My Hermit Haven

 August 3, 2023

Good day ya'll, and what a pleasant Thursday it's shaping up to be, with the best weather of the year....70'ish, breezy and partly sunny. The weather report said cloudy all day, so I'm happy they were wrong, but man, I've always said that Meterology is the ONLY profession where you can be wrong half the time and still get paid! 

Not much to report today except for a few things....

The Electrician is coming today, to hook up the cabin, and then it's just a matter of waiting for CMP to come place a new pole and brace pole, down by the road. Then it's clean up time, chipping and burning the huge brush piles that the pole stumpers left. 

This is the view from the cabin....

..as you can see, lots of brush...someone is coming to get the big logs later, today, hopefully...

I will say that if you ever find yourself in Wilton, you really oughta head up Temple Road to see this quite delightful roadside attraction...

I am bemused by this because I have put out 4 boxes for my packages, since I've been staying here in Summer, and the Road crews have managed to break every single one of them. This fella has clearly gotten sick of having his mailboxes destroyed...lol If you find yourself here, stop by in the Evening and you'll likely find him on the porch, and he will give you the lowdown...it's quite a story and his to tell, so I will stop there.

As for me, I gotta skedaddle on account of our divas hating visitors and barking their little heads off.  I got lots of put off errands to run, which I hate, but which I just can't put off any longer....

So in closing, I would say: Be kind, always, and keep the faith, hey?

👀❤

My Hermit Haven

 August 2, 2023

Good morning from Hermit Hill this fine Wednesday. We got full sun here today, so charging I will be. Lol. (The gang for the chargers came yesterday, after the other one actually melted in the heat...who even knew that could happen? Shikes!) You can see the first one, below. I've only been charging one generator at a time, since that one went kaput, and it's a slowww game. Luckily, it's been partly sunny here, so I can get at least one of the two Rockpals up to 100% without too much trouble.

On the usual note, plant talk today is about galls masquerading as flowers. Ha, ha, ha, not really, but doesn't this little thing look like a miniature Maine Pineapple? I posted it on a FB Plant Id group before I went to bed last night, asking for some suggestions on what it could be. Well it musta' started a flame war, on account of I got a notice saying I got kicked out of the group. Lawdy, but those folks shore do be a bit crazzzy, don't ya know?

(Sorry about this centered text formatting, google is quite fussy, and won't let me select and left align, in the center of two photos....just one of the many reasons I find Google quite klunky).

In any case, the reason I even bothered, was because Plant Snap gave me a different answer for every picture and INaturalist couldn't even be confident enough to make a suggestion....grr. Well, for once, Google Image was on the mark and pointed me to Rabdophaga rosaria, which is a gall got from roses, that affects Camellia plants. It just so happens that this New Jersey Tea is sitting right behind an invasive rose, right behind the cabin, in a drainage ditch. One good thing about invasives, is that they aren't too fussy. lol

Anyhow, it's the first one I've ever seen and I find it quite fascinating.

Following up on yesterdays post, I did end up moving the two Catalpas further down the driveway, and geared them all out with fencing, flags and food, so they'd be all ready for winter and hopefully safe from varmints. Guess it depends on how much snow we get. I can't speak for mice, but maybe they like a clean smelling home as much as we do? Guess we'll see, hey?

I ended up cutting and cutting, on a Maple tree behind where I wanted to put the second Catalpa. Man, I am suitably impressed by just how much a Maple tree will sucker! As you can see, this stump that was cut for logs, sent out this incredible group of suckers. It was quite tall and shading the area, though, so out it had to go.  It won't be good for syrup in this condition, so I didn't feel too bad about offing it.  

I also did set up the mountain Ash's with as much of the same protections. I am really hoping they come back, as they are incredibly beautiful trees and it will be lovely to pull into the driveway and have that be the first thing to see. 

That's likely enough plant talk for today, so in closing, I will say: Be kind, always, and keep the faith! 

❤

My Hermit Haven

 August 1, 2023

Top of the morning to you, this very fine Tuesday morning. 

Today, I am going to be talking about "God Shots", otherwise known as miracles. I would say "tiny" miracles, but I just don't know if there are tiny ones...

In any case, the other day, at the end of the day, I went to empty out the camp sink, (which has two very small drainage plugs), unattended. Now, I usually put the plugs on the right hand side of the sink, (one of the built in blue drainers), in a plastic tray. Then I remove the dish drainer as well as the two blue pop off drainers that came with the sink, so I can do a more thorough rinse with the hose. Well, it was the end of the day and it was starting to sprinkle, so I was rushing camp chores, and just thought I'd let the sink drain on its own while I covered stuff up. 

Next thing I know, and quite in line with my terrible luck sometimes, there's a giant crash and I came back to the sink to find everything on the ground. A small part of me was thinking "oh, shit, now I gotta call Joolca to see if I can get those two tiny parts replaced. This is really gonna suck ass". I didn't get triggered as I normally would have, because I was just plain too tired, so I picked everything up and continued on with the chores, which included recycling this used water, to water plants with. (Raining or not, we don't waste water here). Well, maybe my luck improved because I saw something pop into the tire planter, and it was the rubber bung, so I reached into the bucket and lo and behold, the black screw piece was in there, as well!

Now, I realize you may have to take this on faith, but there is no probability that includes those two tiny pieces NOT bouncing all the way to Temple. 

There is at least 2-3 feet between the blue right hand tray, and the drainage bucket, also at least one corner to get around. When it happened I figured they rolled under the washing machine sitting on a pallet to the left of the sink, and I figured we'd likely find them when we tore out the setup for the digger. (We will be putting a 10' x 10' more permanent deck here, where the temporary pallets are, probably middle of month).

Well, I can't tell you just how improbable it is that they would be in the bucket, so I never even thought to check.....it just doesn't make a lick of sense they would have turned a corner, shot straight up in the air, and dropped in the drainage bucket. Defies all understanding of both gravitational law and physics. 

Here are the pics of the setup and the plugs....still blows my mind....

So on that note, I will close this post, with my usual advice to try and be kind always, as the laws of Karma WILL definately find you at some point. I have lived long enough to see bad karma catch up to everyone who has ever tried to do me wrong. And it's miracles such as this, that remind me I must surely be on the right path, with my life, finally. 

Much love and keep the faith, hey?🌝