Not Much Snow Yet In February

A Back View 

It is surprising that we don't have much snow yet. New York state usually has record amounts of snow by now. We are used to it. So today when we took our garbage to our land fill and recycling center, we drove on truck trail which goes through the forest. It was a sheet of thick ice. You could ice skate down the middle. Now I wouldn't have taken it if I was driving. There are a lot of sharp curves, and if you went off them you'd go down a steep bank. That would be too much excitement for me to drive on it. My husband though, drives it slow and calm, like its just normal. He can drive any road, in any weather.

No snow? In February?

At the top of the trail, this is the hay field without snow in February. I still can't believe it. It started out as a dreary day, but now our sun is shining. The sun is hitting our solar panels now. We already had our generator on. As soon as the panels are bringing in more power, the generator will be turned off. We may not have had much snow, but we still have had cold temperatures and sunless days. Too many to count!

My favorite tree along the way!

Of course, what this means is that if we don't have a lot of snow to melt off in spring. Then there is not as much mud. I am definitely not taking it for granted that we will not get any more snow. This is February after all, and February is usually our worse month of the year. I have a feeling some big snow storms will be on the way this month. If I am wrong, that is okay.

As you can see, the fields have no snow at all!

I put plastic milk bottles outside at night to freeze for our cooler. They have not frozen solid in weeks now. Even though it is cold, they are not freezing solid. They freeze a little bit but not enough. Today, I saw where there is some ice that fell off the roof and I am going to use that in the cooler instead. In winter, I never have to buy ice.

Hobo was napping when we got back!

 The building at the landfill was very cold. I felt sorry for Jessie, my husband's friend, and his coworker who work in that building all day. I was thinking about our cozy wood stove at home. When we got back from the landfill, which is only about five miles from our house, our cat, Hobo was sleeping in the chair in front of the wood stove. She knows where to go if she is cold!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Favorite Photos From Past Posts

Sites along the way near my home

Forest Path back to the house

Patches, my big baby!

A hay field nearby

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Wordless Wednesday At Peaceful Forest Homestead

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

Getting Ready For Winter

This morning I received my Paperbackswap newsletter. Many people who do not understand the relationships we build up over time on the internet should go to this link I am about to post and read this thread. It will bring tears of joy, happiness and sadness to your eyes. A member of the swap, Lester passed away and he posted regularly on the forum there. His wisdom is awesome! Here is the message in the newsletter:

In Memoriam. We know how many of you loved Lester (ThreeCats). He
added so much to the community here with his wisdom and kindness. Lester passed on, and broke all of our hearts a little. We send our deepest condolences to his family, and we thank them for sharing such a wonderful person with us. You can read some of Lester's writings, and don't miss his book reviews! Lester, PBS will never forget you.

This morning I am planning on going with my friend to Frog Pond a produce market in our area in the town of Bainbridge, NY. It is a big place and they will be closing at the end of this month so I expect to find lots of fresh food at good prices. I had some things that did not do good this year, one being my winter squash. So I need to stock up on some of that and maybe some beets and of course, I plan on buying apples. Last time I was there, I bought a big bag of apples (I could barely carry it) for only $6.00. They are what is called Tree Run or utility apples. Meaning they are not perfect. Have imperfections and spots. I just cut them off. My horses don't care. They love them. I put them in apple crisp and if I get more, I will be making applesauce. Which is my plan.

My friend gave me her Victorio food strainer. I love it. I used it for the first time yesterday to process my last batch of tomatoes........I couldn't believe how much work I used to do! No seeds or skins or even coring of the tomatoes. I usually would drop the tomato in boiling water to crack the skin. What a mess cutting and cleaning them on my cutting board. Juice running everywhere! And the seeds were always in my canned products as it was just too much to pick out each little seed. No more. It has made my life much easier. I bet my Grandma would have liked one of these.

Yesterday, I had to take apart my wood cookstove to clean it. It needed a thorough cleaning. I usually do it more often than this. I have to take the whole top apart and brush ashes and cresote from the inside. Now though, it is working great. Some people like that bed of ashes on the top of the oven, but I do not. Actually, you can even put food right there on that oven to cook if you wanted. It only took me about 45 minutes to do and wasn't really such a bad job.

It is raining here today in upstate New York. We did need it. This rain will take the last of our pretty leaves off the trees and then fall will start turning cold. I love the fall colors, but I am ready to get on with the winter so that gardening weather is back again.

Have a great homesteading day!

katlupe

The McDonough General Store

This afternoon I had to take a drive about 7 miles away to our little country store in the neighboring town of McDonough. It was such a beautiful drive, the leaves are turning and are beautiful shades of gold, red, green and brown. There is one farmer on the way there who lives at the top of the hill who farms with horses, and it was my lucky day as he was out there with his two gorgeous horses. I think they are Belgiums, and they are just so majestic with their harness on and hitched up to his wagon. What I especially like is that when you go past, it is so quiet, just the gentle rattle of the harness every now and then.

McDonough is one of those little towns that most people just drive through to get somewhere else. This town has many homes that are little farms with a big variety of farm animals. Most being horses and chickens, some pigs, many goats and a few with miniature horses and even a donkey or two. There are a few houses with the eggs for sale signs out front.

The McDonough General Store is the typical Mom & Pop type store with Mr. and Mrs. Gorman being the Mom & Pop. The store seems to be pretty busy when we go there. It has become our favorite place to go for what we call "fast food", which just means that I don't have to prepare and cook it. They have a nice deli and sell various sub sandwiches, we buy a couple pounds of lunch meat so we can make sandwiches at home. Also they have a old-fashioned ice cream parlor. The customers that come in there all seem to know one another and probably have all their lives. If you are new though, they will welcome you warmly and include you in their conversations.

The McDonough General Store looks as if it should have a pot belly stove right in the middle of it, and maybe one day it did. Now it is filled with a good selection of groceries that you are most likely to run out of. Except for gas and kerosene. Right now it has a sign out front on the gas pumps "Sorry, Out Of Gas". Too much money to fill it up. Besides most people probably only buy a little to get to the next big town to fill up, so there is really no profit there. Now the ice cream freezer is probably one of their best sellers! When we go there, we usually pick up a half gallon of Hershey's Moose Tracks ice cream........our favorite!

During the summer and holidays it gets alot of traffic from Bowman State Park which is very close by. The Fingerlakes Trail isn't much further than that so hikers usually end up picking up supplies there also. Many people from NYC and NJ come here to get away from the city as we aren't too far from there. So you never know who you'll meet there.

So if you ever get out this way, make sure you stop in there and say hi.

Have a good day!

katlupe

Homesteading On The Internet

Today looks like another one of those dreary days in upstate New York! Using solar panels to generate our power isn't easy this time of the year. During the summer, we only run our generator about once a week, now it's being run about every other day. Since I work on my computer every day for about 12 hours a day, it's essential for me to have power. If I add more solar panels and more batteries, I would have more power. I hope to have my solar panels on my barn roof this summer. That's where we get the most sun. A friend of ours, who thinks he is a solar expert, had us put our panels in the spot where they are now. Boy, he's no expert! It's been a bad decision all year!

Well, this morning, I couldn't even get onto eBay. That always drives me crazy. And I especially couldn't get signed into my Seller's Resource Group! That is where I like to go every morning. This group has done more for me than anyone. I have been improving my store and my business since hooking up with them. This month I did 15 different things to improve it! If you sit down and start working from a list, you can usually get some business accomplished. Maybe most people think that selling on eBay is like having a garage sale, that's not true. It is more like owning a store and having to do all the jobs yourself. No secretary, no janitor, no stock boy, no clerks, no sales people, no accountant, just me. So from no on, every night I have to make my list for the next day of everything I have to do and then be sure to do it. Working that way, you actually get the things done that need to be done.

Copyright © 2005 Kathleen G. Lupole