Summer's Last Hurrah!

Summer's Last Hurrah!

This week, all the kids returned on Thursday for Shelley's birthday party. On Friday, we set about finishing two more Greenhead Fly Traps and designed a rack to hold their boats (two sunfish, an Opti and assorted paraphernalia). The kids worked diligently on their assigned tasks. The girls had to break early for Claire's belated Arts and Crafts Birthday Party at A. C. Moore. The boys and I continued on until a few minutes before dinner. 

Following dinner, we piled into the truck for a trip to the Ocean City Boardwalk. We enjoyed strolling to boards and checking the sights. The evening was beautiful although warm and humid. We managed a walk on the beach before the kids choose to do some rides at the Wonderland Pier. The Log Flume proved to be the highlight of the evening.

Apprehensive faces on the first run

Josh decided to join the gang on the second run.
They were all a bit more relaxed this time.

The King Crab!

The fifth annual King Crab contest ended at 1600 hours on Sunday, September 2. Prizes are awarded to all the contestants, but the real honor is being named the King Crab! The King Crab is the person who catches the largest crab of the season. There is a slight change this year in that the kids wanted to crab in teams. Madi and Claire teamed up as did Geoffrey and Josh and me and Rose. At one point or another during the season, each team held the lead. The teams of Claire and Madi and Geoffrey and Josh were tied for the lead at least a month. Their biggest crabs were 5 1/2 inches. Each day, Rose and I checked the traps with the hope that we would be rewarded with a record setting crab. The only big thing we caught was disappointment and that grew bigger with each day. As luck would have it, I pulled out a 5 1/2 inch crab on the morning of the last day. The contest ended in a three way tie!

At 1600 hours, the King Crab party commenced with lots of guests, Bocce games and a coin toss and a huge old fashioned Clambake. Anna Marie prepared crabs, steamed clams, clams casino, clam chowder, burgers and dogs, corn on the cob and potato salad. One of the guests brought fabulous baked beans and others brought "to-die-for" desserts. It was quite a meal and lasted for hours!

The day concluded with the King Crab awards. In total, $120 in prize money was awarded! I think some of the guests want to participate next year!!

   

The Mini Golf Championship!

Who doesn't like a round of mini golf? We like to play a few times each summer and usually end the summer with the West Crik ProAm Challenge. Having been a busy summer, we never made it to any of the myriad courses available to us, but Josh had to defend his title, so we hit the links to play 18 holes on the day after Labor Day.

The competition was fierce! There were several golfers who made holes-in-one, but there were several tough holes that really challenged the competitors. There were many lead changes. When the dust settled, Geoffrey was the winner in the male category, Claire took the honors for the ladies and Rose won the amateur challenge.

The Competitors for the West Crik ProAm Challenge!

Greenhead Fly Traps!

The gang has finished building four Greenhead Fly Traps. Even though we were near the end of the greenhead fly season, we deployed two of the traps. They actually caught some flies. We are ready for their return next season!

Boat Storage Rack!

All the kids pitched in the help build a boat storage rack. We spent a few days in construction and when it was finished, we had a storage system to hold one Opti and two Sunfish sailboats not to mention tubes in which we can store all of the spars and sails.

The Bank!

While the kids are with us in the summer, they get an allowance of $2.00/week. We started that practice several years ago in the hopes we could teach them a little bit about the importance of saving. The allowance is paid in appreciation for the normal everyday work they do. Things like cleaning their room, bussing their dishes and cleaning the dining table. They also earn extra for doing big projects like building greenhead fly traps.

Geoffrey is the first of the kids to save over $100.00! He amassed his savings by doing extra work. He is not a penny pincher. Each year he buys a game at the Game Stop. This year for example, he and Josh each bought a $40.00 game for their DS. All of the kids are near the $100.00 mark, but Geoffrey is the first to break that benchmark. 

Congratulations to Geoffrey and all the kids. They are on their way to learning how to save their money!

Geoffrey cashes in $100 of his savings for a crisp $100 bill!

So the summer is OVER. We really love those kids and with misty eyes, we bid them goodbye. Their attention now turns to school, friends, sports and other activities. We will fill our new found time with a trip to New England. 

Winding Down!

The sailing programs are over but the fun continues! This was our last full week with the kids. Unfortunately, Rose wasn't feeling well so she spent the week with her Mommy and Daddy. Claire and Madi began the fall soccer season with several practices so they left on Tuesday.  Despite the fact that we didn't have the full compliment of campers, we had lots of fun. Here's the summary:

All-Nighter!

On Monday, the kids (at this point only Rose wasn't here) wanted to do another all-nighter. We had fun playing games. Josh was the big winner! He complied the best average scores and won first prize. After the games ended (around 0200 hours) Anna Marie and I hit the sack. The kids turned their attention to MineCraft, this summer's hit game. A quick 0500 check showed that they were all awake and playing!

At about 0730, we were up, but most of the gang was sprawled out in the living room fast asleep. Josh was still up and playing the xBox. He crashed shortly after we arose.

Crashed - after the all-nighter!

Greenhead Fly Traps!

The boys worked diligently  on the greenhead fly trap project. We plan to build four traps. Over the past couple of weeks, the materials have been cut and painted. This week, the boys finished two of the traps. They were deployed over the weekend. We're anxiously waiting to see how successful they are in capturing the biting flies.

Crabbing and Clamming!

Crabbing continues... and it is as slow as ever. The daily catch is small as are the crabs themselves. Most are 5" point-to-point. On a good day, we might catch four or five keepers.

By Tuesday evening, all the girls were gone. However the boys were still hanging with us. On Friday, we readied the motorboat and launched it at the Parkertown ramp. It took about 15 minutes to reach a shallow spot where I could show them the finer points of clamming. Along the way, I continued giving the boys lessons in boat operation. They first got a taste of steering several weeks ago. Now, they're learning how to accelerate, slow down,  idle in neutral and go in reverse. They both did everything well and without hesitation. 

When we reached the clamming grounds, we hopped out of the boat. The boys were hesitant, unsure of the bottom conditions and apprehensive over what they would feel with their bare feet. We walked around for a short time while I explained the finer points of treading for clams. It didn't take too long to find one! 

We were in about 18 inches of water. I told them to step on the clam so they could get an idea of what they were supposed to feel. After they got the idea, we harvested that one and set out to find more. They were excited to see who would find the first one. No more than Josh announce that he felt one than Geoffrey made the same announcement. They both dipped their hands into the water and pulled out two big clams. Within seconds, Geoffrey fished out another one. In about 20 minutes, we had 14 chowder clams. 

We hopped in the boat to look for other clamming grounds where we might find some smaller clams. We were unsuccessful in find any smaller ones and time was getting short. We had to motor to Stewart's Root Beer Stand where we met Granny for lunch.

After lunch, we went back out to find more clams. We only had an hour before we had to get home. 

The boys had great fun and want to go clamming again. We're hoping to get out next week so we can catch more clams and crabs. The annual King Crab celebration is just around the corner and this year the menu will be an old fashioned Barnegat Bay Clam Bake!

Heading back to the clamming grounds after a lunch break

The Last Week of the SCYC Sailing Program!

Wow! We can't believe that the sailing program is winding down! It's the last week for sailing classes for Geoffrey, Claire and Madi and the last week of the Bay Kids program for Rose. After this week, we'll still have a couple of weeks for fun sails and other activities before school starts.

Here's what went on this week:

Fodder and Granny Go To A Concert!

We're in Cape May for a Concert by The Association

The summer concert series, Stockton Goes to the Beach, takes place in Convention Hall in Cape May. On Monday night, Fodder and Granny drove down the Garden State Parkway to attend a concert by The Association. We arrived in the early evening, found a parking spot and walked along the promenade adjacent to the beach. 

Cape May Convention Hall

A view from the Promenade

The sun is setting behind the Marquis de Lafayette Hotel

The concert was great fun. It was great to hear the old hits and the guys can still belt out a tune. The harmonies were wonderful. The four guys in the front (Jules Alexander, Larry Ramos, Russ Giguere and Jim Yester) are longtime members. In the late 60s, Jules left the group to study meditation in India. Larry Ramos replaced him. When Jules returned to the group, they kept Larry and the six man band became a seven man band.

They entered the national scene with "Along Comes Mary," a song that was banned on half the radio stations in the country because it was "too controversial." "Cherrish" was their first #1 hit, and "Never My Love" is the second most played song on US radio stations as certified by BMI. 

I saw The Association in the late 60s at the height of their popularity. Although they were not cutting edge, they were one of my favorite groups. I really like their harmonies. 

The Association

The Association members have gotten older. About 98% of the audience had gray hair. I never knew The Association was popular with the senior crowd!  

Sailing and Bay Kids

Claire and Madi sailed on Monday. Geoffrey's class boarded motorboats for a trip to Tice's Shoal, some 10 miles north of the yacht club. When they got there, some of the kids played bayside and while others walked across Island Beach State Park to the ocean.

Geoffrey reported that he had a great time. He wants to take us there by boat so all the kids can have a similar experience.

The weather held on Tuesday morning so Claire and her class made it out on the water. By the afternoon, thunderstorms rolled in causing the Sunfish class to spend the afternoon indoors where they watched sailing related DVDs and engaged in other indoor class activities.

On Friday, the last day of the Waterfront Programs, Madi, Claire and other sailors and swimmers joined in the traditional SCYC Olympics. Claire and Madi won ribbons and had a great time with their classmates.

Claire participates in the "Crab Crawl" in the SCYC Olympics

Madi and her instructor enter the SCYC Olympic venue.

Rose and her buds during the last day of Bay Kids.

On Friday morning (the last day of the program), I took the boys out on the Hobie. We sailed to the shallow water off Cedar Bonnet Island where I demonstrated how to tread for clams while holding the boat into the wind. The kids got the hang of treading rather quickly but there were no clams to be found on the hard, sandy bottom. We didn't have time to sail to a more appropriate location. Geoffrey had to get back to SCYC for his last class. The boys are anxious to find a better location and give it another try next week.

We made it back in time for a quick lunch before Geoffrey's class. He offered the use of our Hobie to the class. They had a great time and enjoyed their last sail of 2012 together.

Geoffrey offered the use of our Hobie Wave to his Sunfish class.

Geoffrey and company heading into the dock

Swimming

We finally made it to the ocean beach at 9th Street. The air temp was 90 degrees and the water temp was in the low 70s. It was really refreshing. We were having a great time but our time on the beach was cut short. We saw thunderheads approaching so we packed up our beach gear and headed for the truck. The rain and thunder came about 20 minutes later as we were driving home. 

Celebrating Summer

Our summer celebration included an all nighter... for the kids, not us! Not for Claire either as she's going sailing the next morning! The sleepless night was scheduled for Wednesday evening and the kids were eager with anticipation. Activities included Wii Resorts games, Mountain Dew light up jars (didn't work) and carmel apples. After Anna Marie and I went to bed (0100 hours) the kids shifted to Minecraft on the xBox. With Claire sound asleep, the other four were going strong when we hit the sack. When we checked on them at 0500 hours, only Geoffrey was still playing games. The others were strewn about the sofa dreaming of sugar plums! At 0700 hours, when we greeted the morning, Geoffrey was still at the game controls. He went to be shortly before 0900, proud that only he made it through the night.

Waterfront Breakfast

As previously mentioned, Friday was the last day of the Waterfront programs at SCYC. All the  kids celebrated with the traditional SCYC Breakfast of Champions. Our gang enjoyed the food and the camaraderie of fellow sailors. Madi and Claire participated in the SCYC Olympics that followed. They brought home ribbons and awards for their efforts.

Rainbow from our salt marsh in West Creek

August 2012 - Week 2

The summer is blasting along! Here's the the account of the the seventh week of summer vacation: 

Sailing:

Claire participated in her second Green Fleet (novice) regatta. Conditions were good and she placed 45 out of 52 boats. Her friend, Brooke, finished in 7th place. Way to go girls!

Heading out to the race course 

Claire at the Green Fleet skippers' meeting

Beating to the windward mark

The Lakewood Blue Claws:

Are you ready for some baseball? The gang joined the Lakewood Blue Claws Kids Club. The "Claws" are the single A affiliate of the Phillies. The Kids Club membership lets them get in for free on special nights and Sundays plus free food on Sundays and Mondays. As usual they ate their way through the game. Tonight's opponent was the Kanoppolis Intimidators. Entertainment was provided by the "Zooperstars." The kids knew them from their appearances on AGT.  A great time was had by all! Oh yeah, the Blue Claws won the game 5 - 0!

First batter for the BLue Claws

Between innings entertainment by the Zooperstars

A Visit to Silver Lake:

After Claire's sailing class, we piled into the vehicles for what has become an annual trip to Silver Lake! Ed and Sara invited us (kids included) for an afternoon of fun at their lake house. The boys and I loaded the "spare parts" Sunfish into the pick-up truck while Madi and Rose did some light cleaning. When Anna Marie and Claire returned, we were ready to roll. We stopped for a quick bite at McDonald's along the way.

When we arrived, the kids wasted no time getting into the lake. They said a quick hello to our hosts as they ran for the dock and the pedal boat.

It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shinning, there was a nice breeze blowing off the lake,  the air temperature was in the high 80s and the water temperature was warm. The kids swam/peddled the paddle boat/sailed to the swimming platform in the middle of the lake. They made dozens of trips throughout the day.

Geoffrey, Claire, Madie, Rose, Josh and I took turns on the SUNFISH.

Ed invited his friends Dennis and Lorraine to join us for dinner. We enjoyed great pizza, homemade brownies and popsicles and the company of great friends. 

Having fun in Silver Lake!

Later in the afternoon, I took the Sunfish for a spin.

Heading out in the paddle boat

Geoffrey and Claire sailing the Sunfish

Dropping the sail

Paddle boat fun!

Projects: 

Green head flies can be a problem out here on the salt marsh. There are days when it is difficult to be on the crabbing dock because of the flies. The boys and I discussed solutions to the problem and did some research on the internet. As a result, we decided to build four green head fly traps. This is our model:

Rutgers University has done a lot of research in the design of the trap. Because they have been successful, we chose to build four traps using their design. Their experiments suggest that the traps be painted with glossy black paint. The boys wondered how color could affect the success of the traps. They were impressed when they started to apply the black gloss paint over the primer. Almost immediately, Green Head flies started landing on the fresh black paint. They observed that didn't happen when they applied the gray primer. By the time they finished  a panel, Five green heads were stuck in the paint! 

The boys are doing this work to earn extra money. They primed the wood on Tuesday and applied black paint on Wednesday. Our plan was to cut the pieces on Thursday and assembled the traps on Friday but we fell behind in our goal. We'll cut and assemble next week. 

The boys are painting the wood we will use to build the Green Head Fly traps.

August 2012 - Week 1

Can you believe it? Week 6 of the sailing program is complete!

SAILING

Geoffrey, Claire and Madi are still out on the water having fun. Geoffrey's class is doing a lot of practice races. He's learning the rules and getting a lot of starting practice. This kind of instruction and intensity really teaches him to control the boat.


Claire is practicing for another regatta. This one will take place at the SCYC next week. Claire has been talking about trying her had with a Sunfish. We'll let her give it a try when the program is over. We'll have more time to coach her.


Madi is continuing her development as well. She's out three days a week and is having fun. She's not excited by sailing and doesn't want to sign up next year.


The Hobie finally made it to the water. The kids love going fast and they like dragging behind it while holding onto a rope. We went out twice this week.

Madi sailing away from the dock!

Rose swims with the Bay Kids!

Man Overboard!

CRABBING

On Wednesday, Josh suggested that we cancel the King Crab contest this year! The problem? Crabbing has been so slow, that we haven't even bothered throwing the traps out. We're hoping that the crabs will return soon. We still have a two teams tied for the lead with crabs that measured 5 1/2 inches so the competition will continue until Labor Day.Thursday's haul included three 5" crabs along with a few throw-backers and Friday gave us two keepers.

THUNDERING SURF

SCYC sponsored a trip to Thundering Surf, the only water park on LBI. Everyone had a blast. The gang made use of all the facilities, big slides, wave zone, lazy river, and the kiddie area.


Rose wanted to try the big slides for the first time. She convinced her Mom to accompany her. When Sandi had enough, I was pressed into service! Apparently I'll do anything for that little girl!


Here are the photos:

Having fun!

No hands!

First time down the big slide!

Rose even coerced me into going with her!

Fun in the Lazy River!

THE GARDEN

Granny isn't having a whole lot of success with the garden. A marsh varmint has eaten all her green beans. Attempts to capture the critter have been unsuccessful.


She still hasn't harvested any tomatoes. The birds seem to eat them just before they turn ripe. Even so, it looks we'll have a few to harvest in a day or two.


On the other hand, she has a good crop of cucumbers. Everyone likes cucumber salad, especially the kids.

BICYCLING

All the kids bikes have finally arrived. Claire's needed a lot of work. I replaced the rear wheel tube and tire and cleaned and lubed the stiff, rusty chain. I even got a couple of the gears to work! We'll have to work more on the gears. She had to pedal like crazy to keep up. She's stuck in mountain climbing gear.

We made it to Jeffreeze!

Yummy Ice Cream!

The first ride was a five mile round trip to JEFFREEZE Ice Cream Stand. It was a hot ride. As we were returning home, we stopped for a cool, refreshing dip in the cedar headwaters of Westecunk Creek. The kids didn't want to leave!

Splashing around on the bike ride home!

July 2012 - 4th Week

Here we go... the official account of the fifth week of summer vacation 2012:

Sailing:

The fifth week of the sailing program provided challenging conditions. The sailors had to deal with too much wind, not enough wind, perfect wind and biting flies, depending on the day. Four  consecutive days of high wind and/or threats of thunder storms have delayed the  launching of the Hobie. 


When we do launch the boat, we'll have a spinnaker to play with! The spinnaker arrived from the previous owner only a day or two before Hurricane Irene last year and I never had the opportunity to install it. 


The kids really enjoy dragging behind the Hobie. They jump into the water while underway and grab onto a rope that is trailing behind. They take great delight in this activity. They are so looking forward to doing it again. 


On Tuesday, Geoffrey's Sunfish II class was instructed to rig three of the club's Lasers. There were only three students that day. Geoffrey sailed away in Laser #4. He never wanted to sail a Laser. He still doesn't! In his first experience at skippering the speedy craft, he capsized three times and for good measure, he was hit in the head by the boom. 


The town is building a new marina so we had to pull the motor boat out of the water for a few weeks. That's OK as it gives me some time to make a few minor adjustments to the console. They called to say they are refunding one-half of the slip rental. That's nice!

Activities:

Our gang participated in an SCYC sponsored trip to the Eagleswood Amusement Park (just down the road from home). They had a great time as you can see in the accompanying pics.

First time behind the wheel!

Driving the big carts

The Big Slide

Mini Golf

Traffic Jam

The Hurricane

Bungee Jump Tricks

The Big Slide

Bungee Jump Tricks

Mini Golf

In the Cage

Flying High

Treasure Hunting and Crafting:

In an effort to keep everybody engaged in summer activities, I introduced the kids to Treasure Hunting (aka Geocaching). We reviewed the concept and discussed information found at geocaching.com. On Wednesday, we set off to find our first treasure. This first effort was a boys only affair as the girls went to make a craft at A. C. Moore. 


We needed to put the truck in 4 wheel drive mode to negotiate the deep puddles on the dirt road that led to the area where the cache was located. We found the location rather easily, but the treasure was not to be found. We looked around, but we weren't sure what we were supposed to find. After one-half hour, we decided to go home to see if we could get more information. The cache was less than three miles from home so we made it back in a few minutes. 


The girls were waiting for us. They crafted Olympic medals and were eager to show them off. They did a really nice job.


We told the girls about the treasure hunt. They wanted to participate too. We got a bit more information off the computer and went back to the site. Before we left, the kids selected items they could leave in place of the treasures they would find. We had a limited amount of time because Geoffrey's Mom had already arrived. She's taking him on an outing. His friend called to invite him to the Pinelands Festival. We only had one-half hour to look for the treasure. With five kids, I thought it was "in the bag." Which kid would find the cache? They looked and looked but once again, we were foiled. We had to leave without finding it.


They weren't deterred. We looked up five other caches that are within a five mile drive. We'll do another one in a day or two!  


After Claire returned home from her Thursday morning sailing class, we all hoped into the truck armed with information for three local geocache sites. The first cache ("A Place to Clear Your Head") was located in a very public place. We know exactly where the cache should have been, but alas, it wasn't there.

The gang proudly displays the ammo container that holds their first ever geocache!

With spirits still high, we set of on the second treasure hunt of the day. The gang struck it rich  at the "Treasure at the Forge" site. It was a team effort and the cache was loaded with lots of goodies. Prizes were exchanged and after a quick cooling off dip in the cedar stream, we were off to find the third cache ("Green Acres"). This too was in a very public place. Just like the first one of the day, we found exactly where the cache was supposed to be. Once again, we found nothing. The kids weren't disappointed since the only thing we expected to find was the log book. 


When we got home, they excitedly told Granny about their expeditions. They want to go out again tomorrow (Friday)! Matt and Sandi took them to the "Green Acres" cache site that we checked out yesterday. This time they found the treasure!

Happy Birthday Claire:

We celebrated Claire's 10th birthday with cheese cake and ice cream. Shelley makes the absolute best cheese cake on the planet! The ice cream was superfluous.

Happy Birthday!

Swimming:

Swimming or should I say playing in the water is one of our favorite summertime activities. We have enjoyed several locations on the bay and in the near fresh water of West Creek where the cedar water stream dumps into the tidal water of Little Egg Harbor Bay. We even got to go wading in cedar water while geocaching  in Stafford Forge.

Action on the Hibachi Court:

Early in the week, Claire and I played a game of Bocce Ball on the Hibachi Court. We had a great game with each player making some nifty shots. I'm very happy with how the court plays. So far, the only maintenance it needs is a weekly grooming.

On Thursday, Geoffrey and Madi played Josh and Rose. It was an exciting game. There were several lead changes and some magnificent shots. With Geoffrey and Madi holding a slim one point lead (6-5) Josh and Rose came storming back by scoring two points to secure a 7-6 win on the final tosses of the game.