TCC for 6/6/08

The Caretaker's Concern 6/6/08

The Caretaker will be taking a hiatus for the next few days, he has to get a few ducks in a row. In the meantime enjoy these photos from his archive.

--The Caretaker

P.S. The Caretaker has posted a "new" field trip (it's from his archive).

Sunrise, June '07


Baby Geese Fight, May '08


Near Sunset, November '07

TCC for 6/5/08

TCC for 6/3/08

The Caretaker's Concern 6/3/08
Lake Temp. 59.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 64 F.
Island tmp. 66 F. Yesterday's L/H: 60.5/66 F.
Current conditions: Total cloud coverage, brisk wind from the East, about 10 to 15 mph, a wee bit chilly.

A rather nice sunrise this morning, it was a mostly calm and relatively flat morning on the Lake, come the afternoon the wind began to pick up a bit, coming from the Narrows. As the evening passed the wind picked up more and more on into the night getting up to around 10 to 15 mph with some occasional higher gusts.

Today was "bring the aluminum motor boat to the welder day", K. was kind enough to offer his services to tow the boat up the mountain to the welder. Thanks for the help K. Unfortunately it would turn out to be all for naught, oh, well. So K. and the Caretaker arrived at the appointed time but the welder was nowhere to be found. Eventually a friend of the welder came out.

"Where should we leave the boat?" Asked the Caretaker.
"How about over the embankment," said the welder's friend.
The Caretaker looked at him blankly, he was not amused.
"Ha, ha. That's probably where he would want it, ha. Why don't you put it over there, tell me what it is you want to have done to the boat and I'll pass on the information."

This did not look promising to the Caretaker, but having no other option the Caretaker left the boat and returned to the Lake.

After taking lunch back at the Island the Caretaker went to town to pick up some paint for the light pole. He then went to the post office to pick up his mind rot mug that came in the mail. From there the Caretaker went over to Clay to get some raking done. Someone had mowed the grass, and thus the leaves on the grass, without a grass catcher creating small fine bits of leaves. This cause a slight bit of extra work for the Caretaker, but it was of little problem because he used his bamboo raking fury technique and took care of it in a jiffy.

When the Caretaker returned to the Island there was a message on the answering machine, it was from the welder, he said he couldn't do anything for the boat, the rivets needed to be pounded, come pick the boat up as soon as possible.
The Caretaker was not exactly pleased with this information, tomorrow the Caretaker will have to figure out a way to get ahold of a vehicle with a tow-hitch.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 6/2/08

The Caretaker's Concern 6/2/08
Lake Temp. 59.75F.
Ghetto temp. 69 F.
Island tmp. 74 F. Yesterday's L/H: coolish/warmer.
Current conditions: occasional wind from the North, mostly clear overhead, a few clouds to the North West, dense clouds to the East. Intermittent motorcycle noise from the West shore of the mainland, this week is "Ameri-racket" it will go on for the entire week, unfortunately.

A while back the Caretaker made mention of the sky's reflection on the water looking like a horizontal lava lamp, the top photo was taken today, it is an example of what the Caretaker was talking about.

The Caretaker spent the morning in the kitchen bottling and brewing kombucha tea, this latest batch was bottled with fresh strawberries and fresh mint, he'll find out tomorrow evening if this was a good choice of flavoring for kombucha. Aside from kombucha the Caretaker also prepared a batch of kim-chee, it has been a little while since he made kim-chee, he is looking forward to when this latest batch will be ready for consumption.

Through much of the morning and early afternoon the wind was from the North, rather gusty at times. Come late afternoon it settled down for the most part, blowing gently over the honeysuckle bushes on the North side of the Ghetto, while passing between the Ghetto and the main house the Caretaker noticed this charmingly sweet air. Much of the honeysuckle is in bloom on the Island, it is a wild breed that grows much like a weed. It gives off a lovely aroma, unfortunately it's flower has very little nectar so not much taste can be drawn from it. Down in North Jersey where the Caretaker grew up, most all of the honeysuckle had flowers you could drink the nectar from, granted it was usually but a drop or two, but being potent like saffron it was often enough to fill the mouth with flavor, satisfying yet leaving you wanting for more. Sometimes the Caretaker would be late for school because he would allow himself to be drawn into the honeysuckle bushes along the way of his walk.

During the early evening the Caretaker did some raking over on Clay island, while there he noticed the noise of "Ameri-racket" (otherwise known as Americade). The Caretaker has nothing against motorcycles, even finds them fun to ride, although it has been quite a long time since he last drove one. Fun or not, the motorcyclist who operates their motorcycle with straight pipes (i.e. no muffler) or the whine of the "crotch-rocket" is not fun to listen to, thankfully for the Caretaker he does not live on the main street in town during the week of "Ameri-racket".

--The Caretaker

TCC for 6/1/08

The Caretaker will start posting text again to his blog beginning tomorrow.

The Caretaker forgot to mention that he has put up a new post on his other blog, The Caretaker's Travels, this past week's field trip was up Shelving Rock, in addition to photos there is also a video of the trip on the post. For those of you who haven't been up Shelving Rock in a long while, you might want to check out the video, it's at the bottom of the post (footage of the entire hike).

For those of you who have never seen Shelving Rock but have already seen the latest post on TCT, the following photo is of Shelving Rock.

TCC for 5/31/08