Getting Around Town

 

    

  At least one person took my advice and visited the Botanical Gardens during peak bloom.  Those flowers look nice near Yardana.

  Been spending lots of time in Six Mile Creek, as always.  The flow is too high to go in at some of my favorite swimming holes, but the water has been nice during the heatwaves.

 

    Stop trashing the gorge, or the bird gets a rock in the eye!

    Got a new color on one of the poppy varieties.

   More apartments on the way.  No word on the $33,000 study to see how contaminated and structurally sound the smokestack is.

     Gail and Roxy continue to get better in their respective roles at Agility School.

   I've had a couple chances to try out my new machete/ folding saw combination and am pleased with the results, though I might have to have three versions of it for different conditions.

   If I ever knew about Westfield Street on West Hill in Ithaca, I forgot about it until finding myself on it recently.

   

Adventures with Stone

  

  My friend, Adam, is a sucker for moving stones around, so I roped him and his trailer into joining me for a Saturday morning in the woods and quarry to get some.  These are from the quarry to become a waterfall at Kim and Adam's pond.  I got a paver there for the driveway.

  

  He got the final two sandstone curbs that were dumped here over 20-years-ago.  It took three trips with three different people to get them all.  We were lucky it was the easiest access possible.

   Here's the one I placed in our driveway and its new companion from the quarry.  I have one more of the big sandstone to use, and the leading choice to put it is next to this one.  Stay tuned.

  

  All this place needs is a waterfall.

  The whole project was instigated by a recent gully washer that pushed one of the sandstone rocks in front of these culverts (the sandstone was part of the creek bank with the previous culvert).  I've noticed there's one more that has appeared and am routing for the next storm to move it so the city has to pull it out and leave it right next to the road.  Stay tuned. 

Historical

 

With the day off for Juneteenth, Gail suggested we go to the Tompkins County History Center for the opening of an exhibit related to the St. James A.M.E. Zion Church. It's cool, and if you're in Ithaca, check it out.  Glenda, an old friend from Candor made this quilt celebrating 190 years of history at the church.

  

A crew from Cornell's anthropology department did an analysis of the building and what they found on digs done on the property.  I found this cut-off of a hemlock post interesting.

  

  Some of the trees used in the construction went back to the 1600's.  No word on how far back stones in the foundation go.

  There's also a current exhibit related to transportation in the county (and beyond).  Much of it was related to bicycles and I learned about many "side trails" throughout the city for bikes.  I'm trying to re-imagine some as I ride around and can't wait until people open up their driveways and backyards to cyclists.

  

   A picture of the closest waterfall to our house.  It's changed.

 

Lost A Couple Good Ones

 

  I did not know John Yates well.  That didn't stop me from being in awe of what he did and created.  He helped good friends build their log cabin before I met any of them, and then he was living in their stone cabin and fixing it up when our paths crossed.  He would go on to help Connie and Andy build their house, after doing a tree-salvage project in their woods so they'd have plenty of material to work with.  That's when I got to see him in action and was blown away by the knowledge and skill.  He also led many barn salvage projects, built all the early kitchens for Collegetown Bagels at GrassRoots, as well as their counters and tables in some of their locations around town.  Throughout all of those endeavors, he was educating, mentoring, entertaining.  He'll be missed, but carry on through so many others he touched along the way.

   Photos from the Cope's album.  While building the cabin on top.  Chenda is on Caroline's lap.  Their office in the middle, and Chenda on the disassembled roof of the sauna last spring.  He built that too.

  

 

  I've often said I think Connie and Andy's house is one of my all-time favorites, they worked with John to include some amazing features while sticking with lots of conventional aspects.  After he moved on from that project, he helped Mimi build hers, and he had free-reign on the features there. The stories behind some of these details are precious.  As was John, in his way. 

  I only spoke with Brenden Jackson a couple times, but he was one of the most prolific, detailed and accurate writers on the Adirondacks and other places online.  He went by the name DSettahr on a couple discussion boards I read related to mountains, camping, paddling, and and and...He was an assistant forest ranger in the Pharaoh Lakes Wilderness where I ran into him.  His accomplishment to visit every named feature in the wilderness is great reading with stunning photos, check it out if you have an hour.  He was also most of the way to having visited (stayed in) every public lean-to in NY.  Check it out if you have a couple hours.  High Peaks anyone?  I often wondered if he dictated while out-and-about and had it transferred to writing because there just isn't enough time for doing it separately.

 

  I saw this avatar thousands of times, and as I do research for future tips, I'm going to see it thousands more.

School Daze

   The shop classes spent the first semester of the school year in classrooms typically used for global and language classes.  They were supposed to be in these spacious, new temporary buildings, but couldn't move in until January.  They have been pleased and claim they want to stay put, but I have a feeling when they see the remodel of their old spaces, they'll give in.

   I'm not supposed to post students' pictures, but...

  

I'm permitted to post former students.  Asiya contemplates her move to Texas.  How could they not love her as much as we do?  She had one of my all-time favorite shirts: Straight outta Sudan.

 

  Nice pre-show for graduation by Nafisa.  She did her WISE project on the Neurolinguistics of Bilingualism.  Of course she did.  When she left Afghanistan, her dream was to continue her education.  It's nice to help fulfill dreams.

   And, she graduates!

  

"You just wait to see what more I will accomplish."
 

  

  Emma's on to Skidmore, which I find doubly pleasing since she'll get a great education, and be close enough to the Adirondacks to finally start rock climbing there.

 

    Sofia hurried through in three years, then hurried on to the volleyball game/grad party.

   Reflections on the end of another year.