Murphy's Law

We hired a 'professional' tree cutter to take down the 60 ft. aging blue spruce tree next to our house. All they had to do was get it on the ground and we would cut it up and bring it into the woods.

"What can go wrong" you ask? It was a perfect landing...on top of our lamp post, which completely exploded! At least they felt bad and charged us about a 5th of what we expected.

The clean up was massive for this tree that had split and grown into two, then further up, grown into three pieces. All the cutting and hauling of the lower branches in 85 degree humid heat was intense (bad timing for this project).

Hercules (the Ford 555) and the New Holland tractor came to the rescue. Herc dragged the tree in three sections out to the woods, and the New Holland helped with the rest of the dirty clean up, including hundreds of sticky pine cones thrown everywhere...until it refused to start. It took about an hour of time investigating as the sun was setting, but it ended up being a simple fix once diagnosed, and the mission was complete at dark. Luckily it wasn't a case of deja vu when Herc stopped running a few years ago while hauling another tree away, and had to have the engine rebuilt....twice.

Later, Dave checked on Craig's List and there was a three light lamp post for sale similar to ours! The base was even the same and will fit right in the same base. Now we just have to stop having more fun in the water to install it. No more worries about the gigantic tree falling on the house, garages, or rehabbed garden shed.

Lazing Along The Schroon River

John and Lynda met us in Horicon to kayak down the Schroon River and back last weekend. We haven't seen much of them this summer, so it was a great way to get caught up on the news.

 

We certainly got lots of exercise too...especially since we were going with the flow on the way down and I lost track of how far we had gone. Thanks goodness the current wasn't strong, since it was a long paddle back.

The guys stopped midway back to take a break and swim in a deep section. Dave anchored the kayaks the way a barge does, with a paddle as a 'spud'.

Hopefully we can do this all again before the summer ends!

The Office

We usually bring a cell phone with us when we go out in the boat, in case we have a problem. It's usually a false sense of security because there isn't always cell coverage where we venture to. A few days ago, we took Moxie down to explore Harris Bay, which is very close to the southern end of Lake George. On the way back, we stopped for a leisurely swim in Log Bay near the base of Black Mountain. Surprisingly I heard the magic wand sound of a text message coming in...I couldn't believe there was service here with the mountain right behind us. I have always thought it was sad that people were on their phones out on the lake, and when I looked around the cove, there were several people either texting or conversing on their devices. Have we become one of THEM? We couldn't resist checking the message. It ended up being a business message which Dave had to answer. So I guess we need to rename Moxie, 'The Office'. Then it became a joke..."Dave is out of The Office so please a message.

 

Then there was the heavy traffic on the commute home.

Next time the phone can come with us, but it will be off!

Corn?!

We arrived back home from Ti to find that we have corn growing by the fish pond. It must have been 'planted' by a chipmunk, bird, or perhaps even a deer who drinks from the rainwater in the pail hanging from the well pump. I figured that I had better get a photo of the two stalks before they were eaten by the animals. Now THAT's recycling!

 

Helping To Save The Lake

Lake George is making a huge effort to keep invasive species out of the lake. Although there are many boats that stay in the lake at docks for the entire season, others come from other lakes and rivers, especially Lake Champlain, which is so near. Sometimes the fishing boats will go from Champlain to Lake George within a day or two and can easily transport all sorts of invasive species on their trailers, gear and bait wells. There are inspection stations for boats coming and going at most of the lakes now (and there was even one at Grass Point on the St. Lawrence), but all boats entering Lake George now have to go through an inspection process. The lake stewards try to make it as easy as possible, and when you come out of the lake and plan on returning, they will tag your boat to the trailer so they know that you don't need to be inspected the next time around, cutting off the wire tag when you return. If they find any milfoil, etc. on the trailer, it is removed, or if bait wells, engine compartments, or outdrives have water in them and you have been to a different body of water within the previous two weeks, they have a procedure they go through to decontaminate the boat. Moxie went through this process the other day, when although the engine compartment was so dry Dave had vacuumed it, we had neglected to put the outdrive down and water came out. Now this was the water left over from the St. Lawrence where invasives abound, especially zebra mussels. There could have very easily been larvae growing in the water remaining and coming out into the lake when we put the outdrive down restarted the engine. Off to the decontamination area we went.

They have a an 80 gallon hot water compressor that they hooked up to the boat and flushed our engine until the temperature came up to 140 degrees, which will kill anything in there. If we had bait wells, they would have done the same thing, or in the case of Jim and his SeaDoo, where he had water in the engine compartment from Saratoga Lake, they vacuumed out the water. The containment pad water will be vacuumed and recycled through large filters and reheated.

Some people are irate about having to go through all this, but it only took about 15 minutes. We were glad to help keep Lake George the clearest and cleanest lake in America...we love it!

Back To The Main Event

After looking through my posts about the Thousand Islands, I realized that I hadn't written about the main reason we go up there...the Antique Boat Show and Auction. There weren't any boats we couldn't live without in the auction (thankfully!), although there was a Bahamas wooden dinghy in the line up. We could tell that it wasn't made in Abaco and was in very poor condition, more suitable as a flower planter. The show itself was even more organized than usual and was probably the best we have attended.

The featured boats were Lymans and there were plenty of gorgeous ones.

This Lyman on display was still in its crate!

What a race boat and quite the sound when it ran, especially inside the boathouse.

This boat is going to be running in the Gold Cup Races on Lake George in September. We'll be there and will hopefully get lots more photos. Click here for the link to their website for this monumental event.

We always enjoy hearing the whistle blow and, "Make way for the junior judges!"

A rare boat and Dave's favorite...

More fins...

This is the largest Gar Wood  that the company (based in Brant Lake) has ever made. 

If our launch "Sashay" was THIS one, I don't think we would have needed "Moxie". Somehow, I think this boat does more than sashay when it travels the St. Lawrence!

Towboat US entourage. If all else fails, call them, they can do anything...

 

This is a very rare Indian Outboard (like the motorcycles) that was sold by one of the vendors. He wouldn't tell us what he sold it for but it was in the thousands of dollars.

One vendor had a huge pile of courtesy flags from different countries that are usually used to 'dress' big ships. We found a large Bahamian one we will use in Hope Town. I had to dive into the pile to find it...

As we were leaving the show we found this unusual camper boat for sale. What a sight it must be on any waterway, but perfect for the Erie Canal System.

That's it for the 1000 Island report. It makes us want to go back again and we were certainly were lucky with the weather this year!

 

Serenity Now, Insanity Later...Part 2

Serenity now...We're back in the Adirondacks and this Jim R. came up to go sailing on Lake Champlain, launching our daysailers at Port Henry.

The winds were a bit fluky, but all in all a nice relaxing sail....

Insanity later...the following day this Jim R. came up to Lake George to go out on the SeaDoos (I stuck with the serenity now and kayaked)...

Both days were great fun on the water thanks to the two Jims!

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Serenity Now...Insanity Later!

Serenity now...On our last day in the Thousand Islands we checked out of the motel and stopped at Grass Point State Park. First we took a leisurely kayak trip out to the Rock Island Light for a tour.

What a pristine island run by the parks department.

 

The view of the river was great and we could see where the shallow water drops right off to over 100 feet.

 

 The winding staircase was 'dizzifying', and the top looked like the inside of a ship, outlined in wood.

 We found out that this wreck is the remains of the last ferry boat that was used before the 1000 Islands Bridge was completed.

 Insanity later...After loading up the kayaks, we launched Moxie for one last blast out to our favorite swimming area. Now you can see why we call the back of the boat Moxie Beach, with its sand colored lounging pad.

The weekend boat traffic made for lots of wakes, but Moxie plowed through at 25 mph (and caught air a couple of times), giving us a wild ride!

 

We couldn't leave the St. Lawrence without "one more for the road"...freighter that is!

The Annex

The Antique Boat Museum has an annex building that houses the overflow of donated boats. It was open while we were in Clayton, and what a surprise to see so many more spectacular boats other than what the museum has on display.

Large and small boats..

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Many racks of canoes... 

Engines... 

 

Outboard Motors...

And some strange creations!

An interesting note about the building itself is that the inside has been sprayed with insulation to prevent condensation and to preserve the vessels.

Our self guided tour was amazing, but if we had questions, there were several knowledgeable volunteers to help us. We certainly were impressed!

The Beginning or the End?

Besides being out on the water with Moxie and the kayaks, we have also been visiting some land based attractions. It was super windy one afternoon and it usually blows right down the river making it quite rough. We headed out to Cape Vincent and the Tibbits Point Lighthouse.

Dave was ready to go body surfing in the waves that looked and sounded like we were at the ocean.

This is where Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway converge, so depending on which way you are headed, it's either the beginning or the end of the river and/or lake. This sailboat had quite the ride going with the wind, waves and current, as it passed by the Wolfe Island wind farm (I read there are 86 of these generators) and headed into the river. I bet the crew was glad to be out of the big lake!

What a great place to sit and read up on the all the ships that ply these waters. 

Dave has his new edition of "Know Your Ships" and we sure have seen more commercial traffic than ever before during our stay up here this time! Besides wooden boats and clear water, that's the reason we love coming to the Thousand Islands.