Long Weekend in New York

Mrs and I left for New York on Thursday after work. She decided it was better to drive up at night and wake up there rather than wait to drive up on Friday and waste the day. She was so right! Of course, I avoid driving up there at night with the ever-present danger of deer running about. And this trip, we saw none. No deer! Weird. The place is infested with them! Our host has great and elaborate fencing around her gardens to keep them out. It could very well be a first. No deer.

So, I have posted pictures of The Barn before, but here it is again. I started going here sometime in the 1980s when it was a camp. It has served as a year-round residence.

We arrived around midnight and made our way into 'The Chapel' where our bed awaited us, along with an assortment of moths attracted to the small light that had been left on for us. We were in dreamland in no time.

We slept until around 9:00 and spent the day mostly inside and out of the rain. We did have some amazing rain and it was very nice to just sit and listen to the storms under the metal roofing.

Some shots from the garden after the rain.


Dickens in the herb garden.
Our host picked several baskets of peas. Mrs had crashed in The Chapel, and I helped shell peas. Great fun since I had none of my own this year, so far anyway.

Saturday was chicken processing day at Winters Grass Farm. On the way to Holland Patent, we stopped at Synakowski's Dairy.




The entrance to where you purchase your dairy products is through the small door in the center of the photo. Inside was an older gentleman with a large beard, wearing a straw hat along with fairly normal clothing you would expect on a dairy farm. He spoke rather loudly I assume because he was a bit hard of hearing. "How did you find us way up here?" after seeing my Massachusetts license plate. We bought milk, ice cream and I was really hoping for cheese curd. They didn't have plain curd, but we did get a package of hot pepper cheese curd which is very good.

We arrived about noon time at Winters Grass Farm as the processing was coming to an end. Jordan and a few other family members processed 125 birds. We were there for 16 birds and we bought our first 1/4 pack of brush hog pork. We jammed our coolers and headed back to The Barn to get everything into the freezer. I wanted to have the chickens frozen solid over the next couple days before the ride home.


That evening we drove north to visit a spot on the Moose River. Soon after I took this shot the sky opened up and we were in the midst of an amazing rain storm.

More to follow.