I kicked some serious tail...

So I gave two lectures/workshops this past month. One was 'Growing Tree
Fruit in the Home Orchard' on Feb 28 for the VT Master Gardener Class.
It was given over Vermont Interactive Television to maybe 250 students
around the state. From my start time to about 15 minutes past my slot, I
fired away and nailed it. These folks better be impressed, and they
better know their apples now.
I also gave a hands-on (meaning my hands on the tools with everyone
watching) workshop to the Friends of the UVM Hort Farm (which I manage)
and the Vermont Association of Professional Horticulturalists on Pruning
Mature Apple Trees. I've given a few workshops to growers on pruning
and training managed trees, but this time I got to do my stuff on an 80+
year old tree that hadn't seen a saw in who knows when. So I talked and
whacked for a spell, pretty impressed with myself for keeping my breath
during those big saw cuts.
(Hand pats self on back)
TB

Wicked good soup

For our fist day both back at work we through together a crock pot soup
to have ready for us when we got home. It was a veggie minestrone, and
I must say it was pretty frickin' good.

TB

Alice first day care day

So it was Julie's first full day back at work, and Alice's first in day
care. After a funky morning, she (Alice) slept all the way to Chelsea
and apparently had a good day at daycare. Then my Mom picked her up for
the afternoon where she was a fussbucket, not letting herself be put
down at all. See mom, it's not all giggles and smiles!
Julie seemed to do pretty well through it all, considering it was her
first time dropping Alice off with a bunch of strangers.
Back at it again tomorrow....
TB

Quiet weekend

Yesterday Julie's work friends Ann and Jeanne came over for a visit. I
cut some firewood until I snapped my chain. I'm pretty hard on saw
chains, seem to go through one a year.
Today we just did domestic stuff, getting ready for Julie's first full
day back and Alice's first real day at day care tomorrow. My Mom will
take her for the afternoon, so it's not so bad, but Julie in particular
is a little antsy about it. Wouldn't you be?

TB

Julie's first day

So I'm home today, my regular Wednesday off. It's Julie's first day
back at work and she's easing into it. She called earlier and seemed
okay, we'll see what next week has in store when day care comes into
play.The nice thing is she works Mon-Weds, and I work Mon-Tues and
Thurs-Fri. That way Alice is only in care two days a week. The day
care is in Chelsea, just up the road from work and near my mom who will
be taking her some part-days. I think it will work out fine.
My day with Alice has consisted of feeding and changing, of course,
boogeying to the Beatles, playtime on the mat, and a couple of catnaps
(for her). Not a bad day, I'd say, and it's not even noon yet.

TB

Spam, bots, WTF??

So my crappy little website, lostmeadowvt.com, has been online maybe a
month. While I have a link to my email on there nowhere do I write it
in text, to try and prevent spambots form picking it up. I registered
the site with Google and Yahoo as well as some 'lesser' directories. So
what happens? Google doesn't have it in their database yet, and yahoo
has the front page but hasn't indexed it. Meanwhile, I'm getting a
bunch of frickin' spam already on my brand new account. Spammers need
to be whooped.

Spring is coming....

I was out pruning last week during a gorgeous run of weather, trying
to catch up after taking off a good chunk of the winter. As I'm
whacking away at the trees, I could have sworn I heard geese. With a
quick search overhead, lo and behold I saw a flock flying to the
northeast. Yeah, spring is on it's way, even though a bit of cold
weather is certainly still to be had.
Another sign is the lengthening of the days. Even with my long days
at work I still get home to a bit of sunlight around 6:15. And that
sun is getting stronger. On Tuesday I burnt my nose a bit, looking
up into the tree canopy. I could feel Wednesday morning that the
skin was a little leathery; by Friday it peeled some but in a weird
way. It turned reddish and blotchy, much like an old drunk's gin
blossom. It's pretty well healed up now, but take note: wear your sunscreen!

TB

Sunshine and Cooing

It was simply a gorgeous day, sunny and in the mid-forties, so afetr I
pruned some neighborhood trees in the morning our friends Nicole and Jay
came over and we walked up the hill along the skidder track to Long
Meadow Pond. Alice had a great time strapped t my chest in the Bjorn.
She slept for some of the walk but for a good bit of it she smiled and
looked around.
When we got back and J&N left we sat with her while she had a wicked coo
session. She was just full of consonantless sounds, her own little
words. I tried to catch some lofi video, but she got grumpy.

TB

New Tunes this week

So Christmas is finally over. I cashed in some gift cards at Barnes and
Nobles for some new tunes. Damn, are cd's expensive there, and I guess
at most places. Anyways, six cd's, one hundred bucks. I read an
article in some music mag (Paste?) about the 'fifty quid bloke', the guy
who goes into a record (sorry, DVD/CD) store every couple of weeks and
drops fifty pounds, or about a hundred bucks. Seems that record
companies consider this consumer to be the saviour (get it?) of the
industry. In America, I guess that would be a 'hundred buck chuck'. My
brother would probably fit into that category. Anyway, my haul:

Ray Davies, Other People's Lives. This is really what I went in for.
After the last few Kinks albums being a bit on the weak side, I have to
say that this debut solo album is pretty damned fine. Imagine Ray's
thoughtful insights on life to a more modern (not Modern) backing.
Seems his dalliance with Yo La Tengo paid off for us all, musically,
while his songwriting is as strong as ever. This also makes me realize
how much my pal Charlie Messing's songs remind me of Ray's.

Neko Case, Blacklisted and Tigers have Spoken. The studio album and
live followup from this great firehead alt-country queen. The opening
track on Tigers, "If You Knew", is worth the whole cd.

Minus Five, Posthumous, etc... The name of this one's a little wordy,
and it's upstairs, but it's their early 2006 release. Great Beatles
meets Gram Parsons in an alley behind a whiskey joint sort of stuff.

Jeff Buckley, Grace. Yeah, I know it's an instant classic, especially
since the guy died before putting anything else out. Great vocals,
although over-the-top bombastic in many parts. I'll have to let this
one stew a little.

Old 97's, Drag It Up. Return to their alt-country rots after flirting
with mediocre pop. On first listen I missed the driving rhythms and
quirky wordplay of classics like 'Big Brown Eyes', 'Victoria', and
others from pre-1997. Second spin I realized that they were back in the
venue, just a bit more mature. Pretty good listen.

All for now.

TB

Alice in a funk, but happy

So Alice has been in a funk this past week. She started with a fever of
101 on Sunday 2/26, and Monday we brought her to the doc. She never had
another fever all week but she hasn't eaten much and has puked a bit.
She's turning a corner, though. After another visit to the doc
yesterday she was given a fairly clean bill of health, probably just a
GI virus. No fever or dehydration, thankfully. She's been happy as a
clam through it all, smiling and sleeping well, except for last Tuesday
when she was a real cranker. Here's a pic from her bath today.

TB