Chapter 19 - Recreation
Family Fun
| Over The River and Through the Woods . . . . below | Three Sisters, Caterpillars, Salamanders & Mud |
| Discovering With Grandkids |
Over The River and Through the
Woods . . . .
How often have you heard someone complain there is nothing to do in
the Mohawk Valley during the winter, especially if you don't ski or snowmobile?
The truth is there is plenty to do, you just need the motivation to do
it.
Grand kids are great motivators. Andrea (5) and
Jack Nicholson (7) visited Gert and me for a week during winter vacation.
They were joined by Steven Eychner (6) for four days. We took hikes, slid
down hill, visited fish hatcheries in Van Hornesville and Rome, fished
through the ice and played hockey on Delta Lake, cooked hot dogs and marshmallows
over a campfire, and had a snow cake birthday party.
Incidentally, the only way to get to our house
is to go . . . over the river and through the woods.
Van Hornesville Fish Hatchery
The Van Hornesville Fish Hatchery is open all year long during the week.
Most people visit the hatchery during the summer but winter and early spring
are excellent times to visit because the hatchery ponds are filled with
rainbow trout. Andi and Jack loved it ... almost as much as the visit to
Pizza Hut.
For more information about this hatchery see VHhatchery
The
Rome Fish Hatchery is on Route 46, two miles north of the City of
Rome. It's open all year long from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day of the
week. We were the only visitors that morning, and it was school break week.
Bob Smith gave the kids cups full of fish food to
feed the brown, brook and kokanee salmon in the hatchery's "cement ponds."
Jack, Andi and Steven loved watching the fish "boil" the water when they
tossed in the fish food. The Rome Hatchery produces almost two million
fish each year. Many of these fish are one and two years old.
Grandma Gert points out illustrations of some of the species of fish
found in New York State that are displayed over the trout aquarium inside
the hatchery. Another aquarium holds a number of other species including
a sturgeon that became an instant favorite with the youngsters.
This building also contains the rearing units, troughs
and raceways used to grow trout from eyed-eggs to fingerlings. When the
fish reach fingerling size they're raised in the hatchery's 46 large concrete
ponds.
Fish Nappers Beware
To prevent herons, kingfishers and mergansers from feeding on
the fish in the outside ponds, there are rows of string across the top
of the ponds. A small circular cement pond that holds some really big fish.
is covered with wire fencing to deter larger "critters."
World's First Cheese Factory
The Rome Hatchery is located on the old Black River Canal bed and uses
the spring water that was originally used by the world's first cheese factory.
Jesse Williams invented the process to mass produce cheese and built his
cheese factory here in the 1850s.
Snow Canoeing
In addition to snow boards and toboggans, we used my 10-foot canoe to
slide down our neighbor's hill. With both ends weighted down by youngsters,
the canoe tracked perfectly . . . . . .
. . . until it got to the bottom of the hill.
Left to right, Steven, Andi and Jack.
On top, Willow.
Not to worry, Willow only weighs 16 pounds.
Grandpa Paul takes a spin.
I thought I could control the canoe by shifting my weight and pushing with the paddle, but with both ends out of the snow at the bottom of the hill, it spun like a top and ended up in the trees.
Not to worry, they're our neighbor's trees.
Hotdogs, Marshmallows and Snow Cake
This
was our second annual winter hotdog and marshmallow roast. After sliding
down hill for a couple hours and then digging snow out of the fireplace,
gathering wood and waiting for the fire to burn down to cooking size, everyone
was ready for a hot dog or two. When the wind came up, the 20 degree temperature
seemed colder, so we burned a few marshmallows and went into the house
for some hot chocolate.
When
I shovel heavy snow off the deck, I work for a half hour and then stop.
One day after clearing more than a foot of heavy snow from a third of the
deck, I left snow on half the picnic table we keep out there all year long.
When Gert saw the chunk of snow, she noted that it looked like a layer
cake. That gave me the idea to keep the snow on the table and make it a
snow cake for Andi's almost 6 birthday party. At first Gert thought I was
bonkers, however, when we bought six big candles, she got into the swing
of it. Unfortunately, mother nature poured rain for two days and devoured
the cake. So, with my Easy-Bake Freezer (a waxed cardboard box) I made
a new snow cake.
We lit the candles and sang happy birthday. Andi
blew out the candles and even got presents. Our neighbor told his wife
he heard us singing to the trees. Andi wanted to know if she could eat
her snow cake. The next night we had a real cake---one we could eat---in
the house, but we also lit the candles on the snow cake---just for the
fun of it. (photo by Grandma Gert)
Ice Fishing Delta Lake
Delta Lake was so low we had to walk a half mile to where Gary and Mark
Eychner and Rich Benoit had 15 tipups set up over 20 feet of water. When
the tipup flag went up all three kids were there in seconds to watch the
reel turn as a fish took the minnow and ran with it. We lost the fish that
time.
at the pond near our house, but not on Delta.
After a big fish cut the 14-pound monofilament leader, this 2-pound
pickerel took the bait and held on. This was the biggest fish Andi, Jack
and Steven, standing to the right of his Dad, Gary Eychner, had ever seen
come through the ice.
The youngsters brought along hockey sticks, a tennis ball and a couple
of pylons. They saved the day. It didn't matter that the fish weren't biting,
they didn't need the portable ice shanty to keep warm, and playing hockey
on a real lake with Mark and Gary made their day.
The Games People Play
Incidentally, while we traveled from place to place with Andi and Jack, they suggested a game. We were divided into teams: Gert and Andi on the right side of the car, and Jack and I on the left side of the car. Each team counted the number of four-legged animals they saw. Most animals counted one point, but according to Jack white horses counted 10 points and deer counted 50 points. One catch, every time we passed a cemetery it canceled all the points of the team on that side of the car. On our trip back from Van Hornesville, Jack and I had a whopping 260 points and lost it all when we passed the small and very old cemetery at Eatonville on Route 169 between Little Falls and Middleville. Turned out to be a fun game . . . and the driver could adjust the score by driving by a cemetery on the right side of the car. Jack told us his Daddy taught him that.
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