Challenges to Overcome

I try to post only positive things, but this is an update of sorts on the rock garden. I'm trying to get it all weeded one last time this month, before winter.

But, I am definitely going to have to fence this somehow next spring.

Something has been eating plants. A lot of plants. I don't think they've killed anything for good yet, but it's fairly serious. Here's one that the damage shows well for the camera.

This one is not a succulent, and the entire top is eaten out of it. Non-discriminatory munching.

An awful lot of plants have been nipped or pulled up.

I've been suspecting the woodchuck, but this next issue has me annoyed and perplexed. A lot, I mean a LOT of the plant stakes are broken in two. Notice this one is in 3 pieces. I want you to know that I ordered these stakes because they are heavier plastic. I was tired of the thin stakes disintegrating in the sun. But I was having problems believing that a woodchuck would do this.

What the heck? Well, I should have guessed. Look who is grazing on the rock hill.

Why haven't I had this problem before? We always had a dog when I was previously working very hard on this garden. I didn't go away for a whole month at a time, either.

So, come spring, there is going to have to be a solution. The bird netting I put around the front garden worked quite well, although it was broken down when I got home from the past month. Thankfully, things that got eaten in September should be OK in the spring. The netting doesn't look totally ugly either. It does make it a lot harder for me to get in and out of the gardens, but that can be worked with.

Just in the unlikely case that you don't recognize those dainty footprints, it's the deer that are playing havoc with my efforts.

In other news, I edited, I did some stuff for NCTA, and I worked on the rock garden.

See Rock Garden Report 7

Back to the Bells

With not nearly enough practice, I rejoined bell choir this morning.

Some of my fellow bell ringers were not about to let me get away with a picture alone.

It was surprisingly satisfying to be back, and everyone was really happy to see me. I have certainly missed the music.

I didn't do anything this afternoon. I rested. That was the secondary theme of the sermon this morning, and I'm not sure if I took that to heart or if I just needed to have a day off. Anyway, that's what happened.

See Last Bell Choir for a While

Seven Sisters

It's nice that the title has a familiar ring to it. Seven Sisters roses, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the seven stars in the Pleiades, the seven sisters colleges in the Northeast...

But thanks to Diane Nelson, my "new" friend from Interlaken (who found Ada for me a few years ago), I really do know seven sisters. OK, I only know (knew) two of them, but I now know who they are.

Remember Jack, my dad's adoptive father? Here he is with Grandma Leary, his wife, and my dad at about age 14. So the picture is from about 1918.



The day I hiked with Diane this summer, we were just talking about things and people I remembered from the home town. I was commenting that I know absolutely nothing about Jack O. Leary. But I did remember that we often visited the Beach and Sager families.

Diane can't resist a good knotty puzzle. She immediately began hunting for Jack's obituary. It turns out that Grandpa Leary, Jack, was from the next village south. He had seven sisters. Two of them lived in my home town, and we visited them regularly. I called them Aunt Rose (and Uncle Guy), and Aunt Cora (and Uncle Levi). But I had no idea they were actually related (not by blood, but by adoption). Children called adult family friends aunt and uncle all the time. I don't think I have a single picture of any of these people (although, now that I say that, there is a suspicion I might have a picture of Cora and Levi somewhere).

Dad particulaly liked Cora and Levi. They were farmers, and Dad always said they were very kind to him as a boy. My fictional character of Cora is partly based on this Cora- in looks, not by interests.

Anyway, here is the list, as much as Diane could put together.

My adoptive greatgrandparents: John and Rosa O'Leary came from Ireland and lived in Covert, NY. This confirms my long-time speculation that Jack was second-generation Irish.

Children:
Sarah b. 1863; d. Aug 9, 1915; m. Sylvester Neal
Bridget b. about. 1865
Johnie/John/Jack b. September 1866; d. Feb 9, 1943; m. Frances Bullivant; adopted Ray
Margaret/Maggie born about. 1867; m. Jack Dempsey (Washington DC)
Mary A. b. about 1869; m. Bert/Burt Murphy; son Earl
Rose Ellen b. July 25, 1871; d. Jan 16, 1953; m. Guy E. Sager; grandson Don (deaf)
Theresa b. ?; m. Charles VanVleet
half sister Katherine Alcora/Cora b. 1880; d. June 16, 1963; m. Levi Beach

So, the children spanned 18 years, and I suspect Cora was a Leary with a different mother. Perhaps Rosa was just tuckered out from all those kids, and died.

Just to make it look more like a family, here are the kids' names in order: Sarah, Bridget, Johnie (grandpa Leary), Maggie, Mary, Rose Ellen, Theresa, Cora. The name Alcora is new to me, but it turns out to be a girl's name with Scottish roots- surname Alcora seen in the late 1800s. Social Security shows no one with that first name in the past 100 years! So, perhaps John's second wife was Scot. Other than Cora, the rest is a standard collection of Irish names. Top o' the evenin' to ya!

I edited, I worked on some other stuff, I walked to town to do errands.

See The Jack that Built the House

Clammy Ground Cherry Bounty

You might remember that in one of the rock garden posts I said there were several Clammy Ground Cherry plants growing, and I was going to leave them for now since they are native. I did leave them. They matured and got leggy as I knew they would, but it was fine to have them there for this year.

I've shown pictures of the whole life cylce of this plant before because it's such a fun little find- see links below.

The best part, for me, is that I harvested 6 fruits yesterday. Here are 3 of them, still in their pods.

And what did I do with them? I put three on yesterday's dinner salad, and three on today's! Yum, yum. The little balls- these are the fruits, and the inside looks just like a tiny tomato- same family. They aren't quite ripe- they would turn golden, but you can eat them anyway, and they taste about the same. They are sweet and tart at the same time. Each one is a little sticky on the outside. I usually find only one or two at a time and pop them like candy, but six seemed like a significant number, requiring me to treat it with respect.

I have seen big patches of them growing, but usually just a few plants in any one place.

It rained all day and was cold. I was tired. I managed to edit and do a few other things, but I also napped and read. Ho hum. It was that kind of day.

See The Secret of the Clammy Ground Cherry See The Secret of the Clammy Ground Cherry - Revealed

More Hiking Patches

One of these patches overlaps with the 2022 collection linked below, but it belongs in this set, so I've included it.

I did not even know that three of these existed! Here they are from left to right: Patch for hiking all the NCT in New York State. Not many people have this yet because of the issues of hiking through the Adirondacks. Mostly that's because of following the route.

Finger Lakes Trail Hike 50 patch. I applied for this one after doing 50 miles this year. Fortunately, the miles can be on a branch trail as well as the main trail. Marie and I did 57 miles of the Conservation Trail in September. I've gotten this patch for 4 years straight. That makes me pretty happy because I have to work at it to get to NY to hike that many miles there.

Pennsylvania Hike 50 patch. I did not know this existed either, but when I found out, I applied for it.

Then we skip to Michigan where the Chief Noonday Chapter gave me their patch. I'm not sure this is for hiking all their miles or not. However I did get the patch for doing that in 2021, when I went through on the big hike.

Next is the Jordan Valley 45o Chapter patch, and that specifically says that I've hiked all their 80 miles of trail.

On the right side is the Dakota Challenge Finisher patch which is for hiking all the miles in North Dakota. I may have showed you that one before.

Finishing this collection is the 2023 Hike 100 Challenge patch. Can't wait for the 2024 one!

And for my final "trick" here are a couple of fun pictures. This is Irene and me in our patch jackets in maybe 2002.

So, when I saw that Randall had also filled a jacket, the pose had to be recreated, right? This is last month in the Adirondacks.

There is one more VERY cool set that I have completed the requirements for, but haven't turned it in yet. You can be sure I'll show you when I receive them.

I edited. I took advantage of a nice weather day and did laundry and worked in the gardens. I actually got the hoses put away this year on a day when it was warm enough that they weren't stiff and impossible to coil. A few more decent October days would be great. If I can get the rock garden weeded one more time, I'll share. It's looking pretty good.

See Hiking Patches 2022