A Dangerous Place

The Flume in Wilmington is a beautiful part of the AuSable River where it is naturally channelled between narrow rock cliffs. The river was high from the heavy rain - 3 inches in two days, that's a lot for up here. 

Five teenagers from Plattsburgh drove down yesterday to swim at The Flume, and one used a rope swing to jump off the cliff into the river. He knew he was in big trouble when he hit the swift current below and yelled for help. One of the others jumped in...and was never seen again. The three remaining kids watched in horror from above as the first teen was carried downstream, through the swift water and rocks.

The initial 911 call came in at about 2 pm, just as I was getting cleaned up from a long day of tree cutting and brush burning. Upper Jay FD received a request for assistance ten minutes later so I grabbed my gear and headed up to the scene. There were rescuers and first responder vehicles lined up on both sides of the road, and I found our guys with the big UJFD rescue van near the scene. 

Two of us donned gear and a state trooper joined us for the rough trek along the AuSable River bank, over rocks, mud holes and steep banks. We spotted our water rescue team at the point of an island where a rescue helicopter was orbiting over the first victim. He didn't survive.

We got a page to redeploy to the Wilmington fire station so we helped the water rescue guys get out of the river and we slogged the wet gear back upstream to the van. At the station we were told that the rescue was now officially a recovery, meaning that the assisting units (us) could leave. The idea is to keep a minimum number of personnel for the recovery to limit the risk of another incident. Later on we heard on the scanner that the second victim wasn't found and they were suspending the recovery operations overnight.

The Adirondacks are dangerous. There's usually no one to remind people to be careful. Closing off areas is impractical, given the vast areas and scarcity of law enforcement. Restricting freedom of movement isn't tolerated, anyway, this is an area where independence is highly valued. 

The wilderness and its attendant dangers are readily accessible to visitors whose only frame of reference may be a backwoods TV reality program. Things can quickly go wrong on the river or trail and even with good communications it takes a while for responders to arrive - if they can even find you.

While slogging upstream, I heard stories about The Flume and the dangers of the AuSable. The river demands respect. There's been fatal kayak accidents, families stranded on ice floes, injured swimmers, lost hikers, etc. It's been that way for a long time, as evident in the historic newspaper articles. 

Unless we get a billion-dollar FEMA grant (and a NYS constitutional amendment) to enviscerate the AuSable, it'll continue to attract visitors...and EMS teams.

Staying Occupied

There's all sorts of things to do around the homestead and the community. Last Tuesday I trained a little more on the pumper, operating the 'deck gun' and drafting water from a nearby stream. You can move a lot of water a long way with this rig. Yesterday, I went to an all day firefighter safety class held at the Jay firehouse, a converted old school. It was conducted in one of the classrooms, the windows were open, it was a cool morning, and it was a most civilized setting. 

I can't remember the last time I took a class in a room that wasn't over-air conditioned. 

As for the homestead, I made a clear cut of the encroaching forest behind the garden area and that'll be our 'back yard'. I plan to build a utility shed there, modelled after Thoreau's cabin at Walden. I should be able to start that project this week. The garden is getting much more sunlight now that some of the tree canopy is gone so the plants are enjoying that. The brush was chipped and Suzy spread it between the garden beds and under the clothesline. That looks nice and feels good when you walk on it. The usable parts of the trees were cut into 4 foot cordwood lengths, those were stacked in various piles and drying. After a month or so I'll cut them into 16 inch logs for use in the woodstove when it gets cold. We have about 3 cords of wood in various piles around here. That's about half the amount we need to use the woodstove exclusively for heating this season.  

I met with the staff at Ray Brook Federal Correctional Institute - yup, the former Olympic Village - on Friday, toured the facility and I proposed a program to teach applied math to the inmates. There's a lot of inmate interest in that, they know education is the key to staying out of the prison system. No one cares about those guys, there's only one other volunteer instructor - and she teaches knitting. Things move slowly in Corrections, so it'll take a good month to work out the details and get started in the classroom. 

I haven't been on the bike in two weeks, but I did go to the covered bridge today and read on the huge rocks while the AuSable River roared around me. It was warm on the rocks and cold in the water.  

Horse and Garden

We are settling into a semblance of normalcy here at Woodman's Lee. The plants are proliferating in the garden, the horses have arrived and I even found a bargain on a fine old wood chipper.

The only critter we've seen in the garden...so far.

The garden is first-rate: beds are in, seedlings are planted and everything is thriving. The only exceptions are the dozen Venus Fly Trap seeds that I planted, inspired by Suzy's green thumb. 

Not one of those seeds sprouted. The garden is still dangerously fence-less. But it was also a risk to plant a month before the June full moon and that turned out fine. Incidentally, that full moon will occur on Friday the 13th and the Algonquins called it the Strawberry Moon. Anyhow, I'd rather take chances with weather than wildlife, but perhaps they will respect our "Posted" signs.

Shah and Twilight in their new home.

The horses arrived safe and sound after a 36 hour haul from Florida. They won't have to get in a trailer again for a long time. Whenever we build a barn here, we'll just ride them a few miles to their permanent home. For now, they are living well in a beautiful barn surrounded by lush, early spring grass. It must be their finest dining experience.

The pair keep Suzy busy: grooming, cleaning stalls, lunging and worrying about a seemingly infinite number of hazards. I have no horse-sense, so all I see are two utterly contented equines. But anyone else can clearly see the lameness, grass over-indulgence, herd-binding, bug bites...even insufficient whinnying - all sorts of maladies, each requiring its own increment of anxiety.

Midnight horse-offload operations.

We received our barn plans and the next steps are to price out the materials, get a permit, then figure out how to build it. Nothing happens quickly, around these parts it's still "six hundred words for every shovelful of dirt", as Sam Hamilton observed in Steinbeck's East of Eden.

The garden beds with thriving plants. 

Suzy cheerfully and busily orbits around her binary stars - horses and gardening. Both are physically demanding tasks, so she seems to work to exhaustion nearly every day. This was the typical farm routine a century ago, hard work but unquestionably good for the spirit and body. 

She's grown everything from seed except for parsley, asparagus, and purple basil. We have thriving tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes (of unknown certification), celery, peppers, peas, onions, kale, oregano, sage, thyme, basil, carrots and beets. It'll be nice to harvest our produce fresh from the garden and promptly cook it up for dinner.

The chipper ready to go to work.

Speaking of dinner, I have a recipe to share, but first here's the chipper I found on Craigslist. Its former owner, one of the nicest guys we've met, runs a landscape business just outside of the park in Hudson Falls, south of Lake George. It's an old Troy-Bilt he had for a long time but sat unused in the barn. These machines were made right here in upstate NY, out of heavy gauge steel and actually designed for maintainability. That means you don't have to throw it out when it breaks, anathema to most corporate business models today. The blades were dull and the carburetor needed a rebuild, but it's not unpleasant work because the machine is so well made. 

Troy-Bilt went bankrupt in 2002 a few years after the State of NY gave them a million dollars to consolidate their operations in Troy. They took the money, didn't pay their property taxes, closed the factory, sold the brand name to Murray, and laid off over 500 employees. It was a classic corporate swindle. The inept and sociopathic CEO had just assured the mayor that business was booming - and two weeks later he issued 60 day notices to the entire workforce. You can still buy a chipper with the Troy-Bilt name, made in Cleveland. I doubt the design and build of the new ones bears any semblance to those old machines. 

Bowtie pasta and artichoke hearts.

If you still have an appetite after reading that sad story, here's a recipe for Bowtie Pasta with Artichokes. Artichokes are an excellent source of vitamin C and anthocyanins, which is an antioxidant. Artichokes lower the bad cholesterol (LDL) and raise the good (HDL). This dish is easy to prepare, too.

Start by bringing a pot of salted water to boil and while that is underway mince up some garlic and shallots. Then open a can of quartered artichoke hearts, try to find the ones that have one ingredient: artichokes. Cook the pasta, strain and rinse with cold water only enough to stop the cooking process while you sauté the shallots and garlic in olive oil. Use the same pot you boiled the water in, that'll cut down on your cleanup. You don't want to overcook the shallots and garlic, a minute or so will suffice. Next add the artichoke hearts, and if you feel like it, a can of drained/rinsed cannellini beans. Heat thoroughly, then add back the bowties and the juice of one fresh lemon.

Oregano, parsley and a carrot cut lengthwise, quartered and sliced will add flavor and color to this dish. Carrots and herbs from the garden would make it even better.