The Journey Continues

Three weeks is a long time for us to be in one place. I was ready to move along even though it was hard to leave friends and family. But the time had come and Sunday we drove to Broadalbin in the southern Adirondacks.

It was easier to leave folks behind knowing we were going to finally visit our friends Dick and Sue Manning at the home they built on Sacandaga Lake more than 10 years ago.

Here Bud, Dick and Matey are enjoying their dining area. Everything in the house was designed to be energy efficient as well as practical and lovely. The floors are ash made from the slabs cut from logs to get to the heartwood for making baseball bats. What a beautiful use of what some would consider waste.

There’s plenty of light from skylights that have electronic shades. The window in the interior wall opposite the skylight is positioned to let the winter sun flood the upstairs bedroom behind it.

The living room is both airy and cozy…

with a wood stove and a system that circulates the warm air back down from the top of the house it stays snug in winter, too.

Solar panels provide most of the electricity in the summer and do a pretty good job in the winter, too, though the surrounding trees have grown up enough to keep them in partial shade with the lower winter sun.

I especially loved the enclosed back porch where you could sit among the trees.

Sue and I took Matey to walk the Auger Falls Loop Trail along the North Sacandaga River. We both admired the way the trees manage to grow among the rocks.

These mountains are not like the bare rock contours of the west. Here the years have worn the sharp rocks to soil and the trees grip the old bones of mountain where they still stick through.

We all enjoyed getting out in the woods…

and with the recent rains the falls were a delight to see and hear.

When we got back we joined Dick and Bud down by the lake.

We didn’t stay until sunset, but after a delicious supper I came back down to get a shot of the lowering sun.

The next day they came and spent time with us at our little campground. Not nearly as pretty as their place, but we had a great visit anyway.

And now we’ve moved again and are spending one night here at Sugar Ridge Campground in northern Vermont.

This is beautiful country…

and maybe the nicest commercial campground I’ve ever visited.