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Our biennial hickory nut harvest is upon us.

We’ve gotten a bit smarter: we now know which trees produce the biggest nuts with the thinnest shells, and we’ve also learned that gathering two bushels of nuts is useful only if your goal is to have mice that look like Alex Rodriguez.

Sarah maintains a laser-like focus on quality control.

On Saturday night, we heated up the heirloom deep-fat fryer for home-made french fries.

And on Sunday we took advantage of the beautiful weather to go for a walk, on which Sarah and Jen captured a frog.

He was not a large frog.

It was an old Colgate joke that upstate New York might not have much of a climate, but at least it had plenty of weather.

That’s what we had this weekend: Sarah’s soccer game was rained out on Saturday, and it also rained on Sunday, but in between we had flashes of beautiful fall weather.

During one sunny stretch, we seized the opportunity by going for a walk.

With all the rain we’ve been having, the stream that runs out of the pond was about as full as we’ve seen it.

Sarah befriended a late-departing monarch.

She also caught a couple of grasshoppers.

Here she is with one of the rather large tires of the cherry-picker Central Hudson was using to trim trees around the power lines.

Tonight we subtracted from the sum of deer in Dutchess County.  Everyone is safe and sound (except for the deer, and, perhaps, our car).  We’ll spend the night at the farm and try again in the morning.

Today we hosted the Landsman Kill Trail Association’s Fall Trail Ride.  About fifty horses and riders took part.

Sarah fed a peppermint to Tequila Sunrise (“Sunny”), a 19 year-old who, as a two and three year-old, ran at Belmont and Saratoga, with a couple of second-place finishes.

We took advantage of the spectacular weather today — about 68 degrees, sunny and dry — to go for a long walk.  In Jen’s bag are some wild grapes and the first of the hickory nuts.

Sarah and Jen caught a frog …

… but they couldn’t keep him for long.

On Saturday, we retrieved Sarah’s picture and blue ribbon from the Dutchess County Fair.  We also picked up my pickles, which were uneaten.  The judges couldn’t open the jar.

They had some kind words for Jen’s black raspberry jam, although, oddly, they do not seem much concerned with flavor.

We were very excited to find this check in the mailbox Saturday morning.  It’s Sarah’s award for winning first place in the children’s landscape competition for the picture — a view of the pond — she entered in the Dutchess County Fair.  Now we have to figure out how to retrieve her blue ribbon.

Sarah’s soccer league started its fall season this weekend.  Here she is scrimmaging against the Green Hornets.  While she was playing, a bald eagle flew overhead, but I did not manage to get its picture.

We are still getting plenty of tomatoes, in all shapes, sizes and colors.

Our garden cantaloupes were ripe as we entered a hot and sticky Labor Day weekend, with the emphasis, for me, on Labor, of both the town and country varieties (conference calls; barn-sweeping).

Our third-floor neighbors the Seilers, including Sarah’s friend Annie, visited for the weekend.  The girls had a wonderful time, staying up late and then sleeping like stones on the sleeping porch.

Here is the fair beater Hurricane Irene, as seen from the PondCam™ at 9:30 this morning.

The last two days of the 166th Dutchess Country Fair were canceled because of Hurricane Irene.  We were all immensely disappointed not to be able to attend this year.  We had high hopes for ribbons and looked forward to meeting bunnies, drinking 4H milkshakes, going on midway rides, and enjoying the various other pleasures of the fair.  Instead, we spent the morning hatch-battening and headed back to New York with an armload of basil to make pesto and ride out the storm.

The barn swallows also left today — the same day as their departure last year.

On a somewhat cheerier note, here are some of the flowers blooming in the garden: sunflower, morning glory, and anemone.

Lew and Rinda visited this weekend.  To celebrate, we pressed Sarah’s wagon into service for a small cocktail party in Jen’s secret garden.

The garden itself is looking great.  Here is one of the butterfly bushes that Jen planted in the spring.

Everyone had a good time.

Sarah got her grandfather to play Quirkle with her, and led several games of the aptly named Aggravation with the whole family.

In other important news, on Saturday Jen and Sarah entered their black raspberry jam, and I entered my bread & butter pickles, in the Dutchess County Fair.  We are looking for ribbons next week.