Otego Creek, Audubon Sanctuary and The Emmons Bog

Otego Creek, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

It was a beautiful spring day that started out a little bit chilly, and I was determined to spend most of it outdoors. I met up with Connie at the Otego Creek fishing access spot and we spent close to an hour walking the loop. Then I met up with Leslie at the Audubon Sanctuary where I found one of her geocaches. Then we went to THE GOLDEN GUERNSEY for lunch and then went up to "The Bog".

This time we didn't have any trouble finding it. Our goal was to find a geocache there. It was a long walk which involved LOTS of mud, walking across a creek and some uphill walking, but we did it!

BIBLIOADVENTURE!!!

I set up a time to meet with the proprietors of the BIBLIOBARN, a used and rare book shop in S. Kortright, New York. This morning I loaded up the back of my station with several boxes of books that I had collected over the years and headed to South Kortright. I used my GPS navigator and it took me on some back roads. Not too far from HANFORD MILLS, I saw this interesting decrepit house

and on the same road but closer to S. Kortright, I saw this old cemetery.

I would have hidden a geocache here but I did not have one with me! The BIBLIOBARN was easy to find and I knew the minute I saw it

that I was going to LOVE IT! And I was right!!! H.L. came right out to my Pacifica and loaded my books onto a small gurney and took them inside. He and his wife,Linda, looked them over quickly and Linda even went on the internet to find information about values on a few of the books. They bought some, and I donated the rest to the "dime shack". There were three more that they found to be valuable, but they do not have a market for that kind of book, so I decided to keep those three. They gave me a tour of the place. Originally, they had the entire upstairs as living space, but the bookstore part kept expanding and now their entire living space consists of a small corner upstars: an area smaller than my living room. Linda pointed out a folded up futon that she said they pull out at night. All in all, this is an amazing place. I am glad that I have MORE books to take out to them. Here are a few pictures taken inside.

The BIBLIOBARN is for sale and they will be moving their 39,000 books to their shop in Margaretville. I am glad I found this place before their move. When I left the BIBLIOBARN, I spent a few minutes taking pictures in the Village of South Kortright. And then I went on to Stamford where I found one geocache (GENESIS ONE), and had lunch at the Peachtree Cafe

before heading back towards Oneonta. It was a good day!

From HORSES to HOPS Adventure: Sunday 22, 2012

Carol and I decided to go to the open house at Taylor's Tack and Field in Brookfield, New York. We arrived around 10:30 a.m. Nothing seemed to be happening and things were somewhat disorganized. We looked around in the tack shop and got some free coffee, hot chocolate and cookies in one of the barns. After that, we hung around a while, thinking that things might liven up as it got closer to the time for the auction. A nice young boy named Jonah must have noticed that I was looking bored, so he offered to show me his horse, Merlin. I think Jonah's grandmother lives next door to the tack shop, and he lives further away. He goes to school in Madison, New York.

After they started putting the auction items out and Carol had a chance to look at them, she said that she wanted to leave. While in Brookfield, we went right by the location of BROOKFIELD STEEL ANGEL geocache, and Carol suggested we stop on the way back, but I mentioned to her that some geocachers have mentioned the large number of bees that found them while they were searching.

After leaving the open house, we stopped here so she could say hello to her friend Karen. Carol enjoyed petting Tom the turkery: This was much more interesting than the open house. Karen has several LARGE turkeys and lots of other animals. This is her goat, Houdini:

For lunch we decided to see if we could make it in time to the Pittsfield Fire Department which was offering a chicken dinner. Although it looked like they were cleaning up when we arrived, we were not too late. The chicken dinner was great:
a half a chicken, potatoes, two sides (I chose beans and coleslaw), roll and butter, drink and desert for $8.00. We thoroughly enjoyed this!

After Carol dropped me off, I headed back towards Pittsfield so I could take a picture of the Beardsley Hops House that I read about in LANDMARKS OF OTSEGO COUNTY.
here it is:

Hops House: Pittsfield, NY, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

The Beardsley Farm was originally settled in l799 and the hops house which remains is
one of the few surviving examples in Otsego County.

It was a great way to spend part of the day!

Friday: April 20th, 2012

I accompanied Terry to Lakeview Cemetery in Cooperstown, New York for the burial of her friend, Bill Every, who passed away a few months ago.

It was a short service, conducted by the local Episcopal Priest or Minister.

After the service, we went to the library in Cooperstown to look at an art show. It was very good. Some of the paintings and photographs were of local places.

We decided to have supper at Gerster's Family Market because they offer a buffet for nine dollars per person on Friday evenings. We checked out the buffet when we arrived and it looked good. There were chicken and biscuits, broccoli soup, beef and noodles, pork and sauerkraut, chicken wings, scalloped potatoes, salad fixings and bread pudding. I took this picture in Gersters.

After that we had time to spare, and Terry wanted to go home and change her shirt that she had spilled food on. I did some shopping, went to the library and looked for a geocache. Once again, I could not find JUST FOLLOW THE CREEK.

Terry and I met up at LIVING WATERS and took a short walk before going in to find good seats for the concert. The concert was VERY good, but I think the group (Heartsong) was disappointed at the low attendance.

Heartsong: Singers for Christ, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Geocaching April 19, 2012

Leslie and I met up at ten a.m. today at her house and with her at the wheel, we took off for a day of geocaching. Our first stop was at the Neptune Diner, where we looked for one of Mr.Science's Jeopardy caches GAS PLANET. I was ready to give up when Leslie found it. Then we headed up Route 29 and found another of Mr.Science's jeopardy geocaches NOTABLE PRISON ESCAPES. From there we went to the Town of Middlefield to a tiny cemetery where we found ROOTS, SHOOTS AND GHOSTS. Once again, I was sure that Leslie was looking in the wrong place, but she wasn't. This geocache was way down at the bottom of a hollow stump, attached to a piece of fishing wire that she pulled the cache up by.

Then we ended up at a fishing access spot right near a closed bridge. The terrain down to the fishing area (and area of the cache) was pretty steep and rough, so I waited while she looked. She was not successful. I had an opportunity to take several pictures of the Susquehanna River from this picturesque spot.

We stopped at a beautiful pond that we do not know the name of and I found IrishTala's HAPPY TRAILS.

Then we found the location of another geocache: Eau De Beaver. However, we could NOT find the geocache even though we looked for about twenty minutes. It was another picturesque beaver pond:
Then it was on to Route 205 in Hartwick, and just north of the village I found another geocache in another tiny, old cemetery. The name of the cache is Piermott Place, but the name of the cemetery is Butterfield Cemetery. It is very well maintained, and only has a few graves.

We had lunch at Jerry's Place outside of Hartwick and found a geocache there IS THE KING LACTOSE INTOLERANT? I had a sausage, onion and peppers sandwich and Leslie had a beef and cheddar sandwich and we shared an order of curly fries. The prices are fair, the service is very good and the decor is interesting. I really liked the collection of fifties and sixties lunchboxes. Jerry's Place has a nice gameroom in the back.

After leaving Jerry's Place, I found another one of Mr.Sciences Jeopardy caches (something to do with forestry management) and then it was on to look for Goey Pond.

This geocache is called CELTIC HIGHLAND and it is hidden across the road from Goey Pond. We drove down a pretty rough dirt to get there. It was kind of a steep walk up to the cache, so I stayed behind while Leslie looked for it and found it. Here is a pic. of Goey Pond.

Goey Pond, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Leslie is thinking about possibly someday taking her inner tube and paddling across the pond to find one or two other geocaches.

We arrived back in Oneonta around 3:15 p.m. It was a great day. My total tally of geocaches found was eight.

Geocaching, Amish, Livestock Auction and MORE Adventure!!!

Carol and I had plans for me to meet up with her at the WALTZING HORSE FARM so I could take some short videos of her riding Mystique. We agreed to get together for this after I finished getting my hair permed at THE CUTTING CREW in Oneonta. However, as I was finishing up, one of the hairdressers told me that Carol called and wanted me to call her back when I finished up. When I called her, she said that she was too tired to ride, but that she was still interested in getting together if I could think of something fun to do. I told her that we could do some geocaching and we decided to meet up in New Berlin at 11;40 a.m.

We met up and headed up Route 8 to find a geocache in a small cemetery. Carol found this one quickly enough and I took some pictures. Besides having a geocache, this cemetery is pretty neat..........there is some neat "natures reclamation"....some trees have actually overgrown parts of the fence. Also, most or maybe all of the grave stones are made with something a bit different, a whitish stone, that appears to be very durable, since the graves are very old.

After that, we headed back to New Berlin, and I suggested to Carol that we explore an Amish area that I found not too long ago on a drive back home from Lockport. I quickly located it and the first place we passed was a Harness Shop. I was trying to figure out a reason to stop in and check it out when Carol asked to stop......she has horses! She purchased something from the shop and I purchased a dozen brown eggs. It is a very nice shop. Carol wanted to talk to the man who repairs harnesses. The Amish teenage girl told us that her father was "at the auction" and suggested she stop back sometime.

We continued down the road and came to a sign for a furniture shop. We located the shop, but nobody seemed to be around (maybe the carpenter went to the auction, too). The furniture is absolutely gorgeous.

A little ways down the road, I was VERY surprised to see what looked like an Amish one room school. There were some children out in front, so I said to Carol, lets drive on a bit, and then come back and drive down the road with the school, so I can take a picture of the school. (the Amish do not like having their pictures taken and I did not want to cause any problems). However, when we returned, there were MORE children hanging out in front of the school. We drove down and past them, anyways, all the way to the end of the road where there is a closed bridge. On the way back, several Amish children (mostly boys) walked towards our car as we approached, as if they wanted us to stop so they could tell us something. I stopped the car and Carol spoke to the children, but they did not respond. It was quite strange.......but we figure they have been told NOT to speak to strangers. There were children of all ages and a woman standing on the front porch of the schoolhouse who appeared to be older, perhaps the teacher. We told the kids to have a good afternoon and drove off without taking any pictures SO I have to return someday and take a picture of that little schoolhouse! After that, we headed back towards New Berlin, making a brief stop at the WELCHES AUCTION HOUSE.

April16_2012 035, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

We stayed about fifteen minutes. Then we went to New Berlin and stopped at Stewarts for ice cream. We both had the "make your own sundae" for $3.00.

Then we headed out towards Pittsfield to find a couple of GEOCACHING JEOPARDY geocaches. We were successful and then headed to Edmeston where we found a geocache in the Edmeston Steel Angel, and then to West Burlington where we found BURL BONES in the W. Burlington Cemetery. We kept driving and came to a small interesting winery: THE RUSTIC RIDGE WINERY: Carol wanted to stop because she had purchased hay from the owner in the past and wanted to talk to him about a possible future purchase. The owner gave us directions to another AMISH place we had been looking for BYLER'S. We decided to check that out another time and
headed back to New Berlin, where I dropped Carol off at her car and headed home.

PINE LAKE ADVENTURE

My original plans for today were to go on a STAFF FUN DAY with my co-workers, but several of them came down with pinkeye, so we cancelled. My second plan was to go geocaching with Leslie, but then she remembered that she had to accompany her father to a medical appointment, so we decided to wait and go geocaching another time when she has more time available. So, I decided to get get my hair permed and was on my way out the door when Connie called and said that her appointment to have her teeth cleaned was suddenly cancelled and "its a perfect day to go to Pine Lake". So, I changed my plans and we decided to meet at Gerster's for lunch and then go over to Pine Lake. Before meeting up with Connie I went to the fishing access at the end of Morningside Drive and found "fight off the skeeters" geocacahe.

Connie had an incident in the parking lot of Gerster's when she arrived. While driving over a huge round metal thing sitting in a shallow hole, the "thing" changed position and she heard some AWFUL metal on metal scraping and hitting. She had a Gersters employee call the owner, and he came and talked to her and told her to take her minivan to her mechanic and get it checked out. We ordered GRILLED REUBENS and it took an awful long time for them to come, but they were delicious!

I followed Connie to Pine Lake where we had a glorious hike! She had brought her dog, Petey with her. I took a LOT of pictures, and here are a few:



I had taken information to find a geocache hidden at Pine Lake, but when we got within a couple of hundred feet, my GPS started going wacky. First I would head off in the direction of the arrow and after several feet, the arrow would change, so I would change direction, but then the arrow would switch direction AGAIN. After doing this routine a half a dozen times, I decided to just enjoy the hike, the fresh air and the beautiful trees!

After our hike, we decided to return to Gerster's for a piece of pie. Along the way there, I stopped to explore a tiny old cemetery I had seen on the way to Pine Lake. Here is a picture:
The pie from Gerster's was very good!

It was a glorious day!

Easter Brunch Buffet at the Holiday Inn

After church, I met up with Linda and her friend, Stephanie, at the Holiday Inn for their Easter Brunch Buffet. They offered breakfast items (eggs with salmon, bacon,
cherry french toast, lots of fresh fruits, yogurt, a great salad bar, ham, lamb, scalloped potatoes and lots of other items squeezed in between. The three of us got the "seniors" price, which was $17.99. The deserts were very good, esp. the cheesecake.

Historic Buildings and Geocacing: April 7, 2012

Leslie and I set out this morning to look for some historic buildings in the Town of Maryland and to do some geocaching. Our first stop was at SPENCER CEMETERY where Leslie found my FAR OUT geocache, and I retrieved the "extra" geocache hidden there.

I think this old, decaying train depot in the Village of Maryland was the first old building we found.

D & H Depot, Maryland, New York, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

It is the D & H Depot. At one time the train master also ran the post office in the same building. According to A PICTORAL ESSAY OF THE TOWN OF MARYLAND, this old depot is on Depot Street, but the name of the street must have been changed to Factory Street later on.

Here are a couple of other old places we found in or near the Village of Maryland.

We had lunch at Chris's Pizzeria in Worcester, New York and found several geocaches between Worcester and Richmondville.

Woodhaven Woods

This sign will soon be a "ghost sign" so I decided to take a picture of it when I can. The Woodhaven Golf Course has been sold and the new owner will be changing the name.
Connie and I met up at the former Woodhaven Golf Course in order to take a walk. We had just gotten out of our cars when the new owner of the golf course, Phil, approached us and asked us not to walk in the golf course area because he has men and equipment putting new trees up. We said we could walk in the woods just outside of the golf course. The woods are on his property. Just before we headed into the woods, three little boys who wanted to look for golf balls came up. Phil told them not to go into the golf course area and suggested that they look for golf balls in the piles of dirt dredged up from the pond.

Our walk in the woods was short but very nice. Here are some pictures I took.
Also, I took this picture of Connie and her dog, Petey.

When it came time to leave, Connie suggested we go out for a slice of pizza at THE LONG ISLAND PIZZERIA in West Oneonta. I agreed, but when we got there, she changed her mind and wanted something sweet, so we split an order of pizolli's..which are small donuts made from a 90 year old Gilbertsville recipe!