nature – This Old House 2

Heated Exchange

When we bought Stella two years ago, she had been much loved by the previous owner but also neglected. We kept all the rustic charm, she is still a very 1930’s summer cottage, but the things that really needed fixing got fixed and an interior wall was removed so that the tiny kitchen was open to the seating area that looks out over the cove. For more details, search the Once Upon a Tide post labels where you’ll find posts on her restoration.

At the door to the back deck was the only source of heat, a gas operated heating stove, one we couldn’t use because it didn’t vent to the outside and so the odor from the burning gas flooded Stella’s small interior. A few days ago we had a new one installed with a vent pipe that goes through the roof. It still needs to be hooked up, but it will be a beautiful sight to see on chilly spring, summer and fall evenings when we want to take the nip out of the air inside the cottage.

The original…

The new model

The cottage and surrounding island , or what’s really a peninsula despite it’s name, have a different vibe in winter months for the obvious reasons – and the cold inside the cottage is bone chilling. The unmade beds, empty refrigerator and food pantry underline and highlight it. When we began Stella’s re-do, she was infested with rodents – mice droppings fell from the curtain tops and were embedded in the toaster left from the previous occupant. There were nests in the seat cushions. These things in particular freaked the Mr. right out, so he made sure she is now almost airtight, and we don’t have meese in the rafters or the cushions or the toaster anymore.

While the guys were installing the new stove, I took a walk around with camera.

Stella from the road

… and from the waterfront

Meanwhile, we’ve had some glorious sunsets that

I’ve captured with the good camera here on the farm

As I type this, it’s snowy-raining outside and the horses and chickens are waiting for their breakfast – Spring is just around the corner, you can see it in the light cast across the fields at the end of the day, in the diamond sparkles on the water. Just don’t look on the ground, where there’s still some of the white stuff that doesn’t scream spring. Out into that stuff I go…..

Spot

Some people hate ’em – RODENTS! They say. The Mr. finds them annoying and has even contemplated taking a BB gun to them because they’ve been eating our peaches, plums, apples, cherries up in the orchard. Some people don’t pay much attention to them, and yet others find them endearing. That would be me, ever since Spot showed up at This Old House.

Spot is a squirrel and he’s been here for a few years now… showing up at the feeder regularly. Sometimes I see him up by the horses or over by the coop, but most often I find his chubby little butt parked on the bird feeder, having his fill. It is because of Spot that we will not take a BB to the squirrels here – they could be family! They could be SPOT, Heaven forbid.

A few things you might not have known about Squirrels…

Squirrels pick a territory – that can range up to about 7 acres, and they prefer to keep the same nest. That explains why we’ve seen him here for so long now. This is his “home”!

Squirrels can smell food buried a foot under snow. Also.. they bury their food all over the place, and sometimes it’s stolen by other squirrels and even birds. Sometimes they’ve been observed faking a bury, meaning they dig a whole and then cover it up without depositing anything in it. It’s believed they do it to throw off others who potentially steal their cache.

That zigzag you see them do when running away from something is their defense mechanism for escaping predators like hawks, coyotes, snakes etc. It works well in the wild, but not so great with cars – so slow down when you see them doing that crazy zigzag.. they’re trying to get out of harm’s way.

The story of why US parks are full of squirrels can be found here, worth reading! I had no idea….

Most squirrels don’t live past their first year. The ones that do… tend to live to be around 6 at most. Their actual span ability various among the species, but some have the potential to live to the ripe old age of 24!.

We had a sprinkling of snow overnight before the coming storms this weekend. I’ve been prepping the coop and barn for cold temps and will fill the bird feeder again this afternoon. Spot has already made his appearance this morning, getting his fill of the cracked corn I put out there a few days ago. This feeder is right outside my kitchen sink window, so I get to see the visitors to the feeder quite easily.

Spot says Good Morning! Now go get your milk, bread and toilet paper and perhaps some peanuts for me, please!

Purple Mushrooms

Did you know there was such a thing? Purple mushrooms? In all my years of trudging through the woods on horseback or with dogs, I did not. A local friend who goes mushroom hunting on a regular basis posted a few pictures recently, and I was amazed! Purple Mushrooms? What?

The bullshittery that is occurring in Washington has me (and a zillion other people) on edge lately, and the best way I know how to get away from all the nonsense is to get out in nature – put my face to the wind on the water or take a hike in the woods with the dogs. Yesterday I left the dogs behind to avoid their tread on what I was looking for, and went exploring in the woods behind our farm – in search of the elusive Purple Mushroom. I knew the odds would be in my favor after the recent 8.5 inch rainfall in our area. I kid you not – local roads were flooded, some caved in due to rivers run amok adjacent to them… driveways washed out, a local restaurant with a river alongside it had water on it’s first floor, water coming in the windows – it was that crazy. ) Seems our weather is becoming more extreme with each year – this past winter brought unrelenting cold, then the summer held unrelenting humidity – and now crazy amounts of rainfall as autumn slides in.

The hunt!…

And the discovery.… for me it was almost like finding a unicorn

out there in the forest… and yet apparently, they are fairly common.

I was downright giddy.

I also spent a little time with my face to the wind on the water

with my niece, S. on Saturday.

If you love the water but have never tried Kayaking,

I highly recommend it. The practice is a soul soother –

you can go at your own pace –

a lake, a pond, a river, a cove, the ocean – any will do.

The typical boat does not cost a fortune, can be stored in a garage

or out near the woodpile and will

last you a lifetime with basic care.

My 74 year old Aunt still enjoys it, too . With a little planning

and practical caution the practice is ageless and the exercise

is good for you, body and soul.

I hope all is well in your neck o’the woods –

🍁Happy Fall!

A Sense of Place

According to wikipedia, that term has several meanings, a sense of place. I relate it to a feeling of belonging, of being comfortable, contented where you are. While I enjoyed my childhood neighborhood and Staten Island upbringing, I knew from a young age it was not where I was meant to settle. As soon as I was old enough, I hightailed it to where I wanted my roots to take hold… in a more rural setting. The rub in the want for “rural” is that I also couldn’t imagine being too far away from the water. I had family in Connecticut I could live with temporarily so I was very fortunate to land in a good mix of a country setting near shore life. 34 years later, I’m still here… just a half mile down the same road from where I came in for a landing all those years ago. I’ve had no regrets.

I loved reading your comments yesterday, learning a little about you and where you’re from, where you find your sense of place, and in a few cases, where you long to be. It’s clear in many of your answers, you have also found your sense of place, in some instances right where you’ve been all along. It’s a good feeling, a settled feeling, one that helps balance out all the other aspects of a life.

I also find my sense of place in the act of caring, always have. It started with my childhood pets, then an abandoned race horse I adopted and brought with me to CT… Every nickel I could rub together with another back then went to the care and comfort of my horse and gas in my car, let me tell ya. Wasn’t the most sensible thing to do but I managed alright regardless.

Shortly after, we started our family, my husband grew his business and we built a small horse farm – and I’ve been tending family and farm needs ever since, sprinkled with part time jobs and volunteer work, a short stint as an Artisan store owner, and 7 years as editor of our small local news source. I am forever grateful that I was able to raise my children as a stay at home mom. It occurs to me that I could have done more with myself by other people’s standards. I haven’t closed the door on that possibility yet – although being 3/4 deaf makes a few things much more difficult. But what I have been doing, what I do now… well, I feel at home, I feel I’m where I’m supposed to be, I feel productive – and that’s a gift, a real blessing I appreciate whole heartedly, will not allow myself to undervalue or overlook. I’m wishing you the same.

This morning I was reminded of all this as I worked my way through morning chores – Cloud, our rabbit who lives next to the Chickens got a freshly raked yard and was thrilled to be out in it after yesterday’s rain.

Old Max, Below – now 32 years old!… got a good shedding out, too.

Owned by a friend, he has been here with us for 7 years now.

He can no longer chew hay, his teeth ground down to almost nothing.

He gives it the old college try but it inevitably ends up

clumped around him, so we pump him up with three different grains and

grass out in the fields, which sustains the old boy pretty well.

The side porch that we all use most of the time to come and go from has an interesting new development. See the trellis with gate? It’s covered in New Dawn roses now, just a beautiful sight when it blooms. Robins are not the smartest of birds, I’ve concluded over the years. We often find Robin nests in less than desirable places, clearly they are confused by their Sense of place.. or lack thereof. A pair are currently building a nest right in the busy traffic lane here at This Old House.

They are undeterred by our comings and goings from the gate in the center of the trellis, inches from their nest. I’ll keep you posted on their.. tenacity? Stubbornness? Stupidity, but that’s such an unkind word.

Meanwhile, just a few feet from my desk out the window here on the front porch – the purple finch babies behind the lantern have hatched!

Speaking of birds and nests, the girlchild is coming home to our nest tonight

to have dinner with the ‘rents. I love when that happens.

I’ve got that Mountain Dew (Sprite) cake

on the counter just waiting, because Mama Bird I will always be.

Till soon, friends –

Thank you for stopping by 🙂

Out on the front porch…

…there is a little bird. She has built herself a lovely little well-protected nest on the porch light.

I love her choice of nest material… the remnants of last years perennials

from the backyard.

I did not discovery the nest early enough to photograph wee little eggs…

But alas, there is this –

Lions Mane Jellies

I can almost hear the collective “HUH?”…..

Frasier and I took a hike along Hammonassets rocky waterfront trails this morning and when we came to where we like to dip our feet in the water, well…. we didn’t. Just as I kicked off my sneaks and stepped into the chilly ocean water I spotted them. Hundreds of what I thought were man o’war jellyfish. Come to find out later after posting on FB, they are actually Lions Mane Jellies. For all these years whenever I spotted one of these, I pretty much yiped and got out of the water. Turns out they are not deadly. Their sting might be annoying, but it’s a mild irritation. I’ve read some conflicting info on the Lions Mane jellies though… Supposedily originating in the deep arctic oceans, they can reach huge sizes, like 40 lbs. and 7 feet long, I kid you not. These are very small in comparison. Some the size of a dessert plate, others like a silver dollar.

Beautiful, aren’t they?

Some jellyfish facts:

* Jellies are ancient animals, having roamed the seas

for at least 500 million years

* Jellies don’t have brains as we typically think of them: rather, they have a network of neurons (“nerve net”) that allows jellies to sense their environments, such as changes in water chemistry indicating food or the touch of another animal. The nerve net has some specialized structures such as statocysts, which are balance sensors that help jellies know whether they are facing up or down, and light-sensing organs called ocelli, which can sense the presence and absence of light.

* Jellies are found in oceans worldwide, in shallow and deep water, and a few can even be found living in freshwater.

* Jellyfish are carnivorous, and will eat just about anything they run into! Most jellies primarily eat plankton, tiny organisms that drift along in the water, although larger ones may also eat crustaceans, fish and even other jellyfish .

* Humans eat jellyfish: people have fished for jellies for at least 1700 years off the coast of China.

* Many jellyfish are able to produce light—an ability known as bioluminescence. They have proteins in some tissues that undergo a chemical reaction to produce blue or green light in response to stimuli such as touch. No one’s quite sure why jellies bioluminesce, but it seems to be mainly a defense tactic. A bright enough flash could be enough to startle a predator—or to attract an even bigger predator to make the jelly’s predator into prey.

I had the lovely experience of getting stung by the long tentacles of a clear jelly fish that had been lying on the beach in Panama City, Florida years ago. OUCH! The only relief? … soaking my foot in meat tenderizer mixed with Vinegar. So there’s your remedy in case you ever find yourself afflicted with a jellyfish sting. It works!