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We had a quiet Christmas holiday, with just the three of us and Jen’s parents. Sarah ably performed her elfly duties, and Daisy found a soup bone in her stocking. Sarah gave Jen these beautiful pressed ginkgo leaves from Strasbourg. She gave her grandfather a pen and notebook, where he can record his inner thoughts. […]

We received this tulip tree as a gift from Erica and Geoff, of EvilPea Acres. Planted yesterday, it stands majestic, with its future before it. Jen and I took turns at the shovel. We were reminded of the many large rocks lurking within our verdant fields.

This is an “on” year for our biannually productive hickory trees. We should be in good shape for hickory nut pie at Thanksgiving.

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.

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 […]

We had a rather subdued Christmas this year. We arrived Christmas Eve, scrambled to find one of the few remaining trees (a $20 clearance special from Lowe’s in Kingston), and decorated it before sundown. We were joined by Erica and Geoff, and then by Lew and Lewis, fresh from confiding Rinda to the care of […]

Those close to me know I am in a years-long battle with invasive vines. Here’s a particularly gratifying before-and-after image of a monster I cut a couple of weeks ago.

On Sunday we had a “microburst” — a/k/a a personal tornado — which set down on our farm and laid waste to our population of elderly trees. Poor Jen was out picking berries at the time. The storm came very suddenly and was over in just a few minutes. We tried to return to New […]

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 have planted a series of rather substantial Norway Spruce trees in an effort to screen out the hated solar collector of our neighbor to the west which, owing to its odious nature, has not previously been featured on this web site. Nine trees have been installed so far, and we may keep going.