Across the valley

This might be the last year for capturing our meadow from the Skytop Chiropractor's parking lot.  The trees are getting in the way.  I had to trespass to the neighbor's yard to get a clear view...or maybe I should bring a ladder next year.

 The line of coreopsis and rudebeckia are easily visible as are the fruit trees and vegetable garden.

The warm and cool season grasses separated by a red clover lane

from Skytop

but probably the last year we'll be able to see through the trees to The Barony.

 Reading: 
58Enemy Among Us*** Jason Melby; Former FBI Special Agent Jim McLeary is on a dangerous mission. Paired with an adversarial female partner and an egocentric Section Chief with a hidden agenda, McLeary must prevent an elusive enemy from releasing a silent weapon of mass destruction. Hindered by a tainted past, a gauntlet of double-agents, covert operatives, and a guilty conscience—McLeary comes face-to-face with his worst fear: the cost of victory may prove more than he can afford.
57 Border Crossings: A Catherine James Mystery **Michael Weems When a college student vacationing in Cancun is abducted, her parents turn to a friend to help find her. After spurning the sleazy advances of an older man in a nightclub in Cancun, spring-breaking college student Taylor Woodall is abducted at gunpoint outside her hotel, and her friend is shot. Her father immediately contacts his old friend Catherine James, a smart, resourceful attorney who has long dealt with sketchy characters south of the border. After running into a dead end with the local cops, James stumbles across a street kid who may have some pertinent information, but after the two are attacked in a crowded market, she realizes she's in over her head. She has no choice but to contact Matt, an old boyfriend who is currently working as a gun for hire, training anti-cartel soldiers deep in the jungle. Once Matt is on the scene, the pace of the investigation picks up, but, given his extreme methods, James is forced to confront some prickly moral issues if she's going to find out exactly what happened to Taylor.
56 Birds in Paradise** An Aloha Pete Thriller  Dorothy St. James In this novella, young prostitutes are disappearing from the streets of Honolulu. When street-savvy P.I., Kyra Grainger, is hired to find the latest missing girl, she straps on a pair of high heels, pulls on a skirt no wider than a headband, and delves into the back streets and shadowy world hidden behind the glitz of Hawaii. What she finds is a web of lies and deceptions that threatens to destroy the paradise she's grown to love.
55Mushroom in the Sand*** Farsheed Ferdowsi An Iranian-born physicist living the American dream, Dr. Ross Shaheen is at the top of his game. Between his internationally-recognized nuclear weapons research career at the prestigious Berkeley Lab and his picture-perfect family in the San Francisco suburbs, it's a good life that can only get better - until he is lured into lecturing before an elite group of scientists in his home country.   Inconceivable premise that State Dept would let this man travel to our #1 enemy in the first place, but past that it's a fair story.
54A Dog's Journey-Another Novel for Humans ****The rest of the dog's lives.   He finally gets his purpose.
53A Dog’s Purpose - A Novel for Humans -***** W. Bruce Cameron tells the story of a dog who finds himself reincarnated and decides there must be a reason, a purpose he must fulfill, and until he does so, he’ll continue to be reborn. 

From Skytop

2012 January 16

2007 December 6

Reading: 7Lion of Babylon*** Davis Bunn;  Another in the good guys win genre; Marc Royce works for the State Department on special assignments, most of them rather routine, until two CIA operatives go missing in Iraq, one of whom is Marc's best friend--kidnapped by Taliban forces bent on generating chaos in the region. Two others also drop out of sight--the son of a high-placed Iraqi civilian and an American woman providing humanitarian aid. Children of high ranking Iraqis are also kidnapped.  He gets them all back of course with some flashbangs, knives, and clandestine cooperation.

6Shelf Ice (A Ray Elkins Thriller)*** Aaron Stander,  It’s February along the shores of Northern Lake Michigan. A heavy blanket of snow has been building up in the woods since early November and the inland lakes have had a solid covering of ice since December. Shelf ice, stacked ten or fifteen feet in places, has been building on Lake Michigan for weeks. Sheriff Ray Elkins, responding to a late-night home invasion call, discovers the brutal murder of a local artist at her home deep in the woods. Several others connected with the case die too but, it's not who you think.

5The Covert Element - A James Becker Thriller*** John Betcher; Former military intelligence operative, James “Beck” Becker and his CIA code-cracking wife, Beth, have retired to Beck’s hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota. A Mexican drug cartel has set up shop a few miles down the road. The new meth production facility is the largest north of the Rio Grande. To complicate matters further, Terry “Bull” Red Feather’s former Army Ranger comrade has come to visit on a mission. His decades-long assault on the cartels is coming to a head. His plan is to blow up the drug plant.  I do enjoy the good guys winning but this one was a little too time jumpy: back and forth between Mexico with the former Army comrade to Minnesota.  A couple of good lines, but mostly just an OK book/story: because we disagree doesn’t mean I think you’re wrong and I’m right. It means we disagree. That’s it.

Midyear view from Skytop

The fruit trees are big enough to see from across the valley.  The walking track is not visible behind the tall grass in the rest of the meadow.

Our walnut grove barely makes it into the picture behind the tree in the foreground on the left side.

We harvested the first (4) potatoes.  The potato bug had pretty well demolished the plant so it seems a good time to harvest. The potatoes were small but tender and tasty.  The delicate skin puckered right off after the boil.

Gambol found a nest of indigo buntings with 3 quarter-sized babies in a caged mountain ash in the meadow.  He said they were a good breakfast snack.   I have to learn when he points to have him hold until I check it out.

The video assignment was a 2 min. interview but I couldn't get organized when I had help around so I was left to my own devices.  I guess I get points for creativity.

View from Skytop

from Skytop

The Barony from Skytop

Snow covers the meadow so the extra piles of basement fill is hard to see. Three bundles of panels are still across from the Toy Shed.

 

The Barony from Skytop

We are right in the center, way off in the distance.

The tree tubes aren't as visible now that we have made most of them mesh. The trees are poking out thru the mesh now. Everything is green.

Pull in close to see the asparagus patch.

The Baron is in Residenze

This was the last email of the 2 year stint. Paul left Bellevue ahead of a storm (just like me), spent Friday night with Shannon and Raj, and drove on home Saturday. Chicago got 5" on Saturday afternoon. Good to be a weatherman. We woke on Sunday to about 3". Good to be a weatherman.

Cool and clear coming into work this morning and 20 degrees at the gate. No frost so the air is dry. One sure would not think there was a major ice storm coming by the looks of the weather this morning outside.

As soon as I finish lunch with Ed at 1300, Fran will drop off my guns and ammo and I will cram everything else into the car and take off. I have a goal of 1500 but I hope to take off at 1400. Whew, it is about time….

I am eating Greek olives, a chunk of cheese, V-8 juice and my last banana for breakfast. I have one chicken breast that I will take to the ‘brown bag’ discussion at 1100. I think all that is left in my motel is a bottle of salad dressing and a bottle of Worchester (sp?) sauce. Yesterday I brought in a box of cleaning supplies (bleach, detergent, etc.) and gave it to Janet (had to finesse that so it didn’t look I was giving her the supplies because she needed them!

I mailed off Frankie’s Birthday card (for Dec 5) this morning. Also sent in the application for MOAA insurance—their offices are in Des Moines, so I probably could have thrown it out the window when I passed Des Moines this evening, but…

I need to get some cash and that’s about it for my tasks this morning, besides outprocessing with Janet.

I will be checking the latest model output in a minute.

Love
The Baron

No more 9:00PM dates by phone. No more wake-ups by email. Hurrah.


The Barony from Skytop
We still had snow left on Dec 6, the first nice day after the storm and the only nice day for a week after the storm.