Day 1791: Cassadaga parents

Again this year, Cassadaga parents and staff welcomed us warmly.   Only nine families were represented, but those that came to the meeting were enthusiastic, engaged and excited.  Amazingly, there were two more of my former students there with their daughters.  David graduated in 1991 and DJ in 1996.  DJ said that backpacking was one of the few things he remembers about middle school.  Then another dad is Chris' nephew, so his daughter is all set with her gear already.  And another dad said he lives along the route and he remembers us hiking by.  They all stayed to visit and three of them signed up to help with the supply truck.

We also met Corinne, the new young science teacher who replaced Kelly as the 8th grade teacher.  They are going to work on contacting more families and conducting additional parent meetings if necessary.  

When we finished, we drove home in the first snow storm and I felt better than I have in days.  I started investigating other publishers and that is a depressing job.  It took so long to write the book that it's very hard to dig back in for another long haul.

The temperature dropped twenty degrees today.  It's a good thing I mowed and mulched yesterday. 

Overnight, heavy rain fell and refilled the creek.  Too bad it didn't happen weeks ago when the poor steelhead were struggling to swim upstream in just a trickle of water.