Big Stuff

 

Blue Jay

Ralph has not been feeling well so I finally convinced him to go to Urgent Care about a week and a half ago.

 

Eastern Kingbird

Great Egret

Fledgling Carolina Wren

Good thing. His blood sugar was nearly off the charts. Turns out he was diagnosed with diabetes thirty years ago and either wasn't told or didn't understand. Whenever he was hospitalized in those days I had to run the farm in his absence so I wasn't there to listen to advice...

Alder/Willow Flycatcher

Female Northern Cardinal

Quavontavius

He seems markedly better now that he is getting treatment, but I am astonished that he soldiered on all those years, running a dairy farm, growing the crops to feed the cows and caring for them, and doing things with our family, and none of us, including him, had any idea. Only recently has he had any noticeable effects from it.

Red-eyed Vireo

Cedar Waxwing

Great Egret

Anyhow, he had to give up his beloved Mt. Dew and go on a low carb diet. Rough on rats for everyone. I was already eating pretty carefully, but it is downright hard to cook for him. I LIKE vegetables and usually have a complex salad for supper. Him not so much.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Purple Finch

One of twin fawns that were probably orphaned

We go tomorrow to learn more about coping. Meanwhile, we have done a small amount of birding on the road, and of course I chase here at the house just to maintain a small level of sanity. That is all, thanks.

Adventuring

 

Laughing Gull

Over the past two weeks I walked thirty miles in the Adirondacks, swam and fished in one of the cool, clear, lakes there, set my feet in the Atlantic (or at least the Chesapeake) crossed the bay bridge tunnel twice, saw 99 species of birds, attended a really cool farm show, where I got to enjoy the pleasant manners and genuine friendliness of farmers from our South, and was terrified by horrendous violence in the motel room above ours.

 I spent time with both our daughters and granddaughter, Peg, and had some amazing times. I am kinda tired, but not too bad, and only missed one day in my 10000 steps a day quests...8000+ that day, and 13 thou the next...

Not bad for an antique vintage individual I guess.....

Willet...I do love Willets!

I feel Cheated

 That Stan Rogers died before I discovered...or perhaps grew into...his music.

It speaks to me these days.

Mom and Dad always listened to him, but I never paid any attention until I was riding in the truck with my brother, Matthew, one day, and the Irish Descendants came on his music service. They were playing Barrett's Privateers.

I was instantly sold and had that song on my Amazon playlist before the day was out.

And because that is how I am wired, I looked into its origin and discovered that one of my parents' favorite artists had written and performed it.

So I added that version to my list as well.

Then I found more songs...and more...and more...that I liked.

I ended up adding all the albums I could find. I really like the song Tiny Fish for Japan.

He had such an incredible talent with words and melody. It is such a shame that he passed away in an airplane accident at only 34. Imagine the songs he could have written between then and now....

Should have been posted last week

Wrote this last week, but was too busy to edit.

 Spent the week packing for camp. We haven't been since 2019 so a lot of camp things had melted away into household use or been spoiled by dead batteries or are just among the missing.

However, as I delved into the totes and stacks of stuff from previous years I realized that despite my actual 4-H background I may have been a boy scout in a previous life.

I mean, there are ropes. All kinds of ropes. Despite the fact that we will be staying in a reasonably civilized cabin, I HAVE to have ropes. I have paracord, dock rope, heavy twine, camo cord, rope we used to use to tie down the canoe on the dock when it stormed...and a dog leash. We are not taking a dog, but hey, you never know, so in it went.

Found my hatchet, which by an amazing coincidence, has been missing since 2019....because it was still packed. Can't camp without a hatchet. 

Discovered that I don't have to buy matches, as I have a brand new (in 2019) box of strike-on- box, plus a pack of waterproof ones. Plus there's a lighter or two in my quick travel tote that goes everywhere we do. I had to read Jack London's To Build a Fire in high school (unforgettable story, but no fun) and I rarely go anywhere without a source of ignition. After a lifetime of heating with wood most of the time I am good at producing flame.

The list of guy things goes on and on...a knock-off Leatherman tool, needle-nose pliers, heavy side cutters, extra fishing line, ninety-pound tackle box...or at least it feels like it....even though I predominantly fish with worms. When Dad passed I ended up with some of his lures and they are in there too. As a preschooler, taken along on evening trips to this very lake, I loved to sit and peer into Dad's tackle box admiring the lures (while fishing with worms.). I always coveted his River Runt Spook.

People bike across the county with a couple saddlebags and a backpack. I fill the car to groaning with things we "might need." 

I cannot lie, I am tired of packing. It is the worst part of the trip, other than packing to go home, which is mildly worse. We always seem to have more stuff than we came with.

However, I cannot wait to baptize the fishing license part of the lifetime hunting and fishing license I bought myself last year...already used the hunting part...

And to swim and look for mountain birds and maybe go out rowing. See you next week with another adventure in store.

***Update: We had a nice week! I walked thirty miles, saw 61 species of birds, only caught three Rock Bass, but one was a nice size. Hopefully we can do it again next year. 

Summer of Storms

Liz and Peg 2015
In the Cellar

 I can't recall any recent years where every single ten-day forecast shows thunder storms every day but maybe one or two. Not that this isn't the time for thunderstorms, but five or six a week seems excessive. I don't know how the farmers are getting any dry hay. A single day without rain is rare, let alone three consecutive ones.

Last evening we were all in the house doing stuff and talking when my phone started screaming...a tornado warning.

The ominous edge of the front

We scurried around getting dogs in, moving the car away from trees, and getting ready to hit the cellar if we needed to. Liz and I spent the next hour checking the sky for the wrong kind of cloud formation. The cellar is not a place we want to go if we don't have to. The birds all went silent....

Storm bird

We got some vicious winds and green skies, a bit of the now all-too-familiar torrential rain, but not much that hasn't come with every storm since the beginning of June. I guess other places saw much worse with trees down and at least one house hit by lightning, probably two, but we were okay.

I know complaining about the weather is about as productive as trying to teach a chicken to line dance, but dang, it's getting ridiculous!

I don't LIKE the cellar and I don't want to go there!

On the other hand it is a lot cooler today.

A captive tornado at the Fonda Fair Model Railroad
Display

My Washing Machine plays Schubert

 

Anyone know what this plant is?
It grows at the edge of a swamp we know and it seems really pretty.

I am not sure if that makes me special in some way or not. However, it does drive me nuts* (not a long trip), as it reminds me of the old song, Convoy, which then gets stuck in my head for hours...or even days. Thanks Samsung, just what I needed.

***Merci to Becky for discovering this useless but interesting bit of trivia.

Speaking of audio delusions, we have the usual adult House Wren making an endless racket on the sitting porch...I think they are going to go for a third brood this summer. We also have its enthusiastic but not particularly talented offspring. (I assume it's its kid because it tolerates its presence and lousy singing there). Big wren sounds like a wren. Baby wren sounds like a screechy Black-throated Blue Warbler. I need one for my year list, so I sit up and take notice every time. See above for the general effect of this*.

Two pics of Long Lake in happier times

Meanwhile, it is nice today for a change, although it has managed to rain twice. 

On an ongoing basis however, it rains a lot every week, and almost every day. One of my favorite towns in the 'Dacks, Long Lake, pretty much washed away due to a dam failure under the onslaught of the ridiculous rains we've been having. It makes me really sad, as I love the place.

Our driveway tried to for a dip in the river too, but Ralph managed to catch it and haul it back up the hill with the skid steer. The rain can slow down a bit anytime now and I won't get mad. In fact.....

Go home and dry out Mother Nature, yer drunk.

YOY
Young of the year
An immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
and the first flower on the one of the geraniums I started from seed
last winter

You could

 

Get up at five and be out soon after.

Make your bed. (The fact that he made his doesn't necessarily mean that I made mine....not that there is much making to do in this weather....just smooth out one thin blankie and call it perfect. I will let him enjoy his leaves without a shred of jealousy.)

Eastern Wood Pewee

Quavontavius, who is finding free flight quite joyous

Share the garden with friends. (32 species this morning.)

Eat green peas right out of the pod.

And Red Currants. Get that vitamin C right off the vine...or bush, as the case may be.

Get in 10 before it gets too hot.

Fledgling Chipping Sparrow

Newly-minted Red-winged Blackbird.

Summer...ya gotta love it.

Happy Birthday in Heaven

 

Grandpa Lachmayer. He would drop whatever he was doing to do anything for anybody. Worked every day that he could doing horrible jobs in the tanneries. I'm sure it killed him in the end. Sometimes I walked through the woods to the mill to find him hauling on the heavy, nasty, hides, dragging them out of whatever they were soaking in, working on the process of making leather. Even on holidays. Often he would be the only man there, called in to do something for the big boss that no one else wanted to do.

I learned rhubarb and red currants at his knee and still have descendants of his rhubarb, as well as a patch of currants, growing in the yard here.

If I broke down somewhere bitd...and with the pathetic cars I drove it happened often....I could always call on him for rescue. It was the same with everyone he knew. If he could help he did.

There is no doubt in my mind about his current address.