THE 'BIRDER' ON ROUTE TO LAKE LOUISE, NY

A WINTER TWILIGHT MOMENT ON ESOPUS AVENUE

ESOPUS WINTER AND GREAT HORNED OWLS

I truly "love" winter.  One reason might be that I got into snowshoeing.  And of course you need winter...and you need "snow" for snowshoeing.  Last week the northeast got lots of snow.  We did "pretty well" here in the Esopus area, getting what I call a "refurbishing" of the snow layer on our pastures.  So I as able to have two good days of snowshoeing though all our pastures going over to the Pell Silo and back along the riverbank.  We have some coyotes, but I haven't seen any of them.  I HAVE seen their "four pointed" tracks in the snow.  Last summer I saw the largest one and it was a truly beautiful animal with about five different shades: brown, blackish brown, auburn, whitish grey and tan.  But it seems that they are not able to bring down the full sized deer.  So winters, with no small fauns to eat, is rough on them.  Do I seem "predatory".  Maybe so.  But that's the way I have come to see the circle of life in the sub human world.  There is a true "communion" there.  I NEED TO EAT YOU TO STAY ALIVE.  It's nothing personal.  If I were a human being fighting a foolish war in Iraq or Afghanistan, now that would be something different.  Because human beings have many other ways of living and living "holy communion" without hunting down and killing one another....

Was that a digression.  Yes and no.  Well let this HUDSON RIVER BIRDER get back to the bird world. I have "heard" a number of Great Horned Owls the last few days.  The first ones were hooting at one another like this--(HIT THE TITLE ABOVE) the other night when I walked along the road in front of the Redemptoristine convent. And today, Sunday March 7th I heard them hooting up on Shaupeneak Ridge.  By the way I have climbed from the Esopus  Fire House on the Ridge lots of times.  Today was the hardest.  Why?  First I did not realize how difficult the two feet of melting snow would be to climb further up the hill.  (Last week I went to North Lake in the town of Haines Falls and there were a total of 5 feet of snow on the ground!!)  So it looks like the higher elevations like Windham, Hunter Mountain, Haines Falls go a whalloping snowfall)
Anyway it was a really tough climb today.  And even coming down Popletown Road towards Union Center Road.  Because until Bea Moore's home it is not ploughed.  My socks go wet on the way up.  So I walked the four miles home "sockless" in my hiking boots.  Enjoy the hoots

ICED IN SHORE OF THE MOUNT ON THE HUDSON

Gullian Rug Repair/ Cleaning House-Popletown Road-Esopus, NY

The Sheep of Popletown Road-Esopus-NY

Any of my Redemptorist friends that are, sorry to admit this, 60 years or older will remember the old Gullian homestead at the top of Popletown Road coming up from Union Center and Hardenberg Roads. In those days "Mom" (as we used to call her) Gullian, had this very lovely homestead with a commanding view of the town and riverfront of the Hudson in Esopus. And there were sheep there because the Gullians had come here from Armenia, I believe in the 19th century and sheep, I imagine, reminded them of their native home. The family, among other things cleaned and I think "repaired" rugs for people in the community. The lovely little stone house where this was done stands alone and beautiful just below Shaupeneak Ridge. I have a photo here of that stone house. Bea Moore, the daughter of Mom, still lives in a house adjacent to their old homestead. Bea is a dear old friend of us Redemptorists at the Mount and witnessed many of us visit and eat great Armenian food at her mother's home so, so many years ago.

Mom Gullian's Old Homestead

Mt. St. Alphonsus and Hudson River from Shaupeneak Ridge

Another Trek to Shaupeneak Ridge/ Lake Louise

Around Dec 26th it was already pretty cold when my brother Dan and I hiked from the Esopus Firehouse up the "White Trail" to Shaupeneak Ridge and Lake Louise. It was "really" cold. There was one man out on the ice apparently fishing though a hole. We two, however, did not venture on the ice, but walked around the lake... Well, today, Jan 31st there were about 15 men on the lake, all ice fishing and some of them from New Paltz had this orange tent up. It was "only" about 20 degrees F. (Last night, Jan 30th it had dipped to 2 F, but my Weather Station only registered a low of 7 degrees F) So today, knowing that, should I go through the ice there was not just "one man" but another 15 hopefully ready to drag me out, I did venture out and spoke to them. They had some pretty good (about 9" perch) and I think some pickerel. It was a great hike. I also have some shots today of the old Gullian homestead at the top of Popletown Road, just below where the Shaupeneak Ridge area administered by Scenic Hudson begins.

Flaging for Ice-Fishing at Lake Louise-Esopus

Ice Lake-Fishing at Lake Louise-Esopus

WHERE HAS MY SNOW GONE?

I have weathered a "small bout" of some kind of flu. It wasn't SO bad. But now that I am better I find there is not a good layer of snow here in Esopus. I have only been able to snowshoe two times back in December. I guess this is what it means to "not live the rhythms of the earth". Today for MANY people snow is not a delight but a "problem", something to be endured until it can be removed. I have been reading TWELVE MOONS by Charles Frazier. It deals with a Will Cooper who lived with and came to understand the ways of the Cherokee people. Their winters were truly fierce. They only went out to care for their animals and for the basic necessities. BUT IT WAS A GREAT TIME FOR TELLING STORIES. Now TV and Cable have pre empted that. They tell us some great stories, of course. But how much better are our own, especially those we have lived. Let me tell you one of mine. It is a winter story:

SUN TELEGRAPH WINTER

When I was 11 till 13 yrs old I carried the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph. We were called "Paper Boys" because, even there were boys (like the Walshes on Morrowfield Ave) whoes younger sisters often helped them and sometimes even took over on mornings or evenings when their brothers were too tired, girls did not get "paper routes" in those times. Winter was a tough time to be a paper boy. I remember some of the most severe winters when I actually cried as I lugged my 50 or so heavy newspapers on a cold windy evening. My toes would not get warm. (I guess I had carelessly not put on good woolen socks). Yes, I actually cried. It was a bit scary too. There was one spot where I had to cut through an old abandoned property with a dilapidated mansion with broken windows. I wondered if there were some old man in there waiting to pounce upon me as I slowly lugged my paper bag to the other street. But there were some very nice people who would invite me in for some warmth and hot cholocate. I remember one woman on, I think, Beacon St who was very kind to this cold, wearly paper boy.

The Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph eventually folded. The Pittsburgh Press's circulation beat us hands down. And the Press paper boys would have their entire routes in what was merely one of seven our eight streets and three miles that my route traversed. Eventually the only newspaper that survived in Pittsburgh, PA was the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Well, with blogs like this one, emails, online everything most newspapers will probably eventually fold. What will be the benefit of that? Well, even though I am somewhat nostagically said to say it, There will be no more weary and weeping paper boys like I was!

THE BIRDER AND THE RIVER

OUR "WAVERING WINTER"

The other day when NYC and most especially Suffolk County received so much snowfall I was a bit "jealous". We got no snowfall up here in Ulster County. I was sort of "hoping" that we would get at least 6 inches so that I'd have some surface upon which to...snowshoe. Considering the inconvenience that snowfall presents for traffic, local snow removal maintenance and expenditures...especially during this financial crisis, I guess my desire was somewhat "selfish". In the "old days" when people were used to living more "in harmony with the seasons and what they would bring" maybe my desire would have been more natural. One of the things that I most enjoy about Esopus and The Mount where I live is its closeness to the Hudson River (whose "Birder" I am!!) and this wonderful 400 acre piece of Esopus land that we bought from Robert Livingston Pell in about 1905. Our black Labrador, "Alphie" certainly enjoys living in harmony with nature. She explores our property constantly and is always chasing and "just about catching" squirrels, chasing deer and Canada Geese, learning what skunks "can do", barking back when she hears the distant coyotes yelping, You stay off my turf, she barks back.

Today we Roman Catholics celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents which commemorates Herod's cruel efforts to rid the world of a king he did not understand or want. Today the battle for Health Care and most especially affordable healthcare for low income children and their families. I am beginning to think about not just talking about wildlife, animals, birds and trees on this blog. Or rather I see the need to relating the HUMAN TO THE LIVING NON HUMAN. My workshop, LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION does not have a purely romantic purpose. We love and protect children, women, the poor...AND our environment for the benefit of all. I am sure our Black Lab Alphie would agree with this!!

THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER'S BROTHER ON SHAUPENEAK RIDGE, ESOPUS, NY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SHAUPENEAK RIDGE-ESOPU, NY

THE EARTH SEEN BY THE ASTRONAUTS

This is a YOUTUBE movie of 5 minutes that I just created. I will be using it as a meditation in my workshop here at The Mount

LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION

WHEN?....Saturday, January 23rd

HOURS....from 10 am till 4 pm

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LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION--DEC. 12TH

THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER AND COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE

Yesterday my LOVING AND PROTECTING CREATION had fifteen persons present. Many of the group belong to the Pax Christi group in our Hudson River area. I got many good ideas from them on where to go with my workshop: ideas for community gardening, taking my talk to schools and churches. I am so grateful for the feedback. I need to keep studing. I include here a good video on the now cotinuing Copenhagen Conference on Global Warming. There are many who deny it. But as the Irish say about the faeries, "I don't personally believe in them....BUT THEY'RE THERE!!!!"
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Awaiting Winter Benches at Shaupeneak Ridge

These two benches await YOU. Come and enjoy the peaceful Lake Louise on Shaupeneak Ridge in Esopus, NY. It is a great piece of God's handiwork here in Ulster County. Take the White Trail which begins across the railroad tracks from the Esopus Town Hall and Fire House.