I think Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.
Or have term limits.
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Homeowner’s Blog
Home improvement with an eye toward sustainability
Category Archives: General
Walkway over the Hudson pictures
From last Sunday, October 11, 2009. I though for sure that there would be a good amount of color along the Husdon River, however, likely due to the micro climate induced by the warmer river water, the trees were mostly green. Around the Casa De Catskill, everything is bright orange or yellow.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from our walk:
Entrance to the pedestrian bridge from the Highland side
We all have our eyes closed
Western shore of the Hudson River north of bridge
shadow bridge, good look at steel support structure
shadow bridge on the water with sky relected below
Looking south about mid river at the Mid Hudson bridge
We went out to the half way point and turned around because Eliza was tired and hungry, at one point laying down and insisting that she could not continue one step further until she has something to eat. The poor dear.
I am very glad we got there a little early, as when we were leaving there was a traffic jam of people looking for parking spots.
This Saturday, October 17th, the bridge/state park is being named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, which is quite the thing. The leaves along the Hudson should be peaking soon, so if you are planning the trip, better make it soon.
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Walkway over the Hudson, AKA Poughkeepsie Rail Road Bridge
After years of work and hurculean efforts by all those involved, the Walkway over the Hudson opened last night. The original structure, the Poughkeepsie Rail Road bridge was built in 1888 to to carry rail traffic over the Hudson, mostly coal trains on their way from the Pennsylvania coal fields to New England factories during the industrial revolution. When it was constructed, it was the only fixed Hudson River crossing south of Albany, and was considered quite the engineering accomplishment.
Poughkeepsie Rail Road Bridge (Library of Congress hhh.ny1625)
On a late spring day in 1974, the east end of the bridge caught fire. I remember my aunt, who lives in Poughkeepsie, calling and telling my mother about it. They both were quite shocked.
From that day, the bridge changed hands many times, falling further and further into disrepair. There were talks demolishing it in the early 1990’s, which would have been a shame. In 1998, a group came together to raise the 38 million dollars to convert it to a walkway. It is an excellent addition to this area’s tourist attractions of which there are many. One local congressman has said it will be like the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps that might be overstating it slightly since Poughkeepsie is not Paris, but the sentiment is correct.
We are planning a walk across sometime soon, when the weather is a little nicer, perhapes next weekend when the autumn colors are peaking.
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Zebra Mussels
The vile things. Here is a video of some of the old boat dock we removed from the lake in Canada. It is covered with Zebra Mussels, which are a nuisance if not downright hazardous.
When Eliza was swimming, she cut her leg fairly deeply, into the subcutaneous fat layer on some Zebra Mussels attached to a rock. Therefore, war has been declared on Zebra Mussels, much to the delight of the local fish population. I broke many off of the rocks around the dock and the fish came in and eat up anything they could.
This is the remains of the old crib dock upside down in the water before we removed it:
Remains of a crib dock
This is why invasive species are bad.
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It’s nice to get away, It is nice to be back
Another family vacation spent in the great white up, also known as Canada. My wife’s family has a cottage on an island in a certain lake up there. We go up every year for a spell of relaxation which does not include computers, cellphones, the internet, or TV. What little news received is often gleaned from brief trips in the car listening to the ray-dee-oh, or from neighbors stopping by. To pass the time, we often interact with the children, read books, swim, canoe, hike, etc. I can say I didn’t miss being so called “connected” at all.
This year, I spent a considerable amount of time working on a new dock. The old dock had disintegrated to a nearly useless and unsafe state. Since the cottage can only be accessed by boat, the dock is an important feature. The new dock is a beauty, 28 feet long with a floating T section on the end. I will do a post on the dock as soon as I get the pictures.
In the mean time, there are a few things here at home that are truely nice; such as sleeping without mosquitos, drinking tap water, taking a shower in a real bath tub, the ceiling fan, walking out to the car to get something, etc.
There is no place like home.
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