Wed 8 Aug 2012
Posted by Bob under Chickens, Family and Friends, Hiking/Sauntering
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Above: John and family posing, eating, walking, reading, and (Calista) feeding crickets to the chickens during a visit in early August.
Above: Eleanor loving our chickens!
 
Above: Rafey Habib and family at Crabtree Falls and at Saunders during peach season.
Thu 2 Aug 2012
Posted by Bob under Appalachian Trail, Family and Friends, Hiking/Sauntering, Nature, Travel
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This post will mix reminiscences about three traverse attempts across the Presidential Range of New Hampshire’s White Mountains: a winter traverse with the Harvard Mountaineering Club way back in January 1963; a planned June 2007 traverse with five family members which an ill-timed accident prevented me from participating in; and the backpacking trip last week with my two sons Nic and Tim and their wives Alison and Megan. Each of these trips was interrupted by Mt. Washington’s famously bad weather, but with my climb over Mt. Pierce and up Mt. Madison with Nic (pictured above with Mt. Adams in the background), I finally completed the ascent of all the “president” Presidentials.
Origins
It seems almost insane in retrospect, but as a Harvard freshman with some hiking but no real mountaineering experience, I participated in what was then a Harvard Mountaineering Club (HMC) tradition: a winter traverse of the Presidential range at the end of January, in the break between semesters. My memories are a bit hazy, but I know that we hiked up to a cabin quite high on the side of Mt. Adams on the first day, and then continued, with snowshoes and crampons, the next day over the summits of Adams, Jefferson and Clay to the side of Mt. Washington, where we pitched tents outside the (boarded up) Lake of the Clouds AMC hut. I believe that we hiked up late that afternoon to the weather observatory on the summit of Mt. Washington, where the meteorologists, unused to visitors that time of year, invited us in for a short visit. It was a cold night back in our tents! The next day we continued on over the various summits to what was then called Mt. Pleasant (later renamed Mt. Eisenhower). Here we ran into a ferocious snow storm with very high winds, and we were literally blown off the mountain, making an unplanned descent of its eastern side. My main memory of that descent is crossing a field of young conifers on my snowshoes, and falling through the snow into the air pockets created by branches under the snow, getting the snowshoes tangled up in the branches. But somehow we made it through and out.
The 2007 Expedition
As noted above, I did not get to go on the 2007 hike, but it too was interrupted by bad weather. Having climbed the Mt. Webster-Jackson trail out of Crawford Notch, going over Mts. Webster and Jackson and staying at Mizpah Hut the first night, the group (Cally, Sylvia, Nic, Alison and Justin, along with Lee Spiller who took the picture above) had beautiful weather for the stretch along the AT onward to Lake of the Clouds Hut. But the next day (in June!) brought freezing temperatures, snow and sleet, and a decision was made to come down the trail that ends up at the cog railway station, not risking the very exposed route over the northern Presidentials to the Madison Spring Hut.
click here for a YouTube video of their second day
2012: A Detour and a Completion
This past week, our party of five followed the Crawford Path from Crawford Notch up to Mizpah Spring Hut and the AT, where we spent our first night. The next day, which started in the fog but cleared up nicely, we continued over Mts. Pierce, Eisenhower and Monroe and then on to Lake of the Clouds Hut, where we spent the night. Since Alison has led tours at President Monroe’s home, Ashlawn, climbing Mt. Monroe (5372′) was a special moment, and she was pleased that Mt. Monroe, with its two peaks, compares very well to the other southern Presidentials.
The next morning we hiked up to the summit of Mt. Washington, the highest mountain (6288′) in the U.S. northeast. The weather worsened at the summit, however, and after waiting two hours to see if it would get better (it didn’t), we reluctantly arranged to take a van down to our car at Pinkham Notch. We then drove around to the Valley Trail up to Madison Spring Hut (seeing a mother moose and her calf along the way). Coming on top of our climb up Mt. Washington in the morning, the hike up the Valley Trail proved to be an exhausting one (with a 3500 feet elevation increase), but we all made it while dinner at the hut was still in progress. In the morning, Nic and I climbed Mt. Madison, which along with Mt. Pierce, belatedly completed for me the Presidentials that the Harvard Mountaineering Club traverse had not covered. The weather partly cleared at the top, giving us beautiful views of the clouds below and the summit of nearby Mt. Adams. We all hiked out later in the afternoon and headed to my sister Eleanor’s place in the Catskills. Overall, a great trip, and my thanks to Nic and Tim for conceiving and organizing it.
click here for more pictures of the 2012 trip
click here to learn more about the AMC huts
Tue 10 Jul 2012
Posted by Bob under Farms and Food, Vegetable Garden
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After four solid weeks without a drop of rain (the wind storm described in my last post was completely dry), we had a good downpour yesterday afternoon, with our rain gauge registering 1.3 inches. Our gardens look much relieved, and summer’s bounty is beginning to flow. Lots of squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers, with red and yellow peppers not far behind. Potatoes, scallions and onions ready to be harvested whenever I get to them. My various pole beans have been stunted by the dry weather, but today they look quite perky. As always, the trick is to keep up with the flow! Monika’s just (almost) gotten through over a bushel of peaches we bought a week or so ago–canned as halves and processed and frozen as cobbler, ice cream and sorbet, and cakes. (All really good!)
Sat 7 Jul 2012
Posted by Bob under Nature, Our New Home
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August 7th Postscript: I (and many around here) have subsequently learned that what hit us so hard on the night of June 29th is called a derecho. The link is to Wikipedia’s entry, which explains that a derecho, in contrast to a tornado, is a straight-line windstorm generally accompanied by severe thunderstorms. The pictures below of John and family also help in conveying the scale of the fallen tree rootballs:
 
Well, we moved here in 2009 just in time for the biggest pre-Christmas snowstorm since 1936; then in 2011 we had the biggest earthquake in Virginia since 1897, then a month ago we had a freak hailstorm that did a bunch of damage, and then this past week we experienced what locals describe as the worst storm since Hurricane Camille in 1969 and the worst wind storm in living memory. I was helping out at the annual Ruritan Carnival, where the sudden and unexpected hurricane-force winds led to some scary moments as the Carnival operators struggled to get people down from the high rides and where well over a hundred people poured into the Ruritan clubhouse for safety. With reports of impassable roads most everywhere, many people stayed until 1:00 am, when most left, leaving behind several who slept there that night. At home Monika saved our umbrella on the back deck and then headed down to the basement, where we slept the next few nights. Electric power, water, phone, and internet remained out until the middle of the following week.
The next morning we surveyed the damage. Our house was completely spared, but large limbs were down in the backyard, from the Norway Maples on the side, and the oak tree in front. Worst hit was our several-acre forest, particularly the section that abuts the pastures on the north side: about twenty large trees were blown down, either completely uprooted or broken off from their trunks. My woodland trail system was pretty much obliterated, but our vegetable and flower gardens took only a minor hit. Our chickens were safe. Dan’s treehouse was completely destroyed. The pictures above and linked below fail to give a full sense of the devastation, which is hard to capture on camera.
As typical of our rural area, neighbors were out helping neighbors from the start. Our neighbors next door helped us survey the damage, and we helped another neighbor repair his cattle fences. He and his mother in turn offered to let us bring food from our freezer to theirs, which they had running on a generator. Later, when that generator failed, we got a friend to bring a temporary generator over to pump water for their thirsty cattle; he also fixed their generator which in turn fixed our frozen food problem.  And so on….
I broke down and invested in a chainsaw, but we’ll be relying on other friends to do the heavy tree felling and pruning. It’s strange to walk in our woods and look up at the sky instead of the tree canopy, but it will be interesting to watch the forest regenerate itself. Cleanup is slowed down by daytime temperatures of 100+ degrees, but life goes on…
Sat 23 Jun 2012
Posted by Bob under Recipes, Vegetable Garden
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I’m generally not a huge fan of either radishes or pickles, but an article in the February/March Organic Gardening induced me to order seeds for the “watermelon radish” (less picturesquely also known as the “Chinese red meat” radish) from Baker Creek. As the pictures above show, the radish when sliced really does look like a miniature watermelon, and the taste is sweet and mild as radishes go. Dipped in lime juice, it’s especially nice. For a cup of watermelon radish slices, a recipe in the article also recommended pickling in 1/2 cup Champagne vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water and a pinch of sea salt. They’re ready to eat in two days and have gotten good reviews from friends who are more pickle aficionados than I, who likes them too!
Despite the radish’s classification as a fall radish, I successfully grew it in the spring, although it does take about twice as long as a regular radish to bulb out.
Sun 17 Jun 2012
Posted by Bob under Vegetable Garden
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Garlic is usually pulled at the end of June or in July around here, but the mild winter and spring seem to have brought the plants to harvesting time early this year. When I planted the cloves (mostly from last year’s harvest) in early October, there were some hardneck cloves that showed slight signs of browning, and as I somewhat suspected, they did not produce new bulbs. But the rest did, for a total of 109 bulbs. In the hardneck category: 14 Appalachian Red, 22 Brown Tempest, 14 Metechi, 33 Music, and 14 Romanian Red (my favorite hardneck last year, both for its spicy taste and its storage qualities, since by and large hardnecks last less long than softnecks). In the softneck category: 19 Inchellium Red (most very large, the product of planting the largest cloves over several years now), and 14 S&H Silverskin. After a day in the sun, they will be curing for several weeks on screens in our cottage in the back. Our hope is that they will get us through to harvesting day next year!
Sat 2 Jun 2012
Posted by Bob under Nature, Vegetable Garden
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Well, just two days after my recent post about how well our vegetable garden was going, we were hit by a series of storms with high winds, torrential rain, and marble-sized hailstones. The Norway Maples on the side of the house lost a number of large branches, and the vegetable garden was pounded. The pea plants were torn off the trellis into a tangled heap, potato plants were leveled and some broken up, and squash, tomato, and cucumber plants broken into parts. Everything lost at least leaves and limbs. Fortunately, most will probably survive, even if flowering and fruiting are delayed. But one thing is clear: it’s not a picture-perfect garden any more! Today was almost surreally nice, as in the views below from the back of our property.
 
Thu 31 May 2012
Posted by Bob under Family and Friends, Travel
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Over Memorial Day weekend, Monika and I got to see all our kids and their respective wives and families in a single circuit from home, starting with the arrival on Friday of Nic and Alison along with two friends to take care of our chickens. Early Saturday we drove to Tim and Megan in Maryland, then on to Dan and Gina in New Jersey. Sunday we continued on to Dave and Sue and Paityn and Cody in upstate Pennsylvania, and then to John and Calista and Cally and Sylvia in the Washington area. Traffic miraculously was not bad at all, and we got to see the new homes of Tim and Megan and of Dan and Gina. It took 815 miles to see the family, with great visiting, catching up, celebrating (Tim and Megan’s official Ph.D’s, Sylvia’s track triumphs, Alison’s job renewal, and more) and, of course, eating along the way. Back home, Nic and Alison did a great job of chicken-sitting (pictures courtesy of their Facebook posting):
  
Wed 30 May 2012
Posted by Bob under Vegetable Garden
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With over sixty trellis feet of snap and snow peas planted in early March, we’re now reaping an overflowing harvest, along with the other spring vegetables we planted. The sugar snap peas are over six feet high! The lower right picture shows our harvest on May 28th, which included baskets of snap and snow peas, kohlrabi, turnips, swiss chard, multiple varieties of lettuce, basil, and garlic scapes.  We spent a good chunk of the day parboiling and freezing the peas.  So far (knock on me) this is the best vegetable garden I’ve ever had, and we even have tomatoes coming along on many of the plants. Potato plants are in bloom and taller than I’ve ever seen. Here’s hoping the rains keep coming…
Wed 30 May 2012
Posted by Bob under Appalachian Trail, Hiking/Sauntering, Nature
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A new waterfall for me, that is. By now I’ve hiked a good proportion of the trails around here, but the Mau Har Trail in the Three Ridges Wilderness Area was a new one for me. Departing from the AT about two miles in, it leads one up and down until it reaches a series of Waterfalls on Campbell Creek, on the western side of Three Ridges Mountain, one of the two highest in the region. At about 6 1/2 miles round trip, it’s a nice short day hike. The mountain laurel and rhododendron were past their prime at the lower elevations, but there was a nice array of wildflowers to enjoy along the way.
 
 