[After a major computer crash and being without one for several weeks, thanks to my son-in-law Tosh and my son Geoffrey, the Potter County Journal is back. I don’t know if you missed reading it, but I missed writing it. This is the Journal I had ready to send before the crash for the week ending 10/13/24.]
There are some things I don’t usually share on this blog. I write about my day to day activities, what I’m reading, thinking, and listening to, the goings on in my family. I usually don’t write about politics directly, but I think you can tell where I stand on most issues without me being overly direct. I do write about my religion because it is why I do what I do every day and why I think the way I think. I like to keep some details of my life to myself and to those closest to me. But now and then, something I would not normally share affects my world to such an extent that there is no hiding it. This is one of those things. I’ve been dealing with some health issues for a while. It seems I might have prostate cancer. I’ve had blood tests and an MRI. I’ve started some therapies, changed my diet, and I’m taking supplements. I’m about to have a more conclusive test done. The results of that will determine the course of my life for the next long while. I share this, not to elicit sympathy or advice, but to let you know why, perhaps, I’m thinking the way I am and doing the things I’m doing. I can’t hide something this big.
I’ve confronted big health issues before. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance ten years ago and have been dealing with that. Diabetes runs in my family. My father and his father were diabetic. I’ve been more careful about my diet since then, with a few relapses, but I think I have that under control. And I have to deal with the normal things that come with growing older – eyes and ears that no longer work as well as they used to, muscles that tire quicker, the usual things common to man. Other than that, I don’t feel sick at all. This new problem, if it turns out to be one, will be the most serious thing I’ve had to confront so far. But I’m optimistic. I think I’ll be okay. Now, having shared that, I move on to the daily things that fill my life with meaning and happiness.
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| On my morning walk. |
I love my morning walks. The hour just before sunrise as the sky begins to brighten and then on through the moment that the sun comes over the hill and lights the trees in my yard is a sight I try never to miss. Monday was one of those sunrises that seemed like a perfect gift given just to me. It was me, and the sky, and the sunlight, and the trees all caught up together in a few moments of radiant bliss. It filled me with joy to be part of it. It was a blessing. It seemed to me that the whole of creation was caught up in a song of praise to its maker. I had to lift my voice and sing too as I stood in the midst of it. I sang:
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!
Join the great throng,
Psaltery, organ and song,
Sounding in glad adoration!
Praise to the Lord! Over all things he gloriously reigneth.
Borne as on eagle wings, safely his Saints he sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How all thou needest hath been
Granted in what he ordaineth?
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee.
Surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with his love doth befriend thee.
Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath breath, join with Abraham’s seed to adore him!
Let the “amen”
Sum all our praises again,
Now as we worship before him.
I kept on singing as I arrived at the barn to do the chores. The chickens didn’t seem impressed. They were only interested in their breakfast. I was still singing when I went to feed the pigs. They jumped from their bed when they heard my voice, but only because it meant that food was on the way. Appreciated or not, I had to sing.
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| It was a beautiful morning. |
The golden sunshine didn’t last long. By midmorning it had turned gray and overcast. But I had work to do, sunshine or not. My highest priority was apples. We had already picked seven bucketfuls to take to the cider mill, but that was not enough. The big King of Tompkins County tree, our main cider apple tree, needed to be harvested. I went out at 9:00 and started to pick. I quickly realized that there was no way we would be able to use all those apples. It was an embarrassment of riches. One of the huge low branches had broken under the weight of the fruit. The ground was covered with fallen fruit. I worked through the morning and into the afternoon, but there were still thousands of apples on the tree.
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| So many fallen apples! |
Later in the afternoon, the weather cleared and Stacey and Kurt joined me apple picking. It turned out to be a bigger job than we bargained for. After futilely trying to shake apples out of the high branches ourselves, we came up with the idea of using Kurt’s tractor to do it. He brought his tractor over and Stacey climbed into the tree and fastened a strap around a branch that we then tied to the bucket of the tractor. Then Kurt shook the bucket, which shook the branch, and the apples came raining down. We went from branch to branch and it worked great until we moved to a big branch on the west side of the tree. We hooked it up and with one shake from the tractor, the whole branch snapped off. It turns out it had a rotten weak spot. Once it was down, we cleaned the apples off it and Kurt hauled it out to the big garden where it will be cut into firewood. That poor old tree! Two big branches broken off!
There was frost Tuesday morning. Reluctantly, I had to dig out my work gloves to wear when I went down to do the chores. That’s how it will be for the next long while. Once the sun is up, the frost vanishes and day warms, but not so much. From now on, hitting 60° will be considered a warm day. I like the crispness of autumn. That’s how it’s supposed to feel – weather meant for sweaters and jackets and gloves for the first time. It isn’t the numbing cold that comes later, just enough chill to make me appreciate things like the warmth of the kitchen when I come indoors and holding a mug of something warm in my hands. Comfortable cold.
I had a few errands to do that morning, a haircut, a trip to the feed store to buy hog feed. When I got home, Kurt was already working on removing the other broken limb. I went out to help. We cut it in pieces and hauled it out to the big garden with the other limb where they await transformation into firewood. Apple wood is a nice firewood. It gives off a pleasant sweet smell. We picked apples for a while and then Kurt had an appointment to go to, so we stopped.
While he was gone, I mowed the front yard. Earlier that morning, the township had gone down our road with a huge leaf blower and blown all the leaves in the road onto our front lawn. I was a bit miffed. I mowed up all the leaves and dumped them out in the big garden. Later that afternoon, when Kurt returned, we took up where we left off earlier. We used the same tractor-shake method to knock down apples. We tried to be more gentle this time, but we broke off another small branch. Later, Stacey and Hannah joined us when they got home from work. We gathered a lot more apples. When we were finished, we had twenty-six buckets and baskets of apples on the back porch and two full fifty gallon trash cans in the back of the pickup truck. Then Kurt, Stacey, and Hannah cleaned up all the apples on the ground under the big tree while I mowed the whole orchard. I cut the grass very short this time – the last time this year. At the end of the day, the orchard looked good. It is now ready for winter.
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| Our last picking. |
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| The orchard all cleaned up. |
Wednesday’s sunrise was mystical, or maybe mist-ical is a better term. There were low clouds and ground fog and when the sun finally began to break through, it was beautiful. When I went down to the beaver pond, I scared a group of about ten wood ducks that flew away. They are gathering now for their trip south. I spent that morning, as I did every morning last week, processing pumpkins. The only pumpkins I grow to eat are a variety called Winter Luxury, and they are luxurious. They are an heirloom variety dating back to 1893. They are a small pumpkin, only weighing about five or six pounds. The rind is orange, but covered with a netting like a cantaloupe. They have a small seed cavity and thick walls that cook down sweet and velvety smooth. They are the best pie pumpkin I’ve ever grown. I only have four more to do this week. As good as they are, I’ll be glad when I’m done. Midmorning, I went back outside and returned to the task of cleaning out flowerbeds.
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| Wednesday morning. |
We’d planned at first to go to the cider mill on Monday, but we weren’t done harvesting. After picking all those apples on Monday and Tuesday, we were finally ready to go on Wednesday. Kurt, Miriam, and I loaded all the buckets onto the bed of the truck that afternoon. We had a variety sure to give us a nice blend – Golden Russet, Calville Blanc d’Hiver, Jonagold, Sweet Sixteen, Roxbury Russet, and King of Tompkins County. As soon as Stacey and Hannah got home from work, we went. I love going to the cider mill. We go to Lain’s up in Canesteo in Steuben County, New York. Lain’s has been pressing cider since the 1960s. When we got there, we loaded our apples onto an old wooden conveyor that took them into the mill, washed them, ground them to mash, and dropped the mash onto the press. It’s fun to watch the process. It seems like an art form the way they layer the mash in cloth lined wooden frames, then remove the frames, and press them. The mash from our apples filled four frames. Watching the press push the layers up and the cider start to flow is exciting. The cider drains into a pan and then flows through tubes into a tank and then through a UV filter and into jugs. We got fifty-five gallons of cider, more than we’ve ever pressed. I’m supposed to avoid sweet things right now, but I couldn’t resist taking a drink of that cider. After all the work I put into it, I felt entitled to it. It is delicious – sweet but not too sweet, with a bit of tang, some tannic hints, and wonderful dark apple-ness. When we got home, we had to find places to store all that cider. Some went into the Shillig’s extra freezer and refrigerator. Some went into our freezer. Sarah and Tosh have an empty freezer at the house they are moving into so we filled that too.
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| A truck full of apples. |
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| A truck full of cider. |
Thursday started out cold and dreary. I spent the morning processing pumpkins and listening to music. It was nice to spend the morning in the steamy kitchen with Brahms. I always listen to Brahms in the fall. For some reason his music sounds autumnal to me. Finally at noon the sun broke through, although it didn’t warm things up much. I went out and kept working on clearing out flowerbeds. That went on until dinnertime.
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| Processing pumpkins. |
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| Smooth pumpkin puree. |
At our house we like to think we are tough and we pretend that we don’t light the furnace until the beginning of November. But looking back over these Journals, I see that it isn’t so. I usually mention lighting it in mid-October. One especially chilly year we lit it at the end of September. On Thursday, after she got home from work, Stacey, who takes charge of the interior temperature, lit the furnace. I came in from working outdoors and immediately smelled the “we just lit the furnace for the first time” smell. The weather has been chilly and the house was cooling down to the point where we had to put the thick blanket on the bed and wear a sweater inside the house. I like and dislike having the furnace lit. I like having the house at a comfortable temperature. I dislike admitting that the weather has gotten so cold so soon.
On Friday we were given a rare treat. We got to see the Aurora Borealis! Usually when an aurora is expected, our sky is cloudy, but this time it was clear. We stood out in the cold and watched in awe as the sky shifted through shades of pink, red, and green.
On Saturday, our niece Emma and three of her friends, Brittany, Hannah, and Hailey, arrived to spend a few days with us. They came to work, and work they did. As soon as they got here, they got to it. It was a beautiful day and we spent it working in the garden. We planted garlic. We raked and prepared beds for next year. We had a great day and got a lot done.
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| Planting garlic. |
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| Emma, Brittany, Hannah, and Hailey. |
