Thursday, September 23, 2010...What A Lousy First Day Of Fall......Too Warm.....

Autumn arrived in the world on Sept. 22, 2010, at 11:13 p.m. EST. And for the first time since 1991, the harvest moon was full in the early hours of Sept. 23.
(Most people say last night...but it was actually early this morning)
A full harvest moon so close to the autumnal equinox is the “traditional definition” of a harvest moon, and as National Geographic reports, the world is celebrating.

An autumnal equinox occurs when the sun sets due west and rises due east. It marks the change of the season and also when day and night, falls into balance, lasting for roughly the same equal lengths. After the autumnal equinox, the days become notably shorter. The harvest moon refers to the autumnal moon at its brightest, when farmers worked to bring in their crops by its light. This year, these two events coincided in the wee hours of Sept. 23 in the northern hemisphere. This event will not occur again until 2029. How interesting....especially for us farmers. The moon during autumn is the most beautiful of the entire year and it always takes me back to my childhood, when I was a boy of ten or so, chomping at the bit for the fall weather and Halloween. It was a fun time when we kids played in the moonlight, donning masks of vampires and ghouls and scaring the smaller kids half out of their wits. I remember the chill in the night air, as leaves rattled and blew across the moonlit landscape, noisily clattering across the hard road surface, also carrying the smells of October and the beginning of fall.
School had recently started and we hated sitting in a stuffy, hot old classroom, on those last sticky days before the fall gave us the needed relief of windy, cool days.
Today was entirely too hot! I hated working in the gift shop...sweating profusely, but I did it, knowing that tomorrow was reserved for the weekly "Vermont Road Trip". I finished the outside GFCI receptacles and installed the double bulb motion light on the corner of the building which will illuminate the porch and roadside egg stand as soon as someone walks or drives up to either. We drove the eight foot ground rods and hooked up the bare copper ground wire to each post in one uncut length. Doing both the barn service and gift shop, completed the ground net for each building and brought them up to code. All that’s left to do before getting the inspection scheduled is the ceiling fan wiring and switch. I have to pick up another 20 amp single pole receptacle for that too, but I also think I will need more 12-2 W/G wire. There might be enough to go from box to box on the ceiling, but there certainly isn't enough to go to the switch and then to the breaker box. Therefore, I will figure on purchasing wire, a breaker and two porch lights, before finishing the wiring and calling for the inspection.
As I mentioned earlier....tomorrow is the weekly "Vermont Road Trip". We will be increasing the size of our weekly cheese order in Bennington, and then heading for Cambridge where we will visit our favorite orchard to pick up more apples. After that, we will go to the stained glass place in Cambridge to pick up glass for Vick's stained glass projects, being done by her and Lynda, for the Christmas church sale.
Going has now turned into a real pleasure since we have sworn off the beaten trail of traffic and congestion near Albany and Troy. We go up some pretty rural roads to get above Troy before coming back out of route 7 into Bennington. The leaves are turning and every week, we see a more beautiful landscape of coloring foliage.
With the traffic eliminated, we now enjoy the entire day as a laid back vacation day in New England and Northern New York, drinking in nature's beauty some never notice. Soon we will have very pretty pictures to load on the blog postings. Stay tuned for some beauties!!!!!

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