~
Friday, July 31, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
63 degrees, windy, overcast
Once again the view is dripping with moisture,
remnants of the hard
rain that fell for a couple of hours during the night.
Robins have been happy
campers this summer, with the early morning yard strewn
with worms who have
surfaced to take a breather. I remember a cartoon from my
youth where a bird strug-
gled to pull a fat worm from the ground, and the same
scene plays out again and again
here on our new-mown lawn. In the cartoon, I believe the
worm won. I just looked online
for that cartoon, and while I didn’t find that
particular one, this youtube video
certainly brings
back memories of watching politically incorrect cartoons
on Saturday mornings in the 50s eating
Sugar Pops out of the box. They don’t make them like
that any more! We haven’t kept track of
how many times the grass has been cut this season, but
our lawn and paths look the best they
ever have; the daily rain must be just the ticket. Our
lettuce has done exceptionally well, as
has spinach, none of it bolting to seed, still tender and
crisp. Tomato plants are loaded
with fruit, and as soon the sun shines bright and warm
once again we should have
some red grape tomatoes. The sun will come out again, I
just know it will !
Maybe even for more than one day in a row.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 30, 2009, 9:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
That sun is hot, no doubt about it ! A few big
clouds have
started to insinuate themselves into the view; perhaps
they will
offer shady relief as the sun climbs higher in the sky.
Hard rain fell
last night, and it looks like our fall broccoli crop will
never be placed
into the garden rows. The plants are big and healthy in
their cellpacks,
but to venture into the soft spongy dirt at this point
would be to risk
losing my shoes to mud; it has happened before. Our early
broccoli
has only just begun to form heads, which is surprising.
Cole crops
usually like wet summers, and I was sure we would have
been on at
least our third harvest of side shoots by now. It is the
same variety we
grew last year. The only thing I can think of is that the
layer of composted
horse manure spread last fall has provided too much
nitrogen, lending more
nutrients for leaf development than for flowers. However,
beans planted in the
same garden are loaded with blossoms and tiny beans. I
will give the broccoli an
infusion of phosphorus-rich natural fertilizer, and hope
for the best. Potatoes have
really taken off all of a sudden; I pulled a couple of
softball-size caribes from the
side of one hill, and when I uprooted a yukon gold plant
that wasn’t very big and
hadn’t even bloomed yet, I was surprised to find a
half dozen good sized spuds
and several little ones. Since we planted in a new spot
this year, potato bugs have
been slow to find our crop, but yesterday we saw several
of those pests scattered
here and there. Like mice, there are never just a few, so
we will have to consider
spraying the plants if we ever get two dry days in a row.
Our friend who harvests
our hay has been having a heck of a time this year
getting in his own; our meadows
are golden-ripe and a beautiful sight, swaying in the
breeze and teeming with birds.
This is one good thing to come from the endless downpours
that have defined
this as one of the wettest summers since we moved up here.
On a final note,
our last three bluebirds fledged yesterday, and soon we
will see them
perching on the clothesline with their parents, as if
posing for a
Leaning Tree greeting card. And now, off to make a rasp-
berry pie with some of the beautiful fruit I picked
earlier.
Have a tasty day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, hazy sun
A slight breeze ruffles the poplar leaves outside
the window,
and stirs the humid air a bit. We are going to try to get
our heaviest
chores out of the way this morning, and then pick
raspberries during the
hot part of the day, when the juice will be at its
sweetest. Today’s harvest
will likely be made into a batch of clear seedless jelly,
and hopefully there will
be enough left over to craft into a fresh berry pie,
whole raw berries heaped into
a graham cracker crust and held together with a cooked
berry gel, sweetened with
honey and thickened by arrowroot powder. Meanwhile, we
have new visitors to our
little farm; Monday we picked up 70 day-old chicks from a
local hatchery. I refer to them
as visitors because they will only be here a
couple of months, and then they will hop on into
the freezer. They are very cute right now, and it is
tempting to give each little fuzzy guy a name,
but the reality is, in ten weeks we will look at them the
way Wile E. Coyote sees the Road Runner,
or Elmer Fudd views Daffy Duck. Yum! For now, they are
snug under a heat lamp, peep-peep-
peeping every time we open the shed door. In a
week’s time their feathers will start to develop,
and by this time next month they will have lost their
cuteness altogether and they will have be-
come just another farm chore, the daily feeding and
mucking out giving us an anchor and pur-
pose that lead to an incredibly intense weekend of
turning livestock into meat. We do this
because there is immense satisfaction in knowing exactly
what has gone into our food,
that they have been treated with care and respect and
given the best feed and pure
water that is available, creating an end product that is
not available in any store.
There are many local farms that sell pasture-raised
chickens that are very
good, but it is still much cheaper to raise our own. To
have a taste
of real chicken, visit your local farmer’s market,
or look for
growers in your area at localharvest.org/organic-chicken.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, sunny
At last! A sunny breezy summer day is upon us !
Yesterday was certainly nice enough, but in between
several small rain showers the air became dead and heavy
with black flies and mosquitoes. It seemed like all of
the bugs
that never really appeared last May have hatched all at
once and
descended to swarm around my head and camp out on the
quarter
inch of skin between my socks and pants cuffs. I picked a
gallon of red
raspberries and a quart of blackcaps, and my hands became
stained with a
mix of blood from thorn-scratches and sweet sticky berry
juice, attracting flies
and wasps to my already bug-beleaguered space. I wrapped
up the afternoon by
planting flowers and pulling weeds, and finally called uncle
and headed in well before
the tasks were completed. Even with a headnet the pests
found their way in under the veil,
and then they were trapped, seeking refuge on the
backside of my specs and trying to crawl
into my nose. I couldn’t use repellant while berry-picking,
I wouldn’t want to accidentally
contaminate the fruit; even though the stuff I use is all-natural,
I would hate for our wine
to take on the citronella and menthol tang of the bug
juice. With sun and high temper-
atures predicted for today and some of tomorrow, the
berries will stand daily pick-
ing for a while. I think I will dig out a long-sleeved
shirt to wear for the job this
time, providing protection from insects at the expense of
ventilation. A small
price, as I ponder yesterday’s welts and blebs. For
the immediate future,
the dog and I will take a quick spin around the meadow
paths, still
tall with golden ripe hay and festive with wildflowers.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 27, 2009, 7:30 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
More rainfall yesterday afternoon and into the night has
made the air nearly
as moist as the earth, and even though I am beginning to
have doubts as to
whether laundry will dry outdoors today, I am crossing my
fingers and pro-
ceeding with my plan to empty the hampers. There is a
pretty good breeze
from the west, so that should help shake the clothes dry.
As soon as the red
raspberry bushes dry out, there are the first sweet juicy
jewels to pluck, hoping
there will be enough this year to make some sparkling
ruby wine to warm our long
winter nights. Last year’s harvest was scant, due to
many downpours that knocked
the ripe fruit off the canes before we could get to it.
Indeed, the ground is already lit-
tered with many berries that came down in Saturday
night’s hard rain. Strawberries are
finished, and the runners are setting new plants into the
mulch for next summer’s crop. We
found a black raspberry thicket over by the woodlot, the
first time we have seen this on our
property since we first moved up here; those original
plants were sacrificed to widen and pave
the road, a good trade in my opinion. Black raspberries
have a much wilder flavor than red; my
granny used them to make jelly and I hope to do the same.
Birds must have planted the current
bunch, a treat for both us and them. We enjoyed the first
green beans of the season last night,
steamed snappy and fresh, dressed with a drop of olive
oil and fine-snipped basil; oh my,
there is nothing like summer beans! Our storage potatoes
are still good, but with new
beans there must be new potatoes, so we snagged a few
from the end of a row,
sweet and creamy on their own, made even better with a
little butter. There
are so many good things from the garden this time of year,
to say
nothing of the corn, cukes, and tomatoes that wait in the
wings.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
68 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
I forgot to write yesterday, initially putting it off to
get some wood
cut before the day became too hot. That was the plan,
anyway, but even
early in the morning it was hot and humid and sawdust
stuck to every exposed
piece of skin, and even some that were covered by layers
of fabric. We came back
over for lunch and a cool shower, then off to
Kathy’s to help her celebrate her birthday,
with never another thought for sharing my view from high
atop Gomer Hill. I will say this:
if ever there was a perfect afternoon for goofing off
with friends, it was yesterday ! The
sun came out from time to time to bathe the whole area
with magical midsummer light,
and miraculously there were no insects, so we could enjoy
quite a bit of time outdoors
in a shady grove tossing horseshoes and shooting the
breeze. Just before full dark the sky
once again opened up to release an incredible load of
water, and it continued to rain off and
on all night long. This morning it seems like a good idea
to do some housecleaning, as rain
continues to show up every time I head out the door. We
have kindling to split by hand
in the barn, and fall broccoli to transplant into the
garden when the ground dries out a bit.
I wonder when that will happen?
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, July 24, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
60 degrees, windy, overcast, sprinkles
Light rain continues to fall sporadically, and I
think it will be at least
another day before we see much sun. It rained for most of
the night,
and the lawn was alive with fat nightcrawlers coming up
for air. It has
been years since I picked worms for bait, and since I
didn’t even apply
for a fishing license this year, they were unmolested in
their midnight revelry.
All of the recent wet weather had brought some unwelcome
visitors to our blue-
bird nest; blowfly larvae were wriggling around the box
when I last checked on the
three little birds, so I had to clean house. After
lifting the birds, nest and all, into a deep
bucket, I fashioned a new nest out of dry soft wiregrass
hay, and replaced each little chick
carefully back into the fresh bedding. Since there were
only three of them, it was a quick job.
I have done this before with six birds, and then it is
like a very complicated jigsaw puzzle to
get them all to fit in the confined space without
accidentally piling one on top of another.
Three was a piece of cake. Momma bird sat on a nearby
bean pole and watched the
whole process, and resumed feeding her wards within
minutes of the renovation. I
pulled apart the nest after I got back to the house and
found fifty-five maggots within,
not to mention a dozen or so who had fallen out and were
dispatched at the site. It wouldn’t
take long for that number of hungry bloodsuckers to kill
such small birds; this is one of the main
reasons that nesting boxes should be checked at least
every two days after the birds emerge
from their shells. I usually find the maggots before they
hatch and are still encased in their
hard coverings. I think I was in the nick of time with
this batch. I looked in the babies
this morning, and they are snug and happy in their new
digs. It won’t be long before
they are ready to take off for the larger world, and then
they will be on their
own. We hope for the best with our nesting boxes, and are
rewarded in
the fall when dozens of bluebirds all make one last visit
to the birdbath,
knowing that many of them got their start in one of our
shelters. It
is the least we can do to help restore our state bird to
the Hill.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 23, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
64 degrees, windy, cloudy
The weather is odd this morning; it seems like it
is sprinkling a bit
but mostly it is water flying off of trees as the wind
shakes the branches.
It is cool but quite humid this morning, and we have
aimed a fan at the garlic
drying in the barn. I lit a small fire in the kitchen
range, to chase the dampness
out of the corners and also to create a warm spot to set
bread dough to rise.
Yesterday was hot, the first real summer day we have had
in a long time, with
strong sun and humidity that made for some uncomfortable
working conditions.
Add the utter lack of any breeze and a generous helping
of black flies, and I began
to yearn for the chilly wind that has been our constant
companion for the past few
months. We unloaded a truck and a trailer full of small
stovewood, stacking it in
long rows at the edge of the meadow to dry for use in
2012. We are far ahead of
ourselves in firewood production, and I keep thinking
that we will be able to take a
year off at some point, but the next thing you know, we
have an opportunity to clear
away some downfalls, or the hedgerows need to be managed,
or someone makes us
an offer we can’t refuse. I love the physical acts
of cutting, splitting, and piling wood,
but when you add the wild cards of high humidity and
swarming bugs, it becomes less
attractive from a recreational point of view. I put on my
jungle hat and that kept the
flies out of my nose, but the heat was still oppressive.
However, compared to work-
ing indoors in a dress and fancy footwear, the job was
heavenly. I traded my girly
shoes for work boots a few years ago, and don’t
regret opting out of the pro-
fessional scene one little bit. The great outdoors has
become both my office
and my classroom; the rewards are less tangible in
increasingly worthless
dollars and more amazing in job satisfaction with every
day that passes.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, overcast, rain
After a few very intense gully washers yesterday
afternoon and
pretty steady rain for most of the night, it looks like
the showers may
have finally tapered off to a sprinkle. We dug most of
our garlic yesterday,
leaving behind about a hundred bulbs that didn’t
seem ready, hoping to get a
dry day next week to complete the harvest. Most of the
bulbs are large, much
bigger than the ones we planted. One new variety, summit
shock, was golf ball
sized when we bought them last September at the Little
Falls garlic festival, and
some of the ones we lifted yesterday are nearly the size
of tennis balls. Last night
our supper was fettuccini carbonara florentine with bay
scallops; I used a whole
bulb of fresh german white garlic, both sautéed
and raw in the sauce. Boy howdy,
that was some of the best fodder I ever fed the family!
We worked on making kind-
ling after the garlic dig; we got a truckload of pine
slab wood from a local lumber mill
and lopped it into sixteen-inch lengths on our big
buzzsaw. For the next couple of days
we will split those hunks into thin sticks, and by fall
they will be dry enough to use for
starting daily fires in the kitchen range. When we first
lived here we kept a chopping
block in the woodshed, and cut kindling as we needed it.
After extensive house re-
novation, we gave up some woodshed space to expand the
kitchen, no more
room for a chopping block. It is fairly easy to make
kindling in the summer
and stack it in the barn for later, the kind of mindless
repetitive work
that starts out with nuthin’ and ends up as
sumthin’.
That phrase could apply to many things, eh?
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
66 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
The sky is a pale summer blue that looks like it
has been through the
wash one too many times; indeed, it has been. Every day
of the upcoming
week has a chance of rain attached to the forecast,
making it a little difficult to
decide what to do about harvesting garlic today. Two
varieties are clearly ready to
dig, having at least two crispy-dry bottom leaves and
showing signs that each individual
clove has formed a good wrapper. The danube rose
and summit shock are layered onto
a drying rack in the airy upper barn. But our main crop,
a variety called music, shows no
markers for readiness beyond their ample size. The leaves
have barely begun to dry. The
german white is large, but only one leaf shows any
brown. If we could be sure that the
weekend will have a day dry enough to pull the fat bulbs
we would wait until then, but
if we are in for daily rain such as we have been having
for much of the summer, we
should lift the whole shebang today and hope for the best.
I don’t think the soil will
get any drier than it is now; it is still fairly wet. We
have been eating fresh uncured
garlic for a couple of weeks, enjoying the zesty bite of
it raw in salads and com-
bining it with greens, cheese, and pasta for an easy side
dish. Last year’s stored
bulbs have all sprouted in the cellar, and now rest in
the garden between rows to
ward off deer, who don’t care for the smell. Every
year we grow more and more
garlic, easy enough to do; I will never be happy with the
store-bought bulbs again,
a mere shadow of what garlic should be. if you have a
good place to store a few
dozen bulbs, plan on buying some local stiff-neck
varieties from a local farm stand
or garlic festival to keep your garlic jones happy
throughout the winter months.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 20, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, calm, mostly sunny
Lots of high thin clouds filter the sunlight that
is streaming down,
gradually warming us up this morning and softening the
long shadows.
Yesterday remained fairly cool, and I wore a fleece vest
for the entire day.
There were so many clouds, if I removed the vest while
there was a break,
I needed to put it back on after a mere minute or two
when the sun became
hidden again. It was easier to just leave it on and be (at
last!) hot for that brief
time. I weeded the rows of corn by hand, pulling up the
first little galinsoga plants
that would take over every inch of tilled ground if not
yanked by the roots. Purslane
has just shown up as well, so the very thorough job I did
one foot at a time should keep
the corn pretty weed-free until it gets big enough to
shade out future invading species. I also
thinned carrots and annual flowers, tossing the extras
aside like so many weeds themselves.
More lettuce seeds went into the ground, and the third
sowing of spinach is nearly ready to
thin out. Deer got into the beets, eating every bit of
the greens and pulling up a half dozen
fat bulbs, discarding them after a few nibbles. I put
more soap shavings between the rows;
there has been so much rain this summer that the early
July sprinkle of stinky green Irish
Spring flakes has become all washed up. I need to hang
out some old CDs (finally, a
use for all those AOL start-up discs!) on ski poles, that
works for a while until the
deer get used to the noise and flash. I heard somewhere
that Bounce fabric sheets
also work, but I don’t think I want those kind of
toxic chemicals near my food
source. I will spray broccoli leaves with a mixture of
egg and water, as the heads
have not yet begun to form and I have heard that this
will keep deer away; every
plant has had some damage this past week. I still have a
bucket of hair clippings
from the dog’s last grooming that I can strew about,
and in a pinch we can empty
the cats’ litter box at the edges of the garden,
remembering to step carefully when
we approach after that. Trouble with that is, the cats
hardly use the indoor box
any more, much preferring to do their business outdoors.
We have friends
who fenced their entire property against bears, and as a
result have
also had absolutely no deer damage since the barrier went
up.
That seems to be the only surefire way to foil the pesky
critters.
Have an interesting day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 19, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
66 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
The sun is becoming more scarce as the morning
wears on,
and the wind has picked up considerably. I have several
loads
of laundry ready to hang on the lines, and it should dry
in a jiffy with
this intense western breeze. The corn needs to be weeded
and hoed,
and the weather is ideal for that as well, cool and bug-free.
I wouldn’t be
surprised to see our friend’s heavy tractor and
mower circling the meadows
later today to take the hay. Some of the canary grass is
nearly seven feet tall;
timothy is fully ripe and bursting with pollen, sent up
in a powdery cloud as we
walked along the narrow paths. Bobolinks ascended as we
passed their concealed
nests, shouting out a jangle of warning that we were
invading their space. The lawn is
filled with starlings moving along more like a herd of
cattle than a flock of birds, single-
mindedly eating everything in their path. They have begun
to flock together to fuel up for
their fall migratory journey, packing in the calories
like a marathoner preparing for a race.
And yet, some will choose to hang around the North
Country for the winter, sheltering
in the forest and living on whatever they can find. very
entertaining at all seasons, but
particularly so in winter, when they have time to
practice their imitations and greet
us with a different sound effect nearly every morning.
The first time I heard them
whistling exactly like I do to call the dog, I was quite
impressed. In summertime,
their calls are mostly happy chatters back and forth,
sounding much like a town
meeting with everyone trying to get a word in edgewise.
Do you have a favorite
bird ? I like and admire so many of them, but starlings
are in my top five for sure.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 18, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
68 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
The sky is very blue with some awesome big clouds moving
quickly
across the vast space. Most of them look friendly, white
and fluffy, not
the surly dense grey of weather-makers. Rain fell for
most of the night, but
the wind wasn’t here yet and we could enjoy the
sound of the drops hitting the
porch’s tin roof, creating a lullaby that soon
worked its magic; it was a fine night for
dreaming. We have had so much rain lately, the gardens
have never looked better;
the only problem is, the rain has also led to masses of
weeds gaining ground, and daily
diligence has been required, working even as the rain
continues to fall. One must be
weatherproof to live on tug Hill this year, that’s
for sure. Yesterday I peeked in on
the bluebirds that hatched on Wednesday; that fourth egg
never opened, and is still
in the nest. Usually one of the adults will remove an
unhatched egg, but this one is
still in place so I left it alone. There are only three
little birds, a small brood, but
lucky to have so much room to develop. Our other boxes
are empty except for
one house wren, her babies totally concealed in the
middle of a messy pile of
twigs. I can hear them cheep-cheep-cheeping when I open
the door, but I
have yet to be able to tell what is twig and what is beak.
Our summer
flowers have begun to spring into action: bee balm and
black eyed
susans, lilies and coreopsis, daisies and sunflowers; I
may run out
of vases before I have cut my fill of blooms for rooms.
It is a good
morning to get after some weeds; they should pull
easily from
the wet soil, and the wind will sweep the bugs away.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, July 17, 2009, 8:00
a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
The morning sky has shifted from mostly sunny to partly
sunny in the space of
an hour. It was downright hot on the back porch earlier,
but when the sun dashes
behind a big cloudbank the sweatshirt comes off the hook,
as the breeze carries just
a hint of chill with it. We avoided rain yesterday, but
could see lightning and hear thunder
as a brief storm kissed the southern edge of town,
dropping a third of an inch just five miles
from here. We carried on with our day as usual up here,
keeping a watchful eye on the sky and
getting much done, cleaning up twigs, leaves, and other
detritus after having removed some dead
limbs from a big yard maple. Today we will stack the
trailer load of smallerwood that we cut on
the buzzsaw earlier in the week, and also plant one last
row of beans, our insurance crop in case
the last frost comes late this fall. I need to plant some
more lettuce as well, and thin out carrots
that came up way thicker than necessary. If this nice
breeze keeps up, it will be a fine day
for outdoor work. I love Fridays; even since my day-job
has been modified to part-time
status, it is pleasant to look forward to the weekend
ahead. Old habits die hard, I guess.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 7:45 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, cloudy
We can hear some thunder and it appears to be getting
closer.
Rain fell steadily for an hour in the middle of the night,
and it looks
like we haven’t seen the last of it yet. Yesterday
we found a fledgling
robin under the big maple tree, with no sight of its
mother nearby. Since
all of our cats were outside and this bird was too young
to fly, I put it in a
bucket with soft hay and brought it indoors. I have
raised robins before, and
I fed this one bits of raw liver and strawberry pulp
every half hour or so. It didn’t
have much appetite, and I wondered if it had been
internally injured in its descent
from the nest. It pooped at regular intervals, and seemed
lively enough; It was
chirping, calling its mother, so I sat outside with the
bird on the ground under
some cover to see if momma would bring it food, but she
never responded
to its call. As the sun went down the bird settled in to
sleep, and I shut it
into a bathroom so our pets wouldn’t bother it. This
morning I arose at
dawn to try and find the mother bird again, but the
little one had died in
its sleep. No matter how hard we wish to help our wild
friends, some-
times it just isn’t meant to be. I think about all
of the fledglings that die
violently from predators, or get hit by cars or mowers;
at least my little
ward was comfortable in its passing. Now the rain is
falling once again;
the best thing to do on a chilly wet morning that began
with disappoint-
ment is to make some cookies. Things always look better
with cookies !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, sunny
What a beautiful morning! Things are beginning to
warm up nicely,
it seems like it could just maybe be summer today.
Yesterday was a
day filled with high winds and big clouds, hot when the
sun was out and
chilly when the clouds took over. I pruned and tied up
most of our tomato
plants and it was a perfect day for that. Several small
green tomatoes have
formed, and there are many blossoms portending a good
crop much later this
summer. We walked over to the potato patch and checked
the nesting boxes a-
long the route. One box contained four bluebird eggs with
the momma in attendance,
watching me from a nearby pole. We pulled a potato plant
and were rewarded by find-
ing a dozen small spuds, the first of the season, which
we enjoyed simply steamed with
butter for dinner last night. I peeked into the bird box
on the way back, intending to snap
a photo of the four eggs nestled within, and there were
three brand new hatchlings and on
egg still intact. What a cool surprise! They were already
begging for food, and both the
male and female were waiting on posts while I visited
their little family, probably on their
way with tidbits for the brood. They will be ready to
leave the nest in about two weeks;
I sure hope that isn’t when the haying will be
underway. Simply because we have pro-
vided the nesting boxes, we feel a responsibility to make
sure the birds within have the
best possible chance for survival, which includes keeping
them out of the mower’s path.
This is a bit late in the season for bluebirds to raise a
family, but perhaps they have
been fooled into thinking it is still spring by the odd
weather we have experienced.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
55 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
Soft sunlight is filtered through high thin clouds and
every shadow
is a mere shadow of itself. It was another chilly night,
and I am thinking
I put away the flannel sheets too soon. Perhaps this will
be known as the
summer of perpetual flannel bedding. I had the
windows wide open last
night, and sought out a second comforter when I awoke
with cold feet. I could
hear a single dog barking long into the night, and I
wonder if it is a rogue wanderer
(as our little guy once was) or an unhappy dog chained up
outdoors somewhere.
It has been many months since I heard the coyotes sing;
perhaps the rednecks
have finally succeeded in killing them all. I prefer to
think that they have moved
further into the deep woods away from civilization, so
they can continue to do
their job, which is to control the size of deer herds and
rodents by culling
the weak and pouncing on the slow. There have been more
meadow
voles than ever this summer, and our cats are fat and
happy with the
bounty. Raccoons are everywhere, and woodchucks seem to
be
more ubiquitous than ever before. Take away the predators,
and everything is thrown out of balance in nature.
I sure miss the coyotes nightly serenades.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Monday, July 13, 2009, 7:30 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
It is a cool sunny morning after a very chilly
night. Our low temp last
night was forty five degrees, hardly a balmy summer eve.
It was so cold
that fireflies stayed concealed, not one flashing a
greeting as we walked after
dark. While this weather has been excellent for fostering
a good night’s sleep,
it has not encouraged our tomatoes and peppers to set
fruit. The pepper plants
are not much bigger than when we set them into the garden
over a month ago, and
while tomato plants are growing nicely, they have only
just started to produce blossoms.
If the soil isn’t too squishy I plan to prune and
tie up the tomatoes this morning, and will
have a better idea of their progress after rooting around
among the stems and leaves for
a while. It was definitely too wet to do much in the
garden yesterday, so I headed off
with the dog for a very long walk along back roads and
old logging paths. It was cool
and breezy, so bugs weren’t a problem, and the sun
shone through the trees, dappling
the ground with dancing shadows. We enjoyed some tasty
little wild strawberries, the
fraise du bois that are bright red on the outside
with the palest ivory interior. They
are indescribably sweet, with a hint of pineapple
underlying the traditional taste of
strawberry. We looked for little apples in an old orchard,
and could find very few.
It was a bit disconcerting to find a few maple leaves
that have already turned crimson
we can’t have a preview of autumn when we have not
yet begun to enjoy summer. Global
warming may be diminishing glaciers worldwide and
threatening the polar bears’ habitat in
the Arctic Circle, but we have yet to see any evidence of
it here on Tug Hill, especially this
season. We encountered a deer along our journey, several
snakes sunning themselves on
the warm gravel road, and a woodchuck who never saw us
coming, making me happy
the dog was leashed up. We walked for several hours, and
a deep sense of calm sur-
rounded us, smoothing away all of the bustle of everyday
living in the twenty-first
century. We have a pretty simple lifestyle up here, but
many times there are so
many things to do, choices to make, and obligations to
fulfill, that it is necessary
to settle the chattering monkey-mind with a good long
ramble, thinking only of
how beautiful the scene is and how good it makes us feel.
The endorphins
released during physical activity are an important tool
at our disposal,
only needing to be set free to increase our overall
health and well-
being. Make some time for a walk soon; even fifteen
minutes is
enough to provide a restorative break in the hubbub of a
busy life.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 12, 2009, 9:30 a.m.
59 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Wowza, what a lot of rain we had in the past
twenty-four hours !
Yesterday morning was fine for walking the meadow paths
and working
in the gardens, tilling between the rows for weed control.
By early afternoon
the first big drops of rain splattered my bent-over back
as I gathered spinach so
I came indoors just as the thunder and lightning arrived.
It rained hard without letting
up for several hours, and the sound effects kept right up.
Frantic gusts of wind sent
several tree branches plummeting to the ground from the
maples in the yard, and I
am glad I thought to park next to the barn instead of
where I usually do, or I might
be calling the body shop today. I curled up in a comfy
chair with a book and enjoy-
ed the storm in the time-honored way of taking a mini-vacation
from daily tasks and
just relaxing, dry and drowsing. By five o’clock it
was all over, and I headed down to
the Turin Fireman’s Field for a bowl of chowder and
a good visit with folks I hadn’t seen
in a while. The tractor pull had been cancelled when the
rain showed up, but will probably
continue today. Moonshiner, an excellent cover band of
local talent, was in full swing when
we noticed that another storm front was approaching. The
fireworks crew decided to push
up the start of their awesome show, and at 9:30 some
wicked loud and very colorful pyro-
technics were competing with Mother Nature for best-in-show.
It looked like the storm
might circle around to the east and miss us, and we were
dancing up a storm when big
fat drops started to fall. They were very cold, and I was
glad I had brought a micro-
fleece jacket. We crowded under the pavilion where the
band was set up and rode
out one of the fiercest thunderstorms I have ever
witnessed, with several close light-
ning strikes. Since the whole venue quickly became
submerged in a couple of inches
of water, I was happy to be standing on concrete. The
band broke up early and pack-
ed their electronic equipment away, as the rain was
driven through every part of the
shelter by massive wind gusts. The storm left as fast as
it had arrived, and by the
time we walked to the car to come home a half hour later,
we could see the big
dipper. When I strolled up the road at midnight with our
dog, myriad fireflies lit
up the wet hay; I wonder where they go for shelter when
such hard rain falls?
If you are in the area today, head to Turin for a day of
old-fashioned fun, a
chicken barbecue, a silent auction with lots of good
stuff, and a hunk
of homemade pie. The weather is going to be perfect for a
ride,
and it’s all for a good cause.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 11, 2009, 9:15 a.m.
71 degrees, windy, hazy sunshine
The wind blows hard from the southwest, whence
cometh a big line
of storms due to strike our neighborhood later this
afternoon. If they follow
the same pattern as most other storms this season, they
will bump into Tug Hill
and divide, passing us by for the most part. That would
be just fine with us, as the
Turin Fire Department Field Days is this weekend;
although there are several pavilions
and shelters, one of the major activities planned is a
tractor and truck pull. A little mud
would be just fine for that, but the thunder and
lightning would put a stop to it for a while.
The best fireworks display in the state is scheduled for
10:00 tonight, but we may want to
bring an umbrella along with our lawn chairs for that
show. We have had some wonderful
nightly shows here on the Hill, with the fireflies
hitting their full stride, winking on one-by-one
during the purple hour and filling the meadows and trees
by full dark-thirty. Last night was the
first truly balmy night we have experienced this summer,
and along with the lightning bugs, mos-
quitoes were out by legions, hungry as heck. Our
leisurely after-dinner stroll soon became a
fast trot to try and outrun the little suckers. Yesterday
we buzzed up some limbwood and
the bugs weren’t bad at all, even as our work site
became veiled in late day shadows. A
fine breeze kept us cool, and it was an altogether
pleasant afternoon of somewhat repe-
titive labor. When we finish with the long boys we will
fetch a few loads of slabwood
from a nearby mill and whack that up for kindling. For
this morning, there is cake to
frost for the cakewalk, and tomato plants to prune before
heading on into town.
Cruise up to Turin for a while; dance to Moonshiner
tonight, win a cake,
enjoy some good home cooking with a hot mixed grill
tonight
and a chicken dinner tomorrow.
Whatever you do,
enjoy yourself !
Daisy
Friday, July 10, 2009, 4:30 a.m.
55 degrees, calm, moonlit
A beautiful waning gibbous moon is on the way out at this
very
early hour of the day. The air is fresh and clean after a
hard rain
shower washed Gomer Hill last evening. Today is supposed
to be
summery, sunny and hot, a pleasant day to hang out
laundry and pull
a few weeds after I get home from working the early shift.
I also need
to deer-proof the broccoli; several plants have been
neatly pruned. We
have seen a big brown rabbit coming from that direction
too, the first
time we have ever had a varying hare in our neck of the
woods.They
are creatures of orchard and copse, not homesteads and
farmyards.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 9, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
69 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Fog has rolled in right to the edge of our east
meadow, lending the
impression that we are on an island surrounded by a
placid sea. A pair
of bluebirds is herding five young speckle-breasted birds
around, showing
them how to enjoy the bird bath and some good places to
perch around the
yard. None of our cats is in the immediate area right now;
I imagine the fledglings’
education will also include some good places to hide. The
rose hedge is nearly impene-
trable to most predators with its tangle of sharp thorns.
We also have two spruces that
provide a safe haven for birds of all kinds. When
planting things that will attract birds to
your yard, such as tasty berries and nectar-filled
flowers, don’t forget to include some
good nesting shrubs and hiding places. We have a closely
trimmed privet hedge that
is full of bird nests, as are the forsythia, quince, and
potentillas. A bush doesn’t need
to be thorny to afford good cover, just too dense for
larger birds and predatory mam-
mals to penetrate. One of our robins thought she had made
a good choice by locating
her nest high off the ground at the end of an apple tree
branch. We watched our three-
legged cat follow her home one afternoon, and scramble up
the tree; he was well on his
way to creeping up on the nestlings when we lured him
back down with a treat. Momma
bird would have been wiser to build that nest in a spruce
tree, or somewhere else a cat
cannot go. There are several plump young robins pulling
squirmy things out of the lawn
this morning, getting their own breakfast after having
been fed by the parents for a
couple of weeks after leaving the nest. Earlier we saw a
whole flock of starlings
moving along in a grand sweep, getting together a bit
early in the season to plan
their trip south in the autumn. We have noticed many
kinds of birds forming
flocks, something that usually happens in August. Maybe
this unusual
weather has had an effect on their behavior. We are in
line for
some short-lived heat tomorrow; let’s enjoy it while
we can !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 9:30 a.m.
59 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
We have had some pretty astounding cloud formations
during the
past twenty-four hours. Right now there is a layer of
dense very dark
grey clouds looming above some stacks of shining white
whipped-creamy
piles that are backlit by the sun which is struggling to
shine through. Earlier there
were graceful fog-maidens dancing up from the valley,
swirling and lifting to meld
with the rest of the gang. Directly overhead are some
astonishingly blue patches of
clear sky, just waiting to be released from the crazy
weather system that has had us
under its thumb for most of July. Forecasts have been
highly inaccurate, so from now
on I think I will just count on my own perceptions and
intuitions to plan my day. My
body tells me that there is high pressure on the way, and
the blue sky above the
clouds would seem to support that theory. My plan for the
day will be to tend
to indoor jobs until the soil has a chance to dry out
from last night’s brief shower,
and then to head out and plant more lettuce and spinach.
Our iceberg lettuce is
just about ready to harvest, the small tight heads
growing larger with every
rainfall. Is there anything better than the crisp crunch
of sweet lettuce with
a pungent garlic vinaigrette and a thin sprinkle of good
parmesan cheese ?
Simply delicious, and deliciously simple!
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
We can hear some thunder to the north but so far there
hasn’t been
any rain in our neck of the woods since Saturday.
Yesterday there was
a 70% chance of rain but we stayed high and dry, and
finally finished weeding
and hoeing the gardens. Now I can concentrate on the
flower beds; I put the finish-
ing touches on the mixed perennial/annual bed right next
to the house, but the wildflower
bank still needs considerable work. It will require most
of a day to pull weeds and prune
back the hedges, and today will be perfect for that task
if the rain holds off. Since it is mostly
wildflowers, I usually claim that the weeds are just
another variety of wildflower; unfortunately,
if left untouched, the goldenrod, milkweed, bedstraw, and
asters would eventually overrun the
whole area if I didn’t yank them out every few years.
At least there is no poison ivy here on
Gomer Hill, so I can just wade right into the weeds with
both hands seeking out the inter-
lopers. Some woodbine vines have worked their way back
into the privet hedge,
a perfect example of too much of a good thing. The vines
are stunning in
autumn with their big crimson leaves, and a touch of them
here and
there is a perfect accent to the small dense mass of dark
green
privet foliage. But, too many of the pretty vines will
even-
tually strangle the hedge, so most of them have to go.
The sun has just emerged, time to get to work.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 6, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
56 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
The sun is behind some big clouds right now, but
there are several
patches of blue sky showing; perhaps we will have another
beautiful
day like yesterday. We took a break from garden chores
and enjoyed
a leisurely walk along the Evans Road. We went no farther
than the pond,
which has overflowed its banks and flooded the path.
Waterbugs danced
and spun across the surface of the water, but they were
the only critters in
residence. The frogs were elsewhere, and we haven’t
seen any muskrats up
there this year at all. There has been so much rain that
algae hasn’t had much
chance to form, and the water was pretty clear for this
time of year. There were
a few mosquitoes hanging around but for the most part we
haven’t been bothered
by too many of them yet this summer. We took the long way
home and ended up
at the potato patch, now in full flower, resembling
little ornamental hedges rather than
a food crop. We dug into the sides of a couple of hills
and couldn’t find even the tiniest
spud; that was disappointing. We usually have some on the
table by Independence Day
weekend, but I think the recent dearth of sun has set
them back a bit. We sat outside
around a blazing fire well after dark, toasting our bare
feet by its warm glow under
the soft light of an almost-full moon. This month’s
moon is the Hay Moon, and
it will be truly full tomorrow night, although
tonight’s will be 99% illuminated
and appear to be full. It will rise just before the sun
sets, at around 8:30.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 5, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
66 degrees, windy, sunny
Hooray for the sun ! it feels especially nice this
morning after several days of rain.
We picked strawberries in the rain yesterday afternoon,
giving up on the sun after
a few false starts. They were very juicy but not terribly
sweet, but now that big job
is done. There are still many pink berries that will
ripen quickly with the return of the
sun. We had planned on a nice outdoor gathering last
night, which started out well
enough when the sky started to clear a bit after raining
off and on all day long. We
were optimistic and set our chairs out around the outdoor
fire, ready to enjoy the
fireworks shows that erupt all along the horizon every
Independence Day. No
sooner had we made ourselves comfortable than the sky
opened up with one of
the hardest deluges of the day, a real gully-washer,
sending us back indoors. We
cooked our meat on the gas grill instead of the wood fire,
and by the time we were
done with our late dinner we noticed blooms of color
beginning to rise out of the valley.
Clouds came and went, but there were some awesome
displays of red, green, gold, and
dazzling silver in every direction. Now and then the
clouds would lower and it looked more
like sheet lightning than pyrotechnics, but all in all it
was a great show. Overseeing the whole
deal was a waxing gibbous moon, nearly full and shining
like a new dime. The moon will be
97% full tonight; it will be a great night to enjoy
Mother Nature’s fireworks of twinkling
stars above and fireflies below. Bundle up, it will no
doubt be another chilly one.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 7:00 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, fog
The wind, the fog, and the chilly temperature have driven
the cats
back indoors after only a cursory glance around at the
outdoor scene.
There are rumors that the sun will be coming out
eventually later in the day,
which would be a wonderful boost to this holiday
weekend’s activities. I don’t
know if the Boonville fireworks went off last night as
planned; we can usually see
and hear them up here, but the sound of rain pummeling
the tin roof would have
(literally) drowned out most other noises. I hope it is
clear tonight, as we usually
can see at least a dozen pyrotechnic displays all along
the valley from our vantage
point here at the top of the world. In a week (July 11)
the Turin Fire Department
will be having its annual field days festival, complete
with one of the best fireworks
shows in the state; that is worth coming down off the
hill for. Yesterday was damp
and rainy, and we never did get out to pick any
strawberries. There will no doubt
be more than we can handle this morning, so we are happy
to have company for
the weekend to help pick and eat them; a pie is
definitely in the picture for our
evening meal. At the end of the day there was a break in
the rain, so we walked
the meadow paths, getting thoroughly soaked from the tall
wet hay on either side
of the path. Our dog flushed out a momma turkey and her
little fluffy chicks over
by the woodlot, and gave chase into the woods. I worried
that the big bird would
beat up the little dog, but everyone emerged from the
fracas relatively unscathed.
It is fortunatethat the dog didn’t go after one of
the chicks, or the mother would
have whupped him good. It is going to be very cold for
July tonight, so make sure
you wear an extra layer if you plan to check out any
local fireworks shows.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
Friday, July 3, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
58 degrees, windy, overcast
It is nearly Independence Day, and we have a fire
in the wood range
on this damp and chilly July morn. Good grief. Yesterday
it rained steadily
for nearly the entire day, so I managed to accomplish a
great deal of indoor work.
I hope the rain holds off long enough today so that we
can pick strawberries, which
are bound to be less sweet for the lack of sun but if
they all end up in the jam kettle the
added sugar will take care of that. The sky is grey but
bright with promise; at dawn the
sky was showing through broad bands of clouds, but then
they closed in leaving a fine
pearlescent glow behind the deep green of the hardwood
trees. Fog fills the valley
almost all the way to our property line. A couple dozen
grackles are feeding on the
back lawn; they are all about the same size, but it could
be that all this year’s young
and their folks are gathering to plan their escape route
for the winter trip. I have
noticed grackles and starlings beginning to form large
loose flocks much earlier
than usual this summer. Oh phooey, it has just started to
rain. We can’t delay
strawberry picking much longer, or they will begin to rot
on the vines.
Maybe I should get out our snorkels.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 2, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, fog, overcast, raining
A southern breeze has plastered the window by my
computer with sheets
of rainwater, and visibility is practically nonexistent
from this vantage point.
The western view is waterlogged and very green, with tree
leaves in constant
motion; the tall meadow grasses are too heavy to sway
under their load. There
are many places where the hay has lodged and lies in big
flat patches, as if foot-
prints left by wandering giants. We only had a few
passing showers yesterday
afternoon, and we accomplished much outdoor work before
then. More than
half the garlic scapes have been clipped and sold, shared
with friends, or
stashed in the freezer. Carrots have been thinned to
stand an inch apart,
and when they start to fill in the spaces we will
continue to pull every
other one until some are six inches apart; this will give
us plenty of
carrots that will have room enough to grow three inches
around at the
top, which always causes comment from guests whenever we
slice them
up to serve raw with bleu cheese dip. Anyone can grow
gigantic carrots,
if they give them enough room to spread out. It is a
major miracle that each
tiny hard carrot seed has the potential to grow into such
a stunning work of edible
art, the deep orange color unrivaled by anything else in
nature and with a unique sweet
flavor that is good raw or cooked. While I was thinning
them, I peered closely a the spindly
little roots and envisioned the harvest that will begin
at the end of this month, with tender slim
spears nibbled directly from the garden, dirt and all.
The bulk of the crop will be pulled after
the first autumn frost, dried for a few days on the barn
floor, and then packed in dry maple
leaves for storage in the cellar. We just finished our
old carrots last week, slow-roasted
with a chunk of grass-fed chuck and the very last of our
winter-stored onions. Our new
onions are starting to develop bulbs, and if we need big
ones for burger slices we can
splurge on a couple of sweet Vidalias from the market.
Garlic is getting quite fat
underground; I pulled one for last night’s pasta. A
word to the wise: if you have a
chance to get some fresh garlic (garlic that has not been
dried) it is very pungent,
rich with heat and bursting with zippy flavor. It is also
extremely juicy, and will
splatter like holy water on a vampire when it hits hot
olive oil.
All this talk about food, and too early for lunch...
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Thick fog obscured the sun until about a half hour ago;
we watched
the mist slowly dissolve to reveal at first a pale grey
orb that we could
view directly, and now a bright sun is blazing away
surrounded by fat white
clouds. The meadows gleam with leftover raindrops, and
the scene has switched
from dull to enchanting just by adding sunlight. There is
a chance of more rain for today,
but it looks like we may have time to take a walk before
it moves in. We had some extremely
hard rain yesterday, the kind that floods the ditch in
minutes and forms sheets of water an inch
thick cascading down the road. If that kind of rain had
any kind of staying power, we could see
flooding even atop Gomer Hill. Fortunately,
yesterday’s deluges were of short duration, but fre-
quent enough that we won’t have to worry about
watering the gardens for a few weeks. May
years ago we had a record-breaking rainfall that flooded
fields and washed out part of our
road. We had a blast swimming in a neighbor’s meadow;
the culverts and ditches couldn’t
keep up with the flow, and it was days before the soil
was able to absorb the inundation.
Our leafy greens are thriving in all of this moisture; it
is hard to keep up with the spinach.
There are a few older plants that have not yet bolted to
seed, perfect for chopping and
turning ordinary rice into rice florentine. The
second planting is ready to thin and use
in salads. Our iceberg lettuce has little heads forming,
and it seems like all two dozen
of them will reach maturity within days of each other.
Time to sow more lettuce,
the fourth such planting of the season. Carrots must be
thinned, and onions
weeded. If the rain holds off until much later in the day,
we just might
get to some of these tasks, slogging away in the mud.
Right now,
the warm sun and gentle south breeze beckon us to take to
the
meadow paths, surrounding ourselves with shining greenery.
Have a great day,
Daisy
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