River Day 07/13/2015

Nearly a month has passed since the last post.  We're really slacking this year.  To be honest though, there haven't been many (any ?) River Day celebrations since the last one in June.  Work, commitments, and family issues seem to be getting the best of us in 2015.

Before I post this week's activities, I'd like to ask Rivertarians everywhere (or anyone else that actually reads this blog) to please remember a fellow Rivertarian, David, in their prayers, light a candle, do a happy dance, whatever your particular mojo is.  He is very ill and not likely to be with us much longer.  May God be merciful to him, and his family.





This week at the river, several of us were able to make it down: Jay, Tim, Pat and I (Mark).  It's been a month since most of us have been there and was a much needed release from....things in general.  And let's not forget our visit from the local River guy, Freddy.

Everyone but Pat tried a little fishing, with little to show in the way of results; I caught a small red-eye, Tim caught a sucker.  The water level was a little high for this time of the year, and a bit muddy too.

We didn't do much in the way of a fire, and it's sad to think it may have been the best on the river.  But, it may have been the best on the river.

Let's all remember to be thankful for the time we get to spend with our fellow Rivertarians, and brothers.  We won't always have these days.

River Day 06/22/2015

So...we're finally getting around to making a post about River Day, which we did indeed celebrate this week. Even though we haven't made a post for a while (okay, 3 months), there have been some River Days celebrated since that time, just not many, and some of those were on Jay's porch, 10 miles from the river.

This week Ted, Jay, Tim and I (Mark) were all able to get together at the camp.  Freddy dropped by for a while.  And we even had a surprise appearance by Kevin.  Nice to see him able to get out on his bike.

You can tell that there hasn't been too much in the way of activity around the camp, which is unusual for this time of year.  There's actually a good bit of debris still around from the harsh winter we had.  Despite the heat we're having now, I think a few good bonfires are in order, and even that's not going to touch some of the bigger stuff.

I tried a little fishing this week and had to wade out through the grass and water to get to a suitable place.  The river is at that level where it's too low to fish near the bank, and too high to get out to the current with dry feet.  Anyway, I gave it a shot (half-hearted) and came up empty.  Doesn't matter - it's always fun trying.

Not too much local activity this week.  Toby had some family at his place and was giving them boats rides between beverages.  We did hear from Freddy that George had passed away one day last week.  It'll be interesting to find out what's going to happen to that piece of property.

We did have a fire going, though it certainly wasn't needed for warmth.  I think there's a by-law somewhere that says we HAVE to have one.

Sorry I didn't take any pics this week.  I took a camera, even took it out of the case.  Just flat out didn't take any.

Happy River Day!

River Day 03/09/2015

Back to the river this week for the Rivertarian party!  After a few massive snow storms we were able to get down to the camp for the holiday.  We had a full crew, so I guess everyone was going through some cabin fever.  Those that made it down were: Ted, Jay, Tim, Pat, Scott, and myself (Mark).  Once we started making a little noise (see video) Freddy joined us.

The weather was great for a River Day - sunny and in the 60's.  Following the snow storm, we had heavy rains over the last week, resulting in a bit of flooding.  There didn't appear to be any damage anywhere, but we wound up with lots of debris, including some pretty large trees left behind by the receding water.  None of the firewood we cut and stacked a few weeks ago was taken by the flood, and we were able to add to the pile.  Freddy brought down a chainsaw and cut about half of the largest piece (a tree) into burnable sized chunks.

The road coming into the camp was a little rough this week; snow was still piled where you turn off the pavement, and a couple of campers parked on/near the roadway made for a small obstacle course.  Good for keeping the tourists out.

Scott brought down a little entertainment this week, as you can see in the video below.  It may not have been night when we set them off, but you gotta love smoke and noise, no matter the time of day.

It goes without saying that with all the wood (and other burnables) lying around, we did indeed have the best fire on the river.

River Day 02/23/2015

Well, almost a River Day anyway.  We did celebrate the holiday this week, and the only thing missing was the...river.  And the fire.  But other than that, it was still National River Day.

Believe it or not, we actually postponed last week's holiday, and nearly did this week.  The are was hit pretty hard over the last week or so with 2 different winter storms, each dumping at least a foot of snow on us.  We decided (probably wisely) to stay a little closer to home until everything clears up a little.

At any rate, we ended up spending the evening on Franklin Ave; part at my house (or driveway anyway) and the rest at Jay's.  Ted and Pat also made it out. Tim wasn't able to make it this week, and for some reason, we didn't see Freddy either.

The first part of the afternoon was spent digging out my driveway to get the car out.  We spent just over an hour doing what would have taken me hours to do by myself.  I am thankful for my fellow Rivertarians!  I don't know if the photos do it justice, but we cleared the whole thing; about 35 feet long, and 2 plus feet deep.

After the work was done, we congregated at Jay's to continue the evening, a good part of which was throwing darts, listening to music, and just generally BS'ing for several hours.

We may not have been able to get to the river, but we had a great River Day anyway!

River Day 02/09/2015

Warmer weather seems to bring out the Rivertarians, and this week's River Day was proof of that.  With temps in the low 50's, we had a full crew:  Pat, Kevin, Ted, Jay, Tim and I (Mark).  Oh, and let's not forget Freddy.  There was a little trade off for the milder temps - light rain on and off, especially early on.  Other than that, you couldn't beat the climate for early February.  After the rain let up, we got to enjoy a pretty cool view of fog/mist moving down the river (or was it up the river?).

Jay brought his chainsaw down, so we made a project of cutting up, carrying, and semi-stacking the rest of the tree that was cut a couple of weeks ago.  Assuming the river doesn't decide to reach up and take the pile, we've got a nice stack to last into the warmer months.  I know, wishful thinking.  If it happens, it happens.  Won't be the first time, and the river always provides us with a replacement.

How many Rivertarians does it take...?

One of the highlights of the evening was the burning of Pat's Christmas tree.  Not sure what he did different from the ones we brought down a few weeks ago, but this one went up quite nicely.  Maybe the rest of us just didn't let ours cure long enough. Sorry, there is no audio in the video clip.

After all these years, I still can't think of a better way to start a week!

River Day 01/26/2015

Even though winter is about half way over, we enjoyed the first River Day snowfall of the 2014/2015 winter season this week.  We didn't get much in the way of accumulation (I think the official term would be a "dusting"), but it was pretty much constant the whole time we were there.  Needless to say the fire was the center piece of the evening, and we had a doozy.

We had a full compliment of Rivertarians again: Ted, Jay, Pat, Tim and I (Mark).  And let's not forget about Freddy.

There was a large dead tree at the lower end of the property that we had been looking at over the last year.  It was a matter of time before it was going to fall (somewhere), so we decided that now was the time to bring it down.  Having no leaves on the surrounding trees made it a bit easier to pick where to drop it.  Pat brought his chainsaw down and did an excellent job of putting it where we had all decided it needed to go.  We should have plenty of wood to last out the coldest of days ahead.

I'd say that I made up for the lack of photos over the last couple of months.  Yes I brought a camera this week, and yes I took several pictures.  I'm posting several that I thought were pretty good, including a short video of the tree coming down.  Hope everyone enjoys.

Happy River Day!

River Day 01/19/2015

Here I am making the first post for 2015, and shamefully notice that we haven't made a post since the middle of October, 2014.  Pretty sad.  Rest assured, despite the failure to post anything, we have indeed been carrying on the National River Day holiday and tradition.

This week we had a full crew of Rivertarians: Jay, Ted, Tim, Pat, Kevin, and me (Mark).  And let's not forget about the permanent resident Rivertarian, Freddy.

We enjoyed clear skies and pretty mild temps for this time of year, somewhere around 50 degrees (give or take a few). Jay brought down some wood in his truck to add to the pile, and I would venture to say we probably had the best fire on the river.

As usual, this is the quiet time of year on the river, not much local traffic and certainly nothing on the river.  We hung around the fire most of the evening, catching up on the events over the last week or so. And maybe adding a little noise to the fire. Maybe.

We also gave Pat a special welcome this week, since there was another holiday occurring also.  To anyone who happened to be passing by, we'll say yes, you were only seeing ghosts. And we'll just leave it at that!

I didn't take any photos of the evening, even though I had my camera.  So just to do something a little different I've gone through the photos that I have taken since mid October and am posting some of the good ones here.  I hope to do better in this new year and will try to keep the blog and photos current.  Comments to our posts are always welcome.

Happy New Year to Rivertarians everywhere!

Tim and Ted from October 20, 2014

Best fire on the river!

Great Blue Heron in front of camp Nov 24, 2014.

Heron doing a fly-by, Nov 24, 2014.

Fog on the river, Dec 1, 2014.

Fog on the river, Dec 1, 2014.

Fog on the river, Dec 1, 2014.

Fog on the river, Dec 1, 2014.