Sat. Feb. 14th… Valentine’s Day makes Spring seem Closer……

Once we reach Valentine’s Day, we’re almost half way through the month of February and March is in sight. We all know that once you make March, winter has lost it’s icy grip for at least another year as we approach spring on a grander scale. It is now that the chilling winter and warming spring clash forces..... and yes we still may have frosty mornings, but the twain shall never meet, for the frost gives way to the sun’s warming throughout the daylight hours. Winter can only reclaim it’s slipping hold on us again, during the darkness of night, for a short while longer. Each day will usher in more and more warmth, driving winter’s chilling grip further and further into the past, which then becomes the future of our next imminent winter.
Today we will take a jaunt, into the heart of Albany, to get a watercolor copy of Vicki’s latest piece of artwork. She did a beautiful watercolor of her brother’s pet dog, Scruffy. She worked on this pet portrait from a lousy picture that didn’t even show the entire dog, was sitting at an awkward angle, was dark and fuzzy and only wallet sized. From that, I believe she reproduced a great 12 x 16 masterpiece of his friend, one he will cherish forever as it hangs on the wall of his office. Before giving it to him, we must go and get a copy made so Vicki can place it into her portfolio.
Perhaps, upon returning, I will work out in the barn, if it is suitable to do so, because as I said above, the temperature this time of year can soar higher than they called for with the sun in it's full glory…… sending it’s warming rays earthward. I’d like to do a little more wiring and get the outside lighting completed and working anyway. Also, I'd like to place the pasture gate in the opening there so it's completed too.

Fri. Feb. 13th… Maybe a bad day to talk to the Insurance folks……

Well, well, well…. Here we are, expecting a visit by the insurance folks, to go over our homeowners policy and talk about the addition of the barn. They are also concerned about us conducting a small animal farming business and the addition of the hospice Gift shop this summer. To top this all off, I just noticed it’s Friday the thirteenth. Now ain’t that a bummer? Boy it sure is good that We’re not superstitious or We would probably cancel this meeting! I know people that don’t even get out of bed on this day…… and for the life of me, I can’t understand what they are thinking! I guess if your still in bed, you can’t do much wrong, or be exposed to much. Any way…… I simply view that doing that ludicrously, stupid thing, as a waste of their lives, at least a day of it. Anyhow, I’m holding my breath today, as we await to hear what they are going to spring on us anyway… the same way I would hold my breath on any other day of the year!
I also see that the false springtime is over and that damned Pennsylvania rodent has made good on his threat for another six, long weeks of winter! (I hate that little earth rodent!!) With this thought, we will again, place the barn project on hold for more bearable weather temperatures later and concentrate on the hospice gift shop items and installing the correct QuickBooks program into the computer and loading the correct data into the program in the correct accounts so we’re ready at tax time.
We also have the Culligan dude coming to remove a zero osmosis water filter system they peddled under a tricky little program where they install it for you to try…… charging a monthly fee and tell you that all the rental fees go toward the purchase price if you like it and want to buy it. Once you decide that you want to buy it, they say they can’t sell you the one that is in…… but they will install a new one. Am I missing something here? Why a new one? Why another installation charge? What do they then do with the old system they take out……… you know … the one you have used? We decided we really didn’t need it anyway and told them to just come and remove it and forget about us buying anything. Ha, Ha, Ha Culligan! We already filter the water in the basement and then again in the refrigerator, so forget it! I don’t know why we even agreed to them installing the stupid thing anyway.

Thurs Feb 12th… Showers & Wind, Showers & Wind, all day long…

I don’t know about the showers, but the wind is definitely a good prediction and with a temperature of forty-two degrees, it feels like thirty-two degrees out there with the wind chill factor. The old trees are swaying......... oblivious it appears, to the bitter cold as they actually resemble dancers on a ballroom floor. The wind however ......... in bleak contrast, actually sounds angry, growling and moaning as it pushes the trees out of it’s way as it passes......... much like a disgruntled person barges through a standing crowd, where the trees merely move aside momentarily, as he pushes past. Funny how such things enter your mind as you watch nature in it’s element. I had hoped to work in and around the barn, but I doubt Vicki can endure the relentless wind and bitter cold. She doesn’t do well in extreme heat or cold, and options for the middle ground, are limited during the winter and summer alike. We can probably work inside the barn out of the wind, because without the chill factor, she can handle forty-two degrees, but I will have to find some wire somewhere laying around, because with our currently tight money situation…… I don’t want to buy wire. If I have none, I’ll putter around doing whatever I can with whatever I have right now. There is always little dinky jobs needing done before nice weather. If I cannot find anything out there, there’s always things to do in here.
I know we are also going to Albany today to pick up a few items we need and a QuickBooks program for the farm and Hospice Gift Shop, because I have to get it loaded and all the receipts and records entered before tax time which is rapidly approaching. This program will make it much easier to complete the bookkeeping function for our accountant when we file our taxes.

Wed. Feb 11th… BEAUTIFUL warmth….Can be Deadly Downstream

Today they are calling for outside temps to reach fifty-two degrees, and tomorrow in the high forties…… How lovely and comfortable we will be here on the farm, working outside, doing what we have longed to do but couldn’t. Today it will be warm enough, to actually work without gloves, stinging fingers, toes and shivering. We will finally install the lights we have threatened to do, almost every day for two weeks. Shortly after attempting to start the installation, we would whimp out because of stiff, cold fingers. Today we’ll also move feed to the other barns, and maybe even get to clean them out a little after such a long stretch of not being able to get close to them with the tractor and the fact that everything was frozen solid, made it impossible to clean anyway.

Yes, we will be happy and enjoying this warm stretch of two days …… but further downstream are those who will not!
There are places in our back yard where we still have twelve inches of snow that will surely melt rapidly today in fifty degree temperatures. Figure that there are also more places north of us that have significantly more than twelve inches and that they will have the same fifty degree temperatures and you will quickly note the potential for a serious flooding problem. There are places on the Hudson where the ice is sixteen inches or more thick! When the onrush of melting snow flows down area streams, rushing into the Hudson river, the rising water will break that ice cap loose and there will be a giant rush of large ice chunks flowing down, jamming anyplace there is a bend, a shallow spot, it will jam against islands, piers or any obstruction to the flow, then everything starts to back up….. and QUICK! There will be places that cannot see the Hudson river, which will have a small stream in or next to their property, instantly overflow it’s banks and then flood their yard, their basements or worse yet, actually make entry into their homes as a result of this instant backing up of flooding river waters. The water which backs up rapidly when an ice jam forms will increase the depth of the river, pushing water back up small streams within minutes, often not leaving time to move vehicles out of the way and it’s impossible to divert this water from buildings.
We hope for the best today and that no one loses property or more importantly their life as nature moves slowly from one season to another.
There is always a calm before the storm…… today, the calm. This evening.....the storm.
Our storm came last week when our pool emptied and all we have now, is ice around the edges and a cover on the bottom liner.
Today, we may not be affected (I hope anyway)…. But God bless those who are.

Tues. Feb 10th… Shooting for a better day… shouldn’t be that long……

The day started off with a brisk chill in the air, but quickly proceeded to be 38 degrees and overcast. I think they are calling for rain today or tomorrow…… maybe both. Who knows? Surely they don’t. I think sometimes they change their forecast as the weather changes…..
We are going to definitely try to brave the weather today to get some things done around here even if we have to run to the house occasionally to warm up. I would like to shut down the main power panel in the basement and selectively turn on breakers to determine what the hell is driving our electric bill to be over $300.00 a month. That’s ridiculous, considering it’s only Vick and I here and we don’t have an electric hot water heater……
We could also place the rails across the opening in the pasture and that would complete the pasture fence so we could turn the Alpacas loose out there when we’re ready. Once they are screwed onto the posts, across the opening, I can complete the gate anytime, by myself, without any help, because you place the ties into position and hold them with the “C” clamps while you put the screws in. The next thing is to install the hinges to the gate and onto the post, then remove all the screws holding the rails to the posts and you have it. Just the addition of the latch, and the entire gate is completed.
Last evening, Vick and I went down to the library for our once-a-month group painting get together with Carol, Jane, Danielle and her daughter. We usually start around seven in the evening and go until nine-thirty or so. Everyone just draws or paints at their leisure and encourages each other as we chat and create our masterpieces. Occasionally, I surprise myself, but I’m never surprised at the beautiful artwork Vick turns out. I truly wish I had her patience for artwork, but I’m more than satisfied to just have her at my side in everything we do and besides, she knows my writing is my joy and she perpetuates my creativity in my books and poems. We’re truly a team in that respect…… encouraging each other all the time.

A wonderful day in a wonderful life and then……Ouch…BEES!

We started off the morning with a bang… taking care of the animals.... feeding them and watering them…… Then Vick got on the phone and called about what we thought was a mistake on our electric bill. We figured the bill and payment passed in the mail and they didn't credit the last payment, because the current balance was almost $1100.00. We thought we would call and inform them that they needed to correct that, so Vick was doing that when I saw her face turn as white as newly fallen snow! THERE WAS NO MISTAKE.. None at all! Yowl!!! Upon looking, the bill was a little over $400.00 more than usual, so we investigated and found that once I made the Kwh tally, the heat lamps accounted, almost to the penny, for the increase. Even at $300.00 / mo. We needed to resolve the issues surrounding the cost here, so that is at the top of our investigative list now. (and we were going to install dusk to dawn lights at the barn… front and rear... Hmmmmmmm)
Well, well, well…… how neat it is when you think you have everything under control and life is just scooting along smooth and comfy. We have been doing the work as we go…… planning what needs to be done next, then something unrelated (like the swimming pool) happens and in checking, as to whether or not the insurance will pay for any of it, you end up sticking your nose into a hornet’s nest. We called to see if the pool was covered in any way under our homeowners policy and as Vicki was talking to the agent over the phone, she also mentioned our concern about coverage against fire, on the newly erected barn…… and while they were talking about it…… she mentioned that we were going to build a small building for our “not for profit” hospice gift shop, on the property this summer too. Now… the hornets started to swarm…… as the lady wanted to know if we were going to be selling farm related products on site also. The swarm of hornets were now multiplying…… starting to obscure the original question of simple coverage for the buildings… (Ya know?…… hornets seem to have a smell for blood or money it seems.) and immediately “Oh my God… you’re not nearly insured well enough to have people on your property to buy these things!” and the $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ started swarming along with the hornets equally as fast…… so now, we have an appointment for Friday with the “head beekeeper” from the insurance office, who will want to insure us against every known peril to mankind, here on earth and possibly, on the space station or beyond, for all eternity too! Now back to the original question……… might we have any coverage on the pool? So far today, all we’ve gotten was a pair of black eyes and a good headache. Vick and I are going into a cost cutting huddle! At least that will be fun……. (the huddle part I mean…….)

Mon. Feb. 9th… Not so cold…not so warm…… winter just hangs on…

Winter is still hanging on by more than the skin of it’s teeth I think. We get promises of warm temperatures during the day… and sometimes it even reaches those temperatures, if for only an hour or two…… but it made it there. That’s of no consequence when you are thinking of that temperature lasting from, say… noon to……… maybe four o’clock in the afternoon. When it only lasts for that hour, it just usually makes folks loath winter all the more. We simply roll with the flow. Yesterday, Vick and I ventured to the barn to start working on lighting, but since the wind was blowing so violently, we decided to place a piece of fabric at the top of the front door to block the wind when we open that door. Well, it didn’t take us long to see that we didn’t really need to be out there working in that wind. Likewise, we didn’t really need to be out there doing anything, because it was still very, very cold……… even though the thermometer was hitting fifty degrees in the sun…… I think it was thirty in the shade and then the wind drove the real life temperature way lower with a chill factor. We both mutually agreed to go into the house and exist until another day. Vick has so many things that she can do to occupy herself and I can vegetate with the best of them at the drop of a hat, so we had things to do.
Today, we must make the trip to Hilltown Agway to pick up our monthly load of feed for the animals. That will be a hefty $400.00 at least……… and I’ll need to get the front door open to unload it into the feed room. After the feed is safely in the barn, we can do whatever strikes our fancy……if anything!

Sunday Feb. 8th… The melt is on… our temperature is at 45 degrees!!!

WOW! It feels like spring is in the air and there will surely be water in the ditches and over the stream banks today, because they are calling for the temperature to hit 48 degrees. With the snow load we have and all day thawing (which occurred all night long too) the streams will be flooded, yet they are calling for above freezing temperatures for the next six days…… not by much, mind you, but still above 32 degrees. We will definitely get some work done in and around the barn now! I’d like to finish up the gate in the pasture so we can be totally ready for the Alpacas when they arrive, get the area lighting up so it’s not so dark at night and get the snow away from the back of the barn to access the door with feed. Perhaps I should just open the front door again. It’s usually about the same temperature in the barn as out anyway and I could cut a hanger strip to stop the air from above the door. We could also close in the front and side toward the house to make it a right angle so the air doesn’t blow in there. I suppose that would be wiser than we’ve done so far anyway. We’ll look today and decide what to do.
Anyway…… yesterday we just more or less bummed around, did very little work in the barn, watched TV some and later, went to the post office, washed the car at the “Hootersville Car Wash” near the Two Kids Bakery, then drove down to Cairo to the CVS Drugstore and picked up Vick’s prescriptions which were ready, then drove home again to get ready to pick up our friends Charlie & Joan to share dinner at the Freehold House Restaurant, in Freehold, NY. What a nice, cozy place to dine on special occasions. It ranks about the same as the Mountainview Brasserie, But may be a bit more cozy and intimate for that special occasion!
Below you will find some photo’s Vick snapped along the trail yesterday.



Vicki made these stained glass wall hangings for her friend Robin, from Georgia.




Scarves.....both with and without hats, which we made for the hospice gift shop, in the name of Nature's Friend's of Hospice, Inc.
The scarf & hat set is $32.00 + shipping and a scarf alone is $22.00 + shipping.
The scarves are mostly all six feet long, just right for wrapping around your neck and tying.....



Hooterville Carwash

One would think it's fully automated

I suppose this is the owner and he is excited to open, but he greets you, and ushers you into the operation as if he is an attendant.

He may be overseeing the operation since they are just starting it up. They opened the beginning of last week. He may also be a contractor, responsible for the installation, but it still seems funny to have a "door man".

A lovely winter stream in Cairo

Crows in a field, faring for a meal. This shot taken along Mountain View Road

Away they fly, as Vicki shoots pictures of them fleeing.

A few views of the Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC as viewed driving by the road above or coming into the driveway here and below.

The barn is probably about 85% finished at this point, but not counting the planned expansion onto the back side where we will add a 12 x 15 bunny house this summer. It will house the rabbits we now have and the four Angora rabbits that are coming this summer too.

We are all but ready for the Alpacas.