Mini Library

I got such a fast response on my mini food I thought I’d show off my mini library.  This one took many hours, but it was stress relieving to sit and make little books for hours. [books from kits]

Mini Food

Somehow I got started this weekend making miniature food.  I wanted to learn to use the polymer clay, and my book suggested food was a good place to start because items could be irregular.  I was going strictly “by the book” and I’m not thrilled with some of the colors.  But I’m doing better at judge the colors myself.

I was having so much fun, I thought it might be a good idea to take the day off from work and make some more. But I stopped myself.

Turbo tent

I had a question about the turbo tent. It is 8×8, with the vestable 12×8. You can find it at http://www.hutshop.com/30010.html?productid=30010&channelid=FROOG

Our idea of an RV is a bigger tent

The last time we went camping an slept on the ground in our tent, I just couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. I was on my thermarest matress but my hip bone seemed to keep contact with the ground. Also, it seems to be a lot harder to get up off the ground than it used to.

We had been talking with Jody and Brian for years about the possibility of building a teardrop trailer. Their problem isn’t the ground, it seems to rain whenever they go on vacation. I wasn’t sure if a teardrop would have enough room, or air venting. I’m very big on airflow.

Steve and I started looking at popup tent trailer. Some of them are pretty slick. But we couldn’t believe how many thousands of dollars they cost. At the same time Jody and Brian went camping and realized with a trailer they would be restricted to the RV sites in the campgrounds. Not usually the area any of us prefer.

So Steve and I ended up buying a tent big enough to put folding cots in, cots, and reclining camp chairs. We figure we got the comfort we were seeking for a much lower price.

Just set up the tent for the first time. Not as fast as advertised, but the first time always takes some figuring out. It is a Turbo tent, which means the poles are all built in. Stake down 4 corners, push out and lock in side poles, push up the top. The fly takes a few more minutes, but there is a lot of room and you are up off the ground on the cots if you get stuck in a real downpour. We’ll be trying it out in a few weeks on our Thanksgiving trip to Jekyll Island, GA.

Which way do we go?

We are going to Jekyll Island to spend Thanksgiving with Ruth & Don, and I am trying to work out an interesting route. It shouldn’t take more than 2 1/2 days, and needs to have a couple of interesting stops to keep us from having bad road karma. It’s a more difficult challange than you would think.

Ruth gave me a few good suggestions, but they don’t quite fall in line with logical times to stop for breaks. Parks in PA and VA are closing down for the year. I think camping any where north of NC will be problematic because of cold weather.

I would be interested in ideas. We are thinking of leaving Friday when I get off work. I would hope we could be on the road by 3:30. I thought we could get a little south of Williamspot, PA. That would mean driving later than I’m used to but it would get us well on the way.

I guess the real question is where is about halfway between Willamsport and Jekyll with a nice campground and some interesting sights and/or birds. Oh, magic 8 ball of the blogosphere, what is the answer?

Beaver Meadow Nature Center

On the way home from Alleghany we stopped at Beaver Meadow Nature Center, a little west of Warsaw, NY. This as another site from the “Where to find birds….” book, and also owned by the Buffalo Audubon Society. And it wasn’t even raining.

There was a nice visitor center with some stuffed birds that gave us an idea of how much smaller a broad-winged hawk (sited at Alleghany) is than a red-tailed hawk.  We picked up a map and started birding.  We were very pleased with the number of trails, and the diversity of habitats.  Most of our time was spent on Beaver Pond Trail, where we heard a king rail, life bird for both of us.  We confirmed it with the bird calls on my iPod when we got back to the car.

We also walked the Kettle Pond Trail, Grouse Nest Trail,  Shadow Hill Trail and Jenny Glen Boardwalk.  The birds were quite, but they are nice trails.  Jenny Glen Boardwalk is a nice long boardwalk, but a bit over grown.

At the end of our hike we took a look at the huge solar power array, and a display of different types of composting options.

Alleghany State Park

We got to ASP dripping water to find there were no cabins available.  Couldn’t think how we could possibly get dry in a tent, we went back to Salamanca and, on the recommendation from ASP, found Elkdale RV Resort.  It was a small cabin in a field for RVs, but it was great!  Everything we needed was there and it was even air conditioned.

That night there was a torrentual downpour.  Very glad we weren’t in a tent!  In the morning we went to explore the park, but didn’t do much hiking because water was streaming down all the trails.  They have many trails, so I think you wouldn’t be hiking in a crowd, even in good weather, because folks would be spread out.  On the drive up the dirt road to see Thunder Rocks we heard than spotted a Broad-winged Hawk.  Steve got a pretty good picture.  It looked like it was spreading it’s wings and tail to dry out.

Thunder Rocks was a fun place to wonder around, and we were the only ones there for most of the time.  We birded from the car and saw the whole park.  Enjoyed the little museum in the Quaker Lake area. Had a great lunch at the main building, as well as enjoying the architecture of the building.

We wondered around by Red House Lake until the next storm started rolling in, then headed back to our dry little cabin.

Allenberg Bog

This was the first stop on our 3 day vacation.  It is not far north of Salamanca.  I found it in “Where to find birds in New York State: the top 500 sites” by Susan Roney Drennan. It is owned by the Buffalo Audubon Society, and seems to be a secret.  If you don’t have explicit directions you will never find it.  “0.75 miles from Rd X look for a farm access road…”  There is no indication that anything is there.  We saw another car and took the chance we were in the right place.  Down a farm road, thru a patch of trees, along the side of the meadow, follow the fence, follow path in to the woods and low and behold there is a  there is a very offical sign.

The path was a bit wet but was obvious at first.  It is a beautiful, deep, dark woods with lots of ferns and other undergrowth.  A little way in we met two people, one the Manager, who were surprised to see other people.  They gave us directions and a google earth page showing the way to the bog.  They also warned that it was very easy to get off the trail. This is a very unused trail and felt like a real adventure.  By the time we got to the bog the thunder had started.  We didn’t see any birds, but a hermit thrush sang to us quite a while.

By the time we got back to the main part of the path it was pouring rain.  Boy, do total wet clothes stick to you, and they are very heavy.  We still enjoyed the whole adventure, but driving to Alleghany State Park in wet clothes was not the best part of the trip.

Settling into summer

Writing my last post did help me sleep better.  Sometimes you just have to talk it out, even if your just talking to cyberspace.  I’ve gotten into the swing of being at home: a little cleaning, a little reading, a little exercise, a little weeding, a little studying.  Not bad.

I’ve given Steve the challenge of getting out us on mini-breaks, since he would like me to keep working until age 66 for the sake of the health insurance.  Life would be better financially, but I know better than to put off having fun.  You never know when you are going to struck with something like pulmonary fibrous.

My life and what to do with it.

I’ve been away from work for a week now, but I’m still having trouble stepping away from it. It’s one of those great “wake up in the middle of the night and think of nothing else” things.  Being off work for 6 weeks seems like a good time to reevaluate.

My situation has been greatly changed.  For more than 6 years my schedule has been flexible.  It’s been my choice to work regular hours, but if a trip or opportunity came along I was free to take advantage. I didn’t get any vacation [though it seems now that I should have] but since I was working a specific number of hours/year [as it turns out 10 more than I was supposed to] I got all the time I needed. Now I’m working 10-months, with no vacation during the year, with specified hours, no flexibility.

It had been my plan to work for 5 more years.  Now with the flexiblility gone I’m considering if this should be my last year.  I guess it will depend on how much we are able to travel and enjoy the summer.  We can’t take a long trip because of farm responsibilities.  But a lot of  1, 2 or 3 day trips, it could still be satisfying.  There will be no going to Jykell Island to see Ruth and Don for Thanksgiving, and no birding trip in May for more than 3 days.

I’ve already changed my focus for the summer.  I had been planning to focus on learning all I could about rare book librarianship and book conservation.  Now I’m thinking, why?  If I decide to retire in a year, it won’t be worth the time.  Even if I work 5 more years, there doesn’t seem to be any money from the library for continuing education coming.  So… I’ve gone back to studying ornithology.  What reading I’ve done on book collecting has helped me with my own collecting of bird books published before I was born. I’m also taking a shot at learning French and speed reading.  But not speed reading in French.

More thought to follow.  I’m hoping write this will help me sleep.