Late Summer Days

Suzy discusses moose and garden with our corn- growing neighbor

A week ago a cold front dropped down from Canada, temperatures plummeted from from the upper 70s to the mid 50s; summer is instantly over. Good! It's my least favorite season. I haven't seen (heard or felt) a mosquito, black or cluster fly for a week. These are the glorious days of pre-autumn and the leaves are beginning to turn.

Best of all, it's harvest time. One of our neighbors has a small cornfield and his sweet corn is the best. We stopped at a nearby orchard and their early apples I eagerly awaited were mushy and tasteless. A bad apple year is a one of life's enduring disappointments. All is well, however, the Courtlands I bought yesterday (for one-third of the dud's price) were excellent. Often, the less you spend, the better the produce. 

Stephen and Lily dig potatoes

Our potato crop was a success, also the kale, tomatoes and cucumbers. We'll need better sunlight next year for the crops that didn't quite make it this year, notably the carrots, squash and beets. Another garden will be comstructed in front of the cabin next year. It'll have to be fenced because we've seen critters around there.

Katherine on Twilight

The kids visited in late August, Stephen and Lily toured all over, including Montreal. Katherine spent most of her time in the saddle, riding both horses to her heart's content. The weather was warm and it was buggy, but they seemed to enjoy their visits. I finally scaled Jay Mountain but it was Suzy's second ascent. The view from up there was magnificent, you could see all the way to Lake Champlain with the Green Mountains of Vermont in the distance.

Katherine at the summit of Jay Mountain

We've plugged away at our wood-splitting and cutting. I still don't think we have enough for the season, but we have our backup heaters. I removed the V-joint paneling around a window on the south wall so I could assess the prospect of replacing it with a door. We can, so I ordered a door with a full glass panel. That will provide much more light and even though it's a door, it'll be far more energy efficient than the old window. I like the looks of those old windows but they are inefficient, and wasting heat means depleting our wood supply early. 

The families who are well into their second century here, such as the Coolidges, put up their firewood early, neatly, and directly in the sun to dry properly. Those who do a particularly fine job of it aren't averse to building it near the street so passers-by can see how sixth-generation Adirondackers stack their wood.

The Coolidge's firewood stack

Upper Jay's Chief, Jeff Straight, teaches firefighters how to run a pumper.

I finished my six-week firefighter pump apparatus class. I drove our American LaFrance tanker and even backed it in to the station, right between the lines - well, sorta. The NY state exam for the certification included a written and practical portion. For the practical, we drafted water from a 'crick' feeding the AuSable River, across from Sue Benway's farm. Then we pumped it between three engines, one each from Upper Jay, Jay and Keene. I warily eyed every new hose lay, dreading the effort involved in rolling up and re-stowing them. We strung out many large diameter hoses wearing heavy gear...and it was a hot day. But our class of about a dozen rookies and experienced firefighters survived the exam and the practical. Only one guy (not me) fell into the creek.

Three pumpers can move a lot of water.

The Volunteer Ambulance down in AuSable Forks voted me in last week. (In this part of the country, north is considered 'down'.)  I registered for the EMT-Basic certification class over (not up) in Wilmington next month. It's a six-month class, with a state exam and practical in April.

It's nice to live in a small, rural area in the mountains where, every morning, there's more color than yesterday, a faint smell of wood smoke, and geese noisily going about their migration. Fall is arriving.