If there are 52 weeks in a year (which there are) then that means WW #26 is HALFWAY. On the cusp of Otto’s Abode’s fourth birthday this past February, it was decided to publish information and imagery here on the internet in a weekly fashion. We thought about doing something special to celebrate this Halfway Issue… and we even thought about taking the week off. Instead, we'll just proceed with business as usual - with the exception of this one introductory paragraph (the one you are currently reading). We hope you enjoy our attempt at documenting the goings-on in Wanakena, NY though writing and imagery. Cheers to another 26 weeks!
This past week in a nutshell: Most notable may have been the rain! Hurricane leftovers gave Wanakena a good soak – enough to make the catnip droop. River level is still pretty low, though. Perhaps the Cranberry Lake Dam level is partially to blame. Garage sales pop up here and there. Merlins squawk and soar overhead. Bald eagle in the dead white pine down by the beach. Downtown snowshoe hare struts around like it owns the place (it does). The downtown coyote does the same. Temperatures cooled down around 60 a few nights – lovely sleeping! Trailhead parking lots remain full but not overcrowded. Some scattered reports of deerfly and mosquito unpleasantness in the forest – not so bad here in the village.
A COOLER weekend ahead of us with daytime temps in the 70s. Might dip down into the high 50s at night, Maybe a chance for some rain Friday overnight – YOU HEARD IT HERE, FOLKS! The drum circle scheduled for this Saturday has been canceled. This weather forecast is brought to you by Wanakena’s own PATTIJACKNAN weather team – a Wanakener garage pole mounted weather station and crew. THANKS, TEAM! This weather station can be found at: https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ny/wanakena/KNYWANAK8
The other day, out for a stroll up The Truck Trail (or as Carol says: The Jeep Trail). Not too far up the trail a bird ZIPS out from a low hanging alder branch. Upon closer inspection of where the bird had bolted reveals a nest constructed mostly of birch containing two small eggs. On the way back down the trail to town, care was taken to tread lightly with hopes of catching a glimpse of the nest caretaker. The bird was not skittish enough to flee the scene as before and allowed the photographer to snap one photograph with no flash (which didn’t work). The chirpster was generous enough to give the photographer another try – this time with a flash. Later-on though the studying of the photograph, Wanakener Bernie Carr identified the bird as a red-eyed vireo.
The next morning… opening-up Otto’s Abode. What’s this? TWO BABY BIRDS, one sits on the front porch, the other on the asphalt out-front. The baby birds are scooped-up in a cardboard box and carefully relocated to the neighboring forested backyard. Two eggs yesterday in a nest, two birds today at The Abode… The owner of the forested backyard spotted and informed us that one of the baby birds was receiving food from a busy adult bird. The baby bird was located on the sawed-off trunk of a lilac bush. And the adult bird – singing along with the baby – was spotted overhead, beak full of berries. Feeding time! The baby birds turned out to be cedar wax wings.
Bridgework continues! The Buffalo Drilling Company has done its work and checked-out of town and The Stone Manor Motel where they had been for the last few weeks. Drillin’ Dillan left us a bunch of Anaheim peppers on the porch his girlfriend brought up from the garden. WOW THOSE GUYS MADE A LOT OF HOLES IN THE ROCK. These holes will be used to tie the abutment down into the bedrock securely. We were out bailing water from the boat when we noticed a milky, silty tint to the river. Upon further inspection it was discovered that the bridge crew had damed a portion of the river to redirect it around one of the leftover piers. Fill was loaded into the river (causing the silt) and a landbridge constructed to allow heavy machinery to get at the pier. The two old piers are most likely not long for this world.
This past week THE WANEKANA HISTORY CENTER was buzzing with work. Wanakena Historical Association volunteers were busy within painting, hanging trim, and more! This upcoming weekend there will be a FUNDRAISING GARAGE SALE on the porch. There are also a few more non-WHA garage sales around the village. C’mon out to Wanakena and sort through some of our “junk’!
Professor Greg Vaverchak of Wanakena’s RANGER SCHOOL informed us that new RS students will be arriving August 16th and therefore AS OF AUGUST 15th THE RANGER SCHOOL PROPERTY WILL BE CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. The Ranger School Property has miles of beautiful marked trails open to the public to explore, but due to the coronavirus and returning student the campus will isolate itself from outsiders. Please spread the word! Get yer Ranger School Property hikes in NOW and DON’T FEED THE STUDENTS! We wish all students, faculty and staff a smooth transition into the upcoming school year.
NEW ART ON VIEW: JACK WILLIAMS PHOTO EXHIBITION. Jack Williams resides in Wanakena during the extended summer months and more times then not be seen snapping shots with his camera. Jack has selected 15 photographs from his collection to be framed and on-view here at Otto’s Abode at least through Labor Day Weekend. Copies of the photos are available for purchase and a majority of the proceeds will go to the Wanakena Historical Association’s efforts concering the future Wanakena History Center. GREAT JOB, JACK!
Down at the Abode: if you were around this past weekend perhaps your delved into the peaches, blueberries and/or corn we had available for purchase via the front porch. Bill from Irish Hill picked it all up down at a produce auction around the Finger Lakes somewhere. Bill putting in those miles to feed us that fresh stuff! As mentioned above the NEW Jack Williams Photo Exhibition is ON VIEW until at least Labor Day weekend. ARTifacts from the Gateway to Wilderness project remain on view. The CLBC Village Poker Ramble scavenger hunt to benefit the Clifton Community Library is still open for registration and play for another few weeks. Jamie Savages new CL50 Pocket Guide is hot off the press and here in the shop.We’ve 1,000 island cheese, too – fresh curd on Friday afternoons! Dave says the fresh pavement out front has cured enough to drive on – looks spectacular! Postcards, hot coffee, cold earth worms, books, maps, candy, snacks and more! Retired DEC Forest Ranger and neighbor Bernie S. has donated an
outstanding 17min VHS tape about the 1995 Microburst – we have it
playing on a little TV here in the shop as a part of the TWENTY FIVE
YEARS exhibition.Heres a "screenshot" of then Gov. Pataki visiting the Star Lake Fire Dept, Todd Hardware across the street:
Blackwaters Café and Trading Post in Wanakena is open for pick-up/take-out Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat 11-6:30 pm. Picnic tables and port-o-john out front! Picnic tables out back by the river, too. Order though their take-out window or better yet do it online at their website www.blackwaterscafe.com
Someone said Packbasket Adventures is renting rooms. Stone Manor Diner and Motel in Cranberry Lake, Lakeside General Store in Cranberry Lake, UB’s Mercantile & Adirondack Rustics in Oswegatchie, Coffee Fever, Todd Hardware, Adirondack Pharmacy and Circle K in Star Lake, Mountain Gate Redemption near Benson Mines, and Sevey Point remain open for business in one way or another (open, take out, pick up, drop off, etc…). The Clifton-Fine Municipal Golf Course is open seven days a week. Post Offices are open too (Thanks, Mary!) Duck Decoy and MORE showroom open for pop-ins. “Showroom FILLED” 481 Tooly Pond Rd, Cranberry Lake – 315-848-4223. Always beautiful photography at the Wanakena Tracks facebook page.
The Clifton Community Library in Cranberry Lake is open for curbside! Also from the CCL Facebook page: “Community wide scavenger hunt!!! From Windfall to Oswegatchie, from Fine to Cranberry Lake--put your peepers on and prove you have 2020 Vision!. I'll be putting paper forms in the CL post office shortly, and then hitting the road to drop off paper copies in Wanakena (Otto’s Abode), Star Lake, Newton Falls, and wherever else we can! I hope you have a great time--first prize is $50 to either Todd's, UB's, or Stone Manor. #2020vision Have a GREAT time and remember that you have to enter via the Google Form listed at the top of this sheet.” https://www.facebook.com/cliftoncommunitylibrary/. Don’t forget about the CLBC Scavenger Hunt fund raiser for the Clifton Community Library.
Hillside Diner in Oswegatchie, Twin Lakes in Star Lake remain temporarily closed.
Kim’s Lost Dog Report: As of today there are NO lost dogs in Wanakena.
All for now!
Any questions, comments, concerns, trail condition inquiries, legends, jokes, animal sightings, etc… feel free to email otto@ottosabode.org or call 3158483008 or pop-in the shop! Wanakena Weekly archive here: http://www.ottosabode.org/p/wanakena-weekly.html
"In these small
inns the disagreeable
practice of rocking in the chair is seen in its excess. In the inn parlour are three or four rocking-chairs, in which sit ladies who are vibrating in different directions, and
at various velocities, so as to try the head of a stranger almost as severely as the tobacco-chewer his stomach. How this lazy and ungraceful indulgence ever became general, I cannot imagine; but the nation seems so wedded to it, that I see little chance of its being forsaken. When American ladies come to live in Europe, they sometimes send home for a rocking-chair. A common wedding-present is a rocking-chair. A beloved pastor has every room in his house furnished with a rocking- chair by his grateful and devoted people. It is well that the gentlemen can be satisfied to sit still, or the world might be treated with the spectacle of the sublime American Senate
in a new position; its fifty-two senators see-sawing in full deliberation, like the wise birds of a rookery in a breeze. If such a thing should ever happen, it will be time for them to leave off laughing at the Shaker worship." Harriet Martineau (1835)