Mother's Day 2015

Well, we've had another lovely Mother's Day weekend here at 54 Ridgeway.   Mom H and Mom B joined Sarah and I and Jenn and Bob and Zhora in the Ithaca era for a few days of eating, hiking, chatting, laughing, blacksmithing, cow roping and all kinds of other stuff.

These cool glass lanterns are at the Argos Inn.  We met there on Friday for drinks and amazing tacos and such from the Good Truck.

For Saturday, Sarah arranged for us to meet up with Leon at the Benjamin Patterson Inn's Cooley Blacksmith Shop.  Leon was incredible and gave us a lesson that lasted a couple hours.  Marjie met us there and had an opportunity to use her new hammer.

Zhora and the moms went on a tour of the museum, then met us back at the shop.  Zhora spent some time picking flowers and making bouquets.

Working the fire.

Want.

Jenn had found a place called FLX Wienery north of Corning and we headed there for lunch.  It's a GREAT little place, and incredibly, they had managed to get there hands on a few cans of Heady Topper, one of the holy grails of IPAs.  They're almost as hard to get as Pliny the Elder.  Great dog, great beer, great company.

Sunday we went out to Jenn and Bob's and also out to their neighbors' house to watch some horsemanship.  Zhora was excited to show off the baby goats.

Then it was back to our place for some steaks on the fire.  It was a little rainy, but the coals lasted and Sarah, Bob, and I managed to get some good steaks cooked for the crew.

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Thanks for another year of great memories!

May flowers!

As usual, our spring has been a little weird, here. The winter was long and cold and then we got off to fits and starts with warm spells broken up by snow. Anyway, it appears we're "full on" now with rain and blooms and sun and clouds and birds like crazy! We've been having a good time of it all.

Sam and I hunted last weekend.  Again, more of a naturalist's expedition than hunting, but it's amazing to be awake from 4 am until 10 pm.  Reflecting on the day feels like reflecting on a week.

This is the barn that Jay and I were thinking about deconstructing.  Thinking about it until we saw it, that is.  The owners have visions of people coming out and paying them to take wood and items from the barn.  Pretty funny.  Anyway, It's full of beautiful 150 year old oak beams, but obviously it's out of our league.

 

Sarah, Jenn, Zhora, and I went to celebrate Cinco de Star Wars at the Argos Inn on May 3.  They were playing Star Wars all day for May the Fourth and had the Tellez Mexican Grill catering.  We watched as they handmade our tortillas and filled them with fresh off the grill chicken, beef, and veggies, and loaded them up with pico de gallo... can you tell I was impressed?

The drinks at the Argos are pretty good, too.  I had a mint julep to celebrate the derby.  Go California Chrome!

Familiar light switches at the Argos.

Sarah got an airbrushed tattoo and we tried to encourage Zhora, but she was too shy.

Of course we spent some time with the horses, too.

Sometime last week Sarah and I took out the compost.

Trillium always mark the beginning of spring for me, and they just bloomed the middle of this past week.  I saw these ones while I was out on a run. 

The run went poorly, so I took some pictures while I waited around for the waves of nausea to pass.  This is my outfit for my lumberjack runs.  I think I'll go to the thrift store for a flannel to cut the arms off of and cut the legs off some jeans to make a summer lumberjack outfit.  Sometimes I have to stop running to laugh at myself... which is a good core work out.

Saturday night at the swamp.  I watched bats swoop down to grab insects off the water.  Mergansers flew overhead while a turkey gobbled on the far side of the hill.   Life is good.

 

All the best to the rest of you!  

If you get a chance, check out the blog below.  I'm trying to raise $500 for the Youth Farmers at LACS.  Any amount helps.  Just follow the link and donate to my page.  100% of the donations go straight to the young farmers who, in turn, support our community and our future.  Thanks for considering it.

Livin' the eclectic life!

I haven't updated lately because I've been so busy, so it's time to get caught up.

I've been collecting pallets for some projects. 

Pulled 'em apart with the gerber and some other tools.

Wood pallet, deconstructed.

Here's the pallet at Pat's, re-imagined as a storage station.

I'm really proud of the little cabinet I made for it.

Found another double bit axe to work on.  Have done a little, but have to finish it this week.

I helped Sarah make some pickles and dilly beans!  It's always fun to can and jar together.

Not sure how this will show up, but it's supposed to be a movie of the tree chipper in action.  That might be the scariest, most abusive, loudest, most unpredictable machine I've ever worked with.

I had an exciting day at Greg's that started with having to tie branches of a spruce back, climbing into the tree, and cutting the aspen out of it.

Dropped a pine on the other side of the property.  Of course I didn't take my wedges with me, so made some quick wooden ones that worked just fine!

The big dead aspen that had some crazy lean and no room to move.

And then it was gone.  It's what I do.  I was really proud of this one.  The tree was in the middle of the woods, had some crazy kinks and lean and a canopy of widow makers, but I dropped it just where I wanted, with minimal damage to other trees, and most importantly, not hung up.

I did a little flooring.  Pretty fun, but like all chores, more fun when I have the right tools.

This is my swollen hand (stung by a bald face hornet) which instigated an emergency trip to the ocean for the salt water, sun and sand cure.

The swollen hand didn't keep me out of the woods, though!  The thought of the beach kept me going, too.  That post will be up shortly!

Christmas in Ohio

 On Christmas Eve we accidentally got locked out of the Bassman house.  Dad came over in red rider and saved the day, like a regular Cat Woman (or cat burglar... whatever)

We had a very skypey christmas.  "Wait, you're frozen, what did you say?"  "What?"  "I said ........." "what?"

 But really, it's pretty cool being able to see your niece or grand daughter tear open her presents two time zones away!  Think about it, 150 years ago the telegraph was the most convenient form of communication... 20 years ago I had to use pay phones.  It's a brave new world

 This is the awesome breakfast quiche that Veneta made for us this morning!  She also made gouda grits to accompany it.

 This is Sarah being a punk when I point the camera at her... as a punishment for her behavior, I present an example of it here for all the world to see.

 Here she is looking happy and pretty.

 It's really hard to take pictures in the arena, and I know it's blurry, but here's a photo of Veneta and Will working together well.

 Sarah and Will demonstrating his flexion and agility

 AWEsome photo in the barn.  Next life, maybe.

Will made a horse angel in the snow after he was done working.

Sarah and Will look so good.