Dragonwood Creek

Sunday March 29th. Most of the snow is gone although there is still a fair amount in shaded areas.

April 15 - TAX DAY TEA PARTY

We will attend the April 15 tax day Tea Party at Clinton Square in front of the Federal Building in Syracuse. The Tea Party is scheduled to take place from 11:30 - 1:30. Join Us! Stand up and be counted! NO MORE TAXES! NO MORE BAILOUTS!

These events are non-partisan. The conservative talk show hosts may be promoting them but citizens of all potical persuasions are welcome. If you care about our country and are tired of your taxes going up while spending by the politicians spirals out of control - Speak Out! We need to make a bold statement - numbers matter! It is our civic responsibility to voice our concerns!

To learn about a Tea Party in your area, visit - http://www.912project.com/

I was going through some photographs and came across this one I took about this time last winter. This field is aound the corner, less than a mile from Dragonwood.

Stained Glass Window

This window was custom made for the cabin by an artist friend. We really enjoy it and I plan to try my hand at making a window or two some day.

Location - Southern Tug Hill Region

As I build this blog I'm getting a lot of readers asking where we are located. We are located in the Tug Hill region of New York State, USA. The Tug Hill region is famous for it's Lake effect snow as we lie directly east of Lake Ontario.

Dragonwood is at the southern edge of the Tug Hill region. Most locals wouldn't even consider it Tug Hill, but technically it falls into that region. The Tug Hill is a large very rural area between Lake Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains.

I have posted a couple of maps to help illustrate.

It's funny how many people around the country hear New York and immediately conjure up pictures of New York City. Well I gotta tell ya. This ain't New York City. This is about as rural as it gets.

I was born and raised in the mountains of Vermont and have lived in North Carolina and California with stops in Alaska and other places thanks to the U.S. Army. The Tug Hill is certainly not as vast an area as some, but trust me it's rural and with an annual snow fall that averages between 200" - 300" it's going to stay that way.

The upside to all the snow fall is there is no shortage of good water.

Cross country skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing reign supreme as winter activities. When summer comes we have excellent fishing in our rivers and lakes and of course boating and pretty much anything else one might enjoy out doors.

Shoveling the roof

Every year about this time we have to think about how much snow weight we have on the roofs of our buildings. It can really add up and sadly we lose a few more old barns every year. Porch roofs, garages, and out buildings often collapse under the weight of the accumulated lake effect snow. Sometimes even houses and commercial buildings come down and mobile homes seem to be especially vulnerable.

The cabin at Dragonwood is one that I make sure we shovel at least once every year about mid-winter. The weatherman is calling for a warm up and the chance for rain. Although I have seen deeper snow on the cabin roof, if it rains, we would be flirting with disaster. The cabin is over built in many respects, but when you take 2 - 3 feet of densely compacted snow and add a couple of inches of rain into the mix, that adds up to a tremendous amount of weight.

I'm glad to have my son home to help this year!

A Winter Afternoon

The sun came out for a while today. A fairly rare occurrence in these parts in January. That being the case we strapped on the snowshoes and ventured in to check on the place.

Evidence of a lot of deer activity as always but otherwise things seemed to be fine.

The picture on the bottom shows Deb making her way up the driveway. We don't plow it for two reasons. Number one my snow plow bill is plenty high enough as it is. Also we don't use the place much during the winter and keeping it somewhat inaccessible helps keep unwanted visitors away. We are also fortunate to be well away from any major snowmobile trails.

The top photo shows Deb walking along the north side of the pond. The bench in the foreground faces the pond and almost due south. This is a good illustration of solar radiation. The small hill there and the area where the bench sits are open and face south. That hillside will be bare in early spring when there is still several feet of snow in other spots. That bench would not have been visible today, but for maybe the top railing if it were on the other side of the pond.

Even in this area solar gain is a very tangible asset.