Family Matters

Diamond Sportsmen's Club Camp

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

campI’m not sure how this happened but I don’t believe I’ve mentioned my parents new haven here yet. A few years back we lost our second camp (also not mentioned her as of yet) to a leasing issue and my parents decided they’d had enough. Next time, they’d buy one.  For about two years, my family had been on the market. They hadn’t been actively looking, but things had cropped up here and there without anything very enticing.

Last summer things changed. My father heard about this little camp on a somewhat large privately owned club that was up for sale. I’m not sure what it was exactly but something caught his eye so he high-tailed it up there to check it out and liked it so much that he brought my mother up a few days later.

IMG_2004They had actually seen the ad for the same camp the previous fall but thought it was overpriced.  After a winter of not selling the price fell and after seeing the ad for the second time they are now the proud new owners of their own little slice of the Adirondack Pie.

A little over a year later and the camp has given us many new friends, one nice Buck, a new four-wheeler, a few thousand miles on the snowmobiles, 2 tired puppies, and too many feasts to count.

As the second year of ownership begins, we’re (almost) done with first major camp project.  A nice big Toy Shed to keep everything dry.  Now it’s time to relax, shoot some bucks, enjoy the camp over the winter and prep for next year.

The camp is perfect size for two people, but when you add another two (or three) and some huskies, it gets a little cramped. Next year we plan to more than double the size, two new bed rooms and a larger living space later and we should be all set.

Can’t wait. I love spending time up there almost as much as my father does.

What I'll Miss (about camp)

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

In 1989 New York State bought the land the Long Lake Hunting Club had leased for the better part of the century (1200 acres, 8 miles from the nearest road).  They gave us 10 years to get out.  So in 1999 we had to leave the place many of it’s members had grown up in, myself included.  I’m not sure who, but someone wrote this poem and I’ve kept it hidden away in the dark bowels of my computer until now.

What I’ll Miss

As We give this camp a final toast,
I wonder what I’ll miss the most?
My bunk, the couch, that big green chair?
The smell of bacon in the air?

How bout that griddle made of steel?
Mmmm… we never missed a meal.
That big wood stove, it’s sides would glow,
and keep us warm at ten below.

Yes all these things were very nice,
and I’ll think of them once or twice,
But what hurts so much to leave behind
are all the people in my mind.

Harley, Bummer, Bob and Rod…
take care of them almighty God.
Roger, Howard, Loren, Chris;
It’s all you guys I’m gonna miss.

But there’s one thing we’ll always keep,
Within our hearts, way down deep;
Those memories of yesterday,
No one will ever take away.

And even though the camp is gone;
Those memories will linger on.

~Unknown Member of the Long Lake Hunting Club of Harrisville, NY

Every time I read it I feel the heat emanating from the old cast iron stove as we play just ‘one more hand’ of Euchre at the table built for 20 with the giant jar of maraschino cherries in the middle ready for Roger’s Manhatten.

I’ve seen very few of the members since the club folded. Some created a new club a few miles down the road from the old one, and we’ve visited with them a few times. Unfortunately, most moved on to places unknown.

I miss it. A lot.

I miss my uncle Loren (mentioned in the poem) the most.

Genealogy and the Power of Social Media

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

It’s (semi) official. I share a bloodline with George W Bush. He’s my 19th cousin once removed. So. Very. Strange.

I’ve been using Geni for quite a while now after becoming slightly interested in Genealogy. I’m not sure what piked my interest to begin with, but I know what solidified it and it’s probably no news to you. Seems I might be descendant of royalty (ie: King Edward II aka LongShanks). I still haven’t found the direct link (just some woman named Mary listed as a ‘Descendent of’) to King Edward II but although unproven as of yet, I can trace back to the Aldrich Immigrant George Aldrich with a certain level of certainty.

Geni has been running a promotion recently for a 14 day free Pro account trial. About 2 weeks ago I figured what the heck, why not? I went for it and HOLY COW! The power of social media has truly been revealed to me.

family-statsOne of the key features of a Pro account is the ability to find similar profiles to those in your tree. I figured the best way to go about this is to go back as far as I can and see if there are any matches. Naturally I used the immigrant George Aldrich (born 1605) whom I also happened to recently find the last will and testament of. Wow did I find matches. Over 20 of them in fact, and after requesting merges with those that appeared to be identical matches, my tree began to grow at an astounding rate. You see, once you merge with someone else who is active, they begin requesting merges with others, who request merges with others and eventually you’ll likely know how you’re connected to everyone. Geni‘s own slogan is after all “Everyone’s Related”.

After two weeks of this (I’m now lacking a Pro account since the trial is up) my tree is ginormous. To be specific I’m now connected to over 26 million people (living and deceased) with over 5 thousand direct ancestors alone. It’s insane and the number keeps going up and up and up.

Sometimes all this connectedness and user driven content does have its downsides though. I just found out that George W Bush is my 19th Cousin Once Removed. We share blood. ugh. Unfortunately now that I lost my Pro Account I can no longer view the ‘path’ between us since he’s too distant and not a direct ancestor. They usually look a little something like this though:

william-raby

This is all very cool and I’ve learned a ton about my family’s history. What’s really neat is you find other people out there that are more interested and have more information than you do. This is certainly one area that Social Media excels at.

If you even have a tiny interest in this stuff at all I highly recommend using Geni.com to get started, even if it’s just to get your immediate family into the site so others can find you. You never know, you might just inherit England.

Amazon Universal Wishlist

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Amazon Universal WishlistJust found this the other day, figured my birthday was as good a day as any to post it.

Amazon has allowed other retailers to use their site as a store-front for quite some time now, I suspect Amazon gets some sort of kickback from this so it pays off for them I’m sure.  It seems they want to take control of the entire online marketplace now, which is perfectly fine by me.  Having only one place to shop for all your needs sounds like paradise.

Did you catch that I hate shopping?

Either this is a recent development or I’ve been in the dark.  You can now add items to your Amazon wishlist from any website.  This is awesome! To do so, all you need is the Universal Wishlist Button.  This is just a Bookmarklet, so if you don’t like clogging up your toolbar with links you use only rarely, just add it as a bookmark instead.

I took the liberty of adding a few ThinkGeek items to mine…   If you’re wondering what to get me for my birthday (and you don’t believe in charity:water for some unknown reason) feel free to check out my lists.

My Wish List

My Photography NEED list

But remember, I can already drink clean water.  There are MANY out there who can’t.  Please consider donating to those who need it.  If you’d like more information, check out my previous post all about the September Birthday Charity:Water campaign.

DISCLAIMER: items purchased, NOT on any of my lists are subject to be sold and proceeds donated to Charity:Water.  You have been warned.  Then again, I might sell items ON the list and donate the proceeds…

The Cuomos – Mike & Mary Beth

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

Mike and Mary Beth CuomoSaturday Mary Beth became a Cuomo.  It was an exciting day for everyone!  Mike and Mary Beth really make a beautiful couple don’t you think?

I ran 3rd string Photographer, after clearing it with them & the hired photographer first, just to get some practice in.  There’s still a lot I didn’t do, but I must say I’m becoming quite comfortable with my equipment and the whole process.

I shot almost 1,400 photos on Saturday and it was my first time shooting an entire day in RAW.  Wow! I finally filled up my memory card… (16gb), I need to get some extras.  Because it was my first time shooting in RAW, it’s taking me a lot longer than usual to process the photos. I didn’t even have any software to do it before yesterday!  Now I’m all setup with Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Adobe CS4 Bridge and holy cow these things are powerhouses!

I’ll be throwing together a slide-show soon, but since I’m not sure how long it’s going to take I wanted to post this last picture of the night.

Congratulations Mike & Mary Beth!