This blog is about the daily trials and tribulations of living as expatriates in New York’s upstate Finger Lakes Region. It is also a blog about the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort which my wife and I both own and operate in this stunningly beautiful part of the world. It is a blog about every day life and that of trying to live the American dream! The blog is frank, direct, from the heart and sometimes, of a very personal nature. I do hope that you will enjoy reading it.

I have to confess that Jane and I both have a great dentist. Dr.Frank Triana of Triana and Triana on Washington Street, Geneva, New York 14456,  takes care of our dental needs and their hygienist Laurie Klossner takes care of our regular dental cleaning. Unlike many people, I am not afraid of the dentist albeit, on more than one occasion, I have felt that all too frequent electrifying feeling when the dentist or hygienist has got a little too close to one of the nerves in my root canal, especially around one of the many gold crowns that adorn my mouth where the nerve is close to the surface and my gum line!

Now many people who know me personally know me to be a bit of a talker (No kidding!)  as well as somebody who loves to crack a joke as well. I always enjoy telling Laurie a joke or two and I think she gets a good kick out of laughing at them. It is of course hard to tell a joke when the hygienist has her dental probe in your mouth scraping away at the accumulation of tartar. Even more funny trying to tell a joke when she is rinsing out your mouth with water. You see,  the water goes everywhere!

One of my most favorite memories about dentists is when Mr Conehead, Played by the actor Dan Akroyd in Coneheads the movie, is absolutely hilarious when the Dentist asks him to open his mouth wide and the dentist fits the anesthetic mask into his whole mouth to make him sleep so that he can have all of his sharp canine teeth ground down and capped. Simply classic!.

I read in the Finger Lakes Times on Sunday about a hunting accident that happened in Penn Yan when one brother mistook his older brother for a turkey. What the newspaper did not report was the names of the two siblings (aged 12 and 16 respectfully) I learned today that these two boys are the sons of two of our friends. Indeed, the husband is a Mennonite builder who built four of our log homes here at Cobtree.  The older boy was most unfortunately shot by his younger brother,  hunting with a shot gun , who accidentally shot him in the side of the face and neck. The right area for a turkey to be shot of course but this was not a turkey, it was his brother. The older sibling had been calling in turkeys and was a little distance from his younger brother when the accident occurred.

Your see, the turkeys started coming in towards them but must have got spooked and went off in the other direction. The older brother went after them and as he returned back to where his younger brother was waiting, the younger one thought he was a turkey and pulled the trigger. Ironically and thankfully, the older brother, who at first passed out, came too and was able to use his cell phone to call 911.  His younger brother meanwhile went out to the road to direct the emergency services to where his brother lay. The older brother was then taken by mercy flight to Strong University hospital  where he has been and is still in intensive care albeit mercifully, he is recovering from the ordeal. At this point I would mention that many Mennonites carry cell phones with them these days despite this being extremely frowned upon by their church. Perhaps given these circumstances they can be forgiven for breaking the rules as ultimately the use of the cell phone and the emergency services of course, saved his young life!

Whilst the boy is out of the physical woods, he is not out of the proverbial woods as far as his health is concerned as he has several lead pellets lodged close to a major artery in his neck and the Doctors are concerned about them and where they may move to. They dare not operate being so close to the artery but are playing watch and see what they will do. Forgive me if I do not name the boys in this blog or their parents as to do so would not be appropriate I think.  My prayers and that of my family are with the brother who got shot of course but also with all of his family who must themselves be in shock and who need the support of their family and friends. I have this evening prayed for the boys swift recovery and prayed for his family too.

Hobart William Smith Colleges Graduation 2012 Photo Courtesy HWS Colleges and their Photographer.

This weekend is the graduation weekend of the nearby Hobart William Smith Colleges and all of our properties are fully booked by parents who have booked properties here over a year in advance! It has been a gloriously sunny weekend and everything looks green and manicured here at Cobtree.  This morning I sprayed all of the fruit trees with the first insect preventative spray of the growing season. This has to be done every three weeks to ensure that the fruit does not get chomped to pieces by all and sundry insects that want a free meal of the fruit.  We actually permit guests to pick the fruit for their own consumption once the fruit is ready to be picked.  Currently we grow Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Pears and apples as well as some tart cherries although I am thinking to purchase a couple of apricot trees to plant as well.

I have to say that I am most disappointed with the WordPress software updates.  Recently I myself updated our WordPress to release 3.3.2 together with updated plugins and at first glance everything looked fine to me. Thankfully, a visitor to our web site sent me an email, using our online contact form and pointed out that critical information was missing on our accommodations page which had been caused by the installation of the WordPress update. As I did not have the technical skills to fix the problem myself, I had no other choice but to employ the emergency services of In House Graphic Design,Inc    (the original designers and creators of the redesign and build of our new web site) to fix the problems created by the upgrade and it took Greg two hours to resolve the issues!

Mercifully and indeed, thankfully, the team at In House Graphic Design,Inc. dropped everything this morning to get our web site back in good order because, as the reader of this blog would be able to sympathize and appreciate, if our web site does not display the critical information about our properties here at Cobtree, we would be dead in the water. So to speak and would quickly have no business!

I have to say without blowing too much smoke up their skirts, that our relationship with In House Graphic Design,Inc is a very professional one and we have been most satisfied with their services since we first started working with them on our web site redesign. Today’s problem reinforced our relationship for which we are eternally grateful. Thank you team In House Graphic Design,Inc

Yes folks, I won a bottle of Knapp Winery Red wine as a door prize at the Geneva Chamber of commerce after hours this evening and hosted by Wendy Marsh and David Unger, owners of the  Finger Lakes Lounge on Seneca Street, Geneva. After attending this function I went on to Halsey’s restaurant for a glass of chardonnay and then followed the footsteps of two friends Matt Parrott and Brad Prozeller down and around to the new wine bar “Microclimate”  located on Linden street where I enjoyed a glass of blackcurrant squash. I had a great evening out catching up with old friends as well as rubbing shoulders with other business and community leaders and chewing the fat!

Well, it is my birthday on the 21^st of May and today UPS delivered a box that contained a gourmet food hamper of English goodies. Various cheese, preserves, English biscuits (cookies) and more. All courtesy of our guests and friends Dr. Apone and Lisa who stayed with us once again just this past weekend. What a lovely surprise and terrific gift. Once in a while there is sunshine in one’s life and not all doom and gloom. Thank you both so very much indeed.

Actually, next weekend Jane and I will be flying down to Philly    to stay at a nice boutique hotel (Kimpton Hotel)  located  in downtown Philadelphia for four days. During this time we plan on seeing all the sights and museums together to celebrate my 53^rd birthday. Jane has not been to Philly before whilst I have only been there once with my old friend Julia Zhang when we both attended a pharmaceutical conference there. It seems like so many years ago now and such a distant memory……sigh.

The historic gardens of George Eastman House   are now open for the season. Historic Landscape Garden Tours also continue through September. Docents lead the tours, sharing historic photographs and details about the landscape during George Eastman’s residency, 1905 to 1932 . In May and September tours will be offered once per day: 11:30 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Private tours are available for groups of 20 or more by appointment. For groups, please call (585) 271-3361 ext. 238.

Auf Wiedersehen to Jerry and Marie Hoover  of the Hall diner   Hall New York as they sell on their business to Alan and Crystal Tomion who will continue to run the diner from the coming Tuesday after closing on Monday. Congratulations to the new owners on their purchase of the diner. Our best wishes go to Jerry and Marie who have owned and managed the Hall diner since 2005.

This afternoon Jerry and Marie graciously hosted a farewell (but not goodbye as they are not moving away from the town) and the party was attended by many of their loyal patrons and by many freeloaders as well who just turned up for a great time out,  free of charge of course!

Yesterday evening Jane and I went together with two of our returning guests staying in our Seneca Cottage first to shop at the Asian supermarket in Henrietta and then to the New Cantonese Restaurant on South Winton. We went in separate cars as Joe and Lisa did not want to go to see the show itself which was being hosted by the Penfield High School. Jane and I were first to arrive at the supermarket, closely followed by Joe and Lisa. We then scooted over to the restaurant on South Winton but got concerned when after ten minutes Joe and Lisa had not arrived in their car. I had waited for them to follow me out of the supermarket but observed that Joe was setting his GPS and so went ahead instead.

It was quite comical to see Joe and Lisa drive past the restaurant in their Volvo SUV and despite waving for them to pull in, Joe did not see me. Around the block they went and as they drove past me for the second time, I waved again and still they did not see me standing there on the corner in my khaki colored pants and bright light blue jacket. Around the block they went again and finally Joe was able to see me as I ran to the side of the road to frantically wave him down!

Still, we all made it into the restaurant where Jane had already ordered some dishes due to the tightness of the time. I was somewhat disappointed over the food this time we visited the New Cantonese Restaurant. It was not up to the usual high standards for food and the stewed beef was almost inedible. Even though Jane complained to the waiter (and later to the owner) they did not offer to take the dish off the bill even though we hardly touched what we could eat of it.

I felt sorry for Joe and Lisa because clearly they were not enjoying the offerings of this restaurant and had driven an hour over from Geneva to enjoy what we had told them, was great food offered by this restaurant. The restaurant itself has become somewhat run down, no longer well maintained as it used to be. However, the food has always been excellent before and so we never really worried about the decoration too much. Now we have to start to look around for another restaurant to give our patronage to, I think.

Sorry Joe, sorry Lisa, we will make it up to you sometime soon when you come to stay with us once again.

Jane and I went on to see the performance of the Chinese Choral Society   and was hugely impressed by their singing, musical performance of Chinese orchestra and the Penfield High school children who also sang two songs in Chinese too. It was a terrific performance.  Thank you.

It would seem that not a year passes by when we receive phone calls from customers requesting to make a reservation only to have to inform them that the rental period requested was sold out.

Summer time in the Finger Lakes is bedlam when trying to find last minute accommodations and we recommend that whether you make reservations at Cobtree or with any other accommodations provider in the region, that you make reservations early in the season to avoid disappointment when you later discover that vacation dates are unavailable. You will see from our online reservation system that this years’ peak season is starting to fill up quickly and we are almost fully booked for our smaller log homes here at Cobtree.

At 6.30am as I look out of my office window, I look out on a cold, misty and overcast start to the day here at Cobtree. Nothing is stirring outside, no sign of any wild life and not even the birds are awake. Yet, as I await the arrival of my friend and Neighbor Phil to pick me up to go over to the Hall diner together, I contemplate first on the weather as well as what to blog about today. It did occur to me that the Seneca Lake Wine Trail Riesling Passport is now in effect but, that is old news. The next trail event will be the “Smoking Summer” kickoff on the 8^th of June and somewhere between now and then will be the annual trout derby held on Seneca Lake when hundreds of fisherman arrive to participate. Last weekend Geneva hosted the Seneca 7 races but again, this is old news. Spring in the Finger Lakes is an odd time of the year.

Whilst everything starts to green up and the farmers start to plant their crops, there always appears to be a lull before everything starts to speed up into summer. The month of May of course heralds the graduation of hundreds of college kids at the nearby Hobart William Smith Colleges in Geneva. Already these young ambassadors of the college will be looking for jobs in an already difficult job market which takes me back to when I myself left school those many, many moons ago.

Last night I attended a meeting of the zoning board of appeals to see what was being debated. It was rather interesting and perhaps I should take a more active interest in what is happening in the township by attending a few more of such meetings. Very few townsfolk do so however, perhaps they like me cannot be bothered to get themselves involved. Who knows.

So, as the misty veils of dawn draw back across my mind and I await Phil’s arrival, the world revolves and life goes on!

  A man sees a sign outside a house – ‘Talking  Dog For Sale.’ He rings the bell, the owner appears and  tells him the dog can be viewed in the back  garden.
 
The man sees a very nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting  there. 
 
“Do you really talk?” he asks the  dog. 
 
“Yes,” the Labrador  replies. 
                    
After recovering from the shock  of hearing the dog talk, he man asks,  “So,  tell me your story.   The Labrador looks up and says, “Well, I  discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I  wanted to help the government, so I contacted the special air services  and  In no time at all they had me jetting  from country to country, sitting in rooms with  spies and world leaders, because no one imagined  that a dog would be  eavesdropping.      

  
“I was one of their most valuable spies  for eight years.

But the jetting around really tired me out,  and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so I decided to  settle down. I signed up for a job at London’s Heathrow Airport to do  some undercover security work, wandering near suspicious  characters and listening in to their conversations.   I uncovered some  incredible dealings and was awarded several  medals.  I got married, had a few puppies, and now  I’ve just retired.”   

                 
The man is amazed. He goes back into  the house and asks the owner how much he wants for the  dog.  “Ten quid,” the owner  says. “£10!!?  But this dog is absolutely  amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so  cheaply?” 

“Because he’s a lying b*****d.     He’s  never been out of the garden.”

(Finger Lakes Times 04/30/2012 www.fltimes.com)

Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon

Sunday, July 15, 2012 – 7:00 am
1.2 mile swim – 56 mile bike – 13.1 mile run
Race cut-off times apply. The swim course closes at 8:40am, the bike course closes at 12:30pm, and the run course closes at 3pm. Swimmers will be brought to shore after this time and cyclists/runners should expect uncontrolled intersections and aid stations to be unavailable.
an ideal course for beginners and experienced athletes alike – here’s why
plenty of aid stations on the course
five splits (swim, bike, run, T1, T2) will be taken for all athletes

DoubleMussel 88.7

Since the mini-Mussel moved to Saturday in 2007, we can offer crazy people – err, dedicated triathletes – the chance to compete in BOTH the mini-Mussel and Musselman half-iron. Aside from enjoying 88.7 total miles of fun, you get to sleep and eat in between. Fabulous prizes await the men and women will the lowest combined times, and we’ll honor those “going for broke” with extra supplies at the medical tent.
Aquabike returns
Thanks to a request from an athlete who wants to compete but can no longer run due to injury, the Musselman is proud to again offer an Aquabike division. Aquabike was formally introduced by USA Triathlon in 2004 and consists of the first two legs of the half-iron: a 1.2-mile swim and 56-mile bike. Participants receive three official split times (swim, T1, and bike) and start with their age group wave in the half-iron. Aquabike athletes will be given the same support as all Musselman athletes on and off the course but will not be eligible for awards.

Swim course (1.2mi/1.9km)

The single-loop swim features an in-the-water start and deep water throughout. Waves are typically 110-150 swimmers each, guided by skilled kayakers. Struggling swimmers will be helped to shore. Water temperature is typically in the mid-70′s, so expect wetsuits to be allowed.

Bike course (56mi/90km)

The rolling, single-loop bike course debuted in 2008 for the fifth anniversary race. Starting from Seneca Lake State Park, it traverses the byways of Seneca County to the east of Seneca Lake, including long stretches of shoreline on both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. You’ll pass wineries on the Seneca and Cayuga Wine Trails, penitentiaries, small towns, Mennonite farming regions (look out for horse & buggies!), and a shady stretch in Sampson State Park.

Run course (13.1mi/21km)

The single-loop run heads west along a lakefront path and winds its way through the city of Geneva.

I ran across a story on CNN.COM today at this link.   Spirit airline like our company, has its policies which have to be agreed to at the time the reservation is made. Just like Spirit airlines, we urge our guests to take out a trip cancellation or full travel insurance policy to protect their investment. Sadly, for whatever reason, few people do so.  Then when something does go terribly wrong  such as is the case with what happened with this veteran in the CNN story who contracted cancer, or a sudden illness occurs,  bereavement, jury duty etc. The customer is quick to demand a refund from the business and when they do not get what they want sometimes selfishly create all kinds of problems for the business owners.

Usually in such tragic circumstances guests suddenly discover the very reason why we  and our industry, highly recommend taking out suitable insurance which is there to protect them in such circumstances. Is it then fair and equitable  or indeed incumbent on the business to make a refund to that person ? Does the customer not realize that to do so could possibly result in  an empty property and associated loss of income for the owner if they are unable to rent out the property at short notice?

Usually these things do happen so suddenly that the business is unable to on-sell the reservation to others and not unlike the airline who would have to try to sell the seat to another passenger.  I agree that that everybody should have compassion for their fellow human beings and here at Cobtree in the event of a bereavement of a close family member or a member of the rental party, we do indeed offer a rain check for a future stay. On such rare occasion that a guest does cancel a reservation made,  then we do everything we can to on-sell their reservation and if successful give the guest a full refund less a small admin charge and the credit card processing charges and interest incurred from the credit card company which they do not refund to us either!

We do not offer any other form of refund in keeping with our rental policies and more specifically because we do advise our guests to take out a trip cancellation insurance policy,  actually costing so very little compared to the cost of the accommodations or the overall value of the trip. Moreover, most travel protection insurance policies cover many other eventualities such as baggage loss, trip curtailment, trip delay, car breakdown, sickness, repatriation (Medivac) and so on.

Take my own case last November when I fell sick in San Antonio in Texas. Had I not taken out the travel insurance at that time then, in addition to the $20,000 + hospital bill that Blue Cross Blue Shield picked up the tab for, I would also have been out of pocket $2200 for my trip curtailment, flight cancellations, new flights and extended stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, food, taxis and so on.

The insurance company paid out 100% of these  additional costs incurred after I made a claim upon my return. The cost of the insurance policy was just $60. I know where I stand on this issue as a business owner but I am interested to know what are your views on this?

Don’t get me wrong, I am very sympathetic to what has happened to Jerry Meekins but like the airline said in their response to CNN, he was offered travel insurance so why should his problem now become their problem and what about all the many hundreds of other travelers who have had to cancel their trips for one reason or another and been denied a refund in accordance with the agreed upon terms and conditions of the company which must be agreed to at the time of reservation?

Perhaps I live in different times and just don’t get it!

As the President of Cobtree Vacation Rental Resorts, I have pleasure of introducing to you “the team” at the bank we exclusively carry out our banking business with namely; The Bank of the Finger Lakes. Jane and I have banked with several banks during the course of our respective careers and as business owners too. Some banks have been better than others but pretty much all offered the exact same service and had the exact same mundane customer approach and interaction. Most were bankers that wore stuffy suits and ties with patent leather shoes, you know, the typical bankers image.

I first met Jeff Franklin, President of the bank of the Finger Lakes (BOTFL)   when I was drowning my sorrows at the bar of the Beef and Brew restaurant in downtown Geneva. It was at a time when the banking crisis had just hit America some three years ago. The bank we were doing business at the time located over in Rochester NY, experienced some difficulties in advancing a loan for us to expand our business which was wholly due to some administrative reason or other. There I was with my friend Matt Parrott sipping our drinks at the bar when Matt introduced me to Jeff. He was smartly dressed in  a pair of pants and shirt, regular shoes and NO TIE.  It should be noted that Jeff was not at first introduced to me as the President of the Finger Lakes just as a friend of Matt’s.

Naturally I started to tell Jeff my tales and woes and the difficulties we were having with our business financing and planned expansion. It was at this point in the conversation that he asked me why we had not approached his bank to discuss our needs. When he then told me who he was and which bank he worked for, I mentioned that we had approached his bank a couple of years earlier but they were not in a position to help us at that time even though they liked our business model.

The reality was of course that at that juncture in time, the BOTFL like Cobtree Corporation were a new business (albeit the team was comprised of highly experienced and respected bankers who had previously worked in other local banks who went on to form the BOTFL) and our own business model was still proving itself and developing its critical sales and cash flow.

Anyway, to cut a long story short. We ended up moving to the BOTFL and since then we have developed an excellent business relationship with the bank based on integrity and trust. The team of this bank are phenomenal. Jane and I cannot sing our praises more highly of this bank or of their staff

We have been treated like we are members of a family and they are people who truly care about their customers. If you are planning to move your business to another bank then please accept this testimonial as a reason to open an account with the  

First it was an attendance of a members meeting of the Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance held at the Behurst castle on Wednesday afternoon  and then onto the Americana Winery over in  the hamlet of Interlaken on the Western side of Cayuga lake to attend a function with the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail. Our hosts at the Behurst Castle served up some great tasting Hors D’oeuvres  and some great tasting wines. My friend Quinn who works as a manager for the Belhurst (seen here with one of his staff members, a sixteen year old young lady who’s name I sadly forget but, who attends the Geneva high school where my two sons Kenneth and Daniel also schooled) Quinn gave us the grand tour of the Castle and told us about its history. Here is a photo of what is believed to be a piece of Dresden porcelain  that sits above the old fireplace  in the area located  next to  Edgars restaurant . Thank you Quinn for everything!

Jane and I later had a great time at the Americana winery and enjoyed some fantastically prepared dishes and a selection of wines provide by members of the Cayuga lake Wine Trail with great live music performed by Bob and Dee. We cannot wait until next years gathering! Our thanks to everybody who made us feel so very welcome at both of the above functions.  Well done.

Rightly or wrongly, it is both the perception of Jane and I that the respective officials and planning boards at the town of Geneva have over the past two years treated us abominably as written about in my earlier blog and which culminated in a failed article 78 petition against a decision made by the towns zoning board of appeals. Together with my attorney I attended a pre-planning meeting at the town hall this afternoon regarding an application to erect a seasonal tent at Cobtree in order to be able to hold outdoor weddings May through October. In stark contrast to the way we had been treated the last time we had such meetings, I was pleasantly surprised that we were treated respectfully, were listened to, and everybody (including myself) behaved professionally towards each other and most importantly, honorably.

If this is the wind of change we have been looking for, I welcome this and hope that our ongoing discussions will result in a solution to the problems that will work for everybody concerned. My aspirations are that the hatchet is buried and the town will now work positively with Jane and I and our corporation, to reach a meeting of minds and a path forward to achieve our mutual goals that will be satisfactory to all concerned.

Weighing in at around 1000lbs (455 kg +-) this beast of a charcoal barbeque unit is now available for our guests to use for a small daily fee plus purchase of lump charcoal, charcoal briquettes and firelighters.

The barbeque is 6ft long and 30 inches wide and stands five foot tall (excluding the smoke stack which if included  takes the unit to over 7ft tall) . It is manufactured from 1/4 inch steel plate. Cooking heat is regulated by sliding an air flow restrictor on one end of the unit. The unit has two lids and Inside there are racks for holding the two stainless steel grills either side. There is also a geared electric rotisserie for barbequing whole chickens, pork butts as well as other meats or a whole pig if desired! We hope that this rather expensive addition to the Cobtree estate will prove beneficial for our guests, especially larger groups, who wish to have a cook out. The unit was built with wedding groups, reunions, religious retreat gatherings and larger groups in mind and we believe will become well used during the peak summer months when guests can have a great cook out with friends and sit out next to the campfire area with the picnic tables and enjoy a great barbequed meal together washed down with lots of beer and local Finger Lakes Wines.

It is absolutely amazing. When we arrived back from Rochester New York last night it was raining still. By this morning the ground was covered in snow with several accumulated inches of snow.

Cheeko is seen here walking towards me in the woodlands here at Cobtree and you can see in the photo how much snow we had overnight.

Although it has been a fairly miserable and wet day today here in the Finger Lakes, Jane and I left by 12.30pm for a visit to nearby Rochester to watch the year of the Dragon fashion show organized by the families with children from China. The event itself was graciously hosted by the School of the Arts at 45 Prince Street in Rochester. This organization sponsors orphanages located in China as well as supporting parents living in the region that have adopted children from that country.

We attended the fashion show with our good friends John and Linda Wright with their children Nicole and Sean. Sean was also adopted from China by the Wright family and they are both very active together with their two children, in their support to the American Chinese community especially here in Geneva, New York.

Both Sean and Nicole played active roles in the fashion show itself and Sean modeled an outfit designed by Sassy Scrubs in Penn Yan, New York. Nicole modeled designs by the renowned designers “Vera Wong”" and Clara Sunwoo. The two children look stunning in their outfits and both their parents and Jane and I are very, very proud of them for working so hard to put on a great performance for everybody in the auditorium together of course, with all the other people who contributed to this event and made the afternoon such a resounding success!

The show was simply terrific and raised a substantial amount of money for the good work of the FCC. We were fortunate to be able to contribute to this event through the donation of a voucher for their silent auction. This voucher for a free 3 day midweek stay at Cobtree successfully raised $400 for the FCC which is a tremendously good cause.  We are grateful for the winning guests who bid for this voucher and in doing so contributed so generously too.

After the show we went together with the Wright family for dinner at the New Cantonese restaurant which  located on South Winton in Rochester. After dinner we returned home  via the I-490 and  I-90 and only just narrowly avoided a five car pile up on the wet throughway on the way home. Pheew…it is so good to be home safe and sound!

A feeling of being down trodden is how Jane and I feel today regarding the manner in which the town of Geneva the town planning board, the zoning board of appeal and last but not least, the code enforcement officer of the town of Geneva in New York have treated our corporation and in which they have made very personal their perceived feelings, attitudes and behavior towards us.

It all goes back to 2002 when Jane and I first had the vision to purchase a parcel of land here in the Finger Lakes whilst on vacation from England. Whilst visiting the region, we found it very difficult to find accommodations during the height of the summer and it was I who had the vision to purchase a parcel of land and to obtain planning permissions to build up to ten rental homes and operate 11 (with the original farmhouse that we purchased with the land) as a vacation rental complex.

When we approached the town with the idea of building this project, the town code enforcement officer William McAdoo  (otherwise called Bill McAdoo) could not do enough for us. He arranged to take us out to dinner at the Belhurst Castle together with the then planning board chairman Robert Poole and both supported what we proposed. The idea was thus born and we had great expectations to move to the USA to build and operate Cobtree. One stumbling block was how to obtain the approvals necessary to establish such an enterprise in the town where no such enterprise had existed before or indeed after we established Cobtree.

The town planning board sought the advice of the town attorney who came up with the solution of a special use permit in an agricultural district to create a so called “hotel & motel complex”. A site plan was prepared. Jane and I was concerned that there had never been tried such a business model as ours in the region and were worried that having built the properties that we went on to build, that if the business faltered or failed that the properties were to be built as a cluster development so that each property could be subdivided from the other and sold by way of a bailout plan.

The town planning board agreed to our strategy and request and so everything was designed and built under the auspices of a cluster development allowing the properties to be built each with their own utilities, septic systems and water supply independent from each other and capable of being subdivided as a cluster subdivision at any later point in time. Everything was developed and built in full compliance with all relevant building codes and certificates of occupancy were issued for each and every individual property as they were built.

SO FAR SO GOOD.

As time passed and we had moved lock stock and barrel from England to the USA, we wanted to establish a winery using the old barn at the top of the hill for a tasting room and to house the wine processing equipment etc. I contacted the town of Geneva code enforcement officer, William McAdoo both by email and by telephone with this proposal and he got back to me to inform me that this was not possible because it would be considered a commercial use of the property. Not knowing what to do with the 1830’s old shingle roofed barn other than to burn it down by a way of a controlled burn, Jane and I decided to apply for a subdivision of our property that consisted then of 64 acres. This created the ability to mortgage the farmhouse as a private residence for our family and also created three other land parcels. One of these for tax purposes was placed into Jane’s ownership to be held in trust for our youngest son Daniel and one land parcel was placed into trust for our son Kenneth.

We applied for a mortgage on the farmhouse, workshop and barn that we had created a 5 acre subdivision on and were unable to get any local bank to lend to us any money because, we were not American citizens, did not hold green cards as permanent residents and we only had less than two years credit history. Never the less, we were able to find a mortgage broker who after much difficulty was able to secure for us a loan with a bank out Midwest. We had planned to move our family into the property after we closed on the loan. However, a week before we were to close on mortgage, we received a phone call from the lender asking us why the property was on the internet showing it available for rental. I explained that once we closed we would stop renting the property and move from one of the cottages we had built here at Cobtree into the farmhouse and make this our residence. The lender was nervous that once we closed we could potentially continue renting out the property and so they pulled the offer.

Jane and I took the very unhappy decision to put the property on the market for sale and three months later sold the property to a couple from Baltimore in Maryland. This decision seemed the only logical thing to do at the time and freed up much needed capital to reinvest into our core business which was our vacation rental homes. Less than two years after we sold the farmhouse, workshop and barns with the five acres to the couple from Baltimore, they too approached the town of Geneva code enforcement officer, William McAdoo with a request to turn the old barn and workshop into a farm winery. He told them that they too would have to make an application to the town planning board for permissions to do so. I attended this meeting with Jane in support of the new owners and the town planning board determined that they DID NOT require any planning permissions, that it was a permitted use in an agricultural district and that all they were required to do was to apply for a building permit to be able to convert the old barn into a tasting room.

We feel that the above deprived Jane and I of any opportunity to establish the winery that we wanted to open and the associated loss of income that we could have generated from such a business over the years.

THE NEXT STEP.

Having built four of the ten homes we had inherent planning permissions to build, we wanted to expand our development. When we approached our bank to borrow a commercial loan to build two more properties, they were hesitant to lend us the money because if we ever defaulted on the loan, they would have to sell the property and land as one parcel. They recommended that we subdivide the property further into 10 individual lots.  When we asked William McAdoo about this and he recommended that we subdivide the one parcel owned by Cobtree into a further four parcels and in doing so negate the requirement of making an application for a major subdivision. An application was submitted to the planning board accordingly and approved to create one parcel with the existing four brick built homes, a parcel to build four additional homes, a parcel to build two additional homes and finally a parcel to be used as an access driveway to service these homes.

MOVING ON.

Three years ago I started to experience difficulties in renewing my E2 investment visa to remain and work in the USA. It has become increasingly difficult to qualify for the renewal of the visa which can now only be applied back in the UK at the American Consulate in London. Strict employment, investment and income requirements are attached to the visa which requires that the investment be (1) Substantial (2) Generate local employment and (3) Must generate more than marginal income for the investor. We also discovered that having invested $1.2million dollars of our own money into the corporation here in the USA, we could never apply for a green card, could never apply for citizenship (regardless of how long we lived and worked in the USA) and that our children when they turned 21 years of age would have to leave the USA and could only return if they were able to apply for their own independent visa such as a student’s visa for example.

We discovered that should we ever wish to retire or sell the business, we would be given 90 days to leave the country too. This situation was untenable to us both and so we decided to place Cobtree on the market for sale. Over a period of two years we were unable to receive any offers for the sale and so we decided (In accordance with what was agreed back in 2003 with the town planning board and ZBA) that we would apply the so called bailout plan and make application to subdivide the remaining four subdivisions into ten individual lots. Once again, an approach was made to William McAdoo. He said that we would have to start afresh ad go before the town planning board. This board then required that we place the properties on 60,000 sq. ft. lots as opposed to the 40,000 sq. ft. plots that the properties were designed for as a cluster subdivision. This we were able to do but discovered that the setbacks and lot width requirements for a cluster subdivision were very different from a residential sub division. This meant that we had to apply for variances on the properties that were already built in accordance with the cluster development plan. Four such variances were required ranging from two 6 inch setback variances, a 3 foot setback variance and a 17ft lot width variance on properties already built!  This application was denied by the ZBA stating that (contrary to the planning laws of the State of New York) they only ever allowed one or two variances per an application.

As a result of this denial we had no alternative but to file what is known as an article 78 to challenge their decision in court and petition that the ZBA had been arbitrary and capricious. This is actually extremely difficult to meet the threshold of burden of proof that they did so as anybody who has ever filed an article 78 would attest to from their firsthand knowledge.

When it went to court last September, the Judge (Judge Doran at Ontario County Court ) recommended that the two sides reached a settlement based on what submissions he had received from the respective parties lawyers. The town from the very beginning stated they would vigorously defend our claim for relief as petitioned to the court and their lawyers had told ours that the town would never settle. The Judge however believed that there was enough common ground for such a settlement and arranged a meeting in his chambers with the opposing attorneys present. This resulted in the Judge recommending a workshop between the parties to discuss a way forward. Indeed, a workshop was arranged by the town between the chairs of the planning board, ZBA, town board and code enforcement officer however, our attorney, our architect and ourselves were never invited to attend!

Another month passed and the Judge pushed for a settlement and reluctantly the towns attorneys stepped forward and proposed that we create a site plan based on an increased plot size of 90,000 sq. ft. for each property, that each property would have to have its own well as well as other agreed requirements. They then required a new survey plan be prepared.  All this was done and we bent over backwards to meet every single requirement that they proposed. Then there was a settlement meeting held at which everybody agreed that the site plan was good and that it was what the town wanted from us. When it came to settling the matter though, the town reneged and demanded that the revised site plan and survey map that they demanded we prepare and pay for of course, be submitted to the town planning board and the ZBA as a completely new fresh application. This was something that was completely ridiculous as this was supposed to have been a settlement meeting to settle the law suit.

The towns attorneys claimed that the town were not legally able to settle in this manner and so once again, it went back to the Judge who ruled that the settlement on the table could be settled by way of order and stipulation and recommended the towns attorneys to take it back to their clients and to reach a settlement. The town once again refused to settle. Meanwhile, it had cost our company yet another $5000 to have had prepared the new site plan and survey as well as additional legal fees bringing by now the total legal and professionals fees to nearly $67,000

YESTERDAY

Yesterday Jane and I together with our attorney attended court in Canandaigua so that Judge Craig Doran could listen to oral arguments from the respective attorneys. The town turned out in force of course. There was just Jane and I and our one attorney on our side versus two high priced attorneys from Rochester acting for the town and at least 5 if not six representatives of the town including the town supervisor Mary Luckern , Jim Smith the ZBA chair, code enforcement officer William McAdoo , town board member Richard Larsen and others.  We felt like we were being surrounded by the school bullies!

THE OUTCOME

Judge Doran ruled that our attorney had been unable to reach the threshold to prove that the ZBA had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and would issue written judgment at a later date. He did however recommend that our attorneys file for a cluster subdivision per the 2003 planning permissions. Therefore, $67,000 down the drain. Two years of stress and worry under our belts, a waste of 6 months being put through the legal system as it ground away at a snail’s pace and with a decision that leaves Jane and I absolutely shell shocked. We are incredulous as to why was the article 78 not thrown out at the very first hearing by Judge Doran?  Why he would support the notion that we be put through 6 months of absolute hell and increased associated costs with a town that rapidly become apparent from the first couple of meetings in chambers that thy never ever had any intentions of settling.

We feel, rightly or wrongly and with the greatest of respect of course, that Judge Doran had led us into the belief that we must at the very least have had a Prima Facie  case for relief to be granted and by his instigating  both sides to try to reach a settlement.  Evidently we were very mistaken in this belief that we had a good case.  It is also clear that the town was able to use the towns purse strings, the peoples dollars,  to financially wear us down.

What a great sound we listened to this morning down at the Hall diner in New York. Hosted by Paul Szmal and “Tiffany” we listened to some great sounds on the radio as Jerry and Marie cooked pancakes out on the griddle.

There is always something going on in the Finger Lakes of which the Finger Lakes radio group is always there as part of the community that we live in.  Everybody had a great time down at the diner this morning whilst listening to the background music on the radio hosted by Paul and Tiffany to whom we offer our thanks.

Jane and I had an enjoyable evening out this evening when we went to hear a free Jazz concert performed by a talented Jazz quartet at the Geneva Room of the college library. Jazz

After the concert ended we went over to Tim Horton’s for a mug of coffee and a doughnut together before coming home to a nice warm house and to Cheeko who was waiting by the door all excited that we were home once again. There is always something to do locally throughout the year and there are many community events like this that are staged throughout the year, many free of charge of course!

It matters in the least what written instructions we leave displayed in our properties for guests to follow here at Cobtree. For example, we leave on the table for our guests arrival, a welcome folder that has a wide range of information contained in the folder together with the locations and directions of restaurants, shops, wineries and attractions and so forth, together with instructions to follow regarding the property.

In addition, we have a laminated instruction pinned to the wall in the kitchens regarding the smoke detectors and asking the guests to ensure that they turn on the extractor hood and open the kitchen window when cooking anything that will create smoke such as bacon and eggs in the morning, the chief culprit of false alarms I may add. It is quite amazing how few guests take five minutes out of their so busy lives to even bother to read the information. Time after time we get calls from guests asking for information that is already contained in the folder. Numerous guests do not even bother to read or indeed follow the checkout requirements either. They just pack their bags and leave the property without carrying out the basic tasks required of them prior to their departure and on more than one occasion have just eaten their breakfast and left everything to be washed right there on the table for our cleaners to do for them.

Take this morning for an example, at a little after 8am the security alarm sounded in one of our cottages when one of the smoke detectors was activated. You see, we are only 2 miles away from the nearest firehouse and when a smoke detector is tripped the rapid response center immediately dispatches the firemen to the property. Meanwhile, the rapid response center telephones our office to check up on the alarm status at the property but by then of course, the fire trucks are already here on site. Yes, it is that quick and by the way, congratulations to the West Lake Fire House  for treating every alarm as if it were the real thing. Responding when on such occasions, the guests have ignored the instructions, have not turned on the extractor hood above the range or even bothered to open the kitchen window!

There is of course a real cost factor for sending out an emergency response team like this for which mercifully unlike in most cities, for us and for our guests,  we do not get charged for. However,  I advocate that a charge should be levied and paid for by the persons causing the event that requires an emergency response especially when specific instructions are not followed!

Of course, not all alarms are false. Take the Indian family from New Jersey who placed a plastic tray and newspapers in the broiler compartment of one of our gas stoves in one of our log cabins. They thought it was just a drawer underneath the oven. When they turned on the oven to bake something, the trays and newspapers ignited causing black billowing acrid smoke. Thankfully all of our kitchens have fire extinguishers and a guest from a neighboring property ran across and used it to put the fire out. The Indian guests were just standing outside the property ogling at the scene. Then, we had some Chinese guests who placed the oven mitts in the broiler compartment of the stove in Seneca Cottage exactly as the Indian family had done and the exact same thing occurred.

When I asked both of these guests why they had not read and followed the written instructions pinned to the wall above the stove, they simply shrugged their shoulders and had no reply.

Perhaps the guests mentioned above could be forgiven for not reading the information prominently displayed on the walls of the respective kitchens as perhaps they could not read English? But today the property was occupied by guests who are native Americans and should have been able to read the information and yet, the firemen have come and gone once again. For Jane and I this is both annoying, frustrating and embarrassing.

Ah… human nature!

The sun has got it’s hat on hip hip,hip hip, hoorah! It has been a beautiful day here in the Finger Lakes albeit a little breezy. I have just booked a trip away to Philadelphia for a four day break with Jane around my birthday in late May. Something for us both to look forward too and I cannot wait to inspect the crack in the liberty bell! It feels a little strange that we seek out destinations to travel to away from this beautiful region whilst our guests yearn to escape from where we are going to to come here! We have an open invitation to visit friends (who stay with us here every year at Cobtree) and they live in Delaware.

We plan on visiting them later in the year too as we both have never visited the state either. Poor cheeko, he will have to stay once again with our good friends Glen and Susan Quackenbush when we go to Philly.

As I begin to type today’s blog, it is a little after midnight. I was awakened from my sleep with the horrible sour and burning sensation deep in my throat caused by a bubble of acid gushing directly up from my small intestines   into my esophagus. Anybody who like me who has had a gastric bypass, will immediately sympathize with such periodic occurrence as indeed, would anybody who suffers from acid reflux coming up from the stomach. Especially, if they suffer from a hiatus hernia, for example. There is little one can do other than chew some Tums (which is made from Calcium carbonate) or drink some liquid  Mylanta to relieve the acid influx and reduce this terrible burning. The nurse practitioner that I see over at Highland hospital recommends sleeping sitting up as much as possible but I find this practically impossible preferring as I do, to sleep laying down with just the one pillow to support my head. On the one hand I have lost a tremendous amount of weight, from my starting weight in January 2011 of 272lbs to today’s 192lbs and, no longer having to take any diabetic medications whatsoever and so I have to say, that I have no regrets about having had this radical surgery.

Occasional acid reflux I guess then, is part of the price I have to pay for my overall better health. So as the clock ticks away into the night and the Tums kicked in, the burning in my throat subsided, I contemplate what more to write until the misty veils of sleep start to kick in once again and I can go back to my bed once more. The quite of the night is only something you can experience when you awake and cannot get back to sleep again. The gentle hum of the central air, the occasional click of the refrigerator, the clicking of the keys on the keyboard as I type and of course, the rumbling noise in my intestines as the medicine I have taken continues to do its’ work.

Good night everybody, sweet dreams!

Although spring has indeed arrived with trees in full blossom and the tulips and daffodils in bloom, the last few days have been pretty miserable with spells of rain and a lot of strong blustery winds. The lake has been looking dark and foreboding with a lot of dancing white horses on the waves. Not pleasant at all! It is times like this that visitors can still find a multitude of things to do here in the Finger Lakes with many indoor activities to enjoy. Of course, there are the many wineries to visit and to enjoy wine tastings at each. There are the many restaurants to enjoy too as well as more traditional activities such as going to see a movie, ten pin bowling, ice skating, museums etc. Some guests enjoyed flying their kites here at Cobtree over the past weekend and the wind helped the kites fly so high into the air.

Our location is quite perfect given that we are close to many centers for activities nearby and a little further afield,  the Strong Museum of play, the Planetariam and Eastman house in Rochester as well as the Corning museum of Glass. I myself just hunker down in my own home and take care of the many inquiries that we receive for our accommodations at this time of the year. In between time I watch movies on Netflix and enjoy the comfort of my home and the company of both my wife Jane and our dog Cheeko!

Jane and I decided to go over to Rochester today for a day out together. First stop was our favorite Chinese restaurant on South Winton Avenue, the New Cantonese restaurant where we ate Dim Sum and drank Jasmin tea. Then we went over to the Cantonese supermarket at 85 Commerce Road where we bought some shopping together with some delicious roast and barbequed pork and also some freshly made Bean Curd Dessert.

In the afternoon we went to the Rochester Museum and Science center which quite frankly is not worth the visit or the money to pay the entrance fee of ($16). Next stop was the Planetarium which is located next to the museum where we watched a one hour show called fact or fiction which was, in stark contrast to the Museum and Science Center, both an excellent presentation and very informative.

Then,  a five minutes drive over to the Eastman school of music, stopping for a delicious Cappuccino at the Costa coffee shop next door where we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. Together Jane and I listened and watched three senior recitals by budding musicians of the school that was held in the  Kilbourn Hall.  The first was a young flutist who played very well indeed

The next recital was by a young operatic singer who’s voice was very well trained and most pleasant to listen to. Next,  we listened to a short piano recital and lastly, we listened to a young man sing to us a couple of songs including sorry seems to be the hardest word,a song originally penned and performed by fellow Englishman Sir Elton John albeit although he did his best, Sir Elton John is the best deliverer of this song, of course! All in all we had a very pleasant day out, the sun was shining and it was quite comfortably warm out but it was good to get back home and give Cheeko a well deserved pet for patiently waiting for us all day. My friend Phil did come over to let him out whilst we were over in Rochester which, we are eternally grateful to him for. No doubt it will cost me breakfast on Monday though!

  It has been a cool and blustery day here at Cobtree but by this evening the wind had died down somewhat.  This morning and into the early afternoon I once again mowed the lawn around the grounds which took several hours on my trusty Grasshopper. Mid morning the first of our Easter weekend guests arrived at Honeoye log cabin. They came from Oakland near Toronto in Canada but were originally from England before moving there! We later in the day received more guests also arriving  from Canada as well as guests for two of our properties arriving from Pennsylvania. This evening the guest originally from nearby where we alo used to live in England, were out enjoying a campfire by the edge of the woods.

As I took some photos around the property,  I met some guests out walking their dogs along Armstrong Road. This photo shows them together with their two retired Greyhounds and a Silver/Grey Great Dane puppy who is both very cute and of course, very large being a Great Dane.  All in all it has been a beautiful albeit cooler day at Cobtree but the weather forecast does indicate the temperatures rising over the weekend. I do hope so as it would be nice to sit out on the deck and enjoy some sunshine.

Monday 2nd of April this year was our friend Matts 32^nd birthday.    He was vacationing with his family in Vermont so we invited him to dinner at the Halsey’s restaurant on Seneca Street in Geneva on Tuesday 3^rd of April which incidentally, was the birthday of our son Kenneth and so we thought that it would be a great way to celebrate both Matts birthday and Kenneth’s birthday (at least in spirit anyhow). Matt was a little late arriving at the restaurant at 6.30 and so I was well into my first cocktail seated at the bar with Jane by the time he arrived. Jane, as is customary, drank her tomato juice with just a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Incidentally, Halsey’s restaurant has a great wood fired pizza oven too!

When Matt finally made it to the restaurant, he dived straight into his first drink (of many) for the evening and had a glass of sparkling Riesling that he has become quite partial to and we drank together at the bar.  Soon afterwards, we  were we seated at our table by our waitress for the evening.

Then, a gorgeous looking young lady on the table next to ours offered to take a few photos of us all using my Canon 30D camera equipped last evening with a wide angle lens.      Matt ordered a wedge of iceberg lettuce with shrimp together with another cocktail, whilst Jane and I shared the crab cake appetizer which was excellent followed by the 14oz grilled pork chop dish which unfortunately was not so good. The accompanying curly kale was hardly cooked and the Boston bread was awful. Still Matts company was great that was, when he was not texting on his bloody cell phone or going outside to take phone calls. Still, he did get an accepted offer on a property which really added to his evenings enjoyment (together with Jane and I of course)

Then, it was off to the Beef and Brew to catch the tail end of their trivia night and where Matt and I drank a few more drinks together. Actually, I only drank four drinks the whole evening. Two cocktails, a Jack Daniels on the rocks and a Dewers Scotch whisky on the rocks. Matt does not care much for whisky saying that it smells of old socks. Of course, 4 shots of alcohol for a person who has had a gastric bypass is like having the alcohol injected straight into ones veins and so I quickly become quite inebriated or for those who need to look this up in a dictionary, blasted but NOT zombied!

We did have a most enjoyable evening out and were all able to let our hair down and have a lot of fun together. We must do it again soon perhaps, on my birthday on the 21^st of May.

Next Monday is the 29^th wedding anniversary for Jane and I (Although we have been together 33 years now). This weekend we will be going over to Rochester to have hopefully, another great day out together to celebrate too. Here is our wedding photo. Check out the suit with the flared bottoms and Jane in her traditional Kay Po!  

My husband and I thought the Finger Lakes would be the perfect place to celebrate 10 beautiful years together. We couldn’t have had a more romantic, relaxing vacation! The Hemlock cottage was cozy, relaxing, and most importantly, just like home! We were able to bring our dogs AKA kids along, and we couldn’t have asked for a better stay. The view from the cabin was beautiful and the wineries and vineyards were magnificant. We could have only hoped for better weather! Thank you to Cobtree for providing us with our best vacation yet. We will most certainly be back!!

Our niece Georgina So who lives in Barton on Humber in England, has developed into a beautiful and highly intelligent young woman.

Recently she achieved all A+ for Physics, Biology and Chemistry, particularly in chemistry she scored 100% in her school exams and Jane and I wish to congratulate her on all of her hard efforts. We are confident that all her hard work will eventually pay great dividends as she moves into her extended education and subsequent  career path. Well done Georgina, we are both so very proud of you and your achievements.

    Once again I was up at the crack of dawn ready for my friend Phil to pick me up to go down to Bagels and cakes for our Monday morning breakfast together. Overnight there was a mild frost as can be seen here on the roof of the Honeoye log cabin tucked up by the edge of our woodlands here at Cobtree. Our guest Mr.Shaw, pictured here in this photo,  traveled here from Maryland together with his wife to stay with us for a few days short break.  He was out early exercising his Keeshond “Wolf-Bear”  around the grounds by the cabin.

The Keeshond ; plural: Keeshonden is a medium-sized dog with a plush two-layer coat of silver and black fur with a ‘ruff’ and a curled tail. It originated in Holland, and its closest relatives are the German spitzes such as the Pomeranian. Originally called the German Spitz, more specifically the Wolfsspitz, the name was officially changed to Keeshond, in 1926 in England, where it had been known as the Dutch Barge Dog. (Pronounced “kayz-hawnd”. However, Kees Hound (Pronounced Keys Hound) is the way most Americans would call this breed today.

Once again we experienced a most glorious sunrise as the sun steadily rose over the Eastern shores of Seneca lake.

So begins a new week here in the beautiful Finger Lakes of upstate New York. According to the weather forecast, we are going to have fine weather this week which will allow me to get some outside chores done including painting the wooden enclosure around the dumpster a nice green to match the surroundings!

Yesterday was a pretty miserable day as it rained throughout the day. I guess the silver lining was that I did not have to water the shrubs and flowering pear tree that I had planted last week.

And the winner of the Finger Lakes Times readership survey is …drums rolling…Nancy Arkland from Ovid NY.

Congratulations and we look forward to your staying with us here at the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort!

The charcoal barbeque I have nicknamed “ The Beast “ is finally taking shape over at the Mennonite metal fabricators in Penn Yan and will soon be ready for delivery before Easter arrives.   This massive ¼ solid steel unit will finally weigh in at nearly 1000 lbs. complete with a gearbox and electric rotisserie which our guests will then be able to rent for a modest fee. This unit is 6ft long and 30 inches wide with a rebar grate on the bottom of the unit to hold charcoal, charcoal briquettes or wood. It has a door on one end to be able to rake out the ash or embers and two round bar stainless steel shelves for cooking on that can be moved up and down within the unit on a triple rack. The unit also has two massive steel lids to hold the heat in.

Boy was it cold yesterday and today. My friend and local farmer asked me to do him a favor by helping Todd Hoover tile a field for him. This trench was over 12ft deep at the start, moving from the top of the hill at grade to where it came out along a ditch by the side of the road at just 2ft below grade. The wind was a blowing a bitterly North Westerly gale and despite wearing several layers of clothing, the chill factor was below 25 deg F and the wind blew through me making me feel bitterly cold. My hands and feed were freezing despite wearing thick socks and a pair of thermal working gloves. Three hours doing this work from 3 in the afternoon until 6pm was enough for me and I was out of Dodge!

My friend and neighbor Phil Wilkie has been a busy bee all winter and into spring and has amassed these numerous pallets of fire wood for his wood burning stove.   What can be seen in this photo is but a portion of the wood he has amassed and which should last him some years to come and save him a small fortune in heating bills of this period to boot.

The local farmers were very worried that last nights hard freeze could kill the buds and blossoms on fruit trees and although where we are there did not seem to be much evidence of this, I did see that where the farmer had sprayed the winter wheat last week, the hard freeze has made all the wheat turn yellow as if it had been sprayed with roundup or such like weed killer. I emailed the farmer today and he is just hoping that it will come back again otherwise the crop will have been lost and he will have to plant another type of crop this year if the wheat has died somehow. Fingers crossed the wheat will indeed come back again as the weather warms up this week.

Farmers and grape growers here in the Finger Lakes do indeed walk a frightening tight rope walk with all that Mother nature can throw at them,  I for one would not like to be a farmer seeing what they have to go through year on year to feed this great nation and for the wine makers to make some of the nations best wine, available right here in upstate New York.

Last night, Jane and I went over to the Ventosa winery, which is located at the top end of the eastern side of Seneca lake at 3440 New York 96A, Geneva, NY 14456 and just a 15 minute drive from Cobtree. We were there to listen to local singer songwriter Alisha Kay Carsten perform. Alisha  has a powerfully stunning voice and she sang a medley of songs over the course of three hours including hits from the Beatles as well as a song that I particularly like to hear,  originally written and performed by country singer Alison Kraus called the Lucky one. Sadly, this venue is not the best of venues to hear music at all as the ceilings are very high, there are no wall coverings to speak of and the sound just bounced around the room. This combined with the fact that unlike a concert, the audience were groups of people there mainly to drink wine and to chat the evening away together leaving poor Alisha’s singing efforts drowned out by what sounded like a gaggle of geese. I would certainly pay to go and see Alisha perform somewhere in concert or a venue where people actually paid the decency and respect to shut up and listen to this wonderful artist which after all, is no less than any singer deserves when they play at such a venue.

From what I did hear Alisha, I did enjoy very much. Thank you.

Up at the crack of dawn as usual and then over to the Hall diner for my breakfast together with Phil.  My diner buddies may well laugh at me with my order of one slice of wholewheat toast and one rasher of bacon with several mugs of decaffeinated coffee to wash it down.

However, when I look in the mirror and see the result I am the one laughing back at them!  Now Quackie would say, the difference is that I am now thin (and he is indeed obese)  but, he can always lose weight (Yeah…right)  and I will always remain ugly! Ah, the beauty of having true friends.

Back home after breakfast I had a few emails to answer and  Around 10.30 Phil came over with his backhoe to help me pick up rocks on the field in front of our home. These rocks, or should  say small boulders, are what is referred to as a natural occurrence in the region and in our particular case, were dug out of the ground when Todd Hoover recently came to install some fields tiles using his excavator.

By lunch time I had an unexpected visitor in the lovely form of Teresa Hoover (Todds other, and better half) who stopped by to say hello. Her daughter Maria is getting married to her long time boyfriend Ben this coming May and next weekend I am helping out with her bridal shower to cook a brunch for Maria and her friends.  This entails a little planning to cook brunch for 25 people and to serve some decent tasting food and drinks to Maria and her friends. I am actually looking forward to showing off my culinary skills for them too.

Teresa Hoover is of course a fine and professional photographer as well as being one of the nicest and kindest people you could ever likely meet in what can sometimes be a cruel and unkind world to live in!

It was Todd’s big day today when he took delivery of his newest toy, a Hitachi excavator which replaces the smaller one he used to have.

Many of my blog followers will know that we have a De Facto adopted son called Brad Howard. Brad     is a graduate of class 2009 of the Geneva High School and then went on to study at the Finger Lakes Community College and is on schedule to graduate with a diploma in liberal arts. Meanwhile, he started working in the foundry over at Gould’s pumps in Seneca falls where incidentally, both his mother and father have worked in this company for much of their own adult lives too.

Brad misses the company of his best friend and our son Daniel as indeed, so does Jane and I. Daniel as you may know, returned to England after graduating and went on to become a flight attendant for air low budget airline called Ryan air. In fact, Ryan air is currently the largest low budget airline in Europe. Now saying that an airline is low budget is in no way belittling the airline, it is just that people these days want to get from A-B in the most cost effective (cheapest) way they can. Naturally, there are industry and regulatory standards that all airlines have to comply with and Daniels inflight training reflects these high standards.

Anyway, Brad trundled here this evening on his racing red Suzuki GSXR 600 motorcycle just as Jane and I were to sit down and enjoy a bbq grilled Fillet Mignon steak with stir fried spinach and garlic and some steamed fragrant Thai rice. He often does this I think quite deliberately because he likes to have a free dinner albeit, he said that my cooking is some of the best he has ever eaten and he should know I guess having for some time worked in the Deluxe restaurant in downtown Geneva on North Genesee street.

Once again I digress. Seriously though, Brad has been a to us a wonderful surrogate son now that our two boys have flown the nest and live so far away. He often helps around the place when we need a little help and muscle. Brad’s mother (Janice) and father (Rick) could not have been prouder to see their son become an Eagle scout a few years ago and neither could Jane and I. The reason I am writing tonight about Brad is that he wanted me to show him how I created my almost daily blog and insert all the photos etc. He gave me an opportunity here to sing his praises and now as payment for me educating him about this, he can bloody well wash and dry the dishes!

It is only March 22nd today which is also our Granddaughters Olivia’s one year old birthday! Yet I was out early this morning just after the dew had evaporated and after preparing my new sprayer  for the task ahead, started spraying the many acres of lawns that we have here at Cobtree with weed and feed. It took just over 4 hours to complete the task and next week I have no doubt that I will have to start mowing twice a week until the summer arrives and hopefully then, the grass will slow down again until the fall arrives. I went over to see my friend Phil Wilkie who was doing some work on his Kubota tractor A few weeks ago, our mutual friend Todd Hoover (shown here with his new toy) had landscaped his pond for Phil and so Phil was getting the soil ready for planting grass seed today.

It is a beautiful day today and temperatures in the higher seventies (74 deg F right now inside our house) soon we will be cranking up the central air conditioning and complaining that it is too hot outside!

Last evening Jane went out with our friends Matt Parrott and Jenny Madia to first the Belhurst castle where we drank wine and sat outside by their fire pit overlooking the lake. Matt introduced us both to one of his friends Christie Payne who is the Assistant Events Coordinator for the Inn at Glenora Wine Cellars and what a lovely bright and intelligent person to meet on a lovely spring evening. Together we went on to Halseys’ for cocktails and a meal together.  Jane and I split an entree of slow braised lamb shank in a rich wine and Madeira sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. It was delicious excepting that the accompanying Brussel sprouts were well under cooked for our liking.  All the same, for just $26 we shared a great tasting meal together with friends and a great escape from our daily routine!

The daffodils and the tulips are now in full bloom, the trees and shrubs are all starting to bud, the grass is greening up more and more each day and the temperatures are in the high seventies this week. I think it is safe to say that spring has finally arrived here in the Finger Lakes. This morning I took this photo from our new deck of the sun rising above the Eastern shores of Seneca lake. And what a beautiful sight it was to behold. Whatever trials and tribulations we face in our daily lives, the beauty and tranquility of the place we live and work here on Armstrong Road makes both Jane and I feel so very humble.

Jane and I bought tickets to go and see Saturday nights play of the Beauty and the Beast over at the Marcus Whitman School. For just the princely sum of $10 each, we watched these young actors put on a play for the audience, far superior to the extremely poor and so called “professional performance” of Les Miserables that we watched at the Boston Opera house last Tuesday night and, as written about in my earlier blog.

The acting was suburb and the singing fantastic albeit there were to be fair, a couple of actors who found it difficult to carry a tune and were quite flat. The only disappointment was that the sound system was faulty and at best delivered a very scratchy and patchy sound through the speakers and at times completely nothing could be heard at all!  Such a shame that there sound system had failed in such a way and somewhat spoiled the play for both the actors and the audience alike. Ironically, the same problem occurred the previous night which was the opening night of the play on Friday.

I do hope that the school will start a fund raiser to buy a complete new system and to kick it of we would be happy to place $100 into a fund for this purpose. If you would like to donate anything after reading this blog, please send a check made out to Marcus Whitman School and post it to “Cobtree” at PO Box 1038, Geneva, New York 14456 and I shall make sure that it is delivered to the responsible person over at the school together with our own $100 check towards what I am told, would cost some $7000 to replace their sound system.

My favorite actors in the show were the lead actress Belle and Luminaire who did a truly wonderful performance and whom I believe could go on to become professional artists or singers in their own right.

Last Saturday Jane and I went to visit our good friends Bob and Deb Dorn  in North Attleborough in Massachusetts. When we left Geneva in the early morning it had already started to snow quite heavily and it continued to do so until we got to the other side of Syracuse when suddenly the skies cleared and the sun shone all day albeit quite chilly. Arriving at our friends house a little after 1pm we enjoyed a welcoming and hearty lunch of homemade chicken and bean soup. Deb is an amazing cook and belongs to a gourmet group that prepares and cooks gourmet dishes at each other’s homes so it came as no surprise that all of the food she cooked for us during our stay was so delicious!

The following day the Dorn’s took us for a drive over to Rhode Island for a visit to the coastal town of Newport. This very old British colonial town has many old buildings with wonderful architecture as well as fort Adam and not forgetting, the many opulent mansions along the tree lined Bellevue Avenue.  These mansions together must have cost an equivalent of the gross domestic product of a small country! We lunched at a small pub and restaurant aptly named the black pearl  down by the wharf where the food and atmosphere was excellent. After lunch we walked around the town and then later drove to a small consignment shop that sold a lot of old memorabilia and antiques. We actually purchased a small copper bottomed kettle with a whistle for the bargain price of just $5

All too quickly our stay with Deb and Bob came to an end and early Monday morning we drove up to Boston, a 40 minute drive away and checked into the Hyatt Regency Hotel located downtown Boston next to the theater district and to Chinatown  with its many restaurants  shops markets and alleyways with outdoor book stores. Unfortunately, a new building is being constructed right next to the hotel and it was quite noisy and dusty when you went out into the streets by the hotel. The hotel is also in need of refurbishing as although our room was quite pleasant and clean, the bathtub would not drain and the basin in the bathroom was badly cracked.

We wanted to stay an extra night at the hotel but was not willing to part with $300 a night to be able to do so given the construction work going on outside the hotel during the day and the fact that the overall standards and cleanliness of the hotel since we last stayed there has become lower. Instead, I went onto booking.com and found a small family run hotel down by Boston common  for just $179 a night and so we moved a short distance over to that hotel which was right next to the common and just a short walk to Chinatown and close to some very interesting buildings and shopping. We also drove over to Cambridge which was just a 10 minute drive away from our hotel and of course, we had to visit Harvard whilst we were there too!

On Monday night Jane and I went to see a show at the Boston Opera House Before the show Jane took me into a store to purchase a some new clothes.  Don’t I look dapper in here my new outfit?    I digress.  For all the beauty of the Boston Opera house with its domed ceiling and carved opulent architecture, the opening night performance on the 13^th of March 2012 was nothing less than miserable. The auditorium is very large and seats hundreds of people yet, the stage from the mezzanine looked like the size of a 14 inch television set! . There was no amplification and it was extremely difficult to hear the singing (if you could call it that) in fact it sounded more like shouting and shrieking and that is being polite! The only redeeming factor was the acting and singing of the two children in the cast otherwise, the show was a complete disaster.  The orchestra played and the actors sang but alas, to a completely different rhythm. I thought of an analogy that would sum it up which would be to say that I would prefer to have had root canal dentistry work carried out then to have to listen and watch this complete garbage again!  Jane and I (as did tens of other paying customers) walked out of the opera house during the interval many to be heard muttering what a complete waste of money they had spent watching this show. Shame on the actors, shame on the organizers.

All to soon it was time to drive back home to Geneva on Wednesday morning however, we both had a great time and a good break from the Finger Lakes.  Our thanks to Bob and Deb Dorn for being our gracious hosts and we long to see you again when you visit us this summer!

For all the beauty of the Boston Opera house with its domed ceiling and carved opulent architecture, the opening night performance on the 13^th of March 2012 was nothing less than miserable. The auditorium is very large and seats hundreds of people yet, the stage from the mezzanine looked like the size of a 14 inch television set!. There was no amplification and it was extremely difficult to hear the singing (if you could call it that) in fact it sounded more like shouting and shrieking and that is being polite! The only redeeming factor was the acting and singing of the two children in the cast otherwise, the show was a complete disaster.  The orchestra played and the actors sang but alas, to a completely different rhythm. I thought of an analogy that would sum it up which would be to say that I would prefer to have had root canal dentistry work carried out then to have to listen and watch this complete garbage again!

Jane and I (as did tens of other paying customers) walked out of the opera house during the interval many to be heard muttering what a complete waste of money they had spent watching this show.

Shame on the actors, shame on the organizers.

I awoke to a gloriously beautiful morning here at Cobtree albeit it was cold with a light frost on the ground. About mid morning it had started to snow quite heavily and no sooner the sun came out again and the snow was gone. This has continued throughout the day and we have just experienced another heavy blustery snow shower and you guessed it, the sun it out again!  Tomorrow Jane and I will be making a sojourn over to Massachusetts to visit friends that moved that way a couple of years ago.  On Monday we will then be going to stay at our favorite hotel in Boston, The Hyatt Regency Hotel on Lafayette Avenue and just around the corner from the Boston China town area which my wife being Chinese, really does enjoy very much.  Enjoy the Finger Lakes whilst we are away and guess what again, here comes another snow shower!

It has been a long day today here at Cobtree. At this time of the year we receive numerous telephone calls and email inquiries which have to be responded to, as well as taking care of the many reservations that follow on from these. In between, I also have to take care of some of the other admin duties as well as advertising etc.

This morning I received a visit from “Peter” who works on the staff of the Ottawa Parenting Times Magazine based over in Canada. A high quality publication in which we also advertise. Although Peter predominantly came over to attend a tourism conference over in nearby Syracuse, he never the less took the time and trouble whilst he was here to touch base with our company as well as visit a couple of his other clients in the region too. I wish to thank Peter for his visit and the kind gift of some freshly baked Tim Hortons muffins that he kindly brought for us. The one I had was absolutely delicious!

The Finger Lakes Times will this Sunday publish a readership survey about the paper and its staff.  If you send in the survey, you will be entered into a drawing to receive a voucher for a one week stay at Cobtree for up to six people sharing one of our larger properties.  Please note that there are some Blackout dates and conditions do apply to the voucher. If you would like to have an opportunity to win this voucher, all you have to do is read this Sunday’s Finger Lakes Times and enter the competition or click here.   This prize is worth the equivalent of $1600 but has no resale or commercial value. Click on the logo below to go directly to the Finger Lakes Times Website.

Thousands of Canadian white geese landed on the fields this morning making a spectacular addition to the ever changing landscape here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Watching these graceful birds landing was a joy as well as  cacophony of noise as they Gaggled with each other. The Finger Lakes is full of wild life and birds to watch each and every day. Yesterday I saw a red tail hawk spreading it’s wings atop a utility pole here on Armstrong Road but if flew away as soon as I pointed my camera at it. This morning on the way back from the Hall diner (Which incidentally, I believe the owners have now found a buyer for to take it on) Phil and I saw a group of deer munching on the grass on one of the fields coming home. Then by mid morning, it has started to snow again.  The spring bulbs are showing their heads and so another month and we will be once again well into spring.

Pull out your tropical shirts, put on your sunglasses, go sockless in your boat shoes, wear your favorite beach hat, and join us for a weekend of relaxation in the tropics . . . just remember, life is what we make it! Each ticket holder receives a gift item at their starting winery. A self-guided tour “cruising” around beautiful Seneca Lake, visiting over 30 unique wineries, each with their own tropical theme, over the 2-1/2 day weekend of “fun in the tropics”. Regular tickets purchased in advance are $30 per person. Click here for more information.

What a fantastic show Jane and I went to watch a the Smith Opera House, downtown Geneva last night. it was one of those last minute impromptu decisions to go out for the evening together. First we went to have a meal at the Pure Curry House and Grill restaurant located on Seneca Street and then afterwards, we went across the road to the Smith Opera house and purchased tickets to see the show that commenced at 7.30pm. For just a mere $23 each we watched one of the best Irish bands that we have ever seen and Eileen Ivers was simply stunning. The Smith Opera House plays host to many such live shows throughout the year as well as shows many movies as well. Check out the Smith Opera House when you come to stay at Cobtree and enjoy a great night out in downtown Geneva in the beautiful Finger Lakes of Upstate New York!

For the past few days I have been very busy  supervising the building of a new deck that wraps around the front and side of the property that Jane and I live in here at Cobtree.  This together with erecting ( of all things) an enclosure for a trash dumpster.   The new deck creates a space where Jane and I can sit out during the nice weather and warm evenings that we get here in the Finger Lakes. It will also be a nice place to entertain any family or friends visiting our own family. I still have to stain the deck a nice reddish maple color in the coming weeks as well as install a flood light etc.  I employed a local Mennonite builder as we did when we had built the four log cabins on the estate. They did a tremendous job of building the deck (and dumpster enclosure) and Jane and I are very pleased with the result.

Jane and I travelled over to Rochester on Valentine’s day to first enjoy a meal the Shanghai restaurant on West Henrietta Avenue and then to watch a Jazz concert in the Kilburn hall at the Rochester school of music. Like many of the concerts held at this venue, it was free. All together we had a great evening out together and something we look forward to repeating in the very near future. Yesterday I had to take Jane over to Syracuse, an hour’s drive away from Geneva, just to attend an appointment the USCIS (Immigration) service office there for her to have her “biometrics” taken which entailed just a photo and a fingerprints.

This took just five minutes to be done but I could not help laugh at the fact that when we first came to the USA together, we both had photos and fingerprints taken at the airport and to have go all the way over to Syracuse to have this done again is simply ridiculous. Not only did it absorb two and a half hours of our day, it also cost money for the gas, parking charge and wear and tear on our vehicle. Strangely enough, I was not asked for my own biometrics to be redone either!

This brings me to this morning. What a gloriously beautiful morning it is and with blue skies and sunshine. The snow has once again all but disappeared after the rain we had yesterday and the countryside looks like the precursor to spring.  I cannot wait until the daffodils and tulips start poking up through the soil and then spring will truly be here. We are once again fully booked this weekend and as time goes by, we shall start to rapidly become fully booked for the summer if the past four years are any reflection on the demand for our accommodations here at Cobtree.

All In All

It has been a busy week here at Cobtree for Jane and I. For example, answering inquiries by email and by telephone, taking guests reservations, processing credit card deposits, finalizing the inventory audit for each of the properties, adding  a number of hi-definition televisions to some of the properties, modifying the design of the new charcoal barbeque unit ordered from the Mennonite metal fabricators, placing advertisements, attending the local chamber of commerce business after hours, writing this blog and this afternoon, I was out in the fields helping my friend Todd Hoover put in some field drainage tile for a local farmer. It was such a glorious and warm afternoon, just like spring! Working out in the fields helps me get some good fresh air in my lungs and helps me keep fit however, I am a fair weather worker and so when it is bitterly cold, too hot or when it is raining, you will simply not find me out working in such adverse elements!

Jane as always works diligently at her translation and interpretation throughout the day but starts her day walking the two dogs. I on the other hand start my day down at the Hall Diner and chew the fat with the guys that go there together and dine around the “Power table”. These are made up of people from all walks of life. Retirees, farmers, construction workers, car repairers, local business owners and so on. There is always something to talk about and some topic or other to discuss for example, the application by the Martins in Gorham who are Mennonites wishing to start up a puppy mill there. This is a huge hot topic and resulted in thousands of people signing a petition against the operation even though the planning board approved the application. However, this decision was “vacated” by the town board at a special meeting last night on a technicality. It will be interesting to see how the application will now proceed with such venomous objections from both the local community and indeed, from objection from people throughout NY State and wider afield.

There is never a dull moment in the Finger Lakes!

Jane and I are pleased to inform you that every property at Cobtree now has two cable televisions. All but Cayuga cottage now has a  hi definition flat screen  LED or LCD television with either a built in DVD player or a separate DVD player or combination DVD and Video player.  The second Television in the property may either be a newer hi definition flat screen model or the older style TV as the case may be. Other than in Cayuga cottage, the old style televisions have replaced with the newer TV’S and the older ones placed in another room in the property. As these  fail over time, we will be replacing these too with the newer televisions.

Cayuga cottage has a very  large but older style stereo Sony television in the lounge which was not replaced as it is still a very good TV with a good picture. The TV upstairs is also an older style TV but is also good for use in the bedroom.

Jane and I took Cheeko and his canine friend Jacko out for a walk this evening along Armstrong Road just at dusk. Jacko is a standard poodle belonging to our friends that went away to Florida for the winter. As we walked along our driveway and out onto Armstrong Road, I looked down towards the lake and the sight was so beautiful that I had to stop and take this photo with my Iphone.  The photo is that of the bright moon high in the sky above Seneca Lake. The reflection of the light on the mill pond surface of the lake was breathtaking as was the moon itself that displayed so much detail. Simply stunning. The day was a glorious day and despite the early morning frost the temperature today reached into the high fifties here in the Finger Lakes. This is a dangerous time for grape growers because if the days become too warm and then in the days and weeks to come,  we have a severe frost or ice storm, this can easily kill the vines. Fingers crossed that the mild winter will therefore continue into spring!

I have to confess that I have never watched a live game of American football and have only ever rather cursorily watched a game on the television. American football is as we say back in England, “Not really my cup of tea”. Not only do I not understand the game but also, I consider the amount of money that is annually spent on the game and that of its highly overpaid players, to be repulsive. Such vast sums of money could be better utilized by so many good causes throughout the USA. This of course only my own point of view and opinion. The great thing about living the American dream is that in the USA everybody is entitled to their own opinion and may share your opinion through rights granted and enshrined in the first amendment to this country’s great constitution.

So for me, Superbowl Sunday may as well be, a Superbowl full of Chili. Whilst the masses may go to the many sports bars in the area and drink their fill of beer and spirits in front of a wide screen television set, and enjoy the game,  I on the other hand will be enjoying a visit to the local 8 screen cinema to enjoy a movie with Jane and those in the minority that do not watch American football or participate watching the super hyped Superbowl.

Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon

Sunday, July 15, 2012 – 7:00 am
1.2 mile swim – 56 mile bike – 13.1 mile run

Race cut-off times apply. The swim course closes at 8:40am, the bike course closes at 12:30pm, and the run course closes at 3pm. Swimmers will be brought to shore after this time and cyclists/runners should expect uncontrolled intersections and aid stations to be unavailable.  An ideal course for beginners and experienced athletes alike – here’s why plenty of aid stations on the course,five splits (swim, bike, run, T1, T2) will be taken for all athletes

DoubleMussel 88.7
Since the mini-Mussel moved to Saturday in 2007, we can offer crazy people – err, dedicated triathletes – the chance to compete in BOTH the mini-Mussel and Musselman half-iron. Aside from enjoying 88.7 total miles of fun, you get to sleep and eat in between. Fabulous prizes await the men and women will the lowest combined times, and we’ll honor those “going for broke” with extra supplies at the medical tent.
Aquabike returns
Thanks to a request from an athlete who wants to compete but can no longer run due to injury, the Musselman is proud to again offer an Aquabike division. Aquabike was formally introduced by USA Triathlon in 2004 and consists of the first two legs of the half-iron: a 1.2-mile swim and 56-mile bike. Participants receive three official split times (swim, T1, and bike) and start with their age group wave in the half-iron. Aquabike athletes will be given the same support as all Musselman athletes on and off the course but will not be eligible for awards.

Swim course (1.2mi/1.9km)
The single-loop swim features an in-the-water start and deep water throughout. Waves are typically 110-150 swimmers each, guided by skilled kayakers. Struggling swimmers will be helped to shore. Water temperature is typically in the mid-70′s, so expect wetsuits to be allowed.

Bike course (56mi/90km)
The rolling, single-loop bike course debuted in 2008 for the fifth anniversary race. Starting from Seneca Lake State Park, it traverses the byways of Seneca County to the east of Seneca Lake, including long stretches of shoreline on both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. You’ll pass wineries on the Seneca and Cayuga Wine Trails, penitentiaries, small towns, Mennonite farming regions (look out for horse & buggies!), and a shady stretch in Sampson State Park.

Run course (13.1mi/21km)
The single-loop run heads west along a lakefront path and winds its way through the city of Geneva.

Redecorating of our brick built cottages is nearing completion here at Cobtree ready for the start of Spring and into our peak summer rental season. Already we are seeing a number of advance bookings made throughout this year and are confident that we will have a good season if the momentum keeps up. There is still snow on the ground here at Cobtree albeit, the days are once again getting warmer and I suspect that after today the snow will pretty much have dissipated. I am going over to the nearby town of Canandaigua later this morning to attend a major research initiative for tourism meeting organized by the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection. From time to time I attend these type of functions in the belief that in some small way I can contribute to the discussions and also to be appraised of how tourism is working for both the region and the community of the Finger Lakes as a whole.

February is fast approaching and with it comes the start of the winery events calendar which starts with the Chocolate and Wine tasting weekend from the 10^th through 12^th February. This will closely be followed by Valentine’s day where many couples like to escape cabin fever and just get away for a short break from the norm. Next on the calendar will be the March Cruisin the Tropics weekend, a very popular event that runs this year from 23^rd through 25^th March. Tickets for all of these events can be purchased online at www.senecalakewine.com

The Geneva Chinese Kids Club celebrated the Year of the Dragon at the Geneva Hydrant Hose firehouse yesterday. It was a joyous occasion for the children many whom have been adopted from China by American families here. The group is supported by many local families and by Overseas Chinese students attending the local Hobart William Smith Colleges here in Geneva to whom the group send to them their sincerest thanks for all of their support. The photo above is that of Jane teaching Sean Wright Chinese Calligraphy and below Sean is doing some coloring. Here is a photo of the children doing a Chinese dragon dance and aptly, this is the year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar!

and finally, the children listening to a Chinese story read to them by teacher Wai.

Its official. The Hall diner is for sale with an asking price of just $120,000 for the whole building which includes the diner and three rental apartments. If not sold by July of this year the owners intention is to close the diner completely as they wish to retire from the running of the business and concentrate on their family it would seem. I enjoyed my breakfast this morning at the  Hall diner arriving a little later then my normal time and the diner was packed with families enjoying their breakfast together.

The snow that had accumulated earlier in the week has all bad disappeared once again as we had rain yesterday that melted it all away again. This winter has so far been so mild and must really be hurting the ski resorts like Greek Peak and Bristol Mountain this year. Already we have started to see our forward reservations materialize earlier than is normal for this time of the year together with many inquiries for people wanting to get married and to use our accommodations here at Cobtree.

We had planned on building two further properties here in the fall or early spring of 2013 but now think we will wait another year before doing so. An alternative plan would be to build a separate home for Jane and I nearby and then to rent out the property that we ourselves currently reside in here at Cobtree. In addition to this, we are looking into the feasibility of creating a location on site where people could enjoy holding a wedding, large group gathering, religious retreats, reunions and so forth and where, we could erect a  seasonal 40 x 60ft tent from May until end of September for this purpose and top build a unisex restroom next to it for the guests to use without the need to rent portable toilets or for the guests to use the bathrooms in the homes as they currently do when they hold such an event here at Cobtree. As you can see, a lot is going on behind the scenes and we are always looking to improve our business and services that we can offer to our guests.

This morning, Jane and I are going to be going to a Chinese New Year function down in the City of Geneva which is a small party for children (Predominantly adopted Chinese children from mainland China) to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon.

Our painters arrived today to start repainting the insides of the brick built homes here at Cobtree. Completed in the spring and early summer of 2005 these properties have held up very well to the number of guests that have stayed in these cottages over this time period but how the ceilings get black streaks and marks on them is clearly beyond my understanding. In one cottage, it was as if somebody had held  another person upside down and then allowed them to walk on the ceiling because no kidding, there were clearly outlined footprints on the ceiling of the living room/lounge!

Unlike the wood stained interiors of the log homes and cabins, these cottages all have painted walls and lacquered pine wood baseboards and doors and so, they have to be redecorated every few years. In general every 10 years is an average. Of course, this always costs a bunch of money for these works to be carried out and with the ever rising costs of materials to do so. Having said this, it is paramount that we maintain the fabric of our buildings and grounds as well as keep the internal decoration of our properties in good condition. We successfully have a high occupancy rate and high rate of returning guests only because we offer them a good standard of accommodation as well as being clean and well equipped.

We are also gradually changing our old style televisions in our living rooms (lounge area) for flat screen televisions and by putting the older ones in the bedrooms which currently do not have them (After all, are guests not supposed to be on vacation?) By this summer we should have completed this process too. We are also looking into purchasing a 6ft x 30ft charcoal barbeque pit for guests to be able to rent for a small additional fee (These things too are mega expensive to purchase). These will allow small or large groups to be able to cook great charcoal barbequed food on rather than just the propane gas grills that we supply as part of the rental right now. More on this subject as we move forward into spring.

Incidentally, Kung Hay Fat Choy to everyone reading this blog and thank you for bookmarking our web site or for following our blog too.

It is true. I cannot deny it. I have way too much time on my hands during the cold winter months. Take today for example.  This morning  I have been researching the purchase of a commercial grade charcoal barbeque grill like this one displayed here. As you can imagine built in stainless steel, they are not cheap! This one with delivery for example would cost $3400. Manufactured and shipped from Texas of all places. I wonder whether I can get a local manufacturer to make me one of these in stainless steel which would save me $400 on trucking alone. Then, I have been looking at ones made in Georgia in carbon steel. Of course, one manufacturer claims theirs is better than another or the other manufacturer will claim that that one is made of thin steel and so on. I am certain that if I asked the local Mennonites that they could build one for me in regular steel much cheaper but then, how many years would the thing  last before the bottom fell out of it!

Added to the above,  making an investment of this magnitude we have to get a return on the investment and so how do we go about charging the guests for its use? Right now, every property is provided with a propane gas barbeque unit included in the property rental charge and, with free propane refills to boot! We would have to charge some $35 plus cost of any charcoal consumed to a guest that wanted to use this equipment for a large group, wedding party, reunion etc.  Lets say we rented out the unit to guests for say $35 a time and we rented it 20 times a year, it would take almost five years to pay for itself and not including interest. Perhaps then the Mennonite option really is starting to look more attractive.

Then again, what will guests think when they go to use a carbon steel barbeque unit to find it covered in rust unlike a 304 stainless steel quality unit  built in a 14 gauge material,  should never rust and would last a lifetime!

Ah….. Way too much time on my hands I think!

Today was Kylies birthday and to celebrate the big day, her family held a birthday party for Kylie Harvey and her friends at the nearby Town of Seneca’s Pavilion. Kylie turned 5 today. The town of Seneca rent their pavilion throughout the year for various events and functions and is it’s use is free of charge for any residents living in the town. The building was financed by the Cassella waste management services company in the town of Seneca.

It is a sad fact that the Hall diner is closed on a Monday. This means that My neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie and I have to find another eating venue to haunt and so we patronage bagels and cakes on Hamilton street in downtown Geneva and our mutual friend and local farmer Bob Spink joins us for breakfast each and every Monday at 7am.

Club 86 are the owners of Bagels and cakes and they serve a delicious selection of breakfast items including their signature freshly baked bagels as well.  The coffee is great too. As much as I would like to eat a freshly made bagel, alas they are difficult for me to digest and so usually I stick to just the one egg over easy and a rasher or two of bacon and of course, freshly brewed decaffeinated coffee.

Together we sit and watch the news on the wide screen TV and chew the fat together. Meanwhile up the road at the Denny’s restaurant, you would find our friend Glen Quackenbush and Fred Jenson having their breakfast together. On a Monday Denny’s restaurant deducts a whopping $1 off the bill for anybody who has an AARP card or basically, if you officially qualify as being a certified “Old Fart”.

Phil and I do not care much for the Denny’s restaurant and much prefer the setting of Bagels and cakes. Once again it is a bitterly cold day here at Cobtree. Last night the temperature outside was as low as 5F although this morning it was 12F at 8am. I am snuggled now in the warmth of our house and as I type this blog I can see outside the window overlooking the lake to the East and to the West up the hill and the woodlands to the North. The sun is finally poking it’s head out of the clouds and not forgetting, the sunrise over the lake this morning was nothing less than spiritual!

Jane and I are about finished with our telethon calling friends and family around the world to wish them all a Happy New Year. I confess, we are a little late in doing so this year and for this we apologize! The snow is thick and deep here at Cobtree right now. We have had an accumulation of some 6-8 inches in places as well as several snow drifts around the property. This afternoon was a beautiful afternoon with blue skies interspersed with puffy white clouds. This morning Seneca Lake looked like it was boiling and fog rose up in columns from its surface. It truly was spectacular to see. Even though it has been so cold and with the snowfall, we have had a busy weekend all the same. So many guests come to stay with us because they want to experience the winter beauty of the Finger Lakes and of course, we are also Pet friendly and they can bring their beloved pets with them to walk the many woodland trails that we have here at Cobtree too.

It is a freezing winters day with lots of snow outside my window. Here I am eating a small bowl of a Chinese black sesame seed paste dessert that is prepackaged and all you need to do is add boiling water to. There is about 100 calories to a packet and so here I am on the exercise bike burning off the 100 calories that I am eating. It takes 20 minutes!

As you may have read in an earlier blog of mine,  I have been busy both physically working in the fields around Cobtree helping my friend Todd Hoover lay several hundred feet of drainage tile. We have employed Todd to do this type of work for us here at Cobtree simply because he is the “King” when it comes to any excavating work, drainage, landscaping and of course, field tiling required throughout the area.

This work has been going on for the last week but for the last two days I have not done any physical work myself but, have spent much of the day mesmerized by watching Todd fell the many huge poplar trees along the hedgerow in front of Cobtree (Between our resort and Seneca Lake) as well as removing all the dead brush with his Hitachi 360 degree excavator. At the end of the first day he started this particular work this week, it really did look like a war zone. However, today Todd piled all the timber and brush into neat piles to dry out and cleared and tidied everything up. At some point in time we have to think of what to do with the masses of wood that is now laying on the ground some distance away, I may add,  from where our properties are located. Perhaps we will have a huge bonfire on Guy Fawkes night next year and sell tickets to the event to raise money for a local charity. We have twice done this in the past when we combined the event with good food and music by the crooked lake fiddlers and were able on each occasion to raise over $500 for the Geneva Boys and Girls Club as well as the West Lake Road Fire House. Sadly however, the DEC have brought out new rules regarding burning of brush and wood and it may well be that we will no longer be able to do this regardless of the great cause for the money that we can raise for charity from doing so. I shall have to check the rules I guess to see what is permitted.

It is quite amazing that the temperatures are still in the high forties here, in January when typically, we have snow or deep frost in the ground. Today was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and the lake was a beautiful dark blue. The removal of the trees and brush now means that all of our homes here at Cobtree now have even more beautiful views over Seneca Lake.

I will take some photos in the next day or two and post them here for everyone to see the spectacular views that Todd has opened up by removing these “weed trees”

Sadly our son Daniel could not make it over to share Christmas and New Year together as a family. We did keep in touch by phone though and Daniel was able to be with Jane’s brother back in England for part of the festivities.

Photos courtesy of Teresa Hoover Photographer. From the left: Robert Lawty, Kenneth Lawty, Olivia Lawty, Gemma Lawty, Jane Lawty and below, Daniel Lawty.

For example, we have one contractor working away on site around the grounds cleaning out ditches, felling some cottonwood trees to further open up our views over Seneca Lake, installing 1500ft of perforated tile in one of our fields to improve drainage to the land for the growing of crops and we shall shortly be having some interior painting works carried out to the brick built cottages as well. All of this requires planning and some amount of supervision as well as making them coffee and snacks which is more of an English tradition than American. We also take the time to check the inventories of everything we supply in the properties for our guests to ensure that at minimum what we display in the inventory information on our web site is accurate and up to date. Then there is the advertising contracts to be reviewed and renewed at this time of the year too. The snow that we had last week has now completely melted away with the 45F temperatures which is so unseasonably warm for this time of the year and more like spring weather!

We have some reservations this weekend and guests still come to enjoy the peace and beauty of the Finger lakes and the hospitality of its people. Many will visit those wineries that open their doors throughout the year and the many restaurants that abound the region as well. This evening I took this photo here at Cobtree and the sunset was glorious with both the sun setting in the West and the Moon already high in the sky to the East. You too may escape the winter blues and “cabin fever” and come to stay with us here at Cobtree – The Finger Lakes Experience!

Our son and his family have now safely returned home to England having spent the last two weeks visiting Jane and I here at Cobtree.  We had a glorious Christmas and New Year together and was only saddened that our son Daniel could not make it over to be with us and to enjoy the festivities and the time together. Our Granddaughter Olivia was a bundle of joy too. At 9 months old she is quick to crawl around the house and she can also get around on her feet by holding onto the furniture. It will not be long now before she takes her first independent steps. For the first time in many years we put up a Christmas tree and decorated it for their arrival which we had been longing so much for as it was the first time we had seen Kenneth and Gemma in two years and the first time we were to meet Olivia. The weather was a blessing too as leading up to Christmas it was so mild and then before they left to go back to England, it started to snow and they were able to enjoy some of the stunning winter views here at Cobtree overlooking Seneca Lake. We already miss them so much but, they are planning on visiting us again in February 2014.

We also had friends come over from Canada to stay with us .  We enjoyed their company together for a couple of days before sadly, they too had to return home. Julia and Ming Fei have been our friends since the early 90′s when we together formed and owned a company in mainland China.  However, they do plan to visit us again in the summer this year for a longer vacation together.

Meanwhile, I have also been missing my sister Karen who lives in England. Her husband passed away last summer and she became withdrawn and reclusive and we have drifted apart as a result. Jane and I love her so very much and do hope that she will be able to find the strength to get back in touch with us and to be part of our family once again.

Happy New Year to everybody we know and to all of our guests that have stayed or have yet to stay at Cobtree.

Whatever you do, DO NOT purchase any exercise machine or equipment produced by this company. They only offer a 90 day warranty and beyond that they do not offer any after sales care or replacement parts whatsoever. I purchased a quite expensive exercise bike from them in December 2010 and 11 months later, the crank broke off the machine. When I contacted the supplier Meijer.com they would not offer any resolution and when I contacted Elite in California, they did finally respond after 10 days and then only to inform me that beyond their 90 days warranty, they did not offer any solution for any machines or equipment sold by them that break from use.  They do not sell any spare parts at all and basically they told me to go “Hoot” Buyer be very aware that Elite do not stand by their product and that if your purchase breaks after the 90 day warranty that comes with your purchase, you can do nothing about it at all. Not even obtain the spare part to fix the problem.  My advice is DO NOT purchase anything from this company!

I ask you, who could possibly believe that my good friend Glen Quackenbush could be related to no less than two past Presidents of the United States of America but purportedly, it is never the less true! I was wondering what these two past Presidents ate for their breakfast each morning. Jerry Hoover (Owner and part time cook of the Hall Diner in Hall NY) recently created this edible Christmas tree breakfast for Glen just before Christmas this year. Three pancakes and sausage for just $5 with coffee!

My family and I went to the new Indian restaurant on Seneca Street in downtown Geneva today for lunch. The Pure Grill and Curry house was quite busy and we decided on trying their lunchtime buffet. The buffet whilst not being as extensive as the one we recently tried in Rochester NY, was never the less very good and the dishes were very tasty and, not to spicy. Among my favorites were the Tandoori chicken which is prepared with very mild spices and cooked in a clay oven called a Tandoor. The chicken korma was delicious as was the freshly baked nan bread too. I would highly recommend the restaurant to anybody who likes Indian food as it is an authentic Indian owned and run restaurant that brings a fresh taste of the Indian subcontinent to the Finger Lakes Region.

My family and I decided to get away for Christmas and found the perfect little cabin overlooking Seneca Lake.  From the minute we walked in, we knew we made the right decision.  It was amazing.  Quiet, clean, and everything you could ever need in a well-stocked kitchen, plus – beds so comfortable, I had to sneak a peek at the label so I could get one for home.  We loved it and will try to return soon.  Best Christmas ever!

The Kerbein’s
East Greenbush, NY

It takes a lot of will power at this time of the year to avoid eating, especially after successfully achieving a rapid weight loss from my gastric bypass surgery. In keeping with the norm in business, at this time of the year, Jane and I are invited to a multitude of social functions and parties to which we like to attend whenever possible. Take today for example. The Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance was holding it’s annual Christmas party for its members, staff and guests to which we were happy to attend. The wine flowed and the food was great and mingling with other business owners is always a pleasure. On my way out with Jane a couple of hours later, I could not help but participate in sampling some of the best ice cream you will find anywhere in the world let alone in the Finger lakes.

The Cayuga Lake Creamery have over the years produced over 150 flavors of ice cream and sorbets and today I enjoyed a small portion of their egg Nog flavored ice cream made with real egg nog and delicious it was too. Next time you are visiting the Finger Lakes Region, stop by the Cayuga Lake Creamery and enjoy the finest hand crafted ice cream you are ever likely to find wherever you may travel to.

The Snow has continued to fall throughout the day. The big question is, will it still be around for Christmas day?

Just a few more days and it will be the shortest day of the year. Although the sun was out part of the day, it is deceiving as it is bitterly cold outside.  Last night we had winds over 70 miles per hour and there are many trees that have fallen over around the area. The town of Gorham had a power outage yesterday afternoon that lasted will into the night, caused by fallen trees one of which hit a transformer somewhere or other. I myself had to go out onto the fields to retrieve some recycling bins that had blown halfway down the hill as well. It is so strange not to have snow by now as this is the first time since we moved to the USA in 2005 that we have not had snow leading up to Christmas. Now at 4.38 in the afternoon looking out over Seneca Lake, it is dark and foreboding and darkness is almost upon us.

I enjoyed a great evening out yesterday at the Geneva chamber of commerce after hours held at the Opus Espresso and wine bar on Exchange street in downtown Geneva. After meeting so many business acquaintances and friends and “chewing the fat together” I went with my friend Matt Parrott first to Rylie J’s and then to Halsey’s Firehouse Bistro for a bite to eat. Although outside it was bitterly cold and raining, we never the less kept warm inside and enjoyed a good meal and few drinks together. There is after all, always something to do or enjoy in Geneva New York!

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. Well, at least dreaming as odds are that this year we may well not have snow this Christmas with the weather forecast looking as it does today. Not only do we have family from England coming over to stay with us but we now also have friends coming over to stay with us from Canada immediately after Christmas this year as well. So, we are going to be very busy over this yule tide season. Of course, some snow would be nice, especially up at nearby Bristol Mountain as we could then go out skiing together as well. Still, there is always plenty of things to do around the Finger Lakes region all year round and I don’t believe for a moment that we will get bored. In any event, having friends and family around is a blessing in itself and no doubt we have lots to chat about and things to catch up on as well.

Finger Lakes from space

Even when things are slow there is still plenty of things to do. I do not mean just watching TV or eating one’s self out of house or home but, real work to be done. Christmas and New Year is not looking as busy as we were last year at this time as can be expected from the fairly dismal economy right now. Many people still want to get away for a few days but they are looking for real bargains and, who can blame them? The weather is also not playing ball right now as there is no snow and no snow even up at elevations such as Bristol mountain either. Take today for example, the morning was bitterly cold with a frost but then transformed into a gloriously sunny day. Meanwhile, I have had a number of maintenance works to carry out around the property, fielding emails and telephone calls inquiring well into next year and of course, I have to maintain this blog to boot! The lake is looking so blue today with the clear blue skies above and everything looks so peaceful here at Cobtree.

The weather today reminded me of England 50% of the year.  It was wet, grey, overcast and a thoroughly miserable day in the Finger Lakes. Not that this prevented me from doing a whole bunch of chores and errands throughout the day. First it was to the post office in downtown Geneva to collect mail from our post office box and then to post some Christmas cards back home to Blighty. Not cheap I may add at .98 cents for each small Christmas card. No wonder so many people sign up online to web sites such as Jacquie Lawson to send greeting cards throughout the year to family and friends.

Whilst out and about, I bought a couple of takeout coffees from Tim Horton’s and a couple of donuts to take to my friend Todd Hoover who was having an equally miserable day digging ditches on some land owned by Seedway. This company is one of the largest seed growers and distributors in the USA and based right in Hall NY where my beloved hall diner is also located. Whilst Todd scoffed on the two donuts and drank his coffee whilst sitting comfortably in the back seat of his truck, I drank my coffee outside whilst it drizzled and drizzled with rain.

For me then it was just one of those days here in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York.

I have received many emails from people asking after my health when it was learned that I was recently hospitalized whilst on vacation with Jane down in San Antonio in Texas. Mercifully, the Grim reaper himself was also on vacation but perhaps in the Bahamas as I was very fortunate not to have snuffed it.  Here I relate what happened.

In the middle of October 2011, I felt some pain in my groin whilst vigorously exercising. I went to see an Urologist who diagnosed me as having a small inguinal hernia on the right side. He recommended that I go to see a general surgeon. This I did on the 25^th October 2011 and she recommended that it be repaired and that it was a simple and regular outpatient procedure. On the 9^th November 2011 I had the operation carried out by Dr Lael Forbes, MD at the Highland Hospital Surgical Day Centre in Rochester NY. Everything seemed to go very well and my surgeon confirmed to me that there was no preclusion to travel by air on Monday the 14^th November 2011 or to go on vacation together with Jane.

The trip to San Antonio was uneventful and we arrived at around 11am local time. However, during the late afternoon, I started to have pains in my lower abdomen and progressively these pains became worse and my belly became distended. On Tuesday the 15^th of November 2011 I went with my wife to visit the Alamo in the morning. By 11am I was in excruciating pain, my belly was rigid like a board and, I simply could not suffer the pain anymore.  I called the Highland Hospital in Rochester NY and they put me through to my surgeon there. After carrying out some checks over the phone, as well as temperature and pulse rate, she instructed me to go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

On arrival at the emergency room of the Baptist Medical Centre, I collapsed and was thus taken into their care. After examinations and a CAT scan I was diagnosed as suffering a massive Hematoma most probably as a result of a blood vessel being “nicked or damaged” during my  hernia repair surgery 6 days earlier.

As a result of this Hematoma, I had to remain immobilized and to stay in hospital 3 nights. When finally released from the hospital, I was forbidden by the Doctors and surgeon of the hospital to fly back home until Wednesday 23^rd November 2011 and only after being cleared for travel after seeing the surgeon again on the 22^nd November 2011 so this extended our trip by 6 nights.

It was indeed a close call that I got to a hospital when I did as overnight I lost a pint of blood and in total and estimated 3 pints of blood as recorded from the blood counts taken at the hospital. The good news is that I am on the mend and the even better news is that I am now weighing in at just 192lbs. I feel so sorry for Jane who was immensely worried about me. What a rock of Gibraltar Jane has been as my wife and soul mate in this life.

Click here to visit the article published in the Destinations Travel Magazine online.

Being a Monday when the Hall diner is alas closed, Phil and I ate breakfast at the bagels and cakes restaurant on Hamilton street in Geneva.  They make the most superb freshly made bagels albeit, I cannot eat them anymore as they tend to stick in the small pouch that I have in place of a stomach. So, for me it was a sausage Pattie and an egg over easy, washed down with several cups of great tasting coffee (double cream of course). Phil ate a hearty breakfast bagel with bacon and egg and joined by Bob Spink and later Bob Meyer then there were three “Bobs” around the table and one Phil!

I had quite a busy morning answering a variety of email inquiries for the Christmas and New year as well as for reservations into 2012. People do tend to book late these days wishing I believe to get last minute bargains, discounts as well as conserve their cash or credit lines. In the afternoon, I accompanied a lands surveyor to pin out the property line of two new parcels of land that we recently purchased and closed on last week. We have a number of trees between our property and the lake. These old popular trees have grown so tall that we now plan on felling them to further open up our views over Seneca lake. If all goes to plan this should be done within the next month, hopefully before the major snows and frost arrives here.

Then this evening Jane and I were visited by an agent for AFLAC as we are planning on taking out some policies with them as it occurred to us that if either one of us became ill, we would have to employ somebody to do the others work and this could run into a few thousand dollars a month!  Just when you think you are doing well and have all the answers, something happens! Well after all, don’t they call this the Good Life?

I was up at the crack of dawn once again this morning. The landscape was covered in a crisp white frost. Jack had certainly been working hard throughout the night and it took several minutes before I could clear the windshield on my car to be able to drive over to the Hall diner. Once there, and for a mere $5 including taxes, I can have unlimited decaffeinated coffee, a small bowl of oatmeal with sugar free maple syrup and milk, a rasher of bacon and one scrambled egg. This morning was no exception to the banter and chewing of the fat that I have come to immensely enjoy down at the diner 5 if not six days of the week. My diner friend and local sheep farmer Beth is going to be heading over to England just before Christmas. Ironically, my older son Kenneth, our daughter in law Gemma and our Granddaughter Olivia will be coming this way almost to the day that Beth is heading over to England as part of a visiting church group.

Although the sun shone throughout the day, it never the less has been a bitterly cold day here in the Finger Lakes. I took some time out of my rather busy schedule (Joking) to call a few friends back in England and later in the afternoon was able to “Facetime” with my friends down in Brisbane in Australia. There, it is has hot as hell right now, quite the contrary to the weather here in Upstate New York. As mentioned in an earlier blog, we are fully booked this weekend for the last of the Deck the halls weekend sponsored by the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. Between now and Christmas Jane and I have been invited to a number of parties which will give us both an opportunity to socialize and catch up with our peers, acquaintances and friends in the local tourism industry.

We have just submitted another ream of supporting documents to the immigration department here in the USA via our immigration attorneys in support of our application to extend our stay once again for another two years. This whole process is a bone of contention and extremely frustrating for any E2 investor let alone Jane and I who are wrung through the ever bureaucratic process every two years and, which precludes Jane and I from travelling to and from the USA. Essentially, we are landlocked.

2011 has been a good year for our business and as our business has matured we have been able to gain stability and we have so many returning guests to thank for our success in what we do and are very humbled by their patronage.

This coming week I will start to get the site cleaned up after the fall. Shrubs to be trimmed back, trees to be pruned, fallen leaves raked up and the berms around Cobtree tidied up ready for the onslaught of winter yet to come. I am hoping that when the snow finally does arrive this year that I will be able to try my hand at skiing once again. Last time is was disastrous and I came down the Sunset slope of the nearby Bristol Mountains Ski Resort like a runaway locomotive. Yes, you may all laugh at this but my memory is one of absolute terror. Imagine a fat 270lb balding man out of control sliding down a slope like a bat out of hell!

In the spring of this year I looked like this. (Note the overhanging pot belly) and in the middle of November 2011 I look like this. A leaner and much fitter model than before albeit, still balding. Anything is possible  in life and with the right  tools to be able to achieve it. In my case, a gastric bypass.

It is a mild but blustery day here at Cobtree today. On my return from the Hall diner with my neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie, we saw literally thousands of large crows out on the fields surrounding the Cobtree estate. They seemed eerily frightening reminding me of the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Birds”. Our pet mutt Cheeko hates crows so as soon as I opened the door to our cottage, he bolted straight out between my legs, nearly knocking me over in the process, straight out onto the fields barking and away flew the crows. We have seen quite a few deer around as well as the geese and other migratory birds flying overhead. The trees are now all but barren of their leaves but the fields still look nice and green with the winter wheat that has been planted this year. Now we are waiting for the snow to arrive and of course, Christmas and New Year where once again, we get pretty much booked up year on year.

I went to see my surgeon yesterday and she announced that I am definitely on the mend and so I for one am still alive and Kicking!

Once again we have been blessed by having a full house this past Thanksgiving holiday period and, this weekend as well. The weather has been quite moderate but the evenings and early morning are quite cold. The local wineries and restaurants still remain busy at the weekends with many visitors coming on a wine tour. The last of the deck the halls weekends this year on the Seneca Lake wine trail will be this coming weekend the 3^rd and 4^th of December. Then the next busy time for us here at Cobtree will be Christmas and then New year. I am slowly recovering from my short illness although still very “sore”. My Doctor informed me that it will take some time to become fully healed. The good news is that my weight continues to drop, now weighing in at just 192lbs from the 267lbs that I weighed back on June 17^th this year so, I really have very little to complain about I guess.

As the fall winds down and we move into Christmas and the New Year, everything starts to slow up until we have some snow. Then, we start to get our winter guests arriving to take advantage of the snow and nearby Bristol mountain for some downhill skiing and snowboarding fun!

I apologize that I have not posted a blog for some days now.  Jane and I went to San Antonio in Texas for a few days vacation and whilst down there, I was taken to the emergency room of the local Baptist hospital and diagnosed with a massive Haematoma caused as a direct result of a recent hernia repair. I lost three pints of blood and was in a bad shape for a few days. As I could not fly home for a week and did not have access to a computer, I was unable to post my daily blog.  The good news is that I am alive and kicking and trying to get back to good health again.

Jane and I send to everyone our wishes for a very happy thanksgiving.

Our respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our liberty and freedom around the world.

Enough Said.

Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed by my Urologist at the Geneva General Hospital as having an inguinal hernia. I immediately went to see the surgeon over at Highland Hospital in Rochester who carried out my gastric bypass surgery on the 17th of June this year. Dr Lael Forbes  is one of the leading general surgeons in the State of New York and specializes in bariatric medicine and of course, the gastric bypass procedure. Yesterday I was admitted for day surgery at the Highland Hospital surgical day center and from start to finish they took great care of me throughout. Here I am waiting on the hospital gurney ready to go into surgery yesterday morning. The procedure took about an hour and a half although I was at the hospital from 8.45 in the morning until nearly 4 pm arriving back home groggy and sore at 5 in the evening. I was so tired that I immediately went to my bed and slept for a good few hours before waking up to have some supper. Then when it was time to go to bed, I could not sleep! In fact, I recall only be able to drift off to sleep around 4am today and at 6.30 my body clock awoke me and I was down at the Hall diner by 7. I was famished and I have to say, that I did eat a much heartier breakfast than I normally do, consisting of a small western omelette a rasher of bacon and one slice  of buttered toast washed down with several mugs of decaffeinated coffee.

Thank goodness though for Vicodine!

So, whats new?  Well…we had a full house once again this past weekend and although this coming weekend we have a good occupancy, the next highlight this year will the first of the Deck the halls weekend on the 18th through 20th November followed by Thanksgiving on the 24th November  and then the 2nd Deck the halls weekend on the 2nd through 4th December 2011. This week is going to be a very busy one for me personally. Today I did a lot of running around and had to take my car over to Ontario Honda over in Canandaigua to get it checked out. It turned out to be a bad battery which needed to be replaced. which set me back a cool $128

Then there was a visit to the Bank of the Finger lakes, the post office, the Auto shop, Staples, Tops supermarket ( where I ran into my good friend Pete Ells doing his weekly shop there too) and of course, I had to drop my 2 year old battery over to my friend Quacky on my way back from Canandaigua for him to be able to return it to his suppliers “Interstate batteries”  to be replaced under their guarantee.  Ah yes, a busy day indeed!

Then tomorrow (if you have not lost interest already in today’s blog which is all about me I am afraid) I have to see my GP and then call Highland Hospital to check in for my surgery this Wednesday. Yep, surgery again this time for a hernia operation. Then on Thursday morning (providing I am still around) I have to see my urologist followed by a trip to Rochester for lunch with our son Daniel at the New Cantonese Chinese restaurant and then onto the airport to see him off on his journey back home to England. This is always a sad occasion for Jane and I, particularly for Jane. Friday is pretty clear and then on Sunday we have to drop Cheeko to Quacky’s house in the evening because on Monday, Jane and I are flying to San Antonio for a 4 day mini break staying at the Grand Hyatt near to the River walk. A well deserved break we are looking forward to after a long and busy season here at Cobtree.

Last night, we again went to the deluxe restaurant on North Genesee street for a meal together with our son Daniel and friends Brad and Britney. As usual, the restaurant was packed to capacity and the food was as always, excellent. Jane and I shared a plate of fresh haddock covered in their own fresh made deluxe cheese sauce. Daniel ate a Delmonico steak whilst Brad ate a hearty plate of Riggitoni pasta and Britney had her usual chicken fingers and fries. Yuk!

Then it was onto Tim Horton’s for a a freshly made cuppa coffee and Daniel drank some hot apple cider. Pussin Boots was a scream. One of the most enjoyable movies I have seen for some time now and one of the characters even looked the spitting image of my good neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie! This animated movie was shot in 3D and starred the voice of the actor Antonio Bandaris as Pussin Boots. Although very much a film made for children, Jane Daniel and I simply could not stop laughing as it was so funny and the 3D effects were awesome.