Halloween 2009

It was another great Halloween in the Adirondacks!


My 6th grade class dressed up very nicely (the 6th grade teaching team all went as cowboys this year)

Two of my students hard at work after the contestsdown in the gym...the creepy clown (is that a tautology?) won the prize for scariest costume among the 6th graders



Ketchup and Nerd were pumped up for the rest of the day, and in general we made it through the day without many meltdowns


After school, I rushed over to Saranac Lake to meet Gail and Ben for Trick or Treating in town, a super convention that allows kids to see their friends, local businesses to get children sugared up, and parents to avoid infinite driving in and around the middle of nowhere to hit 5 houses in an hour or 2


We met up with Ayla and Rebecca Buerkett, who joined us for a fun cruise around the town...we also ran into Autumn, who was circulating with some of her friends


One of the cool things about Ben attending school in Saranac Lake is that he knows more of the kids that we see while Trick or Treating, like Zach, a classmate in his 2nd grade class


Ben loves wandering around the town, talking with both friends and strangers (in a polite and non-creepy way) and gathering junk-food unto himself


On our rounds, we met this perfect puppy, Daisy, who loves me, and gave me lots of treats and no tricks


Ben and Ayla both love this local bookstore, and were having a great time, even as they were starting to get tired

I snuck in and took this family portrait even though I don't know the family...I loved Cruella's costume and use of an actual dalmation (whose name, BTW, is Smoky)



After getting home and eating some supper and candy, We all settled into comfy spots while Gail read the last few chapters in the final book of the "Lightning Thief" series...it was lots of fun, and Ben loved being able to relate to the characters and plotlines in Ray Harryhausen's "Jason and the Argonauts", which we watched this afternoon


This morning, we got a call from Ben's friend Joseph, and went to go play with him and his brother, "Little Ben" at the Lake Clear playground...everyone had a great time running around, including Penny, who slept most of the afternoon


The boys had a great time swinging and launching themselves off of the swings...in this pic you can see Joseph just landing after launching himself from the nearest swing

It's rainy and yucky outside now, but Ben is Skype-ing with LaLa, sharing and comparing costumes and play between New York and Maine via video conferencing over their computers

We're planning on seeing "Where the Wild Things Are" tomorrow, along with a visit to the betta Rose (tentatively re-named Thorn, now that we know about the unfortunate sex mis-identification which resulted in Skippy's abusive behavior towards him), who is now living in my classroom at LP...he's likely hungry and lonely in the quiet building

Sunday am

I've been sick, but am now starting to climb out the other side of it, and had some leftover pics of Ben and I and Penny, and had a bit of time this morning while Ben and Gail work on a devilish puzzle (I like watching them work on puzzles, but would sooner put jellyfish in my world famous pancakes than do a puzzle) from Anti-Sarah...


Ben and Penny and I went to the playground at Lake Clear the other day, and while my intention was to let Penny run and sniff and explore in the adjacent woods while we did the same in the playground, she wanted to play with Ben...she tried to slide and to climb the slide as he did, but her feet seemed much more slippery than his...they both still had fun doing it...


Penny even tried, not once but 3-4 times, to follow Ben up through the slippery tunnel to the tall slides...she failed each time, but they both had fun and nobody got hurt...in the pic above you can see Ben's smiling face in the righthand red circle, in the lefthand circle you see Penny's wagging tail as she prepares for another assault on the smooth and slippery tunnel...


There are a couple of fun little climbing trees in the area around the playground...Ben and I were playing Star Wars, and he was a scout looking for clankers...Penny was bored and luckily found a golf ball which she could chew the skin off of and ask me to throw for her, on the now abandoned fields of the closed Lake Clear Elementary School...


This morning Ben and Gail and I tried on a component of our Halloween costumes...yup, we're going as pirates...and liked them so much that we all kept them on as we got into the meat of our Sunday morning...they're working on a ridiculously hard spherical puzzle (as in the final product is a globe made of puzzle-pieces) that Anti-Sarah gave Ben for his birthday, while I'm finishing this blog...we all enjoyed superb apple pie for breakfast courtesy of Autumn Buerkett (a super-thoughtful "get-well" pie...thanks sweetie!)...



Our plans for this sunny Sunday include a morning trip up to Malone for some winter clothes and foodstuffs, laundry and cleaning, and some exercise for all residents of 667 County Route 50 under 8 years of age while the Sun shines and the ground is free of snow...

Mt. Baker

Ben and I met some friends of his to climb Mt. Baker today...


It;s about a mile up and (somewhat obviously) the same back...we had a fun time...


It was a great day...cold and sunny...we had a nice climb, played on the summit for a while, the boys found a geocache, and then as the clouds rolled in, we made a quick descent...


It was a fun day, and I got to try out a new camera...my old waterproof one has finally bitten the dust, and I wasn't sure how big the farm was...I'm taller than Ben...so I stooped a bit...


Ben, Philip, Jacob, and Joseph...they all had fun, and we made it up and down without more than a couple of scrapes...


It was pretty up o top of the mountain, with great views in all directions...

I love this action-shot of Ben during the descent...he slipped on some wet leaves just when the camera took this picture...



The boys and I all had a great time on the mountain today, and Ben is looking forward to future mountains...we live in a great place...

Oswegatchie River Trip

Last weekend, I met up with some friends for a weekend paddle-camping trip...we paddled 23-some miles into the wilderness on the Oswegatchie River...



We slept Thursday night at the boat launch, and then puttered around a bit on Saturday morning before heading upriver...



I fueled up before we put paddle to water with some cheese-spread and Bacon SPAM...it was yum-tastic...



Because of the high water, cold temps, and paddling uphill, we made a small flotilla, but we came ready to play...


A couple of kayaks and canoes heading upstream over beaver dams and the occasiional minor rapid...it was pretty and quiet and remote and lovely...the water was about 50 degrees, and the air was close to the same as a high every day...


The Oswegatchie is a narrow and twisting and wild river, with water the color of coffee...


There were a bunch of beaver dams that we had to climb/paddle through on our way upriver...


It was harder going than coming back down, but we all worked together, and made it without mishap...


It was gorgeous paddling our way into the wilderness...


We stopped at High Rock a couple of hours into the first day of paddling, for a stretch, a snack, and to find a geocache that was hidden nearby...


We paddled another hour of so until it started into a cold, hard, steady rain...luckily, we were able to pull off the river at a lean-to to camp for the night...


Here's a group picture of us, plus a retired NYFD fireman...

We spent a cold and wet night, and were a bit late getting going the next morning...



It was a sunny and clear morning, with blue sky and more current in the river, from the rain the night before...


One of the obstructions that we ran into was a huge log, entirely across the river...my friend Rick was able to dislodge it, at which point we realized that we had to dodge the log as it cam downstream at our boats...


We had a lovely day on the water...

Some of the rapids and beaver dams were more than we could manage...I made 4 runs at this dam before taking some help (and a tow) from people who had already made it upstream...



This dam was about 18 inches high, and I managed to climb up on it, and help to pull everyone else over...


After that last big dam, we were close to High Falls, our destination for the night...it was smooth paddling as the afternoon wore on and the sound of the falls grew in our ears...


This great blue heron was waiting for us on the last turn before we got to High Falls...


The falls were lovely...


We paddled up into mist before pulling off onto the side where we had another lean-to for the night...


It was nice to have clear skies as we unloaded and set up camp, and the constant roar of the falls made a nice background for our happy/proud chattering...


I slept all 3 nights in my Hennessy Hammock...it was great...comfy and warm and gently rocking in the wind and rain...


I saw this freaky spider on one of the trees that I set up my hammock on...blech...


One of the guys who came along, Dan, had a neat Kelly Kettle, a really cool water heater and stove that uses a chimney jacketing the water that it is heating...


Later that night, we were visited by a mouse, who wanted to share some GORP that had been left out by one of our party...


We caught him/her in a bottle, and released the poor beast a ways away a little while later...


The next day we had to make 2 days paddling in 1 day to get back to the boatlaunch...this was apart of our plan, as it was nearly twice as quick heading downstream as paddling upstream...


The dams and rapids that had been a workout the previous day were a pleasant ride on the way down...



It was a pretty and cold day, with vivid colors and wonderful fall smells...until it began to rain...a hard and chilling rain that worked on our tired and sore arms, and kept us from wanting to stop and stretch and eat as much as we should have been...luckily, we were all tough as $2 steaks, so it worked out OK...


We got back to the boat launch at about 2pm, tired and happy and feeling as though we had adventured through some serious wilderness in the Adirondack Park...

It was a great trip, and we'll try another similar one in the spring, once the ice goes out!