Britt and I used birch plywood to refinish a few of the floors in the house. The wood was so pretty that we could not bring ourselves to throw away the larger scraps. Britt kept them neatly stacked in a corner for about 1.5 years until we finally came up with the idea to make […]
Author Archive: Jake
Kayaking on Big Pond
As a gear geek, I was super intrigued a few years ago when I first learned of Oru’s foldable kayaks. As a New Yorker, I was also very skeptical about how great it could actually be. The fact that Oru did not fold/go under (pick your pun) after its first year of existence, but instead […]
Some Birds Redux
The lens doubler that I mentioned over here arrived at some time in April (I believe). These are some additional photos from when the feeder was in the tree (while it was still too cold for bears to be out). Even though I only get a f/5.7 max aperture, I’m still pretty happy with the […]
Catskills Fire Tower Challenge
During the warmer months, we try to get in at least one hike per weekend. Britt has spent a fair amount of time researching trails for us to explore (she is an official forest steward of the Delaware Wild Forest, haha). One thing that Britt discovered is that there are various “challenges” involving the completion […]
April (snow) Showers!
Our local ski mountain closed their lifts for the season about two weeks ago. Between then and now, we experienced few days where the temps peaked in the 70s. It was definitely feeling like spring. Then last Monday night it started flurrying and we woke up the next morning to about a foot of snow. […]
Some Birds
Though, I have never considered myself a “birder,” I have always enjoyed watching and photographing birds. My office in the Highmount House offers a second story western view, as well as a northern. I got really lucky almost right off the bat with a handful a owl sightings. The longest lens that I own is […]
Not Catskills
We recently took a trip out west to some mountains that are slightly (~5x) taller than the Catskills to hang with our peoples that we have not seen since pre-pandemic times. Here are some snaps. Jakejake.news/
Pre-tile Work on the Downstairs Shower
Getting the shower box to the point that it was actually ready for tile was quite a process. After installing all of the plumbing, we had to create the cement pad for the floor, hang cement board, and waterproof the whole thing. Here is a timelapse video of that process with some corny narration- downstairs […]
Plumbing the Downstairs Shower
As a part of the downstairs bathroom renovation we rerouted most of the plumbing. The shower is located where a very large bathtub originally sat. None of the old plumbing was up to code, and had to be seriously overhauled. Here is a narrated timelapse video of the process for plumbing the shower drain and […]
Recap of the Year 2020 in Jake’s iPhone Photos
This year was a lot different for pretty much every human on the planet, including me. As a result, the difference in this year’s photo recap, vs those from past years is pretty stark, starting around March. In keeping with tradition, I dumped all of the photos from my phone that were taken this year […]