I’m officially back to work after my sabbatical. On Monday, my final day of sabbatical, Jeremy Wall and I paddled up the Croton River from the Echo launch at the train station up to Fireman’s Island, which is about the farthest you can get without carrying your boat. Beautiful day and the water was ice…

As I write this, I’m sitting on the deck sipping a grapefruit IPA from Captain Lawrence, as the sun sets, the fireflies come out, and cooler air floats in. Charlie fell asleep early tonight, while I was out on the round platform swing, and we were able to carry him in and successfully transfer him…

Posting a double header edition because I was sick from Friday-Wednesday last week with what I originally thought was food poisoning, but as it prolonged and got worse I decided was probably norovirus. It was rough. Thankfully Amanda and Charlie didn’t get it. Today is our twelfth wedding anniversary! 💍 🍾 I’m not sure I’ve…

Charlie and I spent M-F camping with my parents at Bald Eagle State Park in PA. We cruised around the lake and went swimming in the chilly water. Charlie loves playing in water! We sat around the campfire and ate s’mores. We drove all over the PA Wilds searching for elk. Did you know PA…

This post format is feeling a bit stale, but not sure what to do about it. Comment or email me if you have suggestions! Since we had friends over for a cookout the day before, we took it easy on Memorial Day and hung around the house, mostly playing in the yard with Charlie. We…

Monday I cleaned and sorted through the Shopsmith parts I picked up from the estate sale two weeks ago. I found the right combination of parts to finally have a safe table saw setup and use a standard 5/8″ arbor instead of the Shopsmith 1″ arbor. I am pretty stoked about that! I also hung…

I spent M-F this week fly fishing in the Catskills. I primarily fished small streams in search of native brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. I’m happy to report that I found some great spots and caught 61 brook trout over the course of the week, along with 7 wild brown trout and 1 rainbow. I caught…

Happy Mother’s Day! Monday I kept Charlie home from pre-k and took him to tour the Clearwater. They had a special event for 2-4 year olds! It was fun, despite the rain. Charlie got to help push the tiller, see some real catfish and hog chokers, and explore the deck. We also stopped at Rossi…

Good week! Monday I put the roof on Charlie’s slide play fort and finished it: That night I made a leather net holster for my fishing belt. It turned out okay for my first leather working project, but I need to make a new one out of thicker, sturdier leather because this one flops around…

Cool photo I found this week: One of our neighbors put their house up for sale, and the listing included an aerial photo of our street. You can see our house and a great view of the town and the river. We feel very grateful to live here. Three big projects occupied my time this…

This week was spring break for most of NY, so this week was all about hanging with Charlie. Monday we traveled back from Georgia. Charlie was a great traveler, and to our surprise he slept for the whole plane ride. Tuesday Charlie and I puttered around the yard doing lots of small tasks. We repotted…

At the beginning of this week, I helped with another trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling, which I wrote about here: I also finished an oak bowl on the lathe, which I wrote about here: Puttered around in the backyard and the workshop in the rain with Charlie. He checked on the radishes, organized his workbench,…