ya never know where youll make a nice connection

allen levine

Member
Messages
12,340
Location
new york city burbs
No telephone service, no cell service. No internet service.
I booked a home 500 hundred feet straight up from the roadway.
I was on the top of a mountain.Pretty strange being completely isolated like that.
These are the views from my front door looking up the slope in the (I guess front yard) and looking down the slope down the winding driveway.
 

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I spoke with the owner of the property several times. A gentleman with a lovely wife and small children, and found out he is also a woodworker.Carpentry mostly. He did most of the trim work and finish work in the home I was renting. His wife is from Thailand, and he showed me all the Teak furniture they had shipped over here that belonged to his wifes family.
Nice stuff for sure.
I mentioned to him I was suprised all week whenever I saw a lumber yard, I went in to purchase some ash, and noone had the thickness I wanted.
I didnt go away to purchase wood, but figured I had alot of time to kill, and it would save me a trip once I got home. (we came home a day early, my health is off a bit)
He came over last night to tell me he spoke with this one or that one, and if I wanted, he would hike along with me today to someone who would be able to help me out. Ok, Id love too.
So this morning, while relaxing in the library, reading about some bear attack out west(ya have to drive 10 miles for a newspaper) Im looking out the windows, and I couldnt believe my eyes. There is this black bear walking around my rented house. I wiped my eyes, maybe its a racoon and being a city boy I just made a mistake, it was early and I didnt have my coffee yet.What are the odds I read about a bear attack and then one shows up in front of my rented vacation spot, no way, nearly a zillion to one. Nope, that is a bear.
A bear. what? Why is he walking around my doorway, theres no food out there?
Where is my camera, in the truck ofcourse. But my truck is 10 feet in front of the house, and so is the bear, so Ill have to forget about that.
My wife is watching now, and the bear decides to head down my entranceway, down the hill(the owner has his home down there). and then the bear walks into the woods, tough to see from our angle, but I hear the owners child(3 year old girl) yapping and screaming, and I panic.
I run out of the house, grab my keys, drive down the path and sure enough, the kid was screaming,(just being a 3 y/o throwing some kind of tantrum with her daddy I guess) she didnt see the bear, but the bear was sitting 25 feet from her playing with a container of seeds/feed, trying to open it.
I immediately told the owner who was standing inthe doorway and he took the child inside. He wasnt alarmed, but it was kind of scary to know a black bear was 25 feet from your kid and you didnt know, but he never lets the child play outside alone, he was watching her from the doorway, and she was screaming and complaining, that was what I heard up on top.
The bear was then looking at us as we were looking at him.
Me, Im sorry, I know there are laws, but in the wild, its each man for himself, and me,the city boy only knows about self preservation in the wild, and my norinco, and 357 magnum, (I dont own hunting rifles), would let the bear know who is boss.
the owner fired off a few rounds into the air,from a slug loaded shotgun and the bear shuffled off, trying to take the bin with him, it was quite a scene, him trying to carry that bin.
All the bins are locked away in a trailer now. The owner didnt seem too nervous or upset.
Sorry, not me. That was a bear, and its his tough luck if our pathes cross, cause I wont give him a second chance.
Im quite sure him or any member of his family wouldnt think twice about hurting me if I accidently startled them in the nightime. Uh uh, sorry.
I did manage to squeeze off a few pictures of the bear from my crappy camera, hiding behind my car door, (yeah, us city boys can handle gang members and muggers, bears, uh.....not so well)btw, that bin was laying next to the white tent.its around 3 feet high, like a plastic garbage pail.
 

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So this morning, while relaxing in the library, reading about some bear attack out west(ya have to drive 10 miles for a newspaper) Im looking out the windows, and I couldnt believe my eyes. There is this black bear walking around my rented house. I wiped my eyes, maybe its a racoon and being a city boy I just made a mistake, it was early and I didnt have my coffee yet. What are the odds I read about a bear attack and then one shows up in front of my rented vacation spot, no way, nearly a zillion to one. Nope, that is a bear.
What are the odds that I'd be reading a post called "a brief visit at Grizzly' and this story would pop up?:rofl::rofl:

Sounds like an exciting morning upstate, Allen. Glad all turned out well and all are safe.
 
yep, Im city folk, freekin bears marching around my front door?
Yeah, my wife isnt going back to the country anytime soon.
Maybe never.
So off we went further into the wilderness. Up near Coxsackie new york, in the middle of nowhere(for me, all that farmland and open space makes me nervous). Where homes arent numbered. And we drove up onto a farm. Me, a city boy, finds it strange that chickens and goats are just a part of everyday life. My wife wouldnt get out of the car with all the chickens running wild around us. I just shoed them back into their area and petted the goats. Man, its stinks on a farm. (it wasnt a really big farm, but there were some pens, they all stunk the same, the dog kept me occupied, jumping on me with her dirty paws, but she was a lover, you couldnt help playing with her.Even got my wife out of the truck to play with her until she coated my wife with mud.(it was funny when my wife went back into the truck to use her cell, the dog jumped in after her, wish I had my camera ready then, that was a kodak moment)
Then I met the nicest woodsman in the world. A great guy with a world of knowledge about wood, and he took me on the full tour of the barn, showing me every type of wood he has, all labelled, elm, ash, oak, maples, cherry, so many species I dont even remember, he was getting in alot of old chestnut from beams, he had incredible 6/4 ash, beautiful stuff, too high end for me, butternut, uh....hackberry, walnut, and I think black and white locust?
He said he built a small walkway he showed me out of black locust, says it will last a long, long time outdoors.
All in all I had a great time the hour and half I spent with him, getting my thick ash, (he really didnt have much other than some 30 year ash sitting in his moms barn he went over and got), and I picked up some gorgeous, silver maple, great spalting, incredible figuring, and he had a bunch of 15 -16 inch boards of QS and regular sawn sycamore that had alot of splits and cracks so he asked me if I wanted it for 1-2 bucks a bf. Ofcourse I said yes. Took 100 bf of splated maple, but he couldnt sell me the 6/4, it was already spoken for, would have loved a handful of that.And I came home, not feeling all that well, but had a nice bed full of sycamore and silver maple,(and a bit of ash)

I loved this guys layout. He had one or two pieces of everything labeled standing up in the barn so I got to really look closely at each species.
Everything he has is labeled, as how long it was air dried, kiln dried, dated....nice.....if anyone is near exit 21 on the NYS thruway, he told me its ok to give his name or number if someone wants to purchase some lumber from him. Id say he runs about 20% cheaper than the average lumber supplier, and his count is liberal, and he tossed in a bit extra for splits. Never know what he has, he has white oak and common stuff, but he doesnt really try to get so much common stock, or so he explained. I wanted some cherry, he had some with interesting figure on it, but it was so buried under other piles and he was moving so much for me with the frontloader, I knew he had to be somewhere, so I left it for another time. Great guy. Pm me if anyone wants to get in touch with him.He also has alot of large slabs.last pic is sycamore, never saw a piece before, reminds me of birch. Will make a nice tabletop eventually.
 

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we had a nice time, we went to visit all the old hippies in woodstock, saugerties, kingston...but that bear, my wife is not going back into the woods anytime in the future.

did he think we didnt see him playing with that bin?

someone told me a bear has an incredible sense of smell.
This morning when I opened the front door, my wife had put the garbage bag, (it had an odor), filled with the weeks trash, in the mudroom entranceway, so maybe the bear smelled it and was trying to figure out where it was. He was walking around the front door of the house.(the owner is having his own home renovated so he has a few portable tents up to hold keep his stuff in)
 

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So, Just to summarize,

You and your wife went upstate,
stayed at a B&B?
Saw a Bear take away a garbage bin,
You visited a local Sawyer and saw some good wood?

The only question I have is?

Where are the pics of the wood you bought? :rofl:

Sounds like a pretty nice little trip though!
 
Sounds like you got a good wood haul and a great adventure to go with it. :thumb: Sorry to hear you weren't feeling up to staying the last day.
 
I think that was what the homeowner was concerned about, that the bear would come back since he found food.
Just scary knowing the kid was playing within 20 feet of that bear when it came down to take that seed bin. Maybe 10 feet.
The home owner sent me some pics she took, hers are horrible. She had this expensive looking camera with a big lense, but looks like she needs some lessons in how to use it.(the other two pictures are worse)
 

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Sounds like you got a good wood haul and a great adventure to go with it. :thumb: Sorry to hear you weren't feeling up to staying the last day.

I think Allen wasn't feeling good because he had a nice wood haul and was starting to have withdrawal symptoms from not being in the shop. The only cure is to go home a day early and get a fix!:rofl:

That looks like an awesome place there Allen. I could easily get lost looking around there for hours and come out with empty pockets.
 
I really didnt miss working in the garage that much with all this heat.
Woodstock NY is the home of many artists. There are many places, like this guys lot in the middle of no where that display unique items crafted out of wood.
I enjoyed seeing different artists works and doing nothing other than sitting in outdoor restaurants eating dinner and lunch.again, sorry about quality of pics, my wife is worse than me.

most of the people up here into lumber are cutting logs for firewood. Its a way of life up here, since the winters in the mountains are cold.
I was parked near a backyard lumber mill, and there was a pile of throwaways, just sitting near the street, and I walked over to a young man moving equipment, he told me I could help myself to anything I wanted in the pile.(I went over to him to ask him about boards, not logs) I thought about taking some 6-8 inch diameter log pieces to spin some bowls, but thought better of that since then I knew Id be spending a week with my lathe and not cutting chair legs so I didnt want any excuses.
There are a million campsites up there, and it seems everyone with a home or acreage is cutting up logs for campfires and visitors campfires, theres a wood for campers sign in half the driveways.
 

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ayup, that's a bahr all righty.

sorry you're under the weather Allen. hope you're back in full swing soon!

oh, and btw, Woodstock is definitely Downstate. :rofl::rofl:

you can always tell where someone is from in NY, by where they draw the 'upstate, downstate' line...

at least yours isn't quite at the Westchester border Allen! :thumb:
 
whenever I drive somewhere north, I always know Im upstate when I drive on major routes and see more prisons than McDonalds.
and I guess you guys adapt to the country.
When I went out to the car at night, pitch blackness beneath the trees. I mean I couldnt see the ground, and standing there reading something, I hear things move very close to me in the bushes and woods, and Im not sure I liked it, kind of gave me an uneasy feeling not seeing whats moving around me while Im standing around.eerie feeling, maybe is more like it, a little bit uncomfortable. I like to see whats moving near me.
 
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now I know why he wasnt inclined to sell me that 10/4 ash. It is pretty common with alot of knots and just not that great. At 1.50 or 1.60 a bf, its far from furniture grade. From what he was telling me and speaking with others recently, I think Ash prices are going to skyrocket over the next few years and many tell me its going to go the way chestnut went. I hope not.
I have quite a bit of beautiful white ash 4/4 sitting in my garage right now. Maybe I should hold on to it and build the chairs with all the cheaper common grade stuff I have.(theres just so much waste)
I know its woodworking, but Im not thrilled with building dining chairs.
Each piece requires alot of machine work and now I have to sort through all the crap ash I have and cut right to get 12 rear legs. After getting a 1 pm start today, I managed to put away all the new lumber, clean up and got one leg cut out on the bandsaw. very slow progress.
 
allen your bear was a 1.5 cub that was just kicked off by mom.. that is one reason its scrounging close to humans..it isnt fearful of them yet.it probally weighed around 100 to 125 lbs is all.. but they are still strong critters and there nose is excellent..
 
I hear things move very close to me in the bushes and woods, and Im not sure I liked it, kind of gave me an uneasy feeling not seeing whats moving around me while Im standing around.eerie feeling, maybe is more like it, a little bit uncomfortable. I like to see whats moving near me.
I've felt the same way many times in the Bronx.:wave:
 
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