Saratoga Race Course

I've been over to the track two times since opening day. So far, I've only cashed two winning tickets! It seems that the more tips I collect from my various "sources", the worse I do with my bets.

2009 Garden is Planted

It all started with the delivery of a dumptruck load of compost/mulch from the city. All of the leaves, grass clippings and limbs that the department of public works picks up during the year is fed to a giant composter. The city then sells and delivers the resulting mulch. It's a lot of work to move a pile of compost around the yard!!
Some of the new garden items for this year are a fig tree, peach and nectarine. We are also trying our hand with honeybees, so far it has been fascinating to watch them get their hive in order. Learn more at www.betterbee.com- they are a nearby mailorder beekeeping supply company and have been a pleasure to work with.
Also new this year is a strawberry pyramid built with plans I found on the web. We've also added an automated irrigation system to improve the quality of everything we grow
Check out the short video below!

Goodbye to the 555

This month of May, my Mom sold the old family home in Tennessee so that she can move to Atlanta to be closer to family. 555 Springhill Drive was a special house because it was built using materials from an even older family house! 100+ year old bricks, slate and stone were used to create the tri-level cottage w/ greenhouse.

I took my first steps as a baby in this house- and amazingly, so did my nephew Brodie this month as we finished up the packing!

As a child, the house was the centerpiece of many great memories such as Holiday family get-togethers, Sunday dinners, cranking homemade ice cream out on the brick patio, looking through the red glass of the giant walnut front door and, especially, climbing through the cherry and ash railing of the beautiful staircase!

The large city lot was populated by some interesting landscape trees, such as a huge pin oak, gingko, magnolias, dogwoods, birch and tupelo.
The gardens were filled with my grandmother's and Mom's lifetime of collecting unusual and beautiful flora. Heirloom daffodils, iris, peonies, columbine, trillium, lilies, hydrangeas, camelias and azaleas dotted the multitude of carefully bordered gardens. A water garden, complete with a babbling brook, provided safe haven for water lilies and coi.

My Dad used to have a large vegetable garden there. My sister and I remember the toil of constant rock-picking whenever the garden was tilled! In later years, the vegetable garden became more of an orchard with the addition of cherry, apple and fig trees.

A great house with many great memories. Now let's start creating the next great family homes!

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train!

Ticonderoga, NY- November 30, 5:45PM
What a treat! Out of the dark, by a railroad crossing near Fort Ticonderoga, the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train rumbles to a stop. Bright animated neon lights flash down the length of the train, outlining the engine and box cars. Then, as Santa comes down from the engine of the train to greet the screaming kids, one of the box cars opens its doors and a band starts playing and signing holiday songs! What a sight!

Cameron had a great time as he loves trains and Santa. He had a chance to meet with Santa for a picture and a quick shout-out of his wish list.
The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train makes numerous stops at train stations in Western and Upstate New York, eventually heading all the way across Canada bringing Christmas cheer along the way. They collect and deliver millions of pounds of canned foods to local food pantries. They
gave the Ticonderoga food pantry a check for $1,000 that was much appreciated.

Learn more about the Holiday Train and its schedule here.

More pictures here:

Polly's Wish List- Christmas 2008

Follow this link for Polly's Christmas Wish List: http://www.pkarling.blogspot.com

My Wish List Blog!

Happy Holidays!

Follow this link to go to my Wish List: http://www.wkarlingwishlist.blogspot.com

My Nephew Brodie

Here's our nephew Brodie having his first taste of solid food. I think he'll be ready for a turkey leg by Thanksgiving!

-Aunt Polly & Uncle John

Shonda and Shannon visit Saratoga for Halloween

From Shonda and Shannon Halloween

50th Birthday Party for David Esden

David's 50th Birthday Party

Super Bowl Post

Separated at birth: Peyton Manning and Easter Island Man?

Spring Pictures

I'm Published in Lifehacker and The Consumerist

My comments were published on Lifehacker and The Consumerist about an article on fixing broken snow shovels.
Make Your Own Replacement Snow Shovel

Ordinarily, Lifehacker is one of my favorite websites to visit, but I thought the article above didn't fit the "productively lazy" motto of their site.

jkarling says:

Oh my God! Repair a snow shovel with nuts, bolts, et al? If that's Lifehacker-worthy...we should hang up our collective hats! I must come up with 2 fixes a DAY that are better than that idea. Those of you pandering to the concept of repairing something old versus buying something new- how do you value your OWN TIME? Think about it. "I sure wish I could have seen some more waterfalls and rainbows in my day, but I was down in that basement trying to fix that @#@damn snow shovel!"

PS: Ben Popken: don't forget your tetanus booster!

04/25/07 06:59 PM

Global Warming Weekend

From April 13 to 15, business owners and citizens of the city of Saratoga Springs will be holding the first ever Saratoga Environmental Expo (SEE). The event hopes to educate the public about environmental issues and the benefits of green living. It will also highlight environmentally-friendly businesses, products and technologies. As itself is a carbon-neutral event, a wind energy company will be providing wind power for the expo.

Special guest celebrities, including Ed Begley, Jr. and Daryl Hannah, along with 120 vendors, will present information on how visitors can conserve energy, build green, prevent pollution, farm organic and consume natural products.

Although I think Daryl Hannah is a conversationally challenged whack-job, I respect Ed Begley's position on the environment. He has walked the walk even from his St. Elsewhere days, driving an electric car to the studio and living in a "earth friendly" house.

Attendance to the Global Warming Event was hampered, somewhat appropriately, by the cold weather! As Ed Begley said, "Sometimes, when you have a fever...you can also get the chills." The area is expected to get up to a foot of snow! See view outside my window to right...

Sisu- Renamed

OK, Polly and I have given up on the name Sisu for the new cat. He just doesn't look like a Sisu. He looks like he has a mask over his eyes, so every time you look at him you want to call him "Rocky", "Bandit" or "Zorro". So we have renamed him Siskko and have filed the proper NY State paperwork on his behalf:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an Order entered by the Supreme Court, Saratoga County, on the 5th day of April, 2007, bearing index Number 2007118A, a copy of which may be examined at the Office of the Clerk, located at 40 McMaster Street, Ballston Spa, New York 12020, grants Petitioners, John and Polly Karling, the right effective on the 6th day of April, 2007, for them to rename their adopted cat, born at barn in Melrose, New York, named "SISU" to assume the name of "SISKKO". Petitioner's present address is The Karlington, 4 Tait Lane, Saratoga Springs, New York 12866.

There! Nice and legal!

New Homesite

We've found a nice wooded lot to build our new house. We are working with John Witt of Witt Construction. They are a design/build firm with national design awards and John is personally drawing our new home.

The house will be built to take advantage of some views of Vermont to the southeast. Our thoughts are that we'll use local materials throughout the house: slate, birch flooring, cedar shakes, local stone, slate and danby marble countertops. There is also a granite called "fireblossom", that is quarried near Gore Mtn. The red bursts are garnet and the surrounding dark areas are hornblende.

Let's wait for the pricelists for all of this shall we?

Spring? Fooled Again!

Even though it's April- don't put the snowboards and skis too far back in the hall closet! We woke up this morning to about an inch and a half of snow. It's supposed to get colder and snowier through this weekend. Maybe one more chance to head up to Gore Mountain? Gore says they have Spring pricing in effect, so usually that means you get to ski for half off, since the snow is...well...half off!
Killington says they got 10 inches of snow last night, but Killington always embellishes their snow reports a bit. A bit? Actually, a lot! Killington embellishes a lot. Some ski hills around here will stay open into May. Killington has made it to June before!

Sisu- Possibly Explained

Sisu is a Finnish word that speaks to the character of the Finnish people. It could be defined as the determination of the indomitable spirit. It is a word that binds the people of a proud nation that has heroically weathered occupation and starvation. My Dad, who grew up as a first-generation Finnish American in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, would tell me of the suffering of the Finnish people at the hands of the Russians. The only thing that gave the Finns their edge? Sisu!
That was impressive to me. I wondered if I might also have Sisu. My Dad said that I did and that was all I needed to know.

We would watch the Winter Olympics and cheer for the Finnish crosscountry skiers. They would always win the medals- of course! It was because of Sisu...right? Yes, it was Sisu and, seriously, who else but Finns would bother with crosscountry skiing in the first place???

An interesting article on Sisu can be found here.

Check out brilliant Finnish design at Marimekko. www.marimekko.fi

New Kit in Town! Meet Sisu!

Sisu- Our Newly Adopted Kitten

Polly and I adopted "Sisu" from a Clifton Park animal shelter today. He was abandoned on a farm in Melrose, NY and is now very shy. He is a mix of a Birman and a Persian cat. Sisu is 5 months old and has very pretty blue eyes. We are hoping that Trixie, our 6 year old cat, will play a big part in his socialization!

Eastern Brook Trout

My favorite fish is the Brook Trout. It is also my favorite fish to fish. You can find them in tiny spring creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes. Wherever you find them, be prepared for some great scenery, because they only survive in the cleanest, freshest water.

My fondest memories of fishing involved going after brook trout. My Dad would have me out in the early morning dawn; mosquitoes swarming, black flies biting, nettles stinging. And...I loved it! Even falling chest- high through a beaver dam with my fishing hook snagged in the alder brush 50 yards back...I loved it!

The brook trout is a friend to children and beginning fishermen alike. Along with the bluegill, it's hard to imagine a fish that's hungrier or more opportunistic. Fly, spinner, or bait, the brook trout rarely discriminates.

As you can imagine, the range of the brook trout grows more and more compressed as property development continues. Coupled with the brook trout's need for cold, clean water, their numbers have been dwindling along the Appalachians up the East Coast for years. Recently, an initiative has been made to improve habitat and create public awareness. The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV) is the nation's first pilot project under the National Fish Habitat Initiative, which directs locally-driven efforts that build private and public partnerships to improve fish habitat. The long-term goals of the EBTJV are to develop a comprehensive restoration and education strategy to improve aquatic habitat, to raise education awareness, and to raise federal, state and local funds for brook trout conservation. Seventeen states are currently drafting strategies to prioritize policy changes and on-the-ground actions to improve water quality and restore brook trout habitat and populations in their individual state using locally-driven, incentive-based, and non-regulatory programs.

If YOU would like to find out more and see what you can do to help, visit www.brookie.org

Shonda, Justin & Collan Vacation in Saratoga

Shonda, Justin and Collan Dimitri of Orlando, Florida, paid us a visit last week. The boys were hoping that there would still be some snow...and they weren't disappointed! A Nor'Easter came through on a Friday night, dumping another foot or so. We did a lot during their visit, from seeing the NY State Museum in Albany, snow tubing at Gore Mountain , ski and snowboard lessons at West Mountain, to even building their own sledding runs complete with ramps! Although Spring is well on its way now, it was good to have a last chance at enjoying some Winter weather.


Check out their video by clicking the arrow above.

Special thanks to Jim and Alex Fredell who stopped by the house to show off their French & Indian War re-enactor uniforms. The boys were impressed to with blackpowder flintlock as well as the attire that the soldiers wore back in the day.