Someone suggested (tongue in cheek) over at my farm and family blog Musings at Windyridge, that I should start an LOL Sheep site similar to to LOL Cats. I would start with this submission. Any titles folks?
Filed under: Farm on May 8th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When people think of New York city what do you think comes to mind initially? Skyscrapers, traffic, noise, museums and such, right? But did you know that the city has a goldmine of flora and fauna that most people don’t realize exists? It’s true. The natural resources in all five boroughs are covered in this excellent book that I discovered being reviewed in one of the blogs that I regularly read. For just an example, the city is home to painted turtles and American eels. The book is called Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City
Filed under: Places on May 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
When we were planning our move to New York we looked at a lot of things to determine what part of New York we wanted to move to. In order to get an idea of a place, we ordered the newspapers. That gave me the idea to share some of them with you if you are considering a move to this area. It’s also a good way to find a job which is exactly how my husband found his. Click on the link for a list of Upstate New York Newspapers.
We also wrote to the schools and got their newsletters. Soke school districts are better than others. Home insurance rates also vary by locality, so click on the link home insurance to shop around for those and see how areas differ from each other. Believe it or not there can be quite a difference. Our boat was mistakenly insured in the town we live in. When we changed it to the town where it resides our rates went up. I know it’s not a home but the same kind of thing happens with houses.
Filed under: Misc on May 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
We have a very old home theater system that has outlived it’s life because we have upgraded everything else in our media center. It’s not a bad system and has 5 speakers and a subwoofer. It sounds pretty good but it takes forever to load a CD or DVD, has some quirky functions and is old fashioned technology. Now we have a new 45 inch Vizio LCD TV which we love. We bought this at Sam’s Club on a whim believe it or not. We go to this discount store that has several locations in New York, to do our food shopping occasionally and to stock up on staples. So why have super quality HD TV without the amazing sound to go with it? This was my thinking anyway when I surfed on over to Buy.com to see what weekly deals they had going on. I was very surprised when I saw an external 500G hard drive listed there for only $80! It is so tempting because I have a lot of music and video on my current overflowing hard drive. My husband would kill me though. But I am getting sidetracked, which is easy to do with all the good stuff calling out to me. I tore myself away from the deals and headed on over to the entertainment systems and saw this home theater system that looked exactly like what I was looking for. It’s a Harmon Kardon brand system. Seems like a great Father’s Day Gift!
I like shopping online because of the ridiculous gas prices (and still rising) and I especially like Buy.com because of the great deals, huge selection, customers reviews and the excellent customer service. Here in the hills of the Otselic Valley, in Central New York, I am not very near many of the major outlets so online shopping is the way to go for me.
Filed under: Misc on May 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
The boys successfully installed the ceramic gas fire logs over the weekend in the cabin but had an unpleasant surprise when they found that the hot water line had burst. I guess some moisture was left in the line when we winterized it last year. So we picked up some PEX tubing which is much better than what we had anyway, because it expands quite a bit so that the chances of it bursting next winter are much smaller. Otherwise the cabin was intact and the dock was still on the bank where we left it. Check out this photo I found of the outdoor lighting we purchased for the dock. They have a lovely soft orange glow don’t they, and they provide just enough light to see what we need to see. They are solar lights of course.
Filed under: Misc on May 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
I was asked to review MP3 Rocket. This is a site that allows you to view movies, TV shows, play games and to download thousands of MP3 music files, all free of charge. You have to download their software first and then you can choose certain customizations such as installing a toolbar for easy access but I chose not to install that. I admit I was a little nervous about Adware and Spyware so I ran Spybot and Windows Defender after the installations and nothing came up. One of the features I liked was that you basically have Fox TV on demand. This made my son very happy because he watches “House” but cannot watch it on his room TV because he does not have a cable hookup. He does have a computer though. He also likes the idea of free music downloads being a teenager of limited means.
Filed under: Misc on May 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
Image via WikipediaThe initials FFA used to stand for Future Farmers of America but now they doesn’t stand for anything, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a very worthwhile organization because it is. I highly recommend it to any student who is lucky enough to have the organization in their school. You learn real world skills not just limited to farming, such as parliamentary procedures, Robert’s Rules and public and extemporaneous speaking, to name just a few. My son just returned from the New York State FFA Convention in Canton and was our school delegate. He loved it and is thinking about running for district president. News from our school’s FFA is here. along with a photo which my son is in. He told me that the National FFA President gets to meet the President of the United States. It’s a pretty important, thriving group of students. The only downside was that they missed two days of school (well downside for the parent anyway) and they stayed in some really cheap hotels. But all in all it was a great experience for him.
Related Links:
New York State FFA
National FFA
Filed under: Events, Misc on May 5th, 2008 | No Comments »
I order a fair amount of merchandise from Amazon and I am also an Amazon affiliate so I was really displeased to hear the latest news. New York has decided in it’s eminent wisdom to charge sales tax to all New York residents on Amazon sales . How can they do this if there are no bricks and mortar Amazon stores in new York you ask? Well New York says that affiliates count as bricks and mortar stores because they have a physical presence in the state. Personally I think that is a load of bull because bricks and mortar implies physical customer traffic and I can tell you my customers don’t set foot in my “store”. New York is so desperate for more cash in the kitty that they have tried this latest ploy and Amazon is not just sitting back. They are suing. Sure I can sell anything from pens to perfume but that does not make me a store in the physical sense of the word and New York is stretching it a bit.
Filed under: Misc on May 5th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
| June 5-8 | The Yacht Show at National Harbor National Harbor, MD http://www.yachtshownh.com |
| June 6-8 | Canal Days Festival Fairport NY http://www.fairportcanaldays.com |
| June 14-15 | Cape Cod Life Boating Expo Hyannis MA http://www.capecodlife.com/boatshow2008/index.html |
| June 21-22 | Crafts at Rhinebeck |
| Duchess County Fairgrounds | |
| Rhinebeck NY | |
| http://www.craftsatrhinebeck.com/ | |
| June 21-22 | The Clearwater Festival |
| Croton Point Park, Croton, NY | |
| http://www.clearwater.org |
Filed under: Events on May 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We’re opening up the cabin this weekend and haven’t been up there since October. The upper bunk in one of the bedrooms needs to be lowered so people don’t keep on smacking their heads on the ceiling. I suppose platform beds would have been better but space is limited, hence the bunks. Hopefully the dock is still there!
It has spent the winter laying on the hillside, tied to a tree so it doesn’t slide down the hill, for winter storage. This is a tactic several hillside owners employ. It’s a floating dock made from virtually indestructible plastic. The whole thing is anchored by very heavy weights on the bottom of the lake. A floating dock was the only solution because the lake is so deep. They are very expensive but they last forever.
Filed under: Misc on May 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I have to admit, this particular ram lamb has carved out a space in my heart. He is like a puppy dog, he is that friendly and sweet. Isn’t he adorable? His name is Valentino because he was born on Valentine’s day. One of the nice things about being able to live in this part of New York is the ability to raise whatever animals you want. There is also minimum zoning which is mostly a good thing but can, at times, be a bad thing. You sometimes end up with residents having front yards looking like dumps. But it’s small price to pay for clean air, gorgeous countryside, no traffic lights, small schools and peace and quiet (as long as you don’t mind the occasional smell of manure!).
Filed under: Farm, Misc on May 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In typical Upstate New York style it’s 35 degrees, wet and miserable after several solid weeks of warmth and sunshine and bare feet. Doesn’t make me much feel like wearing a chemise to bed at night. And in that chilling vein I found these photos over at Sean Buckley’s blog and wondered the same thing he did. Are they real? Anyone know if the Falls did actually ever freeze?
Well I found the answers, believe it or not, at a Photoshop Forum.
“The American Falls have frozen over on six occasions since the keeping of records began. Each were attributed to ice jams that have actually curtailed the flow of the American Falls to mere trickles.”
“Unlike the Horseshoe Falls (which has never frozen over), the American Falls are susceptible to freezing because of the small amount of water flow.”
“The installation of the ice boom at the mouth of Lake Erie, the building of the International water control dam (which regulates water flow) and milder winters have all but eliminated the possibility of the American Falls ever completely freezing over in modern times.”
“The American Falls water flow was reduced to such an extent in 1909, 1936, 1938 and 1949 that it froze over.”
“The American Falls today receives only 10% of the total water flow. In the early 1900’s that flow was much less, perhaps only 5%.”
Related Post: Gorgeous Niagara Falls
Filed under: Misc, Places on April 29th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
In this area of new York State many people purchase tracts of land with the view to building a house or log home. There are innumerable recreational opportunities for sports such as hunting, fishing, horseback riding and boating and lots of people build themselves camps. There are a few options when building. Get an architect to draw up House Plans, draw your own Home Plans or just have a builder do the whole thing. Personally I like the idea of purchasing plans because it would be cheaper than an architect and designing my own home would be a little overwhelming. I think if I was building a camp I would look at Log home plans. I just love the look, feel and comfort factor inside those types of homes. We already have a cabin in Black lake but it’s 45 years old and one day we hope to tear it down and build something new.
Filed under: Misc on April 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
One of the ways to beat the short growing season in Upstate New York is to start vegetables and plants indoors. This year I was bound and determined to do just that. I started cabbage, tomatoes, cauliflower and cucumbers indoors and only heirloom varieties because I plan on harvesting the seeds afterwards. I put one tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket yesterday so that I can easily bring it in at night and whenever it’s chilly. My experience has been that you are just wasting your time by planting them outside too early as they just sit and sulk. Then you have the added burden of covering them each time there is a frost. Heck we even have a frost or two after May 31st! I planted lettuce in the garden last week and a few marigolds on the front porch yesterday. The porch overhang will protect the plants from frost. And that will be it until this cold snap passes. Then a few more plants will go out on the porch and the next phase of planting will be at the end of May.
Tomato plants started in peat
Peat tomato plant transferred to 5 gallon bucket with drainage holes and handle for ease of movement. This plant will stay in the bucket for the rest of the growing season.
Filed under: Gardening on April 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
Social networks are a very hot internet item these days. I am involved with very few social networks but the few I am involved with I like a lot. The new kid on the block looks pretty interesting so I think I will join 3gb community www.3gb.biz and check it out more fully because one of the things that distinguishes it from many of the other social networks is the ability to share music via their internet radio. I am already a huge fan of LastFM which is solely a music sharing, radio listening network. I love to listen to music and the fact is that there is rarely a time in this house or in the car that music isn’t permeating the air somewhere. I get almost as much joy out of sharing music as I do listening to it, so this sounds like a fun way to share tunes.
Filed under: Misc on April 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
Years ago when I lived in Florida, one of the more interesting things I did for entertainment was scuba diving. I joined a group of a divers that was interested in removing the pressure from the natural reefs by making our own artificial reefs and sinking them. The obvious choices were old boats that would make good diving wrecks, and one year we even sunk an old marine oil rig platform. It was fun to sit on the platforms right after we sunk them and then go back to them again a year later and find ourselves surrounded by fish and all kinds of sea life that had made their homes in the “reef”. Sinking boats was more fun because we got to watch the coast guard blow them up!
New York City is donating old subway cars to Delaware with the same purpose in mind as we had. But instead of boats or oil platforms they are sinking old subway cars to be used as artificial reefs for the marine life off the coast. “The reef is currently composed of 714 cars and continues to grow, creating a thriving community in what was once an underwater desert”.
source: Inhabitat Photo credit: Tim Shaffer
Filed under: General, Uncategorized on April 25th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
My son’s band, incorrectly titled the Danny Larkin Band, will be playing in a concert in our local town park over the summer. The poster lists all the events that are taking place in this summer arts series. The band is actually named Pariah and you can hear one of the tunes they wrote at their Pariah MySpace page. The members rage in age from 13 to 18 and both of my sons are in it.
If you find yourself in this area over the summer, come on over to the town park and join us! For event listings and details on Pariah click here.
Filed under: Arts, Entertainment, Events, Misc on April 23rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Here in the Otsleic Valley we use these kinds of herd dogs for Angora goats!
Seriously though, this chocolate lab does get the idea behind herding and will often head off stray sheep as well when we move them from pasture to pasture. It’s just something he picked up along the way. We never formally trained him or anything.
Filed under: Photos on April 23rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Shopping for a shower stool doesn’t have to be boring. There is a whole industry built around stools of all kinds. Just check this one out with it’s New York theme. It never ceases to amaze me what designers can come up with no matter what the item. Here at home we have 4 cherry bar stools that are very pretty. They are used at our kitchen breakfast bar.
Filed under: Misc on April 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
One of the downsides of living in a very rural area is the questionable character of a lot of people. One might say well those kinds of people exist everywhere. True they do, but they tend to concentrate in areas like this because often it is less regulated by zoning laws and it’s cheaper to live here. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reputable wonderful people here too but lately the vermin have crawled out of the wood work. Just this past few weeks, a family had their teenage daughter arrested for DWI while her boyfriend who is renting a house up the road here got arrested for possession of marijuana. With “high” drivers permeating the back roads I better get a life insurance quote again. The good news is that the smoker got evicted but not before he managed to log much of the wood off the property that had been lovingly tended by the previous owner. And then there’s the illegal junk yard up the road….
Filed under: Misc on April 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
