~
Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:00 a.m.
54 degrees, windy, partly cloudy
Although there was a frost advisory posted for our area
last night,
our low overnight temperature was forty-six, far from
frosty. Still, we
covered our tomatoes and picked a spackle bucket full of
sweet green
peppers, just in case. We also protected the hot
peppers, trying to get one
more good picking of red hungarians before we call it
quits. We will dig up
one of the habanero plants and bring it indoors for the
winter; a friend brought
a plant in every fall and put it out again in the summer
for years, and ended up
with a monster plant with scores of hot peppers. Now that
our sunporch has
been winterized, it is worth a try. We need to start
gathering the potted gera-
niums strewn about the yard and prune them for winter as
well, snipping off
all but the healthiest leaves and putting the trimmed
plants in one of the cool
rooms upstairs. We will spend much of today planting
garlic, big fat cloves
buried deep to emerge along with the first daffodils of
spring. Every year we
increase the size of the garlic bed, saving the biggest
cloves to put back into
the earth. This year I also let a couple of plants go to
seed, and will experi-
ment with planting the little bulbils in flats and then
putting the slips out in
rows next spring. The resulting bulbs of garlic will be
small the first year,
but if they are planted the following autumn, they will
be good sized the
second summer, in time for harvest. For more information
about growing
garlic from bulbils, check out this link.
Every day provides an oppor-
tunity to expand our knowledge; never stop learning !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, September 29, 2007 9:30 a.m.
54 degrees, windy, partly sunny
This morning’s view is all about the clouds; big
dark banks loom
large to the east, hiding the sun until an hour after it
rose. Filmy shapes
of varying densities and shades of grey rapidly skitter
across the sky from
west to east; this hide-and-seek dazzle combined with the
wind and umbra
from swaying branches and fluttering leaves causes trippy
dappled patterns
on the ground that make for a dizzying tableau anywhere
that shadows are
cast. The air itself is clear as a bell, cool and
achingly pure, rarefied by inter-
mittent drizzle that fell late yesterday. A flock of
fifty or more turkeys was just
running amok in our potato field, toms chasing hens with
their tails fanned out,
running to and fro as if trying to herd them. I have
never seen this behavior in
the fall; I associate such frolicking with mating, which
is a springtime event.
Turkeys in general have been having a field day (literally)
cleaning up cull
spuds that we left in the rows, and one can hope they are
also feasting
on colorado potato beetles; that would be a big help.
Turkey season
begins on Monday, so this flock had better get its fill
of wild rumpus
during the next two days. It is a fine day for any kind
of outdoor fun;
get out and enjoy yourself,
Daisy
~
Friday, September 28, 2007 7:30 a.m.
48 degrees, windy, partly cloudy
Although the sun officially rose a half hour ago, it is
only now coming into
view from behind a big bank of clouds to the east. As
always, the presence
of clouds enhances the event, providing a celestial
palette for the warm hues
of dawn. Although rain was predicted for yesterday, it
didn’t arrive until after
dark, and kept up a steady gentle sprinkle throughout
most of the night. We may
see some storms later today; one can hope. Right now it
is shaping up into an
absolutely beautiful morning, so I believe that after I
set the bread dough to
rise we will have to take a walk under the shiny autumn
leaves, just for fun.
Do something fun yourself,
Daisy
~
Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:30 a.m.
66 degrees, calm, foggy
Gentle rain fell at times during the night, and more is
expected during
the day, although the Nexrad radar shows that it may,
once again, go
around our neighborhood. The level of water in our
springbox continues
to drop, even with the recent showers. I think it will
take several days of
steady rain and a whole lot of winter snow to get the
water table back to
normal. Meanwhile, we took advantage of yesterday’s
gorgeous weather to
continue to buzz up the neverending stack of limbwood
piled at meadow’s edge.
We have this year’s wood all cut and split, and are
now working on the next two
or three years’ supply. I reached for a piece of cut
cherry on the sawtable, and
a huge yellow spider crawled up my glove. Now, I have
seen lots of stuff while
cutting wood, from hollow logs full of snakes, giant
pulsating termite queens, and
ants the size of a small poodle, but this spider had the
advantage of surprise and
I screamed like a banshee. We returned it to the woods,
and it didn’t want to
leave the glove, I still shudder to recall that moment.
It was a marbled orb
weaver, three-quarters of an inch of mottled lemon-yellow
body and bright
orange legs, truly beautiful in a creepy kind of way. I
believe I may have to buy
a pair of work gloves that reaches all the way to my
elbows after that encounter.
Have an exciting day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 8:30 a.m.
66 degrees, windy, partly sunny
We had some lovely rain overnight; it started as a hard
downpour with
a little distant sheet lightning which was brief but
substantial. It moved out
of the area and left a bright sky, the moon effulgent
behind fast-moving clouds.
After a little time passed, a window-rattling BOOM!
came out of nowhere and
the sky opened up again; this time the rain was
accompanied by prodigious thun-
derclaps and nearby strikes of lightning. This morning
the valley is fogged in, and
haze on the Hill seems to be vying with a strong south
wind for dominance. More
rain is supposed to be on the way, so if outdoor plans
are part of your day, be sure
to take a raincoat. Yesterday I took a pail to the garden
to finish harvesting our beets,
and there wasn’t a single one in the row. Deer had
pulled up and devoured every one,
and there had been at least sixty left in the ground left
from the last picking. Phooey.
I would like to leave the carrots for a while to get
sweetened up by frost before
yanking them for storage, but now I am wondering if they
will be as tempting to
deer as the sweet red beets were. They also have munched
our new spinach right
down to the ground, while ignoring two rows of prime
tender lettuce in the same
space. What the heck? I put down some soap shavings and
moved my noise-
makers to the new bed of greens, hoping that the spinach
will bounce back
and the lettuce will be spared any such pruning. Deer
have acre upon acre
of second-growth clover, timothy and alfalfa, and more
apples than they
could possibly consume, why can’t they be content
with the natural
bounty ? Ah well. If we are lucky enough to harvest a
fine fat buck
this year, at least we know he will have been finished on
organic feed.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 8:00 a.m.
63 degrees, windy, sunny
After a perfect cool night the sun is doing a fine job of
warming us up,
in spite of a pretty stiff wind form the south. We have
not had frost here
on Gomer Hill yet, and the heat of the past few days has
coaxed scads of
tomatoes and peppers into showing beautiful red and
orange hues, echoing
the changing maple tree leaves. Poplar/aspens are still
deep green, being one
of the last varieties to show any color. Lots of our
landscape shrubs are half-
way changed, with the forsythia leading the pack, deep
purple, yellow, red
and green all at the same time in one convenient hedge.
Sometimes the spring-
time bloom of this tender hedge is less than spectacular,
but the autumn display
is always breathtaking. We have one more fairly hot day
in store before the
chance of rain moves in for a few days, so we will
harvest lots of vegetables
and herbs this morning so we won’t suffer from a
lack of indoor work during
the wet spell. We could certainly put a few more bags of
beets in the freezer,
and I can envision a kettle or two of pasta sauce
simmering away while some
small apple cakes and zucchini breads bake, also destined
for the freezer.
It never hurts to have some tasty treats stashed away for
morning coffee
with a friend, or weekend visitors to our little piece of
paradise.
Better get busy,
Daisy
~
Monday, September 24, 2007 8:00 a.m.
57 degrees, breezy, sunny
The air is chilly this morning but the forecast is for
eighty degrees this
afternoon, so the stove will not be lit. I would like to
slow-simmer some
bourbon-stewed apples, but I guess I will use the
crockpot instead of the
back of the wood range. Yesterday we drove to Remsen for
the Festival of
the Arts, a fine show of talented craftsmen and artists
plus many vendors of
delicious foods, both sweet and savory. The day was
perfect for such an event,
not too hot with a good breeze stirring the fragrances of
herbs, soaps, candles,
and freshly turned wood in with the kabobs, sausages, and
chowders. Trees are
displaying a motley blend of every color in the book,
even blue if you count the
spruces, and the trip to and fro was quite pleasant. We
had plenty of time for an
afternoon walk after returning to the Hill, and so we
went up a nearby farm lane
to see what was going on at the pond; perhaps we would
see a pair of ducks or
a muskrat. Well, I knew it had been a dry summer, but
this pond (or lack of it)
really drove the drought home in a way that no mere
statistics could. What had
been a sizeable pond is now a puddle about six feet
across and three inches deep.
Muskrat trails had hardened and cracked, and grass grows
right down to water’s
edge. It will take a heap of rain to bring this pond back.
There is some rainfall pre-
dicted for midweek, but much of the weather pundits’
prognostications have veer-
ed around Tug Hill this year, leaving us both high and
dry. Maybe it is time to bring
out the rain stick and give it a few careful shakes. The
last time I used it certainly
brought results; remember the St. Valentine’s Day
snowstorm ? Yikes ! Perhaps
I need to be more careful with the way the request is
worded: slow, steady
rain, nourishing the land and gradually replenishing the
water table,
that should do it...
have a great day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, September 23, 2007 9:15 a.m.
58 degrees, breezy, sunny
The air has changed to cool and crisp, as befits this
first day of autumn.
Fall arrived about an hour before the sun, and Venus was
waiting there at the
horizon to greet both the sun and the season. An
interesting site about celestial
events is spaceweather.com. According to the
most recent report, we may see
some northern lights during the next week or so; take a
look around every night be-
fore bedtime and you just might catch a show. We
walked up the dirt road late last
night and were rewarded by the sight of unlimited stars
with a 3/4 moon glowing high
in the sky. The north wind was ushering in cooler
air, but there were still pockets of
sultry warmth lying low that swirled around my sandal-clad
feet occasionally. Crickets
were few and far between and one firefly held vigil at
the edge of the meadow, flashing
so slowly I thought I imagined it until I trained my eyes
on the spot for several minutes. A
barred owl called from deep in the forest, and just after
we returned to the house a loud
chorus of coyotes sang from nearby, not too far from
where we had just walked. I am
traveling off the Hill today, and look forward to a
different view for a change, although
part of me would like to remain here to enjoy this
gorgeous morning on my home turf.
It’s all good !
Daisy
~
Saturday, September 22, 2007 7:00 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, partly cloudy
What a beautiful morning; it may be the last full day of
summer but autumn
is in the air for sure. Leaves have started to fall a bit
early and are crunchy under-
foot. The aroma of ripe tomatoes and crisp apples is
everywhere, indoors and out.
and a few geese are on the move early, honking a greeting
as they pass by. Autumn
will officially arrive at 5:51(EDST) tomorrow morning, so
plan to balance an egg on
end before making your Sunday omelet; the equinox is a
good day to try that trick.
(To be honest, I haven’t tried doing it any other
day...) At any rate, we welcome
fall and all of its traditional activities, which up here
in the North Country may
include skiing along with leaf-peeping and apple
gathering. I walked the peri-
meter of our meadows yesterday and picked a bagful of
apples, just the per-
fect ones I could reach. If I take a long-handled picker
I could easily fill a
few spackle buckets with fruit. There are many varieties
that grow wild up
here, yellow and red and striped; my favorite are the
yellow transparent,
tender-skinned and sweet, juicy even in a dry year such
as this. There
is a crazy amount of apples all over Tug Hill; I believe
I feel a dutch
apple pie coming on, tart apples in a pecan crust with
sweet crumbly
bits on top, fragrant with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Yum !
Daisy
~
Friday, September 21, 2007 8:00 a.m.
59 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
Sometimes we start the day lazy, basking in the early sun
on the back porch
and enjoying our morning brew in silence while we watch
the scene unfold.
This time of year is perfect for such lassitude; even
after a refreshing night’s
sleep our bodies are still somewhat weary from the
increasing physical labors
of moving firewood and hauling in (maybe literally) tons
of potatoes and other
good vegetables to the various storage areas. I believe
that when we take the
time to relax and refresh with a good cuppa and a lovely
view, it resets our cir-
cuits for another day of work, reminding us that this
gorgeous view of the Black
River Valley and distant Adirondack Mountains is one of
the things we enjoy
about the lifestyle we have chosen. We are nearly
finished moving in the large
heavy pieces of firewood for our main heating stove; one
more big trailer load
should do it. The smaller wood that we burn in the
Kalamazoo kitchen range
will be stored on the back porch, so we hold off bringing
that in until it the
mornings are too frosty to sit out there. Everything is
loaded onto trailers
and ready to move, and the weather has been perfect for
such tasks.
Sometimes in the middle of a job like this, covered with
sawdust
and old bits of bark, we grin at each other and one of us
will say
“I wonder what the poor people are doing today?”
For we
consider ourselves rich in ways that cannot be measured
in dollars and cents. And now, off to enjoy moving
our last load of treasure into the woodshed.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:00 a.m.
58 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
What manifests as hazy sunshine here on Gomer Hill may
very well
be fog in the valley. Lowland farms are indistinct and
vague, and the
Adirondack Mountains are not visible on the horizon at
all. Our back
meadow is full of turkeys plodding through the short hay,
all sizes of
birds from hefty hens to young ones the size of a crow,
with only their
heads poking through the clover to mark their passage.
Deer visited the
broccoli yesterday and munched the leaves right off,
leaving a few heads
but all in all a disappointing yield this year. There are
more turkeys and deer
on Tug Hill than in any year since we arrived here in
1976; I think it may be
time to expand the hunting season on both for a couple of
years. That way we
all win; less competition for forage, bringing vigor back
to the herds and flocks,
and healthy lean meat for those who wish to hunt it.
Otherwise it will be difficult
in the future to maintain any kind of garden without
expensive fencing and con-
stant vigilance. Our city friends are appalled at the
thought of killing Bambi’s
Mother (I swear, they all say this) but then they
will buy beef, pork, or chicken
that has been raised under horrific conditions from a
chain supermarket. We like
to know where our meat has been, so we either raise our
own or purchase locally
grown meat and eggs, and if we are lucky, some venison
comes our way as well.
Sobering thoughts for a beautiful late summer morn; sorry
if it brings you down.
Have a great day anyway,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 7:30 a.m.
54 degrees, breezy, sunny
Cool breezes wafted through the house all night long,
bearing
on the wind the whoops and hollers of coyotes several
times as
they passed near the house on their nocturnal adventures.
I can’t
imagine what had them so stirred up, unless they were
being pursued
by hunters. I heard the baying of hounds at one point, so
that may have
been the case. I find it disturbing that so many local
folks feel the need to
try to eradicate coyotes from Tug Hill; they are a
necessary part of the food
chain. Without them, rodent populations will soar, and
the deer herds will no
longer have their old and weak naturally culled by the
efficient predation of
coyotes. I love to hear their wild yodeling in the middle
of the night, and
have never felt threatened by their presence. We have
lost more cats
to snowmobilers than to coyotes, and not one chicken has
been
taken by the wild dog population in all our years of
raising poultry.
Live and let live, I say, especially when it comes
to coyotes.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 7:30 a.m.
54 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
No frost in the valley last night, and perfectly cool for
a good night’s
sleep on Gomer Hill. It looks like the rest of the week
will be summery,
good growing conditions for everything that is left in
the gardens. Two deer
are moseying down the path away from the broccoli patch;
I hope I am not
too late, they can mow a row down to nubs in nothing flat.
We are pretty lucky
in that deer mostly just take a few samples here and
there until autumn arrives,
then it seems like we have put up a neon sign flashing Deer
Buffet in bright
orange letters. Perhaps the meadow greens lose their
appeal after the first
frost dries them out a bit. Thank goodness there is
plenty for them to browse,
or we would be in the same boat as friends in town who
can’t even grow flowers;
the citified deer eat everything growing in their yard.
We don’t begrudge them the
occasional nibble from the beet rows; pruning the bean
leaves actually encourages
more beans to grow. But during the next few weeks they
will come in and clear out
every leftover head of cabbage, pull up and eat cull
beets, and munch bean plants,
stems and all. Perhaps it is the inborn directive to
fatten up before winter that lures
them to our simple fare. All I know is, I will spend one
more day grating soap be-
tween the rows and placing some noisemakers next to the
broccoli in a last-ditch
attempt to preserve those succulent little bundles for
our own consumption. When
I have taken enough for the freezer, the deer can munch
away on the leavings.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, September 17, 2007 7:30 a.m.
36 degrees, calm, sunny
Our overnight low was thirty-three degrees, and we appear
to have
escaped any frost here on Gomer Hill. The weather spotter
in Highmarket
reported a low of twenty-eight in the wee hours, and
friends in Boonville have
had frost two mornings in a row. We covered our tomatoes,
peppers, and winter
squash just in case, and now it looks like clear sailing
for the rest of the week, with
warm sunny days and comfortably cool nights. Our broccoli
is finally forming nice
heads, and we will have a lot for the freezer if we can
get to it before the deer. Our
final crop of spinach is beautiful, deep green and
tender, and bibb buttercrunch lettuce is
slowly forming tight little heads for our fall salads.
Corn is all done, and we whacked the
stalks down to allow them to decompose a little faster;
raccoons have been gleaning the
last ears from the fallen stems and leaving well-chewed
cobs strewn along the meadow
paths. Sunflowers have formed many seedheads, and they
are alive with birds picking
them clean. They have bloomed continuously since
midsummer, and it seems that the
more stems I cut the more flowers appear. We planted a
mix of varieties from both
Burpee and Fedco seed companies, red and yellow and
creamy gold, most of them
mid-size with multiple blossoms per stem. We haven’t
grown the mammoth russian
variety for many years; I think the birds prefer these
smaller ones anyway. We cut
the last of the gladiolas yesterday, and dahlia plants
continue to bow under the
weight of their lovely crimson and magenta pompoms. The
garden may be wind-
ing down, but there are still many wonders to enjoy as
the days grow shorter.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, September 16, 2007 9:00 a.m.
51 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
It was pretty cold last night, thirty-five degrees here
on Gomer Hill.
There may have been frost in the valley, but we were
spared. We had rain
off and on all day yesterday, which made for interesting
outdoor working cond-
itions. We piled firewood in the shed in between showers,
and split some of the
gigantic chunks with our hydraulic wedge in the rain,
dressed in layers and comfy
in spite of the weather. Late in the day the sun shone
over the valley while rain fell
up here, and a beautiful rainbow spanned the entire
breadth of sky. I had never
seen such a broad bright arc, every color defined and
blending vividly into the
adjacent hue. As it started to fade, a second rainbow
echoed the first just out-
side the main span, a pastel version of the original
brilliance. In our culture, the
rainbow often signifies the covenant that Noah made with
God that there would
not be another devastating flood, a promise to all of
mankind. In Greek mytho-
logy, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, a messenger of
the Olympian gods,
Hera in particular. It was thought that the rainbow was a
sign that Iris was
returning water from the sea to the clouds. For other
rainbow myths, check
out this Wikipedia link For us yesterday, it was a
breathtaking reminder
that we are wonderfully fortunate to live in a place
where such natural
beauty is readily available, with an endless sky
providing the palette.
Have a beautiful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, September 15, 2007 8:30 a.m.
48 degrees, breezy, cloudy, sprinkles
Rain fell off and on all night long, but we never had the
thunder and
lightning that were predicted. A low temperature of forty
had us eager
to light the kitchen range this morning, using some of
the excellent stove
wood we cut yesterday. Fortunately the rain held off
until after our tasks
were finished for the day, and the weather couldn’t
have been more perfect.
The sun stayed hidden behind high clouds for most of the
day and although we
could see trees swaying in the hedgerows that divide our
meadows, it was fairly
calm at the edge of the forest where we had the buzzsaw
set up. The morning
sped by, a slow constant dance of untangling long pieces
of limbwood from a
huge stack, as if a giant game of pickup sticks was
underway. The man in the
middle wrangled the wood against the huge blade and did
the actual cutting,
and a third person took the short wood from the saw table
and stacked it
onto trailers. We broke for lunch and resumed the work
for a few more
hours, taking our time and accomplishing much. Gone are
the days when
we rose at dawn and cut wood until sundown; we will do it
all over again
today, and possibly for a short time tomorrow as well,
taking three days
to do the job that our younger selves would have pushed
hard to finish
in a single day. In retrospect, I wonder what our hurry
was? Time
passes as it will, and chores have their own timetable
whether
we take one break or many. Older and wiser, yep, that’s
us !
Take your time and enjoy the day,
Daisy
~
Friday, September 14, 2007 8:00 a.m.
54 degrees, windy, overcast
I imagine it may warm up a little when the sun comes out.
Sunrise itself was a beauty, with a big red sun emerging
above
fluffy shape-shifting clouds. We have a day of
woodcutting planned,
so even if it stays on the cool side we won’t mind
that one bit. There
is a possibility of frost tomorrow night, so here is your
official heads up
if you live in the North Country. Get out your tarps
and blankets and
have them ready to roll (or unroll, actually) if you
still have a few
pepper and tomato plants to protect. Our tomatoes have
been
ripening quickly after last week’s warm spell, but
it is still nice
to be able to prolong the season as much as possible.
And now, to the woods !
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Thursday, September 13, 2007 7:30 a.m.
50 degrees, calm, sunny
It is a quiet morning here on Gomer Hill. Our usual
breeze is still,
and the view looks more like a photograph than reality.
So far not one
bird has passed by my window, and the school bus was the
last vehicle
to go down the road a half hour ago. Time seems stuck, a
nice change from
the speedy gallop of the life-clock of the past few weeks.
(Time really does fly
when you are having fun !) Yesterday we hiked the South
Trail at Whetstone
Gulf State Park, starting at the top and working our way
down towards the
picnic area. It was a rare day filled with surreal light
dappling down through
swaying trees. Many of the leaves have started to turn
beautiful shades of
crimson, gold, and orange; when seen against the backdrop
of sheer shale
cliffs the effect is awesome. Bright red maple leaves
dotted the trail, wet with
rain and catching the sun, ineffably beautiful. Smaller
plants in the understory
were zebra-striped green and bronze, with occasional red,
white, or purple
berries for punctuation. We thought that the recent rain
might have coaxed
up some mushrooms, but there was not even one fungus
among us. Squirrels
and chipmunks scurried over the lip of the chasm without
a thought for gravity,
and a couple of bluejays streaked through the
forest, but for the most part there
were few critters besides us on the trail. We arrived at
the observation platform
late in the afternoon and watchedlong shadows accent the
farms of the valley.
We could see clear to the Adirondack Mountains, and
patchwork fields of
new hay and old corn were laid out with perfection in the
foreground that
is the Black River Valley. Autumn colors are incoming,
and the next
few weeks will see plenty of change all over the North
Country.
Get out and explore,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 7:30 a.m.
50 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Rain fell all night long; we are finally getting the slow
gentle soaking that
has been missing all summer. Sunrise was spectacular as
heavy rain clouds
parted to allow the show to proceed. Now that dawn is a
little later, I am able
to see every single one; even those obscured by rain or
fog are still beautiful in
my mind’s eye. Today there were several shapes and
sizes of clouds for all those
warm colors to dance through, and they moved so swiftly
there was a different view
every second. The morning air is chilly and clean,
smelling of wet leaves and worms.
A huge flock of starlings just streamed over the meadow,
flying in synchronicity like
a swarm of giant honeybees. I saw several such flocks on
the way home from work
last night, some in motion and others perched along a
half mile of power lines. A few
geese have passed through the neighborhood, but there has
been no real migratory
activity from the waterfowl so far. At one point
yesterday there were six bluebirds
and three goldfinches in our birdbath all at the same
time, fluffing their feathers in the
water and taking a few sips. When they all left there was
only an inch of liquid remain-
ing in the basin, so I scurried out to fill it again,
handmaiden to a bunch of birds.
Nice work if you can get it...
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 8:00 a.m.
59 degrees, breezy, overcast, raining
Rain started to fall about a half hour ago, and we have
had a good soaking
in just a little while. Mist hangs nearly to the ground,
not exactly fog but I think
if I were just a little bit taller I could literally
stroll along with my head in the clouds.
If there is a break in the showers I need to dash out and
pull another bucket of beets
to put into the freezer, muddy work but necessary. One
year I let it go until too late;
deer had pulled every one and munched them down to nubs.
Spinach is big enough
to thin and enjoy in a tender green salad full of grapes,
sweet onion, candied pecans,
and gorgonzola cheese. Whoever first thought about
combining fruit with spinach was
really on to something. Our favorites are orange slices,
mango, pears, and grapes. El-
derberries are lush and purply-black, but I simply haven’t
had the time to collect any so
far this summer. Blackberries in our area never got
going; perhaps the rain will coax a
few into late ripeness. More rain is expected today,
possibly even a few thunderstorms,
although on the Nexrad map it looks like it may all pass
south of us (once again).
We are grateful for whatever rain falls our way; every
drop counts this summer.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, September 10, 2007 7:30 a.m.
55 degrees, breezy, foggy
Beautiful soft gentle rain fell off and on all day long
and into the night
yesterday. Our homemade rain gauge (an empty bucket)
indicates that
we received about an inch and a half since it started to
rain early Sunday
morning, a good long soak. Although it is foggy now, I
can see that the sun
is bright above the groundcover, giving the fog a merry
glow that is anything
but murky or vague. Indeed, the newly refreshed green of
the lawn is gleaming
like emeralds washed by the sea, and the orange breasts
of our local bluebird
family seem nearly neon as they blaze through the mist.
Last night the ground
was alive with nightcrawlers; this is the first they have
emerged for many months,
and although I didn’t even apply for a fishing
license this year, I was seized by
the urge to pluck one from the grass for old time’s
sake. I admired the glistening
length of it before releasing it into the garden, where
it quickly burrowed into the
soft soil. The night air was redolent of mud and wet
leaves, chilly and drizzly and
silent, save for the dripping of water from the second-story
eaves onto the tin of
the porch roof. More rain is on the way for tomorrow, and
now the wells can
begin to recover. The level of water in our springbox is
slowly rising as well,
good news indeed !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, September 9, 2007 9:00 a.m.
58 degrees, calm, overcast, raining
It is not merely raining, it is raining hard; about time,
too. A large cell of rain
is passing directly over our area, and it looks like we
might have a lovely wet
day. As the level of our spring-fed well has dropped
significantly over the past
few months, we welcome this rain, not just for the
nourishment of our lawn and
gardens, but for the convenience of fresh sweet water at
our fingertips any time
we turn the tap. I realize that one good storm will not
raise the water table signi-
ficantly, but it does give us hope for a reversal of
fortune for us and others who
rely on an independent water source. A friend of ours
with a large dairy farm
has had to haul water in tank trucks for the past week,
as his wells are empty.
Folks all over the area collect what little rainwater
there has been to water
their gardens and flush toilets, and many of us have been
recycling dishwater
and water left-over from washing fruits and veggies,
pouring it on flower boxes
and perennial beds. We wonder what effect the draught
will have on less critical
things as well; for instance, will deciduous trees
display their usual vivid autumn
colors, or will they be less intense somehow. So far a
few spots of orange have
shown up in maples here and there, but the predominate
color of the past few
weeks has been gold... in the crispy lawn, spent
cornstalks, and acres of
goldenrod and dried standing hay. We are grateful for
this rain, thanks be
to _______________ (insert name of your
favorite deity or spirit helper here).
Yippee !
Daisy
~
Saturday, September 8, 2007 7:30 a.m.
67 degrees, windy, fog
Several brief rain showers appeared after midnight and
have settled the
dust a bit, but under a skimcoat of mud our garden soil
is still powder-dry.
At least the temperature will be a little more user-friendly
today. Yesterday’s
high was 90 here on Gomer Hill, made a little more
bearable by a stiff west
wind that blew the sweat away nearly before it even
formed. I sat in the late
afternoon shade and trimmed up our garlic for storage,
tedious work but not
terribly arduous. Every year we make the garlic patch a
little bigger, so now
we have hundreds of plump bulbs, many of which will be
separated into
cloves and planted back into long rows later this month.
Of all the crops
we grow, garlic is one of the most satisfying; what is
available in the super-
markets is nowhere as juicy or pungent as our fresh firm
cloves enrobed in
beautiful purple wrappers. Fingerling potatoes and whole
garlic cloves tossed
with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted in a hot
oven, boy howdy ; there’s
nothing like it, crispy potatoes and garlic that is chewy-sweet
on the outside and
creamy within. After sunset the heat of the day waned a
bit so we walked up the
road. A huge meteor streaked slowly across a moonless
sky, taking its sweet time,
a real nice surprise. Crickets laid down the backbeat for
the faraway lonesome call
of a barred owl, and the neighbor’s beagle howled at
some wild thing or other. A
bear has been ravaging an old apple orchard not too far
from here, so every time
that dog raises its voice while we are on a night-time
stroll I get a little skittish,
although my chances of running into a skunk are greater
than a bear encounter.
Rain is falling again, a gentle shower; maybe it will
keep up for a while. If you
are headed to the Flywheels and Pulleys old-time steam
show in Constable-
ville this weekend, best to wear your wellies and
oilskins, just in case.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Friday, September 7, 2007 7:00 a.m.
66 degrees, calm, hazy sunshine
Luminescent fog fills the valley and brings a stillness
to the view that is rare.
The sun not so much rose as loomed above the fog, blood-red
and huge, the
kind of thing that would have sent aboriginal folks
scurrying back under cover.
Indeed, it looks ominous even to me, an enlightened
educated woman with a
strong scientific bent. Red sun in morning, sailors
take warning , glad I’m
not sailing anywhere today. However, the term sanguine
also comes to mind,
meaning the color of blood; it also means cheerfully
confident and optimistic.
So, as with nearly every other aspect of life, we can
pick and choose what
meaning to assign to our daily observations. For example,
I have a friend
who hates crows. The very sound of a crow calling gives
him the urge to
shoot it, and remove it from his life permanently. To him
the crow signifies
disruption to his peaceful world, and nothing more than
pure-dee noise. I
see crows and marvel at their ability to adapt to just
about any situation,
their cooperation in a group, and when I hear their loud
cawing I
feel inclined to follow the flock to see what the ruckus
is all
about. I love crows. Same bird, two points of view.
What do you think ?
Daisy
~
Thursday, September 6, 2007 7:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
The air is cool and damp, and it seems as if rain may be
imminent. All of
our onions are laid out on racks in the yard, but I just
know if I take the time
to move them into the barn it will jinx the much needed
rain. Heat and wind are
predicted for this afternoon, which will dry them out if
they do get wet. I pulled
a kettleful of beets yesterday, and the house soon filled
with sweet steam from
their boiling. Now they are frozen in neat slices, ready
to grace our dinner table
on winter nights when chicken and mashed potatoes need a
spot of color on the
plate. Our hot pepper crop did very well this year, and
that will be the morning
project, picking them and preserving the slices in brine
with garlic. I will also put
some into sweet pickling syrup, making a perfect
combination of hot and sweet,
delicious atop a cracker with cheese. We grew two
varieties of hot pepper, hot
hungarian wax and habanero. The wax are beautiful shades
of red, orange, and
yellow, a fairly spicy fruit which is mellowed somewhat
by processing. Habanero
is one of the hottest peppers on earth, cute little
orange beasts that make grown
men cry like little girls. I am going to reverse engineer
our favorite hot sauce
(Melinda’s) and make a small batch, using
carrots, lime juice, garlic, vinegar,
and habaneros. I will wear vinyl gloves and safety
goggles, and possibly a
damp bandana tied over my mouth if the fumes get too
intense. Once I
stir-fried a couple of thai peppers in with some zucchini
and onions,
and the kitchen quickly reminded us of a tear-gas filled
anti-war
protest rally of the late 60s. This is a good time of
year for all
such foods: garlic, hot peppers, horseradish... they help
keep
us germ-free and healthy going into the long winter
months.
Spice up your day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 8:30 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We have gained twelve degrees since dawn, and even at
sixty there is a
fall tang riding on the breeze. A flannel shirt feels
good. A half dozen bluebirds
are lined up on the clothesline looking in the window at
me; I imagine they are
thanking me for changing the water in the birdbath. There
has been so much
traffic at that little basin that the water is pretty
gross by the end of the day. I
watched one male bluebird splash and preen for about five
minutes yesterday.
He covered every bit of his cerulean feathers with oil
and then perched on the
grapevine fluffed out to twice his normal size to dry it
all out. The young birds
have all assumed their adult plumage, and it is quite a
sight to see them all
assembled at one time, about a dozen birds total. Our
nesting boxes need
attention before next spring. Two of them made a trip
through the big rotary
mower as the hay was cut, and two more need new roof
pieces. Perhaps it is
time to make a few more units and expand the trail. We
are in a perfect location
for both bluebirds and tree swallows. If you wish to
build your own bluebird house,
find plans at this site.
It is best to build at least two; then you will have
swallows in
one and bluebirds in the other. If there is only one
house, most likely the more ag-
gressive swallows will commandeer it. The next time you
drive on the NYS thruway,
or Routes 20 or 11, notice the pairs of nesting boxes all
along the roadsides. What
was once an endangered species is now back in full force,
thanks to hundreds of
volunteers who maintain these bluebird trails that
crisscross the state of New York.
Have an enjoyable day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 8:30 a.m.
52 degrees, windy, partly sunny
The sun has been shining through the clouds only a little
this chilly morning,
and even when it’s out it doesn’t seem strong
enough to chase away the brrrrr.
After a busy weekend of music and fun it is time to get
back to the chores of this
life we have chosen, one of wood heat and homegrown food.
The days will become
much warmer by the end of the week and rain will move in
(we hope!) so today will
be perfect for whaling away at the huge pile of limbwood
stacked along the edge of
the forest. There are also several mammoth chunks of
maple from a century-old tree
to wrestle onto the hydraulic splitter, each piece
yielding enough wood to warm our
home for a week. The wind is strong so skeeters won’t
bug us, and we should gener-
ate enough heat from the tasks to warm us up even if the
sun stays hidden all morning.
A flock of geese passed over the house just before
sunrise; it seems early for the an-
nual migration to begin, but perhaps they know more than
we do about this crazy year.
Ten bluebirds hung out at our birdbath yesterday, a sure
sign that flocks of all kinds
will soon be heading out for the long cold season. We
drove around the dirt roads
of Tug Hill yesterday evening, and most of the creeks are
down to a thin trickle;
the smaller frog ponds are dry as a bone, and the only
real water we passed
was contained in beaver ponds. Apples are abundant; most
are smaller than
usual, very sweet but pithy rather than juicy.
Elderberries are deep purple
but birds have been feasting on them and the umbels are
half bare by
the time we get to them. We passed massive heaps of
softwood,
and dozens of new skid trails from recent logging
endeavors.
I can’t wait to explore these paths on skis this
winter.
And now, off to the woodpile !
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Monday, September 3, 2007 8:00 a.m.
64 degrees, windy, sunny
In honor of Labor Day,
this labor of love will be brief. The End.
Have a wonderful day off,
Daisy
~
Sunday, September 2, 2007 9:00 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, sunny
The morning is toasty-warm after a pretty chilly night,
with the temperature
dipping down to a low of thirty-nine degrees. Heavy dew
is evaporating quickly,
and the air is fog-free and clear, wonderfully fresh.
Yesterday I spent much of the
day tending a bake sale at the moe.down festival, and
Snow Ridge was a veritable
dust bowl. Main walkways were periodically sprinkled with
water to try and keep
things clean, but a stiff north wind picked bone-dry dirt
up and swirled it around in
dustdevils, little swirling funnels that covered every
surface with a fine layer of grit.
Thank goodness all of our goodies were wrapped in cling
film or stored neatly in
covered bins. By the end of the day every bit of my
exposed skin looked as if it
had been made of clay, dry and powdery grey. We sold
everything we brought,
and many kind folks donated their change to the library;
we profited over four
hundred dollars, an amazing amount for a little community
bake sale. Thanks
to everyone who participated on both ends, and huge props
to Snow Ridge
for donating valuable vending space to the village
library. Many who attend
this annual event dress in costume, and last night’s
chilly air necessitated
layers of duofold underneath the fairy wings and twirly
skirts. One trio
dressed in furry bear suits must have been comfy as the
mercury drop-
ped, and a few folks simple wore their winter ski garb,
appropriate
and cozy. Several meteors streaked across the sky as I
made my
way home around midnight, and we were able to enjoy the
last
of the music from the back porch, where several more
shooting
stars added extra magic to the night. One weekend a year
our
little village swells to create the town of moeville,
adding much
to our quiet pastoral scene, most of it delightful, none
of it boring.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, September 1, 2007 7:00 a.m.
50 degrees, windy, foggy
There is more fog on Tug Hill this morning than
yesterday,
but it rolled in the same way, black and misty as it
crept up the slope.
Sunrise was very pretty but soon only a memory, and now
the fog grows
even more dense; fat drops fall from the eaves as it
condenses into some-
thing more tangible. If fog could fill the water tables,
we would be in luck;
alas, the level continues to drop, and if we don’t
get some good soaking
rain soon, we will be out of water here on top of the
world. It is chilly
and damp indoors as well as out, and a small fire in the
kitchen range
warms up one end of the house nicely. Small comforts are
often
the best kind, readily appreciated and simple enough to
achieve.
Are you comfy this fine morning ?
Daisy
~
~
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