Outsider Looking In

[Vona]

Hawk's and Neil's comments on the 'numbers down' thread prompted me to look up some blog entries I made last year.

In 1969, my parents, who had been married for four years, found and bought a cabin in Indian Lake, NY. I know my parents did a tour of the Catskills and Adirondacks and ultimately over to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon in 1965 and I suspect that they spent some time in Indian Lake during that tour.

Probably 600 square feet; it has two bedrooms, a bathroom with a stand-up shower and an undivided kitchen and living room area. The floor is hard wood and the trim is knotty pine planks. The walls are a cheesy knotty-pine looking panel that was quite the thing in the ‘60s. Off the kitchen is a screened porch.

There is a 30 foot hand dug and cobble stone-lined well that essentially acts as a catch- basin for rain water. Most years it dries up at the end of August. We don’t drink the water from the well. The place, as far as I can tell, isn’t insulated which means that the woodstove has to be well tended to keep the place warm. When I say well-tended, that means that someone has to get up at about 1:30 in the morning to put wood into it. It instantly became known as “Camp”. My dad knew how to work and as a union construction mechanic that’s how he spent his life and outside of a trip to Florida in 1979, “Camp” during the weekends was what vacation meant to us.

I love the place and I am sitting on the sofa at “Camp” right now.

Every year I seem to find a new wonder that keeps me coming back. For example, three years ago, I visited a cliff on Big Brook Road in winter and saw that it had a frozen waterfall on it. A couple weeks later I came back with three friends and we did the first ascent of that ice climb and in the mean time experienced a view that very few people have every seen- and it is one of the most spectacular views in the Adirondacks.

There is a bar and grill that has probably been open 20 out of the past 30 years and has changed hands at least 4 times in that same period. Right now it is called “The Adirondack Mountain Grill” but is has been known as “The Log Inn” then “Papa Tom’s Log Inn” and “The Ugly Mug”. My mother and I just had dinner there and we both hope the place survives. It’s as close to “getting it right” as we’ve seen a blend of family dining and grill food. The grill food and bar will appeal to the snow-mobilers that drive the winter economy; while the family dining appeals to everyone else the rest of the year. The prices are right and the service is prompt albeit a little bit too eager.

While we were there I browsed and read the Spring/Summer edition of the THE BULLETIN for Northern Hamilton County news- it’s a flier that highlights the events featured throughout the year that people can take part in. There is an amazing array of activities for the community year round. Everything from weekly art classes and workshops at the local craft barn to gardening society that holds scarecrow building class after their monthly meeting to Christmas events where people donate gift items that put in a kid sized room and then kids are allowed to go in there and pick out gifts for their family- nothing in the room costs more than $3 for the kids. So, for example, a kid could pick out a new hard cover best seller, pay $3 for it, have it wrapped and give it to is mother for Christmas.

Earlier today, I rode my bicycle down to the Lake Store. On the window of the Lake Store there was a sign for the Indian Lake Fish and Game Club (www.indianlakefishandgame.com). It featured the weekly events that the club is holding this summer. The Indian Lake Club holds all kinds of events that include friendly shooting competitions, turkey shoots, and trap shoots. And, get this, if you are a first time trap shooter, your first round of trap and first box of shells is FREE. But, the thing that amazed me the most is that ANYONE can join the Indian Lake Fish and Game Club. It doesn’t matter if you are from Indian Lake, Wells, Warrensburg, or Somerset, NJ. Pay up your $35 and you’re a full fledged member with all benefits for a year.

And this is the current new wonder that will keep me coming back here; the desire for Indian Lake to welcome everyone into their community even into their most intimate events like the child’s Christmas event.

[Vona]

I could look up the exact date in a couple weeks when I next return to Keene Valley, but, it would be sometime in September of 1997. This would be the first time I experienced Keene and Keene Valley as an “adult”. The day is etched in my mind. It was a crisp and spectacularly clear day and places that I had never seen before sped by my pickup truck window. The morning mist lifting off of Schroon Lake was spectacular. I didn’t know it was Schroon Lake at the time. The aggressive looking slopes that you view immediately off of Exit 30. I didn’t know I was looking at Bald Peak, Rocky Peak Ridge, and Giant Mountain but they were awesome sights to my eyes. Then, I’ll never forget the sun on Chapel Pond as I drove by- the pond with its imposing dark granite walls with birch forests blazing their autumn yellow between them. It was so spectacular.

That day I hiked my first of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks- Big Slide Mountain and ultimately drove over to Indian Lake to spend the night. The next few years my visits to Keene Valley, Keene, and Lake Placid grew in number as I hiked more and more trails in the area. Then in late January 2001 I took one day of private guiding for ice climbing with Ed Palen at Adirondack Rock and River. I returned the following July and took two days of private guiding with Don Mellor of Adirondack Rock and River to learn how to lead rock climbs. I was instantly hooked to the region. The fat frozen waterfalls that cascade down the imposing cliffs of Chapel Pond became within my reach as an ice climber. Peaks, like Noonmark Mountain, now offered spectacular hiking combined with very fun rock climbing at the top. I became hooked on the region.

May of 2002 I was in the Adirondacks to go hiking and I got mostly rained out when I had the epiphany. It was time to buy a house. I had been squirreling money away since I got out of college and with the stock market doing next to nothing and interest rates at a 30 year low it just seemed like the thing to do. But, the twist was, I wasn’t going to buy a house in New Jersey-where I work, rather it was going to be in the Keene or Keene Valley area.

That weekend I drove around and found five properties with real estate signs on them. Back at work that week I looked them up and made appointments to visit them. The following weekend I returned and looked at them and decided on a property on Route 73. The house was added onto and refurbished ten years ago with 2000 square feet of livable space on two floors. The first floor has dark hardwood floors, attractive oak trim, new Andersen windows, French doors in the bedroom and the bar, a bedroom, a den, a large foyer, living room, bar room, bathroom, nice sized kitchen, mud room, and dining room. Upstairs is insulated and somewhat wired and has enough space for two more huge bedrooms and a bathroom. The house sits on a 3.73 acre parcel that features 450 feet of a brook running down the front of it.

For a hiker, rock climber, and ice climber it is a superb location. Trails to Giant and the Great Range are less than 5 minutes walk away, ice and rock climbing are less than 2 miles away.

Only after I had “lived there” for a year did I realize that there was a difference between Keene and Keene Valley. Prior to that I had always lumped the two places together.

I closed on the house on October 2, 2002, which is sort of a ********************ty day to close as it marked a full year since my father passed away. The previous owners were the estate of xxx xxx. The executrix of the estate, xxx xxx had been fighting cancer for some time and she was working very hard to close her business recognizing that she didn’t have long to live. Since the house had been refurbished and added onto, it was occupied by a lady named xxx. xxx was the mother-in-law of xxx xxx who had grown up in the house.

My closing date- according to the purchase contract was supposed to be late July and the weekend before I was supposed to close I showed up to do a pre-closing inspection and xxx had not moved out yet. We set a second closing date in September and I organized to have my mortgage rate extended and I went for a pre-closing inspection and when I arrived I discovered that xxx’s son had not only removed every light fixture from the house, but, all of the family’s “rubble” that was in the attic had not been removed, and he had also systematically removed every single screen from every window and took them. I told the realtor if all the stuff wasn’t removed from the attic, every light fixture wasn’t just returned but replaced, and every screen replaced then the deal was off.

xxx xxx called the State Police who recovered the screens from xxx’s house and convinced xxx’s husband to replace the light fixtures. xxx, herself, came down from Saranac Lake and cleaned up the attic rubble and tidied the house up herself. So, when the October 2nd closing date was offered I jumped on it.

On my closing day, I hung a photo of my dad walking his dog in the woods behind “Camp” and then set to work making the place my home. I named it “Roaring Brook Lodge”.

There were some items of the house that needed to be dealt with quickly. For example, the hot water heater was a propane burning one and when it was installed it was never ventilated to the outside- rather, it vented into the basement and ultimately the house- a clear hazard to the occupants. Plus, it was burning yellow- which means lots of Carbon Monoxide was being generated as it burned.

The other thing that really needed attention was the oil tank- in the basement- was not ventilated to the outside- which means when the oil man came, he would drag a hose into the basement and then fill the house up with oil fumes as it filled up.

Finally, xxx and xxx had indicated that there was a roof leak when it rained really hard and when the wind blew. There was some water damage in the house that proved that water had gotten into the house seriously on at least one occasion. One week I placed some 45 telephone calls to every local contractor that listed a phone number in the yellow pages about the roof. Of those 45 telephone calls, I spoke to four contractors. Three of those contractors came out and looked at the place and suggested some work they could do to improve the roof but as a rule none of them believed there was any flaw in the roof that would allow it to leak. All three of them indicated they would be interested in doing the work. Not one of them ever returned another follow-up call I made to them. (Three years late, the roof hasn’t leaked a drop of water and since I have enhanced the soffit vents, there is next to no ice damming any more).

When I moved in, I turned the hot water heater off- because CO poisoning is not appealing to me. I called Agway to get a new one installed and to arrange for oil to be delivered. Nightmare after nightmare meant that I didn’t have hot water in my house until March of the following year and that only happened because I called Sears and bought an electric hot water heater and had them install it for me.

Of course, I called Verizon to have a phone line installed. As xxx had a phone, all Verizon had to do was flick a switch on the house to re-instate the service. The earliest date that could be scheduled was a week day well into November. I gave Verizon detailed and explicit directions and several phone numbers to reach me at. Of course, the day they were supposed to connect service the technician couldn’t follow my directions. The first re-schedule was more than a month later. Bear in mind, there are FOUR houses on the east side of Route 73 in Keene Valley. Four. And only one of those houses is (explicit directions removed).

That year winter came with a very heavy mid-week snow. As it was mid-week I couldn’t be there when the snow was fresh and knowing that it would compress the rest of the week, I was desperate to have someone plow my driveway. There are three snow plowers in the area- they all have the last name of “xxxx” and are brothers or cousins. Every single one of them said there was no way they could do it as they had too much plowing already- even though one of them already routinely plowed the driveway for xxx. The funny ending to the story was that even though they were all too busy to do it for me, one of them automatically plowed it as he had done for years before. Only this time, he didn’t get paid because xxx and xxx weren’t paying- it wasn’t their place any more.

From my closing date until the end of the year, I spent every weekend in Keene Valley making the house my home plus one week between Christmas and New Years. So, probably about 30 days in 2002. In 2003 I spent more than every other weekend plus a full week there so about 60 days. In 2004 I spent about 60 days. This year I have spent more than that as I have worked from home roughly two days a month. My across the street neighbors have not yet introduced themselves to me and I have given up trying to make eye contact with him when I am driving by or out front cutting my lawn and see him so that I can extend the minimum symbol of friendliness that I learned from my kindergarten teacher Mrs Impala- a smile and a wave.

I arrived in Keene Valley Saturday afternoon a week ago and I spent the week until Friday mid-day there. Friday I got up late, cleaned up the house and drove down to “Camp” so that I could do some maintenance work and enjoy the annual Labor Day pig roast.

[adkdremn]

Good read, Vona, you're a lucky guy! You had to go through lots of crappy stuff, but when you wake up to fresh snow or bluebird skies all that "stuff" is probablly the last thing on your mind. And, you can think to yourself, "Man, I'm living other peoples dreams!"