Wednesday, October 28, 2009

It's a balmy 48 degrees with light rain.




RECYCLABLES DAY!

It would also be the

LAST FARMERS' MARKET

.................. however .................


The Weather Channel


WKTV predicts: "Cloudy with on and off rain showers Wednesday. Cooler, with highs in the low 50s.
High pressure returns Thursday with sunshine and highs in the upper 60s. There looks to be a quick warm up Friday, with highs in the low 60s, before another storm system moves in Saturday, dragging in some rain just in time for Halloween."



********************


Waste Not, Want Not.

In the same field where soybeans were being harvested on Monday, a baler was moving up and down rows of chaff on Tuesday. Sometimes when I search for information using Google, I'm given 'way too much information, but I gather (possibly erroneously?) that soybean chaff is a nutritional additive to cattle feed.

***************




On VanHyning Road

I've been told that, once complete, this will be a Bed & Breakfast.

It will certainly be a popular one!

************



I noticed, last week, that Dan Maine's crew had finished shingling the roof of the hop house at Parkwood Farm on Sanger Hill Road.

*********************************




Hallowe'en at Hanover!



At the Edicks' on Brothertown Road.


***************


I stopped at "the straw house" on Austin Road, yesterday, and spoke for just a few minutes with the carpenter who was installing floorboards in the upper level. He told me that the owner, 'though not a local resident, was well-aware of what winters were like in Central New York and has obviously put a great deal of thought into planning this new home!

The bales/walls will be covered, both indoors and out, with three layers of plaster. The building is situated to make the most of passive solar heat and that will be augmented with heat from a wood stove. Under foot will be an earthen, or adobe, floor which, according to GreenEarth, is "an excellent option for passive solar homes, due to their thermal mass. For example, the heat of the sun striking the floor in the wintertime will be stored in the mass of the floor, making for a pleasantly warm surface. This heat can also slowly radiate into the living space over time."


*************************

IN THE MAIL

From Lisa VanAuken, Oriskany Falls:

"A quick shout out to the WCS Modified Football team and their record breaking undefeated season.

My son Lawrence is a second year player on this team. They did not win a single game last year. I am proud of all of the players and coaches and parents for their support and a successful season.

If you could share this with your readers the kids would appreciate it."


Lisa added: "My son, Ben, tells me his Global Studies class follows your blog daily."


- now that puts some pressure on the blogger, for sure!

Thanks, Lisa!

**********

From Mike Burnham: "I read where Pat and Kathy McDonnell visited Waterville. Do you have an Email address for them or Phone #? I have not talked to them in years and would like to get back in touch."

Sorry: I can't help, but perhaps a blog reader can. If they would send the information to me I'll forward it along to Mike!

**********

I'm a little bit worried because I haven't heard anything from Glen Carroll in a couple of days! His last note said that he'd been to the Bazaar and had lots of fun because he'd learned how to "negotiate" --- I think the word is "haggle!" --- and had ended up paying only about 10% of original asking prices!

So, perhaps he's still buying souvenirs, or racing round Cairo in a dusty taxi or, even, climbing a pyramid?

**************

Speaking of pyramids.........

(and that's a very far stretch, for a seguay to a Hallowe'en Tale!)



In 1926, two Columbiad Cannons and eighty ten-inch cannonballs were placed in Monument Park - the artillery in a pyramid, as seen above. They were given to the scrap metal drive in WW II, but just before then, according to Mr. Roger Gates, this is what happened one Hallowe'en - hastening to add that he himself was much too young, at the time, to have taken part in the prank!

Anyhow ................ a group of lads, wandering through the village looking for a chance to create some excitement, decided to go bowling: not regular "bowling," of course, but - rather - to roll the cannon balls down the hill toward Main Street and see how many cars they could hit with them!

It didn't take long for motorists to go into retaliatory action and send straightway for the Police - in this case, Chief Bissell - who arrived in timely manner in his own automobile. He recognized the lads, of course, but before removing them from the scene, he gave them a short "talking to" and suggested that they roll the cannon balls back up the hill and place them as they had been at the start of the activity. (If a 6.5" cannonball weighs 38 lbs, a 10" ball weighs considerably more!)

Rebuilding the pyramid may have taken quite a while and, presumably, a sizable crowd gathered to watch! But then came the worst part of the boys' humiliation: Chief Bissell invited them to get into his car and ride with him. He delivered each boy to his parents along with an explaination of the miscreant's recent actions!

Roger summed it up, saying: "Parents being parents, back in those days, reprimands weren't light, and any of the boys would have much preferred being sent directly to jail and kept there for a long, long time!" They never went "bowling" again.


***************



No change.



Have a good day, everyone!



No comments:

Post a Comment