Aerie Report, August 6, 2009

With company (Terry's Aunt Nancy and Cousin Lorraine) from South Carolina due on Wednesday, Terry and I did a little house cleaning during the day. We also went through the garden and picked more string beans (another frozen quart), zucchini (some from the neighbor's "free" pile; another four loaves), and cucumbers. Lots of cucumbers. We ended up with 20 cucumbers on the counter. That stash prompted Terry to make seven pints of garlic-dill pickles. We saved some out for salads the next few days. We have plenty of Romaine lettuce from the garden.

The ladies arrived last evening around 6 PM and after a dinner of salad, lasagna, garlic bread, and wine, we had a nice visit. They were quite happy to find the "high" temperature for the day had been 76 degrees and that the overnight low was to be 52. Beats the heck out of the temperatures in SC.

Today, Terry took the ladies over to the Grand Canyon of PA (the Pine Creek Gorge) and then to Wellsboro for lunch at the diner to do a little sightseeing.

While they were out, I took the chainsaw up the hill and spent four hours on a couple of tree tops that I had lopped the smaller branches off the other day. I've got a long way to go toward clearing up the tree tops from the logging that we had done, but every four to six hours I spend up the hill makes things...well, neater. Plus I've several small stacks of firewood logs awaiting hauling to the house. Of course, there are also several sizable piles of branches and limbs too small for use as firewood. I'm limiting myself to saving anything over four or five inches in diameter and cutting it to 16-18 inch lengths. And even then I'm throwing some really twisted branches that would meet the diameter requirements onto the "debris" piles. Lord knows there's still more firewood than I'll ever burn in the next five years.

Tonight promises to be another very cool night (perhaps even down into the upper 40s according to accuhunch) to be followed by a day where the temperature may not reach 75 despite being mostly sunny.

The ladies will be going up to Corning on Friday. I'll be playing lumberjack again.

Aerie Report, August 3, 2009

Man, oh man! If only every day were like today in the weather department. We started off with a cool and comfortable 55 degrees at 6 AM, followed by nothing but sunny skies and puffy cumulus clouds all day and yet the temperature barely made it up to 78 degrees this afternoon. Absolutely gorgeous!

Yesterday wasn't bad either once the early morning rains (0.15 inches) finished. Made everything very muddy outside. Especially slick was the clay road leading passed the Aerie. I drove to the top of the hill to look at the construction going on up there for both gas wells and wind mills and found the Tundra slipping on the clay like it was snow in winter. The construction is progressing but everything seems to be in the road building site preparation stage. It will be a good long while before the windmills go up. I'd be surprised if they appear this year at all.

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Terry's putting in long hours in preparation for the national Smocking Arts Guild of America convention that takes place in Indianapolis the end of September. As national president, she's got numerous tasks to complete, speeches to write, assignment of duties to make, coordination of various committees, etc. and she's trying to get things done before she and her Mom go down to Mt. Airy, NC for a Polar Bear Reunion. (Polar Bear in this instance is a group of Army Vets from WWII to which Dad belonged. He and Mom would go to all the reunions and now that Dad's passed away, Mom continues to go.)

Then Terry has the EGA (Embroiderer's Guild of America) national convention in Pittsburgh the beginning of October. yeah, she'll leave me and the cats alone for two straight weeks.

Then there's two weddings, one on Sept 26th and the other on Oct 17th and both in NJ.

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I walked up in the woods today to see what the loggers had left behind. There's a mess of tree tops (maple, ash, and oak) that I need to break down and cut up into firewood. Today was just to scout, plan, and lop off the smallest of branches (anything less than two inches in diameter). I worked for two and half hours and barely made a dent in the mess. I'll bring a water bottle tomorrow and will be able to spend even more time lopping branches. All in preparation of cutting and hauling firewood.

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I picked another half pint of mixed raspberries and blackberries while I was out in the woods today. Terry got enough string beans to freeze another quart. She also picked a couple more cucumbers. She also planted some spinach seeds where we had some lettuce earlier in the summer. Yesterday she turned a few zucchini into four loafs of bread.

Aerie Report, August 1, 2009

A glorious day here at the Aerie!

After yesterday's rains (1.07 inches ending around 4 PM), last night was cool and comfortable that we turned the window fan off and opened the window wide. That was good and bad. Today dawned at just 58 degrees but it did so damn early. The heavy dew acted just like rain in the downspout of the gutter and one drip leaking around a joint just outside the window beat a tattoo upon the pipe further down. If the fan had been running we probably would not have heard it but with the fan out of the window it was torture. At 5 AM. And once we started stirring, Chester and Shadow let it be known that they wanted to be fed. NOW!

Back to the rest of the day. As I said just 58 degrees this morning and it stayed cool with light breezes and puffy cumulus clouds casting shadows making it even more comfortable. The temperature reached a high of 80 degrees at around 4:30 PM. Much nicer temperature-wise than you might expect for the first day of August.

I took the stepladder out to see if I could fix the dang drain pipe by applying some silicone sealant in the joint. I guess I'll find out next time it rains.

Hunting hasn't started yet but gathering continues. I got another pint-plus of raspberries and blackberries off the hillside today. Turned them into a pint-and-a-half of syrup by mashing the berries in a sauce pan and adding a 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon of corn starch (thickener). I heated the whole thing to a rolling boil and then poured it into pint canning jars. Once cooled it went into the fridge since I didn't seal the jars in a water bath. Besides, it's only going over ice cream, pancakes, and pound cake in the next couple of weeks. Once the blackberries really start producing, I may make some more but that will get the water bath treatment for longer storage.

Gardening hasn't done too badly either. Terry and I had another quart of string beans for the freezer as well as a cup or so for dinner. There's a dozen cucumbers in the fridge waiting to be processed into something besides salad. And on the counter there are three small zucchinis of the 9-10 inch size that are just right for grilling. Last year we put in a dozen each of everbearing and June bearing strawberries. Right now the June bearers are looking lush and sending out runners all over their side of the patch. The everbearing strawberries are also sending out runners but they are also loaded with berries and flowers. I don't get many berries at a time but for the past week or so it's been five or six every other day. I pulled six onions the other day that are as round as a softball but flattened a bit. I braided their tops together and hung them on the covered porch to dry out a bit. After the rain yesterday, I knocked the tops over on the rest of the onions and I'll pull them on Monday or Tuesday. I've never grown onions before but these look to have done well.

About the zucchini...The neighbor down the hill finally put out some free squash on Thursday and Terry and I stopped to get a couple of yellow summer squash and two zucchini on our way back from wine tasting. They were to be just enough for a couple of loaves of bread. Then I get an email from Joe in NJ offering me all the zucchini I will take. (He says he's not allowed on the neighbor's properties any more and there's no one who will stand still long enough for him to give a few to.) But, just like last year, our zuke plants got the hint and starting to produce. I don't know that they will be as prolific as last year but then again, I don't have as many plants in the ground.