Acorns and KitKat

I have several unrelated topics to go over this time. Acorn season has arrived, reclusive KitkKat is spending more time in open areas of the house, I attended a community dinner party, and more firewood was obtained. Lets get into it!

Acorns have begun to fall from our oak trees. It seems early for this to happen, but there it is. Many of the acorns are green and still in their caps but many more are ready for us to harvest. (We put them in our squirrel feeder during the winter months.)

Inside the house, our oldest feline, KitKat, has been spending more time in the library, sleeping on chairs and the sunny window sill. This is a bit of a change, as she has historically been the most reclusive of our cats. KitKat was good friends with our late dog JoJo and, I believe, has been missing her doggie companion this past year. Although Pam can occasionally pet KitKat, I have no such privilege.

Here is KitKat sleeping on one of the chairs in the library.

Our propane and local agricultural supplier held a community “thank you” dinner last week and I attended. Much of the community showed up for the free meal (after calling in a reservation). The food was basic, but good. I had the large turkey sandwich; the other option was a rib-eye steak sandwich.

I had success in my ongoing attempt to procure more firewood for Felicity and Peter. As mentioned before, a neighbor had a couple trees taken down and left in a pile in his yard. I had asked if I could reclaim the good firewood and the answer was yes. This week I finished going through the pile and stacked up more wood along the east garage wall. Now I need to split the larger stuff before taking it to New York this fall.

It probably is not cost effective for me to haul firewood that far, but it will save Felicity and Peter some money and Pam and I will know they have the best quality firewood one can have, old growth red oak and ash. The local stuff Felicity purchased last fall was OK but not top of the line. (It was mostly left-over pieces of wood from a local barrel making company, we were told.) I re-split some of it during my last visit, as some pieces were too large for their wood burning stove.

These are photos of my most recent load of wood and the pile along the garage. Note: Some of the chunks were too large to handle without being cut in half lengthwise. Those rounds are at the rear of the trailer photo below..

A medical note: I am scheduled for a colonoscopy on September 3rd. Not looking forward to it.

There is much color around the yard at this time. The sunflowers, phlox, Grandpa Otts, geraniums, hydrangea, and marigolds are all at their height. Here are a couple photos taken Friday, August 21st.

Some family news to report: Pam’s sister, Becky, in conjunction with her daughter Caitlin and Caitlin’s partner Neno, are moving into a recently-purchased up-and-down duplex in St. Paul, Minnesota. Good news for them – it being Caitlin’s and Neno’s first home – but we’ll miss having Becky near us.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

[OK, I’m kinda crazy. Planning for the holiday cards is in the initial stage already. The earlier I start, the more intricate the card can be.]

Re: Himself’s firewood activities, I hated to see such high quality/old growth oak and ash hardwood potentially being thrown out here in Elma (after various tree cutting projects in the neighborhood). Himself has historically enjoyed cutting and splitting firewood. I consider firewood prep his hobby. So, even if local NY firewood deliveries for Felicity might be less $$$ overall than driving this wood to her location, the quality of the Midwest wood plus Himself’s enjoyment appears to be “the thing.”

Rock on.

Today’s Humor: