Grandma

I found this photo amongst some taken at our celebration of Grandma's 90th last May.

[and for the record . . . .]

Grandma the Librarian

Just before we left Goshen, we had yet another lovely visit with Grandma.  As we were leaving, she put on her Library Volunteer ID card and I thought it deserved a photo.

Christmas 2011 in Vancouver

A Boxing Day walk in Stanley Park.Hans came for Boxing Day left-overs.
Aaron is reading books about buying property (????)
Tofu (as usual by Aaron) plus vegan cornbread by Julia.

Stephen made Thai noodles with peanut sauce and two kinds of dolmathes: vegan and lamb.
Stephen loves this couch, especially after cooking a lot of food.Evan washed lots of dishes!

The Hike

Backtracking to Saturday, November 26th, it was a beautiful day sunny, dry with quiet breezes in the low 60s.  After several days of ernest Thanksgiving feeding it was time to get some exercise to work off the gravies, fondue, sweet potato casserole etc. so a road trip was in order.

Bernard and Katherine had been to Montauk on the South Fork once before but it had been a cold, rainy day and they only took a brief stop of ten minutes or so before heading west again.  Today would be different.

To maximise the day we took the shortest route to the South Fork which was via the North Ferry to Shelter Island on the ferry Mashomack then traversing the island north to south on Route 114 ending up at the South Ferry to North Haven on the South Fork, a trip of 30 minutes or so instead of an hour and a half by road only through Riverhead to the South Fork.

At Hither Hills State Park we stopped to check out the hiking map at Hither Woods

Here we decided to make our way to the dunes in the large Hither Hills State Park area to hike the Walking Dunes, dunes that continually change their shapes, positions and heights with the occasional howling winds off the Atlantic particularly during those pesky Nor'easters.
I was first to the top.

A view of the Peconic Bay from the South Fork

Looking over the crests of the dunes

When we got down from the dunes we drove to Fort Hope Sate Park adjacent to the Montauk light.  The Atlantic coast cliffs were eroded such that they were under-cut and were posted with warnings to stay 25 feet back from the edge.  No one did, however, as going close was the only way to really see everything, even thought there was ample evidence that many cave-ins had occurred at the base of the cliffs.

Montauk Light stood sentinel to the east

A closer view of the light showing the new building built in WWII, now with high tech equipment keeping the eastern end of Long Island safe from those who'd wish us harm.

Here an old sub-watching block battlement has fallen to the foot of the cliffs

The happy hikers at the end of the hike, tired, exhilarated, with a bit of sun rosiness on our faces ready to do whatever was necessary to get some fried clam sandwiches.

So long for now...

Remembering Dad on November 30th

Bruce and Mark Visit Mother

Bruce and I got to spend a wonderful weekend with Mother.  I arrived Thursday in the early afternoon and had Mom all to my self that afternoon and evening.  Bruce made a special effort to arrive in time for the Kreider Ladies Lunch on Friday and made it!  There were six of us, Mother, Aunt Evelyn, Aunt Rachel, Dierra and we two brothers.  It was a happy, enjoyable meal with the added bonus of being able to chat with Dierra after so very many years.  Yes, we did talk politics a bit and found that we were all on the same page, the generation gap making no difference at all.

The days were busy filled with eating in and out, listening to the church service, scrabble and rummy cube games with Mother and friends (watch out, Bruce is an ace on rummy cube!), visiting Milo briefly, shoe shopping and shopping for general supplies.  I got a chance to sit with Mom and work on the computer for a while.  She now has an email folder for each one of us, Greencroft and CMC.  This will make it much easier for her to locate past mail if needed.

I took very few photos this trip.  I didn't think there was much point to taking pictures of Mother and Bruce over and over but there are a few as well as some shots I took of the Amish country on and near to Route 20 between Angola and Goshen.  I could have used a little sun but had only a very gray sky.

A Round Barn

An Abandoned Schoolhouse

An Amish Farmstead

Amish School Children Playing Softball

(a very long shot)

I Think the Middle Grain Silo was Built 

by Gareth S., Tom L. and Me in 1968

A Long Country Lane

At the Old Bag Factory

Bruce Escorts Mother to the Trolley Cafe

The Kreider Ladies Luncheon

En Route to Mishawaka Shoe Shopping

We didn't find the shoes that Mother wanted in Mishwaka but Bruce treated us to a lovely lunch at a Granite City restaurant.  After returning to Greencroft we three ordered shoes for Mother on line.  She emailed me today that they arrived as ordered for color and size and that she was wearing them.  They were sent in a box that said Brown on both ends but when opened contained the black ones she ordered.  They arrived so quickly!

Cheese fest in St Maurice

In looking through old photos at random, I may have uncovered a possible cause for our higher cholesterol readings.  We were combining our leftovers with those of the Bloughs and consequently had a great first course with lots of fresh French bread.

A Long Awaited Visit

We'd been waiting months for September 15 to arrive knowing it would bring brother Bruce to Cutchogue.    I'd asked Bruce what he would like to do and eat and he said he'd just be happy being here but might be  interesrted in a BLT with one of our tomatoes.  As the date neared a couple of tomatoes ripened, nicely coinciding with the arrival of four different smoked bacons from Oscar's Smokehouse in Rhinebeck, New York, the bread and lettuce wouldn't present any problems.  Amy had taken Thursday and Friday off so we both picked up Bruce at Laguardia and headed straight to the North Fork.  There was so much to talk about!  For breakfast Friday morning we had eggs benedict with smoked Canadian bacon which went down well.   Among other activities Amy took us on a tour along the east side of East Creek, an area known as Fisherman's Beach, then down to near the end of Nassau Point.  We walked on from where the road ended.  There were pieces of beach stairs that had come undone during the storm and lay at rest on the point along with other wood come ashore.  Further on a juvenile sand shark had beached... I'm not sure why they do that, we've seen it before.  Bruce attempted to pick it up twice and it wanted no part of it, but the third time it went docile and I took a picture of them,  cool no?

Sharkmaster

Wave action created a vein of golden sea shells in the sand which someone fashioned with beach rock into an altar or cairn of some sort.  Bruce and we added our own stones.  It's nice to affirm the thought.

The point gets a fair amount of weather so the pines on the perimeter have to

 cling to the sandy soil as best they can.

Friday afternoon a little after four Bruce and I headed over to the ice cream shop "Scoops" in the village to await the arrival of Paul on the Hampton Jitney.  Back at home we relaxed in the shade then did a small tour of the things that had changed this year around the house with a stop to sample ripe cherry tomatoes off the vine.  The evening was spent in the living room yakking away as Bruce and I shared a few hands of play money poker on line.

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When Bruce comes to visit we always enjoy some time fishing together.  We've fished down at the East Creek inlet, on the Peconic Bay, Long Island Sound, the Mattituck Inlet Breakwater and the Shinnecock Inlet on the south shore at the Atlantic Ocean, an inlet created by the 1938 hurricane.  Saturday morning I was up at five checking the day's weather forecast.  It looked to be a bit rougher than I liked to fish in our small boat so I knocked on doors and rousted everyone to fish on the Captain Bob V out of Mattituck Harbor.  The crew provides the rods, tackle and bait so all we had to do was get aboard and wait awhile for our coffee and egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches.  A troop of Boy Scouts got served first as their ride, the sister boat, Capt. Bob IV, had no galley.  Wendy was our chef.

The Usual Suspects

It was a long, windy ride out to the fishing grounds, about an hour. 

We spent most of that time in the cabin with some of our motley crew 

of thirty or so fishers.

There was one crazy guy who kept 

following us around.

We fished several different spots on the Sound, mostly the very east end of the North Fork parallel to Orient and well within sight of Plum Island.  Baits of clam belly were used to tempt porgies with limited success so most of our fishing was jigging, reeling up a lure fast then letting it sink over and over, keeping it within 15 or so feet of the bottom, this in 45 to 65 feet of water.  It worked!  The four of us did as well or better than anyone on our cruise.  We pulled in some very large feisty blue fish and had the achy arms to prove it.

Bruce and a Bucket of Blues

A crew member cleaning some of the Kreider Clan Catch on the return run.  Those are all our fish on the table plus another blue and a big striper.  Back at the house it was like Cannery Row. Amy rewashed the fillets, Paul cut them into meal size pieces and put them in quart freezer bags, I removed the air to prevent freezer burn and Bruce did the labeling.  It was some time before I realized Bruce was writing really humorous labels, one or two inspired by Dr. Zeuss.
I know I'll chuckle every time I open one!  Amy and I like to eat fish once or twice a week so we're good to go for some time to come...  Thanks brothers!

  Dark horse, Paul, snagged the largest striped bass of the trip and came in second largest fish of the day's catch.  Here a crew member is taking his picture to post on their web site.  This was the first day of good fishing (several hundred pounds) after Irene blew through and they wanted folks to know the fish were back.  Amy roasted the huge striped bass in the oven for dinner.  We have an over-sized oven but Amy had to hack the tail off with a cleaver to make it fit.  I cannot tell you how incredibly good a fresh caught bass tastes.

Son of the Midwest makes good on the salt

Here is how it looked on Captain Bob's web site.
Not bad, eh?

Visit Captain Bob's web site for more shots.  Bruce, Amy, Paul and I are in two group shots on page two:  Captain Bob

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A little while ago we ordered an area carpet for the living room.  It arrived from JFK earlier than predicted and was laying, packaged on the floor.  After Sunday breakfast Bruce and Paul helped us move all the furniture, vacuum the wood floor and padding, lay the carpet and return the furniture.  Thank you so much guys!  It would have been incredibly difficult to do by myself.

After Bruce and I returned from taking the old carpet to the recycling center we had lunch.  Here's where the BLTs came in.  Good country bread, lettuce, inch thick slices of tomatoes and Oscar's smoked stripped bacon.  That and a big bowl of fresh fruit made a meal.

We loaded the luggage into the jeep and headed back to Bayside, first dropping Paul off at the 7 Train terminus for a quicker commute to Kara's apartment.  A little later Bruce treated us to a fantastic Thai meal at Eriwhon, a place we'd normally go to only for a birthday celebration. You're the best Bruce, we really enjoyed it!

Monday, after breakfast at Jackson Hole, I dropped Bruce off at Laguardia Airport for his long flights home.  It was so very nice he could come again this year.  I have many good memories to dwell upon from the bunch of us being together.

Garlic Crop

Janice pulled the garlic today, laying them to dry in the sun.  The weather is on the cool side for August (under 70F today) but it seems to be a drying day.  I will then braid them for further drying in the basement.  They will last here, in our damp weather, until Christmas, and a bit beyond.  But by March they really want to start growing again.

You can see Janice's cherry tomato plants staked against the south side of the house.  This is the spot that gets the most sun and warmth.  She is letting a number of veggies go to seed because we enjoy watching the birds and insects harvest things.  Her leeks are looking promising and should be able to stay in the garden into the winter.

4th of July Weekend

Sofaia and I woke up July 3rd, at 4:45 AM to drive to Lisle, IL for their annual 4th of July Weekend Hot Air Balloon Festival. We arrived at 6:00 AM in time to see 24 balloons fill up and take off. It was a beautiful morning to enjoy the views and scenery. Sofaia made some blueberry muffins and hot chocolate which we enjoyed while sitting on Grandma and Grandpa Kreider's old folding lawn chairs.