Daily Archives: March 7, 2013

Nourished Living by Dietician Kelly Hamlin MA, RD, CDN

Three cheers for the green, white and black…tea, that is

Do you remember years ago when the selection of tea on the grocery store shelves was limited pretty much to English Breakfast, Chamomile and good ol’ Lipton?

Now there are SO many choices and many of us have NO clue what the differences are. Personally, I only started drinking tea in the last few years. I just wasn’t a big fan.

But the more I read, the more I felt I should—and now I love it!

However, I was curious as to the million different teas that are now available, so I decided to do some research.

So, what is the difference between green, white, and black tea, etc? Let’s explore…

Green tea, black tea and white tea all come from the same tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The difference liesin the ways the leaves are processed.

Green tea leaves are not fermented, they are withered and steamed. Black tea and oolong tea leaves undergo a crushing and fermenting process.

Tea leaves destined to be sold as white tea undergo even less processing than green tea leaves. Instead of air-drying, the unwithered leaves are merely steamed.

All teas from the camellia tea plant are rich in polyphenols, which are a type of antioxidant. These antioxidants scavenge for cell-damaging free radicals in the body and detoxify them.  Continue reading →

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Ad’k Current by Colin Criss

How best to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and others’ loved ones

In Old Forge, Inlet, and surrounding communities, we share a culture. In our culture, we walk to school in temperatures 30 degrees south of zero, we take bets on when the ice will go out in Fourth Lake, and we name the deer that live in our backyards. We love the first weekend the tourists come in late June, and we love the Tuesday after Labor Day because Main Street is once again accessible.

Our culture is rooted in our history, as well. We are a community well in sync with the outdoors, and we have been for a century and a half. Although our culture has come to include supermarkets and other advances, we still enjoy living off of the land. In typical Adirondack fashion, we trap, we fish, and we hunt.

There is nothing I appreciate more in our area than this history—although I do not hunt, my grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents fed their families venison, and it is important that this community-wide tradition of hunting continues. It is an important part of our culture.

Something that is not a part of our culture, thankfully, is gun related deaths. We are a friendly community that is careful with firearms—gun safety seems to be an innate sixth sense to most of our hunters.

Unfortunately, guns claimed the lives of two in Old Forge last summer, local indicators of a problem that includes the recent rash of gun violence across our state and country. Although neither of these deaths were homicides like the tragedies in Webster and Newtown, they are still unnecessary events in which lives were cut too short. Continue reading →

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Spring service planned for Ceil Buckley, 100

Cecelia 'Ceil' Buckley

Cecelia ‘Ceil’ Buckley

Cecelia D. “Ceil” Buckley, 100, of Thendara passed away peacefully on Monday, March 4, 2013 at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica.

She was born on January 30, 1913 a daughter of the late Henry and Clara (Rozon) DeMoors in Thendara on the corner of Beech and Birch Streets, which once served as the first school house in the Thendara.

In the 1930’s she served as the Brantingham Post Master and in the 60’s and 70’s she served as the Relief Post Master in Thendara. She also was employed at one time with Clark’s Beach Motel in Old Forge and also was a housekeeper for many local prominent families in the Old Forge area.

Ceil was known for her fine handiwork and for most of her life enjoyed knitting, crocheting, and quilting.

She began to quilt at a young age, joining her mother and other local women at the Thendara Town Hall in making quilts to help with the war effort during World War I.

Ceil was a longtime member of the Pointed Pine Quilters of Old Forge and joined her fellow quilters each Tuesday at the Old Forge Library—a practice that she enjoyed nearly to the end of her life.

“I’m thankful that I can do it. I don’t know how people sit and do nothing all day. I have a bad shoulder and a bad hip but it doesn’t stop me from doing the kind of stuff that I like,” Ceil said in an interview on her 99th birthday.

Many of her hand-stitched works were donated and sold at the annual Big Moose Chapel Bazaar.

She loved animals of all types, but it was her family who brought her the most joy in her life.

Most recently she was honored by her family, friends and community with a 100th birthday celebration at View, the arts center of Old Forge.

In October of 2012, it was announced that a new award was established in Ceil’s name by the Pointed Pine Quilters at View’s annual Quilts Unlimited Exhibition. The Cecilia Buckley Silver Needle Award is presented to the individual with the best hand-quilted entry in the show.

Ceil is survived by a daughter Betty Rannels and a son-in-law Norman of Thendara; a son Mark (Avis) Buckley of Norwich, NY; 10 grandchildren, many great grandchildren and several great great grandchildren.

She also leaves many nieces and nephews and many very special friends. And last but not least her feline companion Sam.

She was predeceased by two daughters, Hilda Baerman-Carman and Barbara Dolan; also, two brothers, Arthur DeMoors and Victor DeMoors and two sisters, Melina Pistolesi and Anna Cowen.

A memorial service will be held in May at Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church in Old Forge at a time to be announced. Reverend Lawrence Bartel will officiate.

For those who wish, please consider the following charitable organizations that were very important to Cecelia.

The Home Aid Service of Central Adirondacks (HASCA). P.O. Box 25, Old Forge, NY 13420; the Town of Webb Historical Association, P.O. Box 513, Old Forge, NY 13420; the Old Forge Library, P.O. Box 128, Old Forge, NY 13420; the Old Forge Ambulance Fund, P.O. Box 1170, Old Forge, NY 13420; or View, P.O. Box 1144, Old Forge, NY 13420.

For online expressions of sympathy please go to www.dfwefh.com.

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Junior Polar Bear Nordic Skiers compete at Bill Koch Festival

Jens Bartel lining up for his race start

Jens Bartel lining up for his race start

Junior Polar Bear Nordic skiers participated in the 2013 NYSSRA Nordic Mid-Atlantic Bill Koch Festival hosted by Rochester Cross Country Ski Federation on Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3 at Bristol Mountain Nordic Center.

The Bill Koch Festival, is a weekend-long celebration of youth cross-country skiing. It is an event where young skiers, ages five to 13, and their families come together to enjoy ski racing, and general fun in the snow.

“The festival is not just about ski racing—although the ski races do play a very prominent role in the activities. Rather, it is a great way to enjoy a weekend away with family and friends to culminate the ski season,” said Janine Phaneuf, nordic ski coach.

Festival results are as follows:  Continue reading →

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Growing Up Adirondack by Mitch Lee

Annual wood-splitting detail a pleasure to the senses

Woodpile Spaces 07When the March days began to get warmer as I was growing up Adirondack, my father would drop a truckload of butt logs onto our driveway for splitting.

The mostly Beech, Maple and Yellow Birch logs were found in his daily travels and sawed into 16-inch rounds.

The pile seemed to grow daily. It covered the melting snow bank and overflowed into the area where we parked our car.

In 1978, the tradition of helping my father with woodsplitting began.

My job was to sort through the pile and roll one log after another out to a small available space to split with a maul.

I was 12 at the time and the maul was almost as heavy as I was.

But this was the right time of year for splitting as the cold nights froze the rounds up a bit.

When I pulled the heavy maul over my head I felt as if I was the toughest person on earth.

I swung it with all my might to bring its chiseled edge down on the surface of the butt round to make a sound that I called thumping.

I worked my way around the butt, slicing off shards of wood ready for stacking.

I usually pulled four or five butts out at a time from the mound of wood and placed them where I could easily move from one to another.

Then I would thump them into firewood ready for stacking.  Continue reading →

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Just Call me Mrs. Lucky by Jan from Woodgate

Double Nickels… time to heed the wife’s ‘stay healthy’ tips

Happy Birthday to Rocky! Today, March 6, 2013, my beloved husband turns 55 years old. Big number, big gains. He’s undoubtedly one lucky fella, because his loving wife has meticulously put together a detailed list chock full of heartfelt stay healthy tips for her man.

Little does he know that this grooming has been taking place for many years now, so most of the hard work is done. But of course, there’s always room for improvement.

Let’s take a look at these invaluable lessons…

1. Use your brain. We’re all familiar with the term “use it or lose it,” and this is certainly applicable to the aging male. He needs to be openminded and willing to keep learning, because there’s so darn much that we women can teach him.

Nothing says “I Love You” like a ready and willing old guy student.

2. Know your space limitations. Applicable especially in the sleep arena, where too much proximity can trigger an unpleasant hot flash in your partner, resulting in some type of pain and/or discomfort for you as well.

Continue reading →

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Gary Lee’s Daybreak to Twilight

Watch your feeders: Absent birds starting to head back north

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A couple of Eagles pick at a carcass

March is coming in like a lion in some places. Most of the snow that has been falling is what I call spring snow or sugaring snow. It melts almost as fast as it falls or seems to rot the snow it falls on.

Freezing at night and thawing at night brings the sap up the maples for those who collect it. This may be a normal season compared to last year’s when those who didn’t collect it in February missed it.

The fur prices are up, so next year you will want to watch where you step as there will be traps out everywhere. When the stock market goes up so do fur prices.

Mary Blanchard took this photo of a "Saw-whet" Owl at her house

Mary Blanchard took this photo of a “Saw-whet” Owl at her house

Most of the fur offered at auctions is sold to Russian and Chinese buyers. This is one way to get our money back from the Chinese—get more trappers out there.

Much of the fur is used as trim on coats but there are still several full-length coats and jackets made from beaver, wolf, mink, marten and lynx.

Many pelts are sheared. The longer guard hairs are taken off before the furs are made into garments.

I made another trip to Richfield Springs to hunt coyotes with Jason Harter and his hunting companions on Saturday (3/2). It was snowing a little and the wind was howling.

But Jason located some tracks that had been made overnight, so It wasn’t long after going into the woods that the hounds were on a hot track.

We were on snowshoes as there was about 18 inches of snow covered with a crust that would hold up the dogs and the coyotes, but not a person.

The dogs were running a pair of coyotes and it wasn’t long before I heard a shot not far away. Jason came on the radio and said that one was down.  Continue reading →

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