Eric the vampire
Our house decorations.
Seven Years of Halloween Costumes
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Category Archives: Personal
New Imagery
I did a search today and found that updated imagery had been loaded into Google. It was taken between July 20 and August 2. I had a lot of fun looking at the details of the image to help determine the exact date. Based on the tree shadows I believe the picture was taken late morning.
U10 Boys Soccer
The Fall soccer season is winding down. One more practice and one more game. This past week held a tournament and two games for our under-10 boys soccer team. On Saturday 15 October we participated in the Utica Region 664 tournament. The team played 5 games in a round robin format with short-sided games, 7 V 7. We had nine players and everyone got a lot of playing time. We had two competitive games, but ended up losing every game. Fortunately the boys got a medallion for participating.
Due to the tournament our regular weekend game was re-scheduled to 5:30pm Monday night at Camden. Only 6 boys showed up so the Camden team loaned us three players and we played 9 v9. It was heavily overcast and got dark early. The referee called an end to the game with 3 minutes remaining due to darkness. Joey had several goals and Aaron got his 1st goal ever. Eric played extremely hard, a carry over from his tournament participation.
Saturday we traveled to Oneida. It rained all morning but stopped in time for our noon game. Conditions were cool and slightly muddy. We won 5-3 with all the Oneida goals scored by one player. Andrew, Dylan, Joe and Eric all scored for HP with Eric scoring on a nice crossing pass from Dylan in the 2nd half.
Afterwards we posed for a team picture. Austin, Jim and Doug in the back row. Aaron, Patrick, Brandon and David in the middle row. Joe, Dylan, Eric, Andrew and Jaden in the front. Missing: Trevor, Nicco, Cole, and Anthony.
Our House
The cows are out (again)
Kathryn’s ode to the wandering cows….
Whose cows they are, I think I know.
They live ‘way past the village though.
From my neighbor this land he rents
But who’s supposed to fix the fence?
And so with some regularity
Strangers stop to call on me.
“Your cows are out!” they cry, upset,
Surprised at me, as I don’t fret.
They’re not my cows but I will try
To reach the neighbor by and by
[Though sorely tempted to let it be –
The cows will go back eventually –
Yet cars and cows are a bad mix
I wish the goshdarned fence they’d fix!]
And so again I call nieghbor
Who acts as if he does me a favor.
He wanders up to get the cow
Who’s wandered back into her field by now.
Closing up the Garden
We did some canning/freezing this year. A dozen jars of tomatoes, tons of acorn squash and wax beans in the freezer. Kathryn made an elderberry-honey-brandy “elixir” which turned out quite nice. Kathryn’s motto now being “spoon your way to health!” a la Lucy Ricardo. Kathryn also made some elderberry-apple jam that is a knock out. Having discovered numerous patches of elderberry on our property, she has been determined to make use of it.
I hoed the garden in an effort to minimize the amount of weeding that I will have to do next spring. The dark spot in the middle of the garden is the left-over leaves from the worm bucket. I released those fish worms that did not end up as catfish bait.
All that’s left in the garden is a row of Brussels Sprouts.
They will continue even past the 1st snow. I think they get better after a few frost.
Chipmunk Hunters Feast
Previously Eric had been in conversation with Trevor about hunting and ended up chipmunk hunting, to no avail. This past weekend when Trevor visited he brought his hunting bow and extra arrows. Before they left the house to go hunting Kathryn teased them by saying she would return the burgers and hot dogs to the freezer if they were going to be getting meat.
After a short talk about hunter safety I accompanied the boys on their chipmunk hunt. After 45 minutes with no success we were stalking our way back when the two boys isolated a chipmunk in a small apple tree. Trevor’s shot struck it’s target and he was ecstatic, yelling “I got it! I got it!”. They returned home proudly carrying the chipmunk and informed Kathryn they brought home lunch for our cookout.
Kathryn told them she wouldn’t clean it so we headed outside where Trevor gutted the chipmunk and a group effort got it skinned. We washed it out and took it over to Cookout Corner where it got grilled and eaten. The boys ate ‘drumsticks’ and pronounced them as ‘filling’ and ‘tasting like chicken’.
Afterwards a short game of “I Doubt It” was held on the tent platform.
Clockmill Pond
Matt, Mark and I wanted to plan an easy backpacking trip where we could take Nathan and Eric. After many emails discussing the benefits of lean-tos, driving distances, and potential bug problems we settled on Clockmill Pond. We met on Rt 10 at the outlet of Big Bay and proceeded on the Powley-Piseco Road to the trailhead 4.3 miles southwest from NY 10. We ate our lunch at the trailhead and started our hike.
The start of this trail from Powley-Piseco Road follows the old logging road into a wet area. At 0.1 miles there is a grassy vlei on the left. A snowmobile bridge is crossed at 0.2 miles over part of this wet area. A small stream is crossed and then we crossed another snowmobile bridge that took us over the southeastern portion of the vlei. A descent takes usover a swift moving stream on a wooden bridge at 0.5 miles. At 0.6 miles another stream goes under the trail through a culvert. Soon the trail climbed a gentle grade and then descends to another snowmobile bridge at 0.9 miles. At 1.0 miles cross another stream before entering a large open grassy meadow at 1.1 miles. Here there is a poorly marked fork in the trail. The unmarked trail on the left travels 0.5 miles to Clockmill Pond on a well worn trail, that sometimes can be hard to see in this area.
The right fork is the continuation of the snowmobile trail that goes on to Rock Lake as well as Kennels Pond. Some hikers bushwhack to Black Cat Lake and Iron Lake, a couple of trail less, remote wilderness lakes from the main snowmobile trail.
It was hot on hike in and the boys requested several breaks. This one occurred at a convenient boulder.
Our campsite location had a large rock extending out into the pond. Below Matt, Jim and Mark pose with Natalie, Nathan and Eric in the front row.
Temperatures were in the high 70s on Saturday, high 40s overnight and it was cool as Eric and I had breakfast on Sunday morning. We met the rest of the group at 7-ish and things warmed up once the sun broke over the tree line.
The fall colors were out in display in the early morning sun.
The hike out was comfortable and quicker than the hike in. Despite 9 hours of sleep the night prior, Eric slept most of the car ride home.
Chipmunk Hunter
After talking with his buddy Trevor, who was going turkey hunting with his dad, Eric decided to go hunting as well. We started out with his homemade bow and 1 arrow. First, he decided he would need two turkeys in order to have enough for a Thanksgiving dinner. After seeing a deer track he stated that one deer would be enough to feed everyone at Thanksgiving. But when we passed a chipmunk in the brush the whole focus changed.
A chipmunk taunts Eric.
We didn’t bag any chipmunks, but we had a fine walk and sat on a log and had snacks.
Steve Jobs RIP
