Kaleidoscope Zen
An Anniversary Day Trip Celebration of September’s Early Fall Colors ********** As August’s Summer Sunset Slowly Fades September’s Sunrise Ascends Mountain Marsh Paintbrush Horizons Hint Fall’s First Bright Splashes of Red Morning Sun’s Misted Dewdrop Rays Glisten Falling Leaves Drift the Winds Mother Earth’s Arboreal Timepiece Autumn’s Onset Portends...
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Enter “The Warden”
When Planet Earth Needs a Superhero Patrolling Swamp, Meadow & Forest ********** August 19, 2024 Somewhere Deep in The Adirondack Mountains It materialized as if out of nowhere. A spinning disk-shaped object, sitting low over moonlit mountain lake water, emitting not even the slightest whisper of sound as it...
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RELENTLESS
A True Story ********** This story is dedicated to my father. Dad, whether you knew it or not, I was always watching, listening, and learning. ********** Prelude “Into the Forever Wild” The Adirondack High Peaks Region, mid-July, circa 1978: An olive-green station wagon eased its way through the gate...
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Tracking the Trail
An Updated Look at the Adirondack Rail Trail Including a sneak peek at renovations underway inside the Rail Trail’s historic train depot! (I am, after all, still an Adirondack Outlaw. Gotta keep up my street cred.) Since I was in town for the weekend, I thought I’d trek a...
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The Bear Minimum
A Nostalgic Look at Some Bear Truths of Adirondack Economics As I sit here penning this story to page, the minimum wage here in New York State is $15.00 an hour. $15.00 an hour! To an old bear like me, that seems a king’s ransom. But there it is....
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An Arbor a Day…
“This Arbor Day Message is Ari Rae Approved” My spring arbor order arrived April 12th. With chilled early spring temps, April’s shower spigot flooding most everything, and full-on mud season going full force, my initial plan was to let things dry out a bit before planting. 30 white pine...
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Finding Totality
A Connectivity Experience Being One with the Moment As April 8th and eclipse day approached, I found within myself a growing urge to make plans that would somehow allow me to uniquely experience totality’s moment. For a brief while, it appeared our northern New York State Watertown hacienda would...
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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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