Clear Skies

It is so nice to walk out on a clear cold night after it has been cloudy for days. You take deep breath and cool your lungs. The wood smoke from the chimney perfumes the air. The temps aren't very frosty yet, but the air feels cold. The same temps a few months from now will feel like spring is here.

It is a nice night for viewing stars. Nature's Blog had a nice discussion of The Pleiades cluster. It sounds interesting and worth looking for.

The clear night was followed by a clear morning sky criss crossed with jet vapor trails. It must have been a calm day to fly, as most of the trails were still fairly narrow and straight. It was a fine day for a walk on the Cheat Lake trail. This 4 + mile trail follows the eastern shore of Cheat Lake east of Morgantown, West Virginia. I was trying to imagine how far above the original river bed we were while walking on this trail.

Cheat Lake (formerly Lake Lynn) was created in the late 1920s by a hydroelectric dam built by West Penn Power. This 58 megawatt generating station is basically a starter engine for the larger coal fired power plants at Fort Martin and Albright, West Virginia, according to Allegheny Power who now owns the dam.

Following the flood here in 1985, Lake Lynn dam was the stopping point for many of the structures washed down the swollen Cheat River.

A Pile of Heat

I completed a cutting and splitting a large load of hickory logs this weekend. It is a joy to behold. It is a big pile of heat. Hickory is second only to black locust in the amount of heat it generates per cord burned. It is dense, heavy, and splits well with a hydraulic splitter. Lots of BTUs are laying ready to load in the wood stove. I figure I have 1.5 to 2 cords of hickory, or up to 39 million BTUs of heat. Now if I had the stove cranked, I would be burning 55,000 BTUs per hour. At that rate I could run the stove at full steam for 30 days with my pile of hickory. Needless to say, we don't have to wear sweaters in the house.

BTU = the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Energy Values for Hickory

Density(lb./cu.ft.) 50.9
Weight per cord (lb.) 4327
BTUs per cord(millions) 27.7
Recoverable BTUs per cord (millions) 19.39

Following the Nose

By going for a walk with beagle mix dog I observe how much I am missing by not having a powerful nose. That nose scans an inch or two above the ground as we walk. Soon we come upon a deer scent, or a chipmunk sent, or coyote, or bear for that matter, and stop dead. The dog is transfixed on the powerful scent. She seems to be trying to get the history of the olfactory message. She enjoys it so much it makes me sort of jealous. Occasionally (like today) she finds a particularly ripe spot and flips over and rolls in it. Various web sites claim dogs do that either for camouflage or to bring back their discovery to the pack. As proud as the dog was, that smell was not going to fit into her house life. Even shampoo doesn't erase that calling card very easily.

I have heard more shots this deer season than in years past. I assume either there is more deer or the hunters are poor shots. None of the neighbors have stopped by with any Boone and Crockett trophies.

Sabine

It's Thanksgiving and we are preparing to enjoy Sabine. Sabine is the organic turkey we bought at a silent auction at The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture conference. We were assured that Sabine enjoyed a life outdoors, grazing and dining on organic feed. She was not crammed into a cage or large building with a zillion other birds loaded with antibiotics.

She has been lounging in the deep freeze since last February. Sabine is now soaking in brine in the fridge. She will get an herb rubdown soon and spend some hours on the grill cooking and being bathed in hickory smoke.

We will roll out other organic goodies that we, or friends, have raised to give Sabine some company on the table. Good friends will top off the occasion.

How far did your food have to travel to your table this Thanksgiving? The closer to home the better.

Roadside "attraction"

Walking and driving the dirt roads adjacent to the farm, I feel like the adopt-a-highway crew. For some reason folks must think that rural means just pitch those containers out of the window. It is quite an assortment: cans, bottles, cardboard, Styrofoam, and paper. Some of the vehicles they drive makes me think the trash would not affect the aesthetics of the interiors much.

My wife has started washing the containers we get from restaurants to bring home leftovers. It is a bit of a hassle keeping them in the vehicles, but we have won points from restaurants and wait-people for bringing our own reused container.

Throwing something "away" it is a phony notion. There is no "away", there is just someplace else. The more we reuse the less we send someplace else.

Buck Season

I was reminded by multiple shots at sunrise that deer season opens today in West Virginia. According to the Associated Press, 320,000 hunters are expected to look for the elusive bucks between now and December 1. Last year 65,000+ bucks where harvested here in WV.

Buck season is a cultural phenomena here in the Appalachians. Both West Virginia and Pennsylvania have a school holiday (or 2) the beginning of buck season. Hunters in blaze orange and camo are cruising country roads in pickups, often with a 4 wheeler (ATV to you city folks) in the back. Some people have been hunting for months as they start scouting in the fall. Then they hunt bucks and does during bow season, then comes buck gun season, followed by doe gun season, followed by muzzleloader season. All this hunting pushes the deer around constantly. Often they run aimlessly out into the middle of the road-- and boom "grilled venison".

For me, hunting is a chance to mindfully listen and observe. I have harvested deer, but my luck has been poor lately. It is just as enjoyable for me to walk quietly through the woods. I see so much when I get off the trail. For the best venison, harvest a young doe. Not as "manly", but much tastier.

The Mundane

One must shift from the observer to the do'er at times on the farm. Today the task was to resolve a septic tank problem. It turned out to be a treasure hunt producing no treasure. We will prevail.

The trip to town for parts reminds me how Morgantown is a farm of condos and appartments. Nice pastures adjacent to town turn into the air-nailed, vinyl-sided, Holiday Inn like "dwelings". No more cattle grazing........... eliminated along with the wildlife that kept the sanity going there. Now these areas are cars and parking lots and runoff. Large machines carve the soul out of the landscape.....Almost level---West Virginia.

Glad to be back to the snug house; warm fire, dogs snoring, sanity preserved.

Ben Franklin's Favorite Bird

Ben Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the national bird but the bald eagle won. Here at the farm the turkeys are hard at work out in the pasture. They work the old cow patties for fly larvae, grubs, and undigested seed. The turkeys scratch up the patties which causes them to break down faster. They are fun to watch as they fly low through the woods and walk across the road with impunity.

The first snow has come to the Uplands. It is wet and cold outside making the fire very inviting.

A Reminder from a Finch

Crossing the yard yesterday I heard the familiar feeee...feeee... of a goldfinch. Many of them used to hang out here when I kept the feeders stocked with their favorite niger thistle seed. I have been wanting to clean and disinfect the feeders before refilling them. My finch neighbor was reminding me that I need to get to that soon.

Yesterday a chipmunk was scolding someone or something. I suppose he is putting on that winter fat and someone was interfering with the feeding frenzy.

A neighbor is having bear problems. Word is it killed one of their Great Pyrenees guard dogs. These dogs live with the sheep and keep the coyotes away. I say poor dog and, maybe soon, poor bear.

Rain on the Roof

The farm house has an old standing seam metal roof. This type of roof was common 100 + years ago prior to asphalt shingles and air nailers. Rain makes a particularly comforting sound on a metal roof. It creates a special kind of white "noise" which will put one to sleep even if you are restless. Sometimes, during dry spells, the rain on the metal will wake you up long enough to celebrate the welcome moisture.

Catching rain off the roof for use later reduces the need to water plants with chlorinated city water or running one's well pump. This saves water and carbon.

Woodstove Tuning

Most airtight woodstoves have to be inspected and "tuned" to make them truly airtight. My new stove needed some tweaking of the door gaskets and adjustment of the door latches to keep the air flow under my control. If one wants to bank a stove at night, the air flow has to be reduced to a bare minimum to have adequate coals present in the am. Ideally one just opens the damper in the morning to energize the remaining coals, and adds a couple of chunks of wood. The sound of the woodburner roaring to life is almost as comforting as the sound of the coffee brewing.

Water

A free running spring is a thing of beauty. I marvel how the water can just "run out of the hill". One of our springs feeds the back pond and supports fish and birds and other "locals". A time may come when we will reflect on worrying about running out of oil. By that time we will be running out of water. We can live without oil........

Wood heat

The charm of farm life is being able to control your comfort level by plowing in sweat equity. Heating with wood is a classic example. You toil away cutting and stacking your heat. But the payoff comes in November when you come in the house and it is toasty.



Each wood stove has it's personality. I now have a new Consolidated Dutchwest. I researched the unit carefully. But as with all my stoves over the last 30 years, the C.D. does not perform exactly as the product literature describes. But it has lots of adjustments which pleases a wood heat fan.



So I tweak away. It is an activity that warms one thoroughly.



I hope I have staying power to keep this flow of conciousness going. Thanks to my friend Bob Folzenlogen for his encouragement. See his great blog at naturesblog.