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 to bed, which is rare. Little guy was exhausted.

We think he is going through both a physical growth spurt and a developmental one as well (perhaps the limbic leap?). Poor guy is having some intense emotional mood swings and outbursts right now. Is he starting to glimpse a sense of self and is pushing back against his lack of autonomy? We try to give him as much autonomy as we can, but four year olds still make some pretty suspect choices, which are more impulses than actual choices…letting those intrusive thoughts win. We know this will pass (equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium, etc), but it has been a challenging two weeks on the parenting front.

Yet, between the outbursts and meltdowns, there have still been very sweet, tender, loving, creative, helpful moments full of kindness and good choices. It’s those moments that help us recharge and keep going.

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This was my last full week on sabbatical. Back to work the coming week.

We were submerged under a sticky, humid heat wave M-W. My weather station recorded 99.9F! I spent a little bit of time on Monday and Wednesday working in the shed. I turned a bowl out of a chunk of cherry, though it had a lot of tear out, which I attribute to the chatter from my worn out quill bearings. I have a replacement coming, but I’ve been waiting on it for over a month now. This one will probably just be a shop bowl. I also split a beautiful walnut log to carve into a trough. Despite a fan and lots of electrolytes, the heat got to me and I couldn’t work out there as long as I wanted to.

Tuesday I spent inside trying to fix another problem with a diverter valve on our shower head, then reading during the hottest part of the day.

Tuesday evening I took Charlie down to the riverfront to ride his bike, it was hot, but we both needed to get outside and move our bodies.

Thursday it cooled down enough to get out fly fishing again. Unfortunately, I had to go to four different streams to find one at a fishable temperature after the heat wave. The first three locations were 70F, 75F, and 70F. Wild! These spots were running cold just a couple weeks ago. The fourth stream was running at 58F, which is why it is one of the few unstocked wild trout streams in the Croton system. I caught a few small trout.

That might have been my last time fishing for trout in the Croton watershed for the next couple months until the water can cool back down. Without cold water releases from the reservoirs (not happening in the Croton system due to the Delaware Aqueduct Project, you can see current releases here), I don’t see that happening until autumn. That and going back to work significantly cuts into my free time.

Time to paddle instead.

Friday I called my friend Jeremy and we did just that. We decided to launch from Cold Spring and we noticed that the water levels were right to get under the train trestle into Constitution Marsh, which neither of us had paddled. Beautiful place! We also tried to paddle up Indian Brook and see the falls, but the water level was too low, to make it very far up the brook.

I thought the train trestle on the south end of the marsh was passable most of the time, and I figured we’d get out there and paddle back around the point with the flood. Unfortunately I had that mixed up and that trestle is almost never passable, even at low tide. Whoops! We hightailed it back through the marsh and just made it back out under the north trestle before high tide. We had to scoot far down in our kayaks and pull ourselves under the trestle with our hands, fighting against the flood current. Getting stuck there isn’t terrible, it usually means waiting 3-4 hours for the water level to change (and we did pack a lunch), but I’m glad we were able to get out.

Monday we plan to do a morning paddle up the Croton River. It is usually cooler in the gorge, even on sweltering days.

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Thursday night Charlie wanted to get out the old manual reel mower that a few previous owners have left with the house. Apparently most of the neighbors had one ~20 years ago. Together he and I used it to mow about 3/4 of our yard, and it did a good job! I did tune it up and sharpen it in 2020, but have mostly been using an electric mower since. I’ll have to sub in the reel mower more often when I want more of a workout.

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Time to move back inside, it is dark and my screen is attracting bugs.

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Saturday we got up and went to Fishkill Farms to pick currants. Charlie loved it, especially the relative freedom of wandering off through the rows of bushes and picking on his own. He picked almost a whole pint by himself!

We are going to try a clafoutis with some first. Then maybe some jam and some scones. Send me your favorite black currant recipes, please!

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In the heat we’ve been making simple meals. Salads with grilled chicken (quesadillas for the little guy), chicken caesar salad wraps with the leftover chicken, hotdogs, hamburgers. Nothing complex, and preferably nothing that heats up the house. Also simple because mealtimes have been a challenge. See above.

Send me your favorite kid-friendly hot weather meal ideas, please!

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I finished two books this week.

The first, Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. I’ve read almost all of Stephenson’s novels now and this was the first I didn’t like. I finished it hoping for some incredible payoff at the end given all of the awards and acclaim the book has, but apparently this book just isn’t my thing.

The second, Ivan Doig’s Ride with me, Mariah Montana, the third in his Montana trilogy, was a fitting conclusion to that trilogy. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the whole trilogy.

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Ugh, my heart monitor is rapidly blinking and I can see it through my shirt. Time to charge the receiver for the second time today.

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Added some more books to my “to read” list this week:

• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• North Woods Daniel Mason
• Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality by Renee DiResta
• Riverman: An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath

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Lots of chatter about declining insect populations recently. I have a thought an an anecdote:

1. Regarding the “there are fewer bugs on my bumper and windshield than 30 years ago” – True, but modern cars are also more aerodynamic! Also, once you get out of the suburbs and modern farmland, you’ll notice a definite increase. Yes, still probably much fewer than 30 years ago, but I noticed significantly more bugs on my windshield while driving around the Catskills and the PA Wilds the last two months than around my house.
2. The first summer we lived in this house, I put down some grub killer on the lawn (and I am sure the previous owners had, too). When there were no lightning bugs in our yard that summer, I realized I made a huge mistake and vowed never to do that again. The past three years, I am happy to report there have been a lot of lightning bugs.
   • Planting pollinator friendly flowers has attracted a lot of pollinators to our yard, too.

You can make a difference. Stop using pesticides and plant more flowers.

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I’ve been curious about the elephant on the signs for Somers, NY, so I finally looked it up. Around 1800, Hachaliah Bailey (of Barnum & Bailey / Ringling Bros circus fame) bought an elephant named Old Bet while he was living in Somers. After she was shot by a farmer in Maine, Bailey erected a statue of Old Bet in front of his Elephant Hotel in Somers, both of which are still there today. Driving past it on the way to go fishing is what prompted me to look it up.

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Following a new old blog, thanks to Manu Moreale’s People and Blogs interview series: David Wertheimer’s Ideapad.

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.

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Today is our twelfth wedding anniversary! 💍 🍾

I’m not sure I’ve ever posted one of our wedding photos on the blog, so today is a good time to post one.

We went out to breakfast to celebrate.

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I started this blog seventeen years ago today!

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I ended up getting my FreedomBox upgraded successfully to Debian 13 (trixie) and am now running my own Miniflux feed reader instance on it. Thanks to the power of the greader/FreshRSS API, it also syncs with NetNewsWire on desktop and mobile.

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Amanda had to go to Miami for two days last week, so Charlie and I went on an adventure the first night. We went to King Kone for the first time for dinner and ice cream (Charlie opted for a milkshake), then we went over to Croton Gorge, which was really flowing! King Kone’s food was good. The platters all come with a side of homemade coleslaw wish scallions in it.

The next evening we hung around the house and played outside, went on a bike ride through the woods, where we caught a glimpse of a fox.

Thursday my friend Jay came over, fresh on his summer break (school teacher), and we hiked up to the top of Blue Mountain. Despite walking in the park multiple times a week for the past five years, I never actually went up to the summit of Blue Mountain, so we decided to go check it out. “Mountain” is generous, as the elevation is 680ft. Still, it is the highest point in the local area. It was about a 45 minute walk from our house to the summit. There is an old shelter foundation up there, as well as a little pond.

On the way back down, Jay and I amused ourselves by making up the beginnings of a story about The Blue Mountain Troll. Proportional to its surroundings, it is small, only 3ft tall. It lives in the rock formations up there. No one has seen it, but there are reports of hikers getting hit by acorns and small rocks while going up the trail.

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I got out fishing three times in the past two weeks. Cross River, East branch of the Croton, and upper West branch of the Croton.

It is interesting how three rivers, all part of the same watershed and so geographically close together, are so different. All three have to be approached and fished completely differently if you are to expect any bend in your rod.

At a local bookstore I found a copy of a book from 1985 that details the streams in the area and has some better maps than the current guide from the local Trout Unlimited chapter. It mentions names for pools/holes that I knew were there, but didn’t know the names of. For example, here is the one for the Amawalk:

It is also interesting to compare what has changed and what remains the same. For instance, everyone knows that the Upper West branch is full of small 6-8″ brown trout, and that is about all you’ll catch. Apparently it was that way in the 80s, too!

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Right now I’m reading Ride with me, Mariah Montana by Ivan Doig, the final book in his Montana Trilogy. I’ve read roughly one per year. I recently learned that there are even more books by Doig set in the same Two Medicine country, but not about the McCaskill family. I’m looking forward to reading another next year.

The past couple years Charlie has made bookmarks for me for Father’s Day. The one pictured is from last year, but I switched to this year, which was made out of orange paper (he picked orange because that is my favorite color). I treasure these bookmarks more than gold.

Related, a text from Amanda:

I started the creative discussions for your annual bookmark and I asked if he wanted to paint something or draw something or take one of the photos from his camera and make that the bookmark and he said “No I don’t want to do that. What about a heart because I love daddy.”

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This has been a challenging weekend for parenting. This little guy can do something that surprises us and makes us so proud of him, then go completely feral a few hours later. We’ve learned if that happens after ~3pm, the rest of the day is pretty much shot. The only thing that reliably works to reset the mood is sleep, so you need to cancel plans, throw out expectations, order takeout, and just strap in until bedtime. Switch off every 30-60 mins so you both get a chance to catch your breath.

Keep reminding yourself that he is a good kid having a hard time and that tomorrow’s another day.

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Small update on the blood clot front: I’m now wearing a heart monitor for 30 days to see if I have any signs of arrhythmia, which could throw clots.

I have to be honest, I hate wearing it. It is small and wireless, but an oversized hassle.

• It is giving me a rash.
• It woke me up beeping in the middle of the night because of a “low battery” (20% was the threshold, which would last for well over 24 hours) and wouldn’t stop beeping until I changed it.
• I can see the light flashing through most of my shirts.
• I can’t swim with it.
• The receiver is a locked down cell phone that has a terrible battery life. I have to carry two phones around all day and charge the receiver more frequently than just at night.
• I’m aware of it at all times.

I can’t wait to be rid of this. I hope it something comes of it.

Related: Nothing makes you want to take your health more seriously like the waiting room at a cardiologist’s office.

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Charlie’s strawberry plant is producing nicely. He’s been able to pick and eat three or four strawberries off of it so far and he is so excited every time.

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Garden update: Lots of borage, which we are freezing in ice cubes and eating on salads.

Heat wave this coming week, with temps nearing 100F. Thankfully we got the window ACs in a couple nights ago. This always seems to be the week it gets hot enough for us to put them in. I need to add that to my Small Seasons calendar.

I made some iced coffee, iced tea, and a bag of pebble ice to keep us cool.

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This upcoming week is the final week of my sabbatical. I’m hoping to make the most of it, despite the scorching temperatures. Probably some woodworking in the early part of the week, then some more fly fishing later in the week once it cools down a little.

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 has a wild elk population? The Elk Country Visitor Center is worth a visit if you are in the area.

We visited Penn’s Cave. Pretty neat place, almost in the middle of a field. Not exactly where you’d expect a huge cave. 52F all year, which felt great on the 90F day.

We baked cinnamon rolls in a dutch oven over coals for the first time. Lodge has a booklet that lays out how many coals you need on top and bottom for reaching a specific temperature for a given sized dutch oven. Much better than winging it! I’d like to try cooking more things in a dutch oven.

We swatted off the cicadas that landed on us. Big hatch this year!

No fly fishing this week, though I took note of a few streams that looked promising for the future. I did cast a spinning rod out on the boat for a bit and caught a smallmouth bass and a large bluegill. Both on a Yo-Zuri Snap Bean that I’ve had for at least 20 years and have caught a lot of fish on.

I was curious why almost every small stream, and even some larger ones, were named “_____ Run” instead of brook, stream, or creek. Around me they are mostly Creek or Brook. I looked it up.

• “Run” is an old English and Scots word meaning “a small stream or brook.”
• Settlers of Scots-Irish descent made up a large proportion of early migrants to western and central Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

We all had fun, and Charlie was a good sport driving four hours with me. Amanda usually keeps him company in the back seat, but we listened to a lot of Twenty Trucks and Thomas and Friends Storytime, which helped keep our minds off of her absence this trip.

The above is mostly highlights, but to bring us back down to earth, I’d like to acknowledge that did have a hard time being away from his Momma for a week. We had our ups and downs, but we got through with a little help from video calls with Momma and extra snuggles with Grandma and Grandpa.

After we got home, we had a mostly quiet weekend. It rained most of the day Saturday and we hung around the house. Sunday we went to a birthday party and to the playground.

At home our Mock Orange is in full bloom!

From a walk in the woods:

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After months of downtime because I decided to try to switch to an unstable Debian branch and botched it, I finally reflashed my FreedomBox and started fresh. I got that working last night, and as I write this am attempting to upgrade from Debian 12 to 13. Next I need to re-add my external storage and re-install the apps I had running. Say an incantation to St IGNUtius for me if you are familiar with the ways of GNU/Linux.

It is a slow process of consulting the canon (wikis) and trying different things. I am taking notes in my digital garden, which maybe one day will be linked to and become a part of the record. This is the way.

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 washed the car together and watered the garden (he absolutely loves spraying the hose), then played a lot on the swing set.

I had a couple good fishing days this week and one bad fishing day.

Tuesday I caught 13 brown trout on a new stretch of the upper west branch of the Croton river that I hadn’t fished before. Used my TenkaraBum 36. Elk hair caddis, sulfur comparadun, and stimulators were the producers.

Wednesday I fished a river on the east side of the county that I had fished once before and caught two brook trout and seven brown trout. The two brook trout were larger than any I caught in the Catskills earlier this month. The browns were 8-9 inches and nice looking fish, decent size for that small water. Lots of watersnakes here.

I am excited to have caught some brook trout in Westchester! The first one was caught on my very first cast. That day I fished with the same size 14 Haystack (Fran Betters’ pattern) the whole day.

This is the place I helped with the trout releases. I was surprised to see a hatch of those huge hellgrammites (dobson flies) we sampled going on while I was fishing. Here is one of the hellgrammites and one of the adult flies I snapped a photo of:

Friday I fished two different streams. I heard of a supposed wild brook trout stream on public land and went to check it out, but all I caught was one tiny blacknose dace. The water was extremely low. Later that afternoon I fished the Amawalk, and while I had a couple strikes, I didn’t have any hookups. I’ve not had much luck on the Amawalk. It was a frustrating day where I spent more time bushwacking through invasive barberry and multiflora rose than fishing. At least I saw some wild irises and forget-me-nots.

I did a couple small things in the workshop this week:

• I turned a new handle for a fish hook remover, since I lost my previous one in the Catskills.
• Tried dyeing some polyester craft fur for fly tying, which didn’t go well. It didn’t take at all. I think I am just going to buy some pre-dyed since I find the dyeing process tedious and $5 will get me enough to last a couple years.
• Mixed up some grey squirrel dubbing.
• Fixed my net holder with pop rivets in the corners where the stitches ripped out. I rummaged around and found a washer that just fit the rivet so it wouldn’t pull through. After it popped, I flattened it on the railroad anvil.
  • It has been nice this past year to finally get my workshop set up so that I can go out and work on something for ten minutes without it having to be a whole thing.
  • The leather punch and washers were from estate sales. The pop rivet gun is an old one from my dad. I think the peen hammer was my grandfather’s. The anvil is from my uncle’s dad. It all came together here to fix this, and I’m sure I’ll pass this stuff on, too, after I’ve used it.

Fly tying this week:

• More CDC & Elk (caddis) in 14 and 16
• Different colors of Fran Betters’ Haystack, mostly size 14 (maybe a couple 16s)
• A few size 16 bead head squirrel hair nymphs for droppers.
• Some futsu kebari
• A couple generic soft hackles

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We went out to eat in Beacon in the middle of the week and Charlie noticed people walking on the abandoned railroad tracks across the street and really wanted to explore them, too.

The highlight of Charlie’s week was going for a walk down by the river and noticing that there was railroad construction equipment lined up on the side track. We walked the full length two days in a row looking at them. I’m not an expert, but I could identify tie pullers, tie inserters, spike pullers, spike collectors, plate layers, and plate screw impact drivers (it looks like the old style plates and spikes are being replaced with new style plates that use screws instead of spikes). Also something that looks like it aligns rails.

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It has been a rainy month. 6.75in of rain here in May, according to my weather station. I looked up some official data and this is the rainiest May in at least the last five years.

I know that fish are more active and let their guard down more in the rain, but I’ve tried fly fishing in the rain and don’t particularly like it. It just isn’t fun and relaxing, which is the goal of fly fishing for me.

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I finally looked back at the birdhouse cam. For two months it was covered by next material, but last week it was clear again and there were some large baby birds! House finches.

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 the accessory shelf on a cleat. the Shopsmith corner is coming along nicely.

Tuesday I went fly fishing on the upper west branch of the Croton River. This time I worked my way upstream. This section of the Croton River is a wild quality brown trout stream, so it is unstocked. I caught 15 wild browns, a couple in a big pool and most in pocket water. Elk Hair Caddis and Olive Bubble Kebari were the two standout flies. I caught 9 bluegill in the big pool, too. The bluegill wouldn’t take a dry fly, but they absolutely loved the subsurface olive bubble kebari.

When the wind blew there were rises like crazy in one of the big pools. Took me a few times to figure it out, but little green inchworms and spongy moth caterpillars were falling out of the trees! I had to tie some of these up to try again there next week.

I saw this excellent tree, where I imagine the neighborhood scholarly owl lives.

Wednesday I explored the streams over in Harriman State Park, which were beautiful, high gradient pocket water streams. Unfortunately I didn’t get a single take or even see a fish that I’d spooked on either of the streams I fished. The water was fairly warm for a chilly day, so I’m wondering if it just isn’t good trout habitat anymore. The most recent sampling info I found was from 2021, so it is possible the habitat is no longer viable. I’ll try again perhaps in the fall, but I’m not holding my breath. It is really too bad because the streams are gorgeous.

Thursday I went to a small going away party for the Trout in the Classroom coordinator for NYC, who is moving out to California.

Friday Charlie and I ran errands in the rain for most of the afternoon and got him a haircut, then we played at George’s Island Park after dinner. There used to be brick kilns there, and the causeway to the mainland formed over time from discarded bricks. You can still see them in the water!

Saturday we worked in the yard, cleaning up a brushpile that we’ve wanted to clean up for past last three years. Amanda did the bulk of the clean up. I helped with relocating the wood piles and logs, then I mowed and planted potatoes, and took Charlie to pick up some grass seed, which we them sowed where the brush pile used to be. We moved the logs into a climbing/jumping/hopping area for Charlie, which he climbed on immediately.

Charlie helping with the potatoes:

Sunday we had the Meg, Jeremy, Miles, Ben, and Henry over for a cookout (chicken kabobs). The kids had lots of fun on the slide and running around the backyard. That’s exactly why we wanted a big yard!

Some more fly tying: A brown bivisible and some smaller elk hair caddis using multiple hair colors for a variegated look.

We’re starting to cook from our garden: Grilled radishes, chimichurri from our parsley, cilantro on tacos. Next up will be the mint, dill, garlic scapes, and borage.

Any night it doesn’t rain we are out in the backyard.

We put up our old mailbox in Charlie’s slide fort. It is primarily monster truck storage now.

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 fish all five days.

One of these streams yielded 43 native brook trout in a single day, plus dozens more that I missed. On that day I packed a sandwich in my backpack and spent from 9:30am-7pm hiking and fishing the stream. Another yielded 16.

Despite it being peak fishing season in the Catskills and every parking area and pool on the Willowemoc, Beaver Kill, and Esopus was full of anglers, I didn’t see a single person the entire week on the small streams I fished. Bliss!

Some photos of the streams:

I love these state forest signs:

Some of the beautiful speckled brook trout I caught:

And a nice sized wild brown for the small stream it was in:

It was incredibly gratifying to catch these beautiful fish on flies that I tied. The elk hair caddis and the peacock herl futsu kebari were the two main producers, with a soft hackle pheasant tail, bead head futsu kebari, and a frenchie catching a couple fish as well.

After this trip I’m considering simplifying my fly tying lineup to include fewer flies with a wider range of sizes rather than a wide variety of patterns in mostly 2-3 sizes.

I primarily fished my Dragontail Mizuchi tenkara rod at the 11ft length with an 8ft level line and 2-3ft of 5x tippet. This was a great length combo for fishing tight cover and deadfalls for fish that spooked easily. The long rod gave me good reach, but the shorter line casted better without getting hung up on tree limbs.

Focusing for five days on fishing with the tenkara rod allowed me to greatly improve my casting, as well as improve my water reading and stealth. I’m looking forward to revisiting some of my local streams with renewed focus. I’m also eager to find some brook trout streams closer to home!

Thursday around lunchtime I lost my hook remover. I know roughly where I lost it, but couldn’t find it. The walnut handle was beautiful, but it blends right in with leaves. I should have kept it on a zinger. I’ll make another one this week.

I stayed in a little A-frame in the Roscoe area for two nights and a cabin the Phoenicia area for two nights. Outside of fishing, I also visited the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, perused books in the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection in the Phoenicia library, ate at the Phoenicia Diner, the Beaver Kill Covered Bridge, stocked up on fly tying materials at Dette Flies, and visited the Catskill Hatchery.

Amanda and I visited the fly fishing museum 8 or 10 years ago, but I viewed it with fresh eyes now that I tie flies. It was neat to see the tools and jigs people made to help them tie. It was also neat to see some of the original patterns in person that I’ve only seen in books. In the rod building shop at the museum, I ran into Mark Sturtevant, whose blog I subscribe to. He kindly showed me around the shop and showed me the lo o bamboo cane rod he was building. I’d love to make my own bamboo fly rod one day.

Throughout the trip I listened to Ed van Put’s Trout Fishing in the Catskills, which provided some great historical context.

I saw some neat creatures: Red efts, speckled salamanders, a rosy maple moth, deer, turkeys, and eagles. One eagle was perched above the raceways at the fish hatchery, snatching easy meals. And some beautiful trilliums (red trilliums, white trilliums, and painted trilliums)!

The bugs were atrocious. I wore a hat, a buff, long sleeves, and used bug spray, but still had a dozen mosquito bites on my forehead and hands.

I came back home Friday afternoon and had dinner with Charlie and Amanda at River Outpost. It was great to spend a week fly fishing, but I missed them. I love coming home to them!

Saturday we played outside in the morning, went to Charlie’s swim class where he did really well learning to float on his back, and then I took him grocery shopping at Stew Leonard’s for a couple hours, then mowed the grass after dinner.

Sunday we got up and walked in the woods, went to the playground, and then had some friends over for an afternoon cookout.

The tulip poplars are blooming!

The black locusts are blooming, too. This is such a beautiful time of year, even if my allergies are killing me. This is the most I’ve seen the one in our yard bloom:

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 Deli for lunch (A must stop!)

I took a great photo of the Clearwater ten years ago in front of our Yonkers apartment and we have the photo hanging in our living room. It was cool to go on it!

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A post shared by Chuck Grimmett (@cagrimmett)

Tuesday I went fishing in the rain. I didn’t catch anything, but I did explore a new section of a stream I’ve fished before, saw some neat creatures, plants, and harvested some ramps for dinner. I chopped them up, roasted them with butter, and poured them over baked potatoes. Delicious.

Wednesday painters came and finished the last part of our house’s facelifts: Painting the foundation, porticos, front porch, garage door, and front door. We also cleaned the house.

Next up I want to replace the purple glass in the front door, but that requires some decisions and sourcing.

Thursday I tied some flies (rusty spinners and futsu kebari), installed a new mailbox, made a new net holder, planted our tomatoes and hot peppers, and went grocery shopping. Rainy afternoon.

Friday I went to an estate sale and dug through cabinets, drawers, and boxes for Shopsmith parts. I went back twice after coming home, sorting through things, and realizing that I was missing a couple parts to pieces I picked up. This is the sale I’ve been waiting for: Local, lots of parts, and sellers who didn’t know anything about the machine or the parts. I got:

• Front table extension
• Another set of tables
• A newer table saw upper and lower guard that actually fits (the one I have doesn’t fit, so I don’t use the table saw on the Shopsmith. I’m excited to start using it!)
• A universal accessory table that I plan to put a french cleat on and hang on the wall behind the machine.
• Tailstock, lathe chisels, and various centers and chucks
• Tenon cutter jig
• Various spindle adaptors
• A spindle sander with new-in-box sandpaper tubes for it, and the table insert for it
• Push blocks
• A few small tools for Charlie
• A large roll of Fleishmann Yeast wax paper

I am very pleased! I have lots of clean up work to do, but it was well worth the time. I am glad to have some spare parts and new-to-me accessories (that are ~40 years old).

Saturday we spent the afternoon at Zoe’s birthday party, which was an art-themed party. We had fun and Charlie played nicely with the other kids.

Sunday was Mother’s day, so we spent the morning with Amanda, went grocery shopping while she was at her horseback riding lessons, spent the afternoon playing in the yard with her, and cooked her a steak dinner, including a side of garden radishes cooked in za’atar and butter. All in all a good day.

A few other random notes:

• Spongy Moth caterpillars are bad again this year.
• It is mowing season. Sunday mornings seem to be this year’s mowing time.
• I want to get some water testing kits and test the water in the stream running through the nature preserve at the end of our street.
• I’d love to find a copy of the Borger Color System book.

Good week!

Monday I put the roof on Charlie’s slide play fort and finished it:

Adding a Slide Platform to an A-Frame Swing Set

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 too much. I’ll try to find a better piece and make another one this week.

Leather holster for a landing net

Tuesday the siding crew finished our siding and I closed up the shower pipe access in Charlie’s closet. Then Amanda and I went out to lunch.

Lunch is my favorite meal, and there is nothing more luxurious than going out for lunch in the middle of the day. A long lunch outside on a sunny day beats dinner reservations every time, IMO.

Later, I started the oak bowl turning project, which I continued working on Wednesday and finished Friday:

Two Rustic Oak Bowls From a Log

Wednesday the gutter crew finished putting up our new gutters, then I put up our new house numbers and continued working on the bowls. Amanda and I took an hour and got our back porch set up for the season.

Our house is looking great! Next step is painting the foundation, garage door, front door, front porch, and porticos.

Thursday I visited the local fly shop (Angler’s Den) to pick up a couple things, then went fishing:

Fallfish on the fly

I guess I blogged a lot this week, too!

Thursday night we had dinner on the back porch (carnitas tacos) and made s’mores on the chiminea.

Friday I finished the bowls and spent the afternoon running errands.

Saturday we took a road trip up to Accord to pick up some seedlings from the Hudson Valley Seed Co. We also stopped at the Mohonk Preserve Visitor’s Center (worth a stop if you have kids!). They had a good animal exhibit in the basement that Charlie enjoyed. I liked seeing the stuffed Fisher, since I saw a live one a month ago in the wild.

We also stopped Tuthilltown Distillery (which I guess they now call Hudson Whiskey since they were bought) for some of our favorite gin, which they no longer distribute. At least they still make and sell it on-site. It is worth the hour drive. It used to be called Half Moon Gin, but has been renamed to Citrus Moon Gin for some nebulous legal reasons. The staff reassured us that the recipe remains unchanged.

Saturday night we went to Kristin Richer’s birthday party. Jon wanted to make pizzas on his Ooni, so I took my Ooni over there too and helped him sling pizzas. We ended up making ~25 pizzas over the course of an hour and a half.

Jon showed me a trick I hadn’t used before: Instead of flouring your work area and putting lots of corn meal on your peel, drop the whole dough ball in a bowl of flour before shaping it. That worked really well.

I didn’t take many photos because I was focused on making pizzas, but I took a couple:

A thunderstorm passed through during the party, and Charlie had a great time running around in the rain.

Sunday Charlie and I mowed the lawn, screwed down some loose boards on the front porch, and went for a walk in the woods to try to find the owl we heard. Charlie likes pushing the down sloped part of the yard by himself. Then lots of indoor play time, snuggling, and grocery shopping for the rest of the day while it rained.

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I’m just over a month into my sabbatical, with two months left.

I had less free time in April that I would have liked, due to some family travel, Charlie’s spring break, and the house projects. I didn’t fish as much as I wanted, but I got a lot done. Still, it was incredibly nice to not have to work during that time, so I’m not complaining! I was able to pretty much stop thinking about work after about two weeks.

Plans for May and June include more fishing, some time out in the kayaks and guideboat on the water, and making more things out of wood in the workshop. Also some camping, day trips with Charlie, coffee with friends, spending a day or two in NYC, and more lunch dates with Amanda.

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Our backyard in December 2019 (when we moved in) vs April 2020 vs April 2025.

This progression gives me some feelings. A lot of life packed into five years.

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.

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Three big projects occupied my time this week:

• Charlie’s play fort
• Leaky shower
• Siding replacement

Charlie’s play fort is coming along nicely. I finished the main structure on Monday, added a bucket + pulley on Tuesday, and added the slide, handles, and a pirate ship’s wheel on Wednesday. Tuesday and Wednesday nights the three of us had picnic dinners up on the play fort, and it was lovely.

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The leaky shower was less fun. As I was showering Wednesday morning, Amanda came upstairs to let me know that she could hear water running into the kitchen ceiling, directly below the shower. I opened up the access panel, and sure enough, it was wet.

It looked like it was mostly coming from around the lip of the tub, so I recaulked where the tile meets the tub and around all the escutcheons. While that was drying, I decided to double down and fix some of the small tiles that had popped up by the tub. I glued them down and regrouted.

I was feeling accomplished until later that night when I tested the shower and found a new leak I hadn’t noticed before, this time coming from the water volume control knob. It took some architectural archeology to find the source and some internet sleuthing to find the solution. I ended up replacing the cartridge in the middle of the volume control and that solved the problem.

Side note tip: Kohler doesn’t publish PDFs of their parts diagrams like everyone else. It is locked inside a javascript app at scout.kohler.com and under the hood they are in SVG format. Kind of annoying, but at least they are available online.

Let me tell you, the 30 seconds between turning the water main back on in the basement and racing back up to the second floor to see if there were any leaks were sweat inducing for multiple reasons. Thankfully no leaks. Now I need to cover the access back up and put Charlie’s closet back together.

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The siding project took less work on my part, but more coordination. We hired a siding company to do it for us. I don’t have much to say about the company, they are on par with other contractors we’ve worked with. We wanted to start the beginning of April, then that was pushed to this week, and they finally started Friday. Despite those delays, I think they completed about half of the work in a single day.

Unfortunately, we had a severe thunderstorm Saturday night, while our house was without gutters and only half the siding was on. Water started coming in around the sliding glass door. Not the contractors’ fault, just bad timing. Hoping to have the work wrapped tomorrow.

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This week revealed to me just how much DIY work as been done on our 97 year old house. It has had many, many owners. Three different layers of siding, the sliding glass door was clearly added long after that back wall was built, cut off pipes abandoned under the tub, the access panel cut into and patched over multiple times, the shower valves screwed in from the now-tiled-over side instead of the access panel, etc.

And I’m certainly not making the problem any better. Just adding another layer, more holes, new screws, and fresh grout. I guess that’s just how houses evolve.

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Charlie has found the siding project very exciting. He ran to grab his camera when the materials delivery showed up and he wanted to be outside when the crew started working. Sunday he helped me pick up nails with a magnet bar.

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I fished one of the wild quality streams in the Croton watershed on Tuesday. I had some strikes, but didn’t land any fish. It was good to explore that new-to-me stream and take notes of the good holes for the future. I noticed a few Blue Quills hatching, so I tied some at home later that night, intending to try them out the following day, only to be waylaid by the leaking shower. So it goes.

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I helped with another trout release on Thursday. I caught some large Dobsonfly larvae and Stonefly nymphs, as well as a blacknose dace in the kick net. Saw another water snake! This time the students were a bit younger, so I kept my waders on and stood in the river while they released the trout at the bank, just in case. I spotted some nice 8in trout coming out from under the far bank to feed, perhaps on the newly released fingerlings.

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Friday night we had our friends Colin and Hayden over for dinner. We were all too engaged in conversation to take photos. Colin recommended An Immense World.

Saturday was a rainy day. We did some grocery shopping, got our sillies out on the pier between raindrops, and visited Transom Bookshop in Tarrytown.

Sunday Charlie and I went to a carnival with the Crisantes. Our very big 3.5-4 year olds rode a lot of rides themselves! Some we still had to ride with them, though. They are still little after all.

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It is the official start of Hose Season.

This is Charlie’s “Stew Stick”.

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I got a grommet kit and made a couple loops with grommets to go on my fishing belt for things to clip on to. I have a drawer full of things like webbing, different threads, a speed stitcher, and various other DIY materials. The grommet tool is a great addition. That drawer makes future projects possible.

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 some succulents and caudiciforms, moved dirt, planted some seeds, and got the car cleaned.

Wednesday Amanda spent the afternoon with Charlie, so I worked out in the workshop. I cleaned, made two more french cleat tool holders for lathe tools, and started a turning project on the lathe that I still need to finish.

Thursday I took Charlie to the Mid Hudson Children’s Discovery Museum in Poughkeepsie with another daycare family. We all had fun. It was a beautiful day, so we had lunch outside there by the river. Later we helped them move some mulch.

Friday Amanda, Charlie, and I met up at the Bronx Zoo with three other families. In hindsight, going to the zoo on a holiday weekend during spring break might not have been the best idea. It was very crowded and kind of chaotic. We had fun though. I was the designated wagon schlepper. We taught some other folks our pro move of stopping for Italian sandwiches on Arthur Ave before going to the zoo, which is infinitely better than the zoo food (and lines).

Saturday Charlie and I went to Home Depot to get some lumber to start a slide/play fort addition to his swingset, then Amanda and I spent a couple hours getting it started.

Charlie also told us he wanted to grow strawberries, so we took him to pick out a plant and a pot for them to go in. He is in charge of watering them.

Sunday we started with a 7am Easter Egg hunt in the backyard (Charlie spotted them from the upstairs window as soon as he woke up). Mid-morning we went down to the waterfront to fly a kite and play on the playground. After lunch we worked on the swingset addition some more.

Most of the week was chilly, but the weekend really warmed up and spring is now in full bloom. The weather station recorded a high of 86.9°F on Saturday! We all got some much needed sun.

A book I was a recipe tester for is now out! Emma Christiansen takes all of the guesswork out of these recipes and they are excellent. If you are interested in fermenting drinks, pick up this book.

At the beginning of this week, I helped with another trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling, which I wrote about here:

Trout Releases & Macroinvertebrate Sampling

I also finished an oak bowl on the lathe, which I wrote about here:

Oak Fruit Bowl

Puttered around in the backyard and the workshop in the rain with Charlie. He checked on the radishes, organized his workbench, and drew a picture for me.

One of the things I love about Charlie is how inquisitive he is and how much he notices. While putting some air in our tires, he noticed the shocks and asked why there is a spring connected to our tires. We talked about it, then he checked behind the other tires, too.

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We spent the rest of the week in northern Georgia visiting family. My cousin finished his Master’s degree and my grandfather turned 90, so my aunt threw a dual grad/birthday party for them and a lot of family came to town to celebrate.

Charlie did great on the plane again.

Amanda and I lived in Atlanta for a summer before we got married, and traveled back a few times for work after that. So the first spot we stopped for dinner after getting our rental car was Fox Bros BBQ. We needed some chicken fried ribs with white sauce (tip: you can get them as an entree!) and brisket. This is the second time Charlie has chowed down on brisket, so I think we’ll need to hit more BBQ places in the near future.

The party was nice and it was great to get some family time. Charlie had a blast running around with his cousins. Last August when we visited they mostly played independently, but now they played together a lot more, had their own conversations, and got up to shenanigans.

Charlie’s grandparent time is wonderful to watch. The three of them are so sweet together.

It is also great to see Charlie becoming more comfortable with and opening up around the rest of the family.

Charlie on the porch with Pawpaw.

We stayed with my parents at a place in the mountains.

North GA is about a month ahead of NY. The dogwoods are blooming, violets and wisteria are everywhere, and the trees are leafing out.

I showed Charlie some fiddlehead ferns while out on a walk. He said, “I call them lizard tails.” And you know what? They look as much like chameleon tails as they do fiddle heads. So now we call them lizard tails, too.

My uncle and cousin took me out fishing one afternoon. We had a couple hours free, so we drove to a stream in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.

Uncle Kevin caught one rainbow, I hooked one but it jumped off the barbless hook before I landed it, and Wyatt got a bite. My uncle and I both used a futsu-style kebari with our tenkara rods, Wyatt used a bead head nymph with his rod and reel.

It was my first time using the DragonTail TinyTalon 245, which just arrived on Tuesday. I’m still getting used to it, but the short length was great for this mountain stream with a tight canopy. Easy to pack, too.

Uncle Kevin is the one who got my started on tenkara, so it was nice to chat with him for a while about how we each rig our rods, what flies we use, the various mods and gear we’ve made. And nice to get out on the stream together, even if we only had about 90 minutes of fishing time.

Kevin and Wyatt made some nice leather net holders for their belts, and passed along a tip: Get a cheap bag of leather remnants, which are perfect for small projects like this.

On the first week of my sabbatical:

• I went fishing
• I helped a friend level part of his backyard
• Automattic laid off 16% of their employees
• I helped with a trout release and macroinvertebrate identification for a school field tripe with Trout Unlimited
• I checked some things off my to-do list around the house
• I cleaned up my workshop and started turning a bowl with my new old Speed Reducer
• I spent lots of time outside

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The fishing was a bit slow. The water temp is still pretty cold in most places around here (mid 40s), so the trout are fairly sluggish. I did get to check out some new locations, and I landed three, hooked but lost four more, and had more strikes without hookups.

A few highlights:

• I caught an early black stonefly hatch Thursday afternoon when it warmed up to 70F. I was surprised by how much more effective my tenkara rod was during this brief window. I got 2-3x as many drifts in as the guy with the western rod downstream of me, and also had 2-3x as many takes for the hour of the active hatch.
  • During the hatch, a large creek chub took my pheasant tail parachute! I didn’t know they’d rise just like trout.
• I saw some nice sized fish in the water.
• I saw a fisher! It is the first time I’ve seen one. It was darting in and out between rocks across the stream from me. Probably trying to catch a trout, too.
• A watersnake swam by me in the river. We left each other alone.

Lowlights:

• I forgot Tuesday was the first day of the regular “take” fishing season, so there were a ton of spin fishermen out. That is fine, they are out having fun, too. Unfortunately, I ran into some pretty rude folks who walked up and started casting right next to me, giving me zero space, and a guy who stomped right through the water I was actively fishing. I packed up, ate lunch, and drove to a different spot.
  • Tips for avoiding them in the future:
    • They usually stick to the deep pools. They can’t fish the riffles and pocket water very effectively with their spoons and rapalas, so fish those instead of the pools.
    • They don’t usually wade, and they move spots quickly. Be patient.
    • They often stick to the stocking points, so either go to wild streams or hike a little bit away from the stocking points (usually road overpasses).

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While helping my friend Dave level out a part of his backyard by hand, my phone started dinging like crazy. I had a dozen text messages in the span of 5 minutes. My coworkers were texting me that Automattic laid off 16% of the company.

I’m a bit shocked. I had no idea, and five great people who report to me were let go.

I am thankful to still have a job, but it is going to be strange coming back to a company and team that looks very different in three months.

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The market isn’t looking good this week. I am feeling grateful that I pulled out the money for our imminent siding project early Wednesday morning before the worst of it.

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Thursday I helped the local Trout Unlimited chapter do a trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling with a school field trip. It was a lot of fun! Longer post on it soon, but we found:

• Stoneflies
• Rock caddis
• Stick caddis
• Scuds
• Cranefly larvae
• Crayfish (lots!)
• Mayflies
• Hellgrammites

I’m helping with another one tomorrow morning.

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Lots of fun outside in the warmer weather with Charlie.

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First time using the Shopsmith Speed Reducer to turn below 700 RPM. Took me six months to find one for a reasonable price. It reduces the speed by a factor of 7, so the new base speed with it on is 100RPM. Very handy for roughing out big stock without the machine jumping all over the place.

Made good progress, but need to stop for the night. Probably will finish it off on Monday.

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The forsythia is blooming, our radishes and cilantro are sprouting, violets are coming up in our yard, and the bumblebees are loving the daffodils.

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Light fly tying this week. Just some Killer Bugs (the only takes I had on Monday were on Killer Bugs… I tried multiple flies and got takes when I switched back to Killer Bugs, but nothing on the other things I tried) and some elk hair caddis to finish out a gift box.

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A bird finally took up residence in our birdhouse after no interest the last two years.

Charlie is very excited about it. We are, too. Can’t wait to see the baby birds.

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Some small house projects I got done this week:

• Fixed the door closer on our front screen door.
• Added a handle at Charlie’s height on our back screen door. He can reach the one inside, but there is a step down outside and he can’t reach the outside handle. Now he has his own.
• Hung a pot rack on Charlie’s play kitchen.
• Re-hung a towel hook that got pulled out of the wall in the bathroom. Now it is screwed in to the stud.
• Epoxied my cracking wading staff.
• Relocated some rose campion that migrated out into the yard to the flowerbed out by the shed.
• Sowed dill, lemon balm, and seeded some bare spots in the yard with clover seed.

This was my week at work to wrap up and hand things off before starting my sabbatical. I ended up getting a surprise project on Wednesday. It was fun but challenging, and I worked on it for three full days, and delivered what I had at the end of the day Friday. Now I’m winding down and trying to get work out of my head.

I’ve heard it takes about two weeks to mentally disconnect from work. I know I had parental leave, but that was completely different. A newborn and sleep deprivation makes everything else disappear effectively.

This time around I’m planning on doing a lot of fishing this first week. My gear is packed and ready to go.

How did I spend my first weekend?

The first night I made a celebratory drink, an Angostura Colada. A side note: I’ve always wanted one of those large format (16oz) Angostura bottles, so I finally bought one. This drink takes a lot of bitters!

Saturday we all worked outside together. We:

• Cleaned out the flower beds
• Cut back dead plants
• Seeded bare spots in the grass
• Moved the compost bin and partially buried it to keep animals out. It got moved when we put the fence in, so we needed to put it back.
• Direct sowed some seeds:
  • Champion radishes
  • Breakfast radishes
  • Cilantro
  • Amaranth
  • Borage
  • Nasturtium
  • Bachelor’s buttons
• Put up a new swing for Charlie, replacing the baby swing that he has outgrown. We got him a circular saucer-style swing. It was three times as difficult to put together as I expected. The QC on the pieces is not great…I had to re-drill some of the holes because they were at the wrong angle to get the bolts through.
• Ate lunch and snacks outside

My weather station reported that it reached 79.2F (26.2C) that day!

Later that night I also did our taxes. Not fun, but I also didn’t want to waste my valuable daylight time on that.

Burying the compost bin was a success. It rained that night and the next morning we saw little muddy raccoon prints on the outside trying to get in.

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I got an out-of-the-blue message from Matt with some kind words about an old blog post of mine that came up for him in a Google search. (Yes, that Matt.) What a delight to receive such high praise!

What would young me, just beginning to blog in 2008, think about that?

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Working at a coffee shop with my love.

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Charlie loves to dig.

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Updates on medical stuff:

I visited a vascular surgeon, who was consulted while I was in the hospital. He reviewed my most recent CT scans and concluded that my vascular system looks completely normal (aside from the kidney blood clots). No cholesterol build-up, no blockages, good blood flow, no structural abnormalities. So that is ruled out as a cause. Good news overall, but still no clear answer on the clots. Next step is cardiology.

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“Charlie, do you have dreams when you sleep? What do you dream about?”

“I dreamed about fishing. And daddy was there!”

My heart. I think we’ll spend more time over at the local pond catching bluegill soon! I didn’t realize his first fish made such a big impression.

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Fly tying corner

I wanted to tie some Hare’s Ear and Plover, but plover is a bit hard to come by these days. I think the barring on hen pheasant makes a good substitute.

I got a couple hen capes in different colors, so I tied some flymphs, too. More of those to come.

Win: At the secondhand store I found some Belding Corticelli Buttonhole Twist silk thread, which Leisenring mentions in The Art of Tying the Wet Fly. It isn’t Pearsall’s Gossamer, but for $1 each I couldn’t pass it up.

I found a photo from the Trout Unlimited chapter’s fly tying night last month:

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I fell down an internet research rabbit hole last week after noticing a cool book plate on a book about fly fishing and fly tying at the Internet Archive. You can follow along here as I go deeper down the hole next week:

Don Horter’s Library

I took it slow at work this week, focusing on handoffs since my sabbatical starts March 31. The brain fog got better as the week went on, but my energy levels still aren’t back to normal. I even took a nap on Saturday, which is very out of the norm for me.

Follow up with the hematologist was unremarkable. Still don’t know what caused my blood clots and whether or not I need to be concerned going forward. So, seven more vials of blood sent away for more tests. The tests are to rule out genetic factors since I don’t have lifestyle factors of concern (young, don’t smoke, active, not obese, general blood markers are in normal range), and I haven’t had injuries that could cause clots in recent memory.

This coming week is it the vascular specialist, the following week my primary care doctor.

Perhaps the tiredness is from the extra mental overhead of dealing with this, the uncertainty, and feeling kind of crappy about handing off things at work that I had hoped to have buttoned up and/or shipped before sabbatical.

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I found a new vegetable CSA! The one we were a part of for the past five years abruptly ended at the end of the last season, which left us scrambling. I noticed a small sign while driving one day, went back the next day to copy down the phone number, and gave them a call. Looking forward to giving it a try.

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A brief list of things to start off my sabbatical:

• Fly fishing! On day one, I plan to put my gear in the car the night before, pack a lunch for Charlie and one for me, drop him off at school, and drive directly over to a stream and not come back until the afternoon.
• Helping the local Trout Unlimited chapter with trout releases for their “Trout in the Classroom” program. I signed up for a couple half-day sessions.
• Bowl turning
• Carving some small troughs
• Adding a platform and a slide to Charlie’s swingset

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I got a new weather station set up finally. My main hold up was that I wanted it on the roof, but it is a real pain getting up there, which I’d have to do to clean the station. Instead, I decided to attach a pole to my fence. Not the ideal location because there is a building and some trees nearby that interfere with the wind, but still better than the last location and better than having to get on our steep roof regularly.

Check out my Weather page for more.

I have the data syndicating to Weather Underground and PWS Weather, and I plan to set up more later this week.

Hoping to pick up an outdoor air quality monitor next.

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Charlie did not want to be at Trader Joe’s and wasn’t shy about it. Our cashier saved the day by suggesting that he decorate a “special bag” with stickers that she’d use for our groceries while she scanned our items. Worked like a charm.

Later, at BJ’s he was being a ham. “Daddy, take a picture of me over here!”

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While showing Charlie how to hold a pencil:

“I have another way to do it. Just grab it!!”

That’s definitely my kid. Those words could have come out of my mouth.

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Thursday, after picking Charlie up from school, we drove through town instead of our normal way home. He spotted the library, pointed it out to me, and asked to go in a look for a Peppa Pig book. Sounds great to me! We had some time to kill, and going to the library is something we’ve been encouraging.

Then, once we went in, he actually told the librarian what he was looking for, which is big. Every other time he was too shy.

Unfortunately, all Peppa Pig books were checked out, so we picked out some others. Then he got to learn about how to place a hold on a book and get an email when it comes in.

Later, when another kid wasn’t playing nicely in the library play area, he handled it very well. And when it was time to leave, he helped clean up the blocks and kitchen set he was playing with.

Overall very mature afternoon for a little guy.

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Two more sweet moments with Charlie this week:

1. Amanda needed to take an early train into the city, and Charlie wanted to get a muffin from the coffee shop by the train station. It was a bit chilly in there, so he wanted to sit on my lap while he ate.
2. Later that day Charlie wanted to work in the workshop. I wasn’t feeling great and I was tired, but I took him anyway because sometimes a little guy needs a win.

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Spring update:

Even more crocuses bloomed, the daffodils are blooming (Charlie loves them), and woods walks are popular again because it isn’t too cold.

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I’ve been a little stressed about my garden because we are going to be gone for a week right in the middle of when we’d need to tend seedlings inside. Last year when we were gone for a week almost all of my seedlings died and I had to start them over. My heart can’t take that again, so I think I’m going to get tomato and pepper seedlings from a greenhouse after we come back and tend to them until Mother’s Day. Hudson Valley Seed Co is about 90 minutes away, which will make for a good day trip. Everything else I’ll direct sow.

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Fly tying corner

Wet flies, nymphs, and flymphs this week.

I’ve been reading a lot about wet flies and flymphs recently, so I ordered some hen capes to tie some flymphs (the black flies above are the first of those). I’m also on the hunt for a copy of The Art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing the Flymph by Leisenring and Hidy.

Update: After typing that, one popped up on eBay for less than half the cost of other copies I’ve seen. I bought it right away.

The black flymphs are size 16 and I’ll use them next week since the early stoneflies are appearing.

I really like that I’ve tied all of these with dubbing I’ve made myself. I really like the spiky squirrel dubbing and plan to tie more flymphs with it this week.

The big thing this week: I was in the hospital Monday through Thursday. I woke up with severe pain in my left side around 3:30am Monday, which I thought might be a kidney stone given family history. The pain escalated to the point of making me vomit and writhe, so I went to the ER. Lots of tests and consultations later, I learned that I have blood clots in my kidney and no one is quite sure why they are there. So I have lots of follow up appointments with specialists coming up and I’m on blood thinners.

The pain is almost gone, though I still occasionally have a dull ache that comes and goes. I had no idea blood clots were painful.

Unfortunately I have lots of brain fog right now and find it difficult to focus, think clearly, recall things, etc. I don’t feel sharp, and it is incredibly frustrating.

That’s where I’m at. I’m hoping to learn this week, when I visit a hemotologist who ordered a lot of special blood tests, what likely caused the clot, whether or not I need to be worried going forward, and whether or not I need to take blood thinners for the rest of my life.

This was first time being hospitalized, getting CT scans, EKGs, IV medications, etc. Not a fun week. I feel like I’ve been jolted into middle age.

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A few things come to mind last about week (with assistance from looking through my photos):

In Peekskill, Bucko! shut down and the Bantam Tools folks (Bre Pettis) opened a machine art gallery.

For the first time I remembered to order a King Cake before they were all sold out or too late. It came on Fat Tuesday and it was delicious. Charlie was fascinated with the baby. I intended to make red beans and rice for dinner, but work got away from me and I didn’t plan well enough, so I didn’t. Maybe next year.

My parents came to visit last weekend (pre hospital) and we had a nice visit. We ate at Slainté in Peekskill, Meyer’s Olde Dutch in Beacon, and Chipotle to support the local library. We also went and checked out the Amawalk Outlet, the pier, and played outside and inside.

One evening Dad and I figured out how to refill SodaStream CO₂ canisters from a larger tank. The trick (besides for the right adaptor) is to freeze the receiving tank for a temperature differential and flip the main tank upside down. Also to open the valve very slowly to avoid blowing the pressure pin. Weigh the small tank before and after.

We also recharged the freon on a small cooler/fridge in my basement, and cloned two old Mac laptops.

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I did some good fly tying last week pre-hospital, and some frustratingly slow and crappy fly tying this week post-hospital.

Pre:

I’m proud of the hotspot gnats, peacock and purple wet flies, and the hot glue ants. The pink squirrel variations and different nymphs were experiments to see what I want to double down on and tie more of.

Post:

The basic worms, zebra midges, and leeches took me all day Friday to tie (usually 2 hours max), and the Sexy Walt’s with the fur hackle took me a couple hours (usually under an hour). Bleh.

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That’s all I’ve got. Here’s to feeling better and sharper this coming week.

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post-publishing addendum:

The world outside seems to have woken up this week. Swamp cabbages, garlic, tulips, and peonies have all emerged out of the ground. Crocuses bloomed and the daffodils look close.

My birthday was this week! I wrote a birthday post and later that night we went to Bridgeview Tavern in Tarrytown, one of our favorite places for a burger. They also are one of the few places around there that always has Hill Farmstead on tap, which I think is the best brewery in the US.

On Friday we had a birthday party at our house with our friends, and we mixed up tiki drinks for everyone and catered some asian fusion from Ramenesque.

I was too caught up in hosting and hanging out with friends to take photos during the party.

Meg Walter took a photo of the cocktails. Amanda made stirrers with my face on them:

Amanda also made a cool menu with the cocktails I mixed up:

I batched them a couple hours before so they were easy to serve.

For you rum connoisseurs, the various Jamaican rums I used were Smith & Cross and Appleton Signature for the Quarantine Order, and Hamilton Pot Still Black for the Banana Mai Tai.

The next morning Charlie wanted to open a couple of the coconuts we bought for decoration. We saved the water and coconut meat to cook with this week. Probably “The Stew“.

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Saturday was very windy. Charlie wanted to walk out on the pier, and we had trouble walking at times!

Saturday evening Charlie and I hung out with the Lake Peekskill Dudes and kids while the Lake Peekskill Ladies hung out at a neighbor’s house for a Ladies Night. We had pizza, the musically inclined played music (including Charlie!), and chilled.

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Spring is finally on its way.

Flowers are emerging about two weeks later than the past couple years. Daffodils and crocuses only started peeking through the ground this week. In 2023 the daffodils popped out of the ground on Feb 14 and by then the crocuses were already blooming! In 2022 I noticed the daffodils on Feb 18.

Robins are out in full force pulling up worms from the thawed ground.

We finally have enough daylight after work/school to play outside for a bit before dinner! Very much needed and appreciated.

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Amanda had a migrane early last week. Charlie was concerned, and looked at her head closely for a moment and said, “Momma, I think your head just had a bad day.”

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On the fly tying front this week, I tied some soft hackle wet flies with my homemade dubbing, some Japanese Lantern sakasa kebari, and my take on “what if a Pink Squirrel were a sakasa kebari?”.

I also submitted an article to Tenkara Angler, which got accepted and published.

Making Oversized Soft Hackle Fit Small Hooks

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Sunday we hung out at home and did some grocery shopping. Charlie was feeling extra snuggly and Amanda and I both read a bunch of books to him today. Charlie and Amanda did a little puppet show. We played at the FDR State Park playground. I made pasta e fagioli for dinner. (Charlie isn’t into soup yet, so I made “cheesy pasta” with butter and parmesan out of the noodles, which he happily ate.)

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That’s all I have for this week. Lots of party prep. I’ve been reading a couple books on wet fly fishing. No workshop time this past week, but I’d love to get out in the shop one night this week as long as work isn’t too taxing. I’d like to turn a couple tool handles or another bowl. I got some carbide lathe tools for my birthday that I am eager to try out!

See you next week 👋