Nature – Page 4 – This Old House 2

This neck o’the woods

I could write all day about the current list of atrocities and tragedies in the news, but let’s heed the advice we’ve been giving each other here on this blog and focus on the good things in our lives, shall we? I want to thank each of you who stop by to read my musings and join the conversations, it’s encouraging to hear from like minded people, truly. #MakeAmericaKindAgain #MakeAmericaSaneAgain either would do.

It’s maple sugaring season here in the Northeast, but you wouldn’t know it by the current weather trends. We’ve had very little snow so far, the trees are tapped on our farm with a little flow, but the temps have not been cold enough overnight to get the sap flowing when the heat rises during the day. We don’t have a sugar shack here on our farm, so we take ours to the community farm Sugar Shack in our town, where volunteers process it, bottle it and sell it to continue to support the farm. You might wonder why pure maple syrup is so expensive compared to the fake stuff like Aunt J*mima, and the answer is there is so much work that goes into it, and so much tree sap is needed – 40 gallons of clear tree sap boils down to one gallon of actual syrup.

Have you tried Maple Water? I have found it in a few of the grocery stores in this area, but not all. I absolutely love it – light, refreshing, with just a hint of maple – it’s the pure maple water(sap) that comes out of the tree, is flash pastuerized and sold in stores. YUM! And it’s hydrating, it’s actually good for you! I’m not getting any compensation for saying it – treat yourself to a bottle if you find it in your local stores. Canadian runners have been using it to refuel for some time.

In my better health/better weight quest I have lost a few pounds and have gained some muscle, I’m not perfect with the food intake but I’ve made some headway. My clothes are starting to feel better on me and that is a good beginning. I continue to walk/hike/jog with the dogs, light weight training and all of this helps greatly with the Fibromyalgia I’ve been dealing with for the past five-six years give or take. If you suffer from the same, in my experience, keep moving – that’s the best line of defense. And.. eat much less sugar and dairy, much less processed foods.

L-R – My Sally and Frasier, K’s Gizmo on the right. Now that we live nextdoor to each other, we often take the dogs on walks together. It motivates us both to get out there and keep moving.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

– Henry David Thoreau

Our dear old retired showhorse, Max, is now dealing with Glaucoma in one eye, thankfully not the painful variety. He’s on four different meds to try to stave it off for a while and seems to be learning to live without vision on the left. I’m glad we can give him the peace to deal with the handicap and he will not be shipped off to a kill pen like so many others, no longer useful. Another reason to be so very grateful for what this old farm affords us.

Our son has begun the construct of his home just over the hill, the foundation is poured… and I am over the moon to have both kids so close by. Over the years we will all benefit from this little patch of farmland not far from everything else, just the right mix of country and suburb. He and his GF have worked hard to begin and build their careers and are very excited about the plans they’re making for their future together, it does my heart good. 🧡

That’s my mom in the red hoodie up there, the one who leaves awesome comments now and then and hates her picture to be taken but I do it anyway because – I GOTTA BE ME- .. and I love my mom.

One more update – I’m not happy about global warming so a mild winter is concerning, BUT… I do believe, because it’s been so mild… this batch of christmas trees might just actually survive. Third time’s the charm? Stay tuned…

I’ll close this post with something to ponder. Why is it that men or the kids think they’re doing us a HUGE service when they lift a finger in the direction of cleaning up after themselves such as… oh, say… changing the toilet paper roll or washing the dinner dishes or flipping the load of laundry into the dryer or taking the trash out or putting the sneakers back in the closet instead of under the bench in the mudroom. Aren’t they also the ones making the mess? AmIright? Just sayin –

Karen

Vitamin Sea

When I find myself running low on faith in humanity, I’m often refueled while out observing nature.

He comes every day to feed his friends. They are wary of others, but not him, it’s clear there is trust between them. After I observed for a while, he motioned me into his circle, spoke softly and encouraged the birds to take a cracker from my hand, and eventually they did, trusting him next to me.

What matters

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner here at This Old House and I hope wherever you spent the day and with whom, you did too. The food was delish, minus the Chocolate Cheesecake flop. King Arthur Flour recipe.. ….shoulda worked… .. but… something went wrong and it was so heavy you wouldn’t want to have to hang onto it if you fell in the water somewhere unexpectedly. That doesn’t really make sense, but you know what I mean. It sucked. Thankfully there were two pies and cookies to fill the gap.

Empty plates at the end of a meal are always a good sign, although Frasier was scoping for scraps, hoping for something different.

In these pictures you’ll notice the “theme” is not Thankgiving at all. Indeed, Christmas swooped in the day before, for no good reason other than a rainy day and a little impatience. That would be mine. Mom said… “but… Fall is such a pretty time of year..” Indeed it is, and Fall has been living in This Old House since September. It was time. At least the food reflected the proper holiday decorum, right? 🙂

Is this the weekend you begin your Christmas/Holiday Season? We are officially Decked. While at the tree farm up the road, we discovered the secret to starting young trees…. plant them very very close together in a big patch where they almost look like a carpet – and then transplant once they’ve grown some. This gives them protection while they grow a little more hearty. Ah Ha! That’s why our first few attempts failed. Those poor babies were out on our windy hill all on their own, too far apart from each other to gather the necessary support. What were we thinking.

We got two smaller REAL trees this year instead of the big FAKE one. I’m so done with fake news, ya know? We’ve got one at the corner of the family room where we can also see it from the Mancave, and one in the kitchen/dining room area. I love the heavenly scent of fresh pine.

Yesterday morning as I looked out over the fields from our kitchen window, I saw two bucks up on the hill, one a juvenile – father and son? Brothers? Donner and Blitzen scouting for Santa, perhaps. I managed a few blurry shots before they darted off…

… and was reminded again how very grateful I am for the opportunity to live here on this little farm, for as long as life will allow it.

Gizmo (my new grand dog) is also very grateful he has landed here with us. Oh, how I love this little scruff.

Till soon, friends…

Spot

My grandfather Al used to feed the birds and squirrels in his tiny Staten Island backyard. He would sit in a chair on his back porch and hold peanuts in his hand. The squirrels would come up to him slowly, carefully, and reach for the peanut in his fingers. I would have loved to join in but at the time the squirrels weren’t sure of the eager child sitting across from him. It was enough to sit quietly and watch his interactions.

Many people think of squirrels as a nuisance. A rodent! (not that rodents are really a bad thing and oh, I know some of you may be cringing, but they’re smarter than we think). In my adult years I have not managed to feed the squirrels on our little farms by hand as my grandfather did, but they do frequent the bird feeders. Sometimes that has annoyed me because they can be piggy, but in the past few years a certain visitor has changed all that.

Spot has been here on this farm for a few years now, her unique marking on her forehead the giveaway.

What I’ve learned from observing Spot is.. squirrels have families. They have territories. They live for a while if they aren’t splat crossing the road. That crazy zigzag behavior you might witness in front of your car or out in your yard does not mean they are stupid or “nuts”… it’s their natural defense mechanism for escaping prey. So slow down your driving if it’s a safe option and let them get away.

Spot’s home base seems to be the ancient maple in our driveway across from the bird feeder at my kitchen window. For a few years now that’s where I see her most often, besides our feeder. I know she’s a female because that’s rather obvious ( no balls) when she’s hanging upside down from the feeder. That nob from an old branch is where she and a buddy or two often sun themselves, clean themselves, bring a morsel to nibble.

Squirrels frequently stretch before they move on – You can see her hanging by back feet in two of these pictures, extending her front paws out in a reach/stretch position.

I can watch her from my office desk too.. sometimes she ventures over to the split rail near the road, looking across, but I have yet to see her actually cross to the other side.

So the next time you see a squirrel, don’t think of them as a nuisance… remember they have families and places they consider home, too. We humans have encroached on their habitat, they aren’t encroaching on ours.