A walk in the woods with Woods on New Year's Eve

The first pic is Woody wishing you a Happy New Year. I'll post the video version on Facebook in the comments.

He wasn't supposed to still be here. They gave him 6 months to live back on March 5 when they found a tumor on his spleen. Since then he has been to his real vet who thinks he still has a way to go.

Way to go, WoodMan.

He took me on a walk today, his choice of direction. We went to a part of the creek where I don't normally go.

Apparently the beavers are back. And they have almost taken down one of my favorite apple trees. It's the only one that gets red apples, and they are high enough that the deer can't easily reach them.

Of course that means I can't easily reach them either, but I think this poor tree won't make it to spring 2022.The second tree is just behind this one. It definitely won't make it to spring.

Wishing you all clear sailing to spring 2022!

Merry Christmas Eve!

I took this photo of the fully decorated tree to show how all my hard work straightening it out paid off. But now that I compare it to the crooked tree photo posted here earlier, I can see it's not much better.

That's OK, it still makes me happy.

I should have taken some pretty snow pictures this morning when it was still pretty. I don't think there will be enough left for a white Christmas tomorrow, but you never know.

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of visiting with Don on the Hill for his birthday. 83 years old today! Happy Birthday Don!

Creek and goats

Yesterday I finished the lights on the now perfectly straight Christmas tree. While I should have been hanging ornaments on it today, instead I was knee-deep in a cold creek doing this month's water testing for Otsego County Conservation Association.

While I was out walking Woody the other day, a much warmer day than creek-testing day, I caught a photo of a studly Walter Becker standing on his stage with a few of his very pregnant ladies behind him.

I think we are going to have some early kids this year. Which could be a good thing since we did not get electricity in the barns yet. No way to connect the heaters...

 

Christmas preparations

The Christmas cards and tree have arrived in spite of all the delays (you know who you are, Concept Man.)

I spent most of the week writing out the cards with the help of 2 generous cats. Willie likes to sit in the Tiffany's box that holds the cards and envelopes.

Monkey offers much needed emotional support.

The dogs are mourning the loss of their favorite dog bed in the corner where the tree goes. Now they have to choose from their 10 other favorite places to sleep.

I bought a new expensive tree stand last year based on a recommendation from Wirecutter.com. I really wanted it to work and last forever. It didn't.

So I purchased their second 50% cheaper recommendation for this year. I think it will probably work out just fine, but it still took 2 humans 2 days to get the biggest fattest tree ever to stand up straight.

Nothing is ever easy.

Decorations to follow. 

Ho Ho Ho.

Mother Nature is an artist

Calling on all science-minded folks to explain this one!

Yesterday, I was sitting just inside that bank of windows (they called it a 5-gang) where I do my morning tea drinking and bird watching, and I saw what looked like a white bird (probably not) or maybe a plastic water bottle, stuck in the copper bird bath.

Sadly, I waited too long to investigate. The sun reduced it by about half its size before I went out for a closer look. 

My little bird bath somehow created this little sculpture all by itself. It was windy the day and night before, so I am thinking Mother Nature had a hand in it as well.

I was discussing with a friend who thinks this sort of 3-sided vase-like thing is a dreidel.

I am in awe.

In the spirit of the season

So I was trying to get some catalog Christmas shopping done, but no, my 2 helpers are insisting that I toss the catalogs and shop local. So be it.

Getting the Christmas cards to the (local) printer was an equally frustrating task. The Husband likes to keep the design process going until the very last minute. Even my threats served no purpose. The cards were sent on Tuesday, but are still not ready to pick up. And the printer is near the tree farm where we get our Christmas tree every year, so the tree is on hold as well.

Then we have UPS. I have been battling with them for the past 3 years. For whatever reason, the Yuletide drivers are afraid to come down our long driveway. 

Last year we put a large plastic dog crate at the end of the driveway so they could leave the packages there. The guy that plows our driveway destroyed the crate.

This year they hung an early present, a laptop, from a very thin branch of one of the maple trees. Broke the branch, and it was pretty much sitting on the ground.

Seriously, if my chickens on their short little legs can make it down the driveway, so can you in your big honking truck!

All festive from here on in. I am done with my Christmas rant.

A bit of snow and a Beaver Moon

No more flower pics in the backyard with Woody...big snowflakes and a week of overnight freezes have pretty much killed off everything green but the grass.

This time of year, the snow doesn't stick around long enough to be an issue, just long enough to be pretty.

I think Thursday night was the best night to see the Beaver Moon, but I didn't look until Friday evening. Of course that big fat full moon doesn't look very good when it's covered by clouds, but my little iPhone has a hard time finding the moon face anyway.

No, I do not believe in early Christmas decorations. There is a nighttime feature that keeps the lens open longer in the dark. It magically turned a passing car turn into a string of Christmas lights across the bottom.

Woods and weeds

I found out for certain that my new patio in the backyard is not going to happen until spring. The proposed location at the bottom of the stairs pretty much went to weeds because I was expecting it all to be torn up in October. The lone survivors of the weed invasion and recent frost are the Zebrina hollyhocks that take over wherever they are allowed. And I have been allowing the WoodMan to dig wherever he pleases, figuring this could be his last summer. In other words, the yard is a bit of a mess...

Don on the Hill came down yesterday afternoon to have a beer with me and the boys. He commented on our beautiful weeds, and on the fact that the WoodMan has lived long past his 6-month predicted demise.

This is the look Woody gets when he hears us talking about him leaving us. Or maybe it's just because we ran out of cheese and crackers.

Fall fog and 4 chickens

A thick fog was hiding the mountains long after the sun came up this morning. Most of the trees lost their leaves before they changed color, but the sugar maples in the front, and some of the younger trees in the back managed to put on a good show.

Our friend Lydia from Trees for Tribs dropped off 15 little swamp oaks to fill in where those young trees are planted. In addition to the swamp oaks, there are bur oaks, river birch, red maples, London planes, and a variety of shrubs that struggle to survive the deer.

Lester's Flat has a baby forest. 

Lester's Flat also has 4 new chickens, thanks to friends Terry and Alice. 3 Rhode Island Red mixes, and a white leghorn named Veronica Lake are all fitting in just fine.

Another chicken on the move, Big Roo went to his retirement home with Tom and Julie. We have 2 young roosters who were vying for control, and decided it was best to move him. He is missing the tips of his toes and comb from previous bouts of frostbite, and he is about 8YO with not a lot of time left. Warm and cozy in a big barn with 5 new young ladies, I hope he will enjoy his retirement.

Downstairs Willie and the little dragon

Willie the cat had been living upstairs almost totally since we moved him up here in 2010. He made a few visits downstairs, but was usually chased back up by Woody. 

For some reason we will never understand, in the past 6 months or so he has become a downstairs cat, even to the point of being annoying. He spends most of his time on the kitchen island begging for anything that looks like it could be food. 

He also finds the open mandolin case to be quite the cozy spot.

We have had the back screen door open for the past few days because it has been so cold, and it is just easier to open the inside door to let the dogs out.

This unidentified (darner?) dragonfly found her way inside overnight. Luckily I found her before Willie did. I know she's a female, because when I escorted her outside, she promptly laid a whole clutch of eggs in the pot of rosemary where I set her free.

That other lake

Who knew that there was a competition for the best lake?

I learned on Facebook that Canadarago Lake, the one near our house, was called the "Redneck Riviera". This is most likely because Otsego Lake, in Cooperstown, is surrounded mostly by property owned by the Clark family, not a redneck in sight.

We were very lucky this year to make it out on the Redneck Riviera on Cousin Greg's boat on a perfect day in September, and very lucky just yesterday to be invited on a tour of Otsego Lake on an equally perfect day with the Shelbys (the boat owners), the Rigbys, and the Hohensees.

That is Kingfisher Tower in the top pic. There are conflicting stories about the reason for its creation, but the link here seems to be a reasonable combination of all the ones that I have heard. Even with no rednecks anywhere near this lake (unless you count the Hub and me) you are not allowed to set foot anywhere near the tower, or anywhere along the shoreline behind it for that matter. So are the rednecks allowed to take photos of it and post them for all the world to see?

It is a little crooked from this angle...