When we woke up this morning the thermometer registered 34 F (1 C). While this isn't the coldest we've had yet (28 F/-2C last week), we had our first snow flurries on the way to the bus stop this morning. Thank goodness nothing is sticking since we have yet to purchase a snow shovel or ice scraper! Being that we are slowly becoming rednecks, I figure we can always use that cardboard we have piled in the basement to build some makeshift tools if need be. It has come in handy already for wedging the back door shut so that we don't get any more drafts. That's a Lehigh Engineer for you!
The lake is extremely rough; the waves are almost big enough to surf on. With the wind blowing out of the Northeast, there is plenty of open water for the waves to pick up wind before crashing on the west side of the lake. Not sure I'd want to be out there kayaking right now! It is quite a change from Monday morning when I saw a loon swim by. You wouldn't catch me sticking even a big toe in that water right now. That said, the neighbors supposedly went swimming just about ten days ago, sans wet suits. Crazy people!
Not much wildlife to report on. The only moose we've seen lately are the dead ones being towed on snowmobile trailers as moose hunting season started a little over a week ago. We did see a wolf this weekend, in my friend's backyard outside of Boston. It seemed to be stalking the neighbors' goats. Great to be back in civilization for the weekend ... just had to drive five hours to get there. Coming back Sunday night at around 10, I drove a stretch of road for 40 miles and saw only one other car. Desolate!
Speaking of nothing ... that is what we are getting from our satellite dish right now. No, I didn't actually break down and get a dish for the television but I did have one installed for the computer so we wouldn't have to use dial-up all winter. The first week it worked wonderfully, of course. Since the clouds moved in on Monday, it has been running at about the same speed as the dial-up. But, this morning when we started getting snow, the service went dead. Luckily, we have a 30 day trial period. Unfortunately, in order to cancel it, we have to dismantle the equipment ourselves and return it, somewhere down in civilization. And, you guessed it ... we don't have an extension ladder to get up on the roof. Cardboard???
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bijela Kava Withdrawal
While I very much enjoyed my time in Croatia, I didn't think that once I'd left I miss too many things. Well on Monday afternoon, I had a hankering for coffee. Not only did I have coffee in the cabinet but also a machine to brew it in! It smelled so good ... until I took a sip. Nothing will ever be the same as those bijela kavas (literally, white coffee) from Torte i To or Lagvic. Of course it wasn't Illy coffee but I haven't located that yet on the shelves at the Indian Hill Trading Post. They do have cilantro though!
It's been kind of a quiet week ... haven't seen much in the way of wildlife. I saw some moose tracks and bear skat on the road right near our house. So, I know our bear friend is still lurking nearby. I try to stay in the house during prime feeding hours (dawn and dusk) but did manage to finish stacking that fourth cord of wood yesterday, while keeping a watchful eye out for unwanted visitors.
Garrick doesn't seemed to think the dawn and dusk rule applies to him though ... he has made friends with the neighbors and rode his bike home the other night 45 minutes after sunset. It's only a mile and a half from their house to ours, down a narrow, overgrown dirt road. I guess when you're thirteen, you are invincible, especially when the neighbor is an eighth-grade girl with a friend visiting from Germany.
Maybe he needs to spend some more time splitting wood???
We took a trip out of the woods on Sunday. I didn't know it was possible to spend over three hours in a Walmart! We bought so much 'stuff' we had to go through the checkout line twice ... the first time with two cart loads' full and the second time with three carts. The sad part is that it seems as if we've hardly made a dent. Six months' worth of dry goods is a lot of stuff! Luckily we have another month to stockpile before the road gets bad and they close it until May.
Off to Boston for the weekend to watch a little college football (could you actually call a Lehigh-Harvard game college football?) and catch up with some friends.
Karyn
It's been kind of a quiet week ... haven't seen much in the way of wildlife. I saw some moose tracks and bear skat on the road right near our house. So, I know our bear friend is still lurking nearby. I try to stay in the house during prime feeding hours (dawn and dusk) but did manage to finish stacking that fourth cord of wood yesterday, while keeping a watchful eye out for unwanted visitors.
Garrick doesn't seemed to think the dawn and dusk rule applies to him though ... he has made friends with the neighbors and rode his bike home the other night 45 minutes after sunset. It's only a mile and a half from their house to ours, down a narrow, overgrown dirt road. I guess when you're thirteen, you are invincible, especially when the neighbor is an eighth-grade girl with a friend visiting from Germany.
Maybe he needs to spend some more time splitting wood???
We took a trip out of the woods on Sunday. I didn't know it was possible to spend over three hours in a Walmart! We bought so much 'stuff' we had to go through the checkout line twice ... the first time with two cart loads' full and the second time with three carts. The sad part is that it seems as if we've hardly made a dent. Six months' worth of dry goods is a lot of stuff! Luckily we have another month to stockpile before the road gets bad and they close it until May.
Off to Boston for the weekend to watch a little college football (could you actually call a Lehigh-Harvard game college football?) and catch up with some friends.
Karyn
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
First Week in the Woods
It is only 9 pm and already its been dark for three hours ... it's only October 7th. Doing some quick estimating, I figure we ought to be in the dark by about 4pm come December 21st! So, if we are unfortunate enough to lose power, which according to a former neighbor occurs on a somewhat regular basis - sometimes for upwards of a week, we will need to stock much more than the 9 candles that I currently have on hand! And, if we don't get a generator installed soon, once the lake freezes we will also have to start storing extra water in the basement because no electricity = no well pump = awfully smelly bathrooms after a day or two ... unless of course we borrow the Rosenblatts' back house. So, I started the shopping list yesterday (imagine that) and already it is two pages long. I am hoping to leave the woods this weekend to find a real store (Walmart) to start my stockpile. Fortunately gas prices have dropped a bit so the 200 mile round trip to civilization won't cost me an arm and a leg.
Of course the kids and I will have to finish stacking the wood ... 4 cords of it (that's 8' x 4' x 4' times 4) before we go. We've managed to get half of it piled up so far ... sans wheelbarrow. Paul was here this past weekend, all the way from Croatia, to make sure we didn't set the house on fire starting up the new woodstove. This kept him quite busy as he seemed to have no time for actually stacking wood. We managed to get the temperature in the house up to a sweltering 73 F (that's about 21 C for those of you on the other side of the ocean). Not bad since it was only in the mid 40's F (7 C) outside ... that was the high for the day, not the low.
Not too cold for the wildlife to be out and about though. We have two deer who have been feasting on our lawn (actually it's clover ... that way I don't have to mow it) two mornings this past week. This morning when I left to drive Garrick to the bus stop ... yes Gina, I have been driving him ... I walked outside to get into the truck and they just looked at me and barely moved. On the way to Caroline's soccer practice we saw a proud partridge with his tail feathers fanned out and his crown fluffed up showing off for the ladies. And, we saw our second bull moose. He wasn't quite as big as the one we saw yesterday ... complete with a four foot long dewlap (beard) that dangled as he ran next to the truck. But the crown jewel was this afternoon at 5:15pm ... as I was talking to Paul (now back in Croatia) I looked out the window and saw a black head. It was attached to a very big bear; he too was enjoying the clover in the yard. He was literally 10 feet off our front porch stuffing his face. He stayed for about 15 minutes during which time we shot several photos. When he departed, he walked right past the front porch steps, past one of those oh so lovely woodpiles, and meandered through the woods to another neighbor's lawn. I suspect that when he finds that they don't have clover in their lawn, he will be back for another visit. I only hope that we will be lucky enough to again be inside!
Karyn
Of course the kids and I will have to finish stacking the wood ... 4 cords of it (that's 8' x 4' x 4' times 4) before we go. We've managed to get half of it piled up so far ... sans wheelbarrow. Paul was here this past weekend, all the way from Croatia, to make sure we didn't set the house on fire starting up the new woodstove. This kept him quite busy as he seemed to have no time for actually stacking wood. We managed to get the temperature in the house up to a sweltering 73 F (that's about 21 C for those of you on the other side of the ocean). Not bad since it was only in the mid 40's F (7 C) outside ... that was the high for the day, not the low.
Not too cold for the wildlife to be out and about though. We have two deer who have been feasting on our lawn (actually it's clover ... that way I don't have to mow it) two mornings this past week. This morning when I left to drive Garrick to the bus stop ... yes Gina, I have been driving him ... I walked outside to get into the truck and they just looked at me and barely moved. On the way to Caroline's soccer practice we saw a proud partridge with his tail feathers fanned out and his crown fluffed up showing off for the ladies. And, we saw our second bull moose. He wasn't quite as big as the one we saw yesterday ... complete with a four foot long dewlap (beard) that dangled as he ran next to the truck. But the crown jewel was this afternoon at 5:15pm ... as I was talking to Paul (now back in Croatia) I looked out the window and saw a black head. It was attached to a very big bear; he too was enjoying the clover in the yard. He was literally 10 feet off our front porch stuffing his face. He stayed for about 15 minutes during which time we shot several photos. When he departed, he walked right past the front porch steps, past one of those oh so lovely woodpiles, and meandered through the woods to another neighbor's lawn. I suspect that when he finds that they don't have clover in their lawn, he will be back for another visit. I only hope that we will be lucky enough to again be inside!
Karyn
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