Bro and sis

This is the little bro and sis trying to say goodbye as I was heading to New Jersey on Friday afternoon. Look at those ears!

I got to see my own little bro and sis on my trip back to the old homestead—the old homestead in Willingboro, the town where Hub and I both grew up; and the old homestead in Palmyra, where Hub and I spent our first 13 years together.

There were a few hiccups in my short visit. Ten minutes before I was supposed to be meeting the buyers in Palmyra, I realized I left the house key in Willingboro, and I couldn't figure out how to open the realtor's lock box even though I had the code. Then I had the brilliant idea of heating up the Georgetti's lasagna I bought in Palmyra to bring back to Willingboro for dinner, not thinking I had no oven mitts, and no easy way to bring an overflowing hot juicy lasagna in a flimsy foil pan back home. 

I managed—no breaking and entering, no lasagnas were harmed. 

The rest of the trip went very well. The young couple who are buying the house seem to already love it. Zach and a buddy of his helped me clear out the basement and are disposing of some of the toxic waste (old paint, motor oil, furniture stripper, etc.) that I thought I would be stuck with forever. They saved me numerous trips up and down the basement stairs and out to the curb. 

I have mixed feelings about leaving my favorite old house, but I was mostly relieved and happy to wave goodbye. Tropical storm Henri darkened the skies and did all the crying for me.

On my way to NJ

Just a cute pic of Willie in the laundry basket...for no good reason

I am headed to New Jersey today for a last visit to my favorite old house in Palmyra. We still have to make our way through a few hurdles to get to closing in September.

As a way of saying goodbye to my favorite old house in Palmyra, I will be introducing her to her new caretakers, Zach and Krista. I am turning over all of the deed research that I did. I was able to follow the deeds back to 1833, but I am fairly certain the house was built around 1885. 

I am also giving them a little box of all the goodies I dug up in the backyard over the years. All the goodies, except I am keeping the glass marbles that Albert Heeter, as a boy, used to shoot with a slingshot at the dogs trying to get to his female collie. His brother Richard, in his 60s (?) at the time I talked to him, was still upset because they were his marbles, not Albert's.

Their mother, Mary Viola Kooker Heeter, sounds like a very interesting woman. She inherited the house in November 1920 from Agnes M. Kooker (her mother? who bought it in 1902). Mary died there August 17, 1977. Several single women have their names on these deeds including me—I bought the house in 1992. I hope we did Mary Viola and Agnes proud by taking care of their old house, and I hope they approve of the newest caretakers.

Not all these marbles were Richard's, some were mine and my brothers'.

Grace and Greg, goats, and the other gazpacho

We had another crew of family visitors today from New Jersey. Grace was interested in all the farm animals, but found it hard to resist the goat kids. Everybody loved the calm unassuming Cyrus (Killer) but Grace and her brother Greg also had a soft spot for the not so soft-spoken Woody.

We had homemade pizzas for lunch, and some of my chunky gazpacho. I think this is better than the smooth one.

We followed lunch with a visit to the horse farm across the road to meet the foals and Harper the pup. Then Folk tried to convince the owner of the '63 Corvette, who just happened to be pulling into our driveway, to sell it to him. Terry said no.

Climate change and gazpacho

To all of you who do not believe in global warming (you know who you are) I suggest that you might also be the ones who have air conditioning. We do not. We were told when we built the house up here that you only needed AC maybe 1 or 2 days a year, and only during the day because it is so cool at night. I have even heard stories of snowmobiling in July (really!). So it's been up around 90° the past more than 2 days, and it is humid too, just like New Jersey, where we are in the process of selling our perfectly cool air-conditioned house.

I am quite sure your AC, and ours which will be installed here on September 2, contribute to that global warming, but I am too old to live without AC anymore. After only 10 minutes picking tomatoes and garlic in the garden, I almost passed out when I came inside.

On a happier note: The Husband's tomato crop is doing much better than mine. I have been making quite a lot of gazpacho lately. My 2 favorite recipes are this one from the NY Times, and the other is for a chunky version that I saved from when I used to watch the Rachel Ray show. No link for that one, but I can copy the recipe for you. Both are simple to make.

I often tell my companions at the newspaper that food photography should be left to the professionals. I was really proud of this one, until I realized that the hot sauce drizzled on top (which is not actually in the recipe) looks like...something not quite so appetizing. You decide for yourself.

It's hard to tell in the photo that this is a cold soup for a hot day, so here is another photo for y'all. That's our cool NY house at the end of our cool NY driveway.

What color do you see?

A new internet sensation: Do you see a red fox or a gray fox?

We are having fun with the trail camera again, still trying to catch the bobcat that we both think we saw. Perhaps it was this multi-colored fox that we've also seen out and about during the day, but I am pretty sure I caught a fleeting glimpse of a large cat with a very large head standing a couple of feet behind Zelda, Tim's very small visiting barn cat from across the road.

Most of the recent trail pics are deer, groundhogs, or an occasional raccoon. The 2 new catches are the little rabbit, and an Eastern Phoebe (?).

I will leave out the details of my horrendous Lowe's dishwasher story. Let's just say it took 12 days to get here, not the one I ordered, and I had to go there to pick it up so that I wouldn't have to wait another 3 days. My third dishwasher in 10 years. Let's just hope this KitchenAid lasts a little longer than the Maytag and Samsung. Pretty sure I will be ranting again soon...

Hawkeye and watcheye

The Kevlins were kind enough to take the old TFJ/HO gang out to dinner last night at The Hawkeye Grill at The Otesaga, a beautiful resort hotel on Otsego Lake. It was a nice evening to sit out on the patio, although the space heaters were necessary once the sun went down. It shouldn't be this chilly on the last day of July!

I didn't know the word watcheye until we got Cyrus with the one blue eye, which is actually mostly white. You can see it very clearly in this pic of him biting Woody's head, something he does just about every day. Woody only bites back when he's had enough. Mostly, he puts up with it.

Competition for attention

The introduction of the 6 new chicklets to the broody hen did not go exactly as planned. She was quite puzzled by their sudden appearance. 3 of them almost immediately went to hide under her, and she allowed them in, but the 3 remaining were pecked at and warned not to come any closer.

So now we have 2 Easter Eggers and 1 Rhode Island Red in with the picky momma, and 1 EE and 2 RIRs in a crate in the garage...with a heat lamp because it is so stinking cold.

I am still undecided about whether or not to try to sneak the outcasts back in with her, or just leave them safe and happy where they are.

The boys in the house were looking for some attention while we were focusing on the cuteness outside. Willie in the mandolin case, Willie with my purse and the ice cube tray, and Woody just being Woody!

 

Spring all over again!

We have been having some strange (for late July) spring-like weather lately—lots of rain and cooler temperatures. I am pretty darn sure that the weather had nothing to do with this other anomaly: Lizzie the goat surprised us with 2 cute kids yesterday.

Back in early February, when most of the other kids were already born, Lizzie looked quite pregnant. She has continued to look large ever since, but we had pretty much given up on her. Then, after a rough couple of weeks here at the Flat, with too many things going on at once, I left for work on Ugly Tuesday at about 2:30 yesterday. On my way out, I went in to feed the goats when I heard what sounded like a newborn kid. Sure enough, Lizzie was just cleaning off the little white kid. I turned around to look for a towel or something to help with the cleaning, when thud, out popped number 2.

I haven't checked carefully, but I think the white one is a boy, and the brownie is a girl. Either way, it is always fun to have more kids. 

And I may have yet another spring-like addition: one of our blonde hens went broody about a month ago. With the other hens kicking her out of the nest box, and she moving off the eggs when it was too hot and the others jumping in, and then she goes to a different box; she is well past the time when those chicks should have hatched and there are none.

So I am going to buy some, probably tomorrow, and move her into a separate closed crate and just hope that she thinks she hatched them. Or at least I hope that she will care for them even if she is smart enough to figure out they aren't hers. More cuteness to follow.

Party for Peters people

A whole slew of Peters people turned up for a party this week in rainy Upstate NY. Several of them drove all the way from Florida. The Scalas and Mianos came from South Jersey, and a few of the New York Peters came for a Saturday dinner at Lester's Flat. The group photo was taken Sunday at the Scala/Miano's swanky Airbnb in Fly Creek.

There was a pontoon boat ride on Otsego Lake, a ride for young Colin and Owen in Cousin Greg's motorcycle sidecar, and far too much fabulous food including a vegetarian lasagna from Origins Café, a meat lasagna from moi, Greg's mac salad, burgers and dogs, and Maria's fabulous cupcakes.

Goats, fire and the WoodMan

We are always happy to sell our goats when we know they are going to a good home. Today Larz and Kelly picked up Dr. Robert and Sharon to take them to a home where they will be loved. Our herd is down to a more manageable size of 11 goats.

Our first official firepit evening of the summer was cut short by a plethora of biting insects who didn't seem to mind the smoky fire. Smoky fire from wet wood. Too many insects from wet weather. Hoping the weather improves for visiting family this coming weekend.

The last pic is Woody's answer to all the folks who are asking how he is doing since a diagnosis of a tumor on his spleen 4 months ago. The doctor gave him 6 months. I think he will go longer, but if not, he is still his crazy self and loving life.

 

Pretty weed and a fallen apple

St. John's Wort along the fence >

We have a lot of weeds and wild here at Lester's Flat. I enjoy figuring out which of them are worth keeping. There are the "pretty weeds" that are invasive (purple loosestrife, multiflora rose) and the harmless ones that take over if you let them (goldenrod, blackberry). My working theory is to let them grow until you find out they are obnoxious. Two on my list for elimination are not pretty at all, but are invasive: wild parsnip and Japanese knotweed.

This little gem with the yellow flowers turns out to be St. John's Wort, a plant which people actually cultivate for its medicinal use as a stress reliever, wound healer, all kinds of crazy things.

We have plenty of "wild apple" trees on our property. Most of them were most likely not wild at all, just selected varieties that were planted long ago and not properly pruned. This is another good year for lots of fruit, but sadly one of the old trees uprooted itself. We have had quite a lot of rain recently, and the old girl just couldn't hold onto the the little hill where she must have been standing for many years. Sad to see her and her many little apples go to waste. At least she didn't take out the fence on her way down.