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A cold and rainy day did not dissuade us from visiting the Duchess County Fair. Jen and Sarah enjoyed copious amounts of fair fare. We saw cows, sheep, goats, and, yes, these piglets. Jen was triumphant, winning not only her customary blue ribbon for her splendid peach lemon marmalade, but also a blue ribbon and […]

A few peaches are ripening in our under-producing nano-orchard. Jen parked her tractor beneath the tree to make the birds think she might return at any moment.

Here is Jen out and about with her new fanny pack, equally useful for storing foraging bags and embarrassing her daughter.

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.

Jen, returning Sunday from her 40th high school reunion, looked in on her garden, which, as has become customary, received about two inches of rain on Saturday. Daisy assumed her post by the garden door.

The herons have built a nest very near our bank of Vlei Marsh, giving us a good view of what we expect is a growing heron family.

Even though Sarah remained at Colgate rounding out her junior year, Jen received the traditional Mothers’ Day breakfast in bed. To commemorate the occasion, she performed eight hours of manual labor in field and garden.

Jen stopped to smell the cherry blossoms on a crisp Easter Sunday afternoon. In less happy tree news, we had to take down the big maple in front of the sun porch. We’ll need to plant a replacement, perhaps a bit farther from the house. We spent Saturday in Saratoga, where Sarah rowed in the […]

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.

Jen, braving frigid conditions, introduced some phragmites to the scythe.