Fall

 An autumn we'll remember.  There are constants: the colors, the waterfalls refreshed by long-awaited rains.  They're helping with the rest.

The 30' dam, before the rains.

Fall

 Work is somewhat of a continuation of last spring.  Students didn't go back until October, but staff were permitted a few weeks before that.  When Gail tired of the screaming, I decided it was best to get into the routine of going somewhere for employment again and burrowed in at the high school.  There's construction in many areas, I stayed away, and much of the furniture has gone into storage prompting me to snag some of my favorite chairs, and finding some new ones. Our fridge hasn't been seen.  I've snagged our favorite classroom back as well, but the view doesn't make up for the absence of students.  Students that are attending in person only come two days a week, it's kind of like exam week day after day.

We still have on-line meetings, there's still some screaming, but we're making our way to a better place.

Work at home has its own rewards, in this recent effort it comes as more efficient use of a little space and better storage for our stuff.  I decided kayaking was something I wanted to do more of, and with Gail's help found a great deal on high-quality gear.  With two kayaks we needed something other than the sawhorses to store them, which also involved creating a better space to store firewood now that we are having fires on the patio once in awhile.  Haven't moved the pile of rocks, yet.

Fall

 The Walk-About happened despite the pandemic, though in an abbreviated format.  Managing the lunch break and sag wagon seemed too risky so we did a new route that started and ended at Connie and Andy's where we had a delicious lunch.  It turned out to be one of the biggest crowds ever, but everyone was good about distancing and wearing masks when proximity occurred.  The hills of Caroline were in full splendor.

Fall

 We got a new dog.  Nina called us from the Tompkins County SPCA and said she heard we were rejecting dogs from as far away as Pennsylvania and would we consider a nine-year-old with a bad reputation.  We took a chance, gave her a chance to get snatched up by someone else, and have gotten ourselves a wonderful dog.  She was quite overweight upon arrival, but after just a few weeks has trimmed down to reveal she has a waist and can run up all the steps in the Cascadilla Gorge.  She's pretty good at finding comfortable spots around the house too.

She's getting all over town and managed the Walk-About without batting an eye.

I'm still not 100% certain she's not going to go for my jugular, but I'll continue to take my chances.

Fall

Really sad to have our family reunion canceled this Labor Day.  The cousins would have come from far and wide so it just didn't make sense.  The McMahon siblings and spouses gathered in Westfield, minus Tom and Bonnie and Gail and I.  Hope to see them all in person soon.

Fall

 Great news out of California, you don't hear that much these days, when Matt and Jenica announced their engagement.  Wishing them the best and hoping they start hanging out with some younger people than when this photo was taken.

Fall

 Cindy, a good friend in Caroline, retired in September after many decades with the Thomas Group.  I worked for her for a couple weeks once in the early 2000's.  It was clear she was highly respected and will be missed.  We celebrated by having a camp out on her and Steve's property.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a way to take pictures so only have one Gail took of me smelling the flowers I gave Cindy as a graduation present, and a couple of the sunrise.  Trust me, we had a good time and it was beautiful.

From the Wayback Machine- the whole Nicholson family.  Sorry the boys couldn't make the campout, they are awesome men now.

 

Fall

 I did a long-overdue repair to our front porch by replacing the bottom of the posts.  It's a wonder why/how the roof wasn't sagging yet, but a relief to be told by Alan to just do the posts and not rebuild the porch.

Also sending kudos to Alan for giving me an extra table saw he had sitting around the shop.  This wouldn't have come out as nicely without it.

No kudos to our neighbor who has let trees on his property get to dangerous states but done nothing about them until they fall.  So far the two that have partially come down haven't hit our house, or us, but one hit some wires that didn't snap at the time.  A high voltage wire did snap a few days later when I was headed to the creek for a swim after spending most of the day crawling under the porch.  There was a loud, colorful explosion and when I looked up the wire was coming towards me.

I was on the sidewalk about in the middle of the top picture when this happened.  No one from NYSEG showed up for quite awhile so I ended up calling the fire department who closed the street until the utility crew came to replace the wire.  Still several trees on the property with potential to take someone or their property out. 

 

He left this one hanging for a few weeks.  Luckily, when it came down it hit some different wires without damaging them and fell harmlessly between his building and our fence.  Both damaged trees, and a dead one hanging over our garden, are still standing.  I'm not looking forward to the first heavy, wet snow or ice storm.

Update:  2/3 of the damaged trees have been cut down, and the big deal for our peace of mind, the dead one.  No damage, no cost to us: just long-awaited relief from a half-hour of work by the professionals.

Fall

 No shock that I've been spending lots of time on the FLT for a walk and to keep it a pleasant experience for others.  A beaver dam was flooding the puncheon and bridge at the county line by Rt 79.  We dropped the water level enough that they were no longer submerged after just a few hours of work, but the beavers are making sure we keep returning for a little more destruction to prevent it from backing up and flooding the marsh again.  This was all permitted by the DEC.  They first gave Cornell a permit to attempt trapping and removing the beaver but when that didn't work they gave the go-ahead to remove the dam.

David has been everywhere, doing everything.  He went out to clear a couple blow downs off Brailey Rd. and found this.  Nice work.

I got to repair the steps off Shindagin Rd.

Andy spent quite a bit of time helping reroute a section I have adopted in Shindagin.  It passes some mighty fine trees.

 

Shindagin Hollow Rd. didn't see much rain this summer, but on one occasion when it fell there happened to be an excavator working on the creek and turning the road into soup.  They turned the creek into a nice country lane.

More stairs in Shindagin.  They don't look like much, but it's a huge improvement.