Henry's Woods

Today my friend Heather and I met up for some cross country skiing at Henry's Woods.  This is a new trail found off of Bear Cub Road in Lake Placid.  Henry's Woods is a quick 2.5 mile loop and no matter what direction you go, you start uphill for the first half or so.  Her dog Monty Moo took the lead early on and acted as our guide. He was an excellent guide and made sure we were safe when we skied across small wooden bridges and was patient when I would stop to take pictures and eat snow.  The reward after climbing the hill is a fun downhill.  If you've ever skied with me, you know this is my favorite part.  Anyone that might be enjoying the solitude and beauty of the woods, this usually means it is time to put your ear plugs in unless you want to hear me happily scream, "WOO, WOO!  WOO, WOO! WOOOOOOO!!!"  

It was a good day and Henry's Woods passed my fun factor test!  Happy Skiing!

Car Ride

The other day we took our cat Mango for a ride down Stickney Bridge Road here in Jay to check out some other animals that live near us.

I know what you are all thinking..."Crazy Cat Lady!"  Well... maybe I am, what's it to you?  In my defense, my husband didn't object to bringing Mango on our drive.

Mango likes going for car rides and I thought he would be interested in seeing the other animals in his neighborhood.  Our other cat Monty is not really a fan of being in the car so we left him at home.  We didn't feel bad about not including him in the adventure because he had plenty of action the day before when he caught two mice in the field out back.

On our drive down Stickney Bridge Rd, we were excited to see that the Caribou were close to the road and that they still had their antlers for Mango's viewing.  

Further down the road, Mango meowed at the shaggy cows. 

I think that he wanted to get out of the car and play with them, but I didn't think it would be a good idea since the mom cow started moving closer to Drew when he was taking a picture of the babies.  

At this point, we decided it was time to go home and get Mango inside.  He had seen some interesting animals and we didn't want him to get over stimulated.  I guess we'll leave the pot bellied pigs and alpacas for a different day.

 

Bottle Drop

Over the last four months, we have managed to save up a whopping 55 cents worth of bottles for redemption! I often get frustrated bringing bottles to the grocery store and having to wait behind a family that has collected 700 bottles or to have a sign on the machine saying, "Out of Order".  I won't even go into the smells that linger around those machines.

I am lucky enough to live in a town where there is a drop house or bin where you can donate your bottles and not have to deal with bottle redemption at the grocery store. The Holy Name School's bottle house is located on the corner of Rt. 86 and 9N at the bottom of the hill in Jay.

The bottle building is for bottle collection only!  There is a little sign on the side that says, "Those individuals caught disposing of trash in this collection box will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law."  Since we donated our bottles here last time, I thought we'd spread the wealth and drop them off in Upper Jay.

At the Upper Jay Fire Department, there is a drop bin for Boy Scouts Troop 24 Ausable Valley.

I found this to be an excellent spot for dropping off our bottles.  There is ample parking here with nice mountain views just behind the bin.  Also, I found no long lines to wait in and the air was nice and fresh!

I must mention that I was at the grocery store this afternoon and was surprised to see no lines and three machines that were working!  Unbelievable!

I know that I missed out on 55 cents by not bringing my bottles to Price Chopper, but it I felt good giving to the Boy Scouts! 

Mystery Spot #2

Guess the location of this mini iceberg on the Ausable:

Things I like about going to the dump...

After weeks of our garbage and recyclables piling up, it was time for me to take a trip to Lake Placid.  I find going to the dump is kind of like exercising, it takes a lot of mental energy to just get up and do it, but once you're doing it, it's not that bad.  

Here are a few things I like about the North Elba Recycling Center and Refusal Station:

1)  The fact that they had a contest to pick a new name for the road going into the dump.  It went from Dump Lane to Recycle Circle Lane.  

2)  I like the pretty yellow walls in the recycling building with Adirondack brown and yellow signs.

3)  I think that the views you have from the landfill are some of the best in town.  

Whiteface

Elvis with Mountains

4) Also, I think the employees are really helpful.  When I wasn't happy with the above picture, I was given special permission to walk on the landfill to check out Elvis.  My friend Heather happened to show up with her garbage just in time and she came with me.  We were very excited to see that Elvis had been bedazzled with some faux gems.  

Here is Heather and Elvis: 

 

I hope your next trip to the landfill is just as fulFILLing as mine was!

Candy Man Chocolates

What better time of year to blog about Candy Man Chocolates than the week of Valentine's Day?  

The Candy Man has two locations, Main Street in Lake Placid and their main store in Wilmington where you can see them making the chocolates through a window.  

They have a wide assortment of home-made chocolates, truffles, and cordials in the case where you can put together your own goody bag if you don't see anything you like already pre-packaged.

I stopped by this afternoon and thought I'd share with all of you a few things that caught my eye (hint, hint).  I've never been a fan of the 1 pound box of chocolates for Valentine's Day, mostly because I would have no use for a red heart shaped box.  Honestly, it would just end up torn apart with my recyclables, after I devoured the chocolates of course.  

I like all chocolate, but lately I've been digging dark chocolate and these dark chocolate pink hearts caught my eye because a couple of these would be great as an afternoon snack at work. 

I know what you might be thinking, is she always so practical?  Well, I just thought they might travel well and being in foil makes you have to work for the chocolate and that means they wouldn't disappear all at once.  

I also saw these wonderful dipped chocolate pretzels that I would probably gobble up in seconds. There were coconut patties and mint chocolate patties that I would enjoy every bite of as well.  

Last but not least, they have mint malt balls!  

I never knew they carried these, that is probably a good thing because I would have been stopping every week to pick myself up a bag.  I think that mint and chocolate is the perfect marriage of two ingredients that have ever existed and turning it into a malted ball really rocks my world!  

So, Mr. Mint Malt Ball... Will you be my valentine?

Cowbell Season

Today kicked off the Luge World Championships, the first of three World Cup events being held in Lake Placid this month.   Some might refer to this as Cowbell Season.  

To get the school kids excited, I did my part by brainwashing them into buying cowbells by rattling them obnoxiously and yelling, "Cowbells, get your cowbells!" 

I hear it was an exciting day with Brian Martin and Mark Grimmette winning a bronze in Men's doubles and Erin Hamlin taking the gold winning the women's Luge World Championships!  I would have loved to see it, but unfortunately there was work to be done at the lower lodge that didn't include rattling the cowbell.  

Believe me I was disappointed that I wasn't watching the action and ringing a cowbell of my own.  I know Christopher Walken would have been upset too and so here is a short tribute video in his honor!  

Valentine Gargoyles

Lefty "Lovey" Gargoyle

  

Righty "Romeo" Gargoyle