Wood

We put 5 new tarps over the top of the firewood stacks to help protect them from snow before we went into the forest with the ATV and chainsaw to collect more firewood.  I cut the timber into small lengths, sized so I can split them later without additional cutting, and Leslie piled them into the back of the ATV.  We took out 2 loads of cut logs in a couple of hours. 

On our way out of the forest, Leslie noticed a red oak with a crack in it.  At first glance it did look like the tree had suffered some wind damage, but this tree was fairly large, about 12" DBH, and wind damage would have been rather unusual.  Upon closer inspection, the crack is not more than an inch in depth and it spirals up the trunk of the tree to about 20 feet off the ground.  Wood from the crack is curled and still connected to the trunk.  We think this is a lightning strike, although there is no burned wood or bark to be seen.  The strike apparently just heated the moisture in the trees surface wood and the resulting steam blew out the strip of wood all the way from the point of impact 20 feet up the trunk to the ground.  The curled wood connected to the trunk is a real sight.

Reading:  Gold and Fishes *** Donna Carrick; Fiction based on the experiences of a Canadian nurse serving in the Aceh region of Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami.  Half a million people were killed by the wave.     Foreign aid worker Ayla Harris is struggling to bring hope back into the ruins of post-tsunami Indonesia. But when she discovers that her disreputable brother in law has been murdered and her life is in danger. (Kindle summary)
No Good Deed **** M.P. McDonald; Mark Taylor discovers first hand that no good deed goes unpunished when the old camera he found during a freelance job in an Afghanistan bazaar gives him more than great photos. It triggers dreams of disasters. Tragedies that happen exactly as he envisions them. He learns that not only can he see the future, he can change it. Then the unthinkable happened and everyone ignored his frantic warnings. Thousands die. Suddenly, the Feds are pounding on his door and the name they have for Taylor isn't urban hero. It's enemy combatant and torture for 9 m. When he's released he has to decide if his lead torturer is worth saving among hundreds at a Cubs game.

First green egg

After our very wet walk I found one very light pale green egg.  It is almost white in color, but definitely has a green tint and not pullet sized at all. 7 months old but with short days I guess I can't fault the girls.

The magic tweeting wand isn't fool-proof:  Buddy took a lonely hike this afternoon but was stopped by a lady on Ulrich Rd, only about 2 miles north of us.  Back to the training board.

Reading:  Mortal Sin (Jake Lassiter Series) Paul Levine *** Way over the top danger to the former Dolphin's fball player as he first defends then exposes a land baron who wants to build a casino on Indian land in the Everglades, and oh, by the way, cheat the Indians out of the real exploitation: drilling for oil.  Good guys always win but there's too much blood spilled in this one in very creative ways.  The best character is Jake's medical examiner friend who says sentences in Latin before translating.  Levine is a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and highlights Thon on his webpage.

Late Rain***Lynn Kostoff; Desire, need, and ambition fuel Corrine Tedros, a Lady Macbeth wannabe who arranges the murder of her father-in-law, a soft-drink mogul. It's witnessed by a man in the late stages of Alzheimer's; he provides scattershot details but cannot accurately communicate what he saw. (Kindle summary)

More firewood

Saturday we spent 3 hours splitting the firewood and stacking it.  Paul did the splitting, Leslie did the stacking.  We probably processed 1 cord of wood, most of which is hidden in the back. 

Sunday we took the ATV out into the woods and picked up more logs that we had stacked in the forest last year.  Those logs are now stacked near the splitter awaiting cutting to size and then splitting and stacking.  This should be the last logs that we will be splitting this season, assuming that the winter isn't too harsh this year.

Besides doing the firewood chores this weekend, I dug four 3-ft diameter holes in the meadow along my line of cherry and apple trees and mixed in lots of compost and then covered the holes with more compost.  These will be planting sited for new cherry seedlings next spring.  I order the new seedlings from the local Conservation District and the bare root seedlings always arrive in late April, just about the time the soil is starting to thaw.  I want to get the seedlings in the ground quickly, so having the
holes already dug, mixed with compost, and insulated with a 6 inch layer of compost will ensure we can get the seedlings planted right away.  As is typical for us in the Northeast, each hole yielded a 5 gallon bucket of rocks, so removing the all the big rocks and adding the compost to the soil will give the seedlings a nice kick start.

Reading: Barefoot Sisters: Southbound ***** The Letcher sisters, Lucy and Susan (aka Isis and jackrabbit) hike the Appalachian Trail in a way different from most. First, they are women--sisters; second, they are south-bounders or "Sobos" in trail parlance, meaning that they start in Maine and head to Georgia; third, they manage to hike most of the trail barefoot. Crazy?  Yes, of course, they are vegetarian and wiccans, but excellent writers, each in her own voice.  I'll continue to admire the Trail and those that hike it from afar. 

Eggs and Weather

Eggs
Nov total 174        Nov potential income        $43.50
Nov daily avg 5.8
34 m total 5096 total potential income $1,274.00

Weather

		High:	Low:	Average:
Temperature:		71.1 °F	25.3 °F	46.5 °F
Dew Point:		57.6 °F	3.7 °F	27.6 °F
Humidity:		98.0%	18.0%	51.8%
Wind Speed:		4.0mph from the SSW	-	0.3mph
Wind Gust:		15.4mph from the SSW	-	-
Wind:		-	-	SW
Pressure:		30.44in	29.59in
Precipitation:		3.00in

Reading: Deadly Stillwater ****Roger Stelljes, Genre: "The good guys always win" An abduction is just the beginning in a case of betrayal and revenge that will ultimately strike at the soul of the St. Paul Police Department.The ruggedly handsome Mac McRyan, a fourth-generation cop, is faced with a complicated brazen daytime kidnapping, a media storm surrounding the case, and political scrutiny. It is a case of betrayal and revenge that will ultimately strike at the soul of the St. Paul Police Department. McRyan is creative and won't take no for an answer. Could have been written by Vince Flynn if he wrote local/drug trade.  Creative chapter titles take phrases from chapters.

Winter is coming closer

Lots of clean-up jobs were accomplished this weekend in great weather: turn over the compost pile so the chickens can work on the seeds, plant more 'sang, pick up sticks for kindling, mow a trail in the walnut grove for winter walking.

Reading: As the Crow Dies ****Ken Caspar Vietnam took his legs. A murderer took his father. Somehow, Jason Crow has to take a stand. Jason Crow comes home to Texas on clumsy, prosthetic legs, struggling with his lost dreams and the pitying curiosity of friends and strangers. But there's no time for him to brood, because his father has just been shot to death. In the process he uncovers family secrets that shake him to his core. While fighting his own insecurity as a double amputee, Jason must challenge forces capable of destroying him and those he loves to pursue the person who robbed him of his greatest hero: His dad.  (Kindle summary)

Garlic in the ground

Garlic bulbs (Rosewood, German Extra Hardy, and Brown Vesper) from Wegrowgarlic.com are planted in two of the raised beds.  There is room for some shallots ( Dutch Yellow) from  easytogrowbulbs.com.  I spread a new load of compost  over the garlic beds and some of the other beds.
Since it is going to be wet and rainy here for a couple of days I put down a coat of fertilizer on the compost, as the compost tends to eat up nitrogen as it decomposes.  I cut down the old asparagus ferns and will have to do some weeding before I put down some fertilizer and compost to mound up over
the asparagus plants.  If the mounds are tall enough, next spring we will be able to harvest some white asparagus spears before they color up (purple or green).

Reading The Samurai Strategy ****Thomas Hoover Only a bit farfetched and written in 1988 so lots of the technology on which this was based was out of date, but a good read: A high-finance, high-tech thriller of Wall Street, murder, currency manipulation. A mysterious Japanese industrialist begins a massive 'hedging' in the US markets. Two weeks later, in Japan’s Inland Sea, divers working for him "recover" the Imperial Sword, given to Japan's first Emperor by the Sun Goddess. Can a lone American lawyer stop him from bringing down the US? (Kindle summary enhanced)

Thanksgiving dinner at Christ's United Methodist Church, Julian

A homemade spread of turkey, real mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and dressing for the 5th year in a row.  Those ladies know how to do dessert, too.

Reading Revelations ****Laurel Dewey In this third Jane Perry novel, Laurel Dewey takes Jane out of Denver to the small town of Midas where the Chief of Police is a close friend of Jane's boss. Jacob Van Gorden, the fifteen-year-old son of a prominent area businessman, has disappeared and all signs point to his abductor being Jordan Copeland, a man who committed a similar crime decades ago. Jane settles into this little community for much longer than she wants, living with a preacher and his family (including their eccentric teenage daughter who was Jacob's girlfriend). There are signs that Jacob is still alive, so the clock is ticking. And as Jane investigates Jordan Copeland, she begins to have doubts about his guilt and begins to uncover signs of devastating and even deadly secrets all around Midas.  Dewey uses "factored" several times in peculiar ways and in a chapter then never again; almost as if the text were translated incorrectly.  There were several other grammar problems that should have been caught by an editor.  Strange.  

Day 2 of Buddy's sonic collar

I feel a bit like I'm dressing toddlers for the snow when we go out on our long walks, there so much to put on and take with us: special collars, leashes, transmitter, treats (lots of treats).
Buddy was fine this morning but, again this afternoon, didn't want to go to the meadow.  We took the higher path between the fruit trees and he was fine.  There's something about the open field that has him spooked-- sometimes.   He's not as calm as he was yesterday (before his freedom run) but it's ever so much better than before the collar (B.C.)  He can be reminded with an "oops" not to pull or to come, even without the beep.
We took a short walk through the forest Shannon trail and back by the meadow at 5:00.  It was almost dark, probably after hunting hours.  As we came to the end of the brushy section, Buddy saw 3 deer by the locust trees, and went NUTS. I held on tight and even stepped on the leash for extra safety but he had that deep throated growly roar and was bucking like bronco, the strongest neck in the county.  Gambol watched them leap to the forest and stood his ground.  Finally I beeped to Buddy to get his attention and both dogs were at my side in a heartbeat.  No shocks today.

Reading: Spinning **** Michael Baron
Dylan Hunter has it made. At 29, he has great friends, a huge job, all the women he can handle, and no commitments. A public relations executive, Dylan has dashed up the ladder of success by mastering the art of the spin – bending the truth to his and his clients’ needs. But when a former lover steps back into his life with a three-year-old girl by her side (no, she’s not his), Dylan suddenly finds himself in a place he can’t spin himself out of. And when Dylan unexpectedly becomes the child’s sole guardian, he finds himself to be like a circus performer trying to keep all of his spinning plates from crashing to the ground.(Kindle summary)

Aria ** Allison Dickson  Mark's double life comes to a screeching halt after his wife exposes his illicit affair during his business trip. Unfortunately, he's forced to turn to Aria, his little-used GPS, for an alternate route. However, Aria has a different plan in mind, and she has things to show Mark that will make him think he's on the road to madness. (Kindle summary)

JoePa Fired

Since this is a blog about the Barony, this rant probably doesn't belong here, but since it's my blog, here goes:

It's a grim day here weather-wise and moral-wise, the morning after the Board of Trustees meeting in which Paterno and Spanier were fired and day 6 of the now nationally-known "child abuse scandal at Penn State".  Student rioting is contained to a small part of downtown known as The Canyon and some at Old Main.  Peaceful vigils, not reported frequently, took place at the Lion Shrine and on Joe's lawn. 

If  the Board of Trustees was thinking about the buck stopping here, they probably got the fire Prez Spanier correct, and perhaps with the same line of thinking, Joe had to go, too.  But I think Joe did what was correct with the info he had.  He had to turn in a trusted friend and colleague on minimal information, which he did.  He had no reason to follow up because he had his chain of command which he trusted.  

I worry about Joe now not having a reason to get up in the morning and a place to go.  I hope this abrupt decision doesn't kill him.  Spanier has been lots of places; he'll survive in a new school begging for his name, his magic act, and his washboard playing.

I think Sandusky should (hugely) endow a center for the prevention of child abuse and cure of sexual predators; no name on the building however.  I think Spanier should endow a center for new media because of his continued belief that if he ignores a problem it will go away.  

I think all of the people in Hollywood another places of entertainment, and Washington DC and other places of politics should have the moral rectitude and ethical standards as Joe Paterno; the world would be a better place.  He spent 61 years here at Penn State walking his beliefs; he should not have to go out in a blaze of hysteria and gossip. He man responsible for this hasn't been tried and convicted, although I'm sure he will be.  

I have no intention of going off the Barony this weekend; I have everything I need for a lockdown.  The wackjobs from Westboro Baptist church in Kansas will be in town protesting something and, of course, it's the Nebraska game which is always a murmuration, though never quiet.

I think we haven't seen the end to the reaction.

Reading Commune of Women Susan Still ***On an ordinary Los Angeles morning, the lives of seven women are about to become inextricably entangled, as they converge upon LA International Airport for various purposes. Suddenly, the morning erupts into chaos, as black-clad terrorists charge into the terminal, guns blazing. As the concourse becomes a killing field, six of the women dodge a hail of bullets to find refuge in a tiny staff room. Betty, a Reseda housewife, Heddi, a Jungian analyst, Sophia, a rugged and savvy mountain woman, Erika, a top-level executive, Ondine, an artist just returning from France, and Pearl, an ancient bag lady, all traumatized or injured, barricade the door and cower down, hoping to survive...the most profound revelation of all is how each has betrayed herself. (Kindle review)

Eggs and weather

Eggs
Oct total 210 Oct potential income $52.50
Oct daily avg 6.77 
33 m total 4922 total potential income $1,230.50

Weather
Snow Oct 29 (.48" water)
about 3.8" precipitation this month in 2 big storms, Oct 1-2 (.95"), Oct 12-14 (.93") so we are .77" above normal.

High

Temperature:		84.9 °F	26.6 °F	50.8 °F
Dew Point:		62.4 °F	16.9 °F	38.5 °F
Humidity:		98.0%	17.0%	68.3%
Wind Speed:		4.0mph from the NW	-	0.2mph
Wind Gust:		14.1mph from the WNW	-	-
Wind:		-	-	SW
Pressure:		30.53in	29.26in	-
Precipitation:		4.74in

Reading Songbird under a German Moon Tricia Goyer*** The year is 1945. The war is over and 21-year-old Betty Lake has been invited to Europe to sing in a USO tour for American soldiers who now occupy Hitler's Germany. The first night's performance is a hit. Betty becomes enthralled with the applause, the former Nazi-held mansion they're housed in and the attention of Frank Witt, the US Army Signal Corps Photographer. Yet the next night this songbird is ready to fly the coop when Betty's dear friend, Kat, turns up missing. Betty soon realizes Frank's photographs could be the key to finding Kat. Betty and Frank team up against post-war Nazi influences ... (Kindle summary)

Day after first snow

44 degrees; nothing left but mud

Reading on a snowy day in front of the fire with my dog at my side is the best.

The Wolf Hunters A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness ****Curwood, James Oliver; Written in the early 1900s in the style of Jack London. If you ever dreamed of snowshoeing or canoeing into the vast wild lands of the north with bad guys chasing you, building a cabin and living the forest life with snow over the roof, then this book will keep you riveted. It is a story of adventure and danger, friendship and mutual trust (Kindle review enhanced)

Irrefutable *** Dale Roberts; For Detective Sargent and local police hero Alex Mendez, a routine rape investigation becomes a nightmare when DNA evidence points to him. When a rapist attacks three local women, Alex follows the trail of DNA evidence from the first two victims to his suspect. It’s an open and shut case that would have shut the case on the wrong man, until evidence from the third victim is matched to Alex.  It explores the psychology of abuse and revenge. It's about questioning everything no matter how it appears on the outside and not being satisfied with an open and shut case if it doesn't seem right. Fast paced.
Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888**** Frances Marie Antoinette Rae (or Roe) Frances' story is just amazing. When her infantry husband is transferred to Fort Lyon, she follows him West. The Colorado Territories are controlled by various tribes who are none too pleased with the army showing up and setting up base camps. The young men of the tribes kill anyone they find alone out of view of the fort, and are constantly playing "pranks" on the people who live there. She talks about the Buffalo Soldiers her husband works with (some of whom outrank him), and the freed slaves she comes into contact with. She is smack dab in the middle of critical times in American History, and she knows it. She is brave and intelligent, but she's also just a woman in the middle of nowhere trying to stay alive and make a nice home for herself, her husband, and her new dog. Getting a nice set of furniture to Fort Lyon is no easy task in 1872. (Elizabeth Norris (Roswell, GA)) I could identify with some of it!

Eggs

11 today (3 Barred Rock, 2 Golden Comets, 3 Marans, 5 Rhode Island Red) but still no blue (4 Ameraucaner).  Is that a record?

Reading  Through the Fire *** Shawn Grady Adrian “A-O” O’Neill comes from a long line of Reno firefighters. A day before the 10-year anniversary of his dad’s death in a fire, A-O defies orders and attempts to rescue a child thought to be trapped in a burning house. His actions get him suspended, prompting a trip to Mexico to visit his uncle, yet another ex-fireman. While there, A-O puts his own life in peril once again to save a drowning boy. Will this successful rescue save him from his guilt over all that has gone wrong at home? Apparently not. Never completely recovering from the loss of his father caused him to lose his fiancée and possibly his nerve, for now the idea of entering a blaze terrifies him. Enter Julianne Caldwell, a fire-prevention analyst, who helps A-O find the faith to work through his demons, even as an arsonist terrorizes the town. PS: he finds the arsonist and a new love.--Mary Frances Wilkens (BookList)

Bits

Fog has filled the valleys every morning this week.  It's thick and lasts until 1000 or so.  Today, like magic, the leaves burst into color on the hillsides.   At sunrise this morning I saw a golden fire in the leaves of the forest.
Our clematis vines are browning on the bottom, maybe too much rain or too much chicken attention, but the white one has a nice blossom.
I mowed the meadow on Friday and Saturday down to about 4 inches in height.  The bed of the bush hog collected the cut grass from the previous pass so I had hay mounds across the meadow.  Since the hens really like fresh grass for their nesting boxes, I filled the RTV  and put several handfuls of grass in the chicken coop.  The rest of the cut grass I dumped in the compost pile.

In preparation for additional raised planting beds in the garden, I cut the weeds with the tractor and then used the blade of the bucket to scrape an area for the beds.  I spread a load of compost over the planting bed site.  I'll have to get some more boards to build the raised beds.

The new log splitter continues to work well.  I sawed the logs into wood stove sized pieces so that I'd be ready for the splitter.  For the past 3 mornings I have split wood for about 2 hours each day.  It's very noisy, even when idling so I have my shooting ear protectors on. I finished the pile of cut logs today. We have about 2 cords drying. The new pallets where I stack the split firewood took some additional engineering to keep the sides standing upright, but they now seem to be holding up well.  Time to retrieve more logs from the forest. The chipmunk hiding spots that the dogs check out are dwindling.

Reading Innocent Monster ***Coleman Sashi Bluntstone, the 11-year-old Next New Thing on the New York art scene, has been abducted, and Moe Prager—former NYPD cop and former PI—is asked by his estranged daughter, Sarah, to join the search. He expects only tragedy; Sashi has already been missing for three weeks, and Moe hasn’t been a PI for seven years. Now a well-to-do wine merchant, Moe agrees, primarily to attempt to restore his relationship with Sarah. He quickly learns that nothing increases the value of paintings faster than the death of the painter. Suspects abound: wealthy, self-important collectors; greedy gallery owners; odious rival artists; even the victim’s parents. But Moe abides. This sixth Moe Prager novel is pretty much note-perfect. Coleman’s take on the art world as a den of iniquity is priceless, as is Moe himself—intelligent, street smart, and tough, especially for a sixty-something. He’s also sophisticated, despite seeing himself as a “poor schmuck from Brooklyn.”  Booklist

Hazelnuts

I picked the all of the hazelnut clusters that I could find.  This is the first crop of hazelnuts from our orchard of about 63 plants:  6 plants from Arbor Day Foundation, 22 from the Pennsylvania's Game Commission's Howard Nursery, and the rest from the Badgersett Research Corporation.  Most of these hazelnuts have been planted since 2009, with some additional plantings in 2010 and 2011.  I noticed during last winter that there were catkins on many of the plants for the first time (the catkins are the male flower of the hazelnut and they emerge in the winter to fertilize the female blossoms that will start in the early spring.  So this year was the first year that we have had any hazelnuts.  I only saw nut clusters on 3-4 of the plants.

Each plant had about 3 clusters of nuts.  I harvested the nuts still in their husks on September 30 and about half of the clusters were empty-I suspect either squirrels or birds got the nuts.  I am drying the clusters with nuts still in their husks before removing the nuts.  The nuts appear to be about the size of a dime.

The size of the hazelnut plants range from single stems of only 12-18 inches in height to multiple stemmed bushes about 5 feet tall and at least 3 feet in diameter.

We have some other bushes planted near the hazels (peonies, forsythia, and dogwood) and now that the hazels are really taking off, we will probably transplant these other bushes away from the hazels.  This will give the hazels more room and also give the other bushes an opportunity to expand without competing with the hazels.
Snow in the Black Mo Park this morning; all we got was rain but the temps were mid 30s.

Reading:  American Assassin ***** Vince Flynn.  It's oh so good when the good guys win and with Mitch Rapp as lead protagonist, you know the bad guys are going to be hurting.  Mitch in a prison cell was like the rat that ate his way out of the boa from the inside. 

reading catchup

Blackbird Fly  Lise McClendon  ***A house in France connects three women together -- the woman who owns the house, the woman who lives in the house, and the woman who died in the house sixty years before. Who are they? Merle Bennett inherits the house of her late husband, in a small village in the Dordogne. But when she arrives a deranged squatter won't let her inside. Who is the woman? What is her connection to Merle's husband? Secrets from the post-war period, when southwest France was crushed and left to wither by Nazi occupation, and secrets of a newer kind, occupy what should be a fine French summer for Merle. With her teenage son in tow, a sexy roofer in her kitchen, and a nasty discovery in the pissoir, there is plenty to keep her mind off her endless to-do list. A story of murder, self-discovery, and family, deep in the heart of France. Amazon review


Thunder in the Morning Calm ***Don Brown Lieutenant Commander 'Gunner' McCormick is assigned as an intelligence officer to Carrier Strike Force 10, being deployed to the Yellow Sea at the invitation of South Korea for joint exercises with the US Navy. During his pre-deployment briefing, he discovers a TOP-SECRET MEMO revealing rumors that the North Koreans may still be holding a handful of elderly Americans from the Korean War in secret prison camps.As it happens, Gunner's grandfather, who was a young marine officer in the Korean War, disappeared at Chosin Reservoir over 60 years ago and is still listed as MIA in North Korea. Sworn to silence about what he has read, the top-secret memo eats at him. Gunner decides to spend all his inheritance and break every military regulation in the book to finance his own three-man commando squad on a suicide mission north of the DMZ to search for clues about the fate of his grandfather. Risking his career, his fortune, and his life, Gunner will get his answers, or he will die trying. Don Brown is building a loyal fan base by writing what he knows best: thrillers with heart. A former Navy JAG officer and action officer in the Pentagon, Brown pens action-packed plots and finely-drawn characters that are credible and compelling. Thunder in the Morning Calm is a novel of bravery, duty, and family love that will keep readers of all ages reading straight through to the last page.


The Jynx Kenneth Crowe ***A story about a clammer named Billy who finds a brass ring - with the words "Un tour libre" (one free ride) carved onto it - while out one day, "Jynx" starts out fairly slow with the description of his day clamming. After finding the ring, he has a record-breaking day. Are things going his way now? He decides the ring is his talisman and buys a gold chain on which to wear it. Knowing that there is no such thing as a free ride, this reviewer presumes that things will eventually go horribly awry. The idea is good and the plot does pull one in - the prose and style are a bit stilted, however and could do with the pace being tightened up a little. Overall, however, this reviewer feels this is a good, solid story and would be interested in reading more. -- Amazon Top Reviewer


Delivery Diana Prusik ***Livi finds new purpose in her troubled life when she joins her family's small-town florist shop.  There, the strong and wacky Wilson's Florist gang monitors the pulse of Mount Helicon, where customers carry stories even the local newspaper does not contain. Tales of birth and death, sickness and sorrow, love and betrayal, and even forgiveness—Livi hears them all. Privy to some of the community's deepest secrets, she sometimes wishes she didn't know so much, especially when news arrives that a dear family friend is dead. Faced with servicing his funeral, she is blasted with painful memories she's struggled for decades to ignore. Soon, guilt and grief over childhood and adult tragedies close in. Instead of turning to loved ones or God for comfort, she leans on alcohol, her long-time clandestine companion—but secrets rarely escape the close-knit flower shop crew, who makes Livi's business its own. Fumbling through life's challenges together, the Wilson gang often delivers more than flowers, yet when Livi needs delivery, can the bonds of faith and friendship dissolve her defenses? Amazon review


Stealing Jake ***Pam Hillman When Livy O'Brien spies a young boy jostling a man walking along the boardwalk, she recognizes the act for what it is. After all, she used to be known as Light-fingered Livy. But that was before she put her past behind her and moved to the growing town of Chestnut, Illinois, where she's helping to run an orphanage. Now she'll do almost anything to protect the street kids like herself. Sheriff's deputy Jake Russell had no idea what he was in for when he ran into Livy--literally--while chasing down a pickpocket. With a rash of robberies and a growing number of street kids in town--as well as a loan on the family farm that needs to be paid off--Jake doesn't have time to pursue a girl. Still, he can't seem to get Livy out of his mind. He wants to get to know her better . . . but Livy isn't willing to trust any man, especially not a lawman.  
How strange and a bit disconcerting to read 2 books in a row with main characters named Livy/i.  


Untouchable ***Scott O'Connor In his first novel, UNTOUCHABLE, Scott O'Connor speaks softly and somehow manages to make something beautiful of unspeakable matters--like the gruesome mop-up after someone has taken a gun to his head. These are the matters that fall to David Darby, a strapping fellow with an armful of tattoos and a sensitive attitude toward his job as a trauma site technician. If Darby's profession has made him something of an untouchable, his young son has become a pariah at school because he refuses to speak, a self-imposed punishment after the death of his mother. ("He had," he's convinced, "made her sick and sad.") O'Connor tells a wisp of a story, but in a voice so insistently stirring, you want to lean in close to catch every word.--New York Times Book Review

Flagstone Connection and flagpole

We finally bought a flagpole (Paul's 2011 birthday present). Now the question is where to put it, or more correctly, where can "we" dig a 26" deep hole.

Paul embedded the last square yard of the walkway yesterday and today he distributed some compost along the inside of the walkway to help control weeds and provide a basis for future planting. He still has a couple of wobbly flagstones that need to be raised or lowered maybe as much as 0.25 inch. He'll add soil and compost alongside the edges of the walkway to lock in the crushed rock, sand, and flagstones to make a nice bed for planting.  Looks great.

Reading Reinventing Leona Lynn Gentry *** What is the pastor's wife after the pastor dies in the pulpit?  The small town parishioners and her family help her find out. Are we defined by our position in society or our occupation?   Cute, with some passages that pose excellent end-of-life questions for all of us to ponder. Gentry reminds us that we are multifaceted and must not allow one facet to over-balance the other parts of our lives: wife, mother, and what?

last day of class

EdTec 449 project link is here. It's a blog about chickens and egg production.

Catching up on reading list:
Hawks Mountain, Elizabeth Sinclair ****for the writing, beautiful descriptions and well developed characters but a romance so **. A man and a woman escape to the mountain to escape their life failures and find each other. It could have been a yawner that I'd never pick up. Instead I enjoyed the character development. BTW, the mt was named for first resident, not a bird.

Cloudburst, Ryne Douglas Pearson *** President of US assassinated by Middle Eastern terrorists as preamble to sneaking nuclear bomb into Washington as the funeral is occuring, thereby killing the most national and international leaders possible. The good guys win but too slowly paced.

The Maverick Experiment Drew Berquist 0 Breaking all the rules, a battle-hardened group of fighters confront Afghan terrorists on their own terms. I can't even remember reading it but Kindle says I did.

Blood of my Brother James Lepore ***Blood of My Brother is billed as a suspense novel, and while there are certainly suspenseful aspects to it I believe it also has a very healthy dose of thriller living between the covers. The story takes place in locales such as Mexico City and Miami, involves corruption and cartels, and includes more than a few action packed sequences and shootouts, giving it a decidedly thriller feel.
Carefully worked into the action, however, is the exploration of the human element at the heart of the story: the fierce bond formed between Jay and Dan; how their childhood molded them into the men they became; how the choices they made as adults led them down different paths, with very different consequences, despite their common background; and, how people respond under dire situations when forced to make life-changing decisions.

Rise: A collection inspired by Lift O'Connor****Falconry based lessons of life

Cloud tag

bait bird buddy camp caterpillar cherry chicken class dog doors electric falconry fall game garlic graf grape grouse hawk heat ice lady lighting moon owl pet phase pine plant porch posts prince rabbit room snake spring storm tile tomato tractor training tree tub turkey visitors von wall water window wood

Reading Eyewall **** Buzz Bernard  Hurricane Hunter gets trapped in cat 5 monster.  Crash landed on St. Simons Island in Carribean. Great vocabulary and some well done descriptions.

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Bear, snakes, and rabbit retrieval, Oh, My!

A big shiny black bear visited the bird seed refuse on Sunday night.  It left as we began, but Gambol had to finish the walk on leash just in case.
A snake didn't get out of the way of the Toy Shed door and got itself fatally squashed.  When I opened up the shed front door I found a 2 ft Eastern Garter Snake on the ground by the side of the door.  It had brown markings on its body, rather than the usual green.   It had a 2 inch crush mark on its body about 1/3 down from its neck and it was virtually paralyzed, moving only its head and a small section of its neck.  Since the shed door does not come all the way down to contact the ground when it is closed, I suspect the snake got caught between the door and the door jam.  So, I dispatched the snake by cutting its head off rather than let it die of starvation.  I carried the snake’s body up to the chicken coop but the hens were not interested in it, maybe because it was not moving.
The small garter snake has taken up HQ under a black rubber pad that Paul put out to dry on the lavender bed rocks.  He was there all weekend soaking up the warmth.
While cleaning out and composting the self-planted hawthorns and Paul-planted mountain ash, walnut and hickory trees along the rock wall, he found an intact 5' long snake skin, probably an Eastern rat.  I hung it on one of our posts; Gambol took issue and growled at it.
At dusk on Monday the boys alerted on a young rabbit, scratching in the driveway taking a dust bath.  He'd scratch then flop over just like the chickens do. Very comical but especially irritating to Gambol.  He retrieved it for us.
We have begun to tear apart the slash pile. It's a giant pick-up-sticks game. We now have 4 piles of logs in various states of decay stacked, and the 2 piles are pushed into one. We'll have lots of bark for mulching the garden and Paul will have room to expand the vegetable garden. 

Reading:  In the Belly of Jonah: A Liv Bergen Mystery *** Sandra Brannan. A serial murder near a small college campus solved.
All Through the Night **** Davis Bunn  Real Estate scam and a murder and couple of kidnappings brought down upon a retirement community solved by a CPA-Special forces guy.  Lot of praying but no overt proselytizing.  "A hero is somebody willing to risk all to gain all.  It doesn't matter whether he wins or not.  What matters is that he tries.  What matters is what he tries for."  Well said.

Holly and more

 After a trip to Wheatfield Nursery in Centre Hall, we planted 6 pots of switch grass: 4 with red/green leaves (Panicum virgatum 'Ruby Ribbons' #2 pot); 2 with green/blue leaves (Panicum virgatum 'Haense Hermes' in a #3 pot and 'Northwind' in #2 pot).  It took us 90 minutes to dig the holes in the ground--mostly driveway rocks and hard, compacted clay from construction.  We used pick axes and chipped out a layer of rock at a time. We mixed some sifted, rock free top soil with compost and used that mixture to plant the grass clumps.  It was a hard day's work, but the result along the patio rock wall is what we were hoping--an accent of the wall's curve.

The other plantings from yesterday, the 3 winterberry  (Ilex verticullata 'Raritan Chief' and 2 'Winter Red' all in #5 pots) and 2 clematis ('Multi Blue' and 'Henryi'--white) around the main entry are looking like they survived the transplant process.
Jennifer told us we didn't have nearly enough basil so we also planted a bunch of basil plants in the herb rock garden alongside the main entry. Next step if we can keep the chickens out of the basil beds: basil and garlic scape pesto for the freezer.
We have enjoyed to cool summer weather; we've been sleeping with the windows open and a blanket.  The blueberries aren't as happy.  So far we've had a handful.  Last June 28 blog entry showed a colander full.
Our Ameracaners are about 5 weeks old. They can now fly up to the roost bars but don't very often. I open the door to their tractor but they seem to prefer the security of home except after dinner when they venture across the trail in a mob.  The old girls dance right in and chow down on the starter crumbles, while the littlest girls cower in the far corner.  No one seems to miss the rooster. The black maran's back isn't as red as it was but she still doesn't have any feathers.
We found Colorado Potato beetle larvae on the plants today.  Bt works but so does popping them between thumb and finger; they spray red though, so point your hand carefully.
The 2 chestnuts that we planted in 2007 are growing well.  One is 15' tall and 2" dbi; the other about 2/3 that.  We cleared out competing red maples and some aspen to help the taller one along;  the other is north of the coop and is shaded by big oaks.  It isn't crowded so there not much we can do to prod its growth.

Reading Hybrid ** Brian O'Grady. Story had potential if it had been written by Stephen King.  Terrorists engineer a virus and attempt to release it in the US.   Victims become violent but some people survive and are able to reach into people's minds and control them.  The book needs some editing work to be more than moderately readable.  I think that's a problem with many of the kindle freebies.