Our Thanksgiving deer return for dessert

After this morning's visit from four local does, the little deer herd bedded down in a nearby thicket, and we returned to our Thanksgiving preparations. A few hours later our neighbor, Jane, called to tell us the deer were out again and boldly munching on fallen apples next door.

As we watched through our sliding glass door, the hungry foursome wandered casually over into our back yard. They frolicked together for a couple minutes, then spied some delicious goodies in our smaller garden (the one we've all but given up on). As they sampled the treats found there and in the pine tree hedge, the does approached to less than five yards away.

We moved to the bedroom window for a better view. I grabbed the camera again, took some more still pictures, and then shot a couple videos, too. I'm sure they knew we were right there behind the glass, but they were hungry and unconcerned. This morning's thaw removed a two-week ground-cover of snow, revealing all sorts of tasty deer food.


The largest doe was the boldest, once again. She preferred to snack on something yummy she found in our pine trees, just beneath the bedroom window. She looked right at me several times, then continued munching casually each time. After an hour or so the four deer headed back up the hill to see what other Thanksgiving delights were available.

Here's one of the videos I captured as two of the does got really close:



copyright 2008 - all rights reserved

_______________________________________________

These same four deer visited us this morning. See more deer pictures taken near Whitney Road in Fairport earlier this year.

How about you? Do you have any wildlife pictures you'd like to share? If you'd like to submit yours for possible posting, you can reach me via Comments or by using the link at the top of this page.

Happy Thanksgiving! ~Jim

No, we didn't have venison for Thanksgiving dinner

We had four unexpected guests on Thanksgiving morning. They arrived early and unannounced, but kept mostly to themselves. Their manners were impeccable. We didn't get their names. They wandered around in the back yard, nibbling on the garden greenery and posing for a few pictures before they bedded down in our neighbor's hedgerow.

Three does sample our garden's bounty.


One doe poses while the other finds a succulent treat just beneath the snow.


The smallest of the four deer keeps a watchful eye.


The largest doe was also the bravest, lingering just a few yards away from our balcony deck. She didn't eat much, but she seemed hungry for a visit and some gossip.

copyright 2008 - all rights reserved
______________________________________________

See more deer pictures taken near Whitney Road in Fairport earlier this year.

How about you? Do you have any wildlife pictures you'd like to share? If you'd like to submit yours for possible posting, you can reach me via Comments or by using the link at the top of this page.

Happy Thanksgiving! ~Jim

We hike the Crescent Trail in Perinton NY

Sunshine and 80 degrees on a mid-October Sunday means a day for hiking in the woods, and so we did. The Town of Perinton's Crescent Trail presents a moderate short-hike challenge and a couple of spectacular hilltop views.

We forgot to grab a map from the town rec center, and so had to climb first to the top of the first hill (very steep) to snap a picture of the one posted there. Once we had our bearings we set out deeper into the woods to seek the Scenic View marked for the summit of Thayer Hill.
We continued our hike by following the blue-blaze trail, which starts out mostly level and meanders along near a small creekbed. While the sun was hot outside the treeline, in the woods we enjoyed a comfortable, shaded path.

Eventually the trail left the woods and we found ourselves at the edge of a field. We couldn't find any more blue blazes, but we did find a beautiful, secluded pond. It's not on the map, so I don't know if this pristine spot has a name. We spotted a school of small fish (minnows?) sunning themselves at the shoreline.
The trail continued largely unmarked along a pair of fields, following the edge of the woods. The sun caught us hard from the west, much stronger than usual for an October afternoon. As we ascended Thayer Hill the views opened up to the north and east, and we could see for miles across the landscape.

Our path was wide enough at that point for horseback riders, and flanked by tall grasses and rusty-red wild bushes. We laughed at the thought of finding Laura and Pa Ingalls walking here; it sure looked like a scene from Little House on the Prairie.
At the summit we found no shade at all, a bench improvised from an old set of wooden steps, and one more laminated copy of the map we had forgotten. Though the fall colors were mostly subdued, the air was crystal clear.In the distance, to the northeast, we could make out no less than four big water towers. Housing developments nestled in the valleys looked like scale models from a train layout.
Tired and feeling the effects of the sun, we finished the last of our water, ate our honey and oat bars, and followed the prairie path back to the woods, thankful to find shade again. We took a detour along the red-blaze section this time and found more of the tiny creekbed, thoughtfully bridged with planks.
The trip back to the trailhead was almost entirely downhill, which was wonderful. At the bottom we found our car waiting for us, a little hotter from sitting in the sun, but a welcome sight for our tired feet. We headed home, happy to have enjoyed a walk in the sun on a perfect Indian Summer day.

copyright 2008 - all rights reserved
_______________________________________________

If you have a hike you'd like to share, leave a Comment here that links back to you, or Contact me using the link at the top of this page.

Sometimes pedestrians DON'T have the right of way!

At least five people nearly died earlier this evening, because one driver decided to yield to pedestrians in a very dangerous way. You won't ever read about it in a newpaper because nothing horrible happened. My kids, however, can attest to my bad language under heavy stress.

Do you drive through controlled intersections at full speed? Luckily, I usually don't. Tonight's incident occurred on a busy four-lane highway under a standing green light. I doubt I was going faster than about 45 mph (in a 55 zone) at the time. In addition to the four through-lanes, this highway has two dedicated left turn lanes, one from each direction. That way, you can be out of the way while you wait for the all-clear.

The offending driver, coming at me (northbound) from the opposing left-turn lane, was trying to beat me through the intersection. I was going straight, headed southbound in the right-hand lane, with my two boys in the other seats. He stopped directly in my path, perpendicular to my 6,000-pound truck. Why? Because the driver realized, well after committing to this ill-advised turning attempt, that the crosswalk contained two pedestrians: appeared to be a dad and daughter walking their bikes. Pedestrians "always" have the right-of-way, goes the common wisdom. So he stopped to wait for the walkers. Stopped right there in front of my moving vehicle. Brilliant.

Keep reading...

New kitchen floor: Our To-Do list got shorter!

This was a very busy weekend, with work scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. Of course, that means that it turned into a Perfect Camping Weekend -- a distinctly rare and priceless commodity that is NEVER spent camping.

Since we had the boys for Sunday evening, my wife and I decided to just keep on working. (No, we're really not like that; that's just how it worked out.) My sweetie had found a great bargain on laminate flooring in the color and woodgrain we wanted, at Wal-Mart, of all places. Short version: we spent HALF what we'd figured, and that made the decision easy.

Few ordinary things in life feel quite as good as checking a major "to-do" off the big list. And so, despite the fact that I was still cutting new pieces of flooring out in the driveway at 11 pm last night, we were very happy and quite proud of ourselves. The picture shown above is "before," taken yesterday late afternoon. The picture below is "after," taken about three hours ago. Quite an improvement, wouldn't you say?

PS: The title link goes right over to the original posting for this project, on my "business" blog, which will soon be edited to a new template like this one. I'll have Helium how-to articles, and job project updates posted there later this week.

Updating Perfect Camping Nights of 2008

I've talked a couple times about "perfect camping nights." (Just click the headline, above, to see the original post.) Tonight is another: still air, no rain, no wind, and at least sixty degrees. All of these facets used to matter very much when we were tent camping. I still keep track despite the fact that owning a camper (with a furnace!) makes perfection less important.

We joke in New York, as people do nearly everywhere, "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes." This summer has been no exception to that quip. We've had remarkable hot weather in early April, and record-setting cooler days in August -- and everything in between.

Here's where we stand on PCN's, according to my white-board records:

• April: 6 (!)
• May: 15 (amazing)
• June: 11 (not too shabby)
• July: 12 (what??)
• August, halfway: 11 (not bad)

We've had three trips so far. It's possible that one or two of those "perfect" nights occurred DURING those trips. Possible, but not very likely! Good thing our camper has an awning!

Not camping,but what a campfire we had tonight!

Tonight's campfire was a big one! We attended a Sweet 16 birthday party at a friend's house, and the weather was perfect! Barely a whisper of a breeze, and still seventy degrees after dark. A beautiful night.

Camping: Tents or RV's, which is better?

There are two distinct worlds of camping: tents and RV's. Each is as different from the other as Democrat and Republican. Emotions run strong in both camps, and proponents of one often disdain supporters of the other. "That's not camping!" the tenters say to the lazy, pampered residents of recreational vehicles. "But when it rains it pours," responds the RV lovers.

I've done both, and I'll take a roof over my head every time.

Purists will tell you it isn't camping if you aren't roughing it. Their ideal comes straight from a Coors Lite commercial: pure mountain stream, isolation, Jeep Wrangler in a clearing with a breeze wafting through the towering pines, and fresh-caught trout frying on a white-gas grill. Just you, your sweetheart, a playful Golden Retriever, and a couple thousand dollars worth of fancy gear from Adirondack Outfitters immersed in the pristine beauty of Nature, capital N.

Read more...
copyright 2008 - all rights reserved

I'm addicted to coffee!

I'm addicted to coffee. There, I've admitted it right up front. Without my morning coffee, I would collapse to the floor, quivering and mumbling gibberish. Don't think for a minute that just one coffee would suffice, either. It's a two-drink minimum in my world, although the second coffee is always decaffeinated. Unfortunately, the details of my terrible addiction are even more sordid than you might imagine.

I work construction, and coffee drinkers hold the majority. While you might picture us as hearty beer drinkers, it's coffee that gets us going each day and keeps us revved up until the workday ends. We can't drink alcohol and use tools at the same time anyway. Beer is fine for after work, but I still prefer coffee. Some guys bring a thermos to work; not me! I did it for years and simply cannot tolerate the glassy, stale taste of thermos coffee. Yup, I'm a coffee snob.

Read more...
copyright 2008 - all rights reserved

Garden plus one month: What a little sun will do

Just one month later, and the garden is growing like crazy. You can't even see our new stone path now.

Garden update: We create a new space

My wife got inspired and added a cool extra section to the front garden. Froggy, a nifty rock, and a half-dozen assorted perennials surround her new planter urn. Fine and fancy!

Our front garden: we add a lovely red stone pathway

With hot weather and an early summer as incentive, our first outdoor project of the new season is to add a red stone walkway through the garden.

Summer came early and the garden's gone crazy!

We've never mulched this early. Several days of eighty degrees, a bit of rain, and some serious sun -- instant garden in New York!

A perfect camping morning

Sunday morning, middle of the holiday weekend, I found myself in a perfect camping morning--entirely by accident. Lots of people choose this weekend as their first camping outing of the summer. We couldn't go this year; there was too much else crowding the plate. But I managed to sneak in a wonderful, unexpected camping morning, anyway. You see, I was awakened first at about 5:30 am, then second at about 6:00, by my sons' alarm clock--which was somehow set to go off as "music, then alarm" while the boys were away at their mother's house. Of course, I was angry initially, having been unintentionally cheated out of a couple hours sleep time. I was wide awake, though. Not much to do about it, but to stay up and make the best of it. It was far too fine a morning to waste in anger or frustration.

Dead calm, about sixty-five degrees. Faintly misty dawn, devoid of mowers and passing cars. A pair of robins scouting breakfast, a fiery cardinal and a feisty blue-jay on reconnaissance. This was the domain of my backyard balcony deck, overlooking verdant spring suburbia. I poured yesterday's coffee atop a generous helping of french vanilla creamer, and disturbed the peace only long enough to let the microwave do its job. Grabbed a good, spine-creased and half-read paperback. Took drink and book and a pack of menthol lights, and found a comfy spot by the glass-top table. Chose a stowable but sturdy camp chair instead of the usual patio kind, and settled my sleepy self there unshowered and unshaved. That's when I realized I'd stumbled upon a perfect camping morning, right in my own back yard.

Why do we go camping, anyway? With the rising price of gas, I wonder if it's any cheaper to haul the camper around than it would be to book a hotel room. There is something very special about camping, though. For me it's always been about the absolute change of pace, place, and routine. Skip the shower. Get up earlier--or later. Savor a cup of bitter reheated coffee. Read a chapter or two, alone and phone-free. Take the time to actually notice a silent sparrow's passing flight. Let my wife sleep in. Have cereal instead of eggs. Listen for traffic and hear none! Listen to the radio, but ignore the news. Enjoy the feel of dewy grass on my bare feet, more enjoyable because the grass isn't mine and I don't have to mow it. Watch the sun come up over the trees to the east. And watch the kids stagger out of the camper, a little groggy and surprised to see me up ahead of them. Something different, but something simple and utterly ordinary. That's a perfect camping morning. I'll take one whenever--and wherever--I can get it.

Here's my Spring project

While I was waiting for the good weather to show up, I dreamed up a warm-days project. I wanted to do something affordable, yet dramatic, to beautify our home. Whatever the reason, I settled on the idea of changing the way our boring old garage door looked--changing it by "fooling the eye." Have I ever tried anything like this before? Nope. I don't even like to paint, although as a homeowner now, I have to at least learn to tolerate it. Since a picture's value is well documented, I've included this photo so that you may judge the results for yourself.


I wish I'd thought to take a "before" picture, since that would show how dramatic the change really was. Our house was built in the early 1960's, and remains largely unchanged since then. The previous owner took extremely good care of the place, so most of what was here when we moved in last year was original. The paint and floor coverings were all fresh, but even the kitchen and bath fixtures dated back to the beginning. Anyway, of course this is the door that came with the house. It was patched and caulked, painted and repainted, and topped with a layer of grime from the constant traffic on our road. Washing this old door was actually the hardest part of the whole job. Otherwise, the new paint job was easy work, physically, but difficult mentally. I didn't have any experience with creating this sort of illusion. (There are only four real windows in the original--the ones that appear as a darker black in the photograph.)

There are a couple tricks to this illusion, nothing too fancy. First, the original door already had those nice panels in it, so I didn't have to create that look. Second, the existing windows were in the third panel from the bottom, so there was room to add-in the top row, in any configuration I wanted. I chose the arched-top design because it matched the house's main trim. The most important "trick" isn't a trick at all: the handles are real, metal handles of exactly the right kind. Everything else is paint! The reality of the two handles lends weight to everything else. The four hinges were created by masking and painting; I did add some real screws, but they're a minor detail. The crucial eye-fooling detail is the simplest of all--the vertical black line down the center of the door, which convincingly mimics the shadow-line created by two real doors. All together, we've invested in a gallon of white and a quart of black paint, a roll of masking tape, and a pair of handles. The result speaks for itself, for well under $100. Not too shabby, huh?

Long live the Spring!

Spring has officially arrived here in upstate NY. We had a very dicey April, with some nagging snowfalls and sagging temperatures. Until about one week ago, the trees were bare. However, since we lost nearly two full months from the '06-'07 ski season back around the New Year, we had to expect winter to hang on longer than usual.
Now, suddenly, our trees are filled with verdant leaves and all sorts of fabulous blossoms in shades from white to blood-red. All the flowers are blooming at once, racing to beat the freshly-sprouted weeds (which are growing faster than I can yank them out).

We have visitors now, unfortunately. When the snow finally melted I grabbed my leaf-rake and set out to rid our garden of last fall's crop of leaves, which I'd left throughout the garden as cover. As I swept the leaves out from among the plants, one of my three miserable rose bushes came along, too! You could have fit what was left of the rootball into a trial-size spice cannister. The culprit? Voles! I learned this by running a Google® search, of course. These voracious critters love all sorts of plant roots and bulbs, but especially favor tulips and roses. Though they are called garden voles, they seem to be a mouse of one sort or another. And there are a lot of them! They burrow into the ground via holes the size of golf balls, and leave ugly furrows just beneath the surface--easily spotted since the ground collapses into them.

How does one rid one's garden of these pernicious beasts? I haven't answered that question yet, but not for lack of effort. Being the sort who likes easy solutions, I tried "smoke bombs" first: they seemed the simplest and most devastating method. They also seemed to work, at first. I was easily deceived, and didn't hear the little monsters laughing at me there in their secret underground lairs. Oh, I'm sure a few of their valiant soldiers died in the struggle. Their funerals were well-attended, no doubt. The survivors have vowed to plow up every inch of my assorted gardens, to gobble every remaining bulb and root, and to colonize any previously unmolested sanctuary. They trip my silly mousetraps, and shun my delectable poison bait-packs. They do, however, very much approve of the lovely mulch I spread for them; they shuffle it all around to suit their needs each day. If I had a gun, and it was legal to use it here in the suburbs, I'd give it a shot. I've never actually seen one of these animals doing their dirty-work, so I can't imagine how I'd ever get a chance to snipe at them. If my cat was brave enough to go outdoors, and if she had any front claws, perhaps she could help in the war. I haven't thought of anything else that might work.

I'll continue the battle, but I won't utter any further complaint about the arrival of Spring. We had a long and odd winter, with only a single ski outing and just a few trips to our nearby sledding hill. Now the chill is gone from the air, and the threat of post-season snowfalls has passed. Spring here in western New York is notoriously short, and has to be savored whole-heartedly. The symphony of dozens of lawn-mowers fills the air, while gorgeous blossoming trees brighten every street. Nearly all the good TV shows have fired their final salvoes: it's time to get outside and enjoy our world. Summer will be here soon enough, with another dreary winter only moments behind it. What's not to love?

First Lego League tourny

My youngest son, Nick, is a bit of an over-achiever. With the school system's help, we've worked hard to keep him challenged. He's a voracious reader, loves to write, and excells at math, too. If we moved him ahead one grade, he'd probably be right on course. That would be silly, though. Anyway, one of the coolest programs the school offered to keep kids like Nicky motivated is sponsored by the Lego Corporation. It's a competition similar to the Robotics tournaments held at the high school level. Nick's group worked with Lego® pieces, including a small programmable robot module, in a mission called Ocean Odyssey. The project design is very specific, but the participants had lots of flexibility in how they chose to approach and solve the problems presented. Months of extra-curricular work led to today's First Lego League tournament, an all-day event involving more than twenty teams from around the state.

We spent the day on the beautiful, snow-swept University of Rochester campus. The tournament played out in the U of R's rambling brick and steel Goergen Athletic Center, in the basketball arena. The kids had to check in by eight this morning, with closing ceremonies scheduled for late afternoon. The hard court surface, concrete bleachers, and soaring steel-truss ceiling all served as amplifiers for the more than two hundred competitors and their parents, coaches, judges and volunteers. I think the right word is cacaphony. The competition is very carefully scripted but filled with plenty of time for the players to blow off some Saturday steam. Eight hours watching an engineering-oriented tournament sounded tedious in advance. It was a blast!

The meat of the meet focused on motorized Lego® robots, designed by the kids. There was more to this eight-week program, though. Students learned about environmental issues and devised problem-solving approaches that were presented by the teams to event judges during the morning. Later, when the trophies were presented, we all found out just how important those presentations were. Teams also scored big points for great teamwork, enthusiasm, and sportsmanship. Judges observed the way the young scientists/engineers interacted with each other and with their competitors all day, including during practice sessions and between-times. The rest of us watched from the rock-hard bleachers, sought out the concession stands, and braved the bitter cold for brief forays onto the campus.

Nick's team was a rookie entrant, while some other teams had two or three years behind them. Several groups were composed of students a couple years older than Nick. Some teams were sponsored by the big names involved in the tournament, like Xerox and Bausch & Loam. One of the competitors was made up entirely of home-schooled kids! A couple others featured students from schools specifically focussed on a math/science curriculum. Our group, lacking experience and without corporate sponsorship, simply hoped to join the competition and place somewhere in the middle. The "let's all have fun out there" goal was easily met, right from the start.

The actual robotic competition consumed most of the afternoon with three rounds tightly controlled by the clock and by the zebra-striped referees. We all had many opportunities for screaming and cheering our encouragement. Who knew math and science could be loud and fun? The kids had a ball.

It's hours later now, and I'm sure every one of those young engineers is sound asleep, with strains of Queen's We Are the Champions running through their dreams. Our local eleven-o'clock news just ran their thirty-second feature on this Finger Lakes First Lego League tournament. They captured only a small part of the intensity and the carnival atmoshpere. The scoring and categories of trophies awarded were both a bit complicated, so the TV coverage didn't go into that end of it. It's not really about winning, after all, so much as it is about joining and competing, and about thinking "outside the box." Although the students had loads of fun, they also learned a lot in the process. Maybe they even made some new friends and came away with fresh ideas for how they might approach the competition next year.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention: WE WON!! Our seven, un-sponsored, public-schooled fifth-graders--who came in early and stayed late and gave up vacation time to practice--took the highest award: the Directors' Trophy. We were all surprised, stunned, and elated. And so, so proud.

Sometimes pedestrians DON'T have the right of way!

At least five people nearly died earlier this evening, because one driver decided to yield to pedestrians in a very dangerous way. You won't ever read about it in a newpaper because nothing horrible happened. My kids, however, can attest to my bad language under heavy stress.

Do you drive through controlled intersections at full speed? Luckily, I usually don't. Tonight's incident occurred on a busy four-lane highway under a standing green light. I doubt I was going faster than about 45 mph (in a 55 zone) at the time. In addition to the four through-lanes, this highway has two dedicated left turn lanes, one from each direction. That way, you can be out of the way while you wait for the all-clear.

The offending driver, coming at me (northbound) from the opposing left-turn lane, was trying to beat me through the intersection. I was going straight, headed southbound in the right-hand lane, with my two boys in the other seats. He stopped directly in my path, perpendicular to my 6,000-pound truck. Why? Because the driver realized, well after committing to this ill-advised turning attempt, that the crosswalk contained two pedestrians: appeared to be a dad and daughter walking their bikes. Pedestrians "always" have the right-of-way, goes the common wisdom. So he stopped to wait for the walkers. Stopped right there in front of my moving vehicle. Brilliant.

I mashed the brake pedal and tried vainly to check my left mirror for the chance to veer away into the left lane, with my hand firmly on my Chevy's very loud horn. By the time our truck rocked to a shaky stop we could see the front seat passenger quite clearly, since he was only a dozen or so feet away from my massive front bumper. Was he scared, or at least relieved to have escaped an almost-certain death? Nope, he was holding up the backs of both hands to us, middle fingers extended, and yelling a phrase that begins with "F" at us through the closed window. Stupid us, huh?

When do you have the right of way while making a left turn? When you have a green arrow for that turn, and/or the oncoming lanes are completely clear. Oh, yeah -- you might want to check the paralleling crosswalk, too! When is it a good idea to stop at right angles in the path of a moving truck? ...I'm thinking...um, never? In this case both walkers had yet to reach the section of crosswalk that Mr. Turnfast needed to drive across. The coast was clear for him to proceed. But we were the ones in the wrong, apparently.

Here's the thing. If another driver, travelling behind me at full speed and not paying quite enough attention, had struck my back bumper, then you probably could read all about this incident in the newspaper. Chances are very good that both pedestrians, all three people in the stopped car, and the three of us in our truck would all have suffered injuries or death. What if I'd been even a tiny bit distracted? What if I'd been going 55 mph, like many drivers do? (Read the laws in your state: most require "speed prudent for conditions" in a traffic-lighted intersection.) What if I hadn't removed about 500 pounds of tools from the back of my pick-up before my boys and I headed out that night? (Trying to save gas.)

Prudence. That's a very good word and concept to keep in mind when you're driving. The turning driver had allowed about a two-second clearance between his vehicle and mine for his important left turn -- plenty of time (I suppose) if no one was in the crosswalk. "Look twice, live longer" might be another good idea. After all, cars (and trucks) don't kill -- bad drivers do. Thank God no one died this evening. Enough said.