The river was the place to be yesterday,  especially if you're a dog.

Finally the long cold late winter is giving it up. The daffodils are budding, birds are singing and any day now the spring peepers will start peeping. Bring it on!

Leap Day hike along the river.

What a gorgeous late February!  We hiked from Daniels almosy to the railroad tracks. Not much happening on the river this time of year. The deer mostly have the woods to themselves. 

I remember when I would run to the top of the nearest hill just because I could,  as the boys are all doing here. Hey, I could totally still do it if I wanted to. Which I don't... 

February paddle @Daniels

Paddle at Daniels. 

The hills are beautiful in the snow and we had the whole river to ourselves!  If you ever get the chance to paddle in the winter- do it.  This steep hill on the left as we paddle upriver is North facing, so it holds snow forever.  There were sooooo many icicles everywhere when we got close to the shore.

This is the Hugmonster Bridge about 1/2 mile up the road from Daniels Dam. You can barely see its there when you walk.  It's an awesome old hand-made bridge made from local stones.  Water was so high we could almost paddle up into it.

Last BLT of the year

Sigh...

Hops

Picked my hops too. About a gallon of flowers. Enough to make about 20 gallons of beer.



Can't wait until they are dry enough to start brewing.

Chinese chestnuts

Picking 20-30 lbs a day from our yard. Sooo good.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Ten minutes of tree shaking

These are paw paws- North America's largest native fruit. They taste like bananas with a mango tang and a custard-like consistency. Delicious.

Sent from my BB Storm.

Success = yum

Sent from my BB Storm.

the boys

Sent from my BB Storm.

Perfect, perfect weather

We have the river to ourselves right now.