Mother's Day and Home Alone

Ian reminded me that I needed to get caught up on some blogging.  Given my memory, I can't really afford to not document everything.  So for those of you thinking, "How nice that Keith blogs everything so that we can keep up with the goings on of his incredible life", go ahead and purge that nice little thought from your mind.  You should know that the precipice in the title of this blog is actually my early onset dementia... or maybe that's the wolf and the precipice is enlightenment.  Anyway.  Here are some pictures of things I haven't forgotten yet.

For Mother's Day Sarah had the great idea of renting a cabin at Taughannock.  Fortunately, we brought an expert fire maker along with us.  Cabin number 7 is the place to be.

The hammock was a big hit.

On the first night, our friends Zach and Kristen came by for some grilling action and brought the girls to play.  Of course, three kids means one of them can't get on the stump, right Ian?  At least no one wound up tied to a tree.

So stoked about my fire cooking gear.

Zach rocking the vegetarian grill.

Sarah was inspired to pick up some cedar planks for grilling fish.  We made sauteed cabbage in the dutch oven and plank grilled fish with salt and pepper and mustard.  I'm not bragging when I say that it's the best salmon I've ever had.

Quick, everybody back to the hammock to make weird faces.  I don't remember hearing them discuss the idea of making weird faces in the hammock, but they were really proud of all the pictures.

The next morning Little Man and I got up and made some hash and coffee for breakfast.

Some items needed to be placed on the ground.  The Dude abides.

Sometimes it's hard to wait for breakfast to be served.

Zhora and I got the canoe out on the lake.

Practicing that J-stroke.  We did pretty well despite wind and some speed boat wakes.  We spotted some great birds on our little trip.  First we paddled through some swallows, then saw a heron.  An osprey flew directly toward, then over us at about 20'.  Incredible!  We saw some mallards, a belted kingfisher, and on the way back, a loon!  Not a bad little paddle.

Emmett practiced his best MJ impression.

Happier than she looks, I swear.

Just before the moms showed up Sarah spotted this piliated woodpecker!  We watched him for about 10 minutes.  What a great sighting.

The cabin is so nice.  It's very primitive, and just enough to keep the weather at bay, but it does have a fridge, which is such a luxury.  We were able to stock up on meat to grill and beer to drink.  Keeping a neat camp is important and the hooks Dad threw in the christmas stocking worked out well.

The moms arrived with gifts, laughter, and conversation!  We got right into all of it.

More hammock action.

Grilling corn for the kielbasa stew.  Grilled corn is about the best thing since sliced eggs.

Mother's Day dinner.  Sauteed cabbage and kielbasa stew.

Mother's Day breakfast.  Pancakes!  Emmett and I cooked for everyone.

We wrapped up our visit with a trip to Brookton's Market.  Then the ladies and Emmett were off to Ohio, leaving me to fend for myself for the first time since the duder was born and Jonas passed.  It was super weird.  

As expected, when people found out that I'd have the house to myself, there were a number of "single guy" type comments.  Truth is, I mostly read The Week and went to bed about 9 pm.

Just a couple of WILD and crazy guys!

Hobbs kept me company and hung out while I worked on evals and the like.  Still going strong.  He gave me a big scare when he hid under the couch.  I couldn't find him for a couple minutes, but he eventually popped back out.  That was about the most excitement my week held.

Our friends, Zach and Kristen, are moving.  After hitting up the plant sale at IHS on Sunday, I took a couple house warming gifts over.  On the way there, I spotted a little pond that looked like it needed someone to paddle around on it for a bit.  Nothing terribly exciting, and the pond is really small, but I did get to explore a beaver dam and even saw a beaver swimming around!

Finally, it was time to go reunite with my babies.  We met in Ellicottville and had a nice lunch and a little walk around town.

On Saturday we went to Stewart Park for a birthday party for Ema, a friend from day care.  Aditi was there, too!  We went on swings and rode on the carousel and ran around and ate cake... it was really nice.

And then we went for our first family ride of the season.  A great day!

Still getting used to being outside

I'm pretty manic right now. This is a rough time of year for me because I still feel like every sunny day is a gift that can be snatched away at any moment and we'll be sent scurrying back to the wood stove. The upshot of this is that every time I see the sun, I want to drop whatever I'm doing and get the bike down, the boat out, lace up my running shoes, put on the hiking boots, head into the woods, down the trail, out onto the road, down the river and away from responsibilities.  But now I am older and more mature, so I can't just head out at every whim.  I mean, I do... but only like 90% of the time, and at least some of the time I feel guilty about shirking responsibilities... at least for a few minutes.

"Papa, slow down!  I'm trying to explore!"  We haven't had a late hard frost for the first time in three years.  As a result, the flowers are in bloom everywhere.  We compared flowers and cones and catkins and buds.  This one here is on a river birch, I think.

At the arboretum last weekend.

Awesome lichen on a tree branch

More lichen and some moss.

On April 23 we celebrated the Earth Day weekend with a big hiking party on a new trail.  A couple of friends met us there, too.  The trail was muddy, but very fun.  We saw trout lilies, hepatica, may apples, trillium, and ramps and lots more.  We also got our shoes super muddy.

It's always nice to have a helper.  "How about this?  Does this need yanked on?"

"How 'bout if I pull on this, here?

"What about that thing?  Want me to whack that thing?"

Grilling has been super satisfying lately.  We bought a couple books, one about cooking with fire and one about campfire cooking.  I've been going through those books and looking for different ideas to try.  Grilling corn is pretty basic, but damn is it good!

And, of course, I have a helper.

Had to pull over the other evening to take this shot.  Our house is just out of the shot on the left about 2/3 of the way up.  That's the swamp in the center there.  I LOVE where we live.

Spring peeper on the door during a thunder storm Thursday night.

Turkey season is here, so not only am I up at 4am (nothing new), but I'm outside listening to the world wake up.  Good stuff.

I came home this morning and picked up my own little turkey to go for a walk.

What alien thing is this?!

My grill helpers this evening.

Looking good!

Anybody remember that lifetime when I was a vegetarian?!  How about a beer boiled, bacon wrapped, grilled brat on rye bread with Ommegang Gouda cheese?  Don't worry, we steamed some green beans and sliced some pickles too. 

Hope everyone is well.