Fire Fly TIme/ Long Days Time 2024

Our garden July 20th

Well, here we are at the high point of summer. Our weather has been quite warm and at times, stormy. We haven't experienced any tornadoes or microbursts at our house, but they have been nearby. Last Monday we lost power about 6pm, just as I was finishing cooking dinner. The power was not restored for about 30 hours. Tuesday was very hot. We had no air conditioning, no power for cooking or to run the well pump (so no water or plumbing for you city folks). I would not open the refrigerator or freezers, so very little food, too. To cope with this, we made an impromptu road trip. We spent the day in the air-conditioned car, shops, restaurants and by Seneca Lake. We were able to keep cool, have food to eat, water to drink and access to working bathrooms, in addition to relaxing by the lake. We made an enjoyable day out of a very difficult situation.

Seneca Lake view

Full garden on July 20th

Our garden is coming right along.

We are processing chard, kale and cabbage for the freezer.

Cabbage and friends

The peas are all done, as are lettuce and black raspberries.

Raspberries and Blueberries

Bob picked all of the red and black currants that we wanted to freeze. The rest are left for the wildlife to enjoy.

Black currants

Red currants

Now the blueberries are beginning to come in. We have five varieties which ripen at slightly different times. This spreads out our harvest nicely.

A generous supply of dill

I have dried our dill and am freezing parsley and celery leaves in small batches. I'm also drying Calendula blossoms for our fall and winter tea mix.

Calendula-a basket of sunshine

Bob has harvested the garlic and shallots, which are laid out to cure right now.

Curing garlic

The shiitake mushrooms are coming in, but we're not overrun by them yet.

Shiitake mushrooms

The wine cap mushrooms had stopped producing because they had used up their growing medium. To remedy this, Bob got a load of free wood chips in Ithaca and has topped off the bed.

Replenishing the bed

Once the mycelium has spread into the new chips the mushrooms will begin fruiting again.

Fire Blight

One of our apple trees has developed Fire Blight. This is a very nasty disease. Bob has been dealing with that. Fighting it requires severe pruning, burning the trimmings and diligent monitoring to watch for any spreading of the disease. We hope to save the tree because this variety we use for eating out of hand and making applesauce.

Bob's been able to tend to a few of these things because my arm is slowly healing.

Starting to work again

About two weeks after my accident, I was allowed to use my hand and wrist, while keeping my shoulder immobilized. I could begin to chop vegetables and do some needlework (hurrah!).

Finally, something to do

After one month, the break was healing, and my sling came off. I could begin to increase movement and weight up to five pounds. This is where I am at now. It's still pretty uncomfortable and there's much I can't do. It's very easy to overdo and pay for it later. But I can now comb my own hair, dress and bathe myself. For all of this, I am very thankful! I will see my orthopedist again in two weeks (eight weeks post injury). He said that if all is well, it will be my last visit with him. Each day there seems to be some improvement, if I don't overdo the preceding day.

Bob's new car

Just last week we bought a new car. We've never had a NEW car. We knew we'd need to get a newer car because our Honda is 20 years old and beginning to need more repairs. The Leaf isn't as useful to us because of its limited range. We've been saving for this, and our investments have been performing well, so we decided it was time to act.

We bought an all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5. They offered a very good package of warranty and extras. It gets good reviews and has a great range. We really like it.

We are in the process of selling the Leaf, and once we get a few more errands done with the Honda, we will sell that, too.

I'll stop here. You can see that we are hanging in there and looking forward to more progress.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Black raspberries ripening

Young Acorns

Bright Time/ Flowering Time 2024

Tiger Swallowtail on Rhododendron

Garden season is in full swing here. 

Setting out peppers

It began with setting out warm weather plants and sowing seeds.

Furrows for beans

Now things are well on their way.

Pole Beans

Potatoes

Tomatoes

Bush Beans

Sweet Potatoes

We're harvesting our early crops, as well.

Lettuce and Kale

Garlic Scapes

Tat soi and Lettuce

Strawberries

Most of the harvest so far has been eaten right away. We have frozen 30 pints of strawberries and one large batch (7pints) of rhubarb sauce.

Rhubarb sauce oven ready

Most of this work was done before June 10th. That will be the pivotal date for us this summer.

That morning I slipped on the wet ramp leading into our garden shed. I fell very hard on my right side and broke the humeral head of my right shoulder. (Of course, I am right-handed!) 

On the "disabled play list"

The good news is that I won't need surgery. The bad news is that I have a horrendous bruise and my arm is immobilized for at least four weeks. Then, according to the orthopedist, we'll see about getting the sling off, beginning physical therapy... He says three to four months to heal. All of this when garden season is just picking up. 

Adding insult to injury (literally) I can't even occupy myself with favorite pastimes of needlework and harp playing. Although, truth be told, I have started playing left hand portions of my songs just to keep up somewhat.

Most of what I did last week was nap and read. I've read three books so far. 

My personal assistant (you know who) now has his work cut out for him.

Bob learns to make garlic scape pesto

  

Bob's had to set aside his bathroom project in order to help me care for my daily needs, prep and cook meals, maintain the house, yard and garden and in general, keep life going.

He's going to learn a lot this summer: more cooking and garden care, how to freeze produce and braid my hair. He'll get to be more speedy at vacuuming and chopping vegetables, too. (I hope!) 

It will be a challenging summer for both of us.

Before my accident, we visited the Harriet Tubman Homesite in Auburn, New York. We learned an awful lot. The presentation was very interesting. The extent of my knowledge from grade school was: A) she was African American and B) she worked with the Underground Railroad. If that's the extent of your knowledge, too, take some time to learn more.

We took yesterday off to mark the summer solstice. We're in a nasty heat wave here, so we stayed inside and played a game, watched a movie and enjoyed a nice dessert. Bob helped make lemon poppyseed scones for breakfast, sweet potato burritos for lunch and blueberry cobbler for later.

Tomorrow's challenge is to harvest and freeze kale and chard. I can do some of the chopping necessary, but can't manage all of it, nor the blanching and such. Another day of learning for Bob.

Well, that's the big news for here. We've got a "tough row to hoe" but we'll make it work.

Take care. Watch out for slippery ramps. Enjoy your summer and send some good energy our way.

I'll close with pictures of two of our porch cats. We call these two Marmalade and Shadow.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Bathtime

Shadow is the cuddler

    

Shoots Show/Growing Time 2024

Lily of the Valley

Shoots Show/Growing Time has come and gone for another year. It's a month that whips by because nature is bursting forth.

This month began with the planting of cool weather loving plants, like chard, kale, cabbages and lettuce.

Planting lettuce

I set out the lettuce at the beginning of the month.

Lettuce on May 25

Here's how it looks now.

All of the rest are growing, too.

Cabbage today before mulching

The potatoes are all up and some were tall enough to be hilled this week.

Hilling makes more potatoes

Shiitake and Winecap mushrooms are also starting to come in...

Shiitake mushrooms

... and we got our first ripe strawberry this week!

Just the beginning.

This one was a bit precocious. None of the others are this close to being ripe yet.

We've spent the last several days working in the garden: preparing beds and planting out the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and sweet potatoes. We've sown green beans, cucumbers and squash. Tomorrow we'll begin to sow the corn and the drying beans.

We're busy, busy, busy!

Last weekend we stopped at our local Amish owned nursery for some flowers and picked up three holly bushes (1 male, 2 female) for half price! 

Bob planted them in the small bed where our deck used to be.

Bob plants the holly bushes

We already have two hollies in the bird garden. Until a couple of weeks ago, the female was covered with bright red berries. One day I was looking out of the window and noticed the bush rustle. I saw a good-sized flock (I lost count at 16) of Cedar Waxwings mobbing the bush. Within an hour they had stripped the bush of all the berries, except for the lowest branches. They returned the next morning to finish the job. It was quite a sight. Now they will have two more bushes to enjoy.

Our Orioles, Rose Breasted Grosbeaks and Towhees have returned. The Wood Thrushes are singing in the woods again. This is one of our favorite sounds.

We've been so busy outside that Bob's not making a great deal of progress on the bathroom. The drywall is all up and the plumbing re-route is done. He needs to get the taping and mudding going next.

We were able to get away just once this month. At the beginning of the month we made a day trip to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown. 

Peterson was a famous Naturalist

On the way home we stopped at the Allegany State Park and walked on the Flagg Trail of the Quaker Area. There were tons of spring wildflowers: Wood and Rue Anemone, Hepatica, Red and White Trillium, Spring Beauties and Fringed Polygala.

Spring Beauty

There was an Osprey's nest next to where we parked our car. As we walked to the car to leave, the male and female birds changed shifts at the nest, so we got quite a show.

Osprey incoming!

Really, we enjoyed the State Park more than the Peterson Institute.

Once the garden has all been planted, we hope to make a couple more day trips, as well as some shorter ones.

That's what we've been up to lately. We hope you've all been enjoying the spring and have some fun things planned for the summer.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Rue Anemone

A resident of Allegany Park

Awakening/Growth Time 2024

Bloodroot emerging

It's the time of Awakening and we can see it all around us. Trees are leafing out, others are blooming.

Rhubarb growing well

The rhubarb is up in the garden.

Red currant blossoms

The currants are in bud and bloom. Garlic and shallots are up and strawberries are perking up from their winter rest. 

Our shiitake logs are beginning to fruit (it's called buttoning at this stage). We're looking forward to fresh mushrooms again.

Tiny shiitake buds

We've been out in the garden a bit. The weather has been very rainy and cool. I have taken the winter mulch off of the garlic, shallots and strawberries. The raspberries have had the winter deadened tips clipped off.

Bob cleans out sprouted straw

We've cleaned the planting beds of weeds which escaped us last autumn.

Bob undertook the task of digging up and moving our large shrub rose.

Rose bush in its new spot

Once we had removed the back deck, this bush was in a bad spot (at the foot of our new porch steps). Now it is more properly located.

The cool weather plant starts are being hardened off and are soon to be planted. 

Inside of the house, we each have had our own projects.

Acrobatic freezer washing

I have consolidated the contents of the two chest freezers into one. Both freezes have now been defrosted and washed, ready for another season.

I also have cleaned the pantry and all of the kitchen cupboards and drawers. It's still too cool to wash all of the windows, but I hope to get to this before long.

Bob has of course, been working on the bathroom remodel.

New closet space

All of the Masonite is off of the walls now. The new, smaller closet is framed out and drywalled.

Vanity on its way out

The old vanity is on the junk pile! The next step is to update the wiring. There's a little bit more drywall to install and a ton of taping and mudding to do. The toilet will have to come out before that can be done. He's been putting that off because he is dreading the trips to the downstairs bathroom in the wee small hours. It's tough getting to be old. (I remember a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon where Calvin, afraid to travel to the bathroom, just peed out of his bedroom window (causing his parents to wonder why the rose bushes on that side of the house were dying). Perhaps Bob will resort to this?!).

Wind damage to a large pine

We had three diversions this month.

The first was on the afternoon of the total solar eclipse. It was very overcast here, so we didn't see very much. We viewed this from our meadow and did experience it getting very dark and then becoming lighter again. It was very eerie! This was our first opportunity to look over our property since last autumn. We found seven large Eastern White Pine trees that had been uprooted by the winter's high winds.

A pine, cherry and maple all down together

A few cherries were downed and some smaller maples snapped off by the winds or broken down by other falling trees. Most of these will be left to lie as they fell, but one is blocking our main path. It will have to be dealt with carefully because its trunk is covered with poison ivy vines.

Our next outing was at Buttermilk Falls State Park. It was a lovely day and the Gorge Trail had just been reopened for the season.

Hepatica blooming

We walked both the North Rim and Gorge trails. There were many hepatica in bloom and the falls were lovely, as always.

Just one of the cascades in the Falls

Our third adventure was a very muddy walk to Teeter Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest, for Bob's birthday. There were only a few birds around: some Canada Geese and a Kingfisher. The most exciting thing was an American Woodcock that walked right next to us, about a foot off of the trail we were on. It's the first one we've ever seen. Sorry, but we focused on the moment and didn't take a photograph. Instead, here's a picture that Bob took of a very photogenic frog.

Phil the photogenic frog

We plan to get out again this coming Friday to walk the Rim Trail at Watkins Glen State Park. A fine day is forecast, so we should have an enjoyable time.

That's about all of the news from here.

We'll continue to work on the bathroom and in the garden. By the time the next update comes out, the cool weather plants will be in the ground and the warm weather plants will be in the process of hardening off. Hopefully the bathroom will be showing real progress, too.

We hope all of you can get out and enjoy some of the gorgeous spring weather and all of the loveliness that it brings.

Till next time, 

Bob and Kathleen

Colt's foot is blooming now

 

Can you spot the Bumble bee?