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in anticipation of our 60th birthday party, we performed the annual Sweeping of the Barn. This would be a more manageable task if we had fewer bats, actually swept out the barn annually, or both.

We devoted Easter morning to the annual cleaning of the barn, which involves sweeping out the prior year’s accumulated birdshit so that the Barn Swallows can enjoy tidy accommodations for the coming season. Yesterday Daisy climbed Burger Hill with her husband, Ringo. These days, Daisy finds it easier to climb the hill than to get […]

The black raspberries — black caps — are having a great year. Jen is gathering great bowlfuls to be made into jam. The mulberries are also ripe at this time, which is why we can often find a deer grazing at the end of the driveway.

Today was our annual sweeping of the barn, in which the droppings of a generation of barn swallows and pigeons are removed to make way for this year’s crop. The barn swallows should arrive any day. The pigeons never left.

The barn swallows have returned south for the winter. This means that we can close the barn doors and keep out the ever increasing flock of pigeons who are laser focused on befouling the barn. They await the spring, when they can resume operations.

The oak tree in front of the barn has been completely denuded by spongy moth caterpillars. They favor oaks but also seem to enjoy willows. When you go into the woods, it sounds like it is raining — but it is instead these caterpillars munching away. Apparently these outbreaks are cyclical and at some point […]

We are once again engaging in our great passion, replacing the roofs on various outbuildings. This will be our fourth, following, in order of appearance, pump house, barn, and cottage.

The pigeons, now a flock of perhaps fifteen, seem unhappy after being evicted from the barn. We chased them out and closed the barn doors after the barn swallows left, on August 30, to head south. We plan to overwinter with the aggrieved pigeons.

Skies are blue and the grass is high – it must be summertime. Jen inspected our nano-orchard, which appears poised to produce as many as four apples this season. Rather than rely on our domestic fruit production, she set out to pick wild black raspberries. The brambles provided, ensuring we will have jam this summer.

We had our first real snowfall of the season today. It was late in arriving, but very pretty as it came down. Here’s the view this morning from the front door of the cottage. And here’s the view this afternoon from the back door of the house.