Canastota

So what do you think of when you hear the name Canastota? If your spelling and pronunciation is as bad as mine, wagons might come to mind. Now, lest you might think me too off base, Canastota did manufacture wagons, it's just that they were of the "dumping wagon" variety and not the conestoga wagons that went west.

These days Canastota is probably best known for the Boxing Hall of Fame. Is that where we went? No way - not even for the sake of this blog. Instead we went to our friend Don's 70th birthday party. (In spite of the fact that I couldn't get him to smile for the camera, he really is a happy fellow). His mother on the right said 70 years ago was "the worst day of her life" (she'd been in labor for 3 days). She, too, is a happy person who doesn't smile much for the camera. (She must be a bit older than 39...).

So what else is there to do in the area? Well, a couple miles south is Oxbow Falls County Park. Supposedly there are 3 waterfalls but exactly where they are is a little questionable - we didn't find them - perhaps spring is a better time to go. According to the sign, "the park is the northern (we thought they must have meant western) edge of the Helderberg Escarpment" formed 400 - 350 million years ago. Although the cliffs are overgrown in most places there are a couple of places you can look over Oneida Lake and the "plain" around it. (But.... can you believe everything you read? I did a search on Helderberg Escarpment and the only reference I could find had the entirety of it located in Albany County. Oxbow Falls seems instead to be part of the Appalachian Plateaus which extend from south of Rochester TO the Helderberg Escarpment south of Albany. These plateaus continue to rise to the south eventually forming the Catskill Mountains. But can you believe everything you read on the internet either?)

Continuing on a bit further south toward Fenner you come to the site of the 1615 Champlain Battle. It was here that Samuel de Champlain attacked the Oneidas, one of the six Iroquois Nations. He was unsuccessful. According to the sign... the attack turned the Iroquois Nation against the French. Over the next 100 years the Iroquois always sided with the English in battles against the French. Thus, it was "the most decisive battle in American history for it was here that the question of whether America north of the Rio Grande was to become an English or French territory was thus decided". (If you want to read other opinions, go searching.) All I know for sure is, this blog is written in English, not French, s'il vous plait...

Gilbertsville

What does one do when it's August but it's overcast and the temp is in the 50's? Well, I took the weatherman at his (a woman would NOT have made this forecast) word, did a load of laundry, hung it on the line, then headed off to the beautiful village of Gilbertsville for lunch with friends. Nick (photo center) & his wife Abbey (almost off the photo at the left) are the proud parents of twins who were off sleeping in some corner of this house that their great great grandparents owned and that is still in the family. It is lovely as are so many of the homes in Gilbertsville. It's been years since John and I had driven around the village but the old homes are still as beautiful as we remembered - a beautiful village to go walking.
Next "door" is another house and farm that's also been in Nick's family for several generations. The stone building Nick is standing next to is the oldest surviving "milk house" in Otsego County. It's been a LOT of years since it was used for that purpose.
Both properties look down the Butternut Valley and Butternut Creek. If you're a fan of "The Leatherstocking Tales" by James Fenimore Cooper, this is where Natty Bumppo shot arrows across the creek (or something like that...)
Can you guess what you're looking at in this last photo? It is right on the edge of Gilbertsville and was in the 1970's & 80's the world's best polo field. It's the Pete Boshwick Field (the sign is still up) and the owner still keeps it mowed and ready to go (and I thought I was an optimist!). Those little dots in the distance are horses - polo ponies I'm sure. So if you can put together a polo team this might just be the place to have a match.
Back home, the clothes are now "dripping" and we're considering building a fire in the stove. It IS August in upstate NY after all!

Sink? Swim? Sail? Regatta?

But first a bit of history...
A few years ago John saw an ad for a "free" Comet sailboat in Maryland. (Beware those ads that say "free"!) Then a harrowing (to my way of thinking) trip back to NY (rotten parts kept flying off - John took a friend. I stayed home and did fun things). Since then, John's spent many many hours (and $$) repairing it. If you think you can see the floor through the top of the boat in the photo, you're right (not to mention that's the bottom, not the top). It needed just "a little bit" of work.

In the meantime our friend Terry bought another old Comet - both boats were built in the 1930's (it actually HAD a bottom AND a top) for John to work on (guess he thought John would never get his back together). After a bunch of work and a quick sink to the bottom at the dock upon launching, it actually has been sailable the past couple of years.

This year both boats, (John's is named "Have", Terry's "Have Not"), were sailable - hence the regatta. One small problem, there is only ONE set of sails. However, since "Have" had never been in the water, it was questionable whether or not a second set of sails would, in fact, be needed...

This past weekend was the BIG launch on the St. Lawrence...
Photo 1 - John making sure the sails actually fit and work before he launches it.
2 - "Have" is backed into the water for the official launching.
3 - What is that bubbling stuff coming into the bottom of the boat? Surely not water?! (Turns out "somehow" a little round hole was letting water in.) Rather than letting it sink, they pulled the boat out, plugged the hole with a twig, and filled the boat with water overnight just to make sure the wood swelled enough to take care of any other small leaks.
4 -Male river muses...
5 - Day 2 - The mast and sails go up before Have is launched (a bit unusual but, hey, I'm only the photographer...)
6 - Have floats!!! And sails!!!
7 - And tows nicely!!! (Due to a "small" lack of knowledge regarding water depth on the other side of the bay, the centerboard started plowing bottom and more or less got stuck.)
8 - However, John & co-captain Leigh soon have their bearings and sea legs.
9 - They even get a bit adventurous (Are you thinking I must have a super telephoto lens on my camera? Let's just say it helps to be in the motor boat that stayed close just in case...)

Today? Perhaps a final sail before leaving Thousand Island Park... Then I'm sure the search will be on for that second set of sails!!!

The Mighty Hudson...

Surprise! The blog is early for a change. Instead of Tillie Tours, we joined the Waterville Travelers Club for a trip in Tillie's BIG "Uncle George" and headed for a luncheon cruise on the Hudson River around Albany.

The building with all the red turrets is the New York State capital. "No dome?" you say. The story goes that a dome was in the original plans. However, the rise (they call it a hill but I think that's stretching it a bit) it was being built on proved to be "unstable"... in other words the more they built the more they thought it might "slip" off the hill. So instead of adding the planned heavy dome, they opted instead for a skylight. (I might also add they were waaaaaaaay over budget, not that that ever has anything to do with spending public dollars.)

I sometimes forget Albany is a port city (it always seems too far inland for that) but the channel in the Hudson is 32 feet deep from NYC to Albany and over 200 BIG ocean-going ships load and unload there every year. What you're looking at on the docks in the photo are the parts to wind generators that are going up all over NY State. Just this summer we're able to see 19 more down the valley from us. Clean, renewable energy - we love it!

Further down the river we spotted a bald eagle, saw lots of beautiful cottages including two new Habitat for Humanities built homes, etc. The "cruise" was a relaxing thing to do on a hot summer day. Then it was on to the State Museum. GREAT exhibit, very moving, on the World Trade Center; another on the city of NY. There were LOTS of other exhibits but ninety minutes is just not long enough to see it all. By the way and wonder of wonders, NYS charges no admission...

On the way home we stopped at Johnson Hall (it's in Johnstown). When you think of plantations and slaves, upstate NY probably does NOT come to mind. However, NY did have a few including this one. Sir William Johnson was an interesting fellow (I'll leave it up to you to read in detail about him). However, he had a great interest in Native Americans (his second and third wives were both Native American - and in case you're wondering he only had one wife at a time) and was Supt. of Indian Affairs for the British in the 1760's.

Stay tuned - the next blog will be on sink or sail weekend... It's a 50/50 chance which way it will turn out.

We survived!!!

Circus camp is over!! The kids seemed to have a great time and so did we (although John & I were wondering if we'd survive it - reality TV has nothing on us!)

Remember the bonfire from last week? Well, boys being boys, they discovered the charcoal/ash that's left makes great body paint. That was followed by hosing each other down (our well water is 55 degrees) so that required a lot of hollering as well. Then there was "streaking" from bush to bush (it's a good thing we don't have neighbors in sight!) followed by trying to sneak in the back door with laundry baskets over their privates. And that was only Monday!

The building of the tepee -saws, dead branches, old tarps (who needs electronic games?!) kept them busy for hours. The two extra kids are Corey & Kelsey (our friend Leigh's great nephew & niece who were at Circus Camp as well).

I did manage to pick a couple of gallons of blueberries on Tuesday, not all of which went in the freeezer.

Finally, finally the big performance on Friday night. In the three middle photos, the kid on the tightrope is Maverick; on stilts there's Corey, Dillon, ??, & Win (blue tee shirt); and then Win on the left in one of their clown routines. All the kids did multiple things - diablo yoyo-ing, unicycle, tumbling; clowning; juggling etc. but my little camera is not much good with action shots - trust me, the kids were much better than my photos.

And I almost forgot to mention - we finished the latest Harry Potter!!! The kids had Friday morning off - on performance day they go in at 1 and stay for the duration (good thing too as I'm not sure we would have finished HP otherwise). Oletta read fast, the boys were up a half hour earlier than usual (on their own accord) as they were determined to hear the outcome before they had to go to camp. The boys even skipped breakfast (NOT something I would normally support but it was Harry Potter after all!) I finally sent John (who had napped through the chapters he had joined us for) after homemade donuts from our Amish neighbors to tide them (who am I kidding?)/ME over until the story was finished. Oletta finished the last chapter while they ate lunch. "The show must go on" but I'm not sure that would have included having to wait to hear the end of Harry Potter...

So is that a circus dog? No, that's Uncle Bridge's dog, Roscoe who just looks like he should be in the circus. Bridge came up to go to the performance and stayed an extra night with us. August is upon us. See the white on the horizon just beyond Bridge's head? That's typical August weather for this part of the world. The fog sits in the valleys until mid-morning making it look like we're surrounded by lakes. It also means fall is not too far behind. Where does the time go?

Listen! Can you hear the quiet? Everyone's gone with only the sound of washing machine purring in the background. Bliss!...