For Whom The Bell Tolls

Last night we went to the Nicholas Auction in Whitehall. There were a few items we saw that we thought would make nice additions to our collection, but apparently others felt the same and bidding went higher than we wanted to spend. That is until a 100 year old cast iron bell came up for sale. Hardly anyone was bidding, so we couldn't resist and ended up winning it for $40! This bell is so big that it takes 2 people to lift it. The mounts for it are broken, but Dave loves a challenge like this. The sound when it tolls is amazing.

Right after winning the bell, a floor scale was offered and bidding was even lower.  We have seen these at antique shows and wanted one, but they were too expensive, usually $150. We won this for $30...

It's a good thing we had our utility trailer in Ticonderoga and picked up our prize possessions today. We can't wait to display them and especially ring that bell!

Got Moxie?

We sure do!

Plus we love our other 'backyard' too. The lake is still all ours with no other boats out. 

When The Sun Shines

It was a gloomy Memorial Day weekend, so we were home getting more projects done. This morning we woke to heavy fog that lifted to reveal a spectacular sunny day. My flowering bushes aren't quite as full as last year, but still pretty. The bees and hummingbirds are loving it! What a great yard...

First Yak

It was a spectacular afternoon on the lake yesterday. Hardly a ripple or boat wake rocked us in the kayaks. Turtles were everywhere, including on one of the leaning hazard markers (Dave lost count after 45 when he was out on the Sea Doo the other day, as he passed by a favorite turtle island hang out). I even got up close to a muskrat by the launch ramp. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. Since we were on Lake George, the water was so clear that it was like snorkeling, and we saw all sorts of large bass brave enough to be out in the open before all the fisherman harass them. We love the beginning and end of the season when the lake seems to be there just for us. Plus the Mossy Point boat ramp is only a mile away!

Lake Time

The chores at home are done, including yard work and cleaning the roof...yes, Dave was up on a ladder doing it! He also had the challenging job of replacing the harmonic balancer, serpentine belt, and air conditioning hose in our truck and now knows why they charge so much at a repair shop for doing this job. Plus the motorcycles he and friends are taking to the Rhinebeck Antique Bike Show are running and ready to display. I even had the opportunity to sign up for Medicare this past week, so I will be all set when my birthday rolls around in a few months (and now you all know my age 😉!).

Since the weather has improved and so has my upper repiratory virus, we are up in Ticonderoga. We always want to do everything at once, but we forget that the water is still only 55 degrees in Lake George and 47 in Lake Champlain at this time of year. Dave couldn't resist going for a spin on L. G. on the Sea Doo. He said there was not a soul at the launch ramp and only saw 2 other boats while on the water.

The air was wonderfully warm today and perfect for touring on land too, with the top down on the Thunderbird of course. Lake Champlain was calm at Port Henry but the water level is still quite high.

Very few boats were out here too, but soon that will all change. Let summer begin!

A Star Is Born

While my family was in town, it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of some more of our family ties by visiting my cousin Chuck and his wife JoAnn's blueberry farm in Galway. Their property is the perfect place for this venture that began about five years ago. That's when they received over 2800 blueberry bushes that they planted. Since then they have removed the berries early, so that the strength goes towards making the plants bigger. This year will be their first year of letting them totally ripen and they will be ready for picking.

X marks the spot in the sky over Star Farm Blueberries!

L to R, that's me, Dave, Eva, Rick, Chuck, Sue, & Len

Not only will you be able to pick your own berries, but they are also planting a huge field of flowers for the picking. Plus they are in the process of building a store with all sorts of big plans for the future.

Best of luck to both of them and check out Star Farm Blueberries' website and Facebook page. Then you'll know when it's time to go visit there and see all they have to offer!

Family Reunion

We laid my mother to rest next to my father this past weekend. Although it was a sad time, it was also wonderful to see so many of our relatives and close family friends. At the luncheon after the brief gravesite service (in the rain), it was all about reminiscing. My sister Sue brought many of the photo albums that my mother had put together throughout our lives and everyone had such a good time looking through them.

You could hear comments like,"there's my wedding picture," or "I can't believe she saved my prom photo!" Here is my cousin Debbie, from my mother's side of the family (seated on the right), along with my sister Sue, brother Rick, and me.

With most of my siblings and their families in town, we were able to spend some quality time together. Sue also brought gifts for those of us with repaired broken bones. It is ironic that first Dave broke his femur and wrist 5 years ago, then Rick broke his ankle 1 1/2 years ago, followed by my nephew Mark who broke his ankle last summer and almost lost his foot, and of course my ankle fracture last fall. Each of us was featured on our own placque with the other xrays surrounding it. It really brought some humor to the weekend, but the saying is so true...broken bones knit families!

22 Hours

We had a narrow band of very intense thunderstorms come through on Friday evening. Talk about the calm before the storm? It was silent until it sounded like an Air National Guard C -130 was landing at the airport. It was the straight line wind approaching through the trees, along with the black sky that produced torrential rain. I knew we would lose power with this storm and as Dave and I grabbed flashlights, the lights went out. The storm only lasted for 15 minutes but caused huge power outages throughout the area. We went to bed thinking it would come back on, but at 6 AM, no luck. Dave got our portable generator going and it ran for another 7 hours, off for 5 hours and back on for a couple more before service was restored 22 hours later (we had just restocked the empty fridge and needed the well pump to go on too). My cousin Chuck was without power for at least 36 hours and I read that there are still 5000 homes without service in NY. Gee, I feel like we are back in the Bahamas. At least Bahamas Power and Light apologizes and thanks us for our patience. Here on the Grid's website they give you a map of outages and say assessing condition with no assisgned crew...for 20 of those 22 hours. This must be what it is like after a hurricane though, with so many different places to check out with tree damage to lines. It's probably our fault for bringing the power issues with us from the Bahamas.😉 At least we brought warmer weather too!

Good To Be Home

We are back home and settling in again. We had a good first day of traveling up I 95 but day 2 was slow with lots of stop and go traffic. Then we arrived in NY and were greeted by snow! However we seemed to have brought the warm weather up north with us because the past few days have been in the 80s. We'll take it!

Both home and Ti's houses are fine, although home has a couple of water leaks outside. Not bad considering the faucets were frozen before we departed. We did have a scare with the furnace not coming on and wow, was the house cold when we got here. As Dave accidentally slammed the door on his way out to find his tools, it started running...just what we like, it healed itself!

We always seem to want to get everything done at once and thanks to Dave's hard work of raking last fall, very little needs to be done in the yard. Now we await all the trees and bushes to bloom. This warmer weather will really help. My forsythia exploded in blooms since we arrived. More to follow...