A Walk Through the Woods

Last weekend I had a nice getaway up to the woods of southern New Hampshire to close the family's summer home.  My Uncle Roger (Plug: need to get in shape?  He's a personal fitness trainer - rogerbense.com) left Rochester at 6 am Saturday for the 5 and a half hour drive.  As tradition requires, the trip started with breakfast at Ricky's Restaurant in Fairport.

The weather was perfect for the whole weekend, so I got some great pictures.  Our property is on a wooded reserve that includes a man-made, but natural looking, pond.  "Larry's Pond" has several secluded homes along one side, none of which can really be seen from the water. On the other side, there's a trail that loops around, connecting the end of a dead-end access road back to the other side.  The picture above was taken where the road ends and the trail begins.

 Most of forest is made up of pine trees.  Because the bottoms of the trees get starved for light, all of the branches grow at the very top - making the trese top-heavy.  That means when the wind picks up, or when there's an ice storm (had a bad one up there last year) the picture above is the result.  As you can see, it makes a nice place for a spider's web!

Ever since I was little, I have memories of walking the "red-dot trail".  This is the unofficial name we have for the trail that connects the end of the service road back to the other side of the pond.  Since the trail is narrow and not heavily used, it can sometimes be hard to stay on course - hence the red dots every so often painted on trees.  This is one of the more clearly marked ones.  There are several that are hard to see and should be repainted.

A little more than halfway down the trail, a stream crosses the path and feeds into the pond.  I'm not sure what draws people to water, but this is one of my favorite parts of the hike.  With the weather being so nice, and the sun streaming through the trees, it was nice to stop and listen.  The sound of the water splashing over the rocks, and the sounds of birds and other creatures scurrying through the woods.  Even with all the leaves off the trees, it not quite time for the quiet of winter!

One of my favorite pictures of the pond, this was taken right out at the beginning of the trail.  We're at the far end of the pond, looking back to the end that we started at.  I love how still the water is.  Every now and then you can spot ripples where fish have come near the surface.  During summer vacations here, we spend hours everyday in this pond - floating around, jumping off wooden rafts, or reading on the beach.  Nothing like a nice cold beer on the beach on a hot day!

This picture was taken while standing on the wooden bridge, looking toward the pond.  The lighting was just perfect, coming in from the pond and shining through the trees.  This picture doesn't give it justice.  Funny - in high school I always thought Thoreau's account of Walden Pond was a load of crap.  Still do, but I guess I can at least appreciate some elements of what he was getting at.

The road back to the house.  Not a long walk from the pond - maybe a quarter of a mile, if that.  It always seems a lot longer in the summer though, when we're dragging a cooler and foam rafts to float around on.  This is pretty much what the whole reserve looks like.  Most of the houses are set back and not too visible from the road.  To the left of this shot, through the trees, there is a big meadow that is mowed once or twice a year.  It's always worth checking over for deer - especially at this time of year.  We didn't see any on this trip though.

Finally, back to the house after a nice walk.  It's looking good after a fresh coat of stain over the summer and some new red paint for the doors and trim.  This house has been a work in progress for several decades on my dad's side of the family.  It started with an empty lot and a camper for long weekends - a retreat that my grandparents bought when my dad and my aunts and uncles were growing up.  Eventually, the shell of the main part of the house was built.  It started as just a saltbox, with the interior completed during weekend work sessions over a series of years.

The sunroom was added in the mid 90's, adding more space to make it easier for more people to come up at the same time.  The bell on time came from my great-grandfather, who had worked on the railroad.  I'm not sure if the bell was once on a locomotive, or if it was something at a station, but it had something to do with the railroad.  There's a rope that runs down to the back deck to a tie-off so that it can be rung.  When I was little, that was the cue to come back from the pond for dinner.

Finally, the workshop.  This was added at about the same time as the sunroom.  This was always my grandfather's space.  "Papa" loved to work with tin - making lamps, chandeliers...sconces.  We all have something that he made with tin.  He built this as a place to practice his craft during the summer months when he and "Nana" lived up there.  He died in 2006, but his tools remain in the family.  Hopefully someone will pick up the tin-making tradition where he left off.

My uncle and I agreed that there was a strange feeling up in the woods this trip.  It wasn't our house - it was the whole area in general.  I'm not sure if it just because we're not used to being up there this late in the season or what.  You could definitely feel winter approaching.  Instead of the weekend concerts in the town squares, people were busy getting their homes ready for the change of season.  It was also clear that people up there are getting hit hard by the recession.  There are a lot of houses for sale, and some businesses have closed.  I can imagine that a lot of people are out of work as well.  This is a pretty rural area, so jobs can be scarce even during good times.  It doesn't help that very wealthy families from Boston and New York are building large summer homes in the area - and driving up the property values of locals who can't afford the added tax burden.  We can only hope things get better soon, for their sake and ours.

Morning News Fail (With a Great Sense of Humor)

This is great, and anyone in TV can sympathize! The morning news on WGN in Chicago was covering a bridge implosion, and waiting, waiting, waiting...cut away for 5 seconds, and boom! There is goes. They missed it. This is always the risk when covering live events. Have to say, I love how the anchors handled it. A sense of humor goes a long way in the news business.

Wegmans, other retailers going green

Wegmans has been joining other retailers in making their stores more green.  The Eastway store in Penfield recently completed the installation of new lights (shown above).  Gone are the old, round dome warehouse-style lamps that were harsh on the eyes and hard on the environment.  All recently built stores already have them, and other locations such as Penfield Rd and Dewitt have been retrofitted for some time now.  A display near the checkout lanes describes the benefits:

• 7,335,540 kWh saved over the ten year life of the system
• 11,296,732 lbs of Carbon Dioxide avoided 
• 22,007 lbs of Nitrogen Oxides avoided
• 44,013 lbs of Sulfur Dioxide

Or, in terms that we can understand, that's the equivalent of:

• 5,483,850 lbs of coal not burned 
• 1,401 acres of trees added
• 98 cars removed from the road each year
• 61 homes powered with electricity for a year

Now, in case you can tell that something is different, but can't remember what the old lights look like, here is a picture of the "before and after":

This is only one of several efforts being made by Wegmans to be more environmentally friendly.  Reusable bags are being promoted to eliminate plastic waste, and for those who have to have the plastic, there are receptacles near the carts where they can be recycled.  Customer demand is in part driving these changes, as was the case this winter when, at the recommendation of customers, stores replaced Styrofoam egg crates with paperboard packaging made from recycled materials.

Wegmans is not the only retailer to be making changes...Target Corporation has also begun retrofitting all of it's stores with new lights.  The new fixtures will look the same, but will use two fluorescent bulbs instead of the current four.  They will offer the same amount of light, while cutting the amount of energy used.  Target says it will be a "zero waste" project - all of the current metal fixtures will be recycled, along with all of the cardboard packaging from the new ones.

While such action should be encouraged, one should keep in mind that many of these companies are probably more concerned with saving money than just being environmentally friendly.  Both of these lighting projects will save money along with energy.  Other changes are the result of new laws - for example, California now requires stores to offer reusable bags.  With other states considering similar legislation, companies like Target decided to offer them at all of their stores.  Going green also means good PR.  Still, whatever the motive, the end result is good for all involved.

Refreshed: Welcome to the NEW nb reporting

Well hello, and welcome (back) to the new nb reporting. It certainly has been a while since the last post! In fact, the last time I logged on, it was the end of April, 2009, and I was still in London. A lot has happened over the past year, some of which I will include in future posts. But to get caught up from last year, here are the basics: I just graduated this past May from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and am currently looking to start my career in television news (check out my professional website at http://nathanbense.com).

In between writing cover letters and sending out resumes, I look forward to injecting new energy into this blog. Expect more stories, adventures, and great photos in the weeks to come. And also, a new feature...mobile blogging! I have already embedded my twitter feed in the upper right hand corner, but I want to take it a step further. Thanks to new features offered by Blogger, I can now post directly from my blackberry. In fact, this is the first test. This entire post was entered from my phone! I can't wait to get blogging again, and I hope you'll join me on this latest installment of nb reporting. Please feel free to comment on any post - I look forward to hearing from you!