Life in the North Country of NH

We're gonna need a bigger litter box...

2012-01-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a quick fall.

If winter ever decides to get here, it's going to be wicked short too.

This fall was a little weird...it seemed like the color changes were staged. A little bit here, then a little bit there and then a little bit more here etc., etc.

Tourism was down a bit. Several of the tour bus companies cancelled because of the damage Hurricane Irene did and several more cancelled due to lack of vacationers.

We had to put down our oldest cat, Midnight, due to kidney cancer. His buddy, Tom, started howling like he never has before a few days later. Tom is probably 16 y/o and diabetic and has had skin cancer so his health is somewhat fragile. We figured we had best get him a new roommate to keep him "healthy"

So, now we have Duncan. A retired tomcat about 1 1/2 y/o. They hit it off immediately

The winter so far has been totally unremarkable except that it has been warm and very dry. We have only had three sub zero temps (with the third being tonight) so far.

There is only an inch of snow so we can't even go snowshoeing or sledding. Bummer

We had what I called "The lost tribes" Christmas dinner this year.

There were two couples who had celebrated Christmas with their kids a week earlier and another couple whose kids were in California and Connecticut and couldn't make it to Bath. The wife of the latter couple has Alzheimers and is now in a care facility.

Prime rib was the main course and boy was it good.

We celebrated New Years at the Crawford Notch Appalachian Club where they have a wonderful buffet on holidays. This has become our New Years tradition since we moved up here.

On New Years day there was a raven in the backyard carrying on something fierce. I finally got up to see what it was upset about.

Sitting under one of the deer feeders was a beautiful bobcat. Pretty good sized one.

Scenes from NH Rt 112 the Kankamagus

Looking across Beaver Pond

Berries from a Mountain Ash tree

Mountain Ash trees

Swift River

Tom (L) and Duncan. Tom's longtime buddy, Midnight was PTS due to kidney cancer. We figure Midnight was 21 y/o. We got Duncan from the vet when Tom's howling became heartbreaking. Looks like it is a good match.

The Christmas table...

I etched the votive candle holders on each dinner plate. Each guest took theirs home.

Meet Bob...

That's all for now.

And remember...think SNOW!

Biology 101...Caterpillars, parasites and hurricanes

2011-09-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

Well, it certainly seems like the last part of the summer has flown by (thank goodness). The incessant brilliant blue skies, low humidity and most liveable temperatures do get old after a while.

Seriously, you just can't beat a New England summer.

The tomatos have been an interesting adventure this year. For the first time ever we had tomato (tobacco) hornworms on the plants. To say they are butt ugly would be an insult to any self respecting butt.

This summer we have seen a lot of butterflies around. More so than any other summer.

Linda has a herb planter on the back deck. Among other things, one of the herbs is curly parsley which turns out to be the host plant for Black Swallowtail caterpillars.

Just by chance, we found six caterpillars among the leaves.

Shortly after we found the caterpillars hurricane Irene was forecast to hit New England and more specifically, hit the Bath area.

Of course we made hurricane preparations. Anything that couldn't be tied down was laid down or moved to the garage...including the herb planter with its six Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars for safety (I did hear Linda as she was coming in from the garage after a caterpillar check say "Don't you pupate on me").

They listened to her for the most part...although one made a break for it while in the garage and got run over. The other five made it back out side and four of those took off for parts unknown to begin pupating.

We have one large caterpillar left and one little one that isn't even a half inch long. The little guy is black at both ends with a little white band in the middle. Essentially, to birds it looks like a little pile of bird poop.

BTW, did you know that caterpillar poop is called frass??

Irene did pay us a visit on Sunday and delivered 3.75 inches of rain and negligible wind.

While the rain doesn't seem like all that much, that was just our area here in Bath. There were significant amounts of rain dropped in areas around us.

As I am sure many of you have seen on TV, Vermont is having major flooding problems. New Hampshire isn't having as big of a problem, but we did received major road damage from flooding rivers.

In keeping with Murphy's law our road damage is mostly on the Kankamaugus highway which is the major roadway used by tourists during leaf peeper season.

We are being told it will take two to three weeks to get thing open for traffic which may be too late for the small businesses that rely on the tourists during the fall season.

Tomato hornworm caterpillar (slightly larger than life size)

Tomato hornworm lifesize

Female Braconid wasp

Parasitized hornworm caterpillar (slightly larger than lifesize). You can see how the body has shrunk up.

This hornworm has been dead quite a while

Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar on curly parsley.

Dainty little feet

Black Swallowtail butterfly

Post Irene pictures
This was taken on Rt 112 about 1/2 mi from our house as the crow flies from our house...the river is running under/through this jumbled mess of trees

...all deposited here by the Wild Ammonussuc river

The blue item is a container from a pull behind trailer that was washed down the river and destroyed.

About a third of the way down on the left hand side is a refrigerator door from the camper mention in the above pivture.

Undermined road edge

WARNING -- uneven shoulder

Funny, I don't remember the guardrail being out there...

Our Monarch butterfly chrysalis, day two

we're pupating, we're pupating...

That's all for now.

I will definately post when the leaf peeper season comes around, and who know, maybe sooner.

Take care,

Karen

Why the Postal Service is under attack...

2011-08-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

Finally!!

Someone has spelled out exactly why the USPS seems to be bleeding money.

Below is the transcript from the Ed Schultz show that took place Thursday evening.

Please read (especially starting at the fourth paragraph) and hopefully you will understand what is going on...

TRANSCRIPT- Ed SCHULTZ SHOW, MSNBC, August 11, 2011

SCHULTZ: How much do you know about the United States Postal Service? You hear a lot of negative comments about their finances, don`t you? Well, earlier today, I spoke to the postal workers in Orlando, Florida. These are men and women who are in the same boat as public employees in states like Wisconsin and Verizon workers throughout the country who are on strike right now.

They`re fighting for their jobs, their rights and their futures. The United States Postal Service announcing today that it wants to reduce its work force by 20 percent. But layoffs of that nature are prohibited by union contracts.

That`s where the Republicans step right on in. GOP Congressman Darryl Issa, who has got a lot of power, from California, is drawing from a familiar playbook. He introduced a Tea Party friendly bill that would allow an oversight committee to cut Postal Worker wages, slash benefits and end protections against layoffs.

But the financial problems facing the Postal Service -- and I want you to hear this -- were created largely not by you and me, but by the Congress. You see, in 2006, a law passed was forcing the Postal Service to provide 75 years worth of pension funding within a 10-year window. Who the hell else has to do that?

Independent firms estimate that the United States Postal Service already overpaid the fund by 50 to 80 billion dollars. So even though the Post Office made 226 million dollars in the first quarter profits for this year, 2011, all of that money went to the Congressional mandated fund.

You know what they`re trying to do, folks? They are trying to shut down the United States Postal Service. They want to privatize this, as well. And I want to make it very clear tonight that not one tax dollar goes to running the United States Postal Service. It is all operated and funded through the stamps that you and I purchase.

Joining me tonight is Cliff Guffey. He is the president of the American Postal Workers Union. Mr. Guffey, great to have you with us tonight.

CLIFF GUFFEY, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION: Good to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Did I say anything wrong? Or what I said, was that accurate? Can you add to it?

GUFFEY: That`s very accurate, Ed. The Postal Service has overpaid into their civil service retirement fund billions of dollars. You`ve got to remember, that`s money that`s withheld from the workers and was matched by postage revenue that we, through our productivity, have earned for the Postal Service.

And that was given to Congress to prepay our retirement funds. Well, these actuaries, these independent actuaries have actually said -- one said there is at least 50 billion overpaid in this one fund. And there`s 75 billion paid into it by the other actuary.

This is done by the Office of the Inspector General and by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

SCHULTZ: So what does -- what could they do to reverse this, to balance your books a heck of a lot better, because you are a profitable organization. The United States Postal Service has been profitable this year. What has to happen?

GUFFEY: Even with that money drained off into our retirement system, the Postal Service was required to prefund our health insurance into retirement by five point something billion dollars a year for the last five or six years. Without the 20 or 30 billion dollars going into that fund, the Post Office has been profitable.

Now what the Congress wants us to continue doing is continue to put money into these retirement funds and to keep prefunding. But if they would credit the Postal Service with that money, that`s actually the workers` money.

SCHULTZ: Sure.

GUFFEY: The Postal Service could pay off its debt. It could pay all the future deposits that are necessary and have some operating cash to get through this very trying time.

SCHULTZ: So, your mandate --

GUFFEY: -- this recession that`s been created by -- the Congress is trying to blame the workers. That`s what irritates me. They`re blaming the workers for the problems of the country, which is there`s not enough commerce in this country because they allow the system to set up to move all the work overseas.

SCHULTZ: Why is the Congress coming forward, saying they want to -- the Postal Service wants to cut the workforce 20 percent. And they`re talking about five-day delivery service. Why do they want to do that?

GUFFEY: Because they have no -- they`ve gone to the Congress and asked the Congress to release these funds. They say, oh no, we can`t release these funds, because if they release the funds back to the Postal Service, it would show how underfunded the rest of the government is. And it would be another deficit just to show how badly and poorly the rest of the government is run.

They put tax dollars into it. It`s run poorly. Where postage dollars have come in, it`s been run properly. They want to take my retirement funds, that I put in and the Postal Service put in, to pay the retirements for the other federal agencies that they haven`t funded.

SCHULTZ: Wow.

GUFFEY: That`s just totally improper.

SCHULTZ: It is improper. You guys don`t use any tax dollars. It`s all from stamps and all from services that you sell, correct?

GUFFEY: That`s correct. They`re taking our money and using it for other things in the federal government.

SCHULTZ: Do you think they want to privatize? Do you think there are some in Congress that want to get rid of the Postal Service and all go privatization?

GUFFEY: I believe there are some people. You got remember, the Postal Service still makes 70 billion dollars a year. Seventy billion dollars worth of business comes into the Postal Service.

And it supports a trillion-dollar industry out there, paper manufacturing, envelopes, cards, various companies that the Postal Service supports.

SCHULTZ: And reducing it to a five-day delivery service would hurt our certainly economy. There`s a lot of studies out there that show that.

GUFFEY: Medicines and what have you. We would find a way to get the medicines to the individuals. But we want to serve the American people. The Postal Service is respected by 80 percent of the public. Congress, 20 percent. I`ll be -- I hope the public stays on our side in this, to know that we want to provide a service and we want to be there to help the public.

SCHULTZ: I`m going to do more on this. I use your service every day. Cliff Guffey, thanks so much.

GUFFEY: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: President of the American Postal Workers Union.

Well, that's it for now.

See you soon.

Where has time gone?

2011-07-24T10:01:00.000-04:00

Holy smoke, spring has sprung...and gone.

The Fourth of July has come and gone.

Now it is almost August.

We have seen more of a presence of our wildlife this spring/ summer.

Bobcat tracks, baby snowshoe hare, lots of deer tracks and even holes where the woodcock have been probing the mud for worms and other insects.

Last year Linda and I started working with two of our neighbors to form a consortium with our combined lands (thank you, Ingemi and Hall families). Having done so, we applied for a WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program) grant.

With help from our county forester (Dave Falkenham) we did actually secure a grant!

What makes this so exciting is that we have shown that one does not need to own a lot of land...that individual land owners can band together and get it done.

As a result of the grant, we have our first woodcutting done in the past month. There was a total of 3 acres +/- cleared plus a logging road.
The cutting created "holes" in the woods so that new growth can take place over the years. The new growth is called "early successional habitat" and is a real boon to the woodcock, ruffed grouse, turkeys plus many more species that rely on it .

Next comes the seeding part...which I hope to do over the next few weeks.

As a nod to our second childhood, Linda and I have joined a senior softball league. The ages range from 10 to 82.

Back in "the day" we both played. Linda for the Navy and myself as a civilian and then Navy.

So far we haven't suffered any serious injuries. A few bruises, pulled quads and hamstrings, a dislocated thumb or two. Just your everyday stuff.

Linda is playing catcher and I am playing first base.

Typically we play two 5 inning games a night, twice a week.

Last week I was spraying some weed killer to create a clear area to plant more wildflowers. I looked down when I saw some movement and saw a baby snowshoe hare! Linda went out later and found four of them huddled around the same bush in tall grass.

By the next morning they had moved on to less busy areas on the property.

Earlier this week we had a doe visit the yard while one of our dogs (Tyler) was in the dog yard.
The doe was very inquisitive and approached the fenced in dog yard. Tyler, who is blind, was totally oblivious of what was going on. After we brought him in the deer stayed and grazed on clover for another 10 minutes or so before leaving.

We like a lot of the country are in the midst of an unusually hot period.

The past two days it was 95 and 98. So far today (22 July), the high has been 99.2! The only good thing is that the humidity is at 33% right now (eat your heart out, Floridians).

I just looked, and the high today was 100.4 at 1615!

Linda continues to daily report weather to COCORAHS (http://www.cocorahs.org/) and to the NWS in Gray Me..

It seems as though each passing year we get just a wee bit more busy. I thought it was supposed to go the other way??

Before we know it, fall will be here along with the leaf peepers.

And now, a few pictures...

A luna moth on the back deck...

Big toys for big boys. Some of the equipment used to do the cutting...

Now, these would get you out of deep doo-doo

The beginnings of the logging road...

"Popple" waiting to be chipped...

Logging road refined...

One area of "clear-cut"...

The "chipper" has arrived...

This machine grapples the trees and feeds them to the chipper...

Now the trailer is in place...

And now, the dance begins...

The "grappler" has given the chipper operator some trees which in turn are fed into the chipper by the operator. Note the chips being shot into the trailer...

Logging road and some clearing...

Another clear-cut. These make way for "early successional habitat" which is so vital for many wildlife species...

Canadian Soldier moss so named for the red caps...

These holes in the mud were created by American Woodcock looking for worms... http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Woodcock/lifehistory

Fourth of July parade in Woodsville, NH...

I LOVE the band. I don't think there is anyone under 70 y/o in it.

Executive Councilor (Lt Governor) Ray Burton a beloved politician and Bath resident. He has held the position for almost 30 years

Our visiting deer. Tyler was in the yard the whole time.

The brown patch in the middle of the picture is the baby snowshoe hare.

See, I told you it was hot. The clouds even got a sunburn...

That's all for now. Take care and I'll be "seeing" you in the fall.

PS...It has taken three days to get these pictures up on the blog. I would have to select the picture and wait almost ten minutes for each one to load. If anyone is ever tempted to try satellite internet, specifically HughesNet, DON"T!

The speed is only marginally better than dial-up and the customer noservice is awful. You always get "Peggy" on the phone.

Additionally, if you do too many downloads, they cut back your sownload speed for a while.

WildBlue isn't any better.

Oh dear, deer...

2011-02-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

We certainly have a healthy looking herd of deer this winter. They should be as we are going through over 100 pounds of whole corn a week!

I set out the game cameras over a week ago to find what kind of night activity we have been having at the feeders.

For the first time since we have been here we have seen our Barred owl looking for food in the afternoon hours.

The higher amount of snow has made it difficult to find mice and squirrels. To help the owls a bit, I have been "accidentally" spilling bird seed on the snow to possibly attract some mice for them.

On January 24 we had temps of -29º and on Jan. 25 we had -22º. Needless to say these are good temperatures to have fun with water.

We boiled up a pitcher of water then took it outside and threw cups of it into the air. We would get an instant puff of steam (accompanied by a "whompf" sound) and then a few drops of ice would fall.

The other fun activity was blowing bubbles (think of kids using the wands to blow bubbles). You can see the results of that below.

Last night's weather (5 Feb.) was very unique. We had snow, then sleet, then lightning and thunder (they call it, not surprisingly "thunder snow") then rain and finally a new six inches of snow through the night.

We now have 30" of snow on the ground.

The front of the house is draped with an an ice curtain hanging from the roof. We have been knocking the icicles off the back of the house over the door that the dogs go in and out of to avoid injury to them.

When Linda shovels the front walk, she has to fling the snow over shoulder height to get over the pile that has accumulated along the length of the walkway.

Tyler is now dwarfed by the piles of snow along the path in the back yard.

And to think...last year Linda only had to wear snowshoes one time to feed the deer because there wasn't enough snow to warrant them.

Taken through the kitchen window.

Taken with the Infrared game camera

(disregard any date and time stamps. Any high temps are from the camera being in the sun)...

Side yard looking toward deer feeder on "Paul's" hill.

I'm forever blowing bubbles... (in -22º temps)

frozen bubbles on snow

...starting to deflate

I'm melting......

...and deflating

Linda on the front sidewalk with her trusty snowshoes. This was taken several storms ago.

Mama manatee wishing she was back in Florida

The pictures below were taken by Linda

Awww, do I HAVE to come in???

The parting of the ~~red~~ white sea...

Have a seat on the bench...

The snow/rain gage that must be read daily to report to the NWS...

The ice curtain

Plowed snow at the end of the road

Linda is having to fling the snow pretty high now.

The decorations will come down in the spring. We don't light them at night anymore

Shoveled out ground feeder

Plowed snowbank with garage door providing perspective

Mama manatee is finding it very hard to maintain her sense of humor

That's it for now.

Take care everyone...Karen and Linda

Here, Kitty, kitty, kitty...

2011-01-20T16:05:00.001-05:00

19 November
We took a drive up north to the Conway area today

What a beautiful day!

Bretton Woods ski resort was making snow so we stopped and I snapped a few pictures.

Then, coming home, the sun was shining brightly and it was snowing at the same time. It felt as though we were driving in a snow globe.

04 December...
We took a trip to Boston. It was my first visit ever and I enjoyed it immenseley. We took a trolley tour just to see the basics. There was a stop near the Old North Church (of Paul Revere fame) which is now in the "Little Italy" section. We made certain we visited the USS Constitution (Go Navy!) and then on to Faneuil Hall Marketplace http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/ . Very nice! We didn't even see half of it, so we will be going back in the spring.

10 Dec...
The saga of the Covered Bridge mugs -- The Church sold out of all the Covered Bridge mugs, so I placed a reorder for 100 more. The mugs were supposed to arrive here by Dec.15. When they hadn't arrived by Dec 17, I called the company. After some checking they said we would have them by Dec 22. I expressed a bit of dismay as we had buyers waiting for them.

I checked online somewhere around the 20th of Dec and saw they had shipped but there wasn't any tracking information. Sooooooo, I called them again to find out how they were going to be delivered.

After a bit more checking (and waiting on hold) a supervisor came on the line (never a good sign). It seems as though, she said, that the mugs were on their way to England!!

Now, I was REALLY dismayed. The supervisor told me they would redo the order and I would have them by Dec. 24th.

I did. The customers were happy.

Sometime after the new year I received a box at the Post Office. It was one of the lost boxes of mugs...by way of Germany! I called the company and asked whether they wanted me to ship them back, or...? The company said to keep them.

Over the next week and a half the mugs arrived, sometimes in a woven plastic bag, others in just the box they were shipped in. They had all gone to Germany.

BTW, the error was the company's...not the USPS.

The upshot is that now we have a LOT of mugs to sell this fall. Yippee!

10 Jan...
The Grange that we belong to participates in "The Dictionary Project" ( http://www.dictionaryproject.org/ ) The whole idea is to try and give every third grade student in the country a student dictionary.

We visit three different schools in our area to pass them out.

18 Jan, 2011...
Wow, has time flown!!

We had a wonderful white Christmas and it wasn't too cold.

This winter, so far, has been much better than last year (more snow, more cold).

We actually been able to do some snowshoeing as opposed to last year. The temps have been colder than last year as well (yea!!).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and now the pictures...

Making snow at Bretton Woods...

Just a pretty shot from the Kancamagus highway

Snowman built by unknown sculpter along the Kanc.

A few pictures from Boston...

Inside the Old North Church

A most unusual windchime/memorial made from dogtags

Old Ironsides...and Linda

Christmas

Our tree...

(can you see what looks to be little orange balls? They are thinly sliced and dehydrated oranges)

Some favorite ornaments...

Paths...

One of our dogs, Tyler, (a German Pinscher) is blind. To help him navigate the snow we shovel paths through the backyard.

Two of the three deer feeders and the hill the deer come down every day to feed

(taken from an upstairs window)

Grange members (L to R --Bill Scott, Linda, teacher Erica Tardiff and Raymond Burton present dictionaries to the third grade class of Bath Village School. Yes, this is the entire class...

Our neighbor, Steve Hall, took these pictures of a mom Bobcat and her kittens in his backyard...

Finally, the fall...

2010-11-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Geeze, it has been a long summer...and very dry. The spring in front of the house has dried up due to the lack of rain. So far this month we have had a total of 1.85" of rain (the month ended with 2.98").

August wasn't much better with only 3.47".

There are two schools of thought as to how the rain or lack thereof will affect the foliage color.

Some folks think the leaves will just give up and turn brown and fall...while others think there will be the usual color but perhaps a shortened season.

Right now, it looks like it is going to be a colorful fall.

We took a drive up Rt 112 today (25 Sep) and had a picnic at "The Beaver Pond" along the road. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was bright and there was a good breeze blowing. The temperature hovered around 74º.

I took a bunch of pictures (see below).

-------------------------------------------
Earlier this fall we met two of my cousins from Pennsylvania at Cornish, NH and toured the home of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

He was an Irish born American sculptor. His home, Aspet, is now a National Historic site (http://www.nps.gov/saga/index.htm) and has many of his works displayed. He may be better know for his sculpting the $20 gold coin.
--------------------------------------

WOW!!

Have we ever had rain. It all started yesterday (30 Sept). In 24 hours we've had over 5 inches. There are multiple road closures and several areas of town are totally isolated.

Geeze, it is hard to believe I started this entry over a month ago! Time flies -- especially when the leaf peeper sale is going on at the Church.

Speaking of the leaf peeper sale, we tried something different this year. We had mugs made with the covered bridge and the church on them (graciously allowed by the photographer that took it). We also had a mug with pumpkins and a mug with three smaller photos on it (all taken by Linda and I). We sold them for $7 and did fairly well. I'll try taking a picture or two and post them here. If anyone happens to want to buy one, just let me know. :)

I have a few leaf peeper stories to share...

Last year I made up some "New England quilt starter" kits. They consisted of two actual cotton bolls (you can find anything on the internet) in a ziplock bag with a card saying what they were. There were a few left over and we put them out for sale this year. Well, we had a lady come in from Alabama. She saw them and inquired if it was locally grown cotton. When Linda explained that we don't grow cotton up here the lady countered with the fact that she had seen some cotton fields just down the road. Linda explained further that what the woman had noticed was milkweed pods that had opened the lady again countered with the fact that no, these were cultivated fields.

So, to clear up any confusion -- we DO NOT grow cotton in New Hampshire, however, folks are mighty serious about letting milkweed grow for butterflies to lay eggs on and provide food for the caterpillars.

Another story...

We had a tourist that was inquiring as to the best date to see fall color. The simple answer of usually from the first week of October to the week after Columbus day.

But simple answers were not satisfactory for this person. He wanted the exact date he could see RED leaves.
When he could not be satisified with generalities, Linda in frustration, told him a specific date to see red leaves in North Conway (about 90 minutes from here). It won't be her fault if N Conway is off schedule next year.

And finally...A friend of ours was working at a visitor center when a tourist walked in and wanted to know when the deer changed into moose!

------------------------------------

We took a trip way up north to Errol, NH to see the LL Cote store (http://www.llcote.com/). Nice store!! They have a stuffed moose (see below).

We also passed the Errol, NH international airport (see below)

Now, it is Halloween.

October ended up with 5.36" of rain! That should keep the springs running for a while.

It has snowed several times today and is snowing right now. The first snow occured 22 Oct. which is a week earlier than we have seen it since we've been living here.

I planted the last tree of the season (none too soon) today. I figured I had better get to it before the ground froze.

Actually several things have been happening earlier this fall. The Evening Grosbeaks are a month early and the Pine Siskens have returned to the feeders two months early.

The Pine Siskens returned with a LARGE flock. We counted over 60 on the feeders at one time. I can't wait to tally up the feed bill at the end of winter...

The bears seem to be staying away. We have seen two cubs so I guess mama has been wise and stayed away from humans.

Sadly, though, a bear was killed by a car on Rt 302 as it was leaving a corn field.

Another milestone has been reached within the household. Sadly, Kyra our 15 y/o German Pinscher was put to sleep on Oct 26. She had her 15th birthday on 26 Sept. It is amazing how the whole dynamic of the household has changed.

-----------------------------

The fall color was interesting to say the least. It started early, then slowed down. Then we had a heavy rain which brought a lot of the leaves down...but then the late starters finally began changing to give us more color again.

As late as last week there was still color to be seen further south of us.

And now, the pictures...

Lazy river...

The International airport at Errol, NH. Note the boat (???). Didn't see any airplanes.

A copy of one of Saint-Gaugan's sculptures.

The white moose at LL Cote's (note the white porcupine).

Inside the Dog Chapel which was built by Stephen Huneck. http://www.dogmt.com/chapel.php

All the "post-it" notes are memorials to deceased pets of visitors.

A few of you may recognize the woman on the left. She is Claudette Clunan. She was a vacation replacement nurse at the Orlando Plant for a few years.

Finally...fall color

At Beaver Pond.

At first glance, it looked like a wading bird...

A not so lazy river after the heavy rain...

A tree caught on the rocks under the covered bridge...

High water and swept vegetation...

More swept vegetation along the banks.

These are the mugs that we sold during the "Leaf peeper" sale at the church. We still have some available for $7 plus shipping (Priority mail, of course).

This is the other side of the above mug...

That's it for now. Take care. ©
Karen

Summer in Bath...

2010-06-12T15:02:00.002-04:00

We have settled into the summer days and nights.

There wasn't a whole lot of rain in May ( 1.97") which has made for some fairly brown lawns.

So far this month we have had 1.51" of rain which is helping a bit.

Most of the days have been fairly sunny with wonderful cooling breezes. We actually had two days in the 90's and seven in the 80's.

It is funny to hear local folks complain about the humidity on the hot days. It may get as high as65-70% for a short while. They don't know what humidity is...compared to Florida standards.

Right now it is 64.2º with the humidity at 76% with a slight breeze and overcast.

We did see our bear finally. He stepped out of the woods into our backyard for a few moments. He is the BIGGEST bear we have ever seen up here!

There have been several complaints of a rather surly bear popping up around town (including our destroyed porch light).

It seems that a local family has been feeding the bears "because they are so much fun to watch". The Fish and Game folks have talked to them about it and the family has been instructed to taper off the feeding until they are completely weaned off the food.

The one thing you don't want is a bear that feels it is entitled to whatever it wants from a house or garage.

Our church Sunday School supports Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201480/?msource=TH1E100006&msource=kwg2401 ) by saving change and giving it to the group once a year. On the Sunday that the money is given a local sponsor of Heifer International brings one or two llamas to the church and walks them down the aisle. Once the llamas exit they are led around the building to the downstairs where everyone, young and old gets a chance to touch them.

Over the years the Sunday school has donated over $5000 to this group.

A few pictures...

The Tulip bed in its final days...

Wild Violet

Lupine (lu'-pin)

Clematis

(left) Bearded Iris, (center) Ceasar's Brother Iris

Bearded German Iris

(see the yellow tinged "beard"?)

It is hard to believe that four years ago there was nothing here...

...more Lupine (these are all volunteers -- we didn't plant any of them)

Lupine are related to Texas Blubonnets

The wildflower bank...

These are wild Dianthus. They are starting to pop up everywhere. The flower is about the size of a dime.

Volunteer Lupine amongst the wild flowers

Boarders in one of the nest boxes. Mama Black-capped Chickadee and three babies. The nest has feathers, moss and some of our dog's (Cody) hair.

You can see the moss and dog hair more clearly here...

The Llamas...

In the basement...

That's it for now.

Karen and Linda

Spring has sprung...

2010-04-29T17:16:00.004-04:00

...and winter has come (if only for a short while).

It has been so warm lately. The tulips, daffodils and muscari are up but not all have bloomed yet.

We've even had to mow the yard twice

Last Sunday we grilled steaks on the new grill. The old one had to be replaced because it was slam dunked by the winter wind storm and badly damaged.

A few pictures of spring taken on Monday...

A few pictures of winter returned. These

were taken Tuesday afternoon around 1600.

Tuesday evening...

Wednesday morning...(Linda took these pictures).

It was a very wet, heavy snow -- all 10.5" of it. Easily the largest single snowfall we had all winter.

The indentation by Linda's boot is a bear paw print. He went completely around the property and checked out every single bird house we had put up. He was looking for baby birds (there weren't any yet). The print is partially filled in with snow.

We aren't exactly sure when, but the bear visited the front of the house, and sadly we must report our first case of vandalism here in Bath (the bear did it)...

This is what the light should look like...

The snow is all gone now. The temps got up to 51.2º and the sun was bright today.

Wind gusts have been pretty good as well.

Another day in paradise. ©

The winter that wasn't

2010-03-15T12:36:00.002-04:00

We have had a very warm and snowless winter - didn't even have enough snow to go snowshoeing even once! The rain that has been falling in the North East has for the most part missed us. It seems to get stopped by the Presidentials (mountains) and deflected around us.

This month we haven't had any snow at all and precious little last month. Our temps have been exceptionally warm since February with highs in the 40' and 50's being common (right now it is 46.5º). They are saying by this Thursday it will be in the 60's (climate change, anyone?)

The bears are already moving around in southern New Hampshire and I am sure ours will be out and about very soon.

The big concern now is drought this summer...especially for folks with spring fed wells. Two years ago was a mild winter with less snow than normal (but more than this year) and springs were drying up due to little snow melt. We will just have to wait and see.

Maple sugaring has begun (a good two weeks early) with the warm days and cold nights. It normally take 40gal. of sap to make one gallon of syrup. This year the locals are having to boil 50 gal of sap to make one gallon and one person is having to boil 70 gal. of sap to the gallon of syrup. The sugar content is very low for some reason. On average it takes three gallons of oil to boil down one gallon of syrup, but with the sugar content so low the bill is going to be higher.

The church was going to have a "sugar on snow" party
(http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2009/03/26/sugar-on-snow/ )
but we had to scrap that plan for lack of snow.

The hyacinths, daffodils and tulips are just starting to peek through the dirt as are (suprise!) the Irises. I wouldn't be surprised if the garlic has broken through as well, but it is still covered with hay.

No pictures, no snow. Maybe next time - hopefully we'll have flowers.

Winter storm and January thaw

2010-01-28T14:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (25 Jan) we had a BAD storm. A storm of small hurricane proportions (56-60mph winds). On top of the storm we had high temperatures (50º) all day long.

The winds didn't do too much damage aside from the typical downed trees and a few poles that were snapped off.

The damage that the town has sustained was from the river ice thawing and breaking up...and taking out some viatal supports to the main covered bridge and depositing part of a road (pavement) into a farmer's corn field.

There were also some homes that were flooded out and we had to evacuate some folks. To that end, we (Linda and I are the Town's Emergency Management Directiors) received a phone call at 0300 asking us to come to the Upper Village and pick up an eighty-five year old woman that had two feet of VERY COLD water in her house. We contacted her daughter in Bethelem, NH and arranged to meet her at the Police station in Lisbon to take her mother to her house.

Here are some pictures...
Can you see the large vertical support on the right of the picture? The support that should be on the left is somewhere down river.

Some of the supporting beams of the "roadbed" have also been damaged. Therefore, the bridge has been closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The major problem with this is that the bridge connects the two halves of the town. Now, to get to the other side, one has to go twenty miles around the other way.

See the two people on the ice? The basement of this house was flooded. The river is at the bottom of the picture.

There is a road there somewhere

This isn't an island...the river has gone up and over this piece of land...

This is ice left in the field across from Riverbend Rd...

Along Abbott Av...

This tree wasn't here before the storm / iceout

Ice that used to be on the river, then the road...

Note the scrapped bark. That is how high the ice was as it went through...

More road ice

Corn field of ice...

We seem to be missing some pavement...

Oh, wait. Here it is - in the front yard...

There is a road here, somewhere. Really...

And how is your winter going??

Around the world in twenty four days

2009-10-17T18:24:00.002-04:00

...or is that the world around us in twenty four days.

Today was the last day of our Church's bake and craft sale during the fall foliage season.

During this past week I worked five of the six days (no sales on Sundays) and I am pooped.

The sale seems to have been a success. The donations were beyond our wildest dreams. All those involved believe the world map played the largest part in that. To a much lesser extent we think the guest register and the printed Church history played a part.

Here are some pictures of the map. We went through three boxes of map pins!!

So, now you have seen the map. Perhaps you will be up this way next year during foliage season and you can pin your home location.

Thanks again, Barbara

Karen

Early snowfall

2009-10-13T17:42:00.000-04:00

The weather guessers had it right last night. They said we had a possibility of a dusting to three inches of snow.

We had .24" of rain in the gauge and about .25" of snow on the ground. Before it was all said and done with, we ended up with about .50" on the ground.

Of course it has all melted now as the ground is not frozen yet.

A few snow pictures and then some taken in the center of town and from the covered bridge...

Taken from front doors of Church

Pictures looking up and down the Ammonoosuc River taken from our covered bridge...

Kyra, our 14 year old German Pinscher in her preferred winter attire...

That's it for now.

Take care...Karen

Another Trip to New York

2009-10-11T18:29:00.002-04:00

Friday we got up at 0530 to drive to Burlington, Vt and catch a ferry to Port Kent, New York.

We had hoped for a nice sunny day, but that was not to happen.

The ferry trip takes an hour each way (give or take a little) and was smoother than the trip we had taken earlier from Charlotte, Vt to Essex, NY.

Here are a few pictures I took while we waited to board the ferry...

Loading up...

Underway...

The view from below deck

You can see a hint of color even though it is cloudy

Yo ho ho ho, a pirate's life... Linda

The water where we are is about 350 feet deep!

Port Kent, NY...not much at the dock

Sailboat and Adirondack mountains

Leaving Port Kent

Happy camper...

Small lighthouse

It was a fun day all in all, nice and cool (in the 50's). We'll try this again next year.

That's it for now.

More later this week - especially if we get the 1 1/2" of snow Thursday night.

Take care...Karen

Morning sun

2009-10-03T17:59:00.002-04:00

The leaves are changing slowly this year. Half are already changed with half yet to start.

This is a good thing as we have had a rain off and on the last few days. When it rains and the leaves have changed the leaves drop quickly.

I don't know who arranged for the half and half turning but it will allow the late leaf peepers to see some color over the next two weeks or so.

These are some morning shots from our house.

I love the way the sun lights everything up...

Looks like flames...

The white behind the trees isn't clouds. It is the morning mist lifting off the river

I will try to post again in a few days.

Karen

Fall foliage sale has begun

2009-09-21T22:24:00.001-04:00

Today was the first day of our Church's Fall Foliage Sale.

It has gotten off to a slow start, but then it is early in the season.

Yesterday some of the women set everything up in the afternoon.

A few pictures of our efforts...

This is the craft table...

This is "fancy work"...vintage doilies

The welcome table in the sanctuary

Our old pipe organ. And yes, it does work. We were playing it this morning. You have to pump the pedals.

I'll have a picture of the food table in a few days.

Our low this morning was 34.3.
The high was 79.3.

Take care...Karen

Hummingbirds and Goldfinch babies

2009-09-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

Low 58.1 at 0613
High 73.2 at 1050
Currently 67.2 at 1545, overcast and breezy

The hummers seem to have disappeared this week. We haven't seen any at the feeders at all. In talking with another person in town she commented that she hasn't seen them all week either. It will be interesting to see if we get some warm weather again whether the hummers will return.

The baby Goldfinches have fledged over the last week. They are so cute. We have four Niger Thistle feeders in the back yard and at times there will up to two dozen Goldfinches on them. The babies have black bills and have a two note call to get the adults attention to feed them. They also have a wing trembling "thing" that they do as well to get the adults attention.

Take care...Karen

Roast pork supper...

2009-09-12T19:50:00.000-04:00

at the Bath Congregational Church tonight!!

This usually is one of the better attended meals for the Church. With the bad economy it will be interesting to see how we do tonight.

The meals are served family style and include beverage (coffee, tea, milk or water) and desert - which will be apple crisp tonight. All of that for only $9.

The money will help with some unexpected expenses the Church got nailed with when the State Fire Marshal declared that the Church had to put fire retardant on all the wood walls, put a fire exit at the front of the Sanctuary and redo the boiler room. All of which has cost over $5000. A princely sum for this little Church.

The serving will start at 5PM. Take outs start at 4:30PM.

I will be in charge of the green beans which entails the cooking and dishing up as tables fill up.

The servers, dishwashers and servers will eat after the supper is over. On more than one occasion there hasn't been anything left (which is a good thing) so we have to go to McDonalds.

When we used to come to New England to vacation we would see signs for Church suppers in the many small towns. If we knew then what we know now, we would have gone to several of them.

Anyone is welcome to attend and you couldn't ask to meet more friendly people.

Well, I was going to take a few pictures but left my camera at home.

The dinner was a success. There was barely enough pork left for the "help" to eat.

The next dinner is in October and is turkey with all the trimmings for the benefit of the volunteer fire department. That's a fun one to work as well.

Today's temps:
Low 53.7 at 0153
High 76.1 at 1533

Take care...Karen

2009-09-10T21:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday
48.9 at 6:33 AM
76.1 at 4:13 PM

Today
42.4 at 0533
71.2 at 1333

More and more leaves are changing.

It is official...fall is coming as are the tourists with their debit cards.

We know this because the Cash Cow is in town...

You see, Bath doesn't have any ATM's anywhere so Woodsville Guaranty Bank rolls in the Cash Cow for leaf peeper season. If you look closely, you'll see the wheels have been removed and it is up on jack stands.

Take care...

Karen

2009-09-08T19:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's low/high
37.5 at 0633
73.7 at 1653

Today's low/high
47.8 at 0133
78.9 at 1453
Somewhere or another someone swiped my legs and left me a pair that must belong to a much older person. I don't remember my legs getting so sore form doing a little digging (remember the potatos?).

Holy smoke!! I'm hoping in a few days they won't be quite so sore so that we may go on a hike.

Again we are having beautiful weather. Clear robin's egg blue skies and an occasional breeze.

Karen

Cooler weather...can you dig it

2009-09-06T15:32:00.000-04:00

39.0 at 0613
71.9 at 1453

Well, the digging part...we dug up the potato bed today. We had three kinds: Reds, Yukon Gold and Kennebeck (white). The Kennebecks did the best followed by the Yukon Gold and lastly the reds.

I think next year we will stick with the Yukon Gold and Kennebeck.

We also had a fair crop of garlic, beans (pole, green and yellow wax), lettuce and onions this year.

Some of the garlic is in the basement in the dehydrator. You should smell it!! Yummm.

The tomatoes did not well this year. It seems as though a major supplier to the big box stores shipped plants with the blight which cause the leaves to basically rot off. The blight can also affect potatos, and is the same blight that caused the Irish potato famine many years ago.

Fortunately, the blight did not spread to our potato crop, but others did lose their entire crop.

As we finished digging we could hear a turkey clucking in the woods behind the house and the Chick-a-dees have started to return from wherever it is they spend the hotter days of summer.

Bear hunting season started on 01 Sept. Run, Bobby (Bruin), run!!

Karen

Quiet day

2009-09-04T18:45:00.000-04:00

Not a whole lot happening today.

The low was 52.5 at 0213
the high was 81.3 at 1513

We can tell fall is coming. We can hear a constant buzzing. Morning to evening. They are as thick as thieves.

We're talking motorcycles. The bikers love to zip along Rt 302 which goes through the middle of town. Don't those things come with mufflers?

Bear season began on 01 Sept. Last year there were 431 bear taken during hunting season. We've only seen "our" bear a few times. However, we have seen his/her scat a few times on the property. It seems as though they are coming around after dark, which is fine by me.

For the first time we do not have many turkeys running around. Last year at this time we had 28 that would come by a couple times a day. "They" are theorizing that the low hatch was due to a cold wet spring causing a lot of hens to abandon their nests.

Tomorrow we have a 50th anniversary reception to go to.

Take care...
Karen

Ramping up for the leaf peepers...

2009-09-03T15:59:00.000-04:00

Our low today was 48.7 at 0533. The high was 81.5 at 1553

Tonight we have the Women's Fellowship meeting at the Church (United Congregational Church). I'm sure most of the discussion will be the preparations for the month long (21 Sep-17 Oct) bake and craft sale the Church has during "leaf peeper" season.

The money made on crafts (which are donated) goes to the Women's fellowship which in turn uses it to provide goods for the Church and donations to towns people that have illness, injury, death or have just fallen on hard times.

Bake sale items are donated by people from all over town...not just church goers. It is amazing that so many non members bake up a storm for that month and just drop it off at the church. The money from this goes to help heat the Church in the winter.

There is a calendar in the Church for volunteers to sign up to work during those four weeks. The sale is six days a week (no sales on Sundays). Two people work the morning and two people work in the afternoon. Amazingly, we even have people that don't attend our Church sign up to work.

In addition to baked goods and crafts we will also have hot and cold cider, coffee, tea, and refrigerator magnets with our three covered bridges on them

It really is a lot of fun to work the sale. The "bus people" (tour bus folks) are very interesting to talk to. They really do come from all over...Japan, Australia, England, Texas. Last year we met a couple from England that make it a point to come over every five years to see the leaves. Then there was a woman from Australia that when I commented on her Koala lapel pin took it off and gave it to me.

This year, on a friend's suggestion (thank you Barbara) we are going to have a world map for people to put a pin in their home location. Should be very interesting to see at the end of the season.

The woman that has been running the fall sale for the past few years passed away earlier this year.

In a moment of weakness I volunteered to do it.

Wish me luck...

A bad day in NH is better than a good day in Florida

2009-09-02T14:15:00.000-04:00

...and this was a good day.
Our low last night (this morning) was 42.9 at 0253. Beautiful clear skies and the Aspen leaves are being tossled by a gentle breeze.

The mercury climbed up to 79.1 before it began its retreat. The predicted low for tonight is 46.

There is a very subtle change of color in some of the trees which is a good thing as I am ready for fall.