12/30/07So this isn't quite on the property but I have a couple pic's of a snow adventure we had a couple of miles away. We have had a really good start to the snow season around here, we had some rain this last week after several good snows and we are scheduled to get some more good snow tonight through New Years.
11/21/07 A couple inchs of snow freshened up the place yesterday with the first snow of the season here.
10/24/07 As predicted earlier we have had some good fall color here, which is good after a couple of years with a sub par display.
8/22/07 I saw my first red maple leaf on the ground last week and it looks like this year we will finally have some good leaf color this fall. Also last week he had a big thunderstom that took down some branchs that we were able to watch, which was pretty cool.
8/9/07 We continue to harvest whatever berries we find around, We had a few pints of wild blackberries and the blueberries have had a good year despite the minimal input we have given them. Eventually we may get around to the rasberries (which were planted a number of years ago) to get them to do something useful, like make berries. Mostly they need nutrition, which is a problem in the whole garden.  
7/4/07 finally got some strawberry pics, Levi has become fairly skilled at picking the red ones and not eating the green tops. We lost track of the quart count when Carmen started bringing in buckets a day.
6/2107 We picked our first pints of strawberries at the farm yesterday. Very fine flavor, way better than your average pick your own. Unfortunatley our plants kind of grew into the middle of the rows so now we have a 25ft x 15ft single mass of strawberry plants so it will be a challenge once the middle of the patch starts to ripen.  
6/3/07 We have had the perfect spring weather wise up here. I don't know what all came together but the trails dried early despite the late snow, there are no webworms on the crabapples, the bugs have arrived late and in fewer numbers than usual, and now, just in time we are getting the rains to keep things rolling.
5/9/07 So we had out first dandilion greens of the year tonight, they were pretty young so they had very little bitterness. It's been very dry, so the trails are already getting dusty in spots.  
4/25/07 Here is a picture sequence of how the month of April turned out. We finally got some consistant spring Temps, around a week ago as I recall so that by last weekend there was no snow to be found around here. We ended up with a foot of snow for the month here which is quite a bit more than average for here.
4/11/07 OK, so first we thought it was cool to ski on the 1st of April, then we got 7inchs on the 5th (some of which is still around due to the persistant cool temps- see levi's page) and now we are under a winter storm watch with maybe another 4-8 tomorrow. So we can't put away the XC skis till at least the middle of April. Some alpine skiists are saying these are the best conditions of the year right now and up north they are still 100% open.  
4/1/07 It's kind of unfortunate that this falls on the first of April as some are prone to try to trick others on this day, but the following is no foolin', nor is it unprecedented. I was able to get out and ski today at the farm.

3/28/07 So we had decent another storm in the middle of march that gave us another solid week of snowpack so I may be able to ski here at the house on april 1st, I just need it to hold out 3 more days in the shade. That just gave me an idea that we could stockpile snow for some late season runs like they do at killington. For some other year maybe. Here is Levi showing us that the current snow pack is somewhat intermittent today.

Oh yeah, our snow total has passed into middle of the pack status since 2000, it's currently at 54in. It can vary by over 100% year to year and it always comes at different times.

3/6/07 We've had kind of a issue here with comcast, our new internet provider. It took them 10 days to get us online after we first called them and said that the switchover had not gone well. It took 4 long calls over those days to get it straightened out. They got one of our modems online for a day and then it went off again. And somehow they have broken Windows Explorer on our main computer, I don't know how. Anyways hopefully that is all done.

It is barely 2 F now in the middle of the afternoon. It will probably be a record for the lowest daytime high in March. The forecast is for spring temps to come a few days.

  
3/1/07 Here are the Pic's from Carmen's small aircraft flight last Sunday. I'll have Carmen give you more details with the pics themselves. The other thing is that there another good snow storm on the way. This could push us up past 2005-2006 and 2001- 2002 in snowfall totals which goes to show that every winter is different since we had barely over a foot total by feb. 1 this year
2/18/07 So we finally got a good size snow storm (a classic nor'easter on Valentines day),0 a good 17 inchs here at the house. The highest storm total was an alleged 60 inchs at Jay peak and a bunch of mountains got around 3feet. Carmen had a great day up to Burke on Thursday and nailed the goods with her friend Abby. Right now (Sunday) the snow is settling in well for X-C skiing (it's not as much of a slog breaking trail), and the woods have plenty of snow so we can make lots of good turns.

2/11/07 So everybody says that the Heifers (see below) taste like Bison, what with the leanness and tougher texture. Then it should confer the same health benefits as bison so that's cool. We are glad to finally have some decent snow to XC ski around here these last couple of weeks but we are very excited about this noreaster coming on Tue and Wednesday. If it materializes we may get our first snowstorm of over a foot here at the house since Dec. 2003 when we got just about 2 feet on the 7th.  

1/17/07 So Monday we got 1/2 inch of sleet with a glaze of freezing rain. Last night it froze so hard that the cars wouldn't even dent it on the driveway. It was the first night of the winter to hit 0 F. I would have taken a video of Carmen doing a doughnut in the driveway but she didn't pull one and it was wicked cold out besides. For perspective is was 40 F. last week.

 
1/5/07 So the big deal around here, besides the persistance of September weather withen weeks of the winter solstice is that the heifers are going to made more edible tomorrow, or at least the process will be started. We will see if Johnny takes any G rated pictures to show you all.