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Reflecting on today, plotting tomorrow.
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Early Birds

My Granddaughter Ari Rae’s 1st Pre-Spring Waterfowl Report Tuesday, February 5th, 2024: I awoke from my afternoon nap as my granddaughter Ari Rae came in from her Paw Patrol walk with her Mama, Aunt Abba, & our family’s Sheltie herd out around our main duck pond. “Tell Grampa what...
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Poached Trout

A Young Adirondack Outlaw’s Recipe for Justice Mid-seventies Saranac Lake was a magical place. It was a great time to be an Adirondack kid growing up. Kids were allowed to be kids. Cell phones and the internet had not yet been invented. Today’s crowded high peaks lakes, mountains &...
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The Nuclear Snowball

A Weapon So Devastatingly Deadly, It Oughta Be TOP SECRET. ********** Saranac Lake, circa 1975: Our Pine Street Gang was pretty firmly established by then, ensconced in our family’s home headquarters on Stevenson Lane. There was me, of course. I was about twelve at the time, accompanied by the...
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A Forest for the Trees

Returning Farmland to Forest A Lifetime Investment It was not part of the plan when my wife and I purchased our home, situated on one nine-acre post bank foreclosure subdivided parcel of an old north country farm lot. It was never anything I ever initially even remotely envisioned. It...
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Adirondack Scrimshaw

Exploring Adirondack Artistry Using Nature’s Canvas It’s funny the little things that quietly provide inspiration, those seemingly small childhood details that stay with us through life. I always admired the engraved “artist’s conk” scene pictured above. It adorned the fireplace mantle in our Stevenson Lane home through most of...
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Net Zero

Every Goal Has Its Price ********** For nearly half a century the sprawling ranch style house situated just beyond the small north country city’s reach had been his family’s home. A young man’s version of he and his wife proudly bought it as newlyweds. It had grown with them...
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The Messenger

********** He had never been a particularly religious man. At least, not overtly. Most of his conversations with God involved hurling a profanity laced framework of frustrated anger towards the sky’s cloud covered heavens around questions like, “Are you happy now?!?” “Do you find this amusing?!?” “Is that all...
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Leaving a Trail

My Adirondack Outlaw 2023 Year End Review A Wedding, a Retirement, an Epic Plane Ride, Speaking in Tongues, My Return to the Almanack, Cedar Log Surgery, 30,000 Readers, Ari Rae’s Apple Tree, an Alamo Shootout, a Green Christmas, and the Journey to SIXTY! Well, another hike through a year...
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Ari Rae’s Magic Tree

To Ari Rae Marra The Apple of Grampa’s Eye ********** ********** This is Ari Rae Marra. She loves to visit her Grampa’s house. Ari Rae and her Grampa have their own special greeting. Fist bump, high five, gentle head butt. It’s how they tell each other “Hello” & “I...
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We Were the Redskins

********** We were the RedskinsA Gridiron DreamLed by Coach RaymondWho made us a team Fobare at quarterbackCalling the playLeading the RedskinsWhen it was politically okay Tolhurst, Lamb, Cantwell, Sawyer (x2) Manning the LineCamelo at fullbackSpearheading each hard-fought drive Bach was the big backCarrying the ballCates on the outsideDazzling them...
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