Finished Compost

Below is a pile of finished compost made from last year's yard leaves. This compost contains no vegetable garden plant residues or weeds; so I am planning to use this compost on our 2011 vegetable garden to reduce the chance of introducing weeds or plant diseases. It is very nice material.

The pile was then covered to reduce the chance of nutrient loss over the fall, winter and early spring. I hope to send a compost sample into Penn State for complete nutrient analysis sometime this winter. Stay tuned!

Currently I am raking leaves and stacking them into a new pile shown below. A year from now these leaves; after I have turned the piles several times, will look like the finished compost in the top photo.

Completing the Long Trail

I just returned from a 9 day backpack to the complete the northern third of the Long Trail in Vermont's Green Mountains. It was a fun, but exhausting trip that trekked along Green Mountain ridge line over the highest Vermont peaks. The trail was rugged; requiring boulder hoping and/or climbing, slogs through mud (...I packed only one pair of socks and my feet were wet 6 of the 9 trekking days) and walking through hardwood (maple, beech, yellow birch) and spruce forest. I drove to North Troy, Vermont just south of the Canandian/US border were Bob Prong (... a former math teacher at Midlakes H.S.) gave me a ride to the trail head at Applachain Gap (Vt Rt. 17). This was were Jason and I came off the Long Trail a month ago (...see blog post on September 8th). The hike was 120 miles long. The nights were cold, but the foliage and scent of fall were exhilerating.

Below are a series of random photos that will give you an impression of the trip.

Nights were spent in trail side shelters.

Ferns, metamorphic rock, moss and foliage.

Approaching the Vermonts highest peak - Mt. Mansfield as the rainy weather begins to break.

Muck, water and besure to stay on the trail = wet feet

Walking the Green Mountain ridge line continuous ups, downs, and back up over the next peak or "bump" meant a 300 - 600 ft elevation change to get from where the photo was taken to the top of the next peak or bump as shown in this photo.

The occassional evidence of past life in the Green Mountains

A view looking north into Canada on the horizon.

Sunrise over Stowe, Vermont

Ascent of Mt. Laraway required a walking along this mass of rock, dripping with water.

Looking north early in the morning.

Atop Jay Peak. My journey began beyond the furthest point visible in this photo over my head.

Looking back at Mt. Mansfield after crossing Smuggler's Notch. When I crossed Mt. Mansfield the day before, the winds forced me to stagger left & right in order to move forward, while be pelted by a driving rain, followed by stinging pelts of graupel (...BB sized pellets of snow) which turned the mountain top white. I found my self reviewing the signs of hypothermia as I desperately wanted to get off that mountain top... alive.

Ladders enable passage over some of the steeper trail sections.

Hikers had place rocks into lounge chair positions under a huge boulder.

Looking back as I ascended "the Camel Hump".

Passing through Devils' Gulch.

The US/Canandian border established in 1848 is just a line cut across the forest with markers. On my hike from the trail head back into North Troy to my truck, a US Border Patrol Officer stopped me to just check who I was and where I had been.

The video clip below is a typical view trekking along the Long Trail.

The following 360 degree video clip was taken from Mt. Belvidere.

Slide Show of Trail Work On The FL Trail

In July and again in September I put in some volunteer time to help with bridge repairs/replacement on a segment of the Bristol Hills branch trail of the Finger Lakes Trail system. The specific area worked on was in the Prattsburg, NY area between Elmboise and Bean Station Roads. Helpping us complete the task were two teams of students from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology).

Below are three links that will provide you with a nice progressive slide show of the trail work. The photos were taken by Lynda Rummel, Director of Trail Quality for the Finger Lakes Trails, who officially organized the trail work camps.

The link below shows photos of the bridges before and after our July weekend workcamp with the first group of RIT students and FLT volunteers

http://picasaweb.google.com/101133106692159636279/BeanStationBeforeAfterFirstCrew?authkey=Gv1sRgCL2Bwu_E5Y_rQA&feat=email#slideshow/5521784853036278770


This link and the next one show the bridge replacement/construction for the September 17 - 18th weekend with RIT students and FLT volunteers.

http://picasaweb.google.com/101133106692159636279/BeanStationBridgesConclusionLJensen?authkey=Gv1sRgCP22ufSw_pCIbw&feat=email#slideshow/5521770444600364114


http://picasaweb.google.com/101133106692159636279/BeanStationFinal?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvXzYWbqLDcVQ&feat=email#slideshow/5521764217640115218

Backpacking Again!

Jason and I recently returned from a 9 day backpacking trip that covered a 160 mile section of the Long Trail (LT); a 270 mile trail that follows the up and down boulder, strew ridge line of the Vermont's Green Mountains.

The LT map shows the distance we backpacked.

Backpacking over boulders, a scene so typical of the trail.

Some rewarding views, looking out across Vermont.

With backpacks left behind, a 0.2 mile climb up across boulders put us ontop of Killington Mt. (4100 ft.)

Not all of the trail was boulder strewn...

Jason atop Mt. Abraham (4000 ft) ... the air temperature was about 42 degrees F and damp.

Another view into the Vermont valley below.

The LT crosses the upper sides of several sky slopes.

Interesting trail art created by the stone contributions and their placement of passing hikers.

Another view looking back from where we had come.

Busy Bees!

Judging by the activity (140 incoming bees/minute), I would say the fall honey flow has begun, unlike two weeks ago when the incoming rate was about 20 bees/minute.

Turn the sound up and you can hear the "buzz"!

More 'Stoned' Work at Wayne County Master Gardener office at CCE, Newark, NY

BEFORE

Herb bed with rotting, gray timber border.

AFTER

Stoned herb bed border.

... See any difference?

Trail Work

On the weekend of July 16 - 18th, I and two other Finger Lakes Trail representatives had a chance to work with five RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) students and their two advisors repairing/rebuilding 8 bridges along the Bristol Hills branch of the FL Trail system near Prattsburg. It was a fun weekend filled with team work, jokes, swatting deer flies, avoiding poison ivy and getting the job done.