Wow, what a beautiful day yesterday was.  78 degrees.

Pam and I took advantage of the nice weather to haul some trees from over the bank to our "2015 firewood pile" and "2015 polebarn pole pile".

This is the top of the tree that whacked me upside my head and broke my neck.  The little one on the right.  It broke off when we tried to haul it up the bank.  Revenge is sweet.

Bessie the Tractor is awesome.  This little tractor was actually able to pull those trees up a hill, where Pam unhooked the chain or rope and I pushed them on a pile with Bessie's front bucket.

My old friend (emphasis on old) Bob commented yesterday about the danger of a spark from our bonfire igniting the woods.  This is where we have our bonfires.  A spark would have to travel a long way!

A very rare photo of Olivia napping.  99.99% of the time on our property, she's running all over the woods hunting.

Today we're picking up an old Troy Built model Horse rototiller from our friends Jim and Laurie.  We'll haul it in the horse trailer.  That's also a handy thing, that horse trailer.  Besides horses and hay, it hauls anything that fits.

Bonfire

I think that one of our favorite things to do on our little slice of the Adirondacks is to have a bonfire.  Pam and I had lots of paper stuff to burn, which we do instead of putting it out in the trash, where it would help fill in the county landfill.

We can burn some serious logs with all this paper.

Critter Tracks

The other day, Pam was crop dusting.  Not with an airplane, and not with insecticide, but with ashes from our wood stove.  Pam read somewhere that ashes are great for berry plants, and so dumped a bucket of them on her blueberry bushes.

This is Sassy the Cat.  Since she had kittens and after we got her spayed afterwards, she turned from all fangs and claws into a normal, lovable house cat.  She's almost at the pain-in-the-neck stage.

Our time here on the mountain is winding down, and it is time to start getting things ready for winter.  I used the post hole digger to drill the garden.  Drill the garden?  Yep.  The post hole digger also brings rocks up to the surface (when it is not breaking shear pins).  We're expanding the garden next year and I'm getting it ready to rototill.  Its easier to replace shear pins than tines.

The post hole digger is heavy and I wanted to keep it vertical.  I set it on a pallet, and used another pallet with hay baling twine from end to end to keep it vertical.  All I need to do next is to unpin it from the tractor's three point hitch.  Which I did.

Well, it didn't work exactly as planned, but it worked.

While sitting on the deck with  Earl and Bill, quaffing a few victory beers after cutting down some trees (yes, I did), I noticed animal tracks on the new deck.  

They look like cat tracks, but smaller.  Much smaller.  Judi's cats are all pretty big, so it might be a stray.  Maybe its the Bleecker Sasquatch's pet.  And no, the game camera pointed at the well for the past week hasn't picked up anything but dogs and cars.

Rainbow!

The day started off like all the others.  The dogs sleep soundly until 8 AM or so, when Olivia the German Shorthaired Pointer decides she needs to go outside and bark at things.

We ran some errands off the mountain, as we often do, and then returned to the Unabomber Cabin.  The three dogs act as if we've been gone for months, greeting us with wagging tails and kisses.  They then look at us with great anticipation.  Are we going to the property?  Are we?  Are we going to get in the car and go to the property?  Huh?  Huh?  Huh?

Yes.

Ruby loves toys.  Anything will do.  Balls, old Mickey Mouse slippers, or even sticks (the bigger the better).

And Olivia, the hunting dog, hunts.  

We had some rain, and then the most beautiful, brilliant rainbow appeared for just a few minutes...

Just stunning...

And if you look closely at the photo above, you can see a double rainbow.

Bleecker Autumn

It was another gorgeous day in Bleecker today.  High 60s and sunny.  After lunch, I took myself and the dogs from our Unabomber Rental Cabin to our property, which has a nice view of the mountains across the valley.  But on leaving the cabin, I first had to put the tarp back on the well that Bigfoot removed.  Again.

Isn't that a nice view?  It will be better once I cut more of the trees.  We're leaving the big, full trees and cutting the tall scrawny ones.  This will enable the full trees to be even fuller.

Even though our leaves are past peak, it is still very colorful.  That's part of our driveway in the pic below.

.

Pam's blueberry bushes have pretty red leaves.

I just liked this shot of one of my rock walls, with the trees off in the distance.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be cool and rainy.  It will be a good day to stay home and watch movies.

The Gravel Scoop

I bought a gravel scoop for Bessie awhile back, but wasn't able to use it after my surgery.  My neurosurgeon said no tractoring.  Well, I'm scheduled to see him next week and I figure he'd give me the green light, and so I hitched it up.

The gravel scoop is, well, designed to scoop up gravel out of a pile.  That doesn't mean that it can't be used for other things.  Like rocks.

I spent a couple of hours driving Bessie around, tossing rocks into the scoop, and then dumping them where they needed to go.  One load went by the screen house where I needed rocks to close in under the deck to keep critters like skunks out...

and another went by my itty bitty stone wall to enlarge it into a little stone wall.

After two hours, I was whooped.  I stopped for a victory beer and to enjoy the fall colors.

Indian summer has been here for the past few days.  76 degrees at 2:30.

Those rocks should keep out everything but mice.  Mice can get in anywhere.

Little stone wall.

In another week or so, there won't be any leaves left on the trees.  They're coming down fast.

Friday will probably be another day on our land, putzing about.  The weather takes a turn for the worse on Saturday, with chilly temps and rain forecast.  It will be a stay-inside-and-watch-movies day.

Yesterday was Horse Sh*t

Yep.  Horse sh*t.  Literally.  Pam and I decided to clean Jerimiah the Horse's barn out of manure.   I drove Bessie the Tractor to Jeremiah's barn at Earl and Judi's place where the barn is and Pam shoveled the manure bucket full, and I drove it to our property where I dumped it where the garden will be expanded to next year.  About six loads.

Ruby thought it was a giant pile of dog treats.  Nope.  Don't know why. I suppose you have to be a dog.

Afterwards, Pam and I relaxed on our 5 foot extension on our deck...

admiring the view and the foliage.

This has to be the most beautiful place on the planet at this time of year.  Sadly, it is much too short, lasting only a couple of weeks.  By Columbus Day, the leaves will all be down and it will start being dreary.