Hamlin Beach State Park

The boys and I spent three nights at Hamlin Beach State Park. It rained for about half of our time there, but we still had a good trip.

The boys enjoyed using the pie irons to cook sandwiches over the fire.

The boys enjoyed playing on the playground down by the beach.

Morgan tried to swim, but he said the water in Lake Ontario was way too cold.

The Redneck Roundup is July 14th.

I'm getting ready for the big race. I have a new 16" race bar for my big saw (The new bar is not in the pic. My big saw has a 20" bar in the pic and the little saw has a 16" bar). I already have a race chain for my little saw and I am having one ground for my big saw as we speak.

The wood is ready for the competition. It was my turn to supply it. We are going to have a pretty small group this time because it is late in the season so I had a local mill guy cut me four pieces of pine that are as knot-free as can be expected. I got one 8"X8"X8', two 10"X10"X8', and one 12"X12"X10' (for the really big saws). The deal is that you make a series of three cuts (down, up, down). Each cookie has to be whole (you can't cut at an angle and cut out of the face of the wood). Each cookie also has to be less than 1.5" thick at its thickest point. The three timers start when your saw makes contact with the wood and stop when the last cookie is seperated from the block. The average of the three watches is recorded as your time if you did not cut out or go thick. Otherwise you just get a DQ (disqualified) recorded.

For a typical 50 cc saw like my Stihl, I should see about a 6 second time for the three passes through the 8"X8" wood (over to the right).

For an 80 cc saw like my Dolmar, I should see a time of about 4-5 seconds through the 10"X10" wood, stacked in the center.The really big saws of 100 cc and above will get down into the 3 second range in the 12"X12" wood. Points are added, averaged, tabulated, and wrangled over until there is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each class and overall. I will probably not even place in the 50 cc class, but I have a shot in the 80 cc class.

What a day!

OC's new cat Bubbles

Gumbo is going to get you, OC.

Gumbo is generally a nice cat. She just lives and lets live........
But if you call her a rude name or step on her tail, she becomes a vicious, man-eating machine. She has been known to take care of several people at once.
OK. Maybe she just yawns them to death.

Fillmore Glen State Park

Our first camping trip of the summer was to Fillmore Glen State Park. Above is a picture of the swimming area. Mitchell wanted to go swimming until he found out that the water temperature was 58 degrees. He decided that was too cold!
The boys enjoyed playing lacrosse in the open area across from our campsite.

The weather was perfect for both nights, so Greg and I left the rainfly off of our tent. I liked laying in the tent and looking at the stars at night.

Someone in town told Greg where to go for fishing. No one caught anything, though.


Morgan enjoyed looking for frogs!

We hiked part of the gorge trail. There is very little water in the gorge at this time of the year.

We were supposed to spend three nights camping, but the weather forecast wasn't looking too great, so we came home a day early.

Independence Day Parade

The Oswego Independence Day Parade was Sunday afternoon. The parade here is so incredibly lame!! All three boys marched with the high school marching band. Mason is getting ready to start his third year of marching band. This is the twins' first year. Mason plays trombone; the twins both play trumpet.
In the above picture, Morgan is the right-most trumpet in the front row. In the picture below Mitchell is the left-most trumpet in the second row, and Mason is the left-most trombone in the fourth row.