We've been watching the young robins on our lawn lately. They aren't pretty yet, but fun to watch.

Not much to report today. In spite of the forecast for 80-degree weather coming up this weekend, our temperature this morning is a firm 55 degrees with a southeast wind that adds to the chill but doesn't seem to do much about moving the clouds away. I think our house is set in a basin where the wind changes directions near the ground. The clouds are moving steadily from the north west, but our flag is definitely getting a southeast push. I'm never sure where the wind is coming from except when it comes right out of Walden, north of us. In West Danville, it always seems to be coming right down the pond and straight through town - either a north or northwest origin.

Here is an interesting article by local author, Peter Dannenberg, about Vermont's primary voting process and other interesting information. Take a look:
Dannenberg on the Primary

Fred took down a couple of trees at the edge of our lawn yesterday. A big ash had split in a wind storm last spring and had lodged in some smaller trees, missing our tractor shed by inches. Fred will use the ash for wood, but he's beginning to think about hauling the stacks of dried wood into our garage for the winter. The new supply of green wood will be coming soon. We didn't use as much wood last winter - probably because we didn't have any of those prolonged deep cold spells we usually have once or twice each winter. I think that will mean we won't get all the dry wood under cover, but that is ok. Hopefully we won't need to wade in the snow to reach it because we're having an unusually cold winter and used up our supply in the garage.

I'm watching our tomatoes as they ripen off. I'm getting a couple a day usually, which we can keep up with nicely. We only have four plants, so the supply will be manageable. The garden has been lots of fun this year and we've enjoyed the fresh veggies, planning menus around what is ready for harvesting. I'm going to have turnips for the winter, and possibly some beets. I am still scratching my head trying to figure out why I didn't plant carrots. They just aren't there. I did some dumb things this year, like planting garlic near the lettuce and now I can't find it, either. And the cucumbers have been frozen in time - they blossomed and the blossoms are still there, but there's been no change in the past month. It doesn't look good for cucumber pickles this year.