Day After Christmas! WHAT!?!?!?

So yeah, it's winter time in upstate New York... we think... Usually this time of year there is snow on the ground and when you walk outside your eyeballs and nose hairs freeze, but hey It's 47 degrees out so lets go test the paintball guns we got for Christmas out! A couple days ago it was 67 degrees! Say What???

So these two look like they are about to participate in some backwoods spy show or something. They make paint ball look cool! or should I say Ballin' Sara will tell me I am too old to use that word. Kevin might even agree.

Roxy just doesn't want to get shot! 

Heads up everyone it's Katie's turn!

Roxy seems even more worried now that Katie has a gun. 

Here are the spectators just chillin' no really we are chillin' see the winter coats? 

Kevin and Charles took this opportunity to hone in on their lumber jack skills. I am thankful Kevin enjoys swinging an ax as much as he does because that will mean lots of firewood for us! 

Well Maybe?

That's  better 

Not to worry Kevin we still think you are the cool uncle!

Chele' Visits Camp Criscione

We decided to take Chele' the Wanderer up to camp. 

Today we took Michele and Savannah to Camp Criscione for the first time. Michele brought her trusty camera and took lots of photos. Most of the leaves were off of the trees. There was recently a big storm and a tree had fallen across the gate:

There were many small branches on the road. Once we got to the camp we walked to the back of the property with Michele. The girls went to explore the brook.

We saw a couple of fishermen on the brook at property 3. When we left I saw their truck parked on the road by the state property. I think having bought property 8 we will see less fishermen down our way as we are a ways in. we will see as time goes on.

The leaves were down but we still managed to get some beautiful photos: 

The road in.

Canopy and clouds no leaves. 

fallen leaves in the fire pit. 

We even found a forest pixie! 

Small tree.

Charles by the brook

Our pool area. 

Roxy

Building the first set of camp chairs.

This weekend we built a double camp chair with a table. We then took it to camp and Katie, Tonia and I spent our first night there. Sara stayed home because she had a birthday party to attend. Tonia had a blast playing in the dirt. We also built up the back side of the fire circle and created an area for water. We placed our jug of water on the tree stump and put some flat rocks at the base. This weekend we took down the caution tape and marked trees that we would like to clear with red paint. We plan on making at least 2 or 3 more chairs. One will be a bench that will seat 2 or 3 people and the others will be single chairs. The leaves were turning fall colors and the Brook was higher than I had seen yet.

Double chair with a table.

The new picnic table 

10 by 10 standing room tent without canopy cover.  This tent holds a queen matress, a twin mattress and a nap mat for Tonia with plenty of room for gear and walking room. 

you can get your own here: Standing Room Tent 

Our water stand.  Charles took down 3 dead trees close to the turn around area we used one of them as the water stand. There is no well or water at our camp so we need to bring it in. We have two of these jugs and they usually get us through. We have tossed around the idea of building a well but we feel it will be too costly for us at the moment. For now we can use the water jugs and use paper goods to reduce the amount of water used washing dishes. 

Building the Picnic Table

This weekend after we built the first tent deck we decided to build our picnic table. Our bodies were screaming for rest but we didn't listen. We were considering just purchasing a table pre-made from Lowes because they had them for $98 with an additional $10 for assembly but we noticed only the legs were treated lumber. We purchased all of the materials to build the table for about $80. Charles looked up the plans on the internet and I will somehow try to put them up here in case anyone wants to build their own table just like ours. The table took us about 4 hours to build. Unfortunately for us the entire time we were building the table our van ignition was turned to auxiliary mode and our van battery was dead when we were done. Once we had finished making the table we loaded it up on the trailer to take it up to camp, packed our dinner and s'mores and jumped in the van. Ready to go meet with friends for Sunday dinner and bonfire we turned the ignition to click click click....sad face... With a little help from our neighbor and his huge, I must be compensating for something somewhere truck, we were off to a nice evening BBQ dinner with friends at Camp Criscione.

Here is a link to the picnic table plans:

Picnic Table

Building the Tent Deck

Today we built the tent deck. Here is the finished product:

Charles went up last night with the lumber, generator and the tools. We joined him for dinner and s'mores at the bonfire and then came home. Charles will be sleeping in the van tonight. the ground is rocky and there really is no flat spot without gravel to put tents on. This is why we are in need of a tent deck.

 Here is the first Campfire ever at Camp Criscione:

The girls and I got up to camp one hour before Charles with no tools to cut wood and darkness setting in. My Girl Scouts and I made a fire with our bare hands and the fishing pole lighter Mama C gave to us. This includes finding the rocks for the fire ring.

 Awesome Girl Scouts right here!

When we came back in the morning Charles was awake and had started laying out the deck where he wanted it.

And then we had a sad boy... the generator would not run the saw. He had planned on a deck built in two sections that could be taken apart so we could move it easily. As he did not want to hand saw all those planks in half we scrapped the easily movable deck for a deck with 10 foot planks.

Here is what his Oh Shit moment looked like: 

 Here is the frame of the deck.

 One cute helper with screws, not as helpful as one might think! 

 The deck is Roxy Approved!

Here is a link to the deck plans

Deck Plans

Surveying the Camp

Today we went to OUR camp!

 Tonia enjoyed roaming around the forest and was exploring all that she could. 

 Even Katie got out of the car to walk around and explore the upper area. 

 We took 1000 feet of Caution tape and laid out the land. We marked a road for the van, a parking area, a path up to the high ground and a 50 by 90 foot area for a camp site.  We used exactly 1000 feet. 

 We enjoyed choosing which trees were to stay and which ones would have to be removed to make a clearing for the sun to shine through on our campsite. 

 Here you can faintly see the caution tape in the distance. All the trees in this area will be cleared for a camp site and for the sun to reach the forest floor and hopefully for some grass to grow. 

 This low area will become the parking area. We initially thought this might be a good area for a camp but decided it was too low. we may need to build this up with some gravel or perhaps if we get a bulldozer in to level a roadway in some of the dirt can be pushed into this area. 

 This photo shows from the top of the camp looking towards a foot path that will go from the camp to the parking area below. We had thought that we would have the turn around and the camp in the same area but came to the conclusion that the short walk would be ok and it might be nice to have the cars away from the site. 

 After we surveyed the camp we went for a walk down by the brook. Can you see the frog in the above photo.

 I had thought this tree was on property 7 but it is on our property

 Sara was not as adventurous today and did not want to get into her bathing suit to explore the brook. She eventually took off her shoes and waded into the water. 

 This is the view up the hill up to the property from the brook. Our property ends at the brook. 

 Tonia loved walking and splashing around in the brook. She kept picking up the rocks 

 We found this really long flat rock in the middle of the brook. I am excited to see the brook after a rain when there is a lot of water. The brook does have a good flow to it. 

 If you look carefully you might see a crayfish there in the water. Charles says he wants to go down to the brook at night and go Crayfishing. I think that will have to be next year when we might be ready for a camp overnight. 

 There is a white caterpillar hanging on a silk thread in this photo. It is a bit blurry. I almost walked into it.

 Tonia and I enjoyed sitting on our SUN rock. 

 This is the creek at Property 7. the brook has eroded an area under the road in. This makes me a bit nervous but Charles said look at that layer of rock, it is not going anywhere. 

 Here you can see layers of rock. This is worry some for well drilling. There are tons of flat thin rocks that will make a nice patio around the fire pit if we would like. We would have to carry them all up from the brook though. 

 This rock is on the south corner of our property on the Brook. 

 Here are some of the new signs that land first has put up. 

 When we arrived there was a new locked gate that we did not have the combo to. We had to call Bill to get the combo. I am really excited about the gate. It is a nice gate and not just a chain across the road. 

 Also new on this visit was the street sign and Private Drive sign. 

This is the view down the road towards Trout Brook State Forest.