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The barn swallows have returned south for the winter. This means that we can close the barn doors and keep out the ever increasing flock of pigeons who are laser focused on befouling the barn. They await the spring, when they can resume operations.

The oak tree in front of the barn has been completely denuded by spongy moth caterpillars. They favor oaks but also seem to enjoy willows. When you go into the woods, it sounds like it is raining — but it is instead these caterpillars munching away. Apparently these outbreaks are cyclical and at some point […]

We are once again engaging in our great passion, replacing the roofs on various outbuildings. This will be our fourth, following, in order of appearance, pump house, barn, and cottage.

The pigeons, now a flock of perhaps fifteen, seem unhappy after being evicted from the barn. We chased them out and closed the barn doors after the barn swallows left, on August 30, to head south. We plan to overwinter with the aggrieved pigeons.

Skies are blue and the grass is high – it must be summertime. Jen inspected our nano-orchard, which appears poised to produce as many as four apples this season. Rather than rely on our domestic fruit production, she set out to pick wild black raspberries. The brambles provided, ensuring we will have jam this summer.

We had our first real snowfall of the season today. It was late in arriving, but very pretty as it came down. Here’s the view this morning from the front door of the cottage. And here’s the view this afternoon from the back door of the house.

Storms roll in; storms roll out. Trees fall down, in whole or in part. Sometimes trees simply die and must be cut down before they fall on the house, as was the case with the fir tree near the end of our driveway. However, in our ongoing effort to remain net neutral-to-positive, treewise, we planted […]

Yesterday, when I called Herbie Stickle to ask whether he would get around to making hay this season, he asked whether I was in Rhinebeck. I told him I was in New York. “Too bad,” replied Herbie, “If you came outside we could say hello!” He had taken the call from one of our hayfields. […]

Everything is bright green at the farm right now. If you can zoom in, you will see our corkscrew willows at either end of the picture, an unwanted Canada goose at left, our tiny flowering cherry behind the pond, and the shimmering bog beyond.

The world is far from perfect, making this weekend’s splendid, cool weather a relief. Here are the last of the peonies.