Kathryn, Cathy, Bill, Chris, Scott and I played in the 8 team volleyball tournament at Remsen HS on Saturday. There were some really good competitive games. We finished in a 3 way tie for the 4th and final playoff spot. I was happy with our play and the day.
Eric and I raked up a small pile of leaves under the red maple tree. It provided good entertainment.
Billie Jo, Stone and Eric went to the Buffalo Bills v Tennessee Titans NFL game at Bufffalo. They joined a bus group organized by Ron Haier. They had an ideal day with good weather. the game had a lot of scoring and the Bills were tied or leading throughout the game. Unfortunately Matt Hasselbeck hit Nate Washington for a 15-yard touchdown pass with 1:03 left in leading the Tennessee Titans to a 35-34 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
It was Hasselbeck’s 22nd career fourth-quarter comeback and second in consecutive weeks. It happened in a game in which Titans running back Chris Johnson enjoyed a breakout performance with 195 rushing yards and two scores. Jamie Harper also scored twice for Tennessee (3-4). Jason McCourty’s interception of a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass set up the decisive drive.
Fitzpatrick finished 27-of-35 passing for 225 yards and three scores, but he turned over the ball twice, including a lost fumble. The Buffalo Bills only punted one time against the Titans. Against a very average Titans offense, the Bills gave up 35 points to a team averaging 19 points. It only took Chris Johnson four carries to eclipse 100 yards. Bills PK Rian Lindell hit field goals from 31 and 42 yards. Buffalo now enters its bye week off at 3-4, having lost three of its last four.
Run of the Dead is a unique event, one part 5K, one part obstacle course/mud run, and one part escaping the clutches of zombies. Runners will navigate a series of challenging obstacles throughout a 5K course (through fields, wooded areas, swamps, and of course mud) in an attempt to reach the finish line — all while avoiding blood thirsty zombies.
Skip, Kathryn, Beth, Margaret and Jack prior to the race. Yeah, we’re getting a bit old. Still, we’re doing are best to stay active and stay healthy. I’ve recently started seeing a Testosterone Replacement Therapy Physician that will help me receive this treatment. From what I can tell it works pretty well and should be exactly what I need to keep me healthy and active for several years more. I don’t feel quite ready to slow down just yet. The company is a big factor as well. We boost each other’s confidence and keep ourselves coming back for more. We’re healthy, so hey, it’s working.
Last November I tweaked my knee throwing a football with Eric. It was an on again off again problem through out the year. I visited Hamilton Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine in January where they confirmed there was no damage to the bones. In March I received a cortisone shot which helped a lot for a few months. The end of June I injured my knee again playing volleyball and I basically took the month of July off from volleyball. I re-visited Hamilton Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine and tried physical therapy. Finally, I got scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery for 9 Oct. After passing several pre-operative inspections: blood work, physical, EKG, electrocardiogram and a stress test I finally was transported to the hospital for day surgery. Kathryn had to put Eric on the bus and work so Pam drove me to the Hamilton Hospital. I sat around during a long morning. My surgery only took about 30 minutes and post-op recovery time was an hour. Kathryn drove me home and we were home by 3:30pm.
There were loose flaps of cartilage inside and outside of the knee and the patella. The medial (inside) and lateral (outside) meniscus were both torn. The tears were removed and smoothed.
My knee had two small incisions: one for the camera and one for the surgical instruments. I felt swelling, but little pain for the 1st 24 hours. Tuesday night I didn’t sleep much. I was uncomfortable lying on my back with a large ice bag on my knee. Wednesday night the swelling and pain kicked in with a vengeance as the local anesthesia wore off. I took pain medication, but only numbed my body, not my knee. Thursday I went to work for a while and the pain lessened. Friday I tried to ride the exercise cycle but was unable to flex my knee enough to permit a full revolution. By Saturday I was able to gingerly ride the exercise bike and take a short walk in the woods. My knee felt swollen and sore afterwards, but recuperated quickly after lying down for a few minutes.
Sunday I rode the exercise bike freely for 10 minutes and walked around our pasture to inspect the minnow pond (which was filled with water). Monday I rode the bike without warmup for 15 minutes and had my stitches taken out and was cleared for full activity.
This past weekend we cleared out the upstairs rec room and moved Eric’s air hockey game from the basement to the rec room. Kathryn cleared out a lot of stuff from her Dad’s house and work related files.
I bid good bye to my championship show ribbons. When I got rid of the horses and cleaned out all the show ribbons I save those ribbons that we received for Championships or Reserve Championships from shows at Barneveld Horsemen’s Association, Harmony Acres, Booneville Fair, Fonda Fair and NYS Fair. Most of the Championships were for day end point totals; either total points or as Senior Western. There was a NYS Horse Council award, a large purple ribbon from winning a day point total at Booneville Fair. I believe the Booneville Fair award was based on the horse and included a costume class. I think Gayle Farr rode Tom in the Ladies Western Pleasure class to help add to his point total that day.
There were a couple of year end awards from BHA.
This was an impressive collection that brought back fond memories.
October 7 HP-2 played Whitesboro at Whitesboro. Spencer was out so we had a roster of 10 boys. I juggled the team’s line-up to try and start off with more scoring. Eric scored 3 goals in the opening quarter and the game was a 5-1 win. Logan, Eric, Trevor and Nicco all played turns at goalie. Logan and Trevor never had to defend a shot on goal. Eric had to defend one shot. Andrew and Jonas scored their first U10B goals!
October 12 HP-2 played a home game vs Sauquioit – re-scheduled to 5:30pm Friday evening due to a Sauguoit conflict on Sunday. We used a similar line-up and rotation with the addition of playing 8v8. HP-2 started off well; Eric scored two goals, but the team let down in the 4th quarter and Sauquoit scored 3 goals. the main problem being the lack of a defensive rotation from the weak side. Final score was 5-4.
Eric and other HP AYSO U10 Boys with the SUNY IT Wildcats soccer team after SUNY IT defeated Penn St.-Harrisburg 2-0. The U10 Boys had scrimmage on-field during halftime.
A paddling tour of the southern Adirondacks. This is not a pure wilderness route, as most of it is a front country tour of Piseco Lake, Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant. At the same time, there is plenty of wilderness paddling required to connect the three big lakes. It so happens the position of Piseco, Sacandaga and Lake Pleasant in the southern Adirondacks can be linked together with several streams, smaller lakes and two canoe carries, to make a multi-day, 30 mile canoe route.
After a rendezvous at Speculator we put-in at Piseco Outlet (a.k.a. Big Bay) along Route 10 on Friday morning, after leaving a vehicle at Duck Bay on the Sacandaga River off Rte. 30, south of Speculator. We put in and began paddling at 10am. With unusually low water levels we had to line the canoe through the rocky elbow of Big Bay. Calm conditions allowed us to easily paddle across 5-mile length of Piseco Lake past three state campgrounds.
From Piseco Lake we entered Fall Stream and headed to Vly Lake. Fall Stream is passable by small watercraft from the Old Piseco Road to Vly Lake and is used for canoeing, fishing, hunting, and trapping; in addition to providing access to Fall Lake and Vly Lake. The meandering narrow stream bed winds across a broad, marshy area with the terrain consisting of low rolling hills, traversing through a picturesque marsh for most of the trip with occasional beaver dams to carry over. Apart from a two docks just past the put-in, Fall Stream is undeveloped.
We portaged around the short section of rapids (about 50-60 feet long) under the bridge and took a break for lunch at the put-in. We watched 3 kayakers and one tandem blue canoe launch and head upstream in advance of us. We also saw a small pickup truck in the parking lot that probably held a car top fishing boat. We paddled up Fall Stream passing over two large beaver dams to Vly Lake. A large dead fall had been recently cleared with a chainsaw so it posed no obstacle. We met up with the three kayakers at the 2nd large beaver dam and stopped to chat with two fisherman exiting Fall Stream in their fishing boat. They reported catching several pickerel on their fishing trip. They had a chain saw and had been responsible for clearing out the dead-fall.
A two primitive tent sites are located on Vly Lake which is a beautiful, isolated spot. The lake is surrounded by mountains with Vly Lake Mountain right on the eastern shore. We reached our campsite on Vly Lake at 2:30pm. Above Vly Lake, Fall Stream becomes narrower and the number of obstacles increase.
The last time I had visited the Vly Lake campsites the western most campsite had been “improved”. It had a an old canvas chair, a gas barbecue grill sans the gas tank, two flag poles, a half buried 5 gallon bucket (clean and 1/3 full of water), and a lot of garbage. The last residents had left a smoldering fire and left toilet flowers all over the woods. They had cut a large spruce tree off at 4′ that was apparently obscuring their view and dropped it into the lake. They dumped crackers on the ground, burned their cans in the fire and dumped beans on the ground. We ended up taking 2 bags of trash out with us on Saturday.
On this trip the campsite was clean. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon watching water fowl and beaver, ate an early dinner and turned in for a great night’s sleep shortly after dark.
Saturday morning we began the 1¾- mile carry over a shoulder of Vly Lake Mountain on a trail that has been maintained by canoe parties from Camp Fowler kid’s camp out of Speculator. There is no official trail to Fawn Lake. The trail was marked in a few sections by yellow and orange flagging tape and in others with occasional old, faint tree blazes and lopped off branches providing clues. The inlet to Fawn Lake is a beaver damned, blow-down clogged inlet stream on the south side of the lake. More flagging tape leads another .25m the lake shore to a shore side campsite and launch point.
Fawn Lake is an undeveloped lake surrounded on all sides by the Jessup River Wild Forest. Fawn Lake is as popular for its sandy beach and easily accessed back country campsites as it is for fishing. Fourteen undesignated tent sites currently exist at Fawn Lake. Wild brook trout can be caught from shore in the spring near deep water areas. Small mouth bass and pickerel are also found here in lesser numbers. According to the DEC UMP two deer wintering areas have been identified on the northern and eastern shore of Fawn Lake.
Below are Mud Pond, Vly Lake, Fawn Lake and the western shore of Sacandaga Reservoir.
Upon reaching Fawn Lake at 1pm we decided to proceed to Sacandaga Lake and make a determination based on the wind and weather to proceed or camp for the night. As we launched the rain showers began. We donned rain gear and paddled across Fawn Lake. At the northern end of Fawn Lake there is a long sandy beach. We disembarked and did the ½-mile carry to Indian Bay on Sacandaga Lake. It was 2:30 when we reached the shores of Sacandaga Lake. We observed a dead calm lake under heavily overcast skies. Since it was still early in the afternoon and we had unusually calm conditions we made the decision to return to the car in Kunjamuk Bay.
Ten minutes after launch we found ourselves in a down pour trying to decide whether to pull ashore and wait out the storm or to continue paddling. I was concerned that we would be fighting hypothermia by standing around in wet clothes and so I was glad to continue paddling. We paddled the breadth of Sacandaga Lake with light crosswinds; then paddled the outlet stream under Rte. 8 to Lake Pleasant. We paddled down Lake Pleasant to its outlet, where we paused to exit the canoe and stretch our legs. This brief five minute stopped chilled us so we hopped back in the boat and continued another 30 minutes down the flatwater Sacandaga River through Kunjamunk Bay to Duck Bay and our vehicle.
Eric volunteered to play goalie for the 1st quarter at our 1st U10B game. He did great. Trevor covered for him on one play, but otherwise Eric stopped all shots. HP won the game 4-0.
