Finding Ulysses

Just along the southern border of the town of Ulysses, there has been a small herd of American bison for awhile now. They’re kept safely behind a fence, of course, farmed as cattle would be.

At least, that’s how it used to be. A couple weeks ago, the buffalo herd was liberated, and has been missing since, sighted a few times along the gorge trail in Taughannock Falls State Park…

…and online. Wednesday night, the herd was spotted and photographed by Nancy Cusumano, who lives on Duboise Road. Apparently, the animals have been using the Black Diamond Trail to move in relative peace, up toward Trumansburg and back down toward Ithaca.

Whoever thought that the trail would be used by domesticated animals to get back to nature?

It is said that, long ago, a small subspecies of woodland bison used to life in these parts. Is this a Trumansburg rewilding?

Thanks to the Grassroots Festival and Felicia of the Atomic Lounge, Trumansburg now has its own summer alcoholic beverage: Trumansburg Lemonade.

1 ½ ounce Woodford Reserve bourbon
¾ ounce Cointreau
¾ ounce lemon juice
2 rounded tsp sugar
club soda
lemon wheel

Fill a pint glass to top with ice. Add bourbon, Cointreau, lemon juice and sugar. Shake to mix. Top with club soda. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Now is the time. Trumansburg is the place. Drink.

We’ve got it better than they do down in Ithaca, where a friend tells me she filled up today at the price of $3.80 per gallon. Yet, we’re well above the national average at $3.75 per gallon of gasoline here in Trumansburg.

Actually, that’s $3.75.9 per gallon, to be precise. 24.1 cents per gallon of gasoline to go until we’re paying four dollars per gallon.

How soon will we make it to that point? It seems silly to predict, though gasoline prices typically go up during the summer time.

My family is not planning any long vacations this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see others staying closer to home as well.

It’s a national story, of course, and that means that we ought not to expect quite so many visitors as usual either… and perhaps a more local audience for the Grassroots Festival.

I consider myself lucky to have been listening to the radio yesterday afternoon, when an announcement came on declaring that the springtime has come on so fast, so hot, and so dry this year that no outdoor burning, including recreational campfires, are to be allowed in Tompkins County for the next five days. I’ll count that until next Friday, just so I can keep it straight in my head.

I might have considered it a good weekend to toast a few marshmallows back at the old fire pit otherwise. I shall content myself with a few strolls instead, I suppose.

The view certainly is nice enough, with plants rushing to break bud, opening leaf and flower… only it’s all happening so fast. Varieties of daffodil, I notice, that are ordinarily one after another this year are coming together.

I’ve mowed parts of my lawn twice already, and the snows were gone, I seem to remember, not long ago.

The old saying is that April showers bring May flowers, but what do April drought warnings bring? Just, um, grims?

This evening, rumors are running hot around Trumansburg that a bomb has been found on the playground.

It runs like this: So and so heard from somebody else that someone else’s uncle was listening to the police scanner, and overheard that the police had found a bomb on the playground of the Trumansburg schools.

I don’t know if it’s true. I know I haven’t heard any sirens. I know that when I’ve gone past the schools this evening, I haven’t seen any sign of any police cars there, or even anyone watching the grounds just in case.

Maybe it’s true. I’m inclined to believe that it’s not.

An article published just 4 minutes ago by News 10 Now doesn’t mention anything about a bomb on the playground.

I think our village has gotten a little bit rumor-happy in relation to this incident. We’re getting skittish, all over a slightly enhanced firecracker.

If I were a middle-school prankster, that’s exactly the reaction I’d be hoping for.

Let’s not provide this prankster with further reward. Let’s remain calm, and not see a bomb in every shadow on the ground.

Update: Over at Channel 36, they’re quoting a parent as saying “It would be nice if they set up surveillance cameras on a regular basis.”

I, for one, do not want my children learning that they need to have authorities spying on them with video cameras, even when they go to the bathroom, in order to be safe. I don’t want them learning that one child who makes an intimidating display can diminish the freedom of everyone else in our community.

It’s time to get out the seedlings you’ve planted inside and harden them off, giving them exposure to some wind and some strengthening sunlight. Bring out your container plants too, and put them on the back stoop.

Nighttime temperatures won’t go down anywhere close to the freezing point at any time in the predictable future. Through Wednesday, the temperatures even at dawn will be in the 40s.

We may have a storm coming today, but it won’t be a late snowstorm like we had last year. That still could happen, and we ought to have a few more nights of frost, so watch the forecasts, but we’ve crossed a threshold in the last week. The time for green is here.

This week is the first that really feels as we imagine all springtime to be - warm, sunny and green. We may still have frost in the morning, but I’m seeing a nice collection of flowers around town, with a lot of spring bulbs, but a few flowering shrubs and understory wildflowers as well. The bloodroot in back of my house has just started blooming, and the may apples and rhubarb are thrusting their thick shoots out of the ground.

Honeysuckle, an intrusive non-native I feel I should dislike, is putting out its leaves, and I can’t say that I’ll be upset when they blossom. The buckeye sapling that we’re allowing to grow around the back of the house is also unfolding its leaves, and the friendly deer seem not to care to nip the buds, though they look quite hearty to me.

All this growth brings to mind tomorrow’s lecture at the library. At 7:30 PM, David Weinstein will speak on the topic Project Budbreak: How Climate Change Affects Native Plants.

“Project Budbreak” is, I believe, Project Budburst, a citizen science project of the sort pioneered by the people up on the hill over at Cornell. The idea is that people across the United States will volunteer to report when the buds on different plants around them open up, so that scientists can look at the data and see whether there are any shifts in plant cycles along with climate change. It’s kind of like a feeder watch, but horticultural.

A Family Entertainment Complex is currently being planned for construction on Route 96, 7 miles north of Ithaca and 2 miles south of Trumansburg (to the south of Stover Lumber). As residents of the county, we see the need for this type of family oriented business in the area.

The initial phase will have you enjoying a 18 hole miniature golf course, a corn maze and an arcade room; future expansion plans call for a second miniature golf course, batting cages and a pollution and noise free electric go-kart track.

Our business will be named T-Burg Mini Golf Family Entertainment Center and our web address is www.tburgminigolf.com. Our target customers are residents of Tompkins and surrounding counties, area students and Finger Lakes tourists.

We are currently working with the Town of Ulysses on zoning and expect to have all of our approvals in March of 2008. We hope to begin construction shortly afterwards for an anticipated opening of July 2008. The Planning Board has unanimously approved our plans and we hope the Town Board will do the same. The impact our facility would have on the community in regards to lighting and noise has been heavily researched. To quote Deputy Town Supervisor Dick Coogan from the 1/23/08 Free Press article on T-Burg Mini Golf, “We as a planning board looked at the impact on the neighbors and believe there’s enough of a buffer there. The area with the light and noise will be down on (Route) 96 and he’s restricted to 75 decibels of noise; in other parts of the town you’re allowed 90 decibels, so he’s willing to be quieter than your neighbor.”

The benefits to the community are numerous: Youth activities, family outings and the draw to other Ulysses businesses are a few to speak of.

February 12, 2008 is a big day for us! At 7:30pm, our plans will be presented by the Town Planning Board to the Town Board for their review. The Town Board is expected to then schedule a public hearing (possible date is 2/19) where the public will be presented the project and have a chance to comment.

We need all the support we can get at both the 2/12 Town Board meeting and subsequent public hearing. Please consider attending either meeting or, if you can not attend, email the Town Board to express your support. (Click here for a list of Town Board members’ email addresses)

Thank you for your support! We’re looking forward to bringing you a premier Family Entertainment Facility!

Michael & Melinda Cirri
T-Burg Mini Golf Family Entertainment Center
Rt. 96 South
Trumansburg, NY 14886
www.tburgminigolf.com

(for more information, please email us at info@tburgminigolf.com)

People here in Ulysses who have been paying attention didn’t need a study by Elizabeth Burakowski to tell us that our winters are getting warmer. Still, thanks to her for doing the work to confirm our suspicions.

Burakowski, a graduate student at University of New Hampshire’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, found that winters in the Northeastern United States have been especially sensitive to climate change. Of all our seasons, our winters - the particular character of which make our region so distinctive - have warmed the most. The amount of snow we get during the winter has decreased as well.

I was born and grew up in Central and Western New York, and I don’t remember such long stretches of balmy winter weather when I was a kid. This year, we didn’t even get a frost until almost November, and though we’ve had some very nippy days, the winter has been mild on the whole so far, like last year’s.

My winter play as a child was made of snow forts. My kids are practicing riding the bicycle, climbing trees or playing with a ball.

(Source: Associated Press)

I have to admit that I caught snow fever tonight. After hearing the loud booms of the Winter Festival’s fireworks, the snow started coming down at a respectable pace, and I had visions of play. Sledding on Rice Hill with my kids tomorrow morning became a hope for me in the same way that I used to hope for enough snow to cancel school when I was a kid.

Since that time, the snow has slowed down a bit. There’s still a chance for Trumansburg’s first good snow of the season tonight, though. I’ve got my fingers crossed.