River Day 01/16/2017

We had totally different weather conditions at the river this week, and a different group of Rivertarians (mostly).  Jay, Ted and I met at the camp with temps in the upper 50s, and the river running fairly high.  All of last week's snow has melted and we've had rain throughout the last week.  We had a brief rain shower while we were there, but it didn't last long (only long enough to make us grab hats and hoods). 

I brought some early (or maybe late) Christmas gifts down, but only Ted and Jay got theirs.  I had some prints made from one of our fall camping trips - 2013- that I wasn't able to print before due to the small image size.  Trish was able to do some photoshop magic that allowed for very decent 5x7s, despite the subject matter.  I'll get the other two theirs when I see them.  It's nice having a running collection of the group pics from the camping trip.

We did have the best fire on the river, but this week I think we have to give Freddy all the credit.  We had it choked out with too much paper, but thanks to persistence and pyro-101 skills, the Fredster had it roaring along in no time.  He may need to be voted in, if only for his fire building skills.

Ted has been quietly busy with a little project over the last few months, and this week he brought it with  him to the river.  He took the pitchfork that we've used to tend the fire for many years and refinished the handle.  The handle in question is actually the 2nd one for the pitchfork; the first was broken by David's stupid friend, Ron.  The replacement has been around for a long time, and was showing signs of weathering and a lot of heat.  It has now been sanded smooth, and sealed with many coats of polyurethane.  There's even been a little etching added to the end of the handle to really finish it off.  I hope the photos do it justice.  Thanks Ted!

Once again, we had a great River Day celebration.

River Day 01/09/2016

 

So I'm a little late posting this week, but we did indeed celebrate River Day Monday, at the river no less.  Tim, Pat, and I made it down to camp for the first snowy River Day of this winter season.  Temps were in the low 30's - about 30 degrees warmer than the weekend had been.  And as you can see in the photos, we had leftover snow on the ground.

Pat brought down several pallets, and we still had some from previous weeks, so we had plenty to burn.  Getting a fire going was a bit of a chore, but we did okay.  One of the local yahoos had piled green brush on top of our existing woodpile, so Tim had to do a little rearranging to get to some of the dryer stuff.

Freddy paid his weekly visit to round out the afternoon.  He even had to make a return trip back to the house for a refill.

Not too much going on this Monday, just hung around the fire mostly.  Hate that the other guys weren't able to join us.

As always, Happy River Day!

Christmas Tree Burning

River Day 01/02/2017

First River Day celebration of the new year, and we did it in typical Rivertarian style - by burning a Christmas tree.  But first...we decided to decorate it.  As you can guess, and see from the photos, our decorations were of the non-traditional sort, but fitting for us.  As for the burning part, it was a little disappointing.  Guess I shouldn't have watered it so thoroughly.  Or should have let it sit and get happy for a week or so.  Oh well, we like burning things, and burn it did.

Ted, Jay, Tim, and I made it down this week.  Pat rallied everyone early in the day, then wasn't able to make it.  Freddy was more that happy to fill in for him.

Someone had dropped a couple of trees at Leo's place over the last week or two, and Jesse (for some reason) was splitting and hauling firewood off.  Apparently there are some people who don't mind loaning him expensive things: 4 wheelers and log splitters.  He had piled up some brush from the trees near our fire pit, so I'm sure we'll have some burning material nearby for a while.

I did take several pics this week, mostly of the whole Christmas tree debacle, but some other random stuff as well.  I tried shooting some video with my camera, but didn't have a clue as to how.  Back to the manual.  Hope everyone enjoys the photos.

Happy New Year, and River Day, to Rivertarians everywhere (and to anyone else that cares to follow our weekly holiday)!