Gassing Up In 2023

This weekend was the annual Gallupville Gas-Up that we always attend. We love all the antique engines, equipment, vehicles, etc.! This year there were more vehicles riding around the grounds than we have ever seen before. Dave brought up his Cushman that used to be used in the G.E. plant in the 1960s. It was perfect since it doesn't mind going slow and has a custom made little seat on the back for passengers...aka, me! 

He also brought up his Tote Gote minibike that was a big hit with the older crowd. In the background of the photo below, that is the huge Case steam engine that it usually running the sawmill, but yesterday it actually was driven around a bit (a grand feat in itself and difficult to steer).

We have seen most of the displays in previous years, but there were some new-to-us things to discover. The washing machine display was gigantic!

We also saw this commercial size washer...

This corn husker is very similar to the one we have in our yard.

I have a milking machine just like this at home, minus the attachments. It has flowers in it instead. 😄

Our property also has a rototiller like this one:

To top it off, we also have a bulldozer like this too. Maybe we should have our own gas-up!

This steam engine was our highlight of the show. It had three different whistles and a siren hooked up to it, and any passers-by were welcome to pull the strings and get an ear full of sounds.

Classy water pump...

Farmalls and John Deere's lined up. The mini tractors and bicycle were an added treat, all in pristine condition.

Hayrides...

Rides were also being given in Catskill Game Farm's junior fire truck, which was run by a 1957 Nash Metropolitan. 

Horse and oxen power...

Kid power! I say this every year, but we really like seeing the young kids getting involved in riding the various pieces of equipment and vehicles around.

This steam roller was being driven around and it looked like it was challenging to steer. It also looked like the easiest way to get gas to run it was from the gravity fed plastic gas tank. Hey, whatever works and at least the owner was out having fun.

This massive John Deere intrigues me as to why it was so big compared to the other tractors, and I found out it was used to work in the tall sugar cane fields. 

So that's it for this year's Gas-Up photos. It is another one of those events that is a must see, 'right of passage' for us. 

The First Plunge

The first of June was a perfect day for Dave to take the first plunge of the season in Lake George. The water was 63.1 degrees so he wasn't in very long! 

The air temperature was close to 90 and hopefully we get lots more days like this to enjoy the lake and Moxie, before the summer crowds arrive. The lake is all ours for now though!

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Turtles, Beavers, and Loons, Oh My!

Yay, we finally got back out on the water today! What a wildlife sighting day it was to start off the summer season. We kayaked the backwater creek of Lake George's Northwest Bay and it sure was good to be back in the clear freshwater again. Beavers have been busy on this section of the lake and we saw several new lodges. This one was the largest of them, and it also looked like they were trying to build a dam across the creek (we also recently saw 4 very large beavers on the upper LaChute River here in Ticonderoga).

Then the turtles were out in full force, sunning themselves and warming up from the 58 degree water.

The highlight of the morning was seeing this loon nesting in the reeds. They build their nests very close to the water because they have difficulty walking since their feet are made for swimming. 

We also saw the same loon earlier in the morning swimming in the vicinity of the nest. It swam underwater right next to Dave's kayak.

To top off this gorgeous day, we saw a bald eagle soaring overhead, and I saw the biggest snapping turtle ever, resting on the bottom of the lake. We are ready for more adventures, but it is going to be hard to beat all we experienced today.

Too Close For Comfort

Yesterday morning we had a new visitor to our fish pond. A Great Blue Heron must have been flying overhead and he (or she) apparently has phenomenal eyesight to spot our tiny concrete pond. 

We stood by to see how close it would come with us standing in the window watching it. Although it became uneasy and tried to sneak around and approach from around the back side of the Rhododendrons, it still managed to get too close for comfort before I chased it away (notice the hummingbird going to the feeder above the heron's head in the first photo).

This gigantic wading bird was too tenacious, so after the third time I chased it away, we put more fencing up over the water. Hopefully the goldfish didn't think the tall heron was someone coming to feed them. Normally they line up at the surface when I come out with their food. What a shock that would be! Instead, the fish are hiding in the rocks and only coming out at night. Maybe they are smarter than they let on to be! 😉

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The Dam Meet

Our first antique outboard meet was held today at the East Sidney Lake Dam Recreation Area out towards Binghamton. There was a nice turn out for this event, although most of the displays were on land. We didn't put anything on display or for sale since we didn't know anything about this venue, but Jim Ryan went with us, so it made for a fun day. Here are a few of our favorites:

A couple of brothers brought their late father's remaining collection of pre-war Evinrude and Johnsons. At one time Dad had over 100 motors. 

#460 last raced 50 years ago. It runs on a mixture of methanol and castor oil, and shoots three foot flames out the exhaust.

An impeccably restored pair of Mercurys that looked like new. The black one is model 110 from the early 1970s, 9.8 HP. The silver one was a late 1950s Mercury mark 20.

This vendor had a great collection of vintage restored gas cans amongst other items.

Here is an identical pair of orphaned Mark 20s waiting for adoption.

A 1928 Penn Yan. These boats are double planked cedar with a layer of asphalt impregnated canvas between the layers, making them watertight.

The Penn Yan had a matching 1928 Johnson opposed twin kicker.

The crates were almost as nice as the antique outboards. The original cardboard box still had its motor and gas tank in it. Ironically it was originally being shipped to an owner in Schenectady.

The owner attempted to run this hydroplane, but it kept stalling and had to be towed back.

I like pink but have never seen a pink outboard before. It is a West Bend brand and ran fantastic.

We also stopped to check out the top of the dam. Looking lakeside, we heard that in 2006 the water rose so high that some of the trailers up on the hill in the campground floated across the top of the dam.

Looking down at Ouleout Creek:

This was a great way to start the season, and if the weather allows, next weekend we will have our Wagemaker Wolverine at its first show.

His & Hers

We have made it back to the north country! We ended up driving the SSR while our friend Ken, drove the van back home. Ken and his father Don, had helped our mutual friend Di (who is now 93 and still skipper of her catamaran) bring her boat across the gulfstream to Stuart. He volunteered to drive the van back home, which saved him flights and also saved Dave another trip to Florida to bring the SSR north. Both vehicles ran flawlessly. A heads up for anyone driving I 95 though...the roads in South Carolina are really rough! Anyway, Dave did a great job of winterizing the house when he came back last fall to get the Mustang, and everything is up and running just fine. He had also finished cleaning up all the leaves, which is making our spring work really easy. We have never had so few leaves and branches to get rid of. Today we got both tractors going and mowed and mulched what leaves were left. Then we raked and vacuumed in the tight spaces. Every year we say that we are going to take our time, but then we start working and want to get everything done at once. 

His and her tractors getting cleaned up after the first mow (yes it was cold enough to have winter coats on!)...

Tomorrow we head up to Ticonderoga to see how everything made it through the winter up there. Hopefully all the snow that fell off the roof in the last snowstorm has melted. It makes us really glad that we were in Florida!

Going Out On A High Note

Our time in the south is rapidly drawing to a close. We were lucky enough with the weather to get two more kayak trips in before washing and storing them for the summer. Since it was the weekend, we left at 8 AM both days to beat the crowds, and it really paid off, especially yesterday. We wanted to see if there were any nesting birds left on Bird Island, and we certainly were not disappointed. We could hear the din from far away, and it looked like several of the different juvenile birds were trying out their wings and then flying back to the trees. 

We only saw a few roseate spoonbills, but the trees were loaded with brown pelicans, wood storks and surprisingly, frigate birds (also called man o' war birds). Frigate birds spend most of their lives in flight, so this was a fairly rare sighting as they must have made landfall and bred on the island. 

There was one frigate bird that seemed to be a loner and chose to sit on a nearby piling, instead of with the rest of the noisy birds in the trees. It was quite content to just stare over at the activity on the island. 

On our return paddle to Sewell's Point Park, we came across a pod of dolphins feeding where the deeper water meets the sandbar, pushing the fish up into the shallows. I didn't take any photos, but it was quite an experience with them everywhere we looked. One went right under my kayak too! 

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This morning we took one last trip to Sandsprit Park and paddled Manatee Pocket. Despite the fact that the launch ramp and boat trailer parking lots were full, there weren't that many boats motoring in the harbor. That made for a very pleasant time looking at all the marinas, yachts, houses, and... more dolphins! There were four of them this time, swimming very close to the surface and all of them kept very close together. What a great way to end our winter! 

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