Adirondack Family Time™

By Diane Chase It was a long winter, though I did enjoy every minute of it. My family was able to ski, snowshoe and skate through most of those cold winter months. As Chaucer wrote, “…all things have an end,” so there goes winter in the Adirondacks leaving us to celebrate spring with all its most delightful changes. It is easy to let the seasonal changes go by without appropriate fanfare. When blackflies start biting or mud washes out our favorite trails, we want to remember the flower buds, robins and rock-hopping adventures rather than focus on the negative. One annual event that emphasizes the change of season is the Northern Lights School (NLS) Mayfaire. For the second year the NLS Mayfaire has joined forces with the Adirondack Carousel in Saranac Lake for its May 31 st  (11:00 am – 3:00 pm) celebration of spring. The schedule is set for an afternoon of community art, nature crafts, and live music. Green Goddess Natural Foods will have an array of their wonderful food a

A Farm to School Festival , Lake Placid School Carniva l and Saranac Lake Mayfaire are just a few events happening around the Tri-Lakes (Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake) this weekend. In addition to the plethora of hiking, kayking and canoeing opportunities, make one or all of these three (3) great events a stopping place for children of all ages.  The 2nd annual Adirondack Farm to School Festival will take place on May 30 from 4-7 pm at the Lake Placid High School Oval. The event is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted to support the Adirondack Farm to School movement The event will have local farm products, crafts, games and even a "farm to school" dinner. Music will be provided by local band, Big Slyde with a 6-7 pm presentation at the Lake Placid High School Auditorium by  Essex Farm' s Mark and Kristin Kimball , author of The Dirty Life .  The ADK Farm to School Initiative works in collaboration with Adirondack North Countr

Check out the first in the Adirondack Family Time™ four-book series of Adirondack Family Activity™ guidebooks for the Adirondack Park, published by Hungry Bear Publishing. Tri-Lakes/High Peaks edition covers the towns of Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Wilmington, Keene, Keene Valley, Jay and Upper Jay • GPS coordinates for each Adirondack Family Activity • Adirondack Trivia • Seasonal sections with events and activities • 33 mini-hikes • 19 swimming holes and beaches • maps of each town • maps of 33 mini-hikes/ski centers and 33 trails to snowshoe/XC ski in winter • map of 21 Historic and Olympic Sites • 18 games to play either inside for a rainy day or outside on the trail Click on the upper right corner for a preview of what's inside!

Dragonfly Nymph     Large, bulbous eyes Thick, round or oval bodies that may end in three pointed extensions Six long, segmented legs Unique, scoop-like lower jaw Gills are internal and not visible Ecological Role Dragonfly nymphs are prominent predators of other aquatic macroinvertebrates.  They are also known to prey on small fish and amphibians.

T he sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates provide s a convenient and cost-efficient method for determining the water quality of a stream. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are water animals that have no backbone and can be seen without magnification.  Aquatic macroinvertebrates include such animals as crayfish, clams, aquatic snails, aquatic worms, and the aquatic larvae of winged insects. Aquatic macroinvertebrates can be classified into three groups based on their ability to tolerate water pollution: Pollution Sensitive:  This group of macroinvertebrates are very sensitive to water pollution.  They are generally only found in water of good quality. Stonefly Nymph Caddisfly Larva Water Penny Riffle Beetle Mayfly Nymph Gilled Snail Dobsonfly Larva Water Flea Planarian   Somewhat Sensitive:   This group of macroinvertebrates can tolerate low levels of water pollution.  They can be found in water of good or fair quality. Crayfish Sowbug Scud Alderfly Nymph Fishfly Nymph

Pendragon is pleased to announce that Witter Swanson, a student at Saranac Lake High School, will receive a full production of his play “Elmer.” The runner-up receiving a reading of her piece is Amber Baker, a student at Beekmantown, for her play "The Esteemed Institute."  Pendragon would like to thank all of the young playwrights who submitted their work and making this festival a success. Please join Witter, Amber, and the Pendragon crew at the theatre on  April 5  for a full day of festival activities: From  10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Pendragon invites children in grades 1-6 to join Jessica Deeb and Executive Artistic Director Karen Lordi-Kirkham for a workshop entitled “Playwriting on Your Feet.”

For those of us not fortunate to have wildlife come to us, we need to go to the experts. This winter Adirondack raptor experts are offering opportunities to come across such majestic creatures as the snowy owl, or at the very least learn how to sight them on your own.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I didn’t get to ski as I much as I would have liked this winter. My snowshoes got plenty of use as did my Microspikes, but my skis have been completely neglected. To make up for lost time, we head for a quick ski along the Fish Pond trail to St. Regis Pond in Lake Clear. Accessing ponds and lakes in summer is sometimes a bit easier than finding a safe pullover to access the same trail in winter. With that in mind, we enter the trail just east of Kempton Rd on Route 30 in Lake Clear. As there is no dedicated parking on Rt. 30, we pull the car over, put on our gear and follow the ski tracks through the woods. We find that there is plenty of snow and the trails are well used.

March 24:  Special Tour Marking World TB Day: Tour the grounds of the former Trudeau Sanatorium. Meet at 1 pm  inside the Park Avenue gates, where street parking is available. Tour is free of charge. Call  518-891-4606  to reserve a spot .  May 1: Daffest Walking Tour:  A walking historic tour will leave Riverside Park at 10:30 am  led by Director of Historic Saranac Lake, Amy Catania. Your group will stroll from Riverside Park along the shores of Lake Flower to the Bartok Cabin. $5/person, free to Historic Saranac Lake members. In May -- History Matters Seminar Series: We are planning our third annual spring seminar series, featuring topics of local history. Stay tuned for a schedule of talks. May 13:  Preservation Celebration: featuring workshop sessions on window preservation, the National Register and the rehabilitation tax credit program, followed by a hard hat tour of the Hotel Saranac. More details and registration information coming soon. Stay tuned to  hotelsaranac.

Celebrate the spring season with everything maple  in Thurman, NY! March 22 - 23 and March 29 - 30 Pancakes served at 190 Valley Road, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. High school kids serve hot dogs and more, 151 Chas. Olds Rd.,  11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Check out the schedule above!

There are a variety of places that a person can visit to see maple sap collected, especially this weekend as maple producers join together for the first of two New York State  Maple Producers Association Maple Weekends , March 22-22 and 29-30. My husband and I have had our experiences (and disagreements) with making maple syrup. It is hard work, but each year we can say we did it. We enjoy attending other large-scale  producers so we can continually fine-tune our own backyard maple-making system.    In order for the sap to flow temperatures must rise above freezing during the day and drop below freezing at night. Depending on where you visit t his weekend should not be a problem. It is supposed to be high 30s in certain areas, allowing the sap to thaw and flow throughout the day. This is a great weekend activity for families.  Each producer may have different activities planned such as samplings, face painting, petting zoos and horse-drawn wagon rides. It is best to check with

© Diane Chase, Adirondack Family Time By Diane Chase An Adirondack Full Moon Ski, Hike or Swim?  One Adirondack family activity we always enjoy is taking our cross-country skies and hitting a trail. The kids find it exciting and we get to experience nature in a new way.  You can take your family to enjoy a planned event or find a quiet place and have kids find out what animals are starting to wake up at night! Always bring a headlamp whether you are out on your favorite trail or participating in an organized event! Enjoy!

The Sugarmaker’s Companion includes:  A focus on maple syrup as a healthy, local, sustainably produced alternative to corn syrup and other highly processed artificial sweeteners; Discussions about organic certification, sugarhouse registration, and the new international grading system; Information on marketing to create a profitable business model based on scale, interest, access, and more; Detailed analyses of the economics of buying and selling sap; Information on ways to process and market other tree saps, including birch and walnut; Ways to enhance diversity in the sugarbush and interplant understory crops for value-added products such as ginseng, goldenseal, and mushrooms; and, An economic analysis of utilizing maple trees for syrup or sawtimber production. In addition, readers and sugarmakers will learn plenty of practical, how-to skills, such as: If, and on what scale, syrup production is right for them; How to find trees for tapping; The essentials of sap colle