Two Posts About Clifton-Fine

Russ posted some thoughts on Random Ferments about Clifton-Fine, one year after his latest book was published.

 

Visit to the Todds at Lake Bonaparte

Friday afternoon, Sharlene and Dick Todd, long-time friends of Russ and Phyllis' from Carthage, invited us over to their home on Lake Bonaparte. There is a lot of history between this area of the Adirondacks and the family of Napoleon . . . thus the name of the lake.

Sharlene, Peg, Phyllis, Dick, Otis

Peg, Sharlene, Phyllis, Dick, Otis

Moving to Feets and Dixie's Camp

Our two weeks at the Pickering camp ended on the 19th and we don't movbe to Wanakena until the 21st. So we are spending two nights at Feets and Dixie's camp. It is a luxury RV on their amazing piece of land that is an eskar extending into Star Lake and almost cutting it in two. The spit of land was from when rocks and soil fell into a crevice in the glaciers that created Star Lake. Beautiful!

Loving the deck

You can see the water on both sides of the trail along the eskar

Nice RV

Swimming at Feets and Dixie's waterfront

Beautiful Star Lake

Enjoying the deck at the RV

Trail along the eskar

Scene along the eskar

Private Adirondack lean-to on the eskar

This is the cut in the eskar that leads from one part of Star Lake to the other

 

 

 

Cousins Reunion for the Halls

The 3 Hall cousins . . . Charlene, Russ, and Phyllis . . .  got together on Thursday at the Pine Cone Grill in Wanakena for their annual reunion. Otis and I got to come too.

Charlene's caregiver, Laurie, is an old friend of ours now after having been one of Charlene's crew for more than a decade. A newcomer, Nicole, was with her and we had a grand time, thanks to the great hospitality of the Pine Cone Grill folks.

As always, Charlene was full of jokes about the staff at United Helpers and about her lunch . . . "Are you getting full Charlene? I'm so full, I'm flowing over!"

Later in the day, Phyllis and Otis came over to meet Stela and see our camp.

Charlene and Laurie, with Nicole in the background. Otis and Stela.

Opening Birthday presents. The books of "find the hidden words" were the biggest hit.

Russ, Phyllis, Otis, Peg, Charlene

Almost time to open. Charlene brought another resident, Lonnie, from United Helpers for the event.

Gifts get set aside for the chocolate-peanutbutter birthday pie

Wanakena Day, Clifton Fine Reunion, a Walk Around the Lake, and a Rainy Day

Wanakena is a charming town with a year-round population of fewer than 75. For more than a100 years there was a pedestrian bridge in Wanakena across the Oswegatchie River, until an ice jam took it out a couple years ago. The towns folk have raised the money through bake sales and grants to rebuild. Saturday was Wanakena Bridge Day and we went for the homemade pie auction. Pies went for close to $100 each. There was also Bossie Bingo. Cows plopped to selected the numbers. We resisted playing.

We first returned to Star Lake in 2001 to celebrate with his classmates the 40th anniversary of their high school graduation. They were the largest class ever, at 50. We have been coming ever since. The reunion was this weekend. Many of the classmates were there too.

Otherwise, since Ismini and Arnold left on Thursday and Pam and James on Saturday, we have been enjoying the camp and its yard, walking around the lake each day, teaching Stela to doggy paddle, enjoying Anita's great pie and ice cream with her and George, Annette and Sherm, and just chillin' out, soaking up the cool beauty.

 

 

Stela thinks the stairs are fun going up and scary coming down

Around the lake!

 

Not quite trained to "come" yet

  

Not sure her doggy paddle is quite up to swimming after that duck.

Arnold and Ismini Visit

Friends since summer 1968! Arnold and Ismini came over from New Hampshire to share our modest camp. We had dinner at Pam and James' camp with them, Tanya, Erik, Nathan and Ryan. Pizza and burgers. We went to Wanakena and walked to the Ranger School.  We spent lots of "lake time" on our waterfront teaching Stela to chase sticks and balls and to practice her doggy paddle. We toured the Tooley Pond Road and hiked in to two of the several waterfalls. 

On the hike to Copper Falls

Is that real copper in those rocks?

Peg and Arnold lookin' good

Stela heading for the mud

Enjoying the woods together

     

Through the ferns toward Rainbow Falls

Tempting to follow suit, but we resisted

Maybe some skinny-dipping would have been in order if the climb down to the water hadn't been too scary

Stopped for lunch in Cranberry Lake later and Stela tried to make a new friend

At the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, enjoying the new Wild Walk

This spider web is high above the tree tops on the Wild Walk

An Afternoon at the Star Lake Sandbar and New Economic Activity

On the Lake :

Lenny and Linda loaned us their motorized floating dock on Monday and off we went to the sandbar for the afternoon until it was time to go tour the old Benson Mine.

 

Back at Pam and James' Camp 
Stela started sniffing the air, then the floor, then out the windows, and finally she spotted it! A moose busted in !

New Rocks from Old: 

Huge and promising new activity is underway at the mine site, with a contractor using waste rock from old mining activities to produce cost-effective aggregates from discarded rocks extracted from the earth decades ago by miners searching for ore-bearing rocks.

Front-end loader and crusher turn waste rock into aggregates of various sizes.

Mastermind George Persson (third from left in the photo below) has shepherded the project from concept to reality. The soundness of his vision is clear from the activities underway, and the commercial value of the activity and its contribution to the community will only increase in the months ahead when rail transport allows aggregates to be transported nationwide.

George Persson explains benefits of the new project to several of many visitors to the site.