dad

The Roof is on!

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailWe’re getting close.

Dad, My good friend Anthony and I spent 3 days up at camp last week, getting the roof in tip top shape. My Uncle Jerry stopped by on Monday and helped all day while we finished placing the end cap and prepping the roof for shingles.

The three of us then shingled the entire roof in a day and a half. Up to the ridge cap anyway, at which point we had to head home. Not too shabby. Next trip up the plan is the ridge cap and the remaining OSB wallboard. At that point we’ll be ready to place the Tyvek wrap, windows and doors. We might even get to some of that, depending on how long we’re up there for.

It’ll be nice to get ‘er sealed up.

Thanks to Anthony and Jerry. We wouldn’t be anywhere near as far along without all the help. You guys rock!

Saranac Ice Palace

~ randyaa ~ 4 Comments

The 2010 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival is about to kick off and I was planning on stopping by. My parents visited the Ice Castle last year and I never got the chance so it was on the list for this year. You can see a Time Lapse of the build from last year below:

They started building the one for this year this past week and you can watch the progress on the Webcam below (updated every few seconds):

Ice Palace Webcam

With all the rain and the warm temperatures… It doesn’t look good for the palace, but here’s hoping it only slowed the process and didn’t kill it.

Hope I get to see it this year.

Horseshoe Lake

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Man I love it up here!

There’s three ways into Horseshoe Lake but I can only recommend one of them in good conscience. Riding the railroad tracks is no fun. Not unless they’re groomed. The first few miles from Conifer to Horseshoe were groomed and beautiful. 55mph was nothing. Then the groomer turned around and holy cow, forget it! We toughed it out but I almost wished we’d turned around right there. Washboard the whole way.

If you want to go to Horseshoe I recommend taking 7A right to the front door.

On our way back up 7A (the way we should have come in) we met Wes and Donald. Kinda funny meeting someone you know miles and miles in the middle of nowhere.  We stopped and said hello for a few minutes and then went our separate ways.  Back to Diamond by way of

Not sure what I think about possibly taking the railroad to Tupper Lake to get us to Lake Placid for that trip… we’ll see. might have to wait for a day with some fresh snow and hope for a groomer.

A good day of riding, around 100 miles. Horseshoe is a pretty little lake, but I’d stay off the railroads to get there if I were you.

Miles on the sled this season: 198

The Backwoods Inn

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Dad and I got up late today, had a nice ham and egg breakfast and then headed out on the trails with no specific destination in mind.

As is often the case in our neck of the Adirondacks, we ended up only a few miles from The Backwoods Inn (previously known as Ham’s Inn) around lunchtime.

It’s an awesome little local bar/restaurant. The top of the bar has pictures of the locals embedded in a clear coat of some kind. There’s a Newfoundland that likes to wander around inside and out and greets every snowmobiler that comes through the door.

The menu is just typical American food: subs, wings, burgers etc but the food is excellent and their portions are insanely huge. They have a multiple-pound-burger that’s free if you eat it all. Even their normal sized burger is too big for most people.  Dad had a regular burger and could only finish half of it.  I had a grilled ham and cheese and couldn’t even come close to finishing the fries.

Its located on route 56 in Parishville right near the route 3 intersection. Filled with local flair and great food.  If you’re looking for it from the snowmobile trails it’s on 73 on the eastern most section of 7A right along route 56.

Eat there if you get the chance!

When a Hunter Should Sue

~ randyaa ~ 5 Comments

Most lawsuits I hear about are completely ridiculous and the people are out to get nothing more than a quick paycheck.  That being said…

I think my Father should sue.

One day, about 3 years ago, he started seeing a tiny spot in his right eye if he looked in one specific direction while turning his head in one specific way.  The next day it got a little bigger so he immediately went to the eye doctor who didn’t know what was happening.  The eye doctor sent him to a specialist.  However; the specialist couldn’t see him for about a week.

By the time my father got to see the specialist, the vision in his right eye was almost entirely foggy and blurry.  He could barely see out if his right eye.  The first thing the specialist says?  “The eye doctor should have sent you to the Emergency room immediately.”

Something in the back of his eye started bleeding and the gray foggy spot was the blood spreading over his retina.  If he had been sent to the emergency room instead of waiting for a specialist they could have cauterized the bleeding and he would still have his vision.  It was too late to do anything and unfortunately he is now blind in his right eye.

I didn’t really think much about it until this year.

He’s been hunting for 50+ years with his right hand and eye.  When he first lost his vision he spent a lot of time trying to learn to shoot with his left.  He even bought a new single shot rifle just to practice with.

This year my father shot at a few deer but he didn’t get one.  He took a lot of crap for it too.  My father, the expert marksman, who had officers placed bets on his accuracy while he was in basic training, has gone from getting 5 deer a year to 0.

Before you say it’s because he’s getting old… Bullshit.  He gets around and travels the woods more than most guys in their teens and twenties, myself included.  He shot at more deer than anyone else I know this year too.  He still has issues pulling up on his left is all.  I could go into details but that’s not really the point.

The point is, some screwy eye Doctor doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and could likely cause someone else to lose their vision too.  A few things just made me realize it’s affected my father more than I originally realized and more than he lets on.

My Father should Sue.

In the meantime, if you see a gray fuzzy spot in your vision, go to the emergency room not the eye doctor!

Diamond Sportsmen's Club Camp

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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.

The Toy Shed

~ randyaa ~ 4 Comments

shed-6Rachel and I were gone on an awesome vacation for 3 weeks this summer.  By the time we got back, my father was full-swing into building his new shed for camp.  The rest of my summer was spent at camp (oh no), helping him put it up.  It felt like every weekend but was probably only every other.  Some days we made progress, other days we just relaxed in the mountains.  Either way you look at it though, we were within the blue line so did it really matter?

We call it the shed, but It should probably be called a barn.  It’s not built like the typical plywood thrown-together mess you can buy almost anywhere.  It’s built to last, Adirondack style.  Amish raw cut real 2×4’s and all.  In a lot of ways, it might be over-engineered and over-thought, but it’s good to do things that way sometimes.  My dad did most of the work himself. I helped a bit with the roof, siding and hanging the doors.  My Uncle and my cousin helped a bit with the roof and the siding, and a friend at camp dug out the hillside and leveled out some of our lot with his equipment.  All that’s left is some tin in a few places and some paint!

My dad likes to call it the “Toy Shed” or the “Toy Barn” or the “Toy House,” whichever name fits his fancy at the moment.  We even had a sign made for it.  That’s because it’s intended to house our snowmobiles, 4-wheelers and whatever else we come up with.  Oh, it’s also intended to house the tools and equipment we’ll need for next years project, the camp addition.

We’re gonna need help though.  So if you’re up for some hard work next spring/summer at a beautiful location, let me know.  Remember, the more you help out the more likely we’ll be to invite you up to relax!

A bit of the construction process:

Oregon Coast to Seaside

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Tuesday was relaxing.  We got up and had the continental breakfast (we made it a point to eat itevery day, no sense spending money on a meal that was included with your hotel).  We took our time checking out and headed to do laundry.  Since we’re here for 3 weeks we intentionally only packed enough for 1 to lighten the load. This only took us a little over an hour (thank you 45lb dryers!) which was just about perfect since right then we got a call to meet at Fudruckers for lunch.  “Sounds good!” we said and headed over.

ecola-state-parkAfter lunch (Michael at a 1lb burger…) with the family (George, Stacie, Mom, Dad, Michael, Michelle, Rachel and myself) everyone took a leisurely drive through the countryside to get a good view of Mt hood.  We stopped outside a ranch of some sort where we could see it pretty clearly.

Here, we said our goodbyes (I think Rachel and Michelle were the most saddened) and struck out for the coast.  We had already been to Cannon beach and south to Tullamook but we hadn’t made it to Ecola State Park and we figured, since we had the time, what better way to get to Seattle than to take the coast the whole way.

Sunset at Ecola was amazing.  However; since we started out so late we only made it as far as Seaside, which turned out to be a very cute town but extremely touristy.  There we stayed at the Sandy Cove Inn which was adorable.  It was family owned and apparently had been purchased and renovated by the current owners about 2 years ago.  It was one of those theme places, where every room has a theme.

Thus ended our first real night on the road.

http://aldrichfamily.org/2009/07/10/cannon-beach-and-sand-castles/