Happy Thursday!
WHATS GOING ON IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD?!?!?! Last weekend was Ranger School Alumni Weekend! It's always great to see folks from though the years come back to Wanakena and mingle with the village and fellow alumni. LOTS OF GREAT FOLKS! There was a BADASS Cajun Honky Tonk this past Friday Night down here in ZPARK! Ranger School class of 2026 arrives in just a coupe of weeks! This past Wednesday (yesterday) BARB HELLER of NCPR played a sweet folk concert right here in the Wanakena Presbyterian Church as rain and thunder and lightning put on an impressive show outside! We needed the rain - it's been pretty dry lately! The Town of Fine Highway Crew has been doing some serious prep-work for when the St. Lawrence County Highway crew comes into town in a week or two to PAVE THE ROADS IN WANAKENA! Wow! It's gonna be wild! The goldenrod is glowing, and the maples have started to turn color of wintery decent! Hikers report good trails and some biting insects! Lots of lovely warm days to hike on the way! ALL FOR NOW! THANKS FOR CHECKING-IN! In other news: LOCAL TOILET ART PREVAILS! Potsdam’s Market Street Dunkin’ Donuts closes, but protest toilets remain - North Country Now
C'MON DOWN AND POKE AROUND BEAUTIFUL & HISTORIC WANAKENA SURROUNDED BY WILDERNESS AT THE MOUTH OF CRANBERRY LAKE! OTTO'S ABODE IS OPEN 9AM-7PM ALL WEEK AND 9AM-5PM ON SUNDAYS! TRAIL INFO, MAPS, BOOKS, GEAR, GIFTS AND GOODIES! ART SHOW ON VIEW! MUSIC! LOCAL HISTORY! CROQUET! HOT COFFEE, COLD DRINKS, ICE CREAM, SNACKS, BEER CAVE AND GROCERIES GALORE! THANKS FOR SHOPPIN' AND HANGIN' LOCAL AT YOUR FAVORITE YEAR-ROUND INCONVENIENCE STORE AND MORE! P.S. THE WANAKENA HISTORY CENTER IS OPEN 11AM-4PM EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY ALL SUMMER LONG! P.P.S. DONT FORGET TO UNWIND YOUR MIND AT THE LABYRINTH! INCONVENIENCE STORE AND MORE! QUALITY YEAR-ROUND SERVICE DOWNTOWN WANAKENA NEXT TO THE POST OFFICE AT THE GATEWAY TO WILDERNESS OVERLOOKING THE OSWEGATCHIE AT THE MOUTH OF CRANBERRY LAKE! COME FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AND PERHAPS WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED!
HERE'S A LIST OF SOME UPCOMING EVENTS HAPPENING AROUND THE AREA!
****UNDER CONSTRUCTION****
ALL YEAR - FREE COMMUNITY MEAL AT ST HUBERTS CHURCH 5PM
ALL SUMMER - YOGA AT THE CF COMMUNITY CENTER MON 5:30AM & TUES 9:30AM
ALL SUMMER - WANAKENA HISTORY CENTER OPEN SAT & SUN 11-4PM
AUGUST 9TH & 10TH - CRANBERRY LAKE ART SHOW
AUGUST 14TH - MARK HALL PRESENTATION AT CRANBERRY LAKE HUB
AUGUST 15TH - JON FOSTER AND MO FORD TWIN LAKES HOTEL STAR LAKE
AUGUST 21ST - JACKIE AND KEVIN WOODCOCK PRESENTATION AT CRANBERRY LAKE HUB
AUGUST 23RD - CRANBERRY LAKE BOAT RACE
AUGUST 23RD - 7PM SUMMER SERIES CONCERT 4/5 - ORQUETA LA MURALLA
SUGUST 23RD - PRESBYTERIAN PICNIC ZPARK WANAKENA
AUGUST 30TH - 7PM SUMMER SERIES CONCERT 5/5 - SOULSHOT
AUGUST 31ST - FRIENDS OF CRANBERRY LIBRARY LIVE MUSIC NELSON BROS
SEPT 5TH - ANNEMARRIE ROWLAND FOLK MUSIC Z PARK 7PM
SEPTEMBER 6TH - STAR LAKE FIELD DAY
SEPTEMBER 20TH - PSYCHIC READING AT CF COMMUNITY CENTER STAR LAKE!
SEPTEMBER 27TH - OPEN AIR OPEN MIC ZPARK WANAKENA
OCTOBER 31ST - OPEN AIR OPEN MIC HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR ZPARK WANAKENA
RISE AND SHINE CLIFTON-FINE... Starting from the west... Historic Fine Town Hall Building in Fine Village seeking input for its use and future! Fine Volunteer Fire Dept THANK YOU! Lodge at Dodge Pond OPEN. UBs Mercantile and ADK Rustics in Oswegatchie (Home of The Bargain Hunter!) are OPEN! Oswegatchie Community Garden GROWING! Around Star Lake: Star Lake's ADK Holy Grail gift shoppe OPEN with A GIANT LOON out front!! ADK Pharmacy OPEN. Clifton Fine Central School GO EAGLES! Fitness Center at the school is open M-F 5-8am & 5-10pm and weekends 5-10pm! Community Bank OPEN! Clifton Fine Hospital OPEN and HOPIN' you're healthy! They raised enough money to expand - check out their live construction camera! And look out for Food Truck Thursdays and Farmers Markets in the summer! Dollar General OPEN! Twin Lakes OPEN! CF Arena HAD A GREAT WINTER! Golf Course CLUB GRUB at the CLUB HOUSE has BREAKFAST LUNCH AND DINNER! CF Golf Course OPEN!! Star Lake Volunteer Fire Department THANK YOU! SOS Adirondack Exhibit Center EVENTS HAPPENING... stay tuned! Every Friday Night, open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous at the Schoolhouse 7PM. Clifton-Fine Community Center and Food Pantry & Free "Community Meal" Wednesdays! Todd Hardware OPEN and FOR SALE!!!!!! Coffee Fever SOLD? Circle Jays OPEN! What's The Scoop Scoops OPEN! American Legion OPEN and REFURBISHED with LOTS OF EVENTS! Newton Falls Giving Box & Post Office & Community Church OPEN. Newton Falls Volunteer Fire Department THANK YOU! Mountain Gate Plaza Bottle Hometown General Store, Deli and Redemption Center OPEN! Down in Wanakena Packbasket Adventures Lodge and Event Space in Wanakena OPEN... with NEW OWNERSHIP! Mary holds down 13695 Wanakena Post Office - Clifton Community Library Book Drop Box and Lost and Found and MORE out-front on Otto's Porch! OTTO'S ABODE OPEN ALL YEAR DOWN HERE! Wanakena Ranger School!! Wanakena Historical Association Walking Tour UP AND RUNNIN' FOR SEASON and the History Center OPENS JUNE 20TH and are every sat and sun though summer 11-4pm! Don't forget about the Wanakena Walking Tour and Labyrinth AND MORE! Clifton-Fine Summer Series in ZPARK SUMMERTIME check it out CLIFTON FINE ARTS. Common Thread Quilt Fest Labor Day Weekend! Out in Harewood: Wooden Fish Hathery OPEN! Billy's BLACK LIGHT ART SHOW this past Halloween! Cranberry Lake Volunteer Fire Department THANK YOU! Down in Windfall Wooden Fish Hatchery and Dragun Designs! Birch's Lakeside OPEN! Tilly's? Cranberry Lake Art Show 2025 GET READY!! Cranberry Lake North Shore Hub hosts space use, dock use, summer concerts and summer lectures! Clifton Community Library OPEN! Cranberry Lake Boat Club summer events! CHECK OUT THE Cranberry Lake DEC Campground! Cranberry Lake Mountaineers Snowmobile Club, check 'em out! THEY HAVE A GREAT LISTING OF LOCAL YEAR-ROUND RENTALS ON THEIR WEBSITE! Grasse River Railway, anybody? Sevey's Point at Sevey's Corner OPEN. Thirsty Moose Childwold OPEN!! Childwold Presbyterian Church though September 15th! And don't forget... Back West: 2E's, Golden Glow, Edwards Opera House, Jim's Auto in South Edwards OPEN! Plum Brook Cafe in Russell OPEN! Jockos in Degrasse OPEN and re-painted and hosting SUNDAY FUNDAYS!! CLIFTON-FINE RT. 3 CORRIDOR ROLL-CALL ROUND-UP! We're Southern St. Lawrence County. We're Northwestern Adirondacks. We're BOTH. We're NEITHER! WE'RE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-LESS! WILD WEST! GREAT SOUTH WOODS WAY SOUTH OF THE ROCK! ALL THAT STUFF! OH YEAH! (Who's missing? What's stale? Les us know! Zoom Zoom!) Also... if you appreciate the work put into these newsletters (and Otto's Abode in general) consider donating something extra to the cause! We're on VENMO as Otto's Abode. Or as Click and Clack used to say: Write our address on a twenty-dollar bill and mail it to us!
"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)
