We spent three nights with friends at Twin Valleys – a camp the University runs in Lewis in the Adirondacks. The girls run off at the drop of the hat to hunt frogs or play games. Every afternoon we went swimming in the Bouquet river, which included jumping of the 15 foot bridge – we spent a lot of time around the campfire, and a lot of time cooking on the big Garland stove in the kitchen. Each family had their own cabin. Sunday was a perfect day, after a cool front moved through we were left with a warm sunny day with low humidity - Full of no bears are out tonight, telephone, Bear are you sleeping?, and Assassin.
It is my constant challenge to try and get work done during the summer – particularly when I am sitting in my office looking out at the backyard and the girls running about. Its even harder when you find a day like today, when the humidity is low, the sun is shining, a breeze blowing and the temperature just perfect – so when Tory said we should go out on the Altona Flat Rock and gather Wild blueberries, It did not take much persuasion on her part. For the first time we met others there – a young man had returned since being out since early morning, hoisting a huge cooler full of berries into the back of the truck. There was also a pleasant female couple who picked along side us for a while – we talked for a while about the tracks and ripples you could find in the sandstone. When we finished we went to the Woodsfalls Waterfall and swam (Zoe has taken to the water like a fish lately) and sat on the ledge under the falling water. We even got a couple of ice cream cones on the way home.
It was a smaller 4th, but we had a great time in Argyle all the same. The Hoffis Farm has changed hands, so there is no longer the flea market of past years, but we sit under the old maples and watch the parade and talk to people I grew up with catching up on the events of the year since we saw them last. At last the paraded snakes along, and people stood as the flag passes by, carried by the old veterans at the front of the parade. The soldiers, dressed in Revolutionary war garb, fire off muskets, and send Zoe running every year, with hands clapped over her ears. The bagpipes no longer bother her though, and Lizzie and Zoe scamper to pick up as much candy as they can, thrown from the fire trucks and floats. Near the end is the Schwanns Ice cream truck, handing out red white and blue popsicles, and then the only thing to wait for is mom and dad to pass by in “Sarah” the old Yellow “A”. We made ice cream as usual, Lizzie taking her first turn at the crank. Though the skies threatened rain it never materialized. We left after dark to catch the fireworks in Salem, but the only bang we got to hear was the big one that came from colliding with a dear. After smacking it head on it disappeared into the sky only to rain down on the top of the car a moment later. The hood of Mom and Dad’s Camry was crumpled, the headlight smashed in. We decided to call it a night and returned home, where the girls ran around the lawn with sparklers.
Tory left the chickens with some trepidation before our trip to Maine, something had been trying to make its way into the coop, there were digging marks around the outside. But, I re-secured the wire and we hoped for the best. Sadly, the night before we arrived home the critter got in, and our friend, Harmony, from around the corner was left with the grizzly task of cleaning up the ravaged bodies of five chickens, which left us with two barred rocks. We were planning on the fourth of July in Argyle, so I screwed shut the door on the coop and we left the chickens in. When we arrived home on the fifth we found our last two chickens had suffered the same fate. The critter had ripped the screw off the door. So, I set about turning the coop into a trap (a bizarre rube Goldberg kind of thing). It worked!!! At around 11:00 pm we caught a big, fat raccoon. But now we had a big, fat raccoon. I keep no gun in the house… we didn’t want to let it go. So, we remembered a David Sadaris story and hooked a hose to the tail pipe of the car, the raccoon was quickly and humanely dispatched. So now what do we do with all our table scraps?
