Back To Nature

We have taken lots of kayak trips in the past week and were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife in our travels. We were even stealth enough in Lake George's Northwest Bay to sneak by this mother mallard duck and her babies, without waking her up...

Although this mother mallard was awake at the kayak launch at Bolton Landing, her ducklings were not about to move when I tried to get out of the kayak at the ramp...

However, when I shooed them out of the way, I noticed something unusual about the brood. One of the ducks was much smaller than the rest. I have a feeling the little one was adopted!

South of Bolton landing we were given the evil eye and screams from this osprey in a nest...

Keeping up with the nesting season, we were really thrilled to come across a huge snapping turtle digging a hole to lay eggs, on the side of the walking trail behind the Ticonderoga ballfields. There are so many holes on the side of the path from turtles. Hopefully the foxes won't get too many of the eggs like they did last year. We also rescued a snapping turtle trying to cross the road in Ti, and guided him back towards the La Chute River. They are so prehistoric looking...

Even at home, we continue to have toads laying egg cases in our fish pond. We had a big 'toad fest' last week with half a dozen of them in the small pool. It turned the water green for awhile, but now at least we can see our goldfish again once it all settled and the tadpoles hatched. There are a few tadpoles left, but I have a feeling that the fish have been eating well...

The red-tail hawks have been very active too. Their screeches while soaring indicate that they too are looking for a mate. This one sat on our big cauldron for about an hour preening and looking nice for its mate. However, the rest of the birds and chipmunks were not too happy about this predator hanging around. Eventually robins started dive bombing the hawk and it flew off.

It's definitely 'THAT' time of year and it's fun to see mother nature at her finest...or sometimes not so fine. Lorraine, one of our friends from the Bahamas, sent us this photo of our apartment in Hope Town with the woodpecker peeking out from inside the outer apartment siding! It is high up in the corner, above the birdhouse (where it should have been nesting). Luckily it hadn't gotten inside...yet.

For the most part though, we still treasure our time spent with all our wildlife. 😀

Keeping The Peace

We are into our last few days of peacefulness on the lakes. All the kids are out of school, family vacations begin, and the Fourth of July will soon be here. For the next two months everyone will be enjoying the cool waters of the north country, so we will need to time our trips out around the crowds. However, this week there was barely a boat or person in sight. First on Lake Champlain at Valcour Island, where we have never been in scenic Bluff Point North Bay all by ourselves until now...

Then again south of Bolton Landing and the Sagamore Hotel yesterday...

We could already notice the difference today while we were out in Moxie, with campers beginning to take over the islands. That's okay though, because we will still enjoy these gorgeous mountains and lakes.

Footnote: Both Dave and I went swimming for the first time this season today. The water is only 68-70 degrees and invigorating...to say the least!

Water, Water Everywhere

Even though the saying ends with not a drop to drink, this may not apply here because the water is Lake George water (not that I would drink it from the lake, but others have). The lake level is still high from last week's rains and we have seen some docks awash and even some submerged. So the flood gates are still open to drain more crystal clear water down the La Chute River to Lake Champlain...

Then though the penstocks...

Looking up through the trees at the bottom of the first falls, it looks like snow. How do these trees stay in place with the constant pressure of rushing water?

It certainly is pretty, and during our walks in the parks along the river, the water rapids are mesmerizing. Plus, we are so lucky that the Lake George lake level can be regulated.

Welcome Summer

Today is officially the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. I am hoping that most of the cold wet weather is behind us and summer weather will kick in! However, even though at home we did not got the predicted 2" of rain yesterday, there were torrential downpours in Ticonderoga. We arrived up here at about 8 PM and when driving though town, were amazed to see the La Chute Falls flowing like we had never seen it before. With the deluge of rain going into Lake George, plus overflowing creeks and springs adding to the rising lake level, the dam in Ti was opened to dump more water out and down the La Chute to Lake Champlain.

It sure looked a lot different than it did when we kayaked down the river recently. 

Maybe we should do this trip again and have a REALLY fast trip. Did you notice how light it was at this time of the evening in my first photo? It certainly is an advantage of being this far north at this time of year. There was a gorgeous sunset at 8:45 PM to celebrate this, the longest day of the year.

Welcome summer...it may even be 80 degrees this weekend!

Converting

Yesterday was the first monthly car show at the Albany Saratoga Speedway in Malta. The promoters have thankfully taken over for the discontinued Guptill's car show and it is a great place have this event. For being the first show, there were tons of vehicles that showed up. The day was gorgeous, after a one week rain postponement. Instead of taking our '39 Plymouth, we couldn't resist joining Greg and Jim who were taking their convertibles. The nice thing about this venue is that they allow cars of any year to participate, unlike Guptills that required vehicles to be over 25 years old. Our PT Cruiser convertible fit right in as we left from the motorcycle shop's parking lot...

We were fairly early arriving, so we got to park together up by the track and in the shade. Later, one of the promoters/managers came by and asked Jim and me if we liked our spot and told us we could have it next month too. He asked if we were a convertible club and we said, "we are now!"

As the afternoon and evening went on, more and more vehicles arrived and they had them in the lower parking lots. What a great turnout...

I am just glad they didn't put us all in the infield, as it was being groomed for racing and was still quite muddy from all our rain.

Our favorite car of the show was a Corvair that barely looked like the original anymore. The changes and upgrades sounded like they took a long time to complete. The wife said that she didn't think her husband was going to finish it before he died and she didn't want to be left with all the car parts. 😉 Quite the engine and paint job, plus it had suicide doors and was 'tubbed'.

 (oops, pardon the finger in the photo)

Here are some more of my favorites, including the Hudson (think back to the movie Cars):

Quite a diverse bunch of vehicles, don't you think?

Gas 'er Up!

This weekend was the final weekend for the Gallupville Gas-Up and the turnout was huge with  vehicles, equipment, and spectators. The past few years have had pretty much the same things to see, but this year had quite a few new things on display:

Dave did not bring 'Miney', our white Farmall Demonstrator tractor, due to time issues, but he did ride around on his Cushman Minute Miser. He found out that it came from the G.E. Plant in Schenectady, making it even more special.

The favorite display of the day was this miniature town set up, complete with house that was set on fire by remote control. The  model firetrucks sprayed water on it, while the sirens blared, and when the fire was out the hoses sprayed the spectators. The man running the controls was sitting almost out of sight so it was quite funny.

This was another great annual event with lots of diversity and novelties!