping trip that looked like a disaster from the start? Kathryn and I and were invited by our friend Rich Roman to go canoe camping on Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondack Park.  It was sprinkling lightly as we loaded our VW Rabbit with our canoe, dog and camping gear.  As we drove from our house to Stillwater the light sprinkle transitioned to a heavy downpour. With a feeling of impending disaster Kathryn and I made up this poem as we bounced through potholes on the dirt road into Stillwater. This is sung to the Cowboy Ballad “I Ride An Old Paint” (I lead an old Dan).

Crazy Rich Roman had a wonderful thought:
“Let’s go canoeing with the maps that I bought.”
So to Stillwater Lake we all did proceed,
now it looks like some dry clothes we all soon will need.

Chorus:
Ca-noe-ing, Ca-noe-ing in the rain.
Our hands are all callused, our shoulders in pain.

We paddle on the left, we paddle on the right.
Jim calls out “Hup” and we paddle through the night.
It’s dark and it’s gloomy, the clouds fill the sky.
We search but we can’t find a campsite that’s dry.

Chorus

Everyone got wet, but only one didn’t care.
That one was Choice* with the waterproof hair.
He sat in the middle with a smile on his face;
The rest of us wondered why Rich chose this place.

Chorus

*Choice was our yellow lab/golden retriever dog who loved the water.

We took an early morning walk around our property Sunday morning starting at the garden. We have three rows of peas coming up. This weekend I put up hog panel fence for the to climb and mulched between the rows with horse manure.

Below the garden there were two Canada geese swimming in my neighbor’s pond. You can also see that we decimated the rhubarb as we cut a shopping bag full prior to the walk.

We checked out the lilacs and tulips growing below.

We walked across the road and heard/saw a variety of birds including Orioles, Oven birds, a drumming grouse, and the most exciting- a blue winged warbler or a Brewster’s Warbler – the blue-winged/golden winged hybrid. Kathryn has plans to return with her warbler calls and get a visual confirmation.

We found purple trillium in blossom.

The apple trees were in full blossom.

We saw two Orioles and have had Orioles coming to our oranges to feed. But with the caterpillars coming out the Orioles will soon switch to this food source.

Thanks for coming along

We got back from our canoe trip Sunday noon. We drove to Port Jervis on Thursday (5 hours), dropped off our canoes and stuff and shuttled the van to the take-out point at a campground in Portland, NJ ~50 miles away. Steve took a taxi back to Port Jervis. It was cool and windy while we waited.

We got in the water at 3:30pm and paddled for 1 hour. We passed the Tri-State Stone marking the intersection of NY, NJ and PA.

We decided stayed at campsite #1 as it was starting to spit rain with predictions for more. Campsite #1 was on the NJ side of the river with some camps across the water from us. One of the camps had a very vocal rooster that we heard at night and early the following morning. Knowing the weather forecast and schedule we picked up sandwiches for dinner to lessen our workload for the 1st evening. It rained heavy during the night, but stopped before we arose.

Our normal routine included Bob making breakfast and dinner. Steve made coffee in the morning. Jim set up the rain tarp and Jim/Steve/Skip washed dishes. Below Steve is set up for early coffee.

The Delaware River Water Gap National Park has designated campsites through out and several river side parks and boat access points. We expected to see other paddlers but did not see any other paddlers. However, there was a Shad Fishing Tournament that attracted a number of boats and shoreline fishermen.

We paddled 25 miles on Friday and stayed at picturisue campsite with a large rock cliff adorned with blossuming dogwood across the river from our site.

We saw 1 white swan, 6-8 Ospreys and 7-8 Eagles; lots of Canada Geese and ducks.

The river flowed along at 2-3mph so we enjoyed a good current helping us along. There were a few class II rapids and places with 1-2′ standing waves that splashed us but nothing dangerous or caused us to dump.

We experienced temperatures in the mid-forties to mid-fifties. We were lucky in that we only got rained on during the night while we were in our tents or one morning while we were under the rain fly having breakfast.

Delaware Water Gap is a deep, narrow gorge cut by the Delaware River in the Kittatinny Mountains. The gorge is three miles long, with steep, rocky walls which rise 1,400 feet on each side. Mount Tammany is located on the New Jersey side of the gorge and Mount Minis on the Pennsylvania side.

The actual Delaware River Water Gap was impressive with two large rock walls concentrating the river, Interstate 80, a railroad, and a state road. It was impressive, but the traffic noise from the interstate detracted from the experience.

Saturday we paddled to the end point at Delaware River Family Campground where we showered, re-packed and prepared for our Sunday morning return.

This weekend I celebrated my 55th birthday. It began by taking some time off work early; going to my friends Jim & Pam to get a load of aged horse manure for the garden. While Kathryn and Eric visited with Pam it took me about 1 hour to fork a heaping load on the truck, tarp it and lash it down. Below the “compost” is ready to be deployed as mulch between rows, once the plants are coming up. At this point there are 4 rows of peas just beginning to show through the dirt.

Saturday was a work day as we picked the house, cleaned and did loads of laundry in the morning. In the afternoon we raked a couple of the nasty areas on the lawn and transferred deck furniture from the barn loft to the deck.

Sunday Mom, Barbara, Billie Jo and Dakota joined the Kathryn, Eric and I in a chicken & biscuits birthday dinner capped by yes, Tomato Soup Cake – rich and spicy and filled with raisins, walnuts, and topped with a cream cheese frosting. I calculate I have probably had Tomato Soup Cake for my birthday for about 40 consecutive years now. I may have missed one or two in their, but I can’t recall the misses. Just the cakes.

You ask how could a cake come from tomato soup? and what on earth would possess someone to ever conceive of including it in a recipe? My research reveals that during the Great Depression many ingredients were not readily available to homemakers. They “made-do” with what they had… some depression-era homemaker went through her cupboards to see what she did have, and laid them all out before her….flour, baking soda, sugar, raisins, nuts, spices. A bit if this and a bit of that, and a humble can of Tomato Soup. When there were no eggs, she came up with things like Tomato Soup Cake. And thank goodness for that moment.

I was honored to receive a basketball & net, gift certificate to Miller’s Nursery (for grapes), a GSI Dualist cook kit, Home Depot gift certificate and fish worms as presents. Eric gave me the fish worms so we had to cap off the day by going fishing. He caught a nice big catfish ~16″ and a 12-13″ bass.