Yard Work VI.

11-8-11 VERMONT: It was even warmer today, in the sixties. I had windows open and worked in shirt sleeves. We had sun in the morning, but it was overcast by afternoon.

I finished walking the property line and replacing ‘POSTED’ signs, while wearing my red hat. In the woods, there were hundreds of moths, I guess they were moths, that were small, light grayish-brown in color, fluttering around in swarms near the ground and seemed freshly hatched. That’s what a warm day can do. A buttercup was so pleased with the weather that is put out a couple flowers.

After the signs, I worked on the pasture fence, straightening out tired posts. I had previously cut, with the table saw, a pressure treated 2x4 into wedges. With the ground soft from the warm days, I could straighten a leaning post and hammer one of the wedges into the ground next to the post to keep it upright. It worked pretty well. NJ tomorrow.

New blooms: buttercup.


Another attempt to show the trees, fence, road and wall. Imagine that the wall will be between the trees and fence.

Buttercup liked the day.

Yard Work V.

11-7-11 VERMONT: Today started like the last two days, sunny and cold, but warmed up a lot and became partly cloudy. I was working without a jacket and only light gloves in the afternoon. The pond was completely frozen this morning, but is now completely ice free and it’s still in the upper forties.

I finished the beds, they’re all clean and put to bed, so to speak, and waiting for that snowy blanket to come, but not tomorrow when it might get to the sixties. I put the reflectors up around the driveway to guide the plowers when that snowy blanket arrives. After that I went about halfway around the property line refreshing, restapling and replacing the ‘POSTED’ signs. This is Vermont, and it is November, and every day the hills are alive with the sound of gunfire.


The road, the tree line, and the fence line. The wall, under renovation, is between the trees and the fence, but doesn't show well.

Yard Work IV.

11-6-11 VERMONT: Today was a re-play of yesterday. The pond was almost completely frozen this morning, but again melted back during the day, although only a third of it. Tonight will be cold again.

I finished the beds behind the house and started on the beds adjacent to the porch. I had to clear the snow free beds first and move the snow piles to the cleared beds to do the beds that had been snow covered. I figured out a way to move the frozen snow by breaking it into chunks and tossing them aside with a pitchfork. That was fast and my hands didn’t get cold. I generated another three cart loads, which seems to be my limit. I should finish the beds tomorrow.

Scott has been working between the pasture fence and the road to rebuild the old wall there. That wall, as they all do, had fallen apart, mostly from time and neglect due to freeze-thaw cycles, truck traffic, tree roots, etc. Lots of rocks are there, many have rolled down the slope toward the road. Since Josh and Kolbi brush-hogged that area and the wall is re-appearing, there are four parallels—the road, the line of old sugar maples, the wall and the fence. I guess I need a picture.


The pasture looks good with brush cut down and a fresh mowing.

Frozen pond, that red tree in front of the house is the apple, laden with fruit, which the birds will eat.

Yard Work III.

11-5-11 VERMONT: It was cold last night. This morning the grass was frosted, and the pond had ice at the north end, where the drain is, the icing continued until about 10 AM when the pond was about one-third frozen. By mid-afternoon, all the ice, and frost, was gone.

Today was cloudless, windless and cool. I got another batch of beds done. I have been avoiding the beds with a lot of snow in hopes that it will evaporate, at least partially, on these dry days. I finished most of the beds on the east side of the house, that’s the pond side, and the pond beds and the day lily bed by the wall. That work generated another three cart loads of cuttings. I have been dumping them on a wet, soggy area in the pasture.


Chloe in the glow of evening.

Frost on the grass and ice on the pond.

Yard Work II.

11-4-11 VERMONT: Today was colder, sunny in the morning, then overcast with a north wind and even a brief snow flurry. I did the terrace and the beds at the north end of the house because they were snow free. I cut down all the dried stalks and dormant perennials, carefully avoiding baby biennials for next season. Then I rake it all out of the beds and haul it away. There were three cart loads today.

Some of the beds on the east side of the house, facing the pond, are almost snow free, and I can do those tomorrow. We’re predicted to be in the twenties tonight.


A cautious apple snitcher at dusk.

Yard Work.

11-3-11 VERMONT: It was overcast and in the forties today with no wind, and that made it a good day to work outside. I pulled all the bed barriers, made repairs, labeled them and stored them in the barn. The ones that were snowed in required chopping out to be removed. I also put the barn windows in the window frames. They come out during the summer for ventilation. I put the small pasture gate away in the little barn. A couple of walks around the pasture with the ladies, and it’s a full day.


Sam pokes around, sniffing everything and ambles at her own pace.

Chloe runs here and there, herding airplanes, warning away trucks and chasing birds.

Vermont aviation is technologically far ahead of the rest of the world. For example, this plane has two wings.

Halloween and Vermont.

11-1-11 SHORT HILLS: Halloween on Garden Place, Brooklyn was the usual craziness. We sat on Val’s brownstone stoop from 5 PM to 6:30 and gave out 1500 tiny tootsie rolls—that’s not a typo. At 7 PM the downstairs neighbors took over and were just as busy. I was pressed into last minute pumpkin carving duty. For the most part the costumes were the traditional heroes and villains from movies, nursery rhymes and TV. There was a family, a school, of fish and SCUBA divers, a refrigerator, cars, Roman litter bearers, Snookis and angry birds. Also a pair of Walk, Don’t Walk signs, and a black-clothed pogo-sticker hopping down the street with ‘Stock Market’ on the T-shirt. The block was in its usual eerie, scary incarnation with pumpkins, spiders, webs, skeletons, ghosts, witches observing.

Today I did more clean-up, pruning of storm damage and have accumulated a sizable pile on the street. The pool is filled with wood, huge maple and elm branches. Frank’s Tree was here to assess the damage and add us to the clean-up list.

11-2-11 VERMONT: Sam, Chloe and I came up today to close up the garden beds and generally winterize. Winterization cannot proceed with snow on the ground which is what we found, paradoxically as that may seem. Hopefully some melting we let us proceed. Brady the horse has returned home for the winter. The ponds are full and draining. Late monkshood is still in bloom. We did get a nice sunset.


The work of the master carver entilted 'Ambivalence' elicited several comments.

Sunset as advertised.

Berry Quiz-Part II.

1. Easy for iMac users.

2. A low-growing evergreen.

Answers: 1. Apple [duh], 2. Cotoneaster.