Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 275
After last week, this week has just been a big blimp in one’s family and life. So many friends and neighbors stopping by or meeting on the street, missing Karen as much as I do. So much food that I had to ship out the dead Loons and eggs from the big freezer to make room. Thanks to all well-wishers for the hugs and kisses and family support through this tough time in our lives.
There will be a Celebration of Karen’s Life at View Arts Center in Old Forge on Sunday, 9/15/ 2024 from 1pm to 5pm in Gould Hall. She will be buried at her mother’s feet in the East Galway Cemetery on 9/21/24 as per her wishes.
It was nice that three of the grandchildren got to do the hike up and tower lighting on Woodhull Mountain. The rain stopped just before we went up the mountain and there was a visitor up there who had walked in as I mentioned the first one ever to be there. Nice sunset with big puffy white clouds on the horizon, not much to be seen to the east as the rainstorm moved in that direction, but I know some of the towers over that way were lit as I got photos of them covered with lights.
Over that weekend I dug up plants for the Old Forge Garden Plant Sale on Friday morning and my grandchildren potted all that I dug up. It was around eighty plants and then during the week my daughter Erin and I packaged wildflowers seeds for a couple of hours one night. We sold several of both during the sale along with lots of other plants those other members had potted for the sale. We made over $600 for our efforts and many people will have a few beautiful plants in their gardens next year. I always pick up a few new ones that someone else has potted and put them in my gardens. A few that did not sell I stuck in the new garden at the library. One doe deer kept cruising by the sale waiting for a handout, but she never got any.
While driving through Old Forge a few times this week I did see some visitors feeding the deer, which is illegal. This only brings these deer closer to the road that they already are, and they get hit by vehicles. These are wild animals roaming the streets, not tame pets in someone’s yard.
The black bears are much the same and a fed bear is a dead bear this summer as in other summers. We live in their woods and food is a little scarce right now so if they find garbage or food left out for them, they will come back checking out other places where they smell the same thing if it’s in a house or camp, they will enter through a screen door or window to find this food and make a mess while doing so. One day Karen and I went shopping in Boonville and when we came home and opened the door there were big black bear prints all over the white kitchen floor. It had pulled open a partially open window, pushed in the screen and entered. It walked around the kitchen luckily without getting into anything. Then it walked around my desk that sat in the middle of my office, losing deer flies which it brought in along the way as they were all over the windows inside. I think it viewed the mounts on the wall and decided it better get the heck out of here before it was another trophy on the wall. It exited the same way it came in and did no damage. My neighbor had been feeding them by hand right out his kitchen window and I guess he did not feed this one that day, so he was trying to find a new place to get a snack. This bear and some others that my neighbor was feeding were shot with rubber bullets and some were trapped and hazed coming out of the trap, but a couple never learned what I mentioned above, and they were killed. Mostly during the early bear season as they were not afraid of humans making them easy targets. Early bear season opens in this area this coming weekend.
Before the plant sale, my daughter Erin and I got over to the start of the 90 Mile Canoe Race at the lakefront in Old Forge. Over five hundred crafts, canoes, guide boats, sculls and paddle boards covered the lawn at the lakefront before the race began. There was no fog, the lake was calm, the sun was shining, and they got off on time. I think they may have hit some dangerous weather the next couple of days as the wind whipped here as I am sure it did where they were on the water. The third day was canceled… good call!
Inlet’s One Mile of Hope is this weekend 9/14/24 and you can register that day to be part of that event but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Old Forge Garden Club Plant Sale
