The Caretaker's Concern

The Caretaker's Concern for 11/2/2010

2010-11-02T06:36:00.000-04:00

TCC for 11/2/10:

No photos, no report, the Caretaker will be on hiatus until sometime next week.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 12/17/2007:

Weather reports call for a possibility of power outages from the coming snow storm, thankfully I have at least gotten far enough along on my winter preparations for living comfortably with no power, however, if there is no power I obviously would not be able to send out an e-mail so I decided I should send these photos off now.
Sorry I can't spend more time writing more but the more I can get done before the snow hits the better.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 11/1/2010

2010-11-01T00:00:00.001-04:00

TCC for 11/1/10:
No report, no photos, only 2007 post.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 11/5/07:

Tomorrow is election day.
The image above is in regards to those of you who don't care and so don't vote.

Please allow me to remind you that come this January, the entire Nation of Pakistan is most likely going to be disenfranchised of their right to vote by one man, their "president". As you read this, no Pakistani citizen has any rights. Their president has suspended their Constitution.

Now I know that those of you who don't vote have a variety of reasons not to, (your vote doesn't matter, you don't care, you don't know how, what's one voice?, etc.).

Imagine this: George Bush suspends our Constitution, in this day and age, I can't say it is all that unlikely.

When you don't vote, you lose the most important right there is, the right to voice your opinion. For those of you who don't vote, you obviously don't care about this, but for those of us who do vote, we care a hell of a lot--WE NEED YOU TO VOTE.

One of our Nation's greatest problems is low Voter turn out. The message that this sends to our elected officials is: "so few citizens care, so we, the politicians, can do whatever we want, the general public doesn't pay attention"--this is the seed of corruption.

Many of you who don't vote probably don't do so because you are displeased, if not disgusted, with all the candidates regardless of party affiliation.

The Caretaker understands this and can appreciate it greatly.
But imagine this: 100% of the population turns out to vote, all those who have voted in the past continue to vote as they usually do, if we are lucky, this makes up a little less than 50% of the population. These days, that works out to be about 25% vote Democratic, the other 25% vote Republican, that leaves the other 50%--those of you who don't vote. What we the Voters need from you the nonvoters is to show up to the polls and vote for anybody BUT the candidates.

I can think of no better message to our politicians than the one that only you nonvoters can send: "We are unhappy with the whole lot of you and we're letting you know, by voting but voting for non of you--you better start working for us the People and not yourselves, lobbyists, corporate interests, etc."

The Caretaker doesn't care who you vote for, vote for yourself, vote for a cartoon character, vote "Non-of-the-Above". JUST GO VOTE.

On the other hand, if you want, vote for me, vote for "The Caretaker".
The Caretaker will be running for President next year so you might as well start practicing now.
Vote "The Caretaker" as a write-in-candidate for any and all positions that are up for election in your town, county, and state.

Don't know how to vote a write-in, ask your poll worker, they will tell you how. Don't know where your polling station is, best thing you can do is at least spend this election day finding it and finding out if you are registered, this way you will know where it is for next year and you can be registered for next year's election.

The Caretaker will be providing his platform as to why you should vote for him for President in a few weeks or so.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday, and tomorrow, have a Happy Election day.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/31/2010

2010-10-31T00:00:00.006-04:00

TCC for 10/31/10:

Images of light on water.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/28/2010

2010-10-28T08:15:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/28/10:

The Caretaker will be on hiatus until sometime next week (except for a Halloween post, 10/31/10).

No report, just photos.
10/19/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for third week of November, 2007.

No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/27/2010

2010-10-27T06:16:00.001-04:00

TCC for 10/27/10:

No report, just photos.
10/12/10:

10/17/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for Second week of November 2007:

No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/26/2010

2010-10-26T06:30:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/26/10:

No report, just photos from the archive.
10/8/10:

10/19/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for first week of November, 2007.

My Camera's Last Photo:

I would like to be more expansive in this e-mail, but unfortunately my time constraints prevent me from doing so. I apologize for having to be so brief.

Attached to this e-mail is my camera's last photo. (The one just above this text.) On Friday while trying to get on to Sloop Island to check a perspective I dropped my camera into the Lake. The power was on and so it shorted out. If all goes well I will have a replacement in about a week or two. Until then I have about three weeks of photos in the pipeline so you need not worry about the photos for the IR.

Funny the wants of Fortuna.

Anyway, I would like to apologize to all of you who have e-mailed about either the framer catastrophe and/or anything else, sorry I have not responded but it has been quite a bit of a scramble. Between dealing with the framer, taking a photoshop course, beginning my research on a replacement camera, meeting my current obligations for photo card orders, etc. I have been rather busy.

I will respond to you all soon, but I would like to take the time now to thank you for your concern.

--The Caretaker

TheCaretaker's Concern for 10/25/2010

2010-10-25T07:13:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/25/10:
Sunrise on 10/23/10.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 4th week of October, 2007.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/22/2010

2010-10-22T07:41:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/22/10:

No report, photos from yesterday evening.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for third week October, 2007. No report, just photos.

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/21/2010

2010-10-21T07:22:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/21/10:

No report, just photos from the archive.
10/3/10:

10/19/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for second week of October, 2007.
No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/20/2010

2010-10-20T07:20:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/20/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 1st week October, 2007, no report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/19/2010

2010-10-19T07:49:00.006-04:00

TCC for 10/19/10:
No report, photos from the archive.
9/9/10:

10/8/10:
href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Yf5ZVCPewoM/TL2IoREETGI/AAAAAAAAEw4/Ghq-mPtmxIw/s1600/P1150753.jpg">
10/12/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 9/26/07-9/30/07
No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/17/2010

2010-10-17T19:07:00.004-04:00

TCC for 10/17/10:

Not much to report, the wind was out of the North West, blowing pretty good, strong and gusty, all day, non-stop, growing a bit tiresome. The sort of wind that starts to drain your sanity away, that is until you think about the days in July and August when there is no wind whatsoever and the thermometer hits 90 and above and the humidity is 110%.

10/16/10:

10/17/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 9/21/07-9/25/07.
No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/15/2010

2010-10-15T17:58:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/15/10:

Cold, windy, rainy, dark, and even more windy. From the North West, where there is no buffer so the cold is pouring into the Ghetto. Ghee!
The floor is cold, the Caretaker's feet are cold, same too for his hands.
This is getting a little old. But enough of that...

Photos from the archive.
9/9/10:

10/8/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 9/17/07-9/20/07.
No report, just photos.

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/14/2010

2010-10-14T21:20:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/14/10:
The Caretaker did a bit of walking around on the Island this evening, crunching around in the dry Autumn leaves that have collect at the bases of the maple trees, it was a very pleasant exercise that everyone should make a point of doing in the Fall. The sound under foot speaks of warmth, the colors (currently a mix of browns, oranges, tans, yellows, and reds), are a randomly dispersed collage that once painted the trees but now brighten the ground. Collect enough of these dry leaves, crunch them up in your hands, and an aroma is released that speaks of all the seasons, but the early waning of the year this odor sings the most. Fantastic the woman who wore this as a perfume.

No new photos, just a few from the archive.
10/18/10:

9/16/10:

9/9/10:

The Caretaker would like to take this time to pay a short tribute to one of the Island dogs: Hunter, his time has come to pass. He was indeed a good dog of a gentle disposition who for the most part just wanted to be pet. It's true that in his later years he developed a strong affection for trash cans and recycling cans which was somewhat annoying, but when caught having his way with these vessels you knew that he knew that you knew that he knew what he was doing was wrong because he would scamper off as quickly as possible. However, as time wore on Hunter then came to realize that it didn't really matter that we knew that he knew what he was doing was wrong and when caught he would vacate the area with little to no effort displaying an attitude of "So?"
You have to respect that.

He was a mostly pleasant dog, rare to bark, quite steady in disposition, you never worried about leaving him with children, and he was a good hunter, or so the Caretaker has been told. His last few months were perhaps physically trying but he always maintained a rather chipper attitude, always on the look-out for some overlooked scrap of food. He certainly liked to eat, and don't we all. Hunter will most definitely be missed, but he's in a better place now, a place where the trash cans are low to the ground and have no lids.
Some photos of Hunter from Autumn 2009:

Coming out to the Island Winter 2007:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 9/13/07-9/16/07:

No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/13/2010

2010-10-13T20:12:00.003-04:00

TCC for 10/13/10:

No report, photos from the recent archive.
9/9/10:

9/10/10:

10/8/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR from 9/8/10-9/12/07

No report, just photos.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/12/2010

2010-10-12T20:26:00.002-04:00

TCC for 10/12/2010:

Nothing to report from the day, cold and windy as per usual during the Autumn, the Caretaker is currently waiting for the wind to die down so he can take a shower without freezing to pieces. Two photos from today at sundown:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR For the week of 9/3/07-9/7/07

The Caretaker is still having problems with "interneting", something he hopes to get straightened out soon, it has been mostly catch as catch can with regards to getting on to the "internets". So, since he has managed to get on-line today, he has decided to just send out all of this week's photos in one shot.

Hopefully you will see something you enjoy.
If all goes well, which is not likely, the Caretaker will be able get this all sorted out by next week.

In the meantime the Caretaker would also like to take this time apologize to all of you who have e-mailed, he would like to respond to your e-mails but his "internets" goes so excruciatingly slow that he could mail you a letter in less time. Well, come to think of it, maybe not a letter but a postcard, hm...

Have a good rest of the week.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/10/10

2010-10-10T16:55:00.003-04:00

TCC for 10/10/10:

No report, just some foliage and geese photos from 10/8/10.

The following photo is the original photo used for the current photo at the bottom of the blog (i.e. not cropped).

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR for 8/31/07:
No report for today, just the following photo.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/6/2010

2010-10-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/6/10:

Lake Temperature, 60.5 F.
Outside Temperature:56 F.
Ghetto Temperature: 54.5 F.

It has been rather rainy, chilly and breezy these past few days, often with low clouds and or fog, not much to photograph. More photos from the archive and a video.

Early dawn, 9/16/10:

The last group of photos from the King's Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, 9/23/10:

Parting shot of the King's Garden at the end of the visit:

Fireworks in Bolton Bay, Lake George, N.Y. Early September 2010.

This footage is only so-so, there was some wind which diminished the sound somewhat but if you listen carefully you can hear the rumbling echo off the mountains.

In other news, since the Caretaker wasn't able to get down to NYC this past weekend perhaps he should take this time to highlight the Becca Stevens Band. The first album by the band is titled:

Tea Bye Sea

The follow up album is due out in February, to see video of the band playing songs from the first album and songs from the yet to be released second album go to YouTube and search: Becca Stevens Band.

If the Caretaker were to write a review of the Becca Stevens Band album, "Tea Bye Sea", this is what he would write:

If this album were a book it would be considered great literature, very high up in the cannon of great music. Like great literature, when you give a little of yourself to the work, you get tenfold and more in return. And, just like great literature, you can return to the work again and again and always get something new out of the experience. If my CD of Tea By Sea were an actual record it would have long since been rendered audioless by the needle of the record player from the countless playings. A collection of songs that entices you to drop what you're doing and just sit and listen time and time again.

The following are some links for the band:

Becca Stevens Band website.

Becca Stevens Band MySpace page.

Becca Stevens Band Facebook page.

Chances are the Caretaker will not be posting anything for the 7th of October, he will be down in Mattatuck, CT at the Mattatuck Museum taking in a performance by Lauren Sevian and her "Eb Quartet". The Caretaker expects it to be a most enjoyable performance. Since the Caretaker is down that way he will also be stopping in at the area Penzy's store to stock up on herbs and spices. His plan is to return late Thursday night, Friday is supposed to be a sunny day and there is much the Caretaker has not been able to do due to all the rain. The clear sunny weather during the coming days is much anticipated, however, the nights are supposed to be clear too which means it will be cold, as of right now the forecast calls for it getting down to 35 degrees F. for the nights this weekend--what fun! Anyway, if there is time, the Caretaker will try and get a post out sometime on Friday, however, between what he would like to get done and the fact that his internet connection has become insufferably slow of late, he may not post again until Sunday or Monday.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR 8/30/07:

No report, just photos. The first photo is from the winter, perhaps it will help you keep cool. The second photo is from this past Monday night's moonlight "photo shoot".

Eat your Thursday sandwich--it'll get you ready for Friday.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/5/2010

2010-10-05T20:15:00.003-04:00

TCC for 10/5/10:

There Caretaker still has more flower photos from the Fort Ticonderoga trip but he decided to mix things up a bit and post some landscape photos from the archive.

9/9/10:

9/7/10:

9/16/10:

8/12/10:

Originally the Caretaker had planned to spend this past weekend in NYC, that however ended up not happening. He was all set to go this past Friday morning when he decided to have a late morning Stinger on the rocks (a new favorite drink of his) before taking the boat over to the mainland. Standing at the bar having just finished shaking his libation and taking a sip while looking out the window he noticed that there was something funny about the sailboat as it bobbed sluggishly at its mooring in the small cove on the West side of the Island.

That's funny... Oh crud, it's sinking.

So, instead of relaxing for a short while with his drink before departing he instead went out to the South dock to asses the situation. Turns out the sail boat had taken on a lot of water due to the excessively heavy rains from the past few days and especially the deluge of the night that poured all night long and into this same morning. The sail boat has no caps on the centerboard closet so once the water breached the holes water began to fill the sailboat directly from the lake. This the Caretaker figured out once he got out to the sailboat to begin bailing it out, but before he could do that he had to bailout the tin boat, which came as no surprise to the Caretaker because due to a leaky hull the tin boat is perpetually sinking. The flotation in the seats is what keeps it from fully submerging, however, this time around was the lowest the Caretaker had seen it in the water. Usually the Caretaker bails the tin boat out with a five gallon bucket, it being the quickest way, but the boat was so low in the water that he feared sinking it if he got in to bail the water, instead he dropped the sump pump in and pumped the water out which took quite a while but it gave him an excuse to go back to his drink and take in the cloudy morning sky.

Now that the tin boat was pumped out the Caretaker hopped into it and pushed himself over to the sailboat, tied the boats together and then got in the sailboat to start bailing water. After much effort in rapid motion the Caretaker was able to lower the water level in the sail boat to just below the top of the centerboard closet access holes when he noticed that water began pouring out of the holes.

Uh-oh, that's not good. Should probably replace the caps so this doesn't happen again.

So the Caretaker began to bail faster as more and more water poured out, eventually he was able to bail enough water out to get the water level below the bottom of the access holes, eventually water stopped pouring out of the holes and eventually the Caretaker was able to bail out nearly all of the water from the sailboat.

Due to all the rain the lake level was quite high, about 4 inches below flood stage. After returning to the South dock in the tin boat it occurred to the Caretaker that due to runoff from the mountains there is a chance that the Lake could reach flood stage which would be bad for the Caretaker's possessions stored in the boathouse below the stairs which is the lowest point on the Island and the first to get flooded out when the water gets high. So, the Caretaker decided it would be best to haul all that gear out and get it to higher ground. To make a boring story short by the time the Caretaker had finished with all of this he needed to take another shower and by the time he finished with that there wasn't really any reason to go to NYC for Friday night because given his very late start he would have totally missed what he was going to see, maybe caught the last few songs at best. Not to mention he got a phone call regarding something that would need his attention the Sunday of that weekend, so, the Caretaker canceled his trip to NYC. On Saturday morning, it turned out, his services were needed elsewhere, so, for the most part the Caretaker was off Island for most of the weekend but it wasn't doing what he had originally planned. Which in many ways bummed the Caretaker out because his plan was to see the Becca Stevens Band in its entirety perform (i.e. every band member present) which is something he has yet to do.
Thankfully it looks like the Caretaker will still get the chance to see the full band play before he moves to Florida for the next few months, apparently they have a gig on the 29th at The Jazz Gallery which is somewhere in NYC. The Caretaker will definitely not be missing this show, come heck or high water, as they say.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR 8/28/07:

No report, just this photo of light on water:

Photo doubled over and rotated:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/3/10

2010-10-03T19:42:00.004-04:00

TCC for 10/3/10:

Not too long ago the Caretaker checked the outside thermometer: 56 degrees, the temperature at the time in the Ghetto, 54 degrees. The Caretaker has put a sweater on for the first time in an awfully long while. This morning, when he woke up, the outside temperature was 50 degrees, the inside temperature was the same. It's looking like the Caretaker is going to have to start breaking out his winter gear. By tomorrow morning the temperature on the mainland is supposed to get down to 38 degrees, that's only 6 degrees above freezing. Since the Lake is still relatively warm it probably won't get down much below 50 by this coming morning here on the Island. However, it still makes for a cool start to the day and when the wind is blowing from the North, a chilly breeze in the outdoor shower. Anyway, the following photo was taken this evening at sundown:

The remaining photos are even more flower photos from the King's Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, note in the one immediately below, another vampire bee.

The photo below is the core image used for the blog cover photo (10/3/10 - 10/10/10) the image was mirrored over 9 times in photo shop.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR 8/27/07

The Caretaker would like to apologize for the extended hiatus, it was not by his design. Unfortunately Microsoft has decided that it would be a good idea to reconfigure Hotmail in such a way that it is basically useless. As it stands, The Caretaker can not send e-mail from his contact lists. Yes the Caretaker could install Microsoft's latest browser, but the Caretaker doesn't use Microsoft's browser and sees no reason why he should start now.

So, because Microsoft decided to pull a Sony, the Caretaker has switched all his contacts over to a Yahoo account. Please note the Caretaker will be letting his Hotmail account go defunct. As far as the Caretaker is concerned, not only is Hotmail and Microsoft dead to him, but so too Mr. Gates.

Also, the Caretaker is currently running into glitches with Yahoo, oh, and something is up with the local server, the Caretaker's internet connection is about three to four times slower then usual. So, if the speed doesn't improve, there probably won't be any more IR's.

Other than that, nothing much to report.
And so without further distraction, today's photo:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 10/1/2010

2010-10-01T19:56:00.000-04:00

TCC for 10/1/10:

Not long after yesterday's post the rain picked up something fierce, and went all night long. Wouldn't be surprised if after the run-off the Lake is near flood stage.
No new photos, more photos of flowers from the King's Garden at Fort Ticonderoga:

In other news, last night, the Caretaker finished transcribing S.'s printed manuscript into a digital file, if all goes well S. will get back into this project and finish what he started. Quite a good beginning for a memoir that's just waiting for completion.

The Caretaker just figured out how to embed hyper-links in his blog, which means he is going to start promoting other artist's work much more aggressively, feel free to contact the Caretaker about your art with appropriate web-links for him to post to his blog.

So... Speaking of books, a friend of the Caretaker's published a memoir about his experiences teaching in an inner-city high school in New Jersey.

MISTA by John J. Kaminski
ISBN: 978-1-4520-3132-3

It's a good read.

The book is available at Amazon.com and Borders.com not mention a number of bookstores.

http://www.amazon.com/Mista-John-J-Kaminski/dp/1452031320/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285892826&sr=1-1

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1452031320

For more information on the book there is a facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mista/118562074834233

If you buy the book (and open it), you will see that the Caretaker is listed on the "Acknowledgements" page which is a first for the Caretaker.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:

IR 8/3/07

Today's photo was taken back in June.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/30/2010

2010-09-30T19:40:00.000-04:00

TCC for 9/30/10:

Originally, the weather report for today called for 60 mile an hour winds and up to 2 to 6 inches of rain, little to no wind for the day, but it has been raining all day, however, 2 to 6 inches? No. And no new photos, so...
More photos from the Fort Ticonderoga field trip, the following are views from Mt. Defiance which overlooks Fort Ticonderoga with the State of Vermont making up the East shore of lake Champlain and rolling further East off into the distance.

View looking towards the city of Ticonderoga, not much to see:

Paper mill on lake Champlain:

Looking South on the South Basin of lake Champlain:

Photo of Ticonderoga Ferry Boat:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IR 8/2/07

Today's photos are from a while back.
The first one is of light on the water, mildly interesting.
The other one is a result of the Caretaker having his camera with him while waiting for people to arrive.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/29/2010

2010-09-29T21:15:00.005-04:00

TCC for 9/29/10:
Flower shots from the King's Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, the first one isn't a flower, it's a cabbage.

The following photo is the core image for the current blog cover image, 9/26/10 to 10/3/10:

Below is a shot of the deadly "Vampire Bee", they sting and suck the blood out of you and turn it into honey. The Caretaker was lucky to get the shot and then out of there alive, the King's Garden is known by all the locals to be run by vampires who feel no need to tell the tourists about the dangers of the "Vampire Bee", mostly because the vampires want the blood honey that the Vampire Bees make. Stay away from the King's Garden it truly is a tourist trap!

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IR 8/1/07

As to yesterday's photo. To be honest, when the Caretaker got to reading his e-mail yesterday, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what anyone was talking about. So he went back and looked at the photo again. Odd that. He never noticed the ghostly figures. Maybe there is something to the stories after all.

In other news, the Caretaker picked up the second proof run of enlargements, he is rather pleased with them, pleased with them indeed.

Today's photo is a variation from one sent out in the winter, this one is in "landscape", the one from the winter was in "portrait", then again it might be the exact same image, Caretaker can't remember, he only knows that this one was in the extra's folder. Either way, if nothing else perhaps by looking at it you won't feel so hot this first of August.

And so in conclusion, from the guy who "taped lollipops to beer cans", got a "beating from his rescuers from the ice", AND had his image "stolen and put on t-shirts" he must first address a usage problem.

There were no images of The Caretaker "naked" in yesterday's photo. The Caretaker was "nude".
Naked is unclothed and unprotected, vulnerable.
Nude is just unclothed.
When you spend your winters as the Caretaker does, no running water, etc. it is quite safe to say that when parading about on the Island on a warm summer night with no clothes on you are not "naked". Quite the contrary. In comparison to life on the Island in the winter, out and about on the Island in the summer with no clothes on is a "walk in the park", but I digress.

The Caretaker would like to apologize for not being able to respond personally to everyone's e-mails and inquiries regarding this photo, but he will address all questions in this IR.

The setting on the camera was just one of a rather long exposure time, some 15 to 25 seconds or so.

No one else was on the Island but the Caretaker when this "photo" was taken.
The only person (or people) you see is(/are) the Caretaker(s).
Now, as to the sighting of E.T., that the Caretaker cannot explain.

How the Caretaker did it: As stated in the IR with this photo, the Caretaker got the idea for this shot from the night before. If he finds the photo he will attach it along with this IR. Anyway, so he lit up the house and started taking photos with a very long exposure. After a few shots he thought, why not put himself in the photo, and so he hit the shutter button and ran into the shot and stood there while the camera took the shot. After seeing the results he got the idea of putting himself in a number of places in one photo. And so the Caretaker took a number of shots positioned in various places.
Why is the Caretaker nude in the photo? It's hot, it's summer, he's on an Island and there is no one else there, why wear clothes? As to being nude in the photo, why bother going to put on clothes? In the end, as far as "effect", having a ghostly appearance in the photo it seems to work rather well, if you were a ghost, why bother with clothes? You're a ghost, why bother with modesty?

By using a tripod the Caretaker was able to take the exact same shot over and over again, then in Photoshop he used one photo for the background, and then cut and pasted himself from all the other photos, because the shot is exactly the same all the cutting and pasting lines up exactly. However, that is only if you use the same background shot as the rest of the photos. The first time the Caretaker did this, when he was finished he decided there wasn't enough Caretaker in the shot. Seeing that the right foreground was sort of empty he went back outside and took another photo. However, he managed to jostle the tripod and so it was knocked from the original location, not by much, but it did move. What does this mean? The Caretaker had to do a bit of moving and cutting to get everything to look in place. Although it required a little bit of effort, it was well worth it. The shot that was used for the background had much more moonlight in it than the others so it made for an even better shot. To illustrate the point the Caretaker will attach a photo from the first shooting.
I believe that should explain everything, the Caretaker apologizes for being so curt and direct on the subject but the time he alloted for today's IR was reduced by a distraction of Meh. He felt compelled to explain/explore a particular usage of Meh, but what can you do? You can't deny the Meh. The Caretaker might even put together "The Book of Meh--an explanation and exploration of all the many uses of Meh."
Caretaker's gotta go.
Meh.

--The Caretaker

P.S. The Caretaker's first thought as to putting himself in the photo was to do cartwheels. So if you were on the Island you would have seen the Caretaker doing cartwheels in front of the camera. It didn't work. When using light in a long exposure if something doesn't give off light it must remain still enough for the camera to capture the obstruction of light, at least I think that's how it goes. Whatever it is, that is why there is no ghostly image of the Caretaker doing nude cartwheels.
I think I do have Island Mind-Rot. Want some?
One last thing the Caretaker almost forgot, yes, he is that fat. Caretaker needs to get thinner, Caretaker needs to skip dinner.

P.P.S. As far as the Caretaker knows, there is no such thing as a "Vampire Bee" but there could be, and the King's Garden is not run by vampires, but it could be.

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/28/2010

2010-09-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

TCC for 9/28/10:

No new photos, just more from the Fort Ticonderoga field trip.
Fort Ticonderoga as viewed from Mt. Defiance:

A pile of cannons just outside the grounds of the King's Gardens:

An entrance way to the King's Garden from the inside looking out:

Other structures on the grounds of the King's Gardens:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IR 7/31/07

The Caretaker figured out a "new setting" on his camera (the setting isn't actually new, he just never bothered to check the manual on it and whenever it was used inadvertently during the day nothing ever came out, but...) two nights ago it all came together, but it was late and so he went to bed, but it gave him an idea for some photos that he took last night. While taking some shots last night another idea occurred to him and today's photo is what resulted.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/27/2010

2010-09-27T22:00:00.002-04:00

TCC for 9/27/10:

No new photos, just some from the archive.
9/10/10:

9/9/10:

The morning began dark, gray, the sky almost entirely cloud covered, the wind has been from the North East all day, not too strong but enough to keep a chill on the air. Come the afternoon the rain began, a long steady rain, not too hard but good enough to saturate the soil which the grass is in desperate need of. A couple hours after nightfall the rain has stopped, the occasional drip-drop-drip of water from the trees can be heard on the roof of the ghetto.

Last night a curious thing happened to the Caretaker, the night was coming to an end and the Caretaker decided to take a few moments out on cocktail point, not long after sitting down on the two seater Adirondack chair he heard the fluttering of wings of a sizable bird swoop down from overhead, a sort of controlled fall, and land just on the other side of the fire bowl between the large stone and the Oak tree. Upon hearing the sound the Caretaker looked up and saw a black mass drop down from the pine tree overhead. The Caretaker had no light with him so he went up to the ghetto for a flashlight, he wasn't sure the bird would have remained but figured it would be worth a shot. Leaving the Ghetto to return to Cocktail point he switched on the flashlight figuring if the bird wanted to make a get away give it plenty of notice. The bird did not such thing, it was found right where it had landed. A black waterfowl with a long yellow beak with a sharp short hook at the end. The Caretaker was able to get about two feet from the bird while shining the flash light on it. The bird made no effort to flee, it just occasionally fluttered its wings a small bit and twisted its head around, looking around, perhaps it was shaking off the fall from the tree, the fall for the bird was about twenty feet, it may have grazed one of the chairs of the fire bowl just before landing on the ground. The Caretaker examined the bird for at least a minute, he even thought about reaching out and touching it but figured that probably wouldn't do the bird much good and it probably wouldn't have done the Caretaker's hand much good, the sharp point on the beak looked a might fierce. He then thought about getting his camera but decided that it would be best to just leave the bird well enough alone, so the Caretaker went back into the Ghetto for a few minutes then returned to cocktail point to see if the bird had departed, it had. The breed of bird was shared with the Caretaker by T. but he remembers it not, either way, this breed seems a bit weird, and the Caretaker should know, he's got weird a plenty going on all the time.

In other news, last night while out to dinner with S. it was shared with the Caretaker that what's holding up the memoir is that the digital copy of what has been written so far has been lost. The Caretaker's response was to offer to type out from the hard-copy on to his computer thus creating a digital copy. So far he has completed the introduction and chapter one. If all goes well he should have the transcription finished by the end of the week or so. After it is all transcribed the Caretaker will be e-mailing the file to S. so he can get to work on finishing what was started. Perhaps by next Spring S. will have finished the rough draft? Be interesting to see who finishes their rough draft first, S. or the Caretaker?

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IR 7/30/07:
No report, just this photo.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/24/2010

2010-09-24T11:14:00.002-04:00

TCC for 9/24/10:

The Caretaker accompanied S. to Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, photos of some of the statuary at the King's Garden (the first three aren't statues but you get the point).

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island.

IR 7/27/07:
Today's photo was taken from Grandview Point on Greenwood Lake, NY during Father's day weekend.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/23/2010

2010-09-23T10:02:00.004-04:00

TCC for 9/23/10:

The Caretaker didn't realize it had been ten days since he last posted to his blog. No time to write, no new photos, the following are from the archive.
Happy first day of Autumn!

5/22/08:

9/7/10:

9/9/10:

7/26/07:

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/13/2010

2010-09-13T21:15:00.001-04:00

A special heartfelt thanks to T.R. for the storage. The Caretaker is going to be on hiatus until the end of the weekend, he has about 75 GB of RAW files to back-up (three times) so he can open up drive space on his computer. Very time consuming, he is hoping to leave for NYC Wednesday night, however, he needs to wait on something from the Post Office which may delay his departure to Thursday morning, if he is delayed then he'll probably have time to get some photos out. In other news, the Caretaker received the Bjorkestra CD in the mail today, it's good, but the live show is so much more.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 9/13/10:
A rain storm came over the Island from the West, it rained so hard it appeared as though the Lake was boiling. View of the storm heading South from the Island:

While the storm was moving South the sky began to clear to the West:

Close-up of clouds:

Cloud photo above mirrored over 9 times:

Tour boat Mohican coming through the storm while numerous lightening strikes hit the Lake and surrounding mountains, sorry no photo of the lightening:

The calm after the storm:

Dawn, 9/12/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 7/25/07

Today's photo was taken at a friend's wedding ceremony (before the ceremony started). The ceremony was held in the Cadet chapel at West Point.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/12/10

2010-09-12T06:00:00.001-04:00

TCC for 9/12/10:

Weekend hiatus, will return Monday morning.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 7/24/07

Not sure if these should really be called "IIR's", there isn't really all that much I can update you on overall, and, there long since isn't any more ice. Well, they're digging up the sewer line over where our cars are parked and they had to be moved so they could dig up the street (a hole about 20 feet in diameter and some 10 feet deep, if it were foggy around it I know a guy who could get caught in it and not be able to do his homework or something). Anyway, keeping it short for now. Hope you enjoy the photo.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/11/2010

2010-09-11T06:00:00.001-04:00

IIR 7/21/07:

Photo taken a month or two ago.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/10/10

2010-09-10T06:28:00.000-04:00

TCC for 9/10/10:

This morning the sky was mostly dense with gray clouds, a dark and cool start to the day, mild breeze from the West West North. The Caretaker never made it to the dump yesterday, he spent the day on the Island.

Yesterday near sundown:

8/18/10:

The Caretaker was reminded of his own fabricated holiday from back in 2009 while on the phone the other night with his Florida connection. Many of you know nothing of this because the Caretaker doesn't have your mailing address which is probably a good thing if you don't like receiving cockamamie cards and postcards in the mail. So, here in digital form is the photo and text from the holiday card that the Caretaker sent out in 2009:

The Great Story of the
Great Holiday:
Christ-Wanz-Adan-Ukkah
And its Great Mascot
Grand Pooh-Bah.

No one really knows when the holiday started, and nobody really cares. Nobody seems to know where Grand Pooh-Bah comes from, some say it’s a cold and running waterless place, but nobody cares about that either. What people do know is that everybody looks forward to the holiday and the arrival of Grand Pooh-Bah. When’s the holiday? Whenever Grand Pooh-Bah decides to show up on your doorstep and hang around for a while. Sometimes the celebration is rather short (but always long enough to have a meal), sometimes it can go on for days (if Grand Pooh-Bah likes your digs the holiday will last for quite sometime).
Some say if you put out an open bottle of Gin on your front doorstep you can speed up the arrival of Grand Pooh-Bah, others say there is no rhyme or reason to his schedule. Whenever he does arrive he always brings joy and happiness to all of those who welcome him into their home--sometimes upon arrival, other times upon departing.
Christ-Wanz-Adan-Ukkah, a holiday we can all rally around, may you enjoy the spirit brought into your home as only Grand Pooh-Bah can bring.

Have a
"Merry Happy
Christ-Wanz-Adan-Ukkah
All the Year Through!
May
Grand Pooh-Bah
Bless Your Home Soon!”

(P.S. That’s not a sack full of gifts, it’s Grand Pooh-Bah’s laundry. What would you expect him to bring, toys? Nah, just dirty laundry and an appetite.)

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to hold the center formating on the blog, everything that is off to the left was originally presented centered on the card stock. If the Caretaker gets his act together before leaving the Island he'll come up with some other photo for this year's celebration of Christ-Wanz-Adan-Ukkah and send off some cards for the year.

Given the length of the post for 2007 that follows the Caretaker is leaving off for now. Like a Lake George Chicken with its head cut off...

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 7/20/07

The Caretaker changed his mind and his schedule so since he had some time this morning he decided to send off an IIR with a photo.

Today's photo was taken from the Island, it is of a firework while the camera was moving. At some point he'll probably mess around with it in Photoshop and come up with something.

IIR 7/20/07

The Caretaker changed his mind and his schedule so since he had some time this morning he decided to send off an IIR with a photo.

Today's photo was taken from the Island, it is of a firework while the camera was moving. At some point he'll probably mess around with it in Photoshop and come up with something.

In addition to the photo, attached to this e-mail is a word document. It's a little more than 5 pages, double spaced, to include it in the body of the e-mail would be a little excessive. The Caretaker has been meaning to send this out for a long time. Back in April, the Caretaker was asked to do a reading at the Bolton Library for the "Friend's of the Bolton Library". He was offered the choice of reading someone else's work or reading something of his own. The reading was scheduled for midweek sometime around the opening weekend of the Island. Because of this the Caretaker was a little hesitant to accept the invitation, but eventually he decided to do so, he figured it had been a long while since he had done any creative writing of this type so why not use this as motivation? The reading went well for the most part, he got the laughs were he expected them, he should have read at a touch slower pace, but it wasn't too rushed. Anyway, the Caretaker would like to thank the following people for reading the work and providing feed back on one of the early drafts:
Ms. B.G., Mr. B. H., Mr. Clint Hobart, Mr. D. M., and Mr. John J. Kaminski.

All of your comments were most helpful.

To the rest who didn't have the time to read the material back then, now is your chance to do so.

The Caretaker would also like to thank K. V. for extending the invitation to participate in the reading at the library.

The work since the reading has gone through a few more drafts and could still use more "tweeking" (there are still some things he doesn't like) but the Caretaker doesn't have time do that right now, he's too busy coming up with cockamamie t-shirt designs.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photo and the "Word Document".
Have a good weekend.

--The Caretaker

P.S. The text document was written to be read aloud so the punctuation may seem a little off and excessive. Someday, when he goes to write the book, he'll change it.

NOTE: Text from Word Document follows below:

“Spring, a Time for the Senses”
by
Jeffrey Dallas Moore

Spring, like all the seasons, is a time for the senses, but none more so, than Spring. On a cloudless and windless day, the Lake, as still as it can be, the late morning sun softly warms the ground, lightly heating up the cover of fallen pine needles that have been collecting since Autumn. The sun’s gentle warmth, causes the pine needles, combined with the evaporating moisture from the soil, to give off a warm, butterscotch like aroma. In the early Spring, when the air is still comfortably cool, breathing in this buttery sweet scent, always warms the lungs
Spring is a time of many things, one of which is subtleties. Take an early Spring morning, upon some ground is but a clear patch, a few hours later you turn around, and what was once clear, is now pebbled in flower sprouts. The elements of weather have come together to provide the proper conditions for these aspiring flowers to, well, what else? spring, out of the ground.

Spring, like all the seasons, is made up of many moments--one in particular is what I call the time of Christmas Color. Christmas Color appears upon the mountains, just before the new buds on the deciduous trees have gone from red to green. All along the mountainsides of the Lake the contrast of this new born red against the age old conifers’ green can be seen at its peak for usually just a day, and on that day, the contrast of red and green shows the most late in the afternoon when the sun is low on the horizon just before any notions of setting. In comparison to the fiery splashes of color in Autumn, this Spring time color is rather subtle indeed; however, in comparison to the mountainsides, uncloaked of leaves through Winter, exposing the grays and browns of their topography, the contrast of deciduous red and conifer green upon the trees is a vibrance to see.

Eventually, this colored moment is followed by another. As the newborn buds fade from red, eventually they are replaced with Spring baby green. As these first thoughts of leaves start to emerge, lush green begins to creep from shoreline to mountaintops, slowly, filling in, all the gaps between the evergreens.

Spring is also a time of surprises, some good, some bad, and some in between. A good surprise this Spring was the Loons. The Loons themselves were no surprise, for it is well known that they do come through most every Spring, but I had not expected them to have such a long layover—at least, that is in comparison to my limited experience here on the Lake in Springtime. Regardless of the true averages, the Loons’ passing here on the Lake could never be long enough. Quiet is the night, shattered by one Loon’s call to another. Thick silence between, then broken by response--stars go forgotten, waiting for the rupture of a third call, feels as though it may never come. There’s just something about that call, both haunting and comforting.

A Springtime surprise that was in between both good and bad was the arrival to the Island of two Short-shined Hawks. At least I believe they are Short-shined, they could be Kestrels, or maybe even Merlins—I don’t know. Whatever they are, the one thing I do know, is that they are annoying. It didn’t start out that way, at first I was rather pleased to have some birds of prey inhabiting the Island. Such was my enthusiasm that I made an audio recording of their call and took some photos, then sent it all off to a “birder” friend of mine for classification. The best we cold come up with was any one of the three aforementioned breeds. In fairness to my friend, the lack of ability to narrow it down any further is more a result of my inability to get a good photo of the birds than it is of her ability to classify.
Over time, my enthusiasm turned to annoyance—Short-shinned Hawks seem to have little to no value for quiet. To put it bluntly, they don’t shut up. All, day long, it’s any wonder they don’t scare away all their prey. It’s like a broken record player, except that you can’t remove the needle because this record player is way up high somewhere in a pine tree. Yet, I suppose if we could communicate, the Short-shined would probably reply to my complaint with: “If you think I’m annoying, try DDT.”

To be fair, it’s not all bad with these birds of prey--they do a very good job of keeping the Crows away. The screech and cry from a murder of crows at sunrise, quickly conjures murderous thoughts indeed. Oddly enough, over the years I have come to gain an appreciation for Crows. When numbering but a few and little to do, perched in trees they will reveal a soft gentle coo. Believe it or not this cooing of the Crows is so easy on the ears it makes one wonder why they bother with all their other noise.

I have yet to hear anything like this from the Short-shined Hawks, but, as annoying as they can be, with their incessant calling, and the fact that they are subsisting on some of the birds that help keep a check on the bug population, it is good to see that all birds of prey are making a come back. Something about the shape of their wings and overall form in flight as they soar upon the wind—such a glorious sight.

Spring, is a time of anticipation. Anticipation, for what is to come. Where we see green shoots, soon will come flowers. So, it’s good to see things greening up again. One green in particular, the Spring shoots of Day Lilies. On the Island there is a sizable patch of these flowers and I look forward to their bloom with great anticipation. Not just because their flower is lovely on the eyes, a golden orange trumpet of Summer, but because they also taste good. For those who don’t know, the flower of the Day Lily is indeed edible and quite delicious too.

Have you ever been to Georgia at the peak of Peach season?
Early morning,
Walking through the orchard to find that perfect Peach, to pluck from above.
Peach now in hand,
It is almost cold to the touch from the cool night air, just now passing away.
The firm skin hesitates the teeth for just the moment
Before breaking through to the soft moist flesh.
An explosion of flavor and juice in the mouth,
Orange tinted Peach blood dribbling down chin, glistens in the rays
Of the new morning sun.
As mouth slowly chews upon the soft flesh,
Slowly rolling it amongst the teeth, tongue, and cheek,
Overwhelmed by flavor, the lungs forget to breath.
Mouth now empty, ready for another bite,
Peach close to the nose, that first breath fills the body deep.
Savoring the glorious Peach—of taste and scent sweet,
The arm pulls away from the face
Allowing the eyes
To rest upon what remains from that first bite:
Soft, fuzzy white, and orange outside,
Inside,
A wet yellow orange flesh,
Deeper still, a shocking layer of red Peach meat.
Within that,
The deep red and brown, undulating surface of the pit.
Eyes, gazing upon a sunrise in hand,
All senses, almost, overwhelmed
Savoring this start to the day.

Does a Day Lily taste like this? Well, no. But it does have subtle overtones of Peach, at least to me it does. Now you may have never been to Georgia during the peak of Peach season, but when it comes to the Day Lily you really need not have to, for, truth be told, neither have I, but, those are some of the thoughts, that flavor my mind, when I dine, on the flower, of the Day Lily.

Peddles’ soft touch, perfect to tickle laughter from a lover’s cheek.
A heady bouquet of its own to know, is something gentle and sweet.
This flower’s color, shape, and form, glorious to see,
Colors the palate, light, yet filling, tasty and airy.

Perhaps, the next time you try a Day Lily some or all of these thoughts will spring forth in your mind. The Day Lily is a flower for all the senses. As it is in the flower, so too in Spring: a season for all the senses.

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/9/10

2010-09-09T09:37:00.005-04:00

TCC for 9/9/10:

This morning, the sky was dense and complete with clouds, a sprinkle of rain here and there:

The wind was out of the West for much of yesterday but it did shift around a bit between the North and the South, quite blustery, in the sunlight it was warm, in the shade it was cool, in the wind it was chilly. Originally the Caretaker was thinking he would go to town to take care of some Island business but then decided he would rather stay on Island and take care of things here, tomorrow will be: journey to the dump day, etc.

Photos from yesterday's sunset:

Hammock photos from the archive:

To laze away a summer's day with you,
Coasting the air in a hammock for two.
Floating above ground,
Beneath glorious blue
White cloud speckled sky.

Wrapped in the warmth of sun,
Wrapped in the joy of embrace.
A gentle breeze passes us by.

Lost, yet found, between awake and asleep,
All troubles and worries escape,
Loving our love
Together keeps us our keep.

Nothing but beauteous surroundings,
And our shared beauty in between
You and me close,
Us we glide,
Together in dream.

The Caretaker has run out of time for today, what he started writing today but wasn't able to finish will have to wait until tomorrow's post.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 7/18/07

Lake Temp: 72 F

Outside of today's photo (which was not taken today) there is not much to report.
Since the circus is in town I decided to send out this "cookey" photo taken at the West Point outdoor concert stage, which is a great outdoor venue. If you haven't been there for a show you should definitely go: lawn seating, bring your own (and not just seats, coolers, etc. are allowed), and the view for the audience is overlooking the Hudson River! Sure it's polluted as all get out but it's still pretty to look at.
Tomorrow's photo will be a landscape.

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/8/10

2010-09-08T10:41:00.001-04:00

TCC for 9/8/10:

A bit of wind this morning, the Caretaker will not likely get in a row for exercise. Quite a bit of thunder and lightening last night at around midnight. He thought about bringing out his camera but upon going outside and realizing that the storm was all around the Island with both individual bolts and flashes that filled the sky entirely he instead decided he would be better off in bed.

This morning at sunrise:

The wild grapes here on the Island have begun to ripen to the point where you can eat them, another sign of the early stages of Autumn here on the Lake.
Grapes this morning:

Wild Island Grapes after an Ice Storm:

The wild grapes here are certainly an acquired taste, these grapes won't be getting much bigger than what's shown here in the above photos and they usually have four seeds per grape so there isn't much flesh to the grape. The taste? Is very much like sour gummy candy, a mix of sour and sweet, some more sour than sweet and vice versa. There is no popping a bunch in the mouth and just chomping and swallowing away, these require a bit of your attention in order to separate the flesh from the seeds with your tongue and teeth. Is it worth the effort? If you've acquired a taste for them it certainly is, if not, you'll have to go elsewhere for wild grapes. Interestingly enough just yesterday while over on the mainland the Caretaker found a new source for wild grapes. He has no photos of these because he didn't bring his camera but he will do his best to describe them. But before that here are some staged photos from the archive, sculptures and still-life's of sorts:

"Pack Basket and Stump"

A few photos from the series "Rise & Fall of Rings"

The Caretaker's Rock Collection on a Stump:

A still-life, "Believing vs. Knowing"

The archive photos for tomorrow's post will be some of the Caretaker's hammock photos, two of which often garner many comments, the third is a sunset shot, the fourth not too many have seen. The Caretaker forgot he had the photo, he came across it in his archive just yesterday, going through his archive lately, he has come across many photos that he forgot he had taken. The two photos often prompt people to feel relaxed, or desirous of leaving where they are and coming to the Island to read a book while in the pictured hammock or nap with a significant other. The other two hammock photo's will provide a contrast to the other two because they are much darker. And lastly, there will be a collection of words that rhyme in an odd fashion focusing on a hammock trip.

And now for the wild grapes on the mainland, the Caretaker had to go over to Warrensburg yesterday to run a few errands, one of which was to stop in at the grocery store to buy some concord grapes and a few other bits and pieces. Whenever the Caretaker parks his car in the Summer months he always looks for a spot in the shade so his vehicle doesn't get too hot--hot seat! No fun.

On the North end of the parking lot there are some trees that provide shade during the latter parts of the day, the Caretaker pulled in and parked, then went to close the sunroof when he noticed wild grapes on a vine from a tree hanging over his vehicle. He closed the sunroof and made a note to himself to be sure to try one of these wild grapes upon his return. The grapes were considerably larger than the grapes on the Island, roughly three times as large. The Caretaker goes inside the grocery store and shops about for what he needs, and a thing or two that he doesn't.

Ramen noodles in a bowl the size of a small tub of movie popcorn? Well, no reason not to try that. Other than that it is actually two servings per container but pretty much everyone will eat it as though it is one serving thus calories, sodium, etc. has to be doubled to know what you're consuming, and that it has more chemicals, preservatives, processing agents, food additives and flavorings than actual food, but hey, who cares? As a practice the Caretaker steers clear of processed prepackaged food for the above reasons but every once in a while he'll get suckered by something he hasn't seen before which for the mosts part is a good strategy for staying away from most processed foods because every time he has something like "Popcorn Tub of Ramen" he is reminded why it is better to cook from scratch. However, there is one particular type of shelf-stable prepackaged food that he does eat when he doesn't have time to cook--Indian food. This is a recent discovery of his from a few months ago, he'd always seen it on the shelves in the "ethnic" isle of supermarkets but always felt that there was no way it could possibly be good. One day, after having had lunch at a bar and a couple of drinks he was in the supermarket to pick up some things he needed when he came upon the prepackaged Indian food section. Being a little loose he decided he would pull a package off the shelf and at least read the ingredients.

Hey! There's nothing but food in here. No preservatives, no flavorings, no artificial anything.

So he decided to take a few off the shelf and give it a try. The final verdict, the stuff isn't half bad, not as good as what the Caretaker makes for himself and certainly not as good as from a good Indian restaurant but close enough to be acceptable when there isn't time to cook or eat out. A bit higher on the sodium content than the Caretaker cares for but it is way better than any other prepackaged processed food and way better for you than eating fast food. There isn't always time to make up a batch of Vindaloo or Balti sauce or one of the Caretaker's favorites, Rogan Josh. It's been a while since he's cooked up some Indian dishes, he may just have to do so later today. Has the Caretaker ever told you about his scheme to get an Indian girlfriend in order to get into her mother's recipe book? Probably not but he won't bother with that now, he's already way off on a tangent as it is.

After putting groceries in the back seat he hopped in the front seat, opened the sunroof, reached up to the closest cluster of grapes and pulled a grape off. Inspected it then put it in his mouth.

WOW, these are great.

Turns out they're wild concord grapes, or the result of someone throwing some concord grapes from the grocery store into the woods at the edge of the parking lot so they would be domestic concord grapes growing in the wild. The Caretaker looked over at the edge of the parking lot to inspect the ground from which this grapevine was growing from to see if it was blatantly contaminated soil, as far as he could tell it looked well enough, aside from the possible runoff from the parking lot during a large storm but either way, the grapes were outstanding and he decided a couple of bunches for the car ride home wouldn't kill him.

The wild concord grapes were a color much like the blueish purple of the grapes on the Island but a bit more purple than blue. The skin to the touch of the hand was firm. On the lips the skin easily gave way to a soft and delicate flesh that burst with a perfectly sweet juice. The experience, very much like a kiss, when two join, the first press is firm to each, but with gentle following pressure, softness reveals a warm delicate touch. These wild concord grapes did have seeds which made the eating all the more delectable for one couldn't just chomp them down and swallow away, but rather, like a kiss best enjoyed--slowly, knowingly, exploringly. Hopefully.
Wonderfully.
Rolling the flesh around in the mouth, using tongue and teeth to separate seeds from meat, all the while more juice pours forth down the throat. Once apart, the seeds come out while the flesh of the grape softly presses between teeth, tongue and cheek. Mouth now embraced by this touch of delicate flesh soft caress, gently releasing what's left of it's sweet.

And then, then you eat another, but like a lover's kiss, you can never get enough. So you imbibe more, and eat another, and another, and another, until they're grapes no more.
By the end, at least, fingers are tinged purple if not also face and lips by the kiss of these grapes so sweet.

Sooo, they were pretty good grapes. Eventually the Caretaker made it back to the Island, he tried the concord grapes he bought, they weren't as good as the wild ones, not bad but not as good. Shortly there after while stepping outside at the North patio a bird of prey alighted from a Locust tree and flew over to a Pine tree on the North West shore. The Caretaker didn't get a good look at it but it appeared to be a hawk of a decent size.

The Caretaker is going to have to postpone the deer slay story until tomorrow, this post has gone on for far too long as it is and he has plenty of things to do around the Island, as much as he would like to sit and write all day he can't, he needs to start getting his act together so he can move off the Island come the end of October. It's nice and all but no running water in the Winter is only so charming.

One last thing, for those who are interested, the Caretaker is suggesting that rather than going to youtube for live footage of Bjorkestra he suggests you go to the Bjorkestra website for live footage instead.

http://www.bjorkestra.com/

Yesterday late afternoon the Caretaker got on to G.G.'s high speed internet to do some high speed internet things and figured he'd take his own advice and checkout some of the Bjorkestra videos on Youtube. Most all seem to be shot with a cell phone, the quality of video and sound is rather terrible and doesn't provide a good example of the band's work. Not to mention Bjork's fans are either nasty, stupid or a combination of both, the common thread of most of the comments was:
"Well, it's not Bjork."
And the Caretaker is softening their language considerably. Perhaps they've never heard of interpretation? Oh well.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR for 7/17/2007:
No shameless promotion, just photo.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/7/10

2010-09-07T06:01:00.006-04:00

TCC for 9/7/10:

A photo from this morning and one from the recent archive.

8/11/10:

Yesterday felt more like a mid-Autumn day than a late Summer day, some leaves are already turning, the Lake temperature has been slowly dropping. Hopefully a warming trend will return so the Lake doesn't get too cold too quickly, it would be nice to be able to swim into October with the Lake at a comfortable temperature.

While rowing early yesterday morning the Caretaker came up with a quote, he doesn't know if someone else has already long since come up with it, and he is still toying with the final wording but here it is:

"There isn't much room in an empty stomach for integrity." Or is pride perhaps a better word, or just as appropriate? Hm...

Anyway, below are three photos. The first photo is the original, the second is that one photo mirrored over and joined twice, and the third photo is the same as the blog cover photo which is the original photo flipped around and joined 9 times.

After talking about the closing date for the Island, which is always a sad sort of conversation because it is a definite sign of the end of the Summer and nearing the end of the season for the Island, the Caretaker struck upon a great idea while dropping off the last group of people from the weekend. The Caretaker will not be doing a sixth Winter here on the Island, as of right now it is a tie between the NYC area or Florida, Northern California thankfully is off the table and as of right now the plan is to return to the Island for next Summer. However, he does feel it makes good sense to leave the Island as if he isn't coming back next Summer incase that is indeed what happens. One thing the Caretaker was thinking of doing was writing a Care & Feeding guide for the Island which would be of help to the replacement caretaker, however, writing one would probably take a long time and the Caretaker is short on time. BUT, he does have time to shoot a bunch of short video tutorials, AND he will be able to post some of them to the blog, as you can imagine they will be informative but also rather comical in the same sort of Lake George Chicken way but not as nonsensical. Some of the tutorials will have to be withheld in order to protect the innocent, but there will certainly be enough to post. Which reminds the Caretaker, he needs to get rid of more lousy photos to make space on his hard drive. Anyway...

So, where to begin? The Caretaker certainly has much to catch up on, perhaps it is best to start with the most recent events and work backwards. The Caretaker had quite a busy Labor Day weekend. He left on Thursday for New York City to visit with his brother to discuss a family matter, that went well and was uneventful as expected. He was running a bit late but not too late so he stopped in at his new favorite bar, the 55 Bar for a martini before popping over to his brother's apartment. Friday night the Caretaker and his good friend Clinton Hobart (very talented painter of portraits and still-lifes, there's a link to his website over on the left hand side of the blog), the two of them went to Iridium to see Bjorkestra, the band put on an absolutely great show. Saturday the Caretaker returned to the Island for a dinner party over on Crown Island, that was a very pleasant experience. Sunday was the Macanudo Open, a long standing croquet match (34 years) between this Island and Crown Island, for those who are interested--Crown Island lost, B. & T. represented the Island, S. opted to stand this one out.

There isn't much else to report on regarding the latter half of the weekend, but Friday night, quite a bit. If you even remotely like Jazz, you really should make a point to see the band Bjorkestra, an 18 piece jazz group that does jazz interpretations of the music by Bjork. The Caretaker can honestly say that if you miss a chance to see and hear Bjorkestra play you missed a great opportunity to hear a really great band play some really great music. How can the Caretaker be so sure of this? Because frankly, the Caretaker doesn't really care for Bjork's music. If the Caretaker was given free tickets to see Bjork play live he wouldn't go too far out of his way to use the tickets, but the Caretaker would go out of his way to PAY to see Bjorkestra--again. Unfortunately they don't currently have any NYC dates booked in the near future at this time.

So, how did the Caretaker come to have an interest in seeing Bjorkestra when he doesn't care for the music of Bjork? The full story will come later, the short story is that back in July the Caretaker was made aware of a singer named Becca Stevens and her band the Becca Stevens Band, he heard her band's music and really liked it, Ms. Stevens is an exceptionally talented singer with a really great voice. The Caretaker had already planned to come down to NYC for at least the evening on Thursday to meet with his brother, and when he saw that Becca Stevens would be singing for Bjorkestra the following night he saw no reason not to stay another night to hear the band. He is so very glad he did, it was a really great musical experience. The musicianship of all the band members was quite stellar. All of the solos where great, but they're were two that stood out the most, at least to the Caretaker's ears, the solos by one of the trombonists (the Caretaker didn't think to remember his name), and the solo by the Baritone saxophonist, (and of course he didn't think to remember her name either).

Her solo, the Caretaker would have to say, he enjoyed the most, the woman totally wailed on it. Given the size of the instrument and thus the range, the Caretaker can honestly say it was one of the more entertaining sax solos he's heard live, the sound was great. The Caretaker should probably make a point to see if she has any solo recordings, not to mention maybe find out her name.

Anyway, you should definitely make a point to see Bjorkestra play live if you ever get the chance, the Caretaker and his friend Clinton Hobart stayed for both sets, both sets were great. In the second set they played mostly different songs from the first set but they did repeat a few songs from the first set. At first the Caretaker was a little bummed when a song was called to be played that he heard in the first set, however, once the playing got underway he was just as pleased with the second playing as he was the first because the song was changed up a bit, mostly by giving solos to different musicians on different instruments which made the second playing of a song sound almost like a completely different song. At least to the Caretaker's ears and you must remember, he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to pretty much anything.

You really should check this band out:

http://www.bjorkestra.com/

http://www.myspace.com/travissullivansbjorkestra

After Bjorkestra finished playing, the Caretaker said hello to Becca Stevens and bought a few more of her band's albums to give away to people he thinks would like the music. Clint and the Caretaker then headed outside to walk South on Broadway, they had come up through Times Square getting to Iridium to see all the tourists looking at all the lighted billboards, etc. However, they could not return through Times Square, it was blocked off entirely with police tape, police officers and police cars, firefighters and fire trucks. They never found out what exactly the problem was but given the history of the Caretaker's luck he figured it wasn't worth while to hang around and find out the hard way, so instead they cut over a block and kept heading South.

That about sum's up Labor Day weekend for the Caretaker. In tomorrow's post he plans to backtrack even further and write about the events of the day leading up to the sad and bizarre story of how he killed a deer this past Tuesday the 31st of August.

Sidenote: After a short bit of research just before posting this, the Caretaker learned the name of the baritone saxophonist, Lauren Sevian and she does have a solo album, "Blueprint", and her next gig with her band "Lauren Sevian's Eb Quartet" will be performing at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT on 10/7/10 at 5 pm. Her solo this last Friday night sold one of her CD's, when the Caretaker gets it in the mail and gives it a listen he will let you know what he thinks of it. If he likes it he will probably make a point to catch her band's show at the Mattatuck.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 7/16/07

Lake Temperature: Water-ish.

First and foremost the Caretaker would like to say thank you to all of you who showed such great concern for both the Caretaker's intellectual rights and his representational rights (in physical appearance).

Secondly the Caretaker would like to apologize to all of you who showed such great concern for both the Caretaker's intellectual rights and his representational rights (in physical appearance). The Caretaker had intended to keep the ruse up, but when people started e-mailing about collecting donations for a legal fund the Caretaker knew that the joke had already gone too far.

For those of you who got the joke right off the bat, I hope you laughed, for those of you who didn't, I apologize, I figured that from such previous stories as taping lollipops to beer cans to then give out to school children would have laid the ground work for everyone to realize that as crazy as the Caretaker is, the truly outrageous is beyond his means in real world practice. Then again, maybe not--this is crazy in and of itself. Be that as it may, the Caretaker does willingly live on an Island for 6 months out of the year with no running water in the winter--if that isn't at least odd, what is? Not that it should serve as an excuse, he is sorry to any and all who were hoodwinked and didn't see it as funny.

Now, on to serious business, attached are two photos from the same shoot using different camera settings. For those who feel inclined, the Caretaker would appreciate feedback as to which one you like better. Or, just enjoy them both. Or, hate them both, whatever.

Side Note: What the different camera settings were for the above two photos are the Caretaker cannot remember, it may very well have been just that the flash was used in one while the flash was not used in the other.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 9/1/2010

2010-09-01T17:46:00.004-04:00

The Caretaker is going on hiatus.
He will be off Island for a couple of days.
He and S. had a rather fine day yesterday, that is until the Caretaker killed a deer.
A spotted fawn.
Essentially, he killed a toddler--in human terms.
He doesn't feel like sharing.
Frankly, he's a little tired of always having a story to tell. He's tired of everything.
When he moves off the Island he's looking forward to a long succession of days when nothing happens. If he's lucky, he'll find himself a place with a walled courtyard so he can still be outside but nothing extraordinary is likely to happen.
Oh wait, did the Caretaker ever tell you about the time when he was living in Amsterdam, Netherlands and he managed to lock himself in the courtyard,
in the middle of Winter,
with no jacket?
Yeah, probably not, it didn't happen on the Island.
Never
A dull
moment.
How about when the right rear wheel of his car came off while doing 70 miles an hour down the highway ?
Dove through a plate glass window?
The list goes on from there and as of right now he's growing rather tired of it.
Sorry.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/31/2010

2010-08-31T07:32:00.001-04:00

TCC for 8/31/10:

The Caretaker is going with S. to Tupper Lake, N.Y. to see lions and tigers and things. However, the Caretaker wasn't expecting S. to be up and in the water by 7:20 am and looking to head out this early, so, until tomorrow then...

Last night after sundown:

From the archive, macro shots of water :

Beneath the sky
Rolls liquid chrome,
Reflected, out of reach.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IR 7/13/07

Lake Temp. Watery

Enjoy today's photo, and have a happy Friday the 13th. Faintly goes the rainbow:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/30/2010

2010-08-30T05:49:00.007-04:00

TCC for 8/30/10:

Today's sunrise was pretty much exactly the same as yesterday's so there was no point in photographing it. Yesterday's sunset was fixing to be rather unremarkable so the Caretaker decided to take some late evening shots that aren't particularly special but it will allow the Caretaker the opportunity to share with those who don't know the names of some of the mountains along the East shore.

The view looking up the Lake from Cocktail Point, to the left is the Tongue Mt. range. From left to right after the Tongue Mt. range is Black Mt., Shelving Rock, Erebus Mt., lastly is Sleeping Beauty.

Black Mt. in the center, the highest mountain on the shores of Lake George, also somewhat in view are the shadows of the Tongue Mt. range on the Black Mt. area, this is called the artist's hour, the Caretaker has some better photos of this in his archive, he'll have to dig them out.

In the foreground is Shelving Rock, the steep stone cliff face, just beyond to the right is Erebus Mt.

The gull in this photo is just over the peak of Erebus. To the far right, the exposed cliff face off in the distance is Sleeping Beauty.

Part of Sleeping Beauty is visible on the far left, to the right is Little Buck Mt., then some unnamed peaks, on the right, the tallest peak in the photo is Buck Mt. In the foreground is Dome Island, it is uninhabited by humans.

Originally the Caretaker had intended on sharing a very amusing example of his social awkwardness that occurred yesterday but unfortunately he received a phone call this morning that has given him reason to rearrange his schedule for the day and deal with something he hadn't accounted for, thus, his time has run short. But fear not dear reader, come tomorrow's post you will be able to read more from "The Awkward Misadventures of a Social Misfit".

In the meantime perhaps you'll enjoy a collection of sunset photos from the archive:

In this photo, in the bottom third, the rocks beneath the water can be seen:

The photo below was taken the day the Caretaker's Grandmother on his father's side passed away.

The photo below was taken from Grand View Point on Greenwood Lake, N.Y.

And back to Lake George:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Update 7/12/07:

Lake Temperature: Watery

Well Hello Strangers,
Sorry it has been so very long since I have last sent out an IR, I would love to be able to say that I have been just lazy about the IR's but the truth is that I have been rather busy with work on the Island and a few personal projects. To be honest, there hasn't been all that much to report since my last IR and as far as photography there have been maybe a total of 5 or 6 days worth bringing out the camera for.

Two examples of doubling over an image in Photoshop:

Photo of fire:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/29/2010

2010-08-29T06:38:00.000-04:00

TCC for 8/29/10:

This morning at dawn, only eh.

So, below is an illustrated "poem", of sorts, using moon shots from over the past few years.

"Never Forget The Moon"

Whenever we are apart,
My love so true,
We will always have the moon.

The warmth we will feel start
In the champagne silver glow,
Stems from the heart,
As only moonlight can sew.

But no matter if it's last, full, first, or new,
Or even when eclipsed of light,
We will be amongst one another in the night.

While others look for the man in the moon,
I'll see no one but you.
For in the moon I will see
The reflection of you.
And you too, in the moon you will see,
The reflection of me.

No matter the distance,
We will always be together
In the reflection of the moon.

So as I part from you now,
It always seems too soon,
Sharing moonlight tears,
You whisper to me how,
And I say to you:
Never forget the moon.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 5/4/07:

Today's photo from last night is the result of a different process than the one used to take the previous night's photo. Attached is the photo in its original form, the following image is the same photo copied once then flipped. The third image is the same but copied and flipped two more times, in other words, one photo rotated in 4 different positions.

Photo of LED light on water:

Image doubled over and joined:

Same image as above just flipped over:

Above two images joined:

The Caretaker will be leaving off again with the e-mails until after opening, should he happen to produce anymore images in his "light series" worth sharing he will do so after the opening of the Island for the summer.
Have a good week.

--The Caretaker

P.S. A number of people have shared some of the things they have seen in the photo from the 5/3/07 IIR. For those who are interested I will list them here, if you haven't seen the photo yet, you may want to see it before reading this list, or not...

Flaming face/skull
Face of a bat/face of bat on human body
Cat's face
Bear print
Face of a vole
Face of a disney cheetah
4 birds
and...

P.P.S. Scroll to bottom of blog for another example of photography of LED light on water, this is one image doubled over.

The Caretaker's Concern 8/28/2010

2010-08-28T07:50:00.000-04:00

TCC for 8/28/10:

Last night at sunset:

Today's sunrise was not worth photographing. Yesterday evening the Caretaker was about to download the sunset shots to his computer when a call came in from G.G. informing the Caretaker that there will be fireworks tonight. The Caretaker decided that he should make a point to photograph them because he hadn't done any fireworks photos all season. The start time was about an hour away so his first thought was to get his camera set up down on Cocktail Point and then break out his guitar and make some noise for a while, but after strumming a few chords he noticed that the moon was just beginning to come over the horizon. It has also been a long time since the Caretaker took some moonlight shots so he decided to put down his guitar and start taking photos.

To shoot at night requires a long exposure so a tripod is an absolute necessity. If you don't have a remote trigger use the time delay function. For night landscapes a short time delay is fine, this way the camera is not jostled during the exposure when you depress the shutter button. These landscapes are a result of a 1 minute exposure, do not touch the camera, do not hit kick the tripod, and if the tripod is on a platform that can shake, don't move around on the platform or just step off it entirely before the exposure begins.

To shoot the above close up of the moon you have to be quick because the moon is moving and so it doesn't take long for it to move out of the frame. At this magnification if you don't have a remote shutter trigger you will need to use a long time delay, 10 seconds is about right because even after a short time delay the camera can still be moving from depressing the shutter trigger. The above photo is not really a great example of the Caretaker's close-ups of the moon but it does give you an idea.

The photo below has a boat going across, the not so distinct white light going across, boat lights can have an interesting impact on a night shot but it works better if the boat is coming or going, or going diagonally, straight across the horizon doesn't do all that much.

The photo above and the photo below are the exact same shot, both taken with a one minute exposure except that the above shot was taken with no flash, the shot below was taken with a flash. Notice the difference in color overall due to the flash and of course how the foreground is illuminated. Varying the intensity of the flash will vary the impact on the colors and the intensity of the foreground illumination.

The photo above and the photo below are roughly the same shot, the photo below was taken first and then 5 or 10 minutes later the photo above was taken, notice the movement of the moon, and clouds obscuring the moon in the above photo compared to the photo below. In the above photo a low intensity flash was used, in the photo below no flash was used.

If the Caretaker had taken these shots one right after the other he could have then used Photoshop to overlay one photo on to the other, then blended the best elements of each, however, since the camera was moved and then relocated that can't be done for these two shots.

There is a lot of standing around when taking long exposures, sometimes you will need to do a test shot to see what it is you are photographing, first try taking a regularly timed photo using the flash, if the foreground shows up and you can see if you need to adjust the camera then do so and then take the long exposure shot. If the flash doesn't shed any light on the image, pun intended, take a 15 second exposure shot, this time frame usually lets in enough light to let you see if the shot is set up the way you want it. If you're shooting the moon, remember that it is moving so every time you take a long exposure you are "losing" the shot, this is important if you want to blend flash and non-flash shots.

Eventually the fireworks started:

The Caretaker photographs fireworks in a less than traditional way, essentially it is "painting with light". All of these photos were taken using a 1.6 second exposure, while holding the camera in hand and intentionally moving it a bit during the exposure. A shorter or longer exposure can also be used depending on the amount of streaking you want, however, too long an exposure results in a big mass of light that just looks burned out. The camera is zoomed in up close to the fireworks. There is often a lot of hit and miss using this style, due to the exposure time and processing time you will not be able to take a photo of every single firework that goes off. Not to mention there is an awful lot of timing involved, at first you may very well get a lot of blank photos because you missed the explosions. The Caretaker highly suggests at first observing the fireworks in relation to what you want to do--photograph them. Light travels faster than sound, if you go by the boom chances are you already missed the firework's light. Also, fireworks go off at varying heights, which is a bit more difficult to gauge, but they are often set off keeping a trend, high for a while then lower for a while then high again, etc. As far as timing goes, look for the launch flare coming up from the ground, note how long it takes before the explosion, chances are pretty good that the next few fireworks will follow this pattern.

Until you get the hang of it you will need to keep in mind that it is best to stay relaxed and do more observing than shooting, if not you will most likely end up continually being behind the fireworks and taking a lot of blank photos.

The image above was created from the image below, first the photo was cropped to remove the empty black space, it was then rotated a quarter turn. Then the image was duplicated, the copied image was then flipped--not rotated. The canvas for the copy was then doubled in size shifting the image to one side, use a calculator to do an exact doubling of the pixels for enlarging the canvas (i.e. to double the canvas of an image with 500 pixels on either the horizontal or vertical side the canvas would go to 1000 for that particular side, for doubling, just do one side, leave the other as is). Next you will drag the original image into the duplicated image thus depositing a copy of the original into the first copy, this is in Photoshop, the method may vary for other photo editing programs. Line the newly pasted copy up with the other image, close to touching but not all the way. Zoom in close enough to see distinct pixels and match up the pixels to create a perfect mirrored image, if your alignment is way off scroll to the top or bottom, or either side, at the middle and use the corners to line up the images. Below, in the post from 2007, is an example of this mirroring technique only it is done 4 times and the photo is of moonlight on water.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

IIR 5/3/07

Lake Temp. 45 F
Look closely at this photo.

Not much to report, busy getting ready for opening. Last night was the full moon, the peak of the month for working on my "Moonlight" series. Attached is one of the photos from last night's "session". During a quick review of the night's "work", one of the photos "jumped" out at me and so I did a quick and dirty copy and paste job on it. The attached photo is actually one photo copied 3 times and flipped around 4 ways and put together. It could easily be the cover to a Motorhead album (if you're a Motorhead fan don't flame me for not using the umlaut, I don't know where it is on the keyboard and I don't care).

The photo below is the core image for the photo above, the photo below makes up the top right quarter of the image above.

The method for shooting moon light on water is entirely hit or miss. Very much the same method as what the Caretaker uses for shooting fireworks, exposure time of about a second, sometimes moving the camera, sometimes keeping it steady. The above photo is from a photo session of around 100 shots, there may have been one or two other "keepers" from that session but for the most part you take a lot of photos and get very few worth keeping. In tomorrow's 2007 post there will be an example of the Caretaker's work with photographing LED light on water, same process as shooting moonlight on water only there is more control of the light.

--The Caretaker

P.S. For anyone who is interested in any of the ways the Caretaker takes his photos feel free to ask him any questions you'd like, he is more than happy to share all that he knows, he's not the covetous type and would very much like to see what others can come up with. The world seems to be quite long on acts of destruction and rather short on acts of creation, anything that can be done to reverse this trend is something we should all be striving for.

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/27/2010

2010-08-27T06:12:00.003-04:00

TCC for 8/27/10:

The Caretaker went to the Saratoga Race track yesterday and had a good time with S. and R. losing money. A special thanks to S. for a day at the track.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Report 4/27/07 Epilogue:

The IIR will no longer be going out on a daily basis. That's right, the busiest man in No Business has to direct his energies towards other things. Not that the text part ever really did go out on a daily basis but now neither will the photos either. There aren't as many photographic opportunities during the summer months for a variety of reasons, but also the Caretaker will no longer be in a position to devote anywhere near as much time towards taking photos and he will have even less time to do any writing for the IIR's. This is not to say that there will never be another IIR, there will, but only occasionally. If the Caretaker happens to get a good photo he'll pass it along, for example, during the Rainbow season he will do his best to take photos and send them out. If he happens to feel inclined, and have the time to write something he will do so, but overall the Caretaker will not be making a point to get the IIR out on a daily basis. The Caretaker will be keeping busy with various Island obligations and trying to get his photography to market. He does have a new idea or two for another Lake George Chicken movie and when he gets around to shooting it he will be sure to pass it on.

For those of you who have made a particular request for a print of a specific photo the Caretaker hopes to be able to have more information for you in the next few weeks. It all depends on how well the photos print, if all goes well the Caretaker will be able to print all his digital photos but he won't find out until he gets his work to a professional developer.

While the Caretaker is no longer sending out IIR's he will also be working on his stump speech, the Caretaker will be making a bid for the Presidency as the write-in candidate of choice for all Americans. You will be able to follow the Caretaker's campaign for the presidency on youtube.com. What will his political party be? What else, the Caretaker Party. What will his slogan be?
"Don't worry, the Caretaker will take care of it--and that's no Bush."
When will the campaign videos start rolling in on youtube.com? Who knows, who cares? But if all goes well, someday after the election you'll be able to turn on your T.V. to watch the President address the nation and there you will see the Caretaker with red lens ski goggles, fisherman's hat and all the rest staring right back at you, going on about the impact on the nation of Lake George Chicken and whatever else seems to be important, but is there really anything more important than Lake George Chicken?

And with that the Caretaker will sign off for now. But before he does there are a few people he would like to thank:

The Caretaker would like to thank S. and L., T. and V., and B. and B., for allowing the Caretaker to reside on their Island this past winter and the winter prior. He will forever be indebted to them for these two winters and all the summers past that he has had the opportunity to enjoy the Island.

The Caretaker would also like to thank all those who took the time to respond to the IIR's with comments and encouragement, he greatly appreciates all that you had to write.

Lastly the Caretaker would like to thank all those who helped the Caretaker in one way or another to be in a position to share the IIR's with all of you. First the Caretaker would like to thank K. for selling him his computer, without which the Caretaker would not be able to get online from the Island.

Secondly the Caretaker would like to thank his father and Step-mother for taking the Caretaker and the rest of the family to see Mary Poppins in NYC, if this hadn't happened the Caretaker would not have taken a cab in which the Caretaker found the digital camera that he used to take all those photos he has shared with you.

And most of all the Caretaker would like to thank the owners of the digital camera for leaving it in the the taxi cab in NYC. The Caretaker has long since contacted Sony to see if the owners registered the camera with them, but has yet to hear back. There were a number of photos on the camera that the owner(s) took. The Caretaker has saved them all, and from looking at them he has concluded that the owners of the camera were in NYC visiting with friends. The first photo attached to this e-mail is of the people whom the Caretaker believes to be the owners of the camera. If you happen to know these people, or know people who know these people please let the Caretaker know so he may return the camera to its rightful owners:

And of course, thank you all for taking time out of your day each day to read the IIR's, the Caretaker certainly enjoyed sending them out, he hopes you enjoyed reading them and seeing the photos.
Goodbye for now...

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/26/2010

2010-08-26T07:08:00.001-04:00

TCC for 8/26/10:

Photo from this morning, only so-so, and not even really that:

Yesterday, the wind on the Lake died down around mid-afternoon so the Caretaker took the opportunity to go for a row in the scull, other than the boat wakes it was a pretty smooth row. While on the water the Caretaker passed two people in a canoe who clearly didn't know what they were doing, they were paddling the canoe backwards, it made for a funny sight that made the Caretaker laugh. He thought about telling them that they might find it easier to control the canoe if they turned around in their seats but in the end he decided against it because if they didn't know enough to tell the bow from the stern when two people are in a canoe with seats then they most certainly would not likely be able to turn around in their seats while out on the water without flipping the canoe over. Being in a rowing scull the Caretaker was in no position help steady their canoe while they turned around in their seats, the Caretaker in the end said nothing, although he could have suggested that they return to shore and make the change but he didn't. Not long after that the Caretaker rowed passed the new town pier and who does he see but G.G. so the Caretaker stopped rowing and chewed the fat a bit with G.G.

Later in the evening, just at nightfall, the Caretaker was taking a shower when started to hear a male voice screaming and yelling intermittently. He stepped out of the shower and went out to the North Boathouse dock to see if he could determine where the sound was coming from, to the Caretaker's ears it sounded as though this person had been lit on fire, perhaps from using too much lighter fluid. All he could tell was that the sound was coming from over on the West shore, where exactly he could not determine, after hearing no more of the screams the Caretaker returned to his shower, he found the incident to be a touch disturbing but figured that since it was over on the mainland if this person needed first aid they would get it.

That's about it for yesterday.

Since there isn't much as far as new photos the Caretaker has decided to repost some of his favorite floral shots:

So, back in early July the Caretaker was over in town doing his laundry when he noticed a flier advertising that the Adirondack Shakespeare Company would be performing three of Shakespeare's plays three times each over the course of three weeks: As You Like It, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth. The first and the last are the Caretaker's favorite Shakespeare plays. There and then the Caretaker decided he would make a point to take in one performance each of As You Like It and Macbeth, it had been quite a while since he'd been up to Schroon Lake and it would be good for the Caretaker to get off the Island for a few hours. Not to mention it had been a long time since he'd seen a performance of Shakespeare's work, the last time was in 1999 out in Arizona.

July 16th rolls around and the Caretaker heads up to Schroon Lake to catch the first performance of As You Like It, he didn't really know what to expect but he figured if this group was willing to come all the way down to Bolton Landing to post fliers for their performances if nothing else they were at least dedicated. Due to rainy weather the first performance was done inside the Boathouse Theatre.

The Caretaker could go into much further detail about his experience watching this group perform Shakespeare but for the sake of brevity he's going to just say that after watching the first performance of As You Like It, because of the quality of the acting and the method in which the group was performing the plays the Caretaker realized that he had much to gain by coming back for all of the performances. The performance style the group was using is what they call:

"...Shakespeare IN THE RAW, the brainchild of Tara Bradway and Patrick Siler. This experiment was a test in stripping away elements of production in order to return to the most basic aspects of the theater: the actors, the audience, and the words."

One of the results of this method is that between each performance the actors would continue to rehearse the play so each additional performance would evolve from the one prior. Consequently, with each performance the actors became more and more familiar with the material thus more and more comfortable with the material and so the stage action would continually change and get better. The main reason this element of this style appealed to the Caretaker is that there was a time when the Caretaker used to write drama but the furtherest he ever took it was to win prize money in play writing contests. The next stage would have been to get some actors to workshop the plays then stage it, etc. The Caretaker never did this so to be able to watch an acting group work with the same material and develop it further and further was quite appealing to the Caretaker not to mention highly informative. By the end of the first performance of As You Like It the Caretaker had decided he was going to definitely make a point to see at least all of the performances of As You Like It and Macbeth; Romeo and Juliet on the other hand, not being a favorite of his he figured he would probably catch just the first performance.

Another reason the Caretaker decided to see so much Shakespeare is that at $10.00 a show he really would not be able to see so much Shakespeare for so little money anywhere else, so best to take advantage of the opportunity. Granted, he could have bought a season ticket for $30.00 but he opted not to do that, to save money now could lead to insufficient funding for next year and the Caretaker wanted to see this group carry on to next year. The director of the group did offer the Caretaker the opportunity to see the last performance of Macbeth for free but the Caretaker respectfully declined the very kind offer and in fact, paid $10.00 for a glass of wine to make up for the ticket he didn't buy for the second performance of Romeo & Juliet because he didn't go to it.

The method this group is using to stage Shakespeare's work provides insight into many aspects of drama, if you or anyone you know is interested in drama the Caretaker highly recommends that you make your way to Schroon Lake to catch more than one performance of the Shakespeare plays this group will be putting on next year. For more info check out their website:

http://www.adkshakes.org

And now for the last and perhaps most important reason why the Caretaker ended up seeing all but one of this group's performances, for the better part of these past 6 years the Caretaker has been spending his time either working to earn his keep, or creating "art" (for lack of a better word), but leaving himself little to no time to consume art. He hadn't really been aware of this until he was watching the first performance of As You Like It. There is no television where the Caretaker lives, not that there is much art to be found on such a venue, but nor does the Caretaker leave the Island all that much in general and when he does it is usually either for work or to go take photographs. Given the quality of the acting of the group, the Caretaker found himself getting quite carried away with being in the audience and just enjoying the show. To just sit there and be entertained by great work and great actors was most revitalizing to the Caretaker's spirit. It was a very enjoyable experience and he definitely got carried away, the most would be for Macbeth, he cried at least twice during each performance.

Speaking of crying, fast forward to this past Sunday evening, the Caretaker is out to dinner down in Southern New York with his father and step-mother, and three of their friends for a meal before seeing Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew. The show had been sold out before the Caretaker got wind of it so he wasn't able to get a ticket, initially the plan was to try and get a ticket due to a cancellation (or sneak in) but it was nothing but rain all day and the Caretaker was driving back to the Island that evening and decided that to start his trip back to the Island in the rain at around 9 at night would make for a long trip. The play was performed on the grounds of Bosco Bel (not sure on spelling) along the Hudson River, outside, beneath a tent. It's about a three hour drive to the Island, it had been a long weekend for the Caretaker so he felt he was making the right decision by not even trying to see the play. Not to mention that it was Taming Of The Shrew, if the Caretaker recalls correctly he did not study this play in college but he does remember seeing the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor movie version and that there was an awful lot of yelling, not to mention from the title alone it could just as well be called Jerk Who Thinks He Needs To Control A Woman. Anyway, it turns out that much of the dialogue couldn't be heard during this performance due to the sound of the heavy rain on the roof of the tent, so the Caretaker made the right decision to pass on trying to get into the play.

At the beginning of dinner the friends of the Caretaker's parents had asked him about the Shakespeare he had seen up at Schroon Lake and why he had seen so much of it. His father was at the table for his explanation but his step-mother left the table to take a phone call, much of what the Caretaker stated above is what he shared with the table. To which the Caretaker's father said, "I didn't know you liked Shakespeare so much..."

Now, back track to the mid to late 1960's. The Caretaker's father served with the United States Army as a Green Beret, Airborne, Special Forces (the Caretaker is not sure of the proper order to state these titles). His father doesn't talk much about his experiences in Vietnam and when he does it is usually only the funny stories he has to tell which are mostly from basic training. The Caretaker has never heard his father say "Back in Nam..." or any other approximation of that sort of thing, his father isn't ashamed of his service but for the most part feels it is something from the past that really shouldn't be taken lightly nor relied upon as a lens to view the world for the rest of life.

However, during the mid '90's the Caretaker's father offered to sit down with him and a tape recorder to record his experiences while serving in Vietnam. The Caretaker certainly does not remember all of what was said but he still has the tapes and knows exactly where they are, he can say that much of what he heard was quite horrifying--to say the least.

I'm hesitant to share any of my father's story for a number of reasons, but one is that my memory is a bit hazy and more importantly, it's not my story to tell, but I do feel the need to share at least one story in order for you to understand where I was coming from regarding the present.

One of the missions my father was sent on was to rescue a double agent from the Viet Cong, the double agent was a woman, one of the things done to this woman as a means of torture was to stand her up between two large stones on ropes, the stones would be swung out and allowed to swing back in at the same time striking her on either side of her pelvis bone. The woman was tied in place.

A woman's pelvis bone is probably the strongest bone in the human body because it protects the womb, thus smashing stones against it will cause an immense amount of pain long before the pelvis bone breaks. This was the sort of treatment this woman was receiving. So my father and his group manage to free her, she can't walk, my father carries her, she starts sharing with him what she knows because she is going to die. She does die en route, my father must still carry her back as proof of completion of the mission. I don't recall how far it was but even a few steps carrying a tortured corpse is plenty far. As I think about it, there may have been no group and he was on a solo-mission, I can't recall.

So, the above is along the lines of what a substantial amount of my father's experience was like over in Vietnam.

My father says, "I didn't know you liked Shakespeare so much. Throughout my entire time in Vietnam there is only one thing that I was able to keep with me from the very beginning to the very end. It was a four volume set of Shakespeare that I had received from one of my sisters, she sent it to me within the first two weeks of my arrival. I wasn't always able to bring it with me on missions because that wouldn't be practical, but I always knew where it was and I never left it behind."

I then asked him, "do you still have it?"

"Yep, it's on the upper shelf on the right hand side of the library."

Side note, what my father calls the library is actually a wet bar with a large number of books on the shelves.

"The books are probably a bit moldy."

I interrupted, "you should probably get them cleaned up so you can preserve them."

He then said, "you're right, but I'm going to leave that to you, what I'm going to do is write on the inside of each volume that these are for you. Probably just 'To Jeff, Love Dad.' That way I know you'll get them when I die."

I immediately became choked up. I don't think I was even able to say thank you. He then turned to the rest of the table and started talking about something else. We were at a round table and I was sitting next to my father, I started to cry quiet tears of appreciation. I had to turn away to try and dry my eyes and prevent my father from seeing my tears. Not because I was embarrassed, hardly, but because I knew that if he saw my tears he would then express concern at which point I would have just totally lost it and started bawling at the table. As it was I was using all my strength to keep my composure. Thankfully my step-mother didn't return to the table until after I was able to put myself together again, if she had seen my tears she would have asked about it too. Most thankfully my father's friends who saw me crying and turning away in my chair were kind enough to not say anything.

My father has certainly done many a kind thing for me, but he has also done his share of not so kind things, this is by far one of the kindest, most touching, and most meaningful things he has done for me. If I was writing this on paper the paper would be soaked, thankfully I don't lean over my computer keyboard when I type or it probably would have shorted out.

In other news, the Caretaker will be going to Saratoga today to lose money on the horses, it should be a good time, it will be good to meet up with S. and whoever else is accompanying him.

Lastly, the text from the post from 2007 that is being posted today contains some very funny material so even if you got the 2007 posts the first time around back in 2007 you'll want to read this post again, it provides some good comic relief, it is as follows:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report Update (sort of) 4/26/07:

Lake Temperature: 42 F

There hasn't been all that much to report lately, in fact, there isn't all that much to report now, the Caretaker has been busy with a few projects but nothing worth mentioning. However, one of the things the Caretaker has been working on is an epilogue for the IIR which will be sent out in the next day or two, the IIR won't come to a complete end but it will not be going out on a daily basis any more.

In the meantime, what follows is the text from something that the Caretaker started a few weeks ago, he forgot about it until now and so here it is. You might find it mildly amusing but more likely just plain stupid. Either way, by sharing it with you now, in the future you will be able to thank (more likely blame) the Caretaker should this product show up on your grocery store shelves. If it does, it will probably cause an increase in the cases of heart disease, heart attack, etc. Why would the Caretaker do such a thing? Because he wants to spread the good word about SlimJim meat products by helping ConAgra diversify the product line. Not that this new product will really expand the SlimJim buying market, if you aren't interested in consuming room temperature shelf-stable meat products wrapped in plastic that you eat cold (and understandably so that you don't want to eat such products), you are probably not likely to be interested in consuming refrigerated shelf-stable meat products wrapped in plastic that you heat up. However, chances are that all those who are happy consumers of the former, will most likely be happy consumers of the latter. Does ConAgra really need one man's help? Of course, the industrial food complex needs all our help, talk about a struggling industry. Anyway, enough of the Caretaker's jibber-jabber...

The Caretaker's e-mail to ConAgra foods:

When are you going to come out with SlimJim Hotdogs, or SlimJim style hotdogs? I have to imagine that the market for SlimJim is the exact same market for hotdogs, yes? I know you pay people there big money to come up with your various food products, personally I'm not interested in that, I just want to be able to walk into my local market and see "SlimJim Brand Hotdogs--the hotdog with bite, or attitude, or whatever it is your catch phrase is." I would make this suggestion via the "SlimJim" website, but it won't let me view it unless I upgrade my "Flash Player program or something", trust me, I can not be bothered in the slightest to do such a thing, so, if you are so inclined to pass my suggestion on to the SlimJim people, please do so, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for your time and effort, I look forward to seeing "SlimJim Hotdogs" in my market soon.
Regards,
The Caretaker

To which ConAgra responded:

Thank you for your interest in ConAgra Foods. Although we appreciate you taking
the time to share your idea with us, please know that any ideas submitted to us
become the property of ConAgra Foods and we cannot compensate you nor return
your idea to you. Blah, blah, blah...

To Which the Caretaker responded:

I am more than happy to provide you my idea gratis for I have neither the time nor the finances to bring such a grand product as "SlimJim brand hot dogs" to market, however, I believe your company does have the necessary capital, and since you currently own the SlimJim recipe, trademark, patent, etc. it is probably best that you bring this product to market. As I stated in my previous e-mail I am not interested in financial compensation for this idea, nor do I have an interest in coupons (so don't send me any), however I would greatly appreciate it if you could contact me via e-mail in order to inform me as to when you will be bringing this product to market. If you can provide the exact date as to when it will be on my local grocer's shelves I would really appreciate that because then I'll be sure to be there the moment the store opens so I can be the very first person in my town to buy "SlimJim brand hot dogs". This will be an honor that many of my fellow townspeople will most certainly long to claim, but since I'll be first, only I will be able to make the claim and thus only I will be able to covet it. Memorial Day is not that far off, if I was you I wouldn't mess around, get your chemists there in the meat factory to finalize the formula for "SlimJim brand hot dogs", then have them program the meat machine to start pumping out said meat product, then round up the "dogs" and stuff them into that famous SlimJim logo-ed plastic packaging, and then ship them out around the world--just make sure to get a case over to my local grocer first, thank you.
Thank you for your time and effort regarding this meat matter.
I look forward to "Snapping into a SlimJim brand hot dog" soon.
Regards,
The Caretaker

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/25/2010

2010-08-25T06:51:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/25/10:

No new photos for today, instead the Caretaker has decided to repost some of his favorite photos of trees, they're all reflection shots, these are images he is really looking forward to seeing printed and on a wall.

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, the Caretaker got caught up on a bunch of long over due e-mails, went to the mainland to take care of some errands for himself, the Island, and the town library. Speaking of the library the Caretaker was doing some billing to the Library when he came across a somewhat amusing billing statement for the Library from back in June. For those who don't know the Caretaker also works for the town library, only there he's called the "handyman", the work there is quite intermittent and can even sometimes be rather inconvenient but the Caretaker is a big believer in public libraries and the service they render our communities so he tries to support them when he can. Anyway, after the Caretaker has generated the billing information for the monthly library board meeting, he often times shares some of his experiences while working for the library, this is attached as a post script to the e-mail that gets sent to the board. He figures that the board meetings can be a bit dull at times so a little light entertainment helps to keep things rolling. Entertaining may be a bit of an overstatement but here's an example for you to decide for yourself (the opening statement is in reference to a comment on the post script from the month prior).

And now for the post script: I do agree that it is never good when one is the only person who can hear the band, however, it is not me, people for some reason have a tendency to say rather odd things to me, at least they seem odd to my way of thinking.

Another case in point:
Today, working on the tables at Mary's home (the Librarian), there was a large turtle, one and half feet or so from nose to tail, about a foot wide, sitting idle in Mary's driveway. Not knowing where it intended to go I left it alone and commenced work on the the folding tables. Not long after, a woman in an SUV stopped and told me she moved the turtle from the street to Mary's driveway, the woman then said, "I think it might try and eat Mary." I pretended this was funny and conjured a laugh to be polite and then stated that we'll just have to wait and see. The turtle still hadn't moved so I went back to working on the tables.

A little while later a man with a German accent stopped in his car and said something to me in English with a German accent, I didn't understand what he said. I asked him to repeat himself.
"Is that your pet turtle?"
I looked over to where the turtle was, it wasn't there, it had crawled out into the street. My thought was, "pet turtle? Sure, I always let it play in the street, turtles are notorious for doing well at street games and avoiding traffic." I shared none of these thoughts, rather I just said that it wasn't mine, it was wild.
Then a woman coming from the other direction stopped her car and got out and asked me if it was okay if she moved the turtle.

When did this turtle become my responsibility?

I simply said, "be my guest." She then mentioned her concern about it being a snapping turtle, I assured her that it wasn't a snapping turtle by describing what a snapping turtle's snout looks like, this was not a snapping turtle but I still told her to be careful.

Thus ends the turtle incident. Note: the Librarian's name has been changed to protect her innocence.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/25/07:
No report for today, just following two photos.

The above photo is of one of the stucco walls of the main house, the color of the wall is yellow, the rest of the coloring is from lichen or something. The house has since been repainted and this no longer exists.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/24/2010

2010-08-24T11:38:00.001-04:00

TCC for 8/24/10:

No new photos for today, a few from the archive.
8/8/10:

8/11/10:

8/18/10:

For those of you who happened to have read yesterday's post you will remember the Caretaker mentioned that he didn't expect yesterday to go as planned, it didn't.
After finishing up yesterday's internet work the Caretaker went out and about on the Island to take care of a few things before sitting down to compose the story about his experiences this past weekend. Well, he became a bit distracted and never got around to doing the writing he planned to do. The floating swim raft broke its anchor line and washed up on to the rocks between the Island and Sloop Island.

Stupid swim raft. Twice now this season.

The Caretaker figured he could go out in the tin boat (small aluminum row boat with outboard motor) and tie a line to the raft and drag it off the rocks. It was cold, rainy, and windy, the Caretaker would have preferred to stay inside, but to do so would leave open the chance that the raft would get blown off the rocks which would mean even more headaches. So the Caretaker threw on his bathing suit and headed out to the tin boat to start bailing at least 100 gallons of water, probably more, but just as he was getting towards the dock the house phone rang. So inside he went to get the phone. It was a member of the F. family over on Homer Point, apparently the laundry delivery guy was looking to leave the Island laundry with them. The Caretaker was confused.

Why is it that the laundry guy can't deliver the laundry when he's been doing so without a hitch for the last two months?

Long story short, it was a new delivery guy and was never told where to leave the laundry. The Caretaker's knee jerk response was to have the delivery guy take the laundry back with him and deliver it the next time he was in the area when it wouldn't be raining and the Caretaker didn't have a floating swim raft to retrieve, the clean laundry was not needed at this time. The delivery guy agreed to this.

Great, low priority problem can give way to high priority problem.

However, it didn't go down that way. After speaking to the delivery guy he asked to speak to the person from the F. family who called the Caretaker about the laundry delivery problem. The Caretaker's intention was to apologize to him for the inconvenience and to thank him for the phone call, which he did, but it didn't end there.

F. family member said, "why don't we have them leave the laundry here and you can come over now and pick it up?"

Caretaker, "I'd like to but I have a floating swim raft that has broken its anchor line and just before your call came in I was heading out to retrieve it."

F. family member, "how about if I bring it out to our boathouse dock and you can pick it up after you finish with the swim raft?"

Caretaker, "sounds good, I should be able to make it over in about 20 minutes to half an hour. Again, sorry for the inconvenience."

With that the Caretaker went to the boat, bailed out all the water and then headed over to the swim raft, alas, the wave action had lifted the raft up on to the rocks and out of the water, one side was supported by the rocks at the raft edge, the other side was hung up at the ladder on rocks beneath the water. The Caretaker quickly realized he would not be able to pull the raft off the rocks with the tin boat, he would have to get into the water and lift it out by hand. So, at this point, since the raft wasn't going anywhere being up and out of the water the Caretaker decided to grab some plastic bags and go pick up the laundry. After returning from getting the laundry the Caretaker swam out to the raft, heaved it up off the rocks and then walked/swam it around to the south dock to tie it up until the waves settled down for installing a new anchor line.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/24/2007:
No report, just a photo.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/23/2010

2010-08-23T08:18:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/23/10:

Photo from this morning:

8/18/10:

8/11/10:

The Caretaker had a very fun weekend. All sorts of things went on, while at dinner last night with his father and step-mother and a few of their friends the Caretaker's father made a comment to him that brought him to tears at the dinner table. In order to fully explain the cause the Caretaker is going to have to provide a considerable amount of back story which he will begin writing as soon as he gets off-line, if all goes as planned (which nothing ever does here on the Island), tomorrow's post will have all the details.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/23/07:

No post for this date, just the photo below.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/22/2010

2010-08-22T07:02:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/22/10:

No new photos, just more from 2007.
Apologies to those who get the TCC e-mailed to their in-box, the multiple re-postings were due to some "housekeeping" for the blog, and apologies to the followers on facebook who happened to come across the dead links. The Caretaker is currently away, he will return later today. It is currently raining where he is, his original plan was to accompany family and friends for a picnic on the Hudson river and then see a performance of "Taming of the Shrew", well, family and friends were going to see it, the Caretaker got wind of it a little to late to get a ticket, sold out, the Caretaker was thinking he would go for the picnic and then either see if he could pay for standing room or just sneak in, failing that he'd just carry on up to the Island. Anyway, it's raining now and looks to be raining for the rest of the day so there won't likely be a picnic and perhaps no Shakespeare, oh well. The Caretaker has had quite a weekend, details will follow in tomorrow's post but here's an outline:
Found new favorite bar in the Village (55 Bar, $7 Martinis!)
Saw new favorite band perform (Becca Stevens Band)
Saw a great jazz trio (Can't recall the name at the moment)
Saw a Grammy nominated Latin band (same as above)
Seaplane flying
Forest fire
Lost track of the number of martinis consumed over past 4 days
Etc.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/22/07, no report, just photos:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/21/2010

2010-08-21T11:42:00.001-04:00

TCC for 8/21/10:

No post for today, just 2007.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report 4/21/07, no report, just photos:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/20/2010

2010-08-21T11:40:00.000-04:00

TCC for 8/20/10:

No post for today, no new photos, just a post from 2007.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report,
Ice Out Day 6, 4/20/07:

Lake Temperature: 37 F

Today marks the official end of ice out for the Island in that it is no longer surrounded nor bordered by ice. There is still plenty of ice in part of Bolton bay and all of Huddle Bay which is just off to the West of the Island, but most all of it will be gone by the end of tomorrow, either way, it should have no impact on the Isalnd. The wind is forecast to come from the South on Sunday, so if there is any ice left down at that end of the Lake there is a chance that it could come back this way and some will pile up on the South shore of the Island. Given the temperatures we are due to get tomorrow and Sunday the Caretaker has his doubts about there being any ice left at the South end but he'll just have to wait and see. So, not until Sunday will the Caretaker consider ice out over, not that this matters because the Caretaker has to leave the Island, he's running out of storage space on his computer and needs to get some disks so he can free up some space on his computer. Now because of this some of you may be a bit disappointed as far the psychology experiment on seclusion goes, but that will just have to wait for another time.

On today's photos, the Caretaker has a request, the first photo (titled "Bed of Ice"), please stare at the bed of ice in the photo for some 10 seconds or so and please let me know if you see anything odd about it. He's not sure if it's just his tired eyes or if there is something with the photo.

The bird photo, the bird is a Loon (for those who don't know or can't tell) it's not a great shot but it is the best digital shot I have. If you haven't noticed there is an audio file attached to this e-mail also, it is a recording of two geese in the water trying to drown each other, literally, and the call of a Loon. The recording is the last attachment on this e-mail. The Caretaker was on the South dock early this morning when he made this sound recording. The Loons will only be here for a short while, they are migrating to their summer waters. Unfortunately Lake George does not provide proper nesting conditions for Loons so chances are no matter how large the population gets they will never summer here.

The long narrow photo is of the Bolton Fire department out on the Lake in the rescue air boat. Lastly, the nighttime photo is of the East window of the Ghetto, the blue streak is from the monitor of the Caretaker's computer.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/19/2010

2010-08-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

TCC for 8/19/10:

Photos from yesterday's sunset:

The Caretaker is still under the weather, it was suggested to him that he may be experiencing allergies, "hey fever", what's up with that? If it's not an illness then it's just a "condition"? Of "the country"? When does it end? If it doesn't the Caretaker is going to have to move to the city, he's had enough of the pressure in the head, congestion, sneezing, stomach ache, etc. Oddly, the only time he gets any relief is when he gets some exercise, he doesn't need to exercise all day every day. Maybe he should start drinking and smoking heavily again, back when he led a mostly unhealthy life style he never experienced "hey fever". Ha-Ha on you Caretaker!

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report,
Ice Out Day 5, 4/19/07:

Lake Temperature: 36 F

Today was the day the ice went out. It hasn't gone out entirely, the wind was from the direction of the Narrows (East) and so there is still plenty of ice in Bolton Bay, essentially if you draw a line in an arc from the Island towards the bridge to Green Island (Sagamore hotel) you will have marked the ice/water line. At least that was the case as of sundown, given the expected weather for tonight, cold and light winds, most of the remaining ice won't go anywhere until tomorrow. The Caretaker spent the entire day walking around the Island documenting ice out on film, digital photos, video, and recording the various ice sounds. The Caretaker even dug out his waterproof camera and took some photos of the ice from underneath it in the water. No the Caretaker did not go in the water, he just stuck his hand in the water. The waterproof camera is a disposable type and is some two to three years old, there is a good chance that the film is pretty much shot, but that won't be known until the film is developed, should anything of interest come from it the Caretaker will be sure to scan any photos of value and e-mail them out to you. All of the photos in this update (and the one from the e-mail earlier today) were taken throughout the day today. The Caretaker took 191 digital photos and about 50 film photos. Not to imply that the photos are any better because of that, but when you walk around the Island all day long you should probably have something to show for it. Most of the video shot was mostly for the audio, because of this the footage was shot in small format to conserve storage space. The Caretaker has not gone through the video footage yet but chances are there will be at least a few minutes of watch-able material. Now mind you, the standard for "watch-able" will be much higher than the "Know's Pick'in Gus's Swing" video, nor will there be any "music", the Caretaker will leave the natural sounds of ice out for you to hear. If all goes well the Caretaker will be able to provide you an idea of what it is like to watch the river of crystal as it flows by.
Today does not mark the official end of ice out because it depends on the wind. Should the wind come from the South tomorrow any ice that collected at the South end of the Lake today could blow back this way. That is of course if the ice that blew down there didn't all melt. The other possibility is that if the wind comes from the North to the North West it will blow the ice that has collected in Bolton Bay right onto the Island. So far very little ice came up on to the Island, if the wind continues from the East like it has for these past 5 days, there will be no more ice coming onto the Island. The Caretaker's prediction is that as far as the Island goes, ice out has come to an end and by the end of tomorrow most all of the ice will have gone out from the rest of the Lake.
One of the benefits of ice out is that the Lake becomes a giant cooler. In the afternoon the Caretaker decided a cocktail would be a good idea, Plum wine on the rocks. However the Caretaker was out of ice, and the Caretaker takes his Plum wine with ice, but the idea quickly occurred to him that he had an entire Lake full of ice. So the Caretaker took his wine glass down to the South dock and plunged his hand into the water and scooped out enough for his drink. When the ice flows like a river of crystal it has melted down to pieces roughly equal in volume to ice cubes from your freezer but they are long and narrow, essentially shards of ice. Being rather amused by the novelty of this the Caretaker felt the occasion merited a second glass of Plum wine, and then left it at that--he didn't need to start buzzing around the Island taking photos of an empty swing as it goes round and round blown by the wind. The Caretaker already did something like that, but for the record, the Caretaker was completely sober when he filmed the vacant swing, although that is probably a bad thing because if he was drunk he would at least have an excuse for that. Although, based on the Caretaker's antics on the internet of late he should probably start drinking heavily again so he has an excuse for all of it. Anyway...

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/18/2010

2010-08-13T17:32:00.006-04:00

TCC for 8/18/10:

Photos from yesterday evening.

Photos from this morning:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report,
Ice Out Day 4, 4/18/07:

Lake Temperature: 36.5 F

An immense amount of ice has gone out today, as a result of the constant wind these past 4 days much of the ice has just melted away. There is a very large sheet of ice off the north side of the Island, but it is almost entirely open between Recluse and Dome Island. From the Caretaker's perspective it looks as though the Lake is completely open from Dome to the East shore. With the way ice out has gone so far the Island has been unscathed, which is good for the Island, but bad for the Caretaker. Well, not that the Island has been unscathed, rather the way the ice has gone out is bad for the Caretaker, he is quickly losing all chances at prime water shots, and he has been trying to make audio recordings of the ice as it goes out. A few recordings have been made, but the Caretaker may have to go off Island in order to get the recordings he is looking for. Then again, there may still be a substantial amount of ice jammed up in the narrows and if it breaks free the Caretaker might be in luck as far as audio recordings, or, should the wind shift to the South this will bring all the ice back up, although this would be good for recording it would probably be bad for the South dock. Either way, the real big loss so far is the chance for flat water, all hope is not loss yet, but it doesn't look good. If the wind keeps up, all the ice could be gone by tomorrow or the next day, which would be a very short ice out indeed. The Caretaker was expecting ice out to be longer than 4 or 5 days, should this indeed be the case, the Caretaker may still sequester himself on the Island anyway, then again maybe not. Who knows? Who cares?

Some have inquired about what photo made it to the front of the Lake George Mirror, I don't have the exact IIR that it went out in, but it was from a week or two ago, it is the shot of Little Recluse with some flat water showing a reflection of Little Recluse and the clouds, the rocks beneath the water are also visible, the photo was taken not too long after mid-day. Some people also expressed an interest in getting a print of the shot that made the cover, after ice out the Caretaker will start working on making prints of his digital photos and his film photos, as great as the photos look on the computer they don't always transfer well to paper, once he finds out how well the digital shots "develop" he'll be sure to contact all interested parties. Speaking of the Lake George Mirror, overall it was a pretty good article, there were a few misstatements, but that was probably done to conserve space. Either that or the person who did the interview wasn't really listening. Whatever the case maybe the misstatements were on subjects the Caretaker was quite explicit about as far as the facts go. Oh well. Including the cover, 6 of the Caretaker's photos were used in the paper, the photos used inside were printed in black and white, but they transfered well enough without the color. There was one very big problem that the Caretaker had with the article and that was regarding the photo credits. The Caretaker had been quite explicit about the photos being accredited using his full name (which for those of you who don't know it's Jeffrey Dallas Moore), instead they just accredited them to Jeff Moore. Yes it is true that in the day to day transactions of life the Caretaker goes by the name Jeff Moore, but with regard to all of his published material be it photos or writing or for that matter anything he does publicly he uses his full name. Why is this such a big deal to the Caretaker? Crossover marketing. The Caretaker doesn't own the domain name JeffMoore.com, but he does own JeffreyDallasMoore.com (granted there is no website yet, but there will be soon, hopefully) anyway the point is the Caretaker can't hock his wares via the internet if nobody knows where to go. For example, anyone who happens to read the article in the Mirror and decides to look the Caretaker up on line, they don't have the proper name to search for. Oh the trials and tribulations...
In light of this the Caretaker is no longer going to bother with the local media, he's going to go National, that is if the ice does what the Caretaker wants it to do. It won't be a major name placement, but it will be to the right crowd. He'll be sure to let you know if it's going to happen.

Of today's two photos, the photo of the South dock is (for those who know) to show how high the water is, not that those who don't know can't look at it, but having no frame of reference you won't have anything to gauge by, however, take my word for it, the Lake is quite high.

Lastly, for today's update you are directed to youtube.com again. However, it is not another Lake George Chicken movie (sorry to disappoint you, although there will be a new LGC movie coming out some time in the next week or so) until that time you will have to settle for a "music" video. The "music" was recorded some time in the Autumn, maybe even before that, it is a reworking and expansion of a song that was originally released on "Doug's Kitchen!" The song is called "Knows Pick'in", the star of the video is Gus's Swing. The footage was shot the other day. Anyway, not that this video will ever show up on MTV (do they even play music anymore?) nor does it need to, the video is a result of the Caretaker messing around with iMovie, what has been learned while messing around will be carried over to other "films"--should the Caretaker get around to making them.
To find the new video go to youtube.com and type in the search window:
Knows Pick'in Gus's Swing
Or copy and paste the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLN66aBZ39Q
The upload is going to take a while, the direct link to the page will follow tomorrow.
Hopefully you will enjoy it, that is if it doesn't make you ill.

--The Caretaker

P.S. While I was finishing up this report and putting the finishing touches on the video, fireworks started going off at the Sagamore hotel. So the Caretaker grabbed his camera, and has attached some of those photos too. The Caretaker would have liked to send full size photos of the fireworks because he knows from the moonlight photos that the reduced size diminishes the quality, unfortunately the speed of his internet connection is too slow. Reduced quality aside I'm sure you'll still be able to see what you need to see. If anything, it gives you something to look forward to when the Caretaker finally gets around to developing all these photos.

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/17/2010

2010-08-13T17:31:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/17/10:

Photos from the archive.

8/14/10:

8/11/10:

8/8/10:

The Caretaker went to bed last night feeling that an illness was coming on, woke up this morning with a full blown head-cold, has zero motivation, feels like death rolled up inside his head and is trying to break its way out his face. If this keeps him from executing his plans for the weekend he is going to be unequivocally devastated. He hasn't been sick in a very long while which often means that when he finally does get sick he gets totally railed. Ha-ha on you Caretaker.

In other news, phone service has been restored to the Island.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report,
Ice Out Day 3, 4/17/07:

Lake Temperature: 36 F

The Lake is continuing to rise, more of the ice has broken up and gone out, but it's still going to take some time for it all to go. Based on the weather reports for this weekend it might not be too long until it is gone, then again, who knows? Wind has been pretty much none stop, if the usual pattern holds, the wind will stop sometime tomorrow, or at least switch directions.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report,
Ice Out Day 2, 4/16/07:

Lake Temperature: 36.5 F

Lake is not far from flood stage, the wind from the storm moved the ice some, not much for here on the Island but unfortunately the ice took out a porch on Three Brother Islands. Today's photos show the impact of the ice, the tree trunk in the photos was at water level before the ice pushed it up about 3 feet or so. The ice is about 6 inches thick, hopefully there won't be any more wind until the ice can thin out more before it goes. Given the water level of the Lake if the ice goes out soon there could be quite a bit of damage. The power went out today at around 11 am, came back on about an hour and a half later.

The Caretaker's plan was to begin his self-imposed sequestering yesterday, however, he neglected to pick up a green pepper when he was in town Saturday, so he made a trip in Sunday morning. Anyway, the sequestering may have to come to an end sooner than originally planned so it probably doesn't matter either way.

Don Ho died at 76

Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

In high school, he was a star football player and worked for a brief time in a pineapple cannery. After graduating in 1949, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."

Besides "Tiny Bubbles," his other well-known songs include "I'll Remember You," "With All My Love," and the "Hawaiian Wedding Song."
--Info on Don Ho taken from AOL.

To carry on the Hawaiian spirit the Caretaker suggests that you checkout Danny Carvalho's CD Baby web page. Danny plays Slack Key guitar and let me tell you, if the Caretaker could play guitar as well as this kid, the Caretaker would not be farting around with all this other stuff he's doing. You can hear some of Danny's songs on CDBaby.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/dannycarvalho

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/15/2010

2010-08-13T17:26:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/15/10:

Some photos from last night at dusk, and one from the archive:

8/12/10:

Yesterday, mid afternoon, the Caretaker was debating whether he should do some work on the Island or have a cup of tea and start reading the book that S. had given him earlier in the day, a cup of tea and a read won out. While in the kitchen at the beginning of his tea preparation, it was a cup of Puh-erh (pronounced "poo-air", it's an aged tea), one of the dogs on the Island began to bark incessantly, the Caretaker paid no mind to this because this particular dog has a tendency to bark at nothing on a regular basis. Turns out the dog had a reason to bark. After the tea was steeped the Caretaker took it, his book, and himself outside to the South patio to read and sip tea, afterwards his plan was to begin the work that he had decided to put off. However, coming around the corner of the house he noticed people on the South dock, they arrived by canoe and were strangers to the Island so the Caretaker brought himself down to the South dock to see what was going on, they had a map out, it was looking like they were in need of some sort of help.

There was four of them, in their mid-twenties or so, came from the Boston area, never been to Lake George before, never really paddled canoes before, done plenty of kayaking, only just learned the "J" stroke, didn't know to feather a paddle when going against the wind, their entire trip to their destination was into the wind, it was a pretty good wind thus a lot of wave action in addition to the numerous boat wakes. A few gallons of water had already splashed into their canoes. All but one did NOT pack their gear in plastic bags before putting it in their backpacks, their gear was already wet. They said they left Green Island 45 minutes or so prior to reaching the Island the Caretaker lives on, they were going to Long Island to camp for the night. The Caretaker pointed out where Long Island was, far South from the Island, then showed them where they were on the map and where Long Island was, based on how long it took them to get just to the Island the Caretaker estimated it would have take them another 5 hours to reach Long Island, if they were lucky they would get there just before nightfall. That is if they didn't continue to take on water or capsize, or both. The Caretaker quickly realized that these were total novices.

He provided them with two options, continue on as they were and try to slog it out to their destination, the Caretaker had little faith in them being able to do that. The other option was that they paddle back to Green Island, throw their rented canoes on top of their cars, drive down to Million Dollar Beach in Lake George Village, put in there and then paddle with the wind to their destination. The Caretaker let them talk amongst themselves for a short while then started asking more questions about their canoeing skills, his final deduction was that they really shouldn't be on the Lake by themselves given their paltry skill set. By this time the Caretaker had finished his cup of tea which meant he had no excuse to put off work by reading and drinking tea.

So, the Caretaker said, "there is a third option, I bring the motorboat around to the South dock here, we load your two canoes, your gear, and yourselves into the boat and I run you down to Long Island that way you get to where you're going well before nightfall, set up camp, and then get out on the water and practice your canoe skills for your return paddle tomorrow which will hopefully be with the wind."
The Caretaker then stepped back a few paces and let them discuss it amongst themselves for a short while.

"So, what are you guys thinking of doing?"

"We're thinking, if it isn't putting you out, that we'd appreciate a ride down in the motor boat."

"Good thinking. I need you guys to pull the rest of your gear out of your canoes and put the gear and your canoes on the dock, I will be around with the motorboat shortly."

After loading everything on the boat the Caretaker drove them to Long Island. Just before going around the North end of Long Island the Caretaker stopped the boat, and had the group turn around, "see that large white building? That's the Sagamore Hotel, it's on Green Island, that is where you will be paddling to tomorrow when you want to return." The Caretaker figured it was worth while to confirm that they knew where to return to. He then brought them the rest of the way to the Ranger station on Long Island so they could check into their camp site. While unloading their gear the Caretaker asked them if they knew what site they were in, they didn't, they left their paperwork back at their car. The Caretaker suggested that one of them go to the Ranger Station and confirm their camping site. After all the gear was unloaded the Caretaker waited until he knew that they had a place to camp for the night. Upon confirmation that they had a campsite and that they knew where it was the Caretaker gave them his cell number incase they ran into trouble again and then headed back up the Lake to the Island.

Frankly, the Caretaker thinks it was rather irresponsible for the outfitter to rent these guys canoes and send them out on the Lake. Having grown up learning to paddle a canoe on Lake George the Caretaker is well aware of how difficult it can be to paddle a canoe on this Lake even when well skilled at canoeing. The Caretaker at one point in his life worked as a canoe guide up in the Saranac Lake region of the Adirondack State Park, you don't spend a few moments showing someone the "J" stroke and then send them on their way. Not to mention, by his assessment of the canoes these guys were rented they were river boats, not lake boats, river boats by design are harder to keep on a straight course.

The Caretaker should probably put together a short treatise on how to paddle a canoe. One of the most disheartening things the Caretaker would encounter while working as an outdoor guide were the times when he would get clients who thought they were taught how to paddle a canoe only to find that the moment they get out onto open water they actually knew little to nothing, it was always sort of sad to see how frustrated and exasperated these people would become at the very beginning of their canoe trek. Luckily for them they hired the Caretaker, by the end of their trip they would be rather proficient at paddling a canoe, not experts but well on their way knowing enough to have genuine confidence in their abilities.

There are no short cuts in life.

(Note: Some of the specifics on the Caretaker's work as an outdoor guide have been left out in order to protect the organization he was involved with, it was this same organization that was responsible for the "clients" total lack of knowledge and skill regarding canoeing.)

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/15/2007:

Here some photos that are a variation on some earlier themes, enjoy.

Sorry the Caretaker has not been keeping up on the writing end of things but he has been busy working on a number of projects, one of which is his Peace Cannon--when it's done it will blow you away with beautiful works of art.

Don Ho died.
The Caretaker will have something to say about this tomorrow.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/14/2010

2010-08-13T17:22:00.004-04:00

TCC for 8/14/10:

Last night's sunset (first three photos) and this morning's sunrise (last two photos):

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, and not too much has been happening lately so perhaps the Caretaker should share a recent story from the past, how about the second to last time the Caretaker went for a run and encountered some white guys playing "Indians". It was the morning of his birthday some two weeks or so ago, well, going on three weeks now, anyway, the Caretaker was giving himself two birthday presents one was to go for a run on the East shore over at Shelving Rock, the other was to see the first performance of MacBeth by the Adirondack Shakespeare company up in Schroon Lake Village. The MacBeth experience is a story in itself (he was bought to tears twice and nearly peed his pants but that tale will have to wait for another time).

So, the birthday morning run, the Caretaker used to run every other day but due to injury he has to limit his running to once a week or once every two weeks, having not run for a while the Caretaker decided to ignore his injury and just run as long as he pleased. When he goes for a run over at Shelving Rock he takes the tin boat and pulls it up on to the mainland shore in Log Bay on the West side of Log Bay Island. Usually he just runs the carriage trail that follows the shore, it is a very beautiful run affording wonderful views of the Lake all along the way, however, sometimes he will take the Carriage trail up the mountain to Shelving Falls, just past the falls on both sides are two very pleasant bits of trail to travel down. For his birthday the Caretaker ran up the falls, carried on past the falls for a while then turned around and came back to the falls where he than scrambled across to the other side, continued on down to the dirt road, made a right and went up to the trail head for climbing Shelving Rock. Usually he just continues on down the road past the trail head but this time he decided to run for a bit on the trail so he made a left to do so. Coming around the corner he sees two white guys, as white as white guys can be, dressed as Indians wearing leather loin cloths, one guy was on the ground either rolling up or rolling out a leather tent of sorts, he had a mohawk. The other guy was standing around, his head was shaved except for a small section at the back of his head that was of some length, the hair pulled back in a pony tail. One of the white guys playing Indian looked to be about 18 years old, maybe early 20's, the other guy looked to be in his early 30's.

So the Caretaker comes around the corner, and takes all this in as he's running by.

What the?

One of the "Indians" said a typical modern day white man greeting, the Caretaker responded in kind without stopping, he didn't quicken his pace but he certainly didn't slacken it either. The Caretaker continued on with his run, at the next trail intersection the Caretaker made a right towards Dacy Clearing instead of a left to go up Shelving Rock, it had been quite a while since he'd been up this stretch of trail and felt like taking it in for a while before turning around to come back. He didn't really know what to make of the two white guys playing "Indians". Were they part of a Revolutionary War reenactment that was perhaps going on at either Fort William Henry or Fort Ticonderoga and they decided to go "native" and camp out? Or, were they a couple of whack-jobs who suffered from some sort of nostalgia of the past that they knew of only from what they read? On the third hand, were they just whack-jobs who were up to no goo? For example, where they had camped or intended to camp was not a place where camping was allowed which would hopefully be the least of their mean intents. Or perhaps they had planned to run around in the woods striking fear in the woodland tourists? The Caretaker's route plan was to run up to the creek that crosses the trail then turn around and come back, he thought about changing his plans and going on up to the first trail that cuts over to the road but then decided that it was further than he wanted to run and secondly, running past these two "Indians" really shouldn't be a problem.

Coming down the trail to where the "Indians" are the Caretaker saw that they both had hatchets, one of them had just thrown it at a large pine tree, apparently they were practicing their hatchet throwing skills. The pine tree was living and the Caretaker considered telling them that they really should not throw hatchets at a living pine tree, they should find a dead tree instead. However, considering that they had hatchets and the Caretaker did not he decided he would keep quiet on the subject, even though when the "Indian" threw his hatchet it merely bounced off the tree. They were obviously not very good at hatchet throwing. Anyway, the Caretaker keeps on keep'n on and maintains his pace but makes a point to give the hatchet throwing "Indians" plenty of space, he didn't need a hatchet in his head and a poorly thrown one at that. Pass the "Indians", then the target tree, the young "Indian" calls out to the Caretaker:

"Hey..."

Uh oh, here we go. Defense? Offense? Fight or flight?"

"... Do you know how far it is to the lake."

How far is it to the lake? You guys are idiots. You don't know where the lake is from here? Total, idiots.

Granted, if anyone else had asked the Caretaker where the lake was from this location he wouldn't think anything of it and share the location without any judgment, but when looking at two white guys in loin cloths pretending to be Indians, throwing hatchets at live trees, who don't know their surroundings--they're idiots, through and through.

The Caretaker stops and turns around in place, "make a right on to the road and follow it down to the end and you will reach the lake."

"So, what, about two miles?"

"Probably not that far, a little ways down, it doesn't take long to get there via the road."

The older indian, "see, I told you."

"The other way you can go is to make a left at the orange trail barrier, follow the trail to Shelving Falls, go across the falls and then take the trail down to the Lake."

"Alright, thanks."

"No problem." With that the Caretaker turned and started off on his run again, he didn't hesitate to put the first tree there was between himself and the hatchet wielding idiots. The Caretaker still wasn't sure what to make of these two, he thought that perhaps he should report them to the park service. When the Caretaker thinks you and what you are doing is odd, you've really got problems, serious problems. In the end he let the whole thing rest and continued on with his run--enjoying it very much.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

No report for today's Island Ice Report for 4/14/07, just these photos:

--The Caretaker

P.S. Special thanks to G.G. for providing ready access to the internet until the phone service is returned to the Island.

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/13/2010

2010-08-13T17:06:00.002-04:00

TCC for 8/13/10

Due to the phone line being out the Caretaker will only be able to post to his blog when he gets the time to get over to the mainland which will most likely be intermittent, hopefully things will return to "normal" sometime this coming monday. In the meantime, here is a photo from this morning and one from the archive:

8/6/10:

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/13/07:

Lake Temperature: 32 F

Not much to report these past few days, the Caretaker has been spending much of his time dealing with the day to day mundane travesties of life. Once figuring out the iPhoto problem the Caretaker had to transfer and reorganize all of his digital photography, the weather has been perpetually cloudy this week and with the addition of the snow, rain, and hail there wasn't much to be done outside so the inside work wasn't a bad use of time. Because of the constant overcast many of the photos from this past week or so have been from the Caretaker's photo files, the weather report for the coming week is not looking so sporty for photography either. The cold weather of late has caused more ice to form, but now with the rain and wet snow there is quite a bit of slush on the water and on the ice. The last time the Caretaker was on the ice was this past Monday, he's not sure of the current condition of the ice but he will find out tomorrow, if all goes well tomorrow's trip will be the Caretaker's last trip to the mainland until after ice-out. Funny thing is that with the way the weather has been, and predicted to go, the ice may not go out until May, who knows, find out when we get there. Whatever the conditions will be, hopefully something interesting will occur for the Caretaker to report on.
Oh, by the way, the Caretaker did hear from the publisher of the Lake George Mirror this morning, from the e-mail the Caretaker does know that one of his photos made the cover, which photo the Caretaker doesn't know but he will find out tomorrow.

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/12/2010

2010-08-13T16:48:00.007-04:00

TCC for 8/12/10

Photos from this morning's dawn:

Come 4:30 this afternoon and still no sign of the telephone repairman the Caretaker called the phone company again, he was told that they won't be able to make it out until this coming Monday the 16th. Thanks Verizon.

In other news, while out taking photos of this morning's dawn the Caretaker noticed something over on the pile of rocks between the Island and Sloop island, this something on the pile of rocks was a new addition to the pile but wasn't a rock. It was a bird, what breed of bird the Caretaker could not discern from his vantage point on the Island.

At first he thought maybe it was an owl, however, it was a very odd place for an owl to perch itself for the night.

He then thought perhaps it was a small eagle or some other bird of prey, however that too would be rather unlikely given the location. Eventually the Caretaker decided he would get in the water with his camera and try to get up very close without waking the slumbering bird. Once he got around to the front of the bird he noticed...

...webbed feet. It was just a water fowl. Eventually the bird woke up.

Due to the movement of the bird and the wave action pressing upon the Caretaker he was not able to keep a steady shot. Whatever this bird is the Caretaker knows not, should anyone happen to know please feel free to let him know. Either way, these last few shots are sort of interesting, the last two are of the bird in the water before it swam away.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

No Island Ice Report for 4/11/07, just a photo:

--The Caretaker

The Caretaker's Concern for 8/11/2010

2010-08-13T16:16:00.004-04:00

TCC for 8/11/10

Photos from dawn this morning:

Yesterday afternoon there was a bit of a rain squall here on the lake, about half way through it there was a bolt of lightening that struck quite close to the Island, very close to the Ghetto. The Caretaker wasn't in the Ghetto at the time of the lightening strike, he was on the other side of the Island in the main house reading the latest edition of "Old News". After the lightening strike the Caretaker decided it might be a good idea to go unplug his computer and modem incase there is another lightening strike close to the Island, when he walked into the Ghetto it reeked of ozone or whatever it is that gets "fried" in the immediate area of a lightening strike. Anyway, nothing happened to the Caretaker's computer, however, the lightening strike seems to have cooked the phone line to the Island, thus that is why there have been no updates these past few days. Since no one had cause to use the phone nor was anyone expecting any phone calls nobody knew the phone line was out until the Caretaker went to get on-line this morning to post to his blog. After confirming that there was no dial tone at any of the extensions and that none of the phones were left off the hook the Caretaker then checked the interface where there was also no dial, after all the checking the Caretaker called the phone company, they said a repairman would be out the next day. The Caretaker wasn't holding his breath.

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/11/07:

The Caretaker was expecting to write a report for today, but unfortunately a new hitch has just come up. Earlier it was taxes, then his computer stopped working, turned out on Easter his mouse stopped working, and thus his computer was rendered useless. Now he's having a problem with iPhoto. Sorry I still have no report for you, but this is a problem that the Caretaker needs to address. Hopefully this is a problem that can be resolved ASAP.

--The Caretaker

The Caretakers Concern for 8/10/2010

2010-08-10T06:21:00.007-04:00

TCC for 8/10/10:

Unfortunately the haze and humidity has rolled in again and the Caretaker has no new landscape photos so here are a few more from the other day, essentially just more of the same:

In other news, the other day, the Caretaker was told by some teenagers on the Island that they liked his hat, wanted to know where he got it and that they liked his sunglasses and his shirt. They then went on to say that they wanted his entire outfit. The Caretaker said to them that he couldn't remember where he got the hat and that as far as he knew this was the first time anyone had coveted his attire. Here is a photo of what he was wearing:

The text on his shirt reads: "I only drink on days that end in Y."
Personally, the Caretaker knew not what it was that they coveted about his "getup" especially since the above attire is what he would consider to be an example of his "slob outfit", something he would wear that he didn't mind getting dirty. To each their own.

Anyway, the Caretaker had originally planned to post the following two videos to his blog yesterday but for whatever reason it didn't workout for him, however, via facebook he is now able to post the videos to his blog.

The first one is his submission to the Queensland Tourism of Australia "Greatest Job..." contest, many of you have probably seen this but the Caretaker thinks it is a good time to revisit this "masterpiece" of comedy and editing, bah-hah-hah-hah!

If for whatever reason the video is not viewable on the blog the following is the link to the Caretaker's facebook page where it can also be viewed:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=144652395564408

In addition to the above video the Caretaker has decided to also post a video of him playing one of his warm up exercises for guitar. The Caretaker has recently picked up his guitar again, he had let it get down to three strings for at least a year, probably longer and would every once in a while mess around with it coming up with rather odd and limited songs on the three strings. He was recently motivated to get back into playing his guitar, so he's been making a point to play for about an hour a day (not that it shows), funny thing is, he forgot how much fun he has playing guitar, odd that he would have let it fall by the wayside for so very long.

Facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=144642082232106

Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 4/9/07:

No report, just these two photos of the same scene taken using different settings on the camera, what those different camera settings were the Caretaker has no idea.

Island Ice Report for 4/10/07:

No report, just this photo, which is a variation on a scene posted a few days
ago. The Caretaker has decided to post two IIR's today so the dates will match from 2007 and today in 2010, not that it matters but hey, why not?

--The Caretaker