Friday

It's Garbage Day!!

43 degrees and still raining.

• Today: Rain ending in the morning. Mainly cloudy with a few breaks of sun possible. Breezy. High in the low 50s.
• Tonight: Lake effect rain showers developing across the Tug Hill Plateau. Clouds and a chance of a shower elsewhere. Breezy. Low near 40.
• Saturday: Lake effect rain showers well north of Utica most of the day, dropping south toward evening. When rain arrives it could be heavy with a chance of a thunderstorm. Cloudy. Breezy. High: 53

It rained all day, yesterday.

Cows didn't care!


The pond's back! And look how green the grasses have gotten!


Sangerfield has a lake, again.

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I had a nice E-note from Cindy Gallagher, telling me that:

"Edward and Paul Gallagher hosted an early 80th Birthday party for their mother Roseann this past Saturday at Paul's home. Roseann's brother Jack Sutphin and his wife from Texas were in town. Roseann's sisters and sister -in-law Marguarite and Jack McKennan attended along with several nieces and family. Niece Carolyn Tine painted a lively birthday greeting that is posted on the east side of Roseann's home.

Friends can greet Roseann with birthday wishes on her actual birthday
- the 16th - at the senior citizens breakfast.

Speaking of which ---

don't forget to phone Memorial Park School

841-3700

if you want to attend!!

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It was a dark day, yesterday, but here are just a few of the bright spots there are around the village!

PLANNING AHEAD!

The WCS Boys' Varsity Soccer Team will meet rival Sauquoit, this evening, at the Brothertown Stadium.

The Brothertown Music Boosters will sponsor a Bottle Drive tomorrow
morning from 9 - noon.

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On Sunday, October 21, remember the Abby Smith Pancake Breakfast at the Firehouse that's being sponsored by Friends of the Smith Family in order to help defer some of the medical expenses that they've incurred since Abby's stroke last Spring.

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Later that day, there will be an Open House at Michael's from 5 - 7 sponsored by Grace Episcopal Church so that the community will have an opportunity to say Goodbye and extend their Best Wishes to Byron and Hester Stuhlman. Byron will retire, at the end of the month, and they will be moving to their vacation/retirement home in Round Pond, Maine. A special service will take place at Grace Church at 10:00 on the 28th when the Bishop will celebrate the Holy Eucharist at the conclusion of Byron's ministry and officially appoint Ann Stillman the Priest-in-Charge.

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Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thursday

It's Recyclables Day!

51 degrees and raining.

• Thursday: Occasional rain. Cloudy and cool. High in the upper 50s.
• Thursday night: Occasional rain tapering to showers. Low in the upper 40s.
• Friday: Cloudy with rain showers. Cool and damp. High in the low 50s.

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The sun came out for a few hours, yesterday afternoon, and "cement trucks" were at the Car Wash and on Tower Street.

Sidewalks on Putnam and White Street have been poured, as well.

This photo and the next, both taken in N. Brookfield ..........

............ are especially for Nancy, with UNICEF in Niger, Africa!

And for Bruce and Dolly Ladd, the original Barton Homestead, on Fuess-Cleary Road outside of Waterville.

(Click!)

The Leatherstocking Ballet is hosting these performances as fundraisers for their Spring production of "Peter Pan." If anyone has groups of eight or more, please contact Mary Beth Plourde for tickets.

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"Michigan" drummer Justin Hopkins won't disappear after football season: he's landed the spot of sole drummer with the college's pep band and will be at all of the basketball games, this time playing the stationary drum set next to the court!

For the rest of you, from the O-D:

World-class highland drummer Tom Foote has joined Mohawk Valley Frasers Bagpipe Band and will begin a bi-monthly class for beginners beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul’s Church, Cypress Street, Rome. Foote will offer solo lessons to experienced drummers.

The Mohawk Valley Frasers will offer classes for those wishing to learn to play the bagpipe. Highland Dancing will be taught by Elizabeth Clough with classes meeting on Sundays at the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton. Clough is certified by the Scottish Dance Teachers’ Alliance. For information or lessons, call 339-0972, 336-5393 or 585-752-3838.

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Blooming in the shade on Bogan Road - Monkshood.

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Have a dandy day!!

Wednesday

It's 53 degrees; not raining.

But it has been, and even before last evening's showers, just LOOK:
for the first time in weeks, there's water in the pond at the bottom of Grant Hill!

And there might be even more!

• Wednesday: A mix of sun and clouds with increasing afternoon clouds and a chance of late day showers or a rumble of thunder. Mild. High in the upper 60s, with a few places possibly touching on 70 degrees.
• Wednesday night: Cloudy with pockets of showers. Low in the upper 40s to around 50.
• Thursday: Occasional rain. Cool and damp. High: 56, Low: 47

I had an E-note from Kristin Strohmeyer in which she said that she and the Zenons had been kayaking in Nine Mile Swamp and that there seemed to be as much water as there would be in April!

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Foliage is starting to be noticably nice around Waterville. I slowed down to enjoy a bright stretch on Route 12, north of the village, but it's nothing compared to the brilliance shown in these two pictures that Sheri Salm-Brennan sent to me, yesterday, of her son Eddie and his friend, Jacob English, on Bald Mountain.

Please click to enlarge any of these photographs.

You can see the view in person by driving N. to Old Forge and continuing NE another three or four miles to Rondaxe Road. There'll be a brown DEC marker, and that's where the trailhead parkinglot is.

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Sheri especially wanted everyone to see this picture, too!

Click!

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There are two new notices on the Bulletin Board in the Park.

This promotes WCS high school Soccer, and the other side reminds us of the Brothertown Music Boosters' Bottle Drive that will take place on Saturday morning from 9:00 til noon.

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Terry Tanner sent me this photograph of a new sign on Route 12 .....


...... which she'd spotted on a website that I wasn't aware of. It's Radio Free Hamilton, and is really neat!

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And when Brian Staring sent me the photographs of his super veggies, he also sent this picture and note:

"This Friday and Saturday at the Ross park zoo in Binghamton, New York there will be a display of huge pumpkins like mine and bigger that are carved like this one attached. The best time to go will be at night. They take these pumpkins and use different lighting effects inside of them to put on quite a show. Plus one part of the zoo will be set up along with them with many different Halloween themes."

In Utica, The Zoo's "Spooktacular," which had been planned for this weekend, has been postponed.

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In HS Sports, the WCS Girls' Varsity Soccer team won their match with Frankfort, 1 - 0 and the Boys' Varsity Soccer team beat Canastota 7 - 2.

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Tuesday

It's Garbage Day!

58 degrees, and it's been raining most of the night, I think.

WKTV is not providing a detailed forecast, this morning, but I think we can assume that it's going to be "wet." It would take days and days of steady rain to even begin to fill Hinckley, so other procedures are taking place.
From the O-D: Kayuta Lake Draw-down Angers Some and Early Canal Closing to Protect Drinking Water Supply.


While Trenton Falls and Lyon's Fall are nearly dry, this is the first glimpse that I had, yesterday, of Chittenango Falls: WATER! I talked with the Park Staff, and they had been told that Chittenango just has "a larger water table."



This picture of the Falls is from the www. It had been raining, when I was there, and the trails to the base were really sort-of slippery ---- I just went far enough down to make sure that there was still some of the very tiny, very choice "Walking Fern" where it used to be: it was.

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Back in town, I stopped at the newly relocated Ecco Video to return an overdue CD ......

... and just stuck my head (and camera) in to the new Belfield Insurance Agency office.


There are more and more Autumn Decorations everywhere around the village.
This arrangement is at Terry Meadows .....

... and here's a scary Hallowe'en display on Buell Avenue.


Brian Staring sent me this picture of his grandaughter, Mary, that was taken in his Pumpkin Patch about a month ago!

And here he is in Oswego, last weekend, with his Second Prize 431-lb. SQUASH!

(He said he's never grown squash, before!)

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No: not decorations. The slowdown on Route 315 will continue as new guardrails are installed. There's another single-lane slow-down around "Daniel's Nose."

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I had two other photographs sent to me over the weekend: this, from a cell phone, taken before the Michigan Game on Saturday showing Justin Hopkins and his tenor drums with his mother, the Meszler family and the Stawskowskis. They had all driven to Ann Arbor from Waterville just to see Justin in the Drum Line at the game!

U. of Michigan stadium --- 107,000 and more! Final score: Michigan U. over Eastern Michigan 33 - 22.

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Final Score.

"Columbus Day"

It's a Holiday, so there is NO Garbage Collection!
(and the Post Office is closed, too!)

It's 60 degrees and raining.

• Today: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers and storms. Warm and humid. High 75.
• Tonight: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Patchy fog. Low 62
• Tuesday: Cloudy with widespread showers, especially in the afternoon. High 70 Low 52

Apparently, the Drought is over, but ......... Local Lakes and Natural Wonders Feel Effects of Drought.

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I wasn't going to do a post, today, but I went for a ride up North on Saturday and thought you might like to do the same - if you have any holiday time free, today.



I went first to Hinckley Reservoir (turn right off of Rt. 12 a mile or two North of Barneveldt.)
The parkinglot above the dam was filled: people just staring at the vast dunescape they'd never seen before.

A little further up the road, a canoe waits.

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I turned westward, again, and took Fairchild Road over to Remsen. From there, I'd like to suggest that you drive North for half-an-hour or so - through Boonville - and along Route 12 - passing some beautifully-preserved locks from the Black River Canal - to about three miles North of Lyon's Falls. Watch for Burdicks Crossing Road, on your right. You'll see a small blue sign advertising "River Valley Inn." It's a simple brown building - plain on the outside; quaint on the inside, and that will be a good place to stop, for a while! You may even recognize the owner/chef, Andrew Zuccaro - WCS '78 - whose mother is Gail Bishop and whose dad, Pete Zuccaro, ran a legenday pub in Deansboro. Andrew began his culinary career washing dishing at The Old Poste when he was fifteen; he's been with four-star restaurants up and down the East Coast, and about a year ago he and his wife Megan decided that they simply wanted to come home! (Lucky us!) I learned about the River Valley Inn from Kim Kampf. She and Cassie had been taken there by her parents, the week before, and they were all raving about it! Even Paul who, according to Kim, can be a bit "hard to please," at times!

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When you leave the Inn, continue East for a bit and then Southward on Lyon's Falls Road.

The last time I was here, the spray from the falls was fifty feet high!

Find your way back to Rt. 12 and continue South to Boonville. The best color that I saw all day was on the Moose River Road --- turn left next to the playground.

The colors are dazzling, but - again - the river is lower than I've ever seen it. You certainly wouldn't normally be able to have a picnic on these rocks and walk over to the island, as these folks did!

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I was at home, most of yesterday ......

......... watching TV. The Red Sox roll right into the American League Championship Series for a matchup with either the Indians or Yankees that will open on Friday at Fenway Park,

........... but think that I'll check out Chittenango Falls, today!

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