Shaw Girl Happenings

We live in small, rural school district. Our band doesn't march, doesn't even have uniforms. But, boy oh boy, we have an enthusiastic Pep Band! Teachers join with the students, who range from 6th grade to 12th, and we wail on the school's fight song, and a bunch of other charts guaranteed to get the crowd behind our boys in blue. Here's my view from the Pep Band. I played trumpet along with the math teacher, and the rest of the band. Katie played her french horn, and Matthew, the bassoon player, manned the drum line. Rick kept us in hot dogs, and cocoa. It was a great day for a football game! With a game fought right down to the last minute, our team won.

Labels: Katie, Matthew, music

In response to a family member's question, “aren’t there any hotels in Syracuse?” I offer the following photo essay.


After loading up the car with our camping gear, our cooler and food box, various iPods, and golf clubs, we headed out for Syracuse to attend the NYS fair. We stopped en route for lunch, making tasty sandwiches from our cooler and food box. Arriving at Green Lakes State Park in the afternoon, we set up our camp, consisting of two tents, and a screen shelter. The screen shelter serves as our kitchen, with picnic table, stove, and cooking implements. Our set up took about an hour. Soon, Matthew had a fire going, kabobs were cooking in the cast iron skillet, and cocktail hour had started.

After a wonderful dinner of chicken and beef kabobs, boiled and buttered new potatoes, tossed salad dressed in a red wine vinaigrette, all accompanied by a tantalizing bottle of Malbec from Argentina (and, of course, milk), we washed up the dishes, and retired to the campfire to listen to the crackling of the fire, the scratch and call of crickets, and the pling, pling of eastern balsam wood seeds hitting our tent. After a nice, hot shower in the clean campground facilities, I went to bed. The wood seeds sounded like rain, and soon I was asleep in my sleeping bag on top of my self-inflating mattress pad.

In the morning, the fire was started again, coffee brewed on the Coleman stove, and various children were kicked out of sleep, (Matthew and Katie, sharing a huge tent with two rooms, were found, by morning, sleeping like a couple of puppies) and breakfast began. Last night’s potatoes became this morning’s hash browns. Rick enjoyed his morning paper by the fire. After a quick clean up and tidying of camp we were off for the day.

As I type this on my laptop, it is evening after a full day. I hear a lone train whistling in the background, while around me crickets chirp. The fire again crackles, with the pleasant smell of balsam. The kids are kicking around a mega ball ice cream maker, Rick is scouting through the woods for deadfall for the campfire. I am relaxed and at peace, sipping the last of the Malbec. I would not trade this for a hotel room, no way, no how. And that’s why we camp.

Labels: food, vacation

Congratulations to Susan for your Wine ribbon! The NY State fair sounds like it has much better food than the normal fair food, i.e, deep fried twinkies and fried cheese curds!

Congratulations to Molly for a blue ribbon coffee cake and a 3rd place cupcake at the North Idaho Fair. Molly - post those photos! I've had the coffee cake and it is fabulous.

One other fair note: Molly and I will be attending the Western WA State fair next week in Puyallup WA. It is a huge fair and I usually spend a bunch of $ on "miracle" products, eat a scone and watch the Pig Races! Molly and I went often when I lived in Seattle and I am happy we are getting to go again.

I will update photos as soon as I remember to bring my camera to work.

I entered 4 wines in the State Fair this year, and one of them, my Geisenheim, won a silver medal. The wines are judged by American Wine Society judges, using the same criteria as when they judge professionally produced wines. Simply put, a silver awarded amateur wine is the same quality as a silver awarded professional wine that you would buy at the local liquor store. (Although, if I sell my wine it is a federal offense!)


We enjoyed our day at the State Fair, munching on spiedies (a local favorite: a whole chicken breast, fried on a griddle, chopped while cooking and liberally doused with a seasoned vinegar sauce, then piled into a warm hoagie bun), fried eggplant (really yummy, with a home-made marinara), a local micro brewery ale, and lemonades for the kids.



We especially enjoyed the equestrian jumping event. We've never seen this except on TV during the Olympics. The riders were smooth and handled their horses with ease. One horse, baulked at a jump throwing its rider. This young rider fell with an audible thump, but popped right up, brushed the dust off her jodphers, and hopped right back on her horse.



We listened to a couple of songs from the band "America." The first tune we heard was "Tin Man" and I was impressed with the band and the singer. (I'm not up on who's who on most pop music, as I was in my neo-romantic listening period during America's heyday.) The singer still has his pipes, and the band's rendition has evolved through the years. (Nothing bores me more than a band performing covers of its own music.) The second tune we heard "Sister Golden Hair" was sung by the other singer, whose voice has not fared as well. As the singer strained, missing pitches by a mile, my cringing kids said "do we have to listen to this?" Fortunately, it was time for the amateur wine awards.

FYI: One never sees ones wine after it is sent in for state judging. After judging, all the wine is poured down a drain, and the bottles are recycled.

Labels: fair, food, wine

Getting Brian off to college was definately less traumatic than last year. Here's the car all packed, and Brian giving the dog one last hug as he scoops her out of the van. Penny, our dog, had packed herself in the car, too.

Labels: Brian, dog

Well, my friend Jennifer says that whenever she does anything in a boat, something dreadful happens. Now I have had my share of water related catastrophes: boats turtled in the middle of the lake, 2 near drownings, broken bones, bruises, and lacerations, and the worst: losing my 1/2 carat diamond from my engagement ring while lashing a boat in a gale. But, that was all sailing, (which I retired from after the ring incidence, enough was enough.) I’ve always had smooth waters in my canoe. I love canoeing. I love the closeness of nature, the near silence of my trusty canoe slicing through the water, the drip drip dripping of water off my paddle. I do not seek whitewater, but quiet water. I’ve never had any terrifying moments in my canoe; however, that changed last week when I went canoeing with Jennifer.

The morning was overcast, as we put in on the Cassadaga. Temperature in the low 70’s, a perfect day for canoeing: not too hot, not too cold. The stream was lazy this far into August, so we decided to paddle upstream, so as to avoid the annoying car shuffling that occurs when you paddle from point A to point B. We had paddled about 5 miles, past meadowlands rich with wildlife and wildflowers, past the scrubby willows and into the forest, filled with beech, conifers and hardwoods. The sounds of traffic diminished and we were paddling through the wilderness. Heaven.

As we came around another turn in this twisty stream, the sky was black. Rain started, soon became a downpour, the wind kicked up, and lighting started striking. We sheltered under a large tree overhanging the stream, munched on Jennifer’s excellent trail mix (pecans mixed with dried cranberries and raw sunflower seeds, studded with chunks of dark chocolate. Yum- oh!) Lighting struck right across the creek from us. I heard language coming out of Jennifer’s mouth that I never heard before… Finally, the storm passed on and we ventured back downstream.


As we left the forest and paddled through the open meadowlands, another thunderstorm swept through. We were completely exposed. We paddled as fast as we could to an inlet, pulled up the canoe, and huddled under a shrubby willow, shivering and discussing what would get us first: lightening or hypothermia? Well, if you are reading this you know the ending. After about an hour we were finally back in the canoe, although it was still thundering in the distance. We finished our trip, loaded the canoe, and I drove home, soaking wet, took a hot bath and drank a cup of tea and felt restored (and finally warm.)

Photos by Jennifer. Visit her blog here. I left my camera at home along with my first aid kit, hypothermia blanket, cell phone, etc. (I did have my compass however!)

Labels: food, nature, Sue, What-was-I-thinking?

Well, I really don't have canoeing pictures, as I forgot the dry bags at home ("Be Prepared" - I'm such a bad scout...) and didn't dare bring my camera on the canoe. But, we did paddle right by a loon family, mom, dad, and the youngster. Actually they paddled right by us! We just watched in awe. We also disturbed a beaver, and tried fishing, but we were fishing at the wrong time. We planned to get up early every morning to fish, but between the great Adirondack air, and our hiking excursions, we never got up early (bad scouts, again...)






I leave you with our camp portrait, and our last shot from the back of our camp site. Next year, we're carving out more time to spend in this wonderful wilderness. Thanks for joining us on our adventure!

Check out the rest of our Photos by clicking here.

Labels: Brian, nature, Sue

Although we were not in the high peaks area, there were plenty of hiking opportunities in the Central region. First we hiked to the top of Bald Mountain (2350 ft.) and up the fire tower that was at the summit. Here's Brian having a contemplative moment at the summit. The view was spectacular! We could see to Blue Mountain. We heard that on clear days you can see Mt. Marcy.




After we worked our way down Bald Mountain, we continued on the Vista trail, a relatively flat hike traveling through old growth forest and around a few small lakes.
We saw trees growing on top of boulders and lots of beaver
activity including a dam.
Brian took these photos. We figured out an arrangement on the camera. I took pictures on the hikes up, he took pictures on the hikes down.


Our next hike was around Cascade Lake to see the Cascade Falls, which we completely missed. Great scouts are we: we forgot the compass and the map; but, remembered the food (apples and granola bars.) However, the lake was beautiful, and the hike memorable.We just scratched the surface of the hiking opportunities in this area of the Adirondacks.

Labels: Brian, food, nature, vacation

Brian and I loaded up the canoe and escaped to the Adirondacks for a bit before he went back to college. From our house, it is a 5 1/2 hour drive to the Central Adirondacks. We went for it, and WOW! was it worth it!

Our campsite at Nick's Lake DEC was incredible. The front of the site had a stone fireplace and a picnic table. Heading down the site, there was a huge granite boulder and woods on both sides blocking the neighbors. That's where we pitched our tent. We had to sign a release for bear damage. All food and coolers had to stay locked in Bob (Bucket of Bolts, our van.) We never saw a black bear, but we did see bear scat and paw prints.


Continuing down to the back of the site, was another picnic table by the lake with a spot for the canoe. We were right on the lake! So beautiful. We shared the lake with other canoes, kayaks, rowboats, loons, ducks, and beavers. I don't know much about loons, but their cry is haunting and mournful, especially at 3 in the morning when they start crooning! You can find more photos of our trip by visiting my Flickr page.

Labels: Brian, nature, vacation