Elevation 1,286 feet (392 m)

Elevation gain 200 feet

Latitude: 43.2836807° Longitude:     -75.2829462°

Trail Measurements

Trail	Feet	Miles
House to Cookout Corner	2210	.42
House to top of Kirkland’s field	4077	.77
House to 1 mile meadow	5027	.95
Bench to Appliance Alley	791	.15
Bench to stream	1449	.27
Bench to Bench Loop	7286	1.38

Total Trip Distance 3.28 miles

The HP Varsity Basketball Team finished 1st in their league with a record of 11-9 and besting: Clinton, Sherburne-Earlville, Canastota, and Adirondack. As the 12th seed in the 25 team Center State Conference they ended up vs #5 ranked Marcellus (14-6) in the sectionals. Marcellus previously trounced HP by 37 during the regular season. HP played its best defense and the game was close throughout, ending each quarter within one point of another. The scales were tipped in the 4th quarter as HP players fouled out and Marcellus exploited a height advantage to capture several offense rebounds. The last few minutes dissolved into a free throw contest and Marcellus stretched their 4-point lead to 6 points at the closing buzzer.
Eric has now transitioned to playing AAU basketball – which he actually likes better. He says it is more intense with better players and better competition. They practice 2x week and usually play in one tournament a month.
Eric is pulling good grades and maintains a position on HP’s High Honor Roll. Eric wants to have “a real job” this summer and has several ideas, but I told him he needs to pass his driver’s test because I am not chauffeuring him to/from a job. He failed his test twice – mainly on parallel parking and is very hesitant about trying again.
Kathryn notified Utica College of her May retirement. Now she started notifying private practice clients. She says it is an emotional process. Now that she will no longer be teaching it has enabled us to throw out a lot of paperwork.
Over the next few weeks Kathryn is playing in several Senior’s Volleyball Tournaments. In Oswego this Saturday. Then Slippery Rock PA and Connecticut in April. Empire State Games in Cortland in June. She got asked to play on a team from Chicago in Utah in October and being asked makes her happy.
Kathryn is still swimming mornings. After taking a few months off she has resumed doing her cross fit classes. She is playing pickup volleyball Wed & Thursday nights. She XC skis when the conditions and schedule permit.
Our Ski Trails. We developed a snowshoe / ski trail through our woods and our neighbor’s woods that totals 3.8 miles round trip. We call it the Lollipop Loop as it is in the shape of a lollipop with our house being at the bottom of the handle. One can just do a 2 mile up & back down the handle (there is about 300’ elevation gain) or do the whole loop, which takes roughly 2 hours depending on trail conditions and whether one is XC skiing (Kathryn) or snowshoeing (Jim). It’s good exercise for both human and canine. But as soon as we get a nice trail, Mother Nature brings us a day of rain and/or several inches of new snow. So, we are back in the mode of re-establishing our trails and then seeing them melt away.
Finally, my heart situation seems to be becoming manageable. It took me a couple months to stop Atrial Fib after the surgery. I got permission to cut back on the amount of Beta-Blocker I am taking. The beta-blocker would make me light-headed, cause poor circulation in my hands, and most of all it impacted any strenuous activities. If I did vigorous exercise after about 40 minutes would feel like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. My doctor let me cut the amount in half and that has made a big difference. Of course, I am still dealing with the issue of lost conditioning from not doing much from August until recently. Eric and I have joined a local gym. Him to gain strength and explosion to improve his basketball. Me to re-gain toning and balance. It isn’t easy is it?
I am still working, usually Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays. I have a lot of independence; they pay well, and it is nice to have the health insurance from their local providers. I will re-assess the situation in May.
Painting Eric’s Room: Eric is using the bedroom upstairs- last painted when Billie Jo was still at HP. We have a few repairs to accomplish and Eric wants it painted in the colors of his favorite basketball team – the Phoenix Suns. Purple and orange!! Only a teenage boy, eh? So, we have compromised such that one wall is light grey and has a big team logo, one wall with a window will be purple and the other two walls will be this diagonal orange/purple.

Eric had his 1st AAU practice Tuesday night 7-8:30pm. It was dark, rainy, very foggy and very windy. On our way home we hit a downed tree in the road damaging the front fender, leaving a couple of dents and scratches along the side door panels. We were fine, lucky that the windshield didn’t break or anything worse. Eric and I couldn’t budge the tree out of the road. Shortly after we left the scene and emergency truck passed us headed to the incident. The next morning, I called State Farm insurance to understand the process. They said we had a $500 deductible and to get an estimate to see if it would be more than $500 to warrant submitting a claim. I called my regular mechanic who recommended a local body shop and I took my car there for him to take a look. During conversation, he asked if I had comprehensive insurance and I let it slip that I had a $500 deductible. So, he looked up cost of a new fender, estimated the number of hours, shrugged his shoulders a couple of times, held his hands out with the palms up and CAME UP WITH AN ESTIMATE OF $450 !! AMAZINGLY JUST A LITTLE BELOW MY THRESHOLD. So, I got played…. Oh well. I guess it is good that I still work and earn a paycheck so I can cover my other mistakes.

Cullen and I took a snowshoe hike this afternoon; to give Cullen some exercise and trim overhanging branches that threatened to poke my eyes. During the hike we saw raccoon tracks and lots of Ruffed Grouse snow shelters.

The ruffed grouse is famous for its winter roosting routine, commonly referred to as “snow roosting.”  With no snow, or just a few inches of it, the bird is likely to seek protection in conifer stands. If the snow is soft and a foot or more deep, however, the grouse is likely to spend the night in an insulated, air-filled snow tunnel. The grouse builds this tunnel by first plunging from a tree into the snow. Then with its wings and feet the grouse extends the tunnel, sometimes to as much as 10 feet. Recent research suggests that the temperature in a snow hideaway may warm to 32 degrees Fahrenheit and that it rarely falls below 20 degrees—even when it is much colder outside. This tunnel helps the grouse conserve energy, so it needs less food. Less time spent in the open also means less time being exposed to predators.  A ruffed grouse exits its tunnel with a flap of wings and burst of snow that will scare the daylights out of any snowshoer or skier happening by. 

This past week the whole family (K, J, & Eric) were all at home.  It was VERY windy, with strong wind gusts, but no precipitation and the temperatures were moderate.  Eric and I took advantage of the reasonable weather to bring a couple loads of wood up into the garage.  Since we were out and about it was a good opportunity for Cullen Underfoot to be out in the yard and poking around.  What could go wrong? Later in the evening of that day Cullen started whining constantly and it went on continuously through the night.  We took him outside to go to the bathroom, offered him water and finally gave up and put him outside in the dog yard so that we could get some sleep. The next morning Cullen was no longer whining, but was drinking copious amounts of water. As Kathryn was filling her bird feeders, she noticed that her re-purposed orange mesh bag that had been holding large chunks of suet was missing. We think the strong winds had dislodged it. A detailed inspection of the dog yard revealed a large pile of regurgitated suet – but no mesh bag.  Since decided to put Cullen on a restricted white rice diet and kept him constantly supervised to determine if he would pass a plastic mesh bag.  By Thursday he was eating, sleeping and acting normal.  Kathryn decided he no longer had to be supervised on every outing. As she was sitting at the kitchen table, she saw Cullen race by with a recently dug up plastic mesh bag.  Since we had been watching him for the past three days he hadn’t an opportunity to recover his treasure.  As a free dog, he dug it up and was headed to exploit it.

Eric got to play basketball a little bit last night.  He took 5 shots and missed them all, but didn’t make any mistakes and recovered 5 rebounds.

Kathryn, Dakota and Billie Jo all left this Friday morning for a week in Seattle and the Pacific coast.

Kathryn took Dakota and Izzabella to an overnight in Rochester.  They joined other Skelly’s to watch Pat’s daughter, Nicole, perform her Renaissance Faire routine, The Gwendolyn Show, as part of a benefit.  They stayed in a hotel and did some shopping on Saturday before returning home.

For Christmas Eric got me a card game called “Exploding Kittens” and we have really been enjoying it. Well, the exploding kitten part isn’t great, but we still like the game. It’s a little like “Old Maid” where you don’t’ want to receive an Exploding Kitten card.

You may remember long-term St. John resident and sailor Peter Muilenburg.  He had the sailboat, The Breeze, that we used on our St John’s vacation.  I think we went to his house after our sailboat ride.  I remember dropping one of his hand-carved chess pieces onto the stone floor.  He passed away recently.

Eric is off school until 6 January.  He played in a Christmas basketball tournament. His team lost one game and won one game. Thankfully, practice gets him out of the house. 

Eric and I have been battling being congested and coughing.  I had a dentist app’t and was medicated enough that I didn’t cough on the hygienist.

We have lost all our snow.  We have had warm days / nights and it rained starting yesterday through the night. Kathryn, Billie Jo and Dakota leave at the end of this week to go to Seattle for several days.

Winter is associated with migration, hibernation, changes in animal behavior, plants becoming dormant, and humans experiencing special health concerns ranging from hypothermia to seasonal depression. Winter even invokes its own special vocabularies to describe the conditions (e.g. black ice, whiteouts, and corn snow).

Descriptions of winter camping depend on geographic location, opportunities to go camping and desire to impress your friends and relatives. There are groups from northern Canada to the Ozarks that claim winter camping experience; although I am sure their conditions and experiences are greatly different.

How you define winter camping might depend on your definition of ‘winter’, along with the gear you carry along with you for precautions.

Meteorological or thermological winter is defined as the three month period associated with the coldest average temperatures so the start of meteorological winter can change depending on how far north one lives. This corresponds to the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere and June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere.

Astronomically, winter can be defined as beginning on the winter solstice, the day of the year which has fewest hours of daylight, and ending on the following equinox. In the United States this defines winter as roughly beginning December 21 or 22 and ending about March 20 or 21.

Practically, winter may be defined by the organization with perhaps the most winter camping experience, or at least the most participants, the Boys Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts define cold weather camping as taking place when the temperature is below 50F and involves cold, wet and/or windy conditions.

Many adventurers view permanent snow cover and/or ice as a critical aspect of winter camping, requiring cross-country skis or snowshoes to traverse the winter landscape.

One might decide that winter camping is camping which requires specialized cold weather gear such as snow shovels, white gas stoves, crampons, insulated clothing and four season tents and/or require specialized skills such as building snow shelters.

Regardless of your location, most agree that nighttime dominates the winter season and lower temperatures are part of the equation. Dealing with the weather, cold temperatures and inclement conditions challenge a winter camper’s physical comfort.

Winter camping has been described to me as a time when one switched from “camping to enable hiking to hiking to enable camping.”

Regardless of the definition you chose, winter camping provides an opportunity to be out of doors 24 hours a day. Winter camping is not an end in itself; it is merely the vehicle that allows us to enjoy being outside.