Joe and Jamie's Blog

Today marks the first snow fall of the season for our area. Hopefully it continues not to stick to the sidewalks and roads so that things don’t get messy and I don’t have to go out and shovel. Seems like it’s a bit earlier this year.

First let me just say wow,  It’s been an entire month since I made a post, and I’m even late with this one.

Last Tuesday my parents wanted to go walk the Walkway Over the Hudson after work so I joined them. It was a nice day out, sunny and cool. Luckily we found a parking spot on the street right near the entrance and didn’t have to walk a few blocks before walking the bridge.

I really cannot describe the sites I saw while I was up there. I have never walked the Mid-Hudson bridge before, and even that has a crappy view because of the cars on one side and the high fences on the other. I rowed in high school on the river so I was used to the nice sites off in the distance, but the vantage point you have of being all the way up there is amazing.

We sucked it up and walked the entire bridge back and forth.  The bridge spans approximately 1.25 miles, so it made for a nice 2.5 mile walk. The wind picked up as the sun set behind the mountains on the Ulster County side so it was a bit chilly on the way back, but we didn’t mind.

It was fun walking across, I have always like to walk around when the scenery was right. Now all I need to do it motivate myself to jog across it weekly for exercise, maybe even hit the store and get bikes for Jamie and I so we can ride across.

If you haven’t done it yet, go do it. You can’t miss out on this. Enjoy some of the pictures I took while I was up there. You can view all of my pictures at our photo gallery. For more information on the bridge or the project go to www.walkway.org.

Today the first winter storm of the season hit. The ice last week really didn’t affect Poughkeepsie. It hit us hard but it melted pretty fast; no power outages either.

I just got back from being outside doing the first round of snow blowing. It’s coming down hard. I really do love the snow though, just the other day I was wondering why it hadn’t snowed yet. Now I’m up past my boots with it. I popped my head out the windows when I came back in and took some shots.

Shot of the storm from the front of the house

Shot of the storm from the back of the house

It was a typical autumn weekend full of cutting the grass that was way too high to rake leaves and then getting all the leaves into bags for the first collection this Wednesday coming up. As you can see there are plenty more leaves to go around. Jamie and I spent a few hours each day this weekend picking up all the sticks and leaves from the yard and mowing.

You can see here we filled up a good amount of leaf bags even though all the trees still look like they are full. By the time we were done, there were two more barrels  added and another leaf bag.

I just really love the way everything looks when I go outside now. I have a great time enjoying the cool weather and like to be outside as much as possible. Jamie and I were a little tired so we didn’t go on our walk, but we’ll do that next weekend.

For some reason I thought this was the coolest shot I have taken all season. I know I’m weird but looks, its half empty, and not from the top down like most other trees.

And here is that one pain in the butt tree. See how its barely yellow on top? Yeah, that tree waits until it snows to fall, making the last cleanup impossible and really annoying.

Here is a shot of Tymor Park in Lagrangeville where Jamie plays soccer. I am just glad I don’t have to rake all those! See the white thing towards the left? Everyone out here owns horses apparently so they always take them out and practice jumps and stuff. Fun watching the dogs run around with the horses too.

I guess you can say that fall is officially here, and I am late in posting it. It has been pretty hectic around here lately, so I am just getting to this post now.

This shot was taken from my backyard. I love how the three trees show a progression of the season changing over. Now is the time where I take way too many landscape shots, I just cant get enough of how nice everything looks in the fall, it is my favorite time of the year.

So with fall comes the weather change. I like it when its 50-60 degrees outside; just cool enough for a light jacket and still have the car window down. That reminds me, have to take those low-profile tires off the car before the snow!

Last weekend the family went pumpkin picking at Secor Farm in Wappinger Falls. We have been going there for the past few years. It’s a nice place that lets you go out into the fields and pick your own pumpkin. After making an afternoon of picking the perfect pumpkin, we has a quick lunch at the Daily Planet and then headed home to paint the pumpkins. Check out our great art skills!

Here is the sucker we are going to carve, its 35lbs and just perfect!

Once we cut open this bad boy I’ll be sure to have more photos.