I Very Nearly Lost the Owlery

It was a close thing....

I live on about 5 acres of land, some of it is hilly and forested. Over the last few years I've been cleaning out and decorating walking trails up the hill and through the forest. Unfortunately, most of the trees are brittle white pine. They tend to snap easily.

We had a wind storm the other night.

Yeah.

Last night I checked the trails.

That tree in the middle? It's a big one and now it is also a headless one.

Here's the top of it lying across a trail:



And here's my poor owlery. I'm not certain if any owls were lost, though it wasn't the bulk of the tree that hit it, just a few branches. Please don't dwell on the flag - it's tattered and needs to be gotten rid of.

The trail the tree fell on is actually Toad Hollow, but that spot above was too perfect for the 'owlery' to worry that owls aren't toads. (I also have a Gnome Knoll, a Mac's Menagerie (named for one of my Grandpas), and a short bird trail that I haven't given thought to a name for).

On a brighter note, we have our first apple in our mini-orchard. It's a Macintosh!



Flood: Part II

Oh, I haven't posted in so long. I had some dental problems that caused more than a month of horrible pain and now another month of lighter pain. *sigh*

Anyway, spring flood. Ack! The Black River overflowed its banks again after a couple of days of heavy rain. We live on a corner and at one point, both roads were flooded over. Our section of the road was closed. I had to drive around the barricade to get to work. This is the highest I've ever seen the water here. We still have water in the cellar (and it's raining again).

We usually have a large yard. Not so much last Friday morning.

This is looking down the road at the creek bridge:

And a close-up of the bridge as seen from our yard:

 And finally, our visitors after the water receded:

 Can we have some sun now, please??

Why, oh why?

What I'm reading: Sala's Gift
What I'm writing: I finished the first draft of Gods Willing yesterday and will begin my nano novel: In the Shadow of Olympus today.
What I'm knitting: Double-knit mittens

Why is it we tend to get snow on Halloween more often than not? It didn't stick around, but still... those poor little trick-or-treaters!

Mark got his first pair of glasses on Saturday, now hopefully they help his headaches.

November 1st! Nanowrimo starts today!

Flood!

What I'm writing: A horror short story - thus far unnamed
What I'm reading: Anne of Green Gables
What I'm knitting: That darned cow motif scarf - I've decided I hate intarsia knitting. Grrrrr

Tropical storm Nicole chugged up the east coast at the end of last week. In Northern NY we didn't get hit as hard as some other areas, but we did get over five inches or rain (and our local newscaster helpfully told us it would have amounted to 5 to 6 feet had it been snow).

Our house sits less than a half mile from the Black River and we have a creek that runs through our land. (Please note, around here it's pronounced Crick, not Creek :)). When the Black River floods, it backs up into our creek and we can end up with a lake in our yard. So it was when I got home from work on Friday night (and had risen even more by Saturday morning).

Jon had to go into work on Saturday to deal with rain damage there, so I took my camera and walked to the river. It was a nice quiet walk since the road was closed due to the flooding.

In this photo, the actual river is on the left, any water to the right of the treeline is flood water.

This is usually a field. When the water receded back to the river, it left a lake in the field, which has now almost dried up. Every time I drive past I think of all the fish that probably got trapped and died.

This last one is our yard. The tree right about in the middle of the photo? Yeah, the water is usually on the other side of that. This one was taken Friday night, so even more of our yard got swallowed up by the next morning.

Other than some debris on the lawn, everything is pretty well back to normal now - except it's raining again (cue the music from Jaws).

Motoring Along the Black River

What I'm Writing: Gods Willing (Fantasy Romance)
What I'm Reading: The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson
What I'm Knitting: Finished a mitten last night. I will probably start something cow related today

Jon and his brother, Tom, own a fishing boat together. It's a small boat - two people can fish comfortably, any more than that and I'm sure they're getting in each other's way. Sunday I went out on the river with Jon for the first time. The Black River passes about a half mile from our house and there's a local boat launch, but that launch is too steep for Jon's two-wheel-drive truck. So we drove to the boat launch above the high falls in Lyons Falls. We put the boat in and headed south toward Port Leyden.

It was a beautiful fall day, although a little chilly when the sun was behind the clouds. Jon fished. I was along for the ride. He caught two smallish fish which were returned to the river.

At one point, the old Black River Canal meets the Black River. It was really a beautiful spot.

We were going to head up the canal a bit, but Jon's fish finder had the depth at under 2 feet, so we decided that wasn't a smart plan and stuck to the river.

We were out on the river for a couple of hours and I really enjoyed it. We'll have to go out again - maybe next summer when the temperatures are a little warmer.