'...corn as high as an elephants' eye'

July16th,

....despite the hot, dry weather,

the sweet corn IS as high as an elephant's eye!

Cleaning up and Making Mulch!

Having planted over a thousand trees since building our home here in 1983, a number of the trees have survived and thrived! Each year pruning, trimming, natural die back, high wind & snow damage results in a continuous supply of brush that are collected and stacked around the property. Once a year I rent a chipper. The wood chips are blown into the back of my pick up truck. I can then centrally locate the chips into a single pile on the old basketball court.

Later on the wood chips are distributed to the various beds around the property to hold in moisture, reduce the proliferation of weeds as they rot down and generate a rich, organic soil in which shrubs and perennials thrive.

(Coffee bean burlap bags are experimentally laid down as a weed barrier before being covered with the wood chips.)

Take a Hike!

Earlier this week, I along with seven other Finger Lakes Trail volunteers and two work crews from the Monterey Correctional Facility constructed two bridges on the Finger Lakes Trail in the Birdseye Hollow State Forest (Steuben County). The bridges were constructed out of white oak planking, fastened to utility poles that crossed the main creek. Boulders were located and skidded into place to create a retaining wall on the main bridge's east bank and stream run gravel was bucket brigaded to each of the bridge's access points.

The synergistic results of all our efforts are pictured below.

Main Bridge (38' span)

Bridge crossing the west overflow stream bed (20' span)

Take a Hike!

If you care to see more photo's of bridge building in progress go to the following FLT photo gallery site:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101133106692159636279/BirdseyeHollowBridges692011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIivtdbLhIL0FA&feat=email#

"RAIN!" ...lemonade.

Despite the almost daily showers or periods of rain over the last weeks, I am taking advantage of two rain generated "lemonade" opportunities :

1. Excessive lawn clippings...

...make great mulching material between the rows of peas

2. The appearance of morrel mushrooms

...So You Want A Water Garden?

The appearance and sound of the man-made rock stream off our back porch is very nice, but...

... in the spring the stream bed and tanks must be cleaned out.

The clean up involves removing rocks and accumulated, decaying materials to the compost pit.

Tanks are drained.

...tank walls are scrubbed and a 10% bleach solution is used to remover the slimy algae coating.

...followed by rinsing and flushing out the system.

..rocks are then refitted back into position

Four hours later the ciculating pump can be turned back on and the fish returned to the tanks for another year's enjoyment.

Kenyan's Win Again ...'birthers' complain!

Having run the Boston Marathon multiple times in the mid to late 1970's, it was with interest to hear that once again the Kenyan's won the marathon in record time last Monday (4/18); out running the 4th place finish of the nearest American runner.

I was also thinking that President Obama's father was a Kenyan and that several current presidential hopefuls have recently questioned the American President's Official Birth Certificate and consequent right to hold the office of President of the United States of America. Here is my attempt to make a cartoon analogy, paralleling Boston's Annual Partiots' Day celebration with the 'birthers' complaint.

A Mycological/Gastronomical Experiment

Today I innoculated several red oak logs with mushroom plug spawns obtained from Fungi Perfecti (http://www.fungi.com/). The recently cut oak logs were obtained from a local tree trimming outfit and allowed to set for a few more weeks before today's innoculation. Holes were drilled into the logs between 3" and 4" apart in a diamond pattern. Spawn plugs were hammered in and then sealed with parafin.

Slaming the plug spawn into the logs.

Sealing the plugs and open ends of the logs with parafin.

The innoculated logs were then set in a wooded area, out of direct sunlight. I will have to monitor the mushroom logs and keep the area damp during those dry periods this coming summer.Mushroom varieties

Left side: Reishe & Pearl Oyster logs

Right side: Shiitake logs

.....check back in September