Skip and I made a 3 day/ 2 night trip to Stillwater specifically to scout the conditions of campsites 39 – 46. We utilized the water access off Moose Road and had a short paddle to site 41 where we set up out base camp. The 1st day we were hampered by high winds and merely relaxed in camp. The following day we located and inspected each campsite with an eye towards future use.
Author Archives: Jim Muller
Garden 2021 – Slow to Launch
I have been working on my garden lately. You may remember that I got tons of leaf mulch from my neighbor. Last fall I basically stripped the entire garden by hand and then buried the leaf compost. In April I rented a tiller and really worked the dirt and mulch together. I think it will be good for retaining moisture and loosening up the soil.
In early May I planted cool weather items: spinach, lettuce and Swiss Chard which failed to sprout. So today I replanted them. I started a new row of Asparagus with 20 root stocks. They are just beginning to come up. I put in potatoes which are doing very well so far. I planted 6 sweet peppers that Eric got for some reason. I started Brussels sprouts, broccoli and eggplant inside but they didn’t get very robust. I blame the Agway “potting soil” that I bought; it had a lot of bark and wood chips in it. At the end of their tenure inside, I started watering them with Miracle Grow and I got them outside in a cold frame for a week. Hopefully, now that they are outside, they will take hold. I had similar experience with my tomatoes, but they developed better root structures.
Why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing!
Go With The Flow Kayak Club
I joined a local paddling group that has a day trip planned for every Tuesday. The group is mainly retired females paddling kayaks, but there are a few men paddling as well. The past two weeks we have paddled around ponds in Madison County. The black flies and mosquitos are still problematic in the Adirondacks so the group all these early trips in the southern tier. I have been impressed with their organization and ability to schedule trips from May through October. On my 1st outing I took my Prism Solo canoe but yielded to group norms for the 2nd outing and used the 12′ kayak. I worked out entry and exit procedures but was uncomfortable in that I couldn’t move my legs. After and hour of paddling I was desperate to shift my legs.
Eric & Hannah Senior Prom
Tripps 1 Year Old
Tripp turns 1 year old on Friday May 21. The little boy is 94+ lbs.
Mother’s Day 2021
Eric used his connections and presented Kathryn with flowers, a card and chocolate for Mother’s Day. Well done.
Bartlett Pear Tree
Billie Jo and Eric each gave me a pear tree for my birthday. My small orchard needed a couple of replacements and I have found pear trees to be low maintenance and productive. Tripp inspects the work.
Binge Entertainment
I read a lot during our quarantine and binge watched 10 seasons of Shameless. I re–read the five George R R Martin Fire and Ice Series. After visiting the Frederick Remington Museum I binge read 6 Will James novels: Sun Up, Cow Country, Cowboys North and South, Scorpion, The Drifting Cowboy and the Lone Cowboy.
According to my public library I checked out 60+ books since January 2020:
- Life by Richards, Keith, 1943-
- The persuasion by Johansen, Iris,
- Unsinkable : five men and the indomitable run of the USS Plunkett by Sullivan, James, 1965-
- Raft of stars : a novel by Graff, Andrew J.,
- Three-ring circus : Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the crazy years of the Lakers dynasty by Pearlman, Jeff,
- The last trial by Turow, Scott,
- The dangerous river : adventure on the Nahanni by Patterson, R. M. (Raymond Murray), 1898-1984.
- What it’s like to be a bird : from flying to nesting, eating to singing – what birds are doing, and why by Sibley, David, 1961-
- WordPress : the missing manual by MacDonald, Matthew,
- Winter world : the ingenuity of animal survival by Heinrich, Bernd, 1940-
- WordPress by Sabin-Wilson, Lisa,
- The final deception by Graham, Heather,
- Himalaya : a human history by Douglas, Ed, 1966-
- The Best of the American West II : frontier adventure by Gorman, Edward.
- The great alone by Hannah, Kristin,
- Selected stories of Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring camp, The outcasts of Poker Flat, Tennessee’s partner, and other tales by Harte, Bret, 1836-1902.
- Exercised : why something we never evolved to do is healthy and rewarding by Lieberman, Daniel, 1964-
- The MeatEater guide to wilderness skills and survival by Rinella, Steven,
- Of wolves and men by Lopez, Barry Holstun, 1945-
- Roundup at the Double Diamond; the American cowboy today by Surface, William.
- American buffalo : in search of a lost icon by Rinella, Steven.
- Paddle to the Amazon by Starkell, Don, 1932-
- Trails plowed under by Russell, Charles Marion, 1864-1926.
- Cow people by Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964.
- Meat eater : adventures from the life of an American hunter by Rinella, Steven.
- Warpath & cattle trail by Collins, Hubert Edwin, 1872-
- The biggest bluff : how I learned to pay attention, master myself, and win by Konnikova, Maria,
- Calked shoes : life in Adirondack lumber camps / by Barbara Kephart Bird ; photographs by Royal G. Bird by Bird, Barbara Kephart, 1897-
- The pillars of the earth by Follett, Ken.
- The second wife by Fleet, Rebecca,
- Where the lost wander by Harmon, Amy,
- Vesper flights : new and collected essays by Macdonald, Helen, 1970-
- Inside of a dog : what dogs see, smell, and know by Horowitz, Alexandra.
- The bird way : a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think by Ackerman, Jennifer, 1959-
- Superman’s not coming : our national water crisis and what we the people can do about it by Brockovich, Erin,
- Utopia Avenue : a novel by Mitchell, David (David Stephen),
- Winter counts : a novel by Weiden, David Heska Wanbli, 1963-
- The back roads to March : the unsung, unheralded, and unknown heroes of a college basketball season by Feinstein, John,
- American boy by Watson, Larry, 1947-
- Dairy Queen days : a novel by Inman, Robert, 1943-
- Flirting with Pete : a novel by Delinsky, Barbara.
- Everywhere you don’t belong : a novel by Bump, Gabriel,
- Oona out of order by Montimore, Margarita,
- Until the end of time : mind, matter, and our search for meaning in an evolving universe by Greene, B. (Brian), 1963-
- Unconscious basketball: playing the game for keeps, skills that endure by Rosenfeld, Bruce.
- Every tool’s a hammer : life is what you make it by Savage, Adam,
- The Facebook effect : the inside story of the company that is connecting the world by Kirkpatrick, David, 1953 June 14-
- American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI by Dawson, Kate Winkler,
- Gathering moss : a natural and cultural history of mosses by Kimmerer, Robin Wall.
- The impossible first : from fire to ice–crossing Antarctica alone by O’Brady, Colin,
- The lost art of reading nature’s signs : use outdoor clues to find your way, predict the weather, locate water, track animals–and other forgotten skills by Gooley, Tristan.
- Oh Florida! : how America’s weirdest state influences the rest of the country by Pittman, Craig,
- American dirt by Cummins, Jeanine,
- Every last lie by Kubica, Mary,
- The good girl by Kubica, Mary,
- Imperfect union : how Jessie and John Fremont mapped the West, invented celebrity, and helped cause the Civil War by Inskeep, Steve,
- Educated : a memoir by Westover, Tara,
- Sandworm : a new era of cyberwar and the hunt for the Kremlin’s most dangerous hackers by Greenberg, Andy,
- Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast : A Blueprint for Transformation from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation by LaRusso, Nicholas, 1942- ,
Tripp in The Tub
We set up a 50 gallon watering tub under the eaves on our deck to catch water dripping off the roof. Cullen readily jumps into the tub after a walk that has left his paws somewhat dirty. Now Tripp has been trained to do the same. After the ‘wash’ the dogs can drip dry on the deck or in the mud room before coming into the house. It helps reduce the amount of dirt and silt tracked into the house.
Feeding the Fish – Spring 2021
As the ice melts off our ponds we begin to monitor the water temperature and guess when the catfish and bass will be eager to eat. This year that date was April 8th. We fed a small amount of fish food to a few rather sluggish but hungry catfish, skipped a day and then fed a more more active group the following day. Tripp was fascinated by the fish activity.