THE YEAR OF COVID-19
5-14-20: Arrived from VT with new puppy – Bulo! –Adam
5-22-20: Headed back to Vermont before jason and his crew arrive later today. I spent a quiet, isolated week here — hung the swings, set up the trampoline, got out the canoes and kayaks, mowed the lawn, and took Bulo on hikes. Also cleaned up the lake path and cut and split some firewood. Bulo chased deer, found a porcupine, fell off the dock, fell out of the canoe, and learned to swim! Weather started cool and rainy—became beautiful. I spent a few difficult hours re-setting the small dock back on its posts.
–Adam & Bulo
5/25: Awesome 3rd time visiting! And the first time we went fishing, Found the pots around the lake after landing a kayak on the other side of the lake. When we went fishing we were planning to eat some fish but when we realized that none of us really knew how to clean a fish so we just did catch and realease fishing. Steven and me extended ivy land and we took one of the kayaks from the other side of the lake and ___ fell in the lake of a kayak and mostly went under water. Can you read this can you read this
Sharon, Jeremy, Celly, Juice, Fitz, Fresca Bates
5/25: First long trip out of our house since COVID hit. Great weekend with the Bates! Steven fishes for the first time!
Jason Ford
6-11-20: I drove down here again on the 4th and stayed for a week. Did some clean-up and maintenance around the house and on the paths. Beautiful, hot weather—rained last day.
—Adam & Bulo
6/12-14/20: Beautiful weekend retreat. Made sure to do all the things. Said hi to the beaver, saw a (fat!) snake by the dock 2–3 ft. Scrabble, fishing, boating, fires, and good times.
—Colin & Will McCullogh
6-22-2020: Another amazing, chill weekend escaping from NYC with Liz & Charlie. This year’s trip to the lake couldn’t have come at a better time to recharge after being cooped up in the city. Even though we’ll be moving soon, we are so glad that we were able to do this fun summer tradition once more!
–Orion & Josie
6/28/20: Coronavirus summer! We got away from NYC for a week plus – the longest we’ve been here together ever! Great to see O & J before they head off to Seattle and spend socially distanced time with Rachael, Mary, Lindley, Zeke, and the (still two) kids. Beautiful weather and rejuvenating stay! –Charlie & Liz
7-14-20: THIRD TRIP HERE! Long stay this time. Hung a new swing, worked on paths until the tractor broke. Cleaned up tree sleeves from the new field. Bulo had a quick trip to the vet after biting a porcupine.
–Adam & Bulo
7-14-20: Never enough time here! Spent about two weeks. Started the very beginnings of learning to drive, and spent many hours across three days tromping through the woods to re-blaze the BLP property boundaries with aunt Mary and cousin Rachael. A much better sense of the geography of the land after this visit!
–Isaiah
7/15/20: First time here without Ken (who stayed home at Foulkeways during this coronavirus pandemic). Nina, Isaiah, & Adam and I enjoyed beautiful weather, kayaking & canoeing, & shared the cooking! This year, every family is coming seperately — no over-lapping. Met Lindley’s new baby Thaddeus yesterday. Two weeks old. Adam did lots of pruning, increased the woodpile, and put up some round swings!! Always reluctant to leave.
Joanne
PS: Nina was here and cleaned the forest! Then we spent hours burning the huge pile of twigs, etc. She returned to Providence to plan her fall Virtual Classes at Brown.
Amazing 4th visit to Shunk! Thanks so much Abby & Jason & Steven!
Mary saw a fawn swim across the lake, in front of her boat!
July 18 Sat – The arrival. Ola Appalachia!
19 Sun – Delicious waffles, hamburgers, then Risk (Jason beat Julius)
20 Mon – Beautiful Buttermilk Falls after lunch at Baumunk Store — Congrats on Thaddeus!
21 Tues – Fun on the lake, Lake Wars, Sharon fell in again
22 Wed – 4 mile walk, celeste and I tipped the kayaks and canoe as part of these merit badges (won Scrabble w/ “fanagle”)
23 Thu – We walked to & climbed the HUGE pine tree (Celeste won Yahtzee)
24 Fri – Visited the French Azylum. (Julius won Sorry)
25 Sat – Visited World’s End and set ……. off fireworks later!
26 Sun – Celeste caught 5 fish / we fried one of them. Delicious! Hiked 3 miles on Sandy Spring – Devil’s Elbow
27 Mon – Rock Run – Lower falls! Steven helped Fitz jump off the dock!
28 Tues – Picked blueberries & caught 7 salamanders!
29 Wed – Rock Run – Upper, Mid, and Lower falls. Jumped off all of them!
30 Thu – D&D, the epic conclusion / Lake Wars, games
31 Fri – Chill, games, lake wars, pizza built Fitz’s fort
8/1/20 Sat – the Departure. Adios Appalachia!
Congrats to Jason! new job!
Saw the neo-wise comet!
Heard the coyotes!
Heard about the fishers!
LAKE WARS
Fitz & Steven vs. Celeste
Dad vs. ALL
Mom vs. Self!
Man vs. Nature!
Sally the orange salamander from Rock Run, Lower Falls
flippers the frog from the backyard
inchy the inch worm
beans the Monarch butterfly from World’s End
The 7 salamanders of the 7th son of the 7th son, Dragon the Hobbit in Dungeons & Dragons
Beaver from the lake
Rainbow rose from Fresca and celeste
The Monk (Celeste’s character in D&D)
Comet Neowise
Naïlo Ea (chaotic good fighter) Celly’s character
Fresca (Monk)
8/1/20: Just finished two weeks in Shunk, Longest time I’ve been here since I was a kid. And that’s a long time ago. Steven (age 10) Abby, and the Bates Faily were here as well. Great time great weather!
Jason
Steven We caut a baby frog and a toad we also did fire works one was called the cannon it was really loud. We had a fun 2 weeks.
8/2/2020: SUN. Chicago contingent arrived in 2 vehicles. Paul Wendy Sandy in Pilot. Casey Thy Morgan & Nate in CRV. One hour later due to flat near IN/OH border at 8:30 Sun morning. Found a Mondo Tire nearby that opened at 9:30. Fixed in an hour. Lucky.
8/3 MON Paul starts biking. Puzzle is started. Wendy sets up sewing corner
8/4 TUE Wegmans & Walmart. new ironing board
8/5 WED C T M N visited the big spruce
8/6 THU P N saw bald eagle. C T M went to World’s End
8/7 FRI P W M went Corning Glass Museum
8/8 SAT Young adults play Kings Dilemma for many many hours
8/9 SUN Eagles Mere Wheelmen bike through
8/10 MON Casey & Thy visit Lafayette friends in NY
8/11 TUE Persein night 1. 5–10 small ones. Campfire
8/12 WED Perseid night 2. Cloudless. Big ones!
8/13 THU Lunch at General Store. new microwave ($109)
8/14 FRI Crack of dawn departure
HIGHLIGHTS: Meteors, bald eagle, osprey, kayaking, 208 mile of gravel biking, Sandy finishes needlepoint, Wendy finishes 2 quilt tops, hikes to the big spruce, many excellent dinners (Casey cooks a mean hamburger) hummingbirds. Paul
8/24: A great weekend at Shunk with the Bates. Steven leads a great Dungeons and Dragons game. Off to do my last week at the Bureau of Labor Statistics — leaving after 31 years!
8/21 — 5th Great Visit to Shunk!
Happy 16th Anniversary to Sharon and me! We hiked 6 miles on Thu in Shenandoah!
8/22 — Catan3, D&D, caught baby frogs! Helaman 5:12 Remember2
8/23 — Catan3, D&D, Risk review of City Market at D St, DC NW, $150M
8/24 — Upgraded pirate fortress across the lake. Caught a brown salamander!
8/25 — Caught frogs. The lake snake said hello. Ice cream in Canton!
8/26 — “Caught” a gluttinous Catfish who choked on a Sun fish!
8/27 — Catan3. Rock Run – Celly and I jumped off ALL 3 falls! Power out for 3 hours! We built a fire, had s’mores, D&D in space, Catan
8/28 — Adios Appalchia!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for inviting us!
→ found this at the bottom of the Big Spruce tree! (Huge feather!)
Gluttony, thy name is catfish
This sunfish now sleeps with the fishes, figuratively.
3rd level (XP) Dragon-born wizard thief (Jeremy’s character)
9-13-20: Don & Sharon Wright were here for a long weekend — lots of walks and relaxing. Don fished and attempted to untangle the fishing reels with limited success.
9-13-20: Drive-by socially distanced funeral for Lucy Baumunk in Shunk.
9-19-20: I arrived here on September 1st and have spent an enjoyable almost-3-weeks. It was summery weather until the last couple of days when the nightime temperatures dropped into the 30’s. I did a lot of tractoring — working on paths and hauling junk away from the stand of spruce trees in the “Y” field. Bulo got lots a woods-running in and got to chase a coyote! Today i closed down the house and we’ll head to Vermont in the morning. There will be things to build and repair when i get back here in the spring.
Adam & Bulo