Construction Project I

I've given up on S posting before and after pictures of her porch, so I found a picture of what it used to look likeand took one showing what it looks like now. Still a lot of work to do, but it is getting there.

Cape May and Stone Harbor

We'll be leaving soon for camp and I wanted to do something particularly New Jerseyish before leaving for the summer. So despite the gas prices I drove south to Cape May for some "gingerbread"

and to Higbee Beach and Stone Harbor point to look for birds. It wasn't a particularly exciting trip. Cape May has lost much of its appeal now that we live at the shore. And the wind was so strong there were few shorebirds in evidence. Plus I got Higbee Beach and Reeds Beach confused. It was apparently at Reeds that we went to look for red knots a previous year. Higbee Beach is just south of the Cape May-Lewes ferry terminal and there wasn't much there. I did see a couple osprey carrying fish.

At Stone Harbor point all I saw were oyster catchers like this one. My new camera did an excellent job of capturing them. I was glad I had the viewfinder since the LCD screen was impossible to see in the bright sunlight. I realize I should have tried taking off my polarized sun glasses. That might have helped.

Construction Project II

Our second construction project this spring is a "chicken tractor" for A's and J's new chickens. I realize the first picture that comes to mind, is of a chicken driving a tractor, but it is actually a chicken house and pen on wheels so it can be moved from place to place in the yard. Like this.It still needs a door on the cage part and the plastic pipe needs to be attached to the outside edges so no varmits can crawl underneath, but it is almost done.

You can see a photo of the chicks here.

Kayaking Stony Creek

Today we kayaked up flooded Stony Creek with ADK; the same trip we did with them exactly a year ago. See my post from last year for a map and description. As someone on the trip said, at high water it is like bushwacking by boat. Though the water was a bit lower than at this time last year, so we were able to paddle under the low bridge between the ponds.

We were excited to see our first pair of loons of the season.

This time we explored up Ampersand Brook until a blow down blocked our way. We're not sure how much farther we might have gotten otherwise. We floated over several submerged beaver dams.

Sushi

(Correction: W says raw fish by itself it actually called sashimi. But you get the idea.) That's what we watched this eagle eat for lunch today.

We paddled up the flow hoping to see a beaver again. The water level has already gone down since we arrived and we couldn't get as far upstream as we did last year. We could see the beaver lodge, but the dam seemed to be gone.

Coming back we saw this eagle dive into the water and head to shore with a fish. We paddled nearer and got a terrific view as it ate.

Adirondack Quilt

We drove to camp today and one of the first things I did was put the new quilt on the bed. It looks right at home.