Beaver Lake Nature Center

We took a day trip to Baldwinsville NY (in Onandaga County) to the Beaver Lake Nature Center. It's about 40 minutes from our house. The high today was 72ºF and there was a nice 5-10 mph wind. We had never been there before. It was pretty cool. We walked the 3-mile trail around the lake.
The trails are very well kept. Even at 3 miles, it was a very pleasant walk. There were lots of squirrels, frogs, chipmonks. There were also many water birds.
There were some boardwalks over some of the wet parts. There was some horseplay on the boardwalks. Or maybe it was frogplay.
There were some pretty colorful frogs there. Kaye took pictures of frogs......What's up with her?
Lots of flowers, too. There were lots of really tall trees there also. Someone (I won't mention who) wanted to cut a few of them down. OH YEAH!.....Ahem. Nice flowers.

We had a picnic lunch while we were there. It was great. Food is usually good. I had a chicken salad sandwich. OK, two. Some Hint of Lime Tostitos, too. All in all, a good outing. A little exercise, a little food, some sunshine and a cool breeze. Then we came home and split some wood. Back to reality, you know.

Big Bow

Mason made a huge bow. The twins tried to help him shoot an arrow with it, but it didn't work so well.

Armand receives his neckerchief for cub scouts!

One Proud Pappa!

Someone tell Isaac....The whole tree falls to earth.

We've had this big Apple tree right in front of the house. Every year it drops hundreds of little apples that rot (because you can't keep up with them). Then the bees come. It is a real pain in the neck. We finally decided to take it down. Apple is good firewood. It has a really nice smell when you burn it. So we spent half a day taking it down.

The stump is about 2.5' in diameter where it is cut. It was a pretty big tree. I saved some of the trunk. It is beautiful wood. I think I am going to cut it into 2" slabs and use it for something (end tables?). It is too pretty to burn.
Apple is really gnarly. There are no straight runs of branch or trunk. That is why you don't see Apple boards. It was a real chore cutting it up and hauling it to the splitting pile.

It splits very readily. We have a bunch of Bing Cherry that a neighbor asked me to take down (OK. I'll drop'em, but I get to keep'em). Now that is some hard wood to split. It burns better than about anything else that grows up here, but it will give you quite a workout getting it to the stove. The Apple just pops apart when you hit it with the maul. The boys like to split it because it is very gratifying to see logs split on the first swing. Paul Bunyon and all.

The wonders of Nature in our own backyard.

A Monarch butterfly laying eggs in the lemon tree behind the house.

Another butterfly.

OC catches one and then releases it.

Even the lizards are friendly around here!

Prom Boy

Mason picked up his Tux for the Prom a few minutes ago. It's for juniors and seniors, but a junior girl asked him to go with her, so he's in. Don't tell him that he is not James Bond.

Good Students

Tonight we went to the Top 50 dinner for the Oswego Middle School. The 25 top academic 7th graders and the top 25 academic 8th graders received certificates. Mitch and Morgan both received awards.

The high school will have its Top 100 (top 25 students in each of the four high school grades) dinner in June. Mason is in the top 25 for 9th grade.

Splitting and Chopping

These are the implements of log destruction at the old Rabalais home.


From left to right in the bottom pic: a 16 lb wedge maul, two 8 lb splitting mauls, a double-bit chopping axe, a Fiskars hand axe (hatchet). Then on the floor in front: a machette, an axe blade hone (sharpener), and a 4 lb hand sledge for pushing a wedge.
It all amounts to a lot of split firewood for us to burn (keeps the run time down on the heating system) and some really sore upper backs and shoulders. You'd be amazed at how a small boy can swing a maul when he has been practicing, though.