Eric and I did a little large mouth bass fishing from our canoe at Whetstone Reservoir (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Houseville+Gulf+Rd,+Lowville,+NY+13367/@43.6896942,-75.4966286,16z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89d8ee883af2a5d3:0xe85596d7e58bf05a )

Looking back towards the dam you can see wind turbines in the distance.

The reservoir is shallow with lots of cover in the way of weeds and stumps.  We ended up fishing with weedless plastic rigs.

After fishing upwind for an hour we turned around and headed back to the car hoping to avoid the pending rain.  We ended up fishing about 1/2 back and paddling madly for the rest.  We got loaded up just as the hardest rain hit.  It was a nice fishing trip.

This weekend we had consecutive days of dry sunny weather so we waterproof the deck using 5 gallons of an oil based clear waterproofing. All told there was 1,145 square feet of  deck floor and stairs, not counting the railings.

After waterproofing the deck Kathryn, the dogs and I took a short walk around our woods to check out the elderberries.  The dogs are always glad to go for a walk.  Cullen is particularly happy since he found the deer bones 1st.

Kathryn checks out the elderberry bushes along the north trail.  It seems the fruit is sparse and small.

The catnip behind the ear is effective vs. mosquitoes, but not deer flies.

Back home we sat on the porch for a bit while the dogs cooled down.

The last week of our vacation people were sending us text messages and pictures of what was happening back here, which was significant flooding, much of it in the Herkimer/Ilion/Fort Plain region but also some south and west of Utica.  We got home early Tuesday morning and it wasn’t long before Kathryn got called by the Red Cross; except for one day of  work and one day Jen and I had promised to take Eric to Water Safari.   Since we got home the weather has been hot and humid and, fortunately, the rain seems to have moved out of the area for a while.  But it is hot (90) with high humidity (82%).

Eric finished up lacrosse with a bang, playing very well, contributing both assists and some goals.  Now he is going to golf ‘camp’ on Friday  mornings and playing pick-up basketball league on Monday nights.

Kathryn’s long ago and long time neighborhood friend, Judy came to visit with her grandson, Christopher who was visiting her from Georgia.  Kathryn and Eric met Judy and Chris at the train station in Rome on Sunday, took them to lunch and then visited Fort Stanwix.  Monday the boys went swimming at Trenton Town Park and then played pickup basketball. The boys got along very well, which gave Kathryn and Judy time to just visit.  They returned to Rochester via train on Tuesday.

We are back into volleyball with mixed success; we got rained/thunderstormed out of a Wednesday night match which we made up the following week, but that entailed playing 8 games vs. Connie and Dale Postal’s teams.  I think we split our games.  Thursday night we had a single early game vs. Roger’s team and prevailed 2-1 in close games.

Eric is doing swim lessons the last two weeks of July and we are planning to go to Maine with the Helmers in August.  Summer is flying by and we haven’t done any camping, let alone canoe camping.

Thursday Jeanne, Barbara and Nathan arrived in the afternoon.  Jeanne and Barbara took the boys for ice cream while Kathryn and I played an early volleyball game.  Friday Kathryn, Jeanne, Nathan and Eric went tubing down the West Canada Creek.  Bradley Grogan, Hobart and Perry replaced our jet pump with a submersible pump during the heat of the morning.  In the evening we went shopping at Gander Mtn and went to dinner at Outback Steak House enjoying the air conditioning in both places.

We had a violent thunderstorm upon our return to our house, but it lowered the temperatures.  Saturday the boys went fishing and swimming in the pond before returning home.

Sunday I got a truckload of mulch which we put around the house.  We plucked 100+ fishworms from the mulch near the peonies and roadside trees.  We fixed the dock in the pond by sealing the plugs with silicone and re-fastening each barrel separately.  Hopefully the barrels will stay sealed and float the dock.

Anything cooked over a campfire is delicious?  After eating their hotdogs Eric and Trevor tried celery, carrots, pickles and SunChips (which just caught on fire) during a late season cookout.

Ed, Kellee and Bella joined us for lunch and then we all went to the Corn Maze in Stittville where we met Billie Jo, Joel and Dakota.  There were two different “camps” at the maze.

1. Run around randomly inside the maze: Kathryn, Billie Jo and anyone under 8 years old.
2. Take the map and methodologically inspect each portion: Jim, Ed, Kellee and Joel.

After about 15-20 minutes group 1 joined group two and we found all three parts of the puzzle.

On May 18th, 1980, thirty years ago today, at 8:32 a.m., the ground shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history – the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states.

Kathryn and I were living in Eugene, OR at the time and it was a Sunday morning.  I was awake and reading in the living room while Kathryn was sleeping in.  The blast shook the windows in our house and got Kathryn awake.  She came out and asked what the noise was.  Not knowing, I told her it sounded like a quarry blast, but I didn’t know there were any quarries around and who blasts on Sunday morning.

About 9am we heard the news.

The next day I drove to Portland for a computer training class and saw the reddest, most spectacular sunrise.

Some outstanding pictures of Mt Saint Helen are here.

Eric has had this week off from school.  Kathryn did her Wilderness First Aid Training for her new part time job at Potato Hill Farm Educational Center.  On Thursday night Eric enjoyed a sleep over at Jen & Mike’s.  Friday afternoon he attended a birthday party for Olivia held at the Westmoreland Community Center.

This evening we had our 1st cookout across the road and spotted a bed of Trillium with a couple of really big plants.

The home remodeling continues.  This week some of the replacement oak flooring was put in.  The bathroom space was gutted and work began on installing the shower tub.

Last night was the last Tiger Cubs function for the year – a pack meeting where they got their Tiger Cub badge and awards for completing chapters 4 & 5 in the Tiger Cub book.  Eric, Josh, Mitchell and Janaru acted like they just won an Olympic Marathon – they were dancing around with their arms in the air.  It was cute.

They remembered the past two meetings and told the pack leader about their nature hike (beaver chew, a white pineapple tree – no wait make that a white pine tree, minnows and skunk cabbage) and getting their picture in the newspaper.

We may attend the June 6 picnic weather permitting.