Greetings faithful readers! So late summer is settling in now and everyone asks, where did the summer go? Some of the birds that migrated north back in the spring have already raised their young and have left the area. We seem to notice when the birds arrive up north, but we sometimes don’t realize that the birds have left our area. For example, red-winged blackbirds, one of the harbingers of spring, have now left the area as well as the house wrens, and their incessant chatter. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the juvenile ospreys that had fledging issues. The day after I wrote my news column, I learned that the juvenile osprey in that awesome photo was killed by an owl.  So sad. After my last Kenoza Lake news column and the Great Egret writeup, I did receive a phone call from Linda Immoor saying that the Immoors had a Great Egret on their farm pond. 

Mid-August is Grahamsville Fair time in Sullivan County.  Over the years, Kenoza Lake farmer Dave Slater’s cows have made their way to the fair and this year is no different. A few weeks ago, Elaine and Ella Herbert started training the above two cows for the fair. The Herbert girls are members of the 4H club, The Kenoza Lake Hummingbirds. (I was a member of the Hummingbirds, back in the early 1970s.) The above-two cows will be accompanied to the Fair by their two calves.  The cows and calves will leave for Grahamsville on Thursday and will be spending the weekend on the fairgrounds. So, when you go to the fair this weekend, be sure to stop in the dairy barn and say hello.

As many of you know, I grew up on a dairy farm and back when I was in fourth grade, it was my dream to show a cow at the fair. I started to walk a calf by the name of Christine.  I put a rope halter on her and would walk her up and down the middle of the barn. However, the calf started to grow and before too long, the cow grew to be a 2000-pound animal. The cow liked to run away from me, and it turned out that Christine would be at one end of the barn with the rope halter and I would be at the other end in tears.  Christine and I never made it to the Fair. So, every time I see a young person at fair-time with a cow or a calf, it brings back memories of Christine the cow and me. 

Faithful readers of this column know that I am an avid Mets fan (just like my late father, Robert Brown). Mets fans are used to disappointment. This year was no exception. However, the Mets did blow up their team prior to the July 31st deadline and as they say, hope springs eternal. Mets fans get pleasure when the Mets win and when the Yankees lose. As bad as the Mets look right now, things are looking brighter now for the Mets than for the Yankees. Wow! Where is the light at the end of the tunnel Yankees? Ouch! 

I exchanged text messages with Bud LeConey this morning and asked about how Pastor Bridgette LeConey was doing. Bud asks that we continue to keep Pastor Bridgette in our prayers as she continues to face very challenging health issues. Lay preacher John Girrbach will be in the Kenoza Lake United Methodist Church pulpit this coming Sunday, August 20th. I understand that Paul Thompson is no longer the pastor at the Jeffersonville United Methodist Church. He had some health challenges. Lay pastor Linda Simmons is the new pastor for the Jeffersonville United Methodist church. 

I think I have been to a chicken barbeque almost every single weekend this summer. Last weekend it was the Cherokee Hunting club chicken barbeque.  This weekend, the Smallwood/Mongaup Valley Fire Company chicken barbeque. I believe that next weekend it will be Hortonville and then the Iroquois Hunting Club chicken barbeque.