WanderingFoxFarm

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog so I thought that I’d better write a bit about the last few months.

We really enjoyed our last outing with the 5th wheel up in the Adirondacks. We had pretty good weather and were able to get out on some fine walks. The photo shows the general views across Lake Placid. The air was good and we could see clear into Canada. The journey back home was a little slow due to holiday traffic but all went well and we were soon back in our own bed.

The hot dry summer took its toll on the lawn whilst we weren’t around to water it. Quite large sections had dried up and died. Rob had to get to work on re-seeding it to give it chance to grow before the cold weather set in. He tells me that the secret is in the straw mulching to stop the moisture loss. Whatever, it seems to have done the trick and we should have a green lawn once the snow melts away at the end of March.

The girls were pleased to get back to their own patch.

Late in the summer, each year, the local car club puts on an outdoor show not more than 3 miles from us. We were determined to go along this year to see what it was all about. There were custom cars, vintage restorations and hot rods of all kinds. There was even a fair smattering of old British cars. They were blessed with a beautiful day at the foot of the Shawangunk Ridge.

It was good to be back at home as far as sewing was concerned. There is only so much I can take with me when we go travelling. I had quite a few things to finish off and a few more items that I’d planned to get started. These are a couple of things that I managed to complete. The wall quilt would eventually give Rob the inspiration for our Xmas card.

One of the very best aspects of living in this rural part of the country is that we have lots of visitors to our garden. Some, like the deer, are pretty regular vistors. From time to time we get a eal surprise. This young Coopers Hawk was sitting up in the tree overlooking the bird feeder. Luckily for our regular feathered friends, he decided not to take up residence.

Our friends Gil and Sara joined us for a Sunday outing to a craft fair at the Woodstock site at Bethel Woods. I can always get Rob to drive me out there. It touches his inner hippy thing (he’s older than me 🙂 There were various crafts and local produce on display but I particularly wanted to see the llamas.

Autumn is always a wonder here. It brings beautiful colours and spectacular sunrises.

Luck was on my side when I had a big wish granted. I picked up a contract that sent me to London for a few weeks. This gave me a chance to see family and, of course, to be there for grand daughter Alana’s 3rd birthday. How can it have gone so quickly. The work aspect was long and hard but it was all worth it to be there to see Alana’s happy smiling face. It makes me so proud to see Sarah doing such a great job with her. I can hardly wait until the next opportunity. Oh well, thank goodness for Skype!

To round out a wonderful year Kat and Iain joined us for Christmas. We managed to combine just the right mix of exercise and eating ….. perhaps! The weather cooperated to allow us to take a couple of good walks on the ridge and then, right on queue, the snow came in to give us a white Christmas. This gave us a chance to use new snow shoes.

We also got to try out cross country skiing up at Mohonk Mountain House. I’ve been trying to get the “grinch” (aka Rob) to give it a go for a couple of years. He couldn’t find any more excuses and ended up liking it. Who’d have thought it. Anyhow, we all had a great time and it put the icing on a really lovely Christmas cake.

A New Year and a new blog. I’m doing so much sewing related things that I have decided to start a new blog at http://sewfarfromhome.blogspot.com/

Rob will keep this one up to date so that we can keep everybody informed of travel related goings on. Happy New Year to everybody.

Tuesday started off a little overcast so we stayed at the camp ground and had an early lunch – there was a break in the weather so we took a quick 3 mile walk from the back of the campsite up around to the start of the Wilmington trail.

At 4.30 Rob decided it would be a great idea for us to walk up to Coopers Pond – It was just over 2.5 miles each way and given the time and the fact that is was through the woods we needed to really step it out so that we could get back before it got dark. Given that the trail was rising 500ft per mile on the way up, it was quite a hike. Good job the view was worth it.

Wednesday we decided to try the Wilmington trail – we had quite a late start and it was even steeper than the previous days trail it rose 1000ft every mile ! lots of great views and and lovely plant life we ended up doing about 8.5 miles and were exhausted by the time we finished.

Thursday we decided to take it a little easier and just took a three mile hike around by the bottom of the Whiteface ski resort. Part of it goes along the local river just before it descends into a small gorge.

Our friends Gil and Sara came up to Lake Placid late Wednesday as Gil was taking part in the national lacrosse championships. So early Thursday evening we went over to the fields to see some of the games. It is certainly not for the faint of heart, very fast moving and aggressive game.

Friday morning was overcast so we waited till after lunch before we took a 5 mile round hike to Lake Placid. In the evening we went over to the house that Gil and Sara were renting and had a very nice evening, gourmet food followed by microwave S’mores .

……. Lacey !! although not her fault. I went to bed early Saturday night and was just falling off to sleep when I smelt the most awful smell. It was a mixture of burning car tyres, garlic and body odor. I went out to the living room convinced the house was on fire to find a very distressed and smelly dog. Rob had taken them out for their last pee break of the evening, when all of a sudden Lacey came running back with her tail between her legs, coughing and frothing from the mouth. Rob not realizing that she had been sprayed by a skunk brought her into the house! you cannot believe how that smell permeates every part of the house, nor how long it takes to go.

He gave her a bath and thank goodness we had already planned to go north in the RV for a week. Hopefully the smell in the house will be better when we get back.

So Sunday afternoon we arrived at our camp site, we are staying in the North Pole resort at Wilmington in the Adirondacks. It is a good ten degrees cooler than our area but that is no bad thing at the moment.

This morning we took a trip down the road to Lake Placid then went for a hike starting at the Wilmington Notch and walked around the Owen, Copperas and Winch ponds. It was about 4 miles in total not too hilly but quite rocky. I had bought the girls their own back packs so they could carry their own drinks and treats – don’t they look cute ?

The rock they were standing in front of has this amazing tree growing over it – that took some great “will to live” on behalf of the tree.

Here are some views from our walk

late in the afternoon we took a trip into Lake Placid to have a look around, we bought some back packs at the outdoor sports shop and then on the way back to the car we spotted a ski shop selling off the ski boots ready to get the new season stock in. I went in to try them on and we were there for 2 hours while the guy made sure I had a comfortable fit. Corey ( the boot guy) was a bit of a character and kept us amused. He also kept dragging Rob into the pub next door to do whiskey shots. Finally we were ready to leave and I got a very good deal on my boots and Rob was very “mellow”. Needless to say i drove back to the RV. Tomorrow we will go for another hike – longer this time though

For those of you that are not based on the east coast of America you probably don’t realize we have been going through a heat wave here that has been breaking all records. We have had about three weeks of 90 to 100 degree weather with high humidity. Thank goodness for air conditioning !

Last Thursday they were predicting that the temperature would be in the 80”s so we set off for the Catskills and went tubing down the Esopus river. We started off in the town of Phoenicia, collected our equipment and then got a ride on the bus to a spot about 5 miles up the river.

It was so much fun, the river temperature was perfect, cold when we first got in but then very refreshing. We had a hoot avoiding rocks, negotiating small rapids, seeing the local wild life and just enjoying the day. We got soaked but guessed we would so had taken a change of clothes.

A quick walk into Phoenicia to get a giant ice cream and then head on back with a a stop at Emerson country store which is the home of the worlds largest kaleidoscope. It is 65 ft tall and we lay down on our backs in the middle of the room it is housed in and were treated to a 10 minute show complete with music. Very surreal.

I have been trying to catch up on a lot of my sewing projects, 3 of my mystery blocks, only one left to do. 12 embroidered squares for my crazy compass, bow tie quilt for Sheena, Boogie monster quilt for Alana, cut a 1000 squares for another quilt and completed a few smaller projects 🙂

Today I had a quick lecture on finishing my compass quilt and then an early lunch before we packed up the dogs and headed over the ridge to the Delaware and Hudson canal. There is a project to first get a pathway extended so that you can walk the length of it on the the former rail path and then phase 2 is to get the canal itself dug back out so that it can be used as a waterway again. The weather was really hot but we had a lovely time and probably walked about 7miles. The dogs have slept since we got home.

Up early last Thursday to drive a little over 400miles from Northern Georgia to a site just on the border of North and South Carolina. Here is a picture of the rig just before we set off

The trip was a little challenging for the first and last 75 miles as we were hauling the RV on some pretty small roads. Plenty of time to knit though, I had already finished knitting the bunny she just needs to be assembled and stuffed. So my latest efforts are a shrug for me. Here is the first sleeve and the start of the back.

Our campsite is right out in the countryside set in a small family run vineyard. They have a pond with a family of geese, who also seem to like walking around the vines and a frame with many gourds hanging of it and lots of baby birds housed in them.

On the Friday we drove to the town of Calabash, famous for its seafood eateries and then on into sunset beach. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on the sand between 8 and 6 during the summer months so we just had a quick look and then headed off down to North Myrtle Beach. We will have to come back here in the off season.

The main road through the area is wall to wall food and shopping so we stopped at a local diner and i got my first taste of grits, I have to say I quite liked them much to Robs disgust. We had a quick walk on the Boardwalk at Myrtle Beach and then headed back to the campsite ahead of the crowds.

There is no cable connection at this campsite and so we had a nice evening listening to my ipod playing in shuffle mode.

Saturday we were up bright and breezy as usual and drove to a place called Murrel’s inlet, it is a small fishing harbor with a boardwalk and some nice pubs – so after a pleasant walk with the dogs we sat on the patio at the Dead Dog and got treated to some good food and a live band.  It was funny to see a small island opposite the pub that housed a family of goats.

By the way Rob has not shaved for about a week – so he could have passed for one of the local fishermen – What do you think ?

Saturday night was one of those times that you have to pinch yourself to believe your own eyes. When we checked in to this campsite they asked us if we would like to join them Saturday night as they were having live entertainment in the park. So there we were with about 24 other people being treated to a 2 hour performance of the local Elvis impersonator. He was actually very good and we had a really fun time – go figure!

He also wrapped his silk scarf around me as a gift and it was still a little wet with his sweat – we are thinking of getting it DNA tested just in case he was the real deal

Sunday we stayed around the campsite and just relaxed until about 5 then we drove back to Calabash to try the Seafood Hut which was listed in out travel guide. We had to queue outside in the sun for about 40minutes but everyone in the queue assured us it was worth the wait. It was a no frills place with about a dozen cafe style tables inside. The fried seafood was amazing sooo fresh and certainly worth the wait. We had flounder, scallops, oysters, shrimp and crab all deep fried and served with coleslaw, fries and something called hush puppies which are deep fried corn bread balls.

We walked on down to the shore – watched the crabs dancing on the mud at the waters edge and people starting to go out on the boats to see the 4th July Fireworks

There was a small public field just off the waters edge where a seven piece band was entertaining a large crowd of people for free. The Carolinas know how to celebrate  Independence Day in style

Tomorrow we start the trek back to Pine Bush – we will stop in a town called Petersburg just south of Richmond Virginia Monday night roughly about 250 miles away.

The park here is really nice and it is nestled in amongst a mountain range with fantastic scenery. We decided to go out for a scenic drive in the early evening – First stop was the Popcorn Overlook

Then a short stop at the edge of Lake Burton to admire some of the houses of the idle rich.

One last stop, we read that Tate City had good views, the bit they left out was that we had to drive through the forest on a dirt track to get there which in the truck was a bit like being in a dinghy coming down a river. To cap it all this road was nearly ten miles long and the views in Tate City were not as “spectacular” as the write up said they were.

We got up early on the Tuesday to go and hike the Tallulah Gorge – they only let 100 people in per day so we wanted to make sure we could do it. We ended up being the first there. You have to go down over 150 steps cross a rope bridge across the gorge then down another 230 steps and then the adventure begins!

The adventure begins with a trip back across the river by scrambling over boulders in the river ( which are very slippery when wet ).

Did we make it across dry ?…….. no we both ended up with one wet foot, luckily the weather is still so warm it was hardly noticeable. We then had a scramble down alongside the river past 4 waterfalls. The last of which is called the bridal veil and people slide down it into the pool below.

The way back was just as interesting with chances to stop and enjoy the views and also prepare ourselves for climbing back over the river.

So did we fare better on our return trip over the river ? ……….. well the plan was for Rob to go first, deposit the backpack with the cameras in and then come back to help me a bit. He did quite well, just the one wet foot. Me, not so good, slid down one to the rocks and was wet from the waist down. Rob grabbed my sun glasses then 2 mins later slipped again and dropped my glasses into the river. Ever the gentleman he then went back and tried to retrieve them, without success.

Now deep joy, we just have those 350 odd steps to climb ! on the way back we passed a shop called Goats on the Roof – and that’s exactly what they had. The roof was covered with grass and they had small goats wandering around up there.

I also found perfect T-shirts for us in there but the old goat  Rob would not let me get them

Wednesday started with a slightly overcast day and no internet or cell coverage to the site. So we changed our plans and went for a hike on Dicks Creek it was a gentle mile down to the Chattooga river. They must have had some severe weather last week as we could not join the river trail ( bridge was out ) or the Bartrum trail ( trees down ).

On the way back to the camp we stopped at a great farmers market. We went swimming in the camp pool and then a nice BBQ outside before packing up as much as possible ahead of our next journey. Tomorrow we head for Tabor City NC, 20 miles from Myrtle Beach and a RV park within a working vineyard.