SUNDAY MORNING ON THE HUDSON

I spent the majority of Saturday prepping and getting the beans that I had picked earlier that week ready for canning. By the time Michelle got home from work, I had the majority of them ready and we managed to fill and process 20 quarts. I'm not sure what the purpose of growing the purple beans are, because they turn green once they are processed. Oh well.... In the end, it took all day to clean, cut, pack the jars and process the 20 quarts of beans, but a nice feeling of accomplishment.
Later Saturday evening, Robert and I transferred the kayaks off Michelle's little car and onto the truck, with the goal of getting Robert out for his first kayaking experience on Sunday. We woke up Sunday to a beautiful clear, sunny morning. The humidity was still up in the upper 70's and the dew point the upper 60's, but for some reason the air was comfortable. After breakfast and getting the boarding dogs out and fed, we headed down to the river. There was a nice breeze and a few ripples on the water - an absolutely beautiful morning to hit the water. We launched the kayaks and were off. Robert looked like a pro getting into his kayak. We headed north along the shore, paddling against the breeze and somewhat choppy water. I'm not sure that Robert was too excited about the whole experience. This might have been his first and last time kayaking. We spent about two hours exploring before calling it quits. Will he go again? I'm not sure, he was more interested in putting a motor or a rudder or something on the kayak to cut down on the paddling. We took a little ride in the afternoon, exploring some of the back roads in the area around Fort Edward, Greenwich and Salem. This part of Upstate New York is farm country and there are some wonderful old farms tucked amid rolling tree lined hills. We spotted a white tail deer in the brush along one of the roads. This is a very "old" area with farms that have been handed down from generation to generation. It is possible to pass mile after mile of fields of corn, maze or alfalfa.