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Saturday, July 31, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
62 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
What a fantastic night for sleeping ! It was cool
enough to bring out the flannel comforters,
and the breeze carried all kinds of nightsounds in
through the open window. We were treated to
a chorus from the neighborhood coyote pack well into the
wee hours, a sound that never fails to
thrill me in a very primal way. Just before dawn, some
geese blew their horns as they passed over
the house; I would love to know which direction they were
headed. The past few weeks a dog has
been barking steadily for hours in the middle of the
night; I can’t imagine how anyone could ignore
that sound if it were their pet. All I can figure is that
perhaps someone farther up the Hill works the
night shift, and the dog begins barking when their owner
leaves the house, and keeps it up until it
finally falls asleep. Some one of these nights I might
hop in the car and investigate; I would want
to know if my own dog were that unhappy night after night.
How do we know what shenanigans
our pets get up to when we are off the Hill? This morning
our little dog was hot on the trail of
something that had passed through the yard during the
night, his head down and sniffing
up a storm. I will check the mud in the ditch for tracks
later; so far, no scat or other
sign has shown up close to the house. Today is a fine one
for any adventure,
and I think we deserve a day off from our chores to play
a bit.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Friday, July 30, 2010, 10:00 a.m.
66 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We just got back from a long walk with the dog on
the Smith road.
It is his first long walk since recovering from a torn
toenail; although he
has been able to saunter along the meadow paths with ease,
it was a long
recovery for such a simple injury. We had been bike
riding on the Smith Road
all summer, but it has been six weeks since I have had a
walk along this beautiful
dirt byway. The berm is a riot of wildflowers, as the
town hasn’t been up to mow it
since mid-May. Pure blue chicory, bright yellow sow
thistle, fragrant milkweed, several
varieties of sweet clover, purple knapweed, queen
anne’s lace, and many others too numer-
ous to mention. Unfortunately, ragweed has also grown to
epic proportions, and is sending out
it’s pointy little pollen bombs early this year. We
scouted the old orchard for apples, and couldn’t
find even one. I think the blossoms must have frozen on
Mother’s Day; that is in the same area
where all of the young beech and maple leaves had been
freeze-dried during that freak snow-
storm. We enjoyed the cool morning breeze; there were no
biting insects to be found in
all the miles that we trod. Now it’s back to
business, more zucchini and swiss
chard to prepare for the freezer, and bread to bake for
the weekend.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 29, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
68 degrees, windy, partly sunny
I had planned to do five or six loads of laundry
this morning, but the sky is telling
me that it might not be a good idea to put all of my eggs
in one very cloudy basket.
The forecast is for a small chance of a shower late in
the day, but that was yesterday’s
prognostication as well, and we had rain by lunchtime.
And, more rain showed up all through
the day, lots of it. I managed to pick a big bucket of
green beans in between showers, resisting
any temptation to pull weeds as I picked, as the soil may
harbor disease that is harmful to bean
foliage when it is wet. Our shell beans are beginning to
get pretty big, especially the black coco
variety. I need to put some sawdust down under them, as
many of them are getting long enough
to hit the dirt, inviting motes of rust and rot to creep
into the pods. The pole beans are finally be-
ginning to realize which way is up, and hundreds
of pods are emerging from the thick tangle of vines
and blossoms. Potatoes are as good as they get, and some
varieties are starting to give it up, their leaves
turning yellow and limp. I dug a few hills to give spuds
to a friend, and they are big enough at this point; if
the leaves die back we will still have a great haul. The
purple caribes are huge, many bigger than a
softball.
I haven’t peeked at the katahdins or amey
russets yet, but I’ll bet they are doing just
fine. We steamed
some all-blue potatoes the other night, and they were
surprisingly rich and nutty tasting. They aren’t
parti-
cularly visually appealing, but the flavor is enough to
make us plant more of them next year. This season
we only put about two pounds of them in the ground, to
see if we like them. We do! We also fried
some with onions, and when browned in olive oil they are
slightly more appetizing to look at.
They contain more anti-oxidants than a white or yellow
spud, and retain 75% of them
after cooking. All in all, this is a spud worth growing.
The wind is really picking
up; I think I will put the rest of the laundry back in
the hamper and hope
the two loads already on the line dry before the rain
comes,
or before the wind carries them down to the hedgerow.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
74 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The sky is pale blue, indicating the day may
become sultry and steamy.
As long as this nice breeze keeps up, we shouldn’t
be too uncomfortable.
There are oodles of red raspberries begging to be picked,
and I believe I will
find enough to make a second batch of summer wine. There
are already two gallons
of red and black raspberry juice fermenting nicely in a
dark quiet spot, and wine is a fine
end-product for such an abundance of fruit. I have made
as much seedless jelly as we need,
and even though some critter ate most of the early
berries, there are still thousands more ripening
daily. Our green beans are finally producing well, after
getting off to a slow start. Much of the afternoon
will be spent processing them for the freezer. I know a
lot of folks aren’t fond of frozen beans, but they
are better than no beans at all alongside the baked
stuffed pork chops on a cold February evening. We
also pack some in vinegary brine, spiced with garlic,
dill, and red pepper; there is nothing like a fistful
of dilly beans atop a grilled cheddar sandwich. Redwing
blackbirds have been flocking in our east
meadow, rising up out of the cattails by the springbox
like a swarm of huge bees. They have been
hanging around that spot for a couple of days, after
several week’s absence since the hay was
mown. Starlings line the two-lane on the way to Boonville,
sitting wing-to-wing on the high
wires. It seems early for birds to be gathering in such
numbers, but that makes sense,
in a season where everything else has jumped the gun. We
are off to gather
flowers for the kitchen, a pleasant way to begin any day.
have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We are enjoying another clear sunny morning
without much humidity and a nice breeze,
just about perfect for anything. Yesterday we drove
several miles across the back roads
of Tug Hill to gather wild blueberries. It was a fine day,
with a stiff breeze that kept us cool
and also kept biting insects away. One of our favorite
spots has become quite overgrown with
alders and dogwood along the road, but after we fought
our way through those to the low berry
bushes, we found that they are still in full sun and
should have been full of ripe blueberries. Someone
had beat us to it; as there were no other signs of entry
to the patch from the road, I guess it may have
been a bear. There were paths beaten down through the
bushes, but whoever got the berries came
from the forest, not the road. We gleaned what was left
for about ten minutes, then a shot was fired,
too close for comfort. We made a lot of noise, to alert
any hunters that we were nearby. As far as
I know, it isn’t open season on anything within the
big/small game or bird arena, but it may have
been coyote hunters; apparently you can kill these poor
things any time. Even after we had shouted
and sang out our presence, the shots continued and seemed
to draw closer, so we left in a hurry. Since
all of the blueberry patches that I know about are within
that same area, we came home early with a pitiful
amount of berries. We walked up the Evans Road to check
for wild apples; while the fruit is not yet ready,
it looks like there might be quite a bit of it in a few
weeks. The little pond at the end of the road was
literally crawling with small black snails, later
identified as black ram’s horn snails. Here is what they
look like. I had
never seen these before, certainly not in this particular
pond, or anywhere else. They were also spread out
on the bottom of one of the rain-filled tractor tire ruts,
thick as a carpet. These little guys are efficient at
cleaning algae and other things out of fresh water ponds,
and are often used in home aquariums for the
same purpose. I always wonder where all of the little
critters in this pond come from, as it is nothing
more than a giant rain-filled puddle, with no other
source of water or wildlife. Every spring it is
teeming with frogs and their eggs, and sometimes tiny
minnow-y fish dart about; how do they get
there? This is one of those mysteries that I often ponder,
but have no real clues. And now,
there are red raspberries to pick and chard to cut,
nothing mysterious about that.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 26, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We are leaving in a little while to drive the back
roads of Tug Hill and look for wild blueberries.
As everything else has ripened ahead of schedule this
season, we figure the berries should be just
about ready now, although we normally begin our hunt the
first week in August. We have a couple
of patches we visit that have been reliably loaded with
the small blue orbs; many of the places we fre-
quented thirty years ago have been overgrown by dogwood
and alder bushes, but there are still a couple
of spots where the soil is too boggy for shrubbery to
grow. A lovely north breeze should keep us cool and
waft away the skeeters, but we will don long sleeves and
take some bug balm just in case. We much prefer
the small wild blueberries to their larger cultivated
cousins; not only are they tastier and unsprayed for
weeds
or pests, they are free for the taking. Most of them grow
on low bushes, so I take a five-gallon pail to pick into.
I can sit on it when my back starts to groan, a handy
stool as well as a receptacle for the fruit. I think I
will toss
our long handled fruit picker into the truck as well, in
case some of the earlier varieties of apples are ripe. We
picked a few blackberries in Herkimer yesterday, just
beginning to ripen, so I would think they still have a
few weeks to go up here on the Hill. We drove to the
Valley and back under some of the most specta-
cular clouds I have ever seen, masses of white that
looked like mounds of ice cream shuffling across
the sky, like some ad for the concession stand at a drive-in
movie theater. We arrived back home
just in time to catch the full moonrise, extra pretty in
the glow of the approaching sunset.
Tonight’s show should be just as good !
have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 25, 2010, 7:00 a.m.
67 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
After last night’s rain, everything is lush and
green, absolutely gleaming in the sun.
The dust from ATV traffic has been completely washed away,
and even the mud
dropped by big tractor tires has been scrubbed from the
tarmac. Everything looks
brand-new. The high temperatures will be a little more
moderate for the upcoming
week, and humidity less of a comfort factor as well.
Watch for a beautiful full moon
tonight, rising just before sunset at 8:16. It was nearly
full last night when the rain
stopped and the clouds parted to reveal a creamy bright
moon, high in the sky
by that time. Yesterday we mowed paths in between the
sprinkles, and picked
beans and lettuce. Our second sowing of lettuce is just
about kaput, but the rows
I planted ten days ago are doing very well. When I
harvested our iceberg heads, I
left the plant still rooted and now little baby heads are
sprouting from the crown. Of
course, we are all awaiting the onset of ripe tomatoes,
for the quintessential greens-free
summer salad of cucumber, onion, tomato, and basil, with
a light dressing of sugar and
vinegar, the lot topped with good bleu cheese. Our grape
tomatoes are ripening one by
one, and the Early Girls are showing the first blush of
color. Won’t be long now!
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 24, 2010, 9:15 a.m.
74 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
Valley fog is slowly lifting, and as the mist
rises past us the air becomes even more saturated with
moisture, impossible as that seems. Fortunately the
temperature dipped into the sixties, so our slumber was
comfy even though the windows weren’t fully open. I
don’t know for sure how much rain Gomer Hill
received yesterday
(I would say well over an inch) but we passed through
some torrential downpours on our way to Utica. At
times visibility was nil and we drove through some
puddles that were inches deep, adjusting our speed so
as not to hydroplane on the vast sheets of water. There
seemed to be more knuckleheads on the road
than usual, driving without headlights, going too fast in
poor visibility, not using turn signals... no matter
how skilled a driver you may be, there is always some
yahoo out there who doesn’t have the common
sense of a woodchuck; do your best, but watch out for the
other guy. I am headed out to trim the swiss
chard, which seems to have taken on a life of its own. It
has been nearly a week since I cut any of it, and
now the outer leaves are the size of turkey platters. I
have some ham and chicken scraps simmering, and
plan to make a big pot of barley stew with greens, but
there will still be plenty of chard left over after that.
I believe I will blanch and freeze some of it, using the
directions from this site this site . I never realized
until reading this article that chard is a member of the
beet family, although I did notice a resemblance
between the seeds when I planted it last spring. It has
been a wonderful vegetable so far, but now
that beans, zucchini, broccoli, and carrots are ready for
the table, we have been eating less chard.
It looks like some rain may be on the way, so I had
better get out into the garden.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, July 23, 2010, 8:45 a.m.
63 degrees, windy, overcast, raining
Light rain has been falling since sunrise, and I suspect
will soon be overtaken by a real deluge,
if the Nexrad radar is to be trusted. The front is moving
right along, and things should settle down
by tomorrow morning. The house is chilly, and I am
considering kindling a small fire in the kitchen
range just to chase away the pervasive dampness. A huge
load of logs just went down the hill; the
loggers must have been on the job since first light. I
never liked cutting wood in the rain, as the
footing becomes a bit sketchy and wet gloves start to
feel creepy after a few hours. We are
fortunate that our own wood-cutting endeavor is an
avocation, and we can pick and choose the
days to work outside. There probably won’t be any
new wood to gather this year, as we have
several years’ worth cut, split, and stacked; of
course, if any of our acquaintances need a blow-
down or two cleared away, we will be in lumberjack mode
once again. For now, it is enough of
a job to keep up with the grounds and gardens, and
today’s rain gives us a respite from that
for a while. We are headed to Utica, it is a good day for
errands and a leisurely lunch date.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 22, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Clouds have moved in, but they are of the fair-weather
variety, and the air has been
washed clean by yesterday’s storm. I managed to pick
a pailful of beans and another
of raspberries, and finished up the weeding (for now) as
the real weather action didn’t
begin until dinnertime. Thunder and lightning were right
on top of Gomer Hill, and moth-
ball sized hail pelted down with great velocity for the
first minute or so. Some of the more
tender crops look a bit insulted, but for the most part
the storm did little damage. One of our
cats had been dozing under the truck, and when the first
hailstones arrived he dashed under the
barn in a streak of blond fur. He didn’t even think
about coming across the yard to the house
until the last rumble of thunder had moved on down the
valley. We had a brief power outage,
so I left the beans until this morning, as I didn’t
want to put anything room temperature into
the freezer in case the lines got zapped again. Enough
rain fell to completely fill the buckets
under the eaves, and the scene is deliciously wet this
morning. The combination of rain
and hot sun should bring our tomatoes to sweet juicy
ripeness in no time at all.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
It is a beautiful breezy morning with a cloud-filled sky,
perfect weather for pulling more
weeds and harvesting beans and berries. Rain will
probably show up later in the day, so I
had best leave the indoor chores until then and get out
while the gettin’ is good. Yesterday
we enjoyed a bike ride, keeping for the most part to the
main roads of Gomer Hill. It looks
like there will be a bumper crop of wild apples this fall;
the trees are loaded with green fruit.
On a hot windless day such as yesterday, riding is often
preferable to hiking as an outdoor act-
ivity. It is a slow sweaty climb up the many hills we
encounter, but the ride down the other side,
generating our own cooling breezes is the reward. We
managed to stay ahead of most of the
biting insects that had plagued my earlier walk, except
for a couple of deerflies that managed
to not only keep up but flew circles around our helmets
as we rolled along. There were many
town trucks hauling gravel and a fair share of National
Grid and Frontier trucks as well, and
we ate a lot of dust, but all in all the ride was great.
This morning I counted five national Grid
trucks passing the house; must be some new construction
up the road somewhere. I am always
surprised at the grandeur of some of the new
“camps” that have been erected on Tug Hill
since
we moved here in the 70s. We seldom see anyone in
attendance except during hunting season.
That there continues to be new construction in our neck
of the woods is incongruent with the re-
cession that has plagued the country for years. How can
folks afford a second (or third) dwel-
ling when so many are out of work and living one day at a
time? This is a mystery to me. I
guess I would rather ponder the behavior of ravens,
starlings, and all of the other wildlife
on Gomer hill than the human visitors to our space. The
wild things are easier to suss.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
65 degrees, calm, cloudy
A wind-free day is rare on Tug hill, but when it
happens, it is almost always when
the sky is filled with clouds. The stillness is filled
with the hint of great expectations,
that any kind of weather could suddenly erupt out of the
nothingness that prevails.
Our early morning walk was cut short by swarms of black
flies, free to move about
with no wind to hold them at bay. A big flock of
starlings has gathered in our row of
maple trees, chattering away as if it were September
instead of mid-July. It seems as
if all of our seasons are off-kilter, with fruits
ripening extra-early and birds nesting way
ahead of schedule. This flocking behavior must be brought
about by newly available
food sources. I had thought that length of day was the
prime motivator in migratory
behavior, but what else would explain the big flocks of
blackbirds beyond the fact
that the neighbor’s oats are ripening... early. I
hope a breeze kicks in before I
venture outdoors to pick raspberries. Otherwise I guess I
will just wear long
sleeves and my jungle hat; although the head netting is a
bit annoying,
it is less bother than bugs up my nose.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 19, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
After an early morning thunderstorm containing
very little rain, it looks like more precipitation may be
on the way. Yesterday was such a picture-perfect summer
day that I plum forgot to write My View, but
the weekend kind of runs together into one long day
anyway. Friday’s rain nurtured the biggest crop of
weeds
I have ever seen, and I spent literally hours going
through the rows and uprooting galinsoga, purslane, red-root
amaranth, chickweed, and lamb’s quarters. I still
need to snatch the sow-thistle out of the raspberries,
and try
to bring some semblance of order to the strawberry patch.
I can use this rainy morning to make red raspberry
jelly; I turned a few quarts of berries into ruby red
juice on Saturday. I love seedless sweet jelly like my
granny
used to make. Our dahlias are in full flower, with
several scarlet blooms on each sturdy bush. If I cut off
the
old flowers, they will bloom until the first frost.
Sunflowers are just beginning to open, and day lilies are
as lush as any exotic tropical array. This has been an
awesome growing season so far, with most of
our crops ripening much earlier than usual. I wonder if
this suggests an early onset of winter ?
We will just have to wait and see.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 17, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Yesterday’s storms swept the heat and humidity right
off Tug Hill,
and it is a very pleasant summer morn. We received over
an inch of
water and the gardens have perked right up. Lock your
cars, the zucchini
is getting ripe! Weeds will be growing as well as crops,
so I need to get out
there and pull all of the galinsoga that has reared its
fuzzy heads during the past
few days. It can choke out an entire row of veggies in as
little as a week’s time.
Now, if we could just get the cucumber plants to grow as
quickly as the galinsoga,
we would have something! They have been slow to get going
this year; I think that
cold rainy week in June was hard on cukes and squash.
They are only now showing
little yellow flowers, which is amazing, small as the
vines are. Our first sowing of corn
has tassels and silks, and no doubt will be sweet and
ripe while we are on vacation
in August. Good thing our house-sitters are fond of corn.
I have been picking some
beans, and soon will have enough to process for the
freezer. Broccoli is heading up
a few at a time, and I have set out a dozen more small
plants for a fall harvest. All
in all, this has been an excellent growing season so far;
we are indeed blessed !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, July 16, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
72 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
Rain is in today’s forecast, and the Nexrad radar
map shows a fast-moving storm
front headed our way. We really could use a good soaking,
and if we don’t get one
I will have to haul the water wagon around to the new
bean plot. This is our fourth and
final planting of green beans, usually done the first
week of July so we can continue to enjoy
fresh ones well into autumn. They are showing their first
true leaves, and it looks like every seed
has come up. I planted more lettuce yesterday, even
though it doesn’t germinate well in hot weather;
our second planting is mature and I would hate to be
without fresh salad for even a day. The April-
planted swiss chard is still really good, and if I trim
away the outer leaves it keeps sending up new
greenery from the heart. My favorite way to cook chard is
to fry up a piece of thick diced bacon,
throw in some garlic scapes (fresh or frozen) then the
chard stems and finally the leaves, cover with
a tight-fitting lid and let the greens steam for a bit.
Add a little grated parm, and it is both salad and side
dish fit for royalty. I had planned to pick raspberries
yesterday, but when I got to the patch I was disap-
pointed to find some critter had done the job for me. I
picked a scant two quarts, where previously gal-
lons of fruit had hung nearly ready on Wednesday. I
suspect the neighborhood bear, as it looked like
something quite large had waded right into the middle
with no regard for thorns. I doubt that a rac-
coon could have reached the berries near the top of the
canes, and the plants had been pretty
well stripped. I had to search far into the midst of the
foliage for the berries I did find.
And now, I believe I will take the dog for a stroll
before the rain arrives.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 15, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
75 degrees, breezy. mostly sunny
The sky is such a pale shade of blue that it is hard to
tell where the clouds begin
and the clear sky leaves off. They both merge into a
subtle pastel palette, underlain by
the merest hint of earlier fog. A friend who is growing
potatoes for the first time called me
yesterday, and wondered why his plants had all fallen
over. They were otherwise very healthy,
lush green vines filled with lavender blossoms, just
somewhat flat. I had never heard of such a thing,
and thought maybe they needed water, but he had been
giving them plenty of that. I was stumped, but
when I walked over to our own spud patch late yesterday
afternoon to check for bugs, I noticed that
almost all of the carola variety were indeed
laying nearly flat in the rows. I pulled one lethargic
plant
up and found, to my delight, 21 medium sized spuds under
that single plant. This is an awesome yield,
so I guess I will just assume the plants have fallen over
because of their huge size this season. Carolas
were (until yesterday) taller than any of the other
varieties, waist-high by the fourth of July. I pulled up
a yukon gold plant to see how they are faring, and
there were only three potatoes under that plant,
but each is the size of a softball; a second plant
provided fourteen medium sized tubers. The soil
is sufficiently moist, not sodden, and if we get some
rain tomorrow it is possible that all varieties
will grow so tall they may fall over from the sheer
weight of the foliage. I only saw three young
potato bugs, so I will hold off spraying them until the
next couple of nice days comes along.
I love harvesting early potatoes; it is like a treasure
hunt, with every plant giving up its
sweet tasty nuggets, no matter what their size or color
they are all delicious.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 7:00 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, fog
The windswept fog is dark and fully opaque, so I believe
that up above it all the sun
has yet to make an appearance. Oh, there was a sunrise
alright, but it must have been such
an underwhelming sight that birds were not even moved to
sing at dawn. It is curiously quiet
outside right now, the only sound the sigh of a moist
breeze moving through the leaves. The
scent of milkweed blossoms fills the air, nearly
overpowering that of beach rose and laven-
der that grow by the house. There has been no traffic,
and our morning walk was eerily
devoid of any living thing except for me and the dog.
Best of all, it is slightly chilly and
damp in the house, so I could finally burn all of the
coffee filters that have been accumu-
lating in the firebox during the past week. We are headed
to Watertown this morning;
it is likely that we will drive right out of the mist. If
not, that’s okay too. There is no
such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good
weather (John Ruskin).
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
73 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
We had some rain overnight, which was very refreshing at
the time,
but I believe I will still need to water the flower beds
closest to the house;
they don’t get the full effect of natural rain as
they are sheltered by the eaves.
Last summer I tucked a lavender plant into the border and
it just sat there like a
lump for most of the summer. It is now in full bloom, and
I can smell that wonderful
old-fashioned scent from just about anywhere in the back
yard. It is much prettier than
I had imagined, and I plan to start several more plants
from cuttings for next year. It is
hardy to zone 5, and probably the only reason that it
overwintered here at zone 4 is
because it is nestled in a protected spot close to the
house. After all these years of
gardening, it is fun to plant something unfamiliar and
learn its habits. Yesterday I
pruned and tied up all of the tomato plants and found
three perfect golden grape
tomatoes for my lunch salad. All of the plants are loaded
with fruit, and now that I
have trimmed away about half the foliage and blossoms
they should ripen quickly
with these hot days and warm nights. The pepper plants
have doubled in size in
a week, and are starting to bloom. The jalapenos even
have several small pep-
pers hanging amidst the leaves. I found plenty of tiny
zucchinis, and by tomor-
row they should be big enough for grilling, split in half
and painted with a little
olive oil and crushed garlic. Raspberries are just
starting to ripen, at least two
weeks ahead of schedule, and we picked three pints. The
rewards for all
of the tilling, planting, hoeing and weeding are rolling
in by the mouthful;
I love summer!
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 12, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
74 degrees, breezy, sunny
We have a winning summer morning, fresh and just warm
enough. Rain is on the way for tonight,
so we will try to catch up with the gardens while the sun
shines. I plan to prune and tie our tomato
plants to the trellis this morning. Our golden grape
tomatoes already have a few ripe fruits, just a teaser
to set our mouths watering for the other varieties that
are loaded with greenies, but nowhere close to red
ripe perfection yet. This year we only have fourteen
plants, which is a very manageable number. The most
tomatoes we ever grew was somewhere in the neighborhood
of 120 plants, and those were secured to in-
dividual stout stakes. It took days to prune and tie
those. I love the pungent earthy aroma of fresh-cut
tomato
vines, and how my hands and arms turn such a lovely shade
of green. I scrape a little soap under my fingernails
so that they are easy to clean after the task is done,
otherwise it looks like I have been working on a car
engine.
It is time to set out our late broccoli plants as well.
Our first planting has just started to form heads, and
soon I
will be putting much of that in the freezer. We enjoyed
our first fresh green beans last night, steamed with a
little
butter and fresh-snipped basil. Yum! Yesterday afternoon
we admired a couple of dozen small turkey poults
being herded through the hay stubble by four adult
females; the young still wore downy fluff, so they
weren’t
very old. The mommas will have to be vigilant sentries
until the poults get their flight feathers; at this age,
they are easy prey to just about anything that craves an
early thanksgiving dinner. According to
this site.pdf poult mortality
rates are between 60% and 80% during the first two weeks,
when
they are especially vulnerable to predators. This assumes
that the eggs managed to even hatch;
one-third of all eastern wild turkey nests' eggs are
ravaged by raccoons. The fact that the four
hens I saw had about twenty babies among them shows
pretty good survival rate so far,
assuming that each hen started out with about a dozen
eggs. And now, off to the garden!
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 11, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
79 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Low humidity and a fresh northeast breeze make
this morning’s heat very different
than that of last week. Last night’s low of sixty
made for a very comfortable night of
sleeping, even with the echoes of fireworks and an
excellent band still reverberating in
my head. I was glad I had tied a fleecy jacket around my
waist when I headed down the
Hill; it came in handy after the sun went down.
Mosquitoes were also in attendance at the
Turin Field Days, and I got my first bite of the year
while I was gaping up at the sky watch-
ing the pyrotechnics. We had a great seat, perched on top
of the jungle gym at the town park.
We returned home very late, but there was plenty of time
left to take the dog for a walk to help
settle him down after all the loud noises he endured with
only two cats to keep him company.
He is not as fearful of thunder as when he was a pup, as
we do not reinforce his skittish be-
havior when storms approach. It is best to divert a
fearful dog’s attention with a toy or
some other active training/play rather than scooping him
up in your arms muttering
there, there, which a pup may interpret as
positive reinforcement for the anxious
behavior. Meanwhile, it is a perfect morning to mow the
lawn, pick beans and
raspberries, and enjoy the wonderful clear air that has
returned to Gomer Hill.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
71 degrees, calm, overcast
We got some much-needed rain last evening, a downpour
that featured a few rumbles
of thunder around the edges. It rained very hard for
about fifteen minutes, then stopped for
a while. Later, a steady gentle rainfall lulled us to
sleep, and when we arose this morning all
that was left of the storm were the puddles. The sun is
slated to come out any minute, and
then I’ll bet we will be able to see steam rising
all over the meadows as Mother Earth has
another mighty hot flash. Humidity reads 100% on our
weather station, so if I am going to
get any outdoor work done today, it had better happen
while the clouds are here. A cold
front is supposed to freshen the air by late this
afternoon, and tonight we might actually see
temperatures below seventy for the first time in a week.
It looks like the Turin Firemen’s
Field Days will have a couple of perfect days for the fun
and food that are on the
schedule. Don’t miss the band and fireworks tonight;
I’ll be there !
have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, July 9, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
80 degrees, windy, hazy clouds
The moisture seems to sift down from the high
clouds without taking the form of actual rain;
it is more like Gomer hill has been transformed into a
giant steam bath. The earth, still damp from
yesterday’s surprise rainfall, is connected to the
sky by a haze too pale to be fog, yet swirling and
shifting like the fx that would accompany the opening
song at a Kiss concert back in the day. I spent
much of yesterday’s sweltering heat in our cool
cellar, defrosting a freezer; what a perfect activity for
one of the hottest days of the year. The afternoon rain
didn’t last very long, but was a refreshing inter-
lude. Of course, when the sun came out minutes after the
shower had passed, the heat became more
oppressive than ever, accompanied by (at the very least)
100% humidity. There was a great deal of
thunder and some impressive lightning strikes in the
middle of the night, but it was a dry storm. More
rain is on the way later today, with the possibility of
flooding in the usual places. This precipitation will
be pushed thorough by a slow-moving cold front, and
tomorrow should be a bit more user-friendly.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 8, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
84 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
One more hot and sultry day left in the buy one/get
four free swelter pack,
and then the promise of rain is predicted for tomorrow,
sweet cool water that the
parched earth will drink right up. If thunder and
lightning don’t accompany the showers,
I plan to dance under the hardest of torrents until I get
thoroughly chilly, something that for
now is merely a memory. These past few days are ones I
will take out of my ever-growing storage
vault of extreme weather conditions for a mid-January day
when it is a herculean feat to make it to
the barn for kindling without being blown away by an icy
gale. I will remember this oppressive heat,
and believe it or not, will be warmed by it, just a
little. Just as yesterday, walking the bare meadows
with the dog after the sun went down, recalling the crisp
fresh air of a blue-sky winter afternoon, and
skiing the same paths with the same little dog following
my tracks, helped to cool me down, just a little.
Our hay was tucked into giant bales yesterday and swiftly
removed, teetering in tall stacks on flatbed
trailers pulled by mighty tractors, creeping down the
hill at a snails pace. We followed one load down
on our weekly visit to the library, and at one point
where the road banks sharply towards the right,
we swore it would all end up in the ditch. The sheer
weight of the huge bales kept it all together,
down to the very bottom of Gomer Hill. Vultures have been
busy this morning, clearing away
carrion that is the unfortunate aftermath of haymaking. I
have been watching for turkey
hens and their poults, but haven’t seen any so far.
It is amazing how the waving sea
of grass has been transformed into a clean slate, a tabula
rasa for deer and their
fawns and other wild things that will soon be nibbling at
the new growth. The
view has been drastically changed, no better or worse,
merely different.
Have a different day,
Daisy
Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 12:00 noon
88 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
Oh my, it is another scorcher out there! If it
weren’t for the breeze I would have
been stretched out flat hours ago. Household chores are
done, nearly half of the garlic
has been dug and is starting to dry on the racks, and I
do believe we are entitled to take
a few hours off, sip cool water, and read our books in
the shade. Our farmer friend has spent
the morning raking the hay into big fluffy windrows; I
imagine that he will be baling it before the
sun sets today. Our evenings have been pleasant, cooling
down to the low seventies. The sweet
scent of new-mown hay lingering in the night air has been
as soporific as the poppy fields in The
Wizard of Oz. Sleep has been swift to arrive and
filled with happy bucolic dreams for the past
few nights. Another couple of hot sticky days are in the
offing, with a bit of relief in the form
of rain Friday. We hope for fair weather for the weekend,
so that the Turin Fireman’s Field
Days will have great attendance. And now, a little lunch,
a little snooze, life is good !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, July 6, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
82 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
If we thought yesterday was a scorcher, get ready to top
that. Thank goodness for the breeze,
which makes it feel as if it were only eighty. I have
been pulling weeds this morning and dug a few
spuds for dinner, happy to get the jobs done early in the
day. I think it would be a good idea to defrost at
least one of the big freezers in the cellar; the air down
there is chilly, even in the summer, and the prospect
of spending an hour or so up to my elbows in icy water is
very appealing. There is a huge bustle in the mea-
dows this morning, with crows, ravens, and several gulls
plucking unlucky little critters from the flat wind
rows of new mown hay. I hate to think of all of the
little mice, moles, shrew, voles, and young birds that
got put through the blades yesterday, but at least it was
probably a speedy demise. In a few more days,
vultures will appear to scarf down the riper carcasses.
Our cats have been perched by the edge of the
hay, waiting patiently to catch a glimpse of a mouse
running for cover across a patch of stubble. yes-
terday I cut all of the iceberg lettuce, as it was
starting to cook in its own juices under that relentless
sun. The leafier varieties are doing okay so far, but
spinach has set flower spikes, giving up
the ghost before its time. The warm- weather crops are
loving this weather,
and we have several tiny zucchinis, precursor of the
hoards yet to be.
Don’t forget to drink plenty of water,
and have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, July 5, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
75 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We just got a call from the friend that mows our
hayfields, and he is on his way up
with his gigantic rotary mower. So long to our lush green
meadow paths that have been
the source of so many flower-filled walks this season.
The good news is that since the hay
is coming off early in July, the grasses and wildflowers
will have enough time to grow tall for
our autumn strolling enjoyment. Last night was beautiful,
fairly cool and breezy. We strolled
along the road and enjoyed dozens of fireworks shows on
the other side of the valley; even
at a distance, they were colorful and stunning. We
watched three nights of fireworks over the
long weekend, all from our comfy spot here at the top of
the world. This Saturday we will be
able to get the full benefit of the show that comes to
the Turin Firemen’s Field Days. It is, hands
down, the best small-town fireworks extravaganza around.
It is so good that we actually come
down off the Hill to gather with friends to see it up
close, and dance to the music of a good local
band; Tongue ‘n Groove is coming this year.
Meanwhile, while the night brought fireworks it also
called forth a couple of very restless coyotes. One was
yipping quite loud, as if it were being ripped
limb from limb; more likely it had a close encounter with
a porcupine, which can prove as deadly as
confronting a cougar. It was soon joined by a second
coyote, howling high and long into the night.
This woke me up just past midnight; they were so close
that I could see the shadowy forms
trotting along the nearest meadow path under the bright
glow of a freshly risen half moon.
Although we will miss the shaded ambiance of our lovely
paths, it
will give us a clear view of all the wildlife that
crosses our domain.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, July 4, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
77 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
Today will probably be the last day of comfortable
heat for a while,
as the forecast indicates a marked increase in humidity
by the end of the week; by
Thursday we should see ninety degrees and very high
humidity, real mid-day siesta weather.
Yesterday we thinned our carrots, mercilessly yanking
hundreds of baby plants from their snug
position crowded in with their peers. This second sowing
gets thinned to two inches apart, as it
will be unlikely that it will be thinned a second time.
For the early planting we left an inch between
the plants, and now we pull every other one for eating
fresh, and then when they stand two inches
apart we will pull every other one again, and continue to
do so until there is at least four inches be-
tween every plant. This method produces some monster
carrots that we will harvest after the first
fall frost, some of them nearly four inches in diameter
at the top. The later planting will give us
some more normal sized taproots, but they are still
bigger than the supermarket offering. The
heat has turned some of our garden soil into cement, so
we have been hoeing and cultivating
around all of our crops with a gentle touch, just to
aerate the dirt. Many of our rows have
been mulched with straw, and will need no further care
for the rest of the season. I have
to plant more lettuce, and will shade the new row with a
loose covering of straw until the
seeds sprout; if left unshaded, the tender seeds will
cook in the sun’s hot rays, no matter
how much water I give them. I won’t plant more
spinach until mid-August, to be ready
for salads by the end of September. Red raspberries and
black-caps are just begin-
ning to ripen, which will be our next major task, turning
them into jelly and wine.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Saturday, July 3, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
73 degrees, windy, sunny
What an excellent way to start a holiday weekend !
There is enough wind to cool us off
and keep bugs away, and humidity has not yet spread its
stifling hot steamy shroud over the land.
It is a good day to dry clothes on the line, and they
should blow nice and smooth in this fresh western
breeze. Our garlic is nearly ready to dig; the bottom two
leaves are brown and dry, and this signals the
bulbs are pretty much as big as they are going to get. We
like to see three or four dry leaves before we
harvest, and I am certain that during the next few hot
days that will happen. The soil is still very wet, so
by Monday or Tuesday it will have had a chance to dry out
as well, making digging a slightly easier task.
We pulled a few bulbs to eat fresh and each came up
attached to a huge clod of dirt, sticky and full of
earthworms. We peeled the first bulb like a fresh onion,
and inside were four of the most perfect fat
juicy garlic cloves I have ever seen. Pungent and hot
when eaten raw, sautéing them in slices like a
shallot rendered it sweet and almost creamy. If you have
a chance to get some fresh garlic right out
of the ground, it is very different than the product that
has been properly cured for several weeks.
A real treat this time of year is to cut some scapes into
bite sized pieces, and slice several big
cloves of fresh garlic in half; coat it all with olive
oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in a hot oven
until the scapes are tender. If you can get some small
new potatoes, whack them into
quarters and add them too. There are so many good things
to eat these days,
and the beans, zucchini, and broccoli aren’t too far
off. We may have to add
in a fourth meal, all fruits and veggies, just to be able
to enjoy the bounty !
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
Friday, July 2, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, sunny
We have a stretch of several beauteous days ahead
of us, warm sun and cool
starry nights perfect for any and all activities. There
is a good breeze today, and as
long as that keeps up we shouldn’t be bothered by
insects as we go about our outdoor
tasks. There are still strawberries to pick, and I
believe that we will remove the netting after
today’s harvest and donate the remainder of the
berries to the birds’ food pantry. I have picked,
jammed, frozen, sold, and given away as many as I could,
and now must turn my attention to the
other crops, thinning, weeding, and continuing to plant
things so that we can enjoy fresh veggies
far into the autumn months. Yesterday I decided to hang
out some laundry, and could only use
one line as the other was occupied by several young tree
swallows. They have been out of the
nesting box for less than a week, and were reluctant to
let go of the line. I got very close to
them; the adults in their extended family didn’t
mind my presence, but when the cat came
around the corner they dive-bombed him with all the
ferocious hisses and loud clicks their
beaks could utter. The young birds were not in the least
flustered by the flapping tablecloths
and towels on the other line, but continued to hold on to
the rope for dear life. They finally
departed sometime before dusk, and I haven’t seen
them around the yard this morning
yet. Goldfinches have nearly depleted the meadows of
goat’s beard seed, but are still
hanging around by the hundreds. They love our birdbath,
more than any other specie,
and often there are a dozen yellow birds perched around
the rim at the same time.
And now, there are weeds to pull in the new corn planting,
and carrots to thin.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, July 1, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
55 degrees, windy, cloudy
Once again our early morning clear sunny sky has
been shadowed by big clouds.
We never saw any rain yesterday; it was a cool and cloudy
day for the most part.
We walked over to the potato patch to admire the sight of
nine different varieties of
spuds in full bloom, the hues ranging from the brightest
of white with yellow centers to
rosy pink, purple, and pale blue. We pulled a few plants
from the southernmost row that
had some dead leaves, but they don’t look like the
patchy brown spots of blight. More likely
they had been stepped on by deer, who have munched some
of the leaves as well. I thought potato
leaves were toxic, but I guess not to deer. Just in case,
we discarded the greenery in a black plastic bag.
We steamed the dozens of little spuds we unearthed for
supper, and have enough left for tonight as well.
Our tomato plants are very healthy, and now that there
are green fruits on them I need to clip the suckers
and tie the stems up to their trellis for support. This
will be a good day to do that, if it doesn’t rain.
The little
bluebirds by the tomato garden are happy in a fresh nest
of straw and grass clippings; I had to replace the
original that had blowfly eggs underneath. There are four
young birds, and it looks like they are about a
week away from leaving the nest. It’s a good thing I
check the boxes frequently; this is the third nest I
have replaced this season. We continue to be entertained
by the herd of starlings that swarms over the
lawn every morning, adults and young alike cheerfully
sharing every bug and worm they find The fledg-
lings are slowly losing the dull speckles of youth and
wearing a shinier black jacket every day. They
have all been singing before the sun comes up every
morning, learning not only their own clicks and
whistles, but also the songs of every local bird in the
neighborhood. I love these birds, and even
though they are considered an invasive nuisance, feel
blessed to have them share our space.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
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