Topozone has been sold to Trails.com

I used Topozone a lot. It was a website that I could use to see topographic maps in the U.S. Of course, I would use these inconjunction with lots of other map systems, especially Google Maps.

To my surprise, when I went to Topozone today, a notice said it had been sold to Trails.com. I have never used Trails.com, primarily because it is a paid service. I'm sure their product is a good one, but I don't see why I need to pay for maps that are produced by our government.

Looking around a bit, I found a link to another service someone recommended called ACME Mapper. I found this very simple, yet very powerful, and best of all, I can still find the good old USGS Topo's on it. In fact, it's easier to use then Topozone was.

Out with the old...in with the new...

Backyard Project

We began destruction of the backyard.

Yup, were are destroying the backyard. No fear though, we are going to bring it back to life. We are tired of the grass lawn. We had to carry our gas powered mower up a flight of stairs to mow the back lawn. We hate doing that. So instead, we are going to leave just a small spot for grass, plant a garden, make a path, and add some plantings for the birds and butterflies (and all the critters who like to dine on that stuff as well).

We had a magnificent weather weekend, so we were able to get some landscaping cloth put down. This will be the base layer for our work. We have a raised bed kit on order. We raked and cleaned out the exiting beds. We repaired some of the damage from the sidewalk plow over the winter. We erected a compost bin. We hung a couple of new birdhouses.

Still lots to do...we'll keep you posted, and put up some pictures in the future.

Carving Faces

This weekend, we got together with some local letterboxers to work on carving faces. Laura and I had a great time. We have been wanting to have some small gatherings with local boxers to work on these things, and to build some community in our letterboxing circle here. I printed out lots of faces of famous people, and we practiced transferring them with xylene, and then carving them. I tried to pick a variety of levels for people to carve, but most people were intimidated at first. But everyone gave it a shot, and I think the results were really great. Afterwards, we managed to get to the Abandoned Subway box, with the help of RocNRon who had been there before. Laura wouldn't let me go to do this one alone, so with a group of six of us, we did it! We also finished up planting a new series called Hoodoo Blues. Here's a link to a music site I set up to support the clue. You will find some good old blues tunes and videos there.

Story at Work

First, sorry its been so long since I have posted. I guess I didn't think many people were reading this...then I found out lots of people were reading it. So, onto the update.

I went to New Hampshire this past weekend with Dick to go to the League of Advancement for New England Storytelling (LANES). Dick and I presented a workshop on podcasting, and how it can be used by storytellers. It went off without a hitch, mostly because Dick was there for technical and moral support. Thanks Dick!

We also learned a lot about storytelling, and met lots of great people. The nightly "concerts" were amazing...these guys really know how to tell a story. I'm feeling more energized and creative right now, for all my different interests.

New Orleans

We had a great time visiting New Orleans this pas March. I'm not a big "city" fan, but the French Quarter of New Orleans is totally awesome! I loved the food, and culture, and sights, and shops. Would love to go back. This video is of the courtyard of the little condo we stayed in. Dick really set us up finding this place that he usually stays in for jazz fest.

More progress

You can click on this for a slightly larger pic.

It now has road markers, town names, water body names, and that big text you can actually see in the photo.

Still need some finishing touches, but at least it looks like a map now.

Mottled Mucks: Bling Bling!

Hooozaaaahhh! to the Mottled Mucks!

Check out the news!

The team that raised the most money this year was the Plucky Mucksters who raised $1,302!!!! This is a remarkable amount of money for a single team to fundraise. It is the second year in a row that the Plucky Mucksters have come in first place for most money raised by a single team. The Plucky Mucksters team members include Bob McGuire, Deirdre Anderson, Susan Danskin, and Gary Kohlenberg. The second place team, the Capitol Cuckoos with members Jane Graves, Alison Van Keuren, John Hershey, and Larry Rowland, brought in $905. And, the third place team was the Mottled Mucks with members John Ballou, Amy Dreibelbis, Chris Langman, Dick Beery and Dom DeFazio, who raised $738. Ten teams raised over $250 and four teams raised over $500!!! We also received a number of cash donations from local businesses including Terry Precision Cycling, Wild Birds Unlimited of Johnson City & Ithaca, Nucor Steel, NYSOA, Bass Pro, and Avinet.

The total raised by all the teams was $10,411.10, breaking the goal of 10K. Way to go teammates, and way to go to all our idividual sponsors! We couldn't have done it without you. Special props to Dick and Sandy Beery, and to our coporate sponsor Micron Industries!

The Letterpod

Here is the podcast I do for letterboxers...

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Dillon Park

I have probably said this before, and I'll probably say it many more times in my life. There is no better place to be on the planet then the Adirondacks in the Fall. OK, so that is a pretty bold statement. Maybe I should say there is no better place that I would rather be then the ADK's in the Fall. This September certainly proved this to me.

I got a chance to camp this year with Dom and Ken in a great place, John Dillon Park. Dillon Park is owned by International Paper and managed by Paul Smiths College. It is unique. And I mean unique. It is one of a kind. It is the only place in the country that we know of, and that the staff at the park know of, that is a park for folks with disabilities. ALL the paths are 10% or less grade. That means you can use a wheelchair or scooter. They have lean-tos with ramps. All the outhouses are handicap accessible (and have composting toilets). They have large battery trailers they can bring to your campsite to recharge your wheelchair that is charged by two large solar panels in the parking lot. And the lean-tos, they aren't just ones you drive up to. Ours was about an 8 minute walk. The park is on Grampus Lake, which they have an accessible fishing dock and boat launch (though these were taken in for the year because we were there the last weekend of the year.)

So, with such a special place, we were all able to enjoy it. The weather was perfect. The place was perfect. The fishing could have been better, but it was fun. The food lockers were great, didn't have to hang a bear bag. Composting toilets...come on, that's awesome. No bugs in September...can't beat that. It was an amazing trip, and I hope we can go back again when they finish the trail that goes even further into the wilderness to two more lean-tos on Hansome Lake. Incredible.

Montezuma Wrap-Up

Well, this of course is a late report, sorry about that Marylee. But I wanted to thank everyone who made a pledge to our team. I still don't have a final total, but I think we will come in around the $500 mark again this year. Special thanks to our sponsor this year Micron Industries.

We succeeded in our goal, which was to come in ahead of the youth teams this year, especially the youth girls, which we dubbed the "Girl Scouts." They are probably not scouts, but last year we didn't beat them, so this year our goal was not be be beaten by a bunch of teenage girls. We didn't beat them by much, but we came in at 82 bird species, and that was up about ten bird species from last year. The top team saw 140 birds.

What is really more important to us is that we had fun. And we really did. Special kudos to Amy who competed despite having a broken foot. She is a real trooper, and probably still spotted more birds from the front of the car then the rest of us combined.

Some real memorable birds were an early morning pheasant that Dick spotted first, flocks of Bald Eagles, Bard Owls calling into the morning, and my first look at a Bobolink.

Thanks again for supporting the Mottled Mucks in our yearly adventure. You can read the full report of the Muckrace here.