TCC for 5/13/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/13/08
Lake Temp. 52F.
Ghetto temp. 60 F.
Island tmp. 60.5 F. Yesterday's L/H: 50/58 F.
Current conditions: Almost crystal clear night, little to no wind.

After some breakfast, the Caretaker went out on a dandelion hunt, he wanted to catch all the flowers that had bloomed before they turned to seed. After a short walk around the Island, picking the bright yellow flowers as he went, his efforts resulted in a hand full of sunshine. After observing this collection of yellow glow in his hand he summarily through it in the trash. Even when decapitated, dandelion flowers will turn to seed so there is no point in composting them only to wind up planting more dandelions.

After getting some work done on the Island the Caretaker canoed over to Clay island for some recreational raking. The Caretaker had plans for the afternoon so he could only wrangle leaves for about an hour. After leaving Clay to return to the Island, approaching quietly in the canoe, the Caretaker noticed a Blue Heron standing on the South Boathouse dock, wings akimbo, sunning itself. The Caretaker was only able to get about 20 feet from the South dock before the Heron took flight. Always calming to watch a Heron fly; disturbing to hear its call.

The Caretaker grabbed some lunch, packed his camera and a few other things and headed off towards log bay. The Caretaker decided it was high time he went on a field trip, the last time he had done so was back in February. The wind was coming from the Narrows so there would be no burning on the Island for the day and the rest of what needed to be done could be put off for an afternoon. Today's field trip was to Shelving falls. It was a great field trip, the Caretaker had a great time. He took lots of photos, so many that he has decided to start a new blog. The Caretaker's plan for the rest of the Summer is to go on a field trip at least once a week, the images and commentary for these field trips will be posted on a separate blog, if you are a regular reader of The Caretaker's Concern you will be notified when photos and text from a field trip are posted to the new blog. By starting this new blog the Caretaker will also be able to post photos and text from his field trips from years past. If all goes well the Caretaker will have this new blog up in the next few days.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/12/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/12/08
Lake Temp. 51F.
Ghetto temp. 56 F.
Island tmp. 56 F. Yesterday's L/H: 50/64 F.
Current conditions: thin layer of clouds from horizon to horizon lightly obscuring the moon, little to no wind.

The text reports from May 1st to May 11th, 2008 will be published by the end of this week.

The Caretaker began his morning by baking some biscuits, this was prompted by his need to use up the resulting whey from making cream cheese last week. The biscuits tasted well enough, although, melted butter will make most anything taste good (maybe not watermelon), however, the Caretaker does need to work on his kneading technique before he would be ready to serve homemade biscuits to anyone. In short, he over kneaded the dough, but not by much.

Later in the morning the Caretaker went to have himself a shower (the conventional kind), so he would be clean and tidy for his trip to town (well, maybe not the tidy part), anyway, he went to have himself a shower, all undressed waiting for the hot water when the house phone rang. The Caretaker knew that this could possibly be an important call so not wanting the answering machine to take the call before he could the Caretaker dashed to the phone undressed. It was an important call, contractor G. wanted to come by in the next 10 minutes to make an assessment for a job to give a quote on. So the Caretaker got dressed without having his shower and waited for contractor G. After contractor G. left the Caretaker repeated the process from earlier, just about to set the cold tap with the hot tap for the optimum shower temperature when the phone rang again. So, the Caretaker quickly shut off the taps and dashed to the phone again, undressed, thus repeating this earlier process also. This time on the phone it was the cleaning lady, she was calling to inform the Caretaker that she and her crew would not be coming out for the Spring housecleaning before Memorial Day weekend, (May 24th to 26th), but instead would be coming out after Memorial Day weekend. The Caretaker thanked her for calling and that he would make note of the date change. While walking back to his interrupted shower, the Caretaker made note of the cleaning lady's total lack of responsibility, to do a Spring housecleaning after Memorial Day weekend sort of defeats the purpose of a Spring cleaning, at least as far as entertaining goes. So, it looks as though at the very least the Caretaker will be responsible for covering the basics of the Spring cleaning. Which, the Caretaker doesn't really mind, it just means one more thing on the list. Waiting for the shower water to get hot a third time, the phone rang again. The Caretaker ignored it and got on with his shower, he would call whoever it was afterwards.

While in town the Caretaker noticed that there were some rather nice flowers in bloom, quite a number of tulips of all sorts of colors. While checking out at the grocery store, the cashier remarked that the Caretaker looked like the son of Grizzly Adams, in response the Caretaker laughed. (The Caretaker has been growing his beard for almost a year now with absolutely no trimming, no shower alone will make him look tidy.)

After returning to the Island and doing a bit of this and that, the Caretaker made more cream cheese, this time with garlic. He also made more cream cheese icing, this was made with store bought cream cheese and not the garlic cream cheese. Although, that might be worth trying.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/11/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/11/08
Lake Temp. 49F.
Ghetto temp. 62 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 63 F. Yesterday's L/H: 50/60.5 F.
Current conditions: Mild cloud coverage, hazing the moon gently, light Southerly wind with occasional gusts.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/10/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/10/08
Lake Temp. 50F.
Ghetto temp. 55 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 57 F. Yesterday's L/H: 46/63 F.
Current conditions: Clear star filled sky, quiet night on the water, no wind.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/9/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/9/08

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/8/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/8/08
It's weathery outside.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 5/7/08

The Caretaker's Concern 5/7/08
Lake Temp. 49.75F.
Ghetto temp. 59.5 F. and steady.
Island tmp. 59.5 F. Yesterday's L/H: 49/67 F.
Current conditions: Total cloud coverage, a few raindrops here and there, mild wind from the South.

The daily text report has been suspended from May 1st, 2008 to after the weekend of May 10th/11th, 2008. However, daily photos will still be posted.

--The Caretaker