Thanksgiving

We're enjoying a few days off together in the increasingly frozen north. Even as we hike through the woods with the dogs our minds wander and we wonder, will there be snow this year.

Just finished Suttree by Cormac.  It was a long rambling tale, not unlike Confederacy of Dunces, but rather than have New Orleans as a back drop, Suttree battled his way through mid century Knoxville, Tennessee.  To say that it is pointless would be to do it a disservice, it has as much point as any great absurdist or existential comedy...

This is a dinner I had last week.  Sarah's potatoes au gratin made with Parmesan cheese (Ian would be in heaven), an awesome veggie burger with Pat's spicy tomato jam, my apple sauce and some of Erik's home-brewed brown ale.   Look for the recipe soon on our new food blog.

 My applesauce.  I'm really happy with it.  The recipe was super simple and easy, and made a great tasting and textured sauce.

 

A former student of mine came back from Colorado where she is attending a private boarding school and brought me these incredible socks.

Sam and I went deer hunting on Wednesday morning.   Again, it's a good thing my survival didn't depend on the acquisition of said quarry.

 

Sam, stalking not the most dangerous game.

My new end table.  I purchased it from a nice old man at the farmers market for fifty bucks!  I still want to make my own rustic wood block table, but I got tired of having my stuff on the floor by my side of the couch.  This is more than adequate and makes me happy to look at.

A student of mine is all about the jungle this year so I told him I'd take another stab at reading it.  I'm regretting that promise already.  It's just as tedious as I remember it.  Sinclair may have changed the world, but that doesn't make the book any less dense.

This is a photo from the hike that Sarah and I took yesterday.  It was a great hike, couple hours, and a beautiful day, as you can see.

 Jonas dog after the hike.  We took all three of them with us. 

 

It was raptor central yesterday.  We saw a red tail and a coopers on our hike and then a bunch more as we drove around town.

Find the hole in the fence...

and sprint away like a delirious zoo animal!

 Stopped at a billabong for some refreshment.

 Went to the Ornithology Lab for a hike... it's safer there than in the killing fields near home ;-)

 Dude found a giant stone egg.  Normally I don't go for this hippy rock stacking crap.  I tend to think the rocks look better where Darwin placed them, that goes for sticks and leaves, too.  I was mumbling something along that line to Sarah and muttering about Andy Goldsworthy wannabes when I spotted a plaque on the ground.  Seems this one was made by... wait for it... Andy Goldsworthy.  Of course since this is Cornell property, they glued the whole thing together so that it would last forever, whereas Goldsworthy usually uses only natural materials and then leaves them to entropy.   Make of that what you will.

 There were lots of cool fungi.  Nobody installed these, they're just doin their thing.

Winter gardening and other stuff

I am taking a moment to add some words to this because I don't feel like grading papers right now.

Erik got a new gun for this hunting season, so we used that as an excuse to go out and shoot at some recycling and other stuff.

 This is the inside of Brookton Market where we go for all of our favorite things.  Just had an idea to take a picture of the inside of Wegmans to put beside this.  Wegmans is my own personal Hell.  Brookton is the ideal grocery shopping experience for me.  I hope they never go out of business.

 

This is Sam's .270.  It's a fun bolt action.  the projectile is only a little larger than a .22, but the amount of powder behind it is awe inspiring.  It holds 4 in the magazine and one in the chamber, so it's a lot of fun to pull the bolt and slam in another round and pick off tin cans like zombies.

 

This is the weeder all curled up and waiting for me to light the wood stove. She's so cute in the afternoons.

 

Sarah and I made a butternut squash salad to take over to Erik and Margaret's for dinner and Archer night.  It was really good.  We made the dressing, too, which I think is really cool.  Gotta run.  Time for another meeting.  Maybe I'll write more later...maybe not.  Cheers.

More general fall pictures

 Look what I did!

 No, really I did this!  Why doesn't anybody believe me?

 This is how I look when I'm hiking with the boy.  Had a beautiful fall out here this year.  Lots of great colours and the weather was fantastic.  Got a lot of hiking and trail running in.  The trail shoes are just about shot though.  Gonna have to go find a new pair.

 Sarah and I went for an incredible ride the other weekend.  Just really stellar.  The boys did great on the slick fall trails and nobody got shot, so it was a successful day.  How good do Sarah and Bodie look?!

Sarah took this shot of Murphey and I.  It was such a gorgeous fall day!

 We had a field day at school last week.  A couple other teachers and I planned and executed it, and by all accounts it was a success.  My team's name was Trechter's Roadkill Stew.  This is the shirt I made to lead them into competition.

 Here is a massive and intricate fungus I saw while hunting last weekend.  Thought mom would enjoy it.  I believe it is called a bearded tooth fungus (Hericium erinaceus).  Supposedly it's edible.  Think I'll just enjoy it with my eyes.

 I'm really good at knowing where turkeys will be... (this is a scratch where one was looking for grubs or insects).... but not so good at being in the right place at the right time.  This scratch was made in a 20 minute period between my two passes.  They are wily creatures.

 The feathers often indicate a roosting location as they are lost in the laughable and incompetent attempts to fly into and out of treetops.  Found this one right by the tree I'd planned to sit under, but didn't at the last minute.  

 Murphy's report on my hunting attempts lately.

 From this past Sunday after Shannon left.  Grey day pose number 1.

My hurricane survival kit.

Hope everyone is doing well.  Things are good here.  The wood stove has been on a few times, but until this past weekend the weather was pretty mild.  I have been incredibly busy with school this year.  I'm involved in a lot of different activities: Saturday school, field trip planning, field day, 9th period (an extra hour after the school day for reteaching and homework help), rewriting the technology plan for the school, and two PLCs.  Plus I have a study hall for the first time, which is miserable.  I lost 39 minutes that I used for grading and got 39 minutes of yelling at kids to stop talking.  Awesome.  But outside of the job things are going pretty well.  Sarah and I have been blessed with many house guests lately and have been riding and hiking and working in the yard.  We need to plant the garlic this weekend, which is fun and exciting.  I'm looking out the windows as I write and can see a red bellied woodpecker, two downies, a hairy woodpecker, gold finches, chickadees, a red breasted and two white breasted nuthatches, mourning doves, a couple robins, some sparrows, and four bluejays.   All without moving from my seat.  We watched a movie, called The Big Year, last night about bird watching that was pretty funny... if you like watching birds.  We also went to see Argo over the weekend.  That movie really stressed me out.  Sarah says she was stressed, too, but I wouldn't know because I was busy hiding behind my had and holding my breath until I almost passed out.  That's about all the news that's fit to print.  Going to stop procrastinating and get back to school work.  Cheers.

New favorite song of the week!

This is the original version for Ian and Adam



This is the clean version for those with sensitive ears



Macklemore is a strong and thoughtful advocate for gay rights


He is also a strong advocate for dancing



It's great to see that political hip-hop isn't dead.

Having a great weekend

Emily and Sarah found a pretty cool spot to check out at Watkins Glen State Park.

 

Sarah looking into another beautiful abyss at Watkins Glen State Park

 My new toy.  Picked it up for a couple bucks at an antique store.  Something about it just really appeals to me.  It now has a happy spot on our increasingly (some would say ludicrously) congested bookshelf.

Went to see Driftwood at the Haunt.  Had a lot of fun.  Then went home and had even more fun playing music off the i-pod with just my couple friends and dancing without bumping into anybody.

Artsy shot of the knobby thing. The sound guy seriously only uses like 6 of these.  The rest are just there for cred, I'm convinced.

This is a bird's nest made of moss on a ledge covered in moss.  Sarah spotted it!  Ole eagle eye.