Aerie Report, September 29, 2010

We had a pretty nice day here at the Aerie. A mixture of clouds and sun with temperatures in the 60s that allowed me to cut the grass--hopefully for the last time this year. And this evening, that pretty nice day was capped off by a very lovely sunset with lots of pinks and purples mixed in with a tiny bit of firey red.

Wednesday Sunset at the Aerie

Call it the calm before the storm, if you will, for tomorrow we get wet!

Weather.com Forecast for September 30, 2010

See the medium dark green "Rhino horn" impaling the center of Pennsylvania and reaching up into New York? The one the key says means 3-6 inches of rain? See where the western edge of that horn crosses from PA into NY? Yep. That's about where the Aerie is located. And the Bolt Hole is near the tip of that medium green horn.


Sunday night's beautiful sundown was followed by more than an inch of rain. (I emptied 1.60 inches out of the rain gauge this afternoon.) Tomorrow will be an echo and an encore. Flash flood warnings out for nearly all of Pennsylvania but the concern is primarily with the small creeks and rivers. The larger ones are so low because of the scarcity of early September rain. Before Monday's rain, Elmira, NY said they had gotten only 1.25 inches when they should have had nearly 3 inches. The lack of water means the larger rivers have plenty of capacity the smaller ones, not so much. 3-6 inches of rain can go a long way to filling the little guys and should impact the Susquehanna as well. (AccuHunch's full forecast is here.)

The next gurgling sound you hear will be the Chesapeake Bay getting flushed by a sudden wall of freshwater coming out of the north as the Susquehanna Watershed gets inundated.

Aerie Report, September 28, 2010

Yesterday was a gray and dreary day with lots of fog and a light rain that fell almost all the time.

Terry was racing home from the Norfolk, VA area hoping to beat the torrential rains that were on their way. Aside from getting hit by just a few when she had to change course from due north to one of the side vectors going around the D.C. beltway, she did so with less than an hour to spare. Her little Aveo was parked snugly in the garage when the downpour started.

It continued on and off for most of the night and through the AM hours. The wind changed direction somewhere along the line and the rain from the south was replaced by rain from the west! And the wind velocity kicked up a notch, too. The wind has been swirling around the hillside even when the windmills are staying pretty much aligned to the west southwest.

Things got a little screwy this afternoon as bands of torrential rain would be interspersed with clear blue sky and sunshine. If you closed your eyes for more than 15 minutes you could be sure of seeing completely different weather when you opened them.

Any way, that seems to have been settled for the time being. I'm pretty sure we recorded more than an inch of rain since midnight Sunday. While Wednesday is supposed to be mostly sunny, Thursday looks to be a repeat of the rainy weather.

With the forecasts currently being presented by weather.com and accuhunch, it looks like I'll be heading up to the Bolt Hole with the log splitter on Friday. I'll carry some circuit breakers and 12-2 electrical wire so if it rains, I'll be able to do some rewiring of old, canvas and tar wires.

I'll also have my muzzle loader with me and will pick up a NYS hunting license. Won't be cheap, what with me being considered a "non-resident" but.... I really think they should consider property owners "residents" for the purpose of hunting and fishing licenses. As it is I'm paying close to 6K in property taxes on a part time residence and putting virtually no pressure on schools, highways, fire, police, etc. needs of the area. Plus I drop an awful lot of $$$ into the local economy in the form of groceries, building materials, etc. And let us not speak of the sales and fuel taxes!

eMail of the Day

Got a link to this from my buddy Joe this morning along with the brief comment: "This says it all."

Seems to me it may miss a few points (and scoundrels)--but only because it had to be compact.

The Last Best Hope



"This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

Indeed!
Stay angry, my friends. And VOTE!

[The video comes from Eyeblast TV.]

Other sources of color

Other than the leaves on the trees, there was additional color out there yesterday.

At The Muck, wild asters leaned out into the trail to the blind trying to get as much of the late season sunshine as they could.

Wild Asters at The Muck

At Hills Creek Lake, the lack of any breeze presented perfect conditions for the green algae to mass along the shoreline in swirls of many shades.

Swirls of Algae at Hills Creek Lake

And then, as if to mock my driving around in search of autumn colors, the sunset proved to be spectacular.

Sunset at the Aerie

College Football Week 5 Outlook Top 25 plus Opponents

Week 5 is approaching and there are some shake-ups in the polls. Texas goes from #7 all the way down to #21 after their loss to UCLA. That alone meant there was going to be a new Top 10. West Virginia’s loss to Oklahoma knocked them out of the Top 25 leaving no Big East team in this week’s post. *sigh*

This week we have the start of some intense conference play as well as matches of one ranked team against another—starting with #1 vs #7. Then there’s #4 vs #9, #8 vs #21, #11 vs #24, and #17 vs #22. Should be interesting.

[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coaches’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]

1/1/1 Alabama (4-0) having beaten then #10 Arkansas last week, the Tide will be playing at home against #7 Florida (4-0).

2/2/2 Ohio State (4-0) The Buckeyes start their Big 10 season at Illinois (2-1).

3/3/3 Boise State (3-0) The Broncos, with their hardest games behind them, play on the road against new Mexico State (0-3).

4/4/5 Oregon (4-0) Having leaped over TCU, the Ducks will square off against #9 Stanford (4-0).

5/5/4 TCU (4-0) Despite winning big last week over SMU (41-24), the Horned Frogs were dropped from the #4 slot to #5. This week they will play at Colorado State (1-3).

6/6/6 Nebraska (4-0) The Cornhuskers will have the week off.

7/7/8 Florida (4-0) The Gators go on the road to play #1 Alabama (4-0).

8/8/9 Oklahoma (4-0) The Sooners will play host to #21 Texas (3-1).

9/13/12 Stanford (4-0) The Cardinal will travel up the coast to play the #4 Oregon Ducks (4-0).

10/11/7 Auburn (4-0) The Tigers will host the La.-Monroe Lions (1-2)

11/9/11 Wisconsin (4-0) The Badgers start their Big 10 season on the road against #24 Michigan State (4-0)

12/10/15 LSU (4-0) The Tigers play host to SEC rival Tennessee (2-2).

13/12/10 Utah (4-0) The Utes will have the week off.

14/14/13 Arizona (4-0) The Wildcats will be idle this week.

15/15/17 Arkansas (3-1) The Razorbacks will also have the week off.

16/17/20 Miami (Fla.) (2-1) The Hurricane will play on the road against the Clemson Tigers (2-1).

17/18/18 Iowa (3-1) The Hawkeyes will be hosting the #22 Penn State Nittany Lions (3-1) this week.

18/NA/16 Southern California (4-0)The Trojans will host the Washington Huskies (1-2).

19/22/19 South Carolina (3-1) The Gamecocks have the week off.

20/19/14 Michigan (4-0) The Wolverines will play at Indiana (3-0).

21/16/24 Texas (3-1) The Longhorns travel to Norman to face the #8 Oklahoma Sooners (4-0).

22/20/25 Penn State (3-1) The Nittany Lions go to Iowa City to face the #17 Hawkeyes.

23/NA/23 North Carolina State (4-0) The Wolfpack will be hosting the Virginia Tech Hokies (2-2).

24/21/21 Michigan State (4-0)The Spartans play at home against the #11 Wisconsin Badgers (4-0).

25/25/22 Nevada (4-0) After cracking the Top 25 for the first time this year, the Wolfpack will be on the road to tee it up against UNLV (1-3).

NA/22/NA Missouri (4-0) The Tigers have the week off.

NA/24/NA Oklahoma State (3-0) The Cowboys play Thursday night at Texas A&M (3-0).

College Football Week 4 Results

Week 4 is over and there were enough losses by the Top 25 to ensure considerable movement in the upcoming polls. Most were due to two ranked teams facing each other. Then there’s #7 Texas losing to UCLA…
[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coaches’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]


1/1/1 Alabama (4-0) The Tide got quite a scare when #10 Arkansas (3-1) led 20-7 in the third quarter, but the Crimson scored 17 unanswered points to pull it out 24-20. Mark Ingram ran 24 times for 157 yards and 2 TDs for the Tide. Ryan Mallett completed 25 of 38 attempts for 357 yards and one TD, but 3 INT—the last coming with less than two minutes to play and Arkansas on the march--cost the Razorbacks.

2/2/2 Ohio State (4-0) The Buckeyes will host the Eastern Michigan Eagles (0-4) Saturday 73-20. Dane Sanzenbacher caught 4 TD passes from Terrelle Pryor who completed 20 of 26 passes for 224 yards. Pryor caught a TD pass himself and also ran for a score.

3/3/3 Boise State (3-0) The Broncos beat the #24 Oregon State (1-2) Saturday 37-24. Kellen Moore completed 19 of 27 for 288 yards and 3 TDs

4/5/4 TCU (4-0) The Horned Frogs beat the Southern Methodists Mustangs (2-2) 41-24 Friday night. It wasn’t easy, however. The Frogs fell behind 17-14 early in the third quarter but then Jeremy Kerley returned the following kickoff 83 yards the offense stepped up. Making up for two interceptions, Andy Dalton led the Frogs in putting 21 unanswered points on the scoreboard. The TCU defense gave up 361 yards.

5/6/5 Oregon (4-0) The Ducks downed the Arizona State Sun Devils (2-2) Saturday 42-31. It took seven turnovers to do it, however. The Ducks recovered three Sun Devil fumbles and intercepted Steven Threet four times—three of them in a scoreless fourth quarter. Threet did complete 30 of 53 attempts for 387 yards and 3 TDs. Darron Thomas was 19 of 33 for 260 yards and 2 TDs and also ran for a score for the Ducks.

6/7/6 Nebraska (4-0) The Huskers won a surprisingly close contest against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (0-3) Saturday 17-3. Kyle Minett ran 28 times for the Jackrabbits gaining 112. He also caught 5 passes for 40 yards. Since South Dakota State only ran 65 plays for a net of 236 yards….

7/4/8 Texas (3-1) The Longhorns lost to the UCLA Bruins (2-2) Saturday 34-12. Johnathan Franklin rushed for 118 yards and a TD on 19 carries, Kevin Prince ran for one TD and passed another. Despite Garrett Gilbert completing 30 of 45 tosses for 264 yards and a TD, the Longhorns were never in this one.

8/9/7 Oklahoma (4-0) The Sooners squeaked by the Cincinnati Bearcats (1-3) by a score of 31-29. Cincinnati scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late as two D.J. Woods’ fumbles (one early as he was heading into the end zone, another on a muffed punt in the fourth quarter) cost the bearcats dearly. The Sooners’ Landry Jones completed 36 of 51 passes for 370 yards and 2 TDs. Woods made 7 catches for 171 yards and one TD for the Bearcats.

9/8/9 Florida (4-0) The Gators handed the Kentucky Wildcats (3-1) their first loss of the season 48-14 on Saturday. Freshman QB Trey Burton scored six (6) touchdowns on runs of 11, 10, 9, 3, and 7 yards. He also scored on an 11 yard pass from John Brantley.

10/11/10 Arkansas (3-1) The Razorbacks dropped a close one to #1 Alabama (4-0) Saturday 24-20.

11/10/11 Wisconsin (4-0) The Badgers routed the Austin Peay Governors (2-2) Saturday 70-3. The Badgers scored TDs on each of their first half possessions—all seven of them. Stats don’t mean much in a game like this but Scott Tolzien was 15 of 17 for 217 yards and three TDs—all in the first half, and freshman James White carried the ball 11 times for 145 yards and four TDs

12/NR/12 South Carolina (3-1) The Gamecocks lost 35-27 to #17 Auburn (4-0) on Saturday when the Tigers—trailing the entire game--put 14 points on the board in the fourth quarter

13/13/13 Utah (4-0) The Utes routed the San Jose State Spartans (1-3) 56-3 Saturday. Eight different players scored TDs for the Utes as the scored on offense and special teams (punt return).

14/16/15 Arizona (4-0) Trailing 9-3, the Wildcats scored a TD and made the conversion with 1:11 remaining in the game to down the California Golden Bears (2-2) 10-9 on Saturday.

15/12/20 LSU (4-0) After jumping out to a 17-0 lead in the first half, the Tigers held on earning a victory over #22 West Virginia Mountaineers (3-1) 20-14.

16/17/19 Stanford (4-0) The Cardinal beat Notre Dame (1-3) Saturday 37-14. Andrew Luck tossed his first interceptions of the year against the Irish, but Nate Whitaker and Owen Marecic saved his bacon. Whitaker kicked five field goals of 24, 41, 36, 33, and 29 yards. Marecic, who plays both sides of the ball for the Cardinal, scored 2 TDs—on a one-yard run and then, seconds later on a 20-yard interception return. Dayne Crist completed 25 of 44 passes for 304 yards and one TD but the Irish got just 44 yards on the ground.

17/14/14 Auburn (4-0) The Tigers downed #12 South Carolina (3-1) on Saturday. Cameron Newton scored 3 TDs on the ground (54, 3, and 4 yards) and tossed two TD passes (7 and 12 yards) in leading the Tigers over the Gamecocks. Newton finished the day with 25 rushes for 176 yards while completing 16 of 21 for 158 yards. Auburn had to come from behind—scoring the last 14 points of the game—to earn the victory.

18/18/16 Iowa (3-1) The Hawkeyes shutout the Ball State Cardinals (1-3) 45-0. Adam Robinson carried the ball 22 times for 115 yards and scored two TDs. Ricky Stanzi completed 19 of 25 attempts for 288 yards and three TDs.

19/19/21 Miami (Fla.) (2-1) The Hurricane played with the Pittsburgh Panthers (1-2) 31-3 on Thursday night. And while the 31 points might lead you to believe this victory could be credited to the Miami offense, not so. The Hurricanes had five sacks, nine tackles for losses and forced three turnovers.

20/15/18 Southern California (4-0) The Trojans spotted the Washington State (1-3) seven points early and then rolled over the Huskies to an easy victory 50-16. USC’s Matt Barkley completed 15 of 25 passes for 290 yards and 3 TDs but tossed 2 INTs. USC had a total of 613 net yards including 285 on the ground. So what the heck was Mitch Mustain doing scoring on a 2-point conversion early in the second half? Coach Kifflin is addicted to the 2-point conversion.

21/22/17 Michigan (4-0) The Wolverines routed the Bowling Green Falcons (1-3) 65-21. Denard Robinson only played one-and-a-half quarters as he tweaked his knee when he got tackled on the sidelines at the end of a 47-yard run. In that short time on the field, Robinson was 4-for-4 for 60 yards and ran five times for 129 yards and two TDs. He should be ready for next week’s game against Indiana. Backup Tate Forcier was 12-12 for 110 yards and one TD. He limped off the field in the fourth quarter after aggravating a knee he injured on the opening drive of the second half. He too should be ready to play on Saturday.

22/21/22 West Virginia (3-1) The Mountaineers came up short on their comeback bid losing to #15 LSU (4-0) 20-14on Saturday.

23/20/23 Penn State (3-1) The Nittany Lions’ Collin Wagner kept Penn State in the game on Saturday against the Temple Owls (3-1) with field goals of 45, 32, 43, 32, and 21 yards. Meanwhile the Owls Bernard Pierce scored TDs on runs of 5 and 3 yards. Still Temple suffered four turnovers (three interceptions) as the Nittany Lions prevailed 22-13.

24/NR/NR Oregon State (1-2) The Beavers became the latest victim of The Blue Rug as #3 Boise State (3-0) on Friday night 37-24.

25/23/25 Michigan State (4-0) The Spartans romped over the Northern Colorado Bears (2-2) 45-7 on Saturday with coach Mark Dantonio at home recuperating from heart surgery. The Spartans lead 35-0 at the half, 42-0 after three. Le'Veon Bell scored three TDs on runs of 8, 1, and 15 yards. Kirk Cousins had TD passes of 24 and 16 yards.

NR/24/NR Missouri (4-0) The Tigers jumped out to a 28 -0 lead on the way to routing the Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks (2-2) on Saturday 51-13. Carl Gettis scored first on a 19 yards fumble return—on the first play of the game. Six other Tiger players scored TDs.

NR/25/NR Oklahoma State (3-0) The Cowboys will be idle this week.

NR/NR/24 Pittsburgh (1-2) The Panthers looked lost against the #19 Miami Hurricane (2-1) on Thursday night as the ‘Canes won

Watch this!

Okay. Maybe you've seen this already. After all, it got 1 MILLION hits in one day. But man, oh man! it is definitely worth watching again. And I don't care what the guys are singing. These are the same guys who did the video choreographed with treadmills. This time they have some friends helping out.

Tioga County Fall Colors

I went out this morning to check out the colors at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

First I stopped down on Route 15 to pick up the Sunday papers and found some color that I wasn't expecting.

Into the blue gray skies.

Hot air balloons were to be a highlight of yesterday's 1890s Weekend celebration. Tethered rides were supposed to be available from the area of the park in downtown Mansfield, but it was pretty breezy all day so maybe they never got a chance to launch. Today there was no air movement, as you can tell from the flag in the lower left hand corner of the photo, and they were taking advantage of the total lack of any horizontal breeze as lifted off from the open area near the Tractor Supply store on Route 15 south of Mansfield. Where they were headed and where they would land I'll never know. They were still heading up, up and away as I turned to the west and the Canyon.

I became more and more disappointed as I headed west. It became obvious that my assumption of 85-90% color was totally in error. The amount of color on the hills decreased more and more as I continued west on Route 660 out of Wellsboro. By the time I got to Leonard Harris State Park and the east rim of the Grand Canyon, I could estimate only 20-25% of the trees sported colorful leaves. (Another 5% or so had lost whatever leaves they had. Perhaps these were ash trees infected by the ash borer?)

Looking west from Leonard Harris SP

Looking west from Leonard Harris SP

Looking South down the Canyon

Looking North up the Canyon

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Still, there had to be more color than this, so I went searching.

First I stopped over at The Muck. This is an Audubon Society recognized IBA (Important Birding Area) and there were several wood ducks and mallards on the water complimenting the numerous red-winged blackbirds, cedar waxwings and smaller sparrows taking advantage of the amble food supply of rose hips, reed seeds and more.

Hillsides at The Muck

Pocket of color at The Muck

Some color was visible here, but still only about 50% or so. Maybe there would be more over at Hills Creek State Park.

Color at Hills Creek SP

Color at Hills Creek SP

The second shot above is of the sugar maples in the parking lot. It's from these trees (among others) that our favorite Park Ranger, Audrey, collects sap to boil down to maple syrup.

Okay, this was a little better. Still not the 85-90% I thought I would find, but not bad. I could, possibly, find more color over at Ives Run/Hammond Lake, but it was time to head back to the Aerie.

Close to home

Closer to home

View from the Aerie's Deck

Those last views are what I've been seeing this week as I go down to the store an/or for the mail. Is it any wonder I thought there was more color out there than there turned out to be?

Oh well, I guess the current levels of color only mean that it'll get better before they leaves fall. Not a bad excuse to go out taking pictures.

Morning Report, September 25, 2010

Just 60 degrees this morning and falling as the breeze (there's always a breeze at the Aerie!) comes out of the west northwest. Glad I put off doing the firewood stacking until today!

We're at about 80 to 90% color here in the Northern Tier of PA and the hills are vibrant in their shades of reds, golds, oranges, browns and purples. Should be lots of leaf peepers out on Route 6 today and tomorrow. Maybe I'll join them and see about getting a few nice photos over at the Grand Canyon. (That's Pine Creek Gorge for you folks not aware of the PA version.)

Beautiful autumn morning!

Time to go to work.

Aerie Report, September 24, 2010

Too warm and humid to do any work outside today. The weather.com forecast was for a high of 88 degrees. We were lucky though...only got to 84. Steady breeze blew out of the southwest all day yet the clouds above seemed to be heading in the opposite direction this afternoon. A sure sign that there's a front--even if it's a dry one--moving through. The forecast seems to indicate the same since there will be a high of just 62-64 degrees tomorrow. So tomorrow morning I'll get out there and stack the rest of the firewood.

******

This is a big weekend in Mansfield, PA. The annual celebration of the first night college football game puts the town and the University in a party mood. The Fabulous 1890s Weekend is here.

The University dropped it's football program a couple of years ago (just as we moved into the area, damn it!). It took just two years before they realized their mistake. The University now fields a sprint (light weight) football team. They face teams from Cornell, Army, Navy, Princeton, and U Penn in an abbreviated schedule. Tomorrow, as part of the celebration, the Mansfield Mountaineers square off against Army at 1 PM. Right after the parade.

******

Terry continues her time at the Smocking Arts Guild of America national convention in Norfolk, VA. To hear her tell it, there's lots of classes, lots of meeting, lots of food, lots of shopping, and lots of fun.

Aerie Report, September 23, 2010

A warm, warm day here at the Aerie. It started off overcast with a spritz or two in the morning but the clouds cleared around noon and the sun shone brightly--and warmly--for the rest of the day.

I spent time today with the chainsaw and log splitter working on the pile on the side of the driveway. Got it all cut and split now and I'll be stacking the balance tomorrow. There's still much I could haul out of the woods but there's sufficient firewood now split and ready for burning this winter. Only a very prolonged cold spell will put force me to use it all.

I usually build a fire only when the temperatures are no higher than 25 degrees for a few days. The radiant floor heating system does a great job keeping the house warm without burning up a lot of propane. And, coupled with the use of the ceiling fans to circulate the warm air hovering in the peak of the cathedral ceiling, we're usually pretty toasty even when the thermostats read just 63 to 65 degrees.

Good Ole Boudreaux

An email from our new friends down Louisiana way who traveled with with us on the Alaskan tour this summer...

Boudreaux suddenly quit drinking, took a bath, quit chasing women, quit his poker games and stopped laying around. He started cutting the grass around the church, even painted it and was faithful to be first to attend on Sundays!

Father Thibodeaux asked him what about dis wonderful change that had done overtook him.

Boudreaux explained, "I heard "Crisis in the Gulf" and if He’s dat close, I wanna to be good to go!

Aerie Report, September 22, 2010

Welcome to the Autumn! Strange, but while we had frost in the valley yesterday morning, today it never got below 60 degrees overnight. Rose to nearly 80 this afternoon before we had a little front move through bringing a few brief showers and slightly cooler temperatures. I could hear the rumble of thunder off in the distance, but none of those more intense storms passed overhead.

******

As I mentioned yesterday, Don and Adam finished the stone work and staining on the Aerie. We used the same stone product from Corning that we used on the fireplace and chimney. Continuity was one reason. The fact that it's the best artificial stone out there is another.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished product.

Front Entry

The area where the stone has been attached was primarily stuccoed Styrofoam used as the forms for the poured foundation. The Styrofoam is left in place to serve as insulation which means the basement almost never gets warmer than 68 degrees in the summer and colder than 63 in the winter. With the in-the-floor radiant heat system, it takes very little to get the temperature up to 65 or 68 in the winter.

Base of the Garage

The garage is the only part of the house that has no basement beneath it. As a result, there was no need for a Styrofoam form to pour the little short walls that form the foundation. The small sections of concrete wall visible beneath the log siding definitely looked out of place. They do not look that way any longer.

Walk-out Basement Wall

The entry to the basement beneath the deck now has a very finished look to it. The drab, gray stucco is gone.

One Portion of the Basement Wall

In this closer look at the stone work, you can see what I mean about this Corning product looking like real stone. In reality, it's fiber laced concrete with various dyes to give it color. I don't think there are any two that are alike. Oh, and to fill the odd sized gaps Don went out into the yard and picked up a stone of the right thickness and shape. So there may be a few in this view that are real stones. I think.

Aerie Report, September 21, 2010

Terry left yesterday (Monday) morning to attend the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA) national convention in Norfolk, VA. As last year's president she gets to attend a few more soirees than the norm. Still, I'm sure that between the stitching classes, and banquets there will be a lot of partying going on. Over 200 are expected to attend and most all of them can break into a clique at the drop of a needle. If they're anything like Terry, they might even have half a dozen that they can join at a moments notice. So far, I've gotten one phone call telling me she arrived yesterday around 3 in the afternoon so she must be busy, busy, busy!

******

Don and Adam finished up the work on the Aerie yesterday and today. The stone work looks magnificent and the fresh coat of stain really makes the logs POP! The drab concrete stuccoed walls of the foundation/basement really needed the stone work to dress them up. Now even Terry is thinking we should do the two foot tall expanse exposed on the rest of the house. We've got four boxes of faux stone left over so maybe next year.

I'll see about posting some pictures of the finished product tomorrow.

******

While the guys were wrapping up their work today, I fired up the chain saw and log splitter and went to work on the wood pile. I needed the chain saw because there were a few lengths that needed to be shortened to fit in the fireplace. Don't know why I cut them so long in the first place, but....

Anyway, I got about half the stuff split and tossed in to a heap. I'll need to start stacking that more neatly tomorrow before I go to work on the rest.I've got one empty shipping pallet available and two that are already half full on which I can stack more wood. (The left over stone is sitting on one of the half-filled pallets.)

******

It's been a lovely two days to work outdoors. The morning temperatures have been right around 40 degrees but have warmed nicely to 60 and 70 degrees under bright sunshine. The breeze today made things feel a bit chillier but nice and crisp.

The folks down the bottom of the hill on Route 6 said that there was a frost this morning on all their vehicle windows. Don, who lives on the other side of the highway and at a slightly higher elevation said he didn't have any on the glass but you could see something on the grass in his meadow. The valley often gets a few degrees colder than the Aerie, especially on nights without a breeze to stir the air, since the colder air sinks to the lowest point of land. Even at 9:30 this morning when I went for the mail, it was five or six degrees cooler down there, being 55-56 on the truck's thermometer at the Aerie and just 50 degrees in the post office parking lot. That's something of a surprise since the Aerie doesn't get full sunlight until late in the morning when the sun rises above the hill top but the parking lot was already bathed in sunlight.

The clear nights have really made viewing the Harvest Moon a snap! If it's any brighter tonight, I'll be able to read a book out on the lawn at midnight. Perhaps something about Wicca?

Jupiter is also very visible early in the morning. Unfortunately, Jupiter and the moon should be nearly side by side tonight and the moon will probably make Jupiter seem less brilliant in comparison.

******

Got a detailed listing of all the parades going on west of New Orleans come Mardi Gras and an invite to join our Alaskan traveling companions in late February for a reunion. Very tempting to do so but I wonder if I'll be able to get the trailer out of the barn or if there will be four feet of snow on the lawn at the Bolt Hole. Might have to look into renting a vehicle if we intend to camp.

College Football Week 4 Outlook Top 25 plus Opponents

Week 4 looks to be an interesting one. We have four contests that match Top 25 teams against one another (five if you include Miami vs Pitt which slipped out of the AP ranks despite not playing last week). Nearly all of them will see two undefeated teams going head to head—which guarantees someone comes away with a loss. And here in Pennsylvania we’ll have Penn State (3-0) facing Temple (3-0)—which should result in the obvious but…Hey! That’s why you play the game!

I’m not sure what’s up with the Coaches’ Poll and Southern California/South Carolina. I read last week that the coaches would not be including the Trojans in their poll because of the suspension, yet here they are this week after not being listed the first three. Meanwhile South Carolina—a legitimate Top 25 team—is not listed by the coaches at all and isn’t even mentioned as receiving any votes. Did I read the blog post incorrectly? Guess I'll have to go searching for it again and check.

[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coaches’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]


1/1/1 Alabama (3-0) The Tide plays at #10 Arkansas (3-0) on Saturday.

2/2/2 Ohio State (3-0) The Buckeyes will host the Eastern Michigan Eagles (0-3) Saturday.

3/3/3 Boise State (2-0) The Broncos host #24 Oregon State (1-1) Saturday.

4/5/4 TCU (3-0) The Horned Frogs will play at Southern Methodists (2-1) Friday night.

5/6/5 Oregon (3-0) The Ducks play at Arizona State (2-1) Saturday.

6/7/6 Nebraska (3-0) The Huskers will host the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (0-2) Saturday.

7/4/8 Texas (3-0) The Longhorns will host UCLA (1-2) Saturday.

8/9/7 Oklahoma (3-0) The Sooners will play at Cincinnati (1-2) on Saturday.

9/8/9 Florida (3-0) The Gators host Kentucky (3-0) on Saturday.

10/11/10 Arkansas (3-0) The Razorbacks will host #1 Alabama (3-0) Saturday.

11/10/11 Wisconsin (3-0) The Badgers host the Austin Peay Governors (2-1) on Saturday.

12/NR/12 South Carolina (3-0) The Gamecocks will play at #17 Auburn (3-0) on Saturday

13/13/13 Utah (3-0) The Utes will host the San Jose State Spartans (1-2) on Saturday.

14/16/15 Arizona (3-0) will host the California Golden Bears (2-1) on Saturday.

15/12/20 LSU (3-0) The Tigers host the #22 West Virginia Mountaineers (3-0) on Saturday.

16/17/19 Stanford (3-0) The Cardinal will play at Notre Dame (1-2) on Saturday.

17/14/14 Auburn (3-0) The Tigers will host #12 South Carolina (3-0) on Saturday.

18/18/16 Iowa (2-1) The Hawkeyes host the Ball State Cardinals (1-2) on Saturday.

19/19/21 Miami (Fla.) (1-1) The Hurricane play at Pittsburgh (1-1) on Thursday night.

20/15/18 Southern California (3-0) The Trojans play at Washington State (1-2) on Saturday.

21/22/17 Michigan (3-0) The Wolverines host the Bowling Green Falcons (1-2) on Saturday.

22/21/22 West Virginia (3-0) The Mountaineers play at #15 LSU (3-0) on Saturday.

23/20/23 Penn State (2-1) The Nittany Lions host Temple Owls (3-0) on Saturday.

24/NR/NR Oregon State (1-1) The Beavers play at #3 Boise State (2-0) on Friday night.

25/23/25 Michigan State (3-0) The Spartans host the Northern Colorado Bears (2-1) on Saturday.

NR/24/NR Missouri (3-0) The Tigers will host the Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks (2-1) on Saturday.

NR/25/NR Oklahoma State (3-0) The Cowboys will be idle this week.

NR/NR/24 Pittsburgh (1-1) The Panthers host the #19 Miami Hurricane (1-1) on Thursday night.

Aarrrgh!

Avast there matey!

It nearly slipped my noggin completely as tho I'd been gulpin' from my mug of rum too oft. Why, 'tis Talk Like A Pirate Day, don't cha know!

Twas reminded of the day's import whilst looking 'pon the posts of one Glenn Reynolds known as Instapundit.

"Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it?" As ole' Long John once said to a rabble of upstarts led by Tom Morgan.

(You can see the entire account in the text of Treasure Island.)

College Football: Week 3 Results

Week 3 is over and the dust has settled (be it from the complete routs or the incredible squeaky close. Last week, while posting the poll and results I made the following observations:

#6 Texas (2-0) on the road facing the Red Raiders of Texas Tech (2-0). Along with A & M and TCU, this is an intrastate rivalry of the first level.

And I was right. But only because the Longhorns played some sloppy ball…24-14.

#7 Oklahoma (2-0) hosting the Air Force Falcons (2-0). It’s not a traditional rivalry, but hey! Air Force had over 400 yards RUSHING last weekend against BYU—a ranked team at the time.

Air Force had another good week with 351 yards on the ground. But the Falcons came up t-h-i-s short against the Sooners 27-24.

Possible upsets include:
The Clemson Tigers at the #16 Auburn Tigers. Both are 2-0 but Auburn struggled last week against Mississippi State eking out a 17-14 victory. On the other hand, Clemson has won 35-10 and 58-21. The competition was not terribly strong—North Texas and Presbyterian—so this will be their first real test.

This one went to overtime and Clemson missed winning by a hair 27-24.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons at #19 Stanford (2-0) Cardinal. The Deacons scored 53 points in their first game…and 54 in their second. They’ve got an offense, but can they score against and stop the Cardinal.

Boy, oh boy. What was I thinking? Cardinal win 68-24.

The Maryland Terrapins are a bit scary. They might be able to take down the #21 Mountaineers who had to go to overtime to defeat the Thundering Herd of Marshall.

No fright night here. As the Mountaineers rolled out a passing AND rushing attack AND a defense in the same game 31-17.



Here are the results of the Week 3 games involving Top 25 teams.

[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coachs’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]

1/1/1 Alabama (3-0) The Tide had no trouble with Duke (1-2) Saturday, rolling up a 62-13 score. Heisman winner Mark Ingram is not only back, he’s damn scary, too. I mean, 48 yards on his first touch of the season? (He had a 50-yard carry as well. He surpassed the 100-yard mark ON JUST THREE CARRIES!) Ingram finished the day with just 9 carries for 151 yards and two TDs. NINE carries? Did he even break a sweat? Miss him much? Oh yeah, QB Greg McElroy completed 14 of 20 for 258 yards and a carrier high tying 3 TDs. Neither Ingram nor McELroy played much beyond the first series in the third quarter.

2/2/2 Ohio State (3-0) romped over Ohio University Bobcats (1-2) 43-7 as Terrelle Pryor went 22 of 29 (16 consecutive completions set a school record) for 235 yards and two TDs and two INTs. The Bobcats proved to be turnover prone losing 3 of 5 fumbles and having two interceptions as well.

3/3/3 Boise State (2-0) The Broncos routed the Wyoming Cowboys (1-2) Saturday night 51-6. Kellen Moore completed 20 of 30 attempts for 370 yards and two as the offense piled up 648 net yards. Boise State's defense forced three turnovers—including a fumble recovery for a TD by Shea McClellin--as the Broncos extended their winning streak to 16.

4/5/4 TCU (3-0) The Horned Frogs had no trouble defeating the Baylor Bears (2-1) Saturday afternoon 45-10 as the dominated on both sides of the ball. Ed Wesley carried the ball 19 times for 165 yards and two TDs while teammate Andy Dalton completed 21 of 23 for 267 yards and two TD passes to Jeremy Kerley.

5/6/5 Oregon (3-0) demolished the Portland State Vikings (1-2) Saturday 69-0. Let’s see…72-0 over New Mexico, 48-13 over Tennessee, and now 69-0 over Portland State. LaMichael James ran for a career-high 227 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns. He ran untouched for 66 yards into the end zone early on. And he did it all before halftime. With the second—and third team playing in the second half (it was 45-0 after the break) Oregon rolled up 528 yards on the ground, surpassing the school record of 465 set at Washington in 2007

6/4/8 Texas (3-0) The Longhorns beat the Red Raiders of Texas Tech (2-1) Saturday evening 24-14. Texas won despite committing four turnovers including a second quarter interception by Jarvis Phillips returned 87 yards for a Texas Tech TD. The Red Raiders gave the ball up three times themselves in a sloppily played game.

7/9/6 Oklahoma (3-0) The Sooners edged the Air Force Falcons (2-1) Saturday afternoon 27-24 despite being out rushed 351 yards to 113 yards. With the score 10-10 early in the third quarter, the Sooners put 17 up on the board and then held on in the fourth as the Falcons put up 14. While no Falcon rushed for 100 yards, the Sooners’ DeMarco Murray got 110 on 26 carries. He also scored two TDs on the ground and another on a 15-yard pass play from Landry Jones (26-42-254-0 and the one TD).

8/8/11 Nebraska (3-0) The Cornhuskers routed the Washington Huskies (1-2) Saturday 56-21. Taylor Martinez ran for 137 yards and three and threw for another 150 yards and a score. Martinez scored on a pair of 1-yard runs and went 80 yards for a TD on the first play of the second half. That run was the longest by a freshman in Nebraska history. Roy Helu Jr. added 110 yards and touchdown runs of 65 and 8 yards and the Cornhuskers ran for 383

9/10/7 Iowa (2-1) The Hawkeyes were upset by the Arizona Wildcats (3-0) late Saturday night 34-27. The Wildcats built a 27-2 halftime lead thanks in part to a Trevin Wade interception return of 85 yards and a Travis Cobb 100 yard kickoff return. Iowa wouldn’t lie down however, as Rick Stanzi tossed his second and third TD passes (the latter coming after a muffed punt recovery) and Broderick Binns ran back an interception 20 yards to tie the score in the fourth quarter. The extra point after that score was missed. The Wildcats’ Nick Foles—who finished the day 28 of 39 for 303 yards—then used a series of short, quick passes to march the team down the field before connecting with William Wright from 4 yards out to put the ‘Cats ahead to stay with 3:57 remaining on the clock.

10/7/10 Florida (3-0) The Gators beat Tennessee (1-2) Saturday afternoon 31-17. Matt Simms completed 19 of 31 for 259 yards and two TDs for the losing Volunteers. Two interceptions, a lost fumble and nine penalties—and a fake punt good for 36 yards by the Gators when the game was still in question—hurt Tennessee.

11/11/9 Wisconsin (3-0) The Badgers eked out a win over the Arizona State Sun Devils (2-1) Saturday afternoon 20-19. A blocked extra point with 4:09 left kept this one from going into OT. And a tackle on the one yard line on a kick return as time ran out at the end of the first half prevented ASU from winning. (They had already had a 97-yard kickoff return in the first quarter. )

12/13/12 Arkansas (3-0) The Razorbacks needed a late fourth-quarter TD to beat the Georgia Bulldogs (1-2) Saturday afternoon 31-24. Ryan Mallett threw a 40-yard scoring pass to Greg Childs with 15 seconds for the win. It was Mallett’s third TD toss of the day as he went 21 of 33 for 380 yards.

13/16/13 South Carolina (3-0) The Gamecocks beat the Furman Paladins (1-1) Saturday night 38-19. It wasn’t pretty, but the Gamecocks prevailed to remain undefeated.

14/14/15 Utah (3-0) The Utes romped over the New Mexico Lobos (0-3) Saturday night as they exploded for 28 points in the third quarter after taking a 21-0 lead into the half. Terrance Cain tossed three TD passes (20 of 23 for 249 yards) and ran for a fourth. Shaky Smithson had a 73 yard punt return.

15/12/20 LSU (3-0) The Tigers beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-2) Saturday night 29-7. Patrick Peterson had two interceptions to spur the Tiger defense that had five (5) INTs and Josh Jasper made five field goals of 44, 32, 51, 37 and 21 yards for the stumbling offense.

16/15/16 Auburn (3-0) The Tigers of Auburn edged the Tigers of Clemson (2-1) in OT 27-24 when the possibly tying field goal was taken off the board by a procedure call and the next attempt went wide. This was a game of two halves, however. The first half belonged to the Clemson Tigers 17-3. The second (actually just the third quarter) belonged to Auburn, 21-7. A dropped Clemson pass—which could have won the game--lead to the field goal attempt that was made and then missed as the game ended.

17/17/19 Miami (Fla.) (1-1) The Hurricane are idle this week.

18/NA/17 Southern California (3-0) beat the Golden Gophers of Minnesota (1-2) Saturday afternoon 32-21. Allen Bradford rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries for the Trojans who attempted 2-point conversions after three of their five TDs. They were unsuccessful all three times. Hey, Kifflin! Let Joe Houston make the kicks as he did on the other two.

19/19/18 Stanford (3-0) The Cardinal routed the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2-1) 68-24. And why not? They had Luck on their side. Andrew Luck threw four touchdown passes and ran 52 yards for another score as eight different Cardinal players found the end zone for TDs. (Only Chris Owusu got there twice with two Luck-y passes.) Stanford had 535 net yards on offense.

20/22/14 Michigan (3-0) outlasted the upset minded Minutemen of Massachusetts (2-1) Saturday afternoon 42-37. UMass rolled up 439 yards in net offense (217 on the ground, 222 in the air) and had 164 yards in kick returns. They got 26 first downs, owned the ball for 37:38 and were 2 for 2 in fourth down conversions. Problem was that their defense had trouble stopping the Wolverines. Michigan had 525 yards net offense (284 on the ground, 241 in the air). And, while they lost the other categories mentioned above (return yards: 45 yards; 22 first downs; 22:22 time of possession) they managed to hold off a surging UMass team that scored 20 points in the fourth quarter.

21/21/21 West Virginia (3-0) The Mountaineers romped over the Maryland Terrapins (2-1) Saturday afternoon 31-17. Sophomore Geno Smith threw a career-high four touchdown passes as he completed 19 of 29 attempts for 268 yards with one INT. Noel Devine rushed for a season-high 131 yards on 27 carries.

22/20/22 Penn State (2-1) shut out the Golden Flashes of Kent State (1-2) Saturday 24-0. Freshman Robert Bolden helped get the Lions off to a 14-0 first quarter start but was shaky in the second and third quarters before hitting on a 48 yard TD pass to Devon Smith in the fourth. Hey, the kid’s just 18 years old.

23/23/24 Houston (2-1) The Cougars lost to the Bruins of UCLA (1-2) Saturday night 31-13. More importantly, they lost star quarterback Case Keenum for the second week in a row early in the third quarter. Keenum attempted to make a tackle after tossing an interception to UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers. Ayers scored on a 77 yard return on the play to make the score 28-3. Keenum left the game at that point with a leg injury. Last week, after a similar play, he left the game with a mild concussion.

24/18/NA Arizona (3-0) The Wildcats upset the #9 Iowa Hawkeyes (2-1) late Saturday night 34-27. Arizona held a 27-7 lead at the half but gave it all back in the second half as Iowa tied it up at 27 all in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats recaptured the lead with 3:57 left and held on for dear life.

25/NA/NA Oregon State (1-1) The Beavers beat the Louisville Cardinals (1-2) late Saturday afternoon 35-28. Jacquizz Rodgers carried 24 times for 132 yards and 2 TDs. (He would get a third TD on a 4 yard pass from Ryan Katz. Adam Froman was 22 of 38 for 288 yards with one TD passing and two rushing as the Cardinals had 453 net yards of offense, but a late interception put a halt to what looked like a Louisville comeback bid.

NA/24/NA California (2-1) The Golden Bears fell to Nevada (3-0) Friday night 52-31. Colin Kaepernick tossed for one TD and ran for three more on 17 carries for 148 yards. Vai Taua added 151 yards on 25 carries as the Wolf Pack had 497 yards net offense. The Nevada defense added a Marlon Johnson 65 yard interception return and a Rishard Matthews fumble return for touchdowns. The Golden Bears rolled up 502 yards net offense but it wasn’t nearly enough.

NA/25/NA Missouri (3-0) The Tigers came from behind to edge San Diego State (2-1) Saturday 27-24. The Aztecs took a four point lead with less than 2 minutes remaining but saw T.J. Moe snatch a short sideline pass from Blaine Gabbert and turn it into a 68-yard TD with 51 seconds. That gave the Tigers the lead and the win.

NA/NA/23 Pittsburgh (1-1) The Panthers have the week off.

NA/NA/25 Florida State (2-1) The Seminoles beat the BYU Cougars (1-2) on Saturday 34-10. BYU kept it close in the first half and trailed only 13-10 at the intermission. After that…it was all Seminoles. Chris Thompson carried 9 times for 123 including an 83 yard TD on his first touch for FSU.

Weather: Confusing Stuff

What a day!

I had some difficulty falling asleep last night with the rain still hitting the metal roof of the Bolt Hole. It was shortly after midnight that I finally dozed off only to be awakened again at quarter past six when the alarm went off. I thought it was still raining but it turned out to be just the rustling of the aspen leaves in the slight breeze.

I got myself dressed and the bedroom squared away before making my way downstairs to brew a fresh pot of coffee and check out the weather on the computer. As the coffee brewed, I brought up weather.com for the area: "slight chance of AM showers," it said; "30% chance," it said. And the radar screen showed no rain between the Bolt Hole and the Aerie despite the gloomy, overcast skies I could see when I looked out the window.

What the hey! I said as I filled the thermos with coffee and threw my laundry, computer, clothes and garbage into the back of the Tundra. Backed over to the utility trailer and hitched the two together before driving the ATV up onto the trailer and lashing it down.

I was on the road by 8 AM.

Things went smoothly as I drove down to the NYS Thruway and headed west. Around Syracuse I did run into a very slight mist...about what you might get if you used an atomizer...but the sky still looked threatening.

Made my way all to the way to the Weedsport exit where I took Route 34 south toward Auburn. Moments after I paid my tool and started south it started raining. And, as I followed 34 to US 20 west and then 414 south...all the way to Corning, NY, it continued to rain--quite hard at times. I was wondering where in heck it had been hiding during the early morning radar scans? Did it lurk in the Finger Lakes (notably Lake Seneca) like some freakish monster? Did it hide in the hills of the Southern Tier? Or did Igor send it inland from the east?

The radar had indicated there was some rain east of the Poconos, but I had dismissed that since all of yesterday's weather had come from the southwest, not the southeast. Aaahh! But that was yesterday! I checked the flags at post offices, pennants at car dealerships and wineries and sure enough, the wind was coming from the northeast! As often happens when a front passes through the wind had shifted 180 degrees. And with that shift, came the rains from the northeast.

It rained until I got to Corning, as I said, and then stopped. While it was still overcast and gloomy, there was no more rain as I entered Pennsylvania and drove into the realm of the Northern Tier and found my way to the Aerie.

Man, ya gotta love the weather in the Northeast! And if you don't, just wait a bit and ole Ma Nature will dish up some new variety that may be to your liking.

******

In December of 1876 Samuel Clemens gave a speech at the annual dinner of the New England Society held in New York City. His theme was the variety and fickle nature of the New England weather. Since he was a long time resident (and still is!) of Elmira, New York a short distance away, I'd like to think he would have included the Finger Lakes and Northern and Southern Tier weather as part and parcel of "New England weather." It certainly fits his descriptions!

If you haven't done so yet, click on the link above or go HERE to read the text of Clemens' speech.

(You might have to scroll down past the list of folks who attended before you get to the relevant parts of the article. back then the Times figured it could sell more newspapers if it put the names of as many people as possible on its pages. Today they rely on anonymous sources and their circulation is in the tank. Coincidence?)

******

IKn a related item, The News Junkie has a post at Maggie's Farm titled: "Why not call it 'Weather'?" in which there is a discussion of the White House's attempt to change "Global Warming" to "Climate Disruption" as reported by Fox News.

******

Oh, and it snowed in Montana Friday, September 17th.

Like the Junkie, I love "Climate Disruption". The more violent the better. (At least as long as I and my loved ones are somewhere relatively safe! I'm no storm chaser! Although 30 years ago....)

61 *sigh*

Today is my birthday.

Traveling back to the Aerie from the Bolt Hole this morning and then out to dinner with my sweetie to celebrate.

Do not expect any further posting for today.

Rainy Day...

...in the Northern Tier of PA, the Southern Tier of NY and on up through the 'Dacks.

With heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds forecast today. The AccuHunch crowd said an inch or more was not out of the question. So...I opted to stay one more night at the Bolt Hole rather than haul the ATV on an open utility trailer to the southwest--the direction from which all the nasty was coming. It would take me 4 to 4 1/2 hours to drive home and I just didn't want to 1) get caught in a torrential storm while in route or 2) arrive home and have to unload the trailer in a monsoon.

Terry said it started raining at the Aerie around noon. It started here (the Bolt Hole) around 1 PM. There was more thunder and lightening there than here but it has rained fairly steadily and--at times--quite hard for the last 8 hours.

It will stop over night (they say) so I'll be loading up to go home tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I've got a small fire going in the wood stove just to keep the chill and damp off.

Nice lazy day of some minor house cleaning, web surfing, reading and crosswords. And a couple of beers and a frozen pizza.

Are you ready for some football?

(Shamelessly lifted from Theo Spark)

Are you ready for some football?

1. What does the average Univ. of Florida player get on his SATs?
……..Drool.

2. What do you get when you put 32 West Virginia cheerleaders in one room?
……..A full set of teeth.

3. How do you get a Nebraska cheerleader into your dorm room?
……..Grease her hips and push.

4. How do you get an Ohio State graduate off your porch?
………Pay him for the pizza.

5. How do you know if an Alabama football player has a girlfriend?
……There is tobacco spit on both sides of his pickup.

6. Why is the Kentucky football team like a possum?
….Because they play dead at home and get killed on the road.

7. What are the longest three years of a Texas Longhorn football player’s life?
……..His freshman year.

8. How many Oklahoma freshmen does it take to change a light bulb?
……..None. That’s a sophomore course.

9. Where was O. J. Headed in the white Bronco?
……. Durham , North Carolina. He knew that the police would never look at Duke for a Heisman Trophy winner.

10. How do you keep an FSU football player out of your front yard?
Erect a goal post!

11. Why did Tennessee choose orange as their team color?
……..You can wear it to the game on Saturday, hunting on Sunday, and picking up trash along the highways the rest of the week.

Mission Accomplished

I carried out my planned activities today. Cut the short "road" to the wood piles that Mark and I had created last week and then hauled said wood to the area near the barn for splitting in a week or so. (I have to take the ATV back to PA, split the wood I've got there, and wait for Terry to get back from her SAGA convention before I can return to the Bolt Hole. By then I'll have to decide whether I want to spend the nearly $300 bucks on a NYS hunting/fishing license.)

When I got done with those chores, I decided to move nearly all of the seasoned firewood that was in the barn into the woodshed attached to the cabin. That didn't take too long.

Then I treated myself by driving out to get a six-pack of Adirondack Lager by Saranac Brewery and a nice New York strip steak which I cooked myself. (Oh, and a Snickers bar...because I'm a died-in-the wool addict.)

******

Now I'm just surfing the net and reading about all the "upsets" in the primaries that took place yesterday. The National Republican backed candidates who lost to Tea Party backed candidates seem to be the most upset. Hey! It's what happens when you do not listen to your bosses--the voters. And don't go running away crying that you'll run as an independent or some such. Ask Charlie Crist how that's working out for him in Florida. Or Lisa Murkowski. Exactly what part of "the will of the people" do these losers not understand.

The Wonderful World of Electricity......and old homes.

Well, we (Mark and I) survived our sojourn into the world of electricity today. After helping to wire the Aerie and doing the basement outlets and lights by myself, I must be getting more comfortable working with the juice.

We did make a discovery that made us wonder why the Bolt Hole hasn't burned to the ground long ago, however. Seems that there are 25 AMP circuit breakers in the box when there should be 15s and certainly nothing stronger than a 20. This explains why the outlet box, the extension cord and the router plugged into it fried without tripping the breaker. Weakest link and all that.

The refrigerator was plugged into a circuit that had three other outlets (one used occasionally for the coffee maker and/or the toaster oven) and an outdoor light running through it, while a separate circuit in the living room had just one outlet. Both had 25 AMP breakers and were wired with the old tarred canvas wire from ancient days. We pulled that wire out, replaced the two breakers with 20 AMP spares Mark had laying around, rewired both circuits with 12-2 grounded wire, set it up so the fridge had the solo receptacle...and lived to tell the tale. Took us a little longer than I thought it should, but, then again, working on old construction is never as easy as working with new.

There are still two 25 AMP breakers in the basement and two more in the garage that we'll have to swap out. Plus there's still some of the deteriorating coated canvas wire in the basement that we'll replace with more 12-2 and some wiring in the garage that looks to be 14-2 that should be 12 that needs to be done.

I remember watching This Old House with Bob and Norm and the frequent comments about how you never know what you'll find when you open up the walls of an old house. Now I know exactly what they meant. The core of the Bolt Hole was built around 1900. The wiring was an afterthought...probably soon after they ran wires out to the end of the road. (Prior to that they were using gas generated on sight to light the house. The remnants of that process are to be found in the side yard. Coal and, maybe, wood was burned to heat the place. I still use wood, but my gas of choice is bottled propane. (For the life of me I can not remember the type of gas that was often generated at remote locations fr use in gas lamps and even stove. I remember reading about it once and it was made by mixing some chemical--or maybe coal dust--with water. Happened, as I said, in remote areas in the late 1800s early 1900s before electrification.) (Of course, it's possible that the apparatus is from the 1920s and was used to process the apples in the extensive orchard that was here into a more...ahem...palatable and profitable potion.)

The thing that gets me about those 25 AMP breakers--which wouldn't tip unless every out let on the 110 volt circuit melted first--is that the master circuit board was done about 15 years ago by the guy who installed the wiring for my old well. He had taken a look at the old board, one using the old screw-in buss fuses, and asked--with a bit of a quiver in his voice--if I wanted to have it upgraded. Said he could do it with what he had on his truck. I said sure, since you're here anyway.... No building inspector of course, and I knew enough about electricity at the time to leave it the hell alone. If it's not broke, don't fix it, was my motto. Never thought about it until now.

******

Tomorrow I become a short distance hauler again...bringing the cut firewood out of the forest. After I cut myself a road into the woods.

What the hey?

But...But...what about the carbon footprint? Some poor polar bears are going to suffer for this.

Oprah Taking Audience Down Under, with Travolta at Controls

Oprah Winfrey kicked off her farewell Season in true Oprah fashion by surprising her audience with a big gift: She will be taking all 300 audience members on a trip down under to Australia.

(Wait until they each get the tax bill for this one!)

I meant the guests but how about the Aussies....

Oprah Winfrey’s plans to film one of her final shows in Australia will cost local taxpayers more than AU$2.5 million (US$2.3 million), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported Tuesday.

Sheesh!!!

What the hey?

I woke up a couple times during the night to the sound of rain on the metal roof. There was lots more at 6:30 when I rolled out of bed. There wasn't any rain--as in 0% chance--in the freakin' forecast for the area when I checked on Sunday. Now the forecast is fro AM showers and 30% chance of showers for the next three days.

D*mn "lake effect" rain!

******

On a football note:

Three lousy field goals? That's all the Jets could muster against the Ravens? Really?

Defense didn't do too badly yielding just 10 points but the offense....

You should win win you give up just 10 points. But when you only score 9.... Sheesh!

Traveling Man

I've traveled over 350 miles today and I'm pooped! First it was 225 miles from the Aerie to the Bolt Hole hauling the utility trailer with the ATV on board. A brief stop to unload the ATV and unhitch the UT, a consultation with Mark about the electrical problems (an overloaded circuit fried one outlet and the router melting an extension cord along the way) and what materials we needed to make repairs (he had already run some new wire I had on hand so it was a couple of boxes, outlets, and a router) and I was off to Amsterdam to 1-visit Lowes and Wally World and 2-pick up the travel trailer.

While in route, Mark calls to say forget the router. The person he had look at it--and who said the microchips inside were toast--happened to have someone from phone company at her place today to do some computer/modem/router repairs after a wind storm caused her system to light up like it was the Fourth of July. That tech also looked at our router and switched out the chips. Mark met her halfway between her place and ours and got the thing up and running before I made it back with the TT. Thing works just fine now.

Any who... I got the electrical stuff we need. The travel trailer is parked int he garage. The slide out motor seems to work reasonably well. I'll still have to see about realigning one of the two gears as the rear side is slow to withdraw...but that will wait for another day.

The entire time I was driving today, there were forecasts of sever thunderstorms. I didn't run into any of them. Oh, there were a few sprinkles around Seneca Falls and there were some spots where it had obviously poured just before I arrived, but for the most part the impending sever storms just never happened to me. (Terry says they had strong winds along the PA-NY border and it poured down the hill from the Aerie but she got no rain on the home front. Which is good since it let Don work some more on the stone.)

So. Tomorrow we become electricians. But tonight I'm following the Jets on the intertubes.

Go Gang Green!

(Hope I can stay awake through the entire game.)

College Football: Week 3 OutlookTop 25s plus Opponents

Week 3 is upon us.

Many teams are still playing “creampuffs” but a few have already squared off against either ranked opponents or conference foes. Still, there are an awful lot of 2-0 teams out there.

There are no head-to-head battles between ranked teams this week, but there are a few interesting matchups.

Among the most interesting occurring this weekend we have:
#6 Texas (2-0) on the road facing the Red Raiders of Texas Tech (2-0). Along with A & M and TCU, this is an intrastate rivalry of the first level.

#7 Oklahoma (2-0) hosting the Air Force Falcons (2-0). It’s not a traditional rivalry, but hey! Air Force had over 400 yards RUSHING last weekend against BYU—a ranked team at the time.

Possible upsets include:
The Clemson Tigers at the #16 Auburn Tigers. Both are 2-0 but Auburn struggled last week against Mississippi State eking out a 17-14 victory. On the other hand, Clemson has won 35-10 and 58-21. The competition was not terribly strong—North Texas and Presbyterian—so this will be their first real test.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons at #19 Stanford (2-0) Cardinal. The Deacons scored 53 points in their first game…and 54 in their second. They’ve got an offense, but can they score against and stop the Cardinal.

The Maryland Terrapins are a bit scary. They might be able to take down the #21 Mountaineers who had to go to overtime to defeat the Thundering Herd of Marshall.

Without further ado, here are his week’s poll positions and the opponents of the ranked teams.

[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coachs’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]

1/1/1 Alabama (2-0) The Tide travels to Duke (1-1) Saturday.

2/2/2 Ohio State (2-0) will host Ohio University Bobcats (1-1)

3/3/3 Boise State (1-0) The Broncos visit the home of the Wyoming Cowboys (1-1) Saturday night.

4/5/4 TCU (2-0) The Horned Frogs will host the Baylor Bears (2-0) Saturday afternoon.

5/6/5 Oregon (2-0) hosts the Portland State Vikings (1-1) Saturday.

6/4/8 Texas (2-0) The Longhorns visit the Red Raiders of Texas Tech (2-0) Saturday evening.

7/9/6 Oklahoma (2-0) The Sooners will host the Air Force Falcons (2-0) Saturday afternoon.

8/8/11 Nebraska (2-0) The Cornhuskers visit the home of the Washington Huskies (1-1) Saturday.

9/10/7 Iowa (2-0) The Hawkeyes travel play the Arizona Wildcats (2-0) late Saturday night.

10/7/10 Florida (2-0) The Gators play at Tennessee (1-1) Saturday afternoon.

11/11/9 Wisconsin (2-0) The Badgers will host the Arizona State Sun Devils (2-0) Saturday afternoon.

12/13/12 Arkansas (2-0) The Razorbacks play at the home of the Georgia Bulldogs (1-1) Saturday afternoon.

13/16/13 South Carolina (2-0) The Gamecocks play host to the Furman Paladins (1-0) Saturday night.

14/14/15 Utah (2-0) The Utes play on the road against the New Mexico Lobos (0-2) Saturday night.

15/12/20 LSU (2-0) The Tigers host the Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-1) Saturday night.

16/15/16 Auburn (2-0) The Tigers of Auburn will host the Tigers of Clemson (2-0)

17/17/19 Miami (Fla.) (1-1) The Hurricane are idle this week.

18/NA/17 Southern California (2-0) will visit the Golden Gophers of Minnesota (1-1) Saturday afternoon.

19/19/18 Stanford (2-0) The Cardinal will host the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2-0)

20/22/14 Michigan (2-0) hosts the (2-0) Minutemen of Massachusetts Saturday afternoon.

21/21/21 West Virginia (2-0) The Mountaineers host the Maryland Terrapins (2-0) Saturday afternoon.

22/20/22 Penn State (1-1) plays host to the Golden Flashes of Kent State (1-1) Saturday.

23/23/24 Houston (2-0) The Cougars will play on the road against the Bruins of UCLA (0-2) Saturday night.

24/18/NA Arizona (2-0) The Wildcats host the Iowa Hawkeyes (2-0) late Saturday night.

25/NA/NA Oregon State (0-1) The Beavers host the Louisville Cardinals (1-1) late Saturday afternoon.

NA/24/NA California (2-0) The Golden Bears will play at Nevada (2-0) Friday night.

NA/25/NA Missouri (2-0) The Tigers will host San Diego State (2-0) Saturday.

NA/NA/23 Pittsburgh (1-1) The Panthers have the week off.

NA/NA/25 Florida State (1-1) The Seminoles will host the recently shot down BYU Cougars (1-1) on Saturday.

Aerie Report, September 12, 2010

It dawned overcast, gray, and drizzly with the temperature around 50 degrees here at the Aerie. What little breeze there was has pretty much disappeared and become extremely light--barely enough to move the aspen leaves. It's difficult to determine from which direction they are blowing since they swirl around the slopes. The windmills (which are not turning, BTW) indicate the last wind strong enough to orient them came out of the south.

******

I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday. The dang chainsaw started and ran for a half hour to forty-five minutes and then, after I set it down to move some of the wood I had cut, and refilled the gas tank, it would not run for more than a minute before stalling out. Perhaps the gas has something to do with it, but I wasn't going to mess with the fickled thing. The ATV behaved well enough, however, and allowed me to haul the previously cut and stacked wood out of the woods to the area next to the driveway where I will eventually split it.

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Mark reports that one of the old outlets in the kitchen of the Bolt Hole--the one the refrigerator, modem and outside light are connected to--fried. Luckily that was all it did. Could have been a disaster if it had started a fire. The wiring to that outlet is the original canvas covered, two-wire stuff with no ground wire. Without the ground, it would not trip the circuit breaker when overloaded.

We'll have to rewire the box and, maybe put a dedicated circuit in to handle the load.

******

Which brings me to tomorrow. Terry will be home in a few hours which means I'm free to head north. I'll be taking the ATV up to the Bolt Hole then head over to Amsterdam and Alpin Haus to pick up the travel trailer. The TT goes to the Bolt Hole and that's where I'll stay for a few days--to rewire the kitchen; to haul wood out of the forest; to move already split firewood from the barn to the cabin woodshed; to apply some tar to the seam of the roof between the cabin and the woodshed in yet another feeble attempt to keep water out of the area (we'll have to rebuild that thing soon!); and do what ever else needs to be done.

******

Until then, I'll be watching the pros play football today. I won't be able to catch the Monday night games (no TV at the Bolt Hole) so I'm currently enjoying the Giants-Panthers game (Giants win 31-18 in a game with a total of 9 turnovers) and will watch the Eagles-Packers and then Cowboys-Redskins tonight.

College Football: Week 2 Results

Week 2 is in the can and there were a couple of surprises along the way. Some were downright upsets (Virginia Tech losing to James Madison, Brigham Young falling to Air Force) but some were near misses to unranked foes (West Virgina vs Marshall) or complete collapses against higher ranked teams (see #1 Alabama vs #18 Penn State or #10 Oklahoma vs #17 Florida State.

[The three numbers for the rankings are from the AP Top 25, The Harris Coaches’ Poll, and CBSSports.com. An “NR” means that that particular poll did Not Rank the team.]

1/1/1 Alabama (2-0) downed #18 Penn State (1-1) Saturday night 24-3. for the second consecutive week Trent Richardson lined up in the backfield for injured Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. No problem! Richardson ran for 144 yards and one TD. The ‘Bama defense had three interceptions and a fumble recovery that helped keep the Nittany Lions out of the end zone.

2/2/2 Ohio State (2-0) beat #12 Miami (Fla.) (1-1) Saturday afternoon 36-24. Ohio State’s defense got four interceptions. Defensive end Cameron Heyward returned on 80 yards. Unfortunately for the 6-foot-5, 288-pound the interception was made at the 6 or 7-yard line. No TD for you, Big Guy! (Terrelle Pryor did score on the next play from 13-yards out.) Miami scored two of its TDs on special teams play. The first was an 88-yard kickoff return by Lamar Miller following an OSU field goal. The second was a 79-yard punt return by Travis Benjamin. Devon Barclay converted on field goals of 24, 41, 21, 24, and 24 yards for the Buckeyes. He also made three extra points for a total of 18 points for the day.

3/3/3 Boise State (1-0) did not play this week but probably saw their position weakened by the James Madison win over #13 Virginia Tech.

4/5/4 TCU (2-0) routed Tennessee Tech (0-2) by a score of 62-7 Saturday night. But the Horned Frogs tried NOT to score so much. They just couldn’t help it. They tried running out the clock and didn't even throw a pass while scoring three times in the fourth quarter. In fact, only the first of the eight offensive TDs scored by the Frogs came through the air—a 24-yard pass from Andy Dalton to Josh Boyce. The other seven all came on the ground—by six different players. (Only Matthew Tucker got two.) The ninth TCU TD came on Jason Teague’s 29-yard interception return in the first quarter.

5/4/5 Texas (2-0) beat Wyoming (1-1) Saturday night 34-7 in an otherwise ho-hum performance. It seemed the Longhorns were just going through the motions in the first half before Wyoming quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels scampered 18 yards for a touchdown and a 7-6 lead. Then it was Katy-bar-the-door! Texas’ Foswhitt Whittaker scored four plays later on a 39 yard run. The Longhorn D got the ball right back near midfield and Mike Davis scored on a 45 yd pass and run from Garrett Gilbert on the next play for a 20-7 halftime score. Cody Johnson would add two more TDs in the second half on short one and two-yard runs.

6/7/10 Nebraska (2-0) scored 28 points in the second quarter to take a 31-3 lead into the half as they went on to defeat Idaho (1-1) 38-17 Saturday. The Huskers’ defense intercepted Nate Enderle 5 times and returned two of them for TDs. Three of those INTs and both of those returned for TDs happened in the 2nd quarter. They also sacked the Vandal QB 7 times. Nebraska’s D had to be that god because the O stumbled and stalled—often—with four turnovers of their own and 10 penalties for 123 yards. Despite the sloppy play, Nebraska had 471 net yards on offense.

7/8/7 Oregon (2-0) started slow but then hammered Tennessee (1-1) Saturday night 48-13. In the early going it was 13-3 Volunteers. Tauren Poole had 111 yards rushing in the first quarter alone. Then the lightening and rain interrupted play for an hour. Poole would finish the game with just 162 yards on 23 carries. When they returned to the field, the Ducks had the advantage.

8/6/9 Florida (2-0) beat South Florida (1-1) 38-14 Saturday after getting off to a slow start. It was 7-7 at the half but the Gators put 21 points up on the scoreboard in the third quarter and it was clear sailing from there. Jeff Demps rushed for 139 yards including a 3rd quarter 62-yard score, had 95 yards on kick returns and 21 yards receiving for the Gators. The defense did its share forcing the Bulls to turn the ball over five times (four interceptions and a fumble).

9/9/6 Iowa (2-0) routed Iowa State (1-1) 35-7 Saturday. It wasn’t that close as the Hawkeyes scored on four of their first five drives. Ricky Stanzi threw two touchdown passes and ran for another in leading to a 28-0 halftime score. He would finish the day with 204 yards in the air after completing 11 of 18 tosses. Adam Robinson rushed for a career-high 156 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries as the Hawkeyes rumbled for 275 yards on the ground against the Cyclones.

10/10/11 Oklahoma (2-0) trounced #17 Florida State (1-1) 47-17 Saturday afternoon in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Landry Jones threw for 380 yards and four touchdowns for the Sooners.

11/11/8 Wisconsin (2-0) beat San Jose State (1-1) Saturday 27-14. John Clay carried the ball 23 times for the Badgers gaining 137 yards and scoring two 1-yard TDs.

12/12/13 Miami (Fla.) (1-1) lost Ohio State (2-0) 36-24 Saturday afternoon. Jacory Harris tossed four interceptions for the ‘Canes. In what was supposed to be a match-up of Heisman Trophy candidates, neither Harris nor Terrelle Pryor looked particularly sharp.

13/13/15 Virginia Tech (0-2) dropped their second consecutive game of the year as they lost to James Madison (2-0) 21-16 Saturday afternoon. Drew Dudzik ran for two touchdowns and threw for another for the Dukes. He threw just eight times but completed five of those tosses for 121 yards. Jamal Sullivan took one of those passes 77 yards for the TD. Va. Tech had the advantage in first downs (23-14) and net yards (362-235), but they were just 5 of 10 on third down conversions and 0 for 1 on fourth down. The Hokies also lost two fumbles and gave up 126 yards on kick returns. And, they could not get the ball into the end zone against the Dukes. Chris Hazley had to convert on field goals of 30, 41 and 28 yards.

14/15/16 Arkansas (2-0) rolled over Louisiana-Monroe (0-1) Saturday night 31-7. Arkansas and Ryan Mallet started off slowly—it was just 7-0 at the half which prompted a chorus of boos from the Razorback fans—but they woke up in the second half. Mallett completed 28 of 43 passes -- including 16 of 20 in the second half -- and passed for 400 yards and three touchdowns (he got another on a 1-yard run) and the Razorbacks' offense to put away the Warhawks. Greg Childs caught 12 of Mallets passes for 146 yards and two TDs.


15/17/22 Georgia Tech (1-1) fell at Kansas (1-1) 28-25 on Saturday. That’s the same Kansas that lost to North Dakota State in week 1. Red-shirt freshman Jordan Webb made his first start at QB for the Jayhawks and was 18 of 29 for 179 yards and three TD passes. True freshman running back James Sims ran for 101 yards and a TD on 17 carries. Sims did not play against North Dakota State. QB Joshua Nesbitt scored two TDs on the ground (with just 33 yards rushing) and passed for a third for the Yellow Jackets.

16/NR/14 Southern California (2-0) edged passed Virginia (1-1) 17-14 Saturday night. Matt barkley was 20 of 35 for 202 yards and 2 first half TDs for USC.

17/18/12 Florida State (1-1) lost at #10 Oklahoma (2-0) on Saturday 47-17.

18/14/17 Penn State (1-1) was nearly shutout by #1 Alabama (2-0) Saturday night as the Tide rolled 24-3.

19/16/25 LSU(2-0) rolled to a 27-3 victory over Vanderbilt (0-2) Saturday night. Stevan Ridley rushed 17 times for 159 yards and scored on a 65-yard run to lead the Tigers.

20/20/18 Utah (2-0) got its 19th consecutive home win at the expense of UNLV (0-2) 38-10 Saturday afternoon. Terrance Cain completed 13 of 20 for 207 yards and a long 55-yard TD to Shaky Smithson. Smithson also had a 77 yard punt return for a TD of the Utes. Tim Hanson returned a blocked punt 19 yards for the Rebels only TD.

21/20/19 Auburn (2-0) edged Mississippi State (1-1) Thursday night 17-14. Cameron Newton threw for two TDs on 11 of 19 passing for 136 yards and ran for another 70 yards on 18 carries in leading the Tigers over the Bulldogs. But it was the Auburn defense that saved the day. Trailing 17-7 at halftime, Mississippi State was able to grind out a 12-play, 63-yard drive midway through the third quarter that made it a 17-14 game. The Bulldogs succeeded in recovering the ensuing onsides kick but that was the Tiger D shut them down the rest of the way.

22/19/20 Georgia (1-1) fell to the visiting #24 South Carolina Gamecocks (2-0) Saturday by a score of 17-6. Freshman Marcus Lattimore ran 37 times for 182 yards and two touchdowns for Coach Steve Spurrier’s SC squad

23/22/21 West Virginia (2-0) had to come from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to force overtime and then beat Marshall (0-2) 24-21 Friday night. Being behind, forced the Mountaineers to go to the air and freshman Geno Smith came through with a 32 of 45 performance for 316 yards and the tying TD and two-point conversion. The ground game wasn’t forgotten, however, as Noel Devine rushed 23 times for 112 yards. (He also caught 10 passes for 62 yards.) Marshall’s Brian Anderson completed 20 of 29 for 229 yards and three TDs and Martin Ward rushed 11 times for 101 yards in the loss.

24/25/NR South Carolina (2-0) beat #22 Georgia (1-1) Saturday 17-6.

25/NR/NR Stanford (2-0) shutout UCLA (0-2) Saturday night 35-0. Andrew Luck completed 11 of 24 for 151 yards and two TDs. He also rushed 7 times for 63 yards in leading the Cardinal over the Bruins in the Rose Bowl. Michael Thomas returned a fumble 21 yards for a TD.

NR/24/NR Brigham Young (1-1) got trod into the ground by Air Force (2-0) Saturday afternoon 35-14. Sure, the Falcons scored their first TD via the air, a 37 yard pass from Tim Jefferson to Mikel Hunter in answer to an earlier BYU TD run, but everything after that was ground pounding. As Jefferson (5 yards), Hunter (33 yards), Jonathan Warzeka (46 yards) and Nathan Walker (5 yards) all scored on the ground while helping the Falcons amass 409 yards of rushing offense and 477 yards net offense.

NR/NR/23 Pittsburgh (1-1) beat up on New Hampshire (1-1) Saturday afternoon, 38-16. Starting slowly, the Panthers Tino Sunseri tossed one TD with 8 seconds left in the first half (2 yards to Cameron Saddler) and then another (56 yards to Jon Baldwin) less than five minutes into the second to give Pittsburgh a 24-3 lead. Sunseri would finish the day with 24completions in 34 attempts for 275 yards and two TDs. Dion Lewis carried the ball 10 times for just 27 and one TD but Ray Graham picked up the slack in the ground game with 9 carries for 115 yards for Pitt.

NR/NR/24 Houston (2-0) beat Texas-El Paso (1-1) Friday night 54-24. Bryce Beall rushed for 195 yards and three touchdowns for the Cougars. Michael Hayes carried 17 for 77 and two TDs of his own for Houston. Trevor Vittatoe was 30 of 54 for 340 yards and three touchdowns for the Miners in the losing cause.