Author: randyaa

A New Camp On it's Way

~ randyaa ~ 6 Comments

IMG_0311Some people thought we were crazy to do it but we just got back from a week at my parent’s Adirondack escape (ending last Sunday 7/11/2010).� This was Delilah’s first trip to the Adirondacks and it was a hot one.� She did great, slept a lot (it was in the 90’s with no A/C, ugh!) and smiled at her daddy a ton.

Last year we built a shed (Mostly my father, I helped a little).� This year we’re putting on an addition to the camp.� More like a new camp really… We’re taking the camp from the tiny studio-sized 336 square feet up to 960 by adding 2 bedrooms and a bigger living space.� The current camp is going to become a ‘dining’ area, kitchen and bathroom.� We’re well on our way.

IMG_0044Last week when we got to camp Dad was already all the way up to laying the floor.� It might not sound like much, but there’s a ton involved to get to that point.� Squaring everything up, leveling (& digging) the ground, insulation, wire netting, studding, joists & beams… Not simple work.� He’d been working for over a month just about steady to get to that point.� These things take time, especially when you’re by yourself in the mountains and you’re fighting the rain nonstop.

By the time we left Sunday afternoon (7 days later) we had raised all 3 of the walls (complete with OSB Board covering), All rafters were in place (save the ones that need to be placed over the existing roof) and all Zip System Roof Panels were in place and taped (as far as could be done until the remaining rafters are positioned).

IMG_0113Not bad for 5 days worth of work for 2 guys in 90+�F heat and 2 days with a bunch of help from other family.� Thanks Jerry, Scott, Donald, Wes, Pauline, Virginia, Gage & Mindy Lee!� Still lots to do, but we’re getting pretty darn close to weather-sealed.� We’re only a few steps away:

  • complete & install 1 remaining rafter
  • install Zip System Roof Panels over remaining area
  • shingles
  • small 4ft section of Wall & OSB board panels to go up adjoining existing deck
  • install a few missing OSB Board panels on the walls (mainly the gable end)
  • Tyvek Weather wrap

Of course there’s lots of little things to do as part of those steps, but those are the big ones.

If it was easy, Everybody would do it
~Harry

While it wasn’t much of a vacation for a week off… it was still enjoyable to be around some family and it made me overjoyed Rachel and Delilah were able to come up with us and be around during those ‘off’ times while we were taking a bit of a break from the beating (building) so I could hold the little one.� Oh, and a huge thanks goes out to Rachel for all the delicious meals during the week.

The place is gonna be totally unrecognizable when we get done, but it’s sure gonna be nice.� A great place for Debug to grow up.� I’m looking forward to watching her play in the stream from the new living area.

Some other photos from the process:

What's in a Name?

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Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailApparently people don’t like when you leave them hanging. Everybody wants to know what the meaning is behind Delilah’s name. Sort of funny given that it’s not that dramatic of a meaning but it’s still fun and makes for a good story.

There’s actually a few meanings:

  1. We sort of had a theme song for our honeymoon in Hawaii. Literally every time we got in the car we’d hear Hey there Delilah by the Plain White T’s and we even used it in one of our Honeymoon slideshows. Delilah isn’t named after the song, but her name is inspired by it. We were thinking up names when we heard the song and both fell in love.
  2. The lilac bush we planted a week after we bought our old house (on Roselawn ave) never flowered until this spring. We were even ready to tear it out this year if it didn’t. A shortened version of Delilah is Lila which can be translated to Lilac in several languages. Kinda cool right?
  3. Along the same lines as the Lilac bush but not as cool… she was born during the Lilac Festival so now she has a Festival every year just for her.

And what everyone’s been waiting for… Some more pictures from Little Lila’s first few days of life:

Falling Brook – Moving In

~ randyaa ~ 20 Comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailWow! Last weekend was an insanely hectic few days.� Not only was our daughter Delilah born but we also moved into a new house.� We’re finally settling back into normalcy, well… as normal as it can be with a 1week old baby and a new house.

Even though we had to move the closing date due to little miss Lilah’s early arrival we were fortunate enough to get the sellers to agree to an early possession.� 7am last Saturday I left Rachel and her mother at the hospital so I could get the move underway and so we could be all set by discharge time (which I convinced the nurses to do LATE in the day).

I did the final walk-through at 8am, picked up the 26′ U-Haul truck at 9 (no I’ve never driven something that big before) and we had the move under way by 10am.� At the new house a little after noon with the truck and my father’s snowmobile trailer fully loaded.� Completely unloaded by 1:30pm.� Not too shabby.

Couldn’t have possibly done it without all the help.� Thanks George, Dale, Brian, Ryan, Mike,Cory, Bill, Chris, Eric.

During the whole process I made the following time-lapse.� There are big gaps because well… I was busy.

Delilah Grace

~ randyaa ~ 18 Comments

We had this short & sweet ‘Pushing’ post all ready, but the little lady had other plans so we had to wait until now to let the world know.  Not the first plans she’s disrupted and certainly won’t be the last.  That’s ok though, it all comes with the territory.

It’s been a long few days but she’s here!  Couldn’t be more excited (and scared… but that will pass).

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Delilah Grace was born at 8:26pm May 19th weighing in at a healthy 9lbs 12.5oz & measuring 21.25″.  Because of all the meds Rachel was on she needs to stay in the special care room for at least the night which is a little hard for us but it’s for the best, we can actually get some sleep tonight!  Her name does have some meaning to us but that’s for another time.

We knew everyone would want pictures so we wanted to get these up right away.

Mom & Baby are both healthy & sleeping soundly. Dad is about to head off in that direction as well. Heh, Dad… that’ll take some getting used to.

Love you all!

~The Aldrich Family (all 3 of us)

We Miss You Randy

~ randyaa ~ 4 Comments

I’m sure this isn’t the post anyone checking our blog is waiting for at the moment (sorry about that). However; It’s important to me, and I needed to post it.

9 Years ago Yesterday (Monday May 17th 2001) Marion NY lost one of its most beloved young men: Randy Miller. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that close with him in the later years of our shared educational experience, but we were both perfectly friendly with each other. We simply shared different groups of friends. I do remember during the last few years of high school we would share a ritual almost every morning, and when I think of it now it still makes me smile.

“Morning Randy”
*nod*
“Morning Randy”
*nod*

When he first passed, it hit the whole town hard. I’ve never seen so many people show up in support of the loss of a loved one. The largest church in Marion was standing room only and overflowed into the stairwell and parking lot. Everyone felt it because it was so shockingly sudden and happened in such a horrific & terrifying way while during such a noble act.

The toughest fact to swallow is that Randy drowned while trying to save his friends who weren’t as strong of swimmers. Honestly, I can’t think about that without tearing up a little bit. I can’t think of anyone else I know that would put themselves last in such a way.

While Randy died young, he certainly didn’t leave this world without a lasting imprint. Until his mother recently started posting on Facebook I had totally forgotten he was so into poetry. He’s been published by the International Library of Poetry twice! I also remember him getting some of them in the local Marion/School publications. For being so young, he certainly had a deep outlook on life. This is one of my favorite poems which I stole from his Facebook page:

A Path

a crooked man walks a straight path,
a path of hopes and dreams.
he walks ahead without thinking twice or so it seems.
as he walks the path he proceeds to
his final destination without once falling through.
yet as he completes his journey, this voyage of his,
he knows the importance was not the things he didn’t do,
but the things he did.

-Randy Miller

I don’t know why but I get much more sensitive about the whole thing now than I did back then. Back when it happened, it just felt like a terrible thing that happened to someone I knew. For some reason now it hits me hard this time of year and this year harder than it has in the past. Maybe that’s just me imposing my own mortality on the past because of our little one on the way? I don’t know.

I hope some day I’ll be half the man Randy Miller was at the age of 19.

Potter Park

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been slacking. Life and the great weather this past weekend has gotten in the way of something I love. I’ll do better next weekend, promise.

Potter Park is one of the few public parks within the village of Fairport. You might pass it every day and not even realize it. One of the main features of the park is the Potter Memorial that faces West Church St (route 31f). 5 pillars, artillery guns and a memorial plaque saluting the American Flag. It’s really quite beautiful especially at night.

The park is more than a memorial though. There are baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, a playground, a large green grass field that can be used for whatever you want and it’s even home to a Lions Club facility as well as a Historical House.

It’s not a Hiker’s paradise and you won’t find anyone mountain biking or rock climbing but it’s just about the best type of park you could ever hope for in a village containing an endless supply of kids that need to burn off energy. If you’ve got kids and or you’re looking for a place to play some sports with some friends, Potter Park might be just about perfect for you.

Below is something new I’m trying. It’s a PhotoSynth of the Potter Memorial. A PhotoSynth is like a 3D world built using multiple photos in much the same way a panorama is made. I’m not 100% satisfied with the result since there seems to be a bunch of disconnected photo ‘groups’ but not as bad as I thought it would.

http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=20efc09d-d0b9-4604-b8d1-1fae369b09b5&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false

If you can’t see the PhotoSynth above, please visit the original post.

Ship Graveyard in NYC

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

If you’re ever in the NYC area and are looking for a place to do some kayaking, the Staten Island Ship Graveyard seems like the perfect spot.  I love seeing old decaying stuff and these turn of the century boats stuck in an old shipyard are simply awesome.  I’m kinda anxious to take a paddle trip through the middle of them, but I probably never will.

Check em out in the gallery below!

White Brook Nature Area

~ randyaa ~ 4 Comments

Ohhhh man have I found a place for you.

I’ll admit it, I haven’t paid the White Brook Nature Area much attention before. Every time I’ve driven by there has always been a picnic/BBQ going on at the pavilion and I always assumed that’s all it really was. I stopped there for the first time today and whoa was I surprised to find a 2+ mile trail off through the woods.

It’s a great in and out trail (no loop available) too, well maintained and pretty scenic for such a suburban landscape. There’s a few bits of the trail that need some work however; A few planks on the boardwalk that are starting to pull up and a few places they could use some gravel fill. That said it’s mostly in good shape. The trail winds it’s way through cattails and groves of flowering bushes until you happen upon what the map calls a ‘large meadow’. They aren’t kidding. It took me close to 45 minutes and almost 40% of my (iPhone) GPS battery life to do the loop around it. From the entrance to the field I couldn’t even take a picture of it without stitching a few together.

The only place there’s a map on the property is on a small post once you get to the entrance to the meadow. I took a photo of the map so you could reprint it or distribute it however you want. I doubt the crescent trail association would have a problem with it.  Funny thing is I had no clue the White Brook Nature Area was part of the Crescent Trail.  So now I’ve come very close to hiking the whole thing, only a few miles left.

Or you can make use of my GPS map:
GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

http://www.instamapper.com/trk?key=14633227609411538872&width=400&height=350&type=roadmap
I’m also trying something new so the GPS map of the White Brook Nature Area is also available as a Google Map.

This Week in Links

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Genesee Valley Hiking Group (GVHG)
Meetup group for the Genesee Valley Hiking Group.
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Robert Thurman: Hiking In The Catskills
Weekend Hiking Retreat in the Catskills this summer
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FLT/NCT – Mount Washington
A section of the Finger Lakes trail including a different sort of Mount Washington
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Area blessed with plentiful places for boating
Great article by the D&C talking about all the great places the Rochester area has to offer when it comes to boating, paddling or otherwise.
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Kayaking on Lake George
Information for kayaking on Lake George NY
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New York Camping Guide 2010
A guide on camping in New York with lots of information on the State Campgrounds.
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Hiking Little Rock City
Some details about Hiking in the Little Rock City NY area.
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Local Guided Tours Available this Summer

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Some scheduled guided tours this summer that are open to the public:

  • Mt Hope Cemetary (Free general tours start at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.  The group also offers special tours that cost $4)
    • June 12th 10am : Famous Artists.
    • June 18th 7pm : Mischief, Murder & Mayhem
    • June 18th 11am : Horticulture & Landscape
    • July 17th 10am : Stories of the Famous & Forgotten
    • July 31st 12:30pm : The Civil War Tour
    • August 7th 12pm : The Revolutionary War Tour
    • August 13 6:30pm : Mischief Murder & Mayhem
  • Ganondagan (cost for most programs is $5, $15 for families)
    • May 8th 9:30am : Water Critters. Includes collection and identification of aquatic insects to determine how clean the Victor site’s Great Brook is.
    • May 8th 1pm :  The True Tale of the Beavers. Learn about the fur trade and the important role of the beaver during the walk to Beaver Dam.
    • June 6 9:30am : Medicine Plant Hike. Walk on the Earth is Our Mother Trail to discover herbs and plants.
    • June 13 2pm : Traditional Game Day. Features traditional sports and games played by the Haudenosaunee people.
    • July 10 1:30pm : Tales & Trails. Hike will include traditional tales about the animals.
    • Aug. 21 6:30pm : Longball and Storytelling. Fun, games and storytelling start with a picnic and chicken barbecue. A campfire will be lit and legends told.
  • Cumming Nature Center (The Rochester Museum & Science Center’s nature center in Naples has programs throughout the year. Admission is $3, $10 per family).
    • May 9 1pm : Aliens in the Backyard. This tour will feature non-native plants and insects found in New York state.
    • May 22 11am : Serendipity Walk. This will be a tour to areas of the property not usually accessible to the public in a three-hour hike. Bring a lunch.
    • May 12 11am : Senior Sojourn. Informative and easy hour-long walk to see the signs of spring. Bring a lunch, and stay for a nature film.
  • Genesee Valley Hiking Club
    • May 8 1pm : Spring Flowers. Easy and slow five-mile hike. Meet at first large parking lot on Zoo Road in Durand-Eastman Park.
    • May 9 10am : Lilacs and more. Easy/moderate five miles. Meet on Robinson Drive near South Avenue in Highland Park.
    • May 30 7am : Strenuous 14-mile Hike. Meet at the Park & Ride Lot off I-390 Exit 11 in Rush to travel to Letchworth State Park’s Westside Trail.
  • Letchworth State Park
    • May 5 10am : Brooks and Brambles. Meet at the Parade Grounds entrance. Bring a lunch.
    • May 6 1pm : Wildflower Walk. Meet at the museum.
    • May 8 1pm : Springtime Walk. Meet at the Trout Pond.