TCC for 11/26/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/26/08

Lake Temp. 45 F.
Ghetto temp. 42 F.
Island tmp. 37 F. Yesterday's L/H: 36.5/38 F. Due to a cold front the morning was warmer than the evening.

Current conditions: Wind from the South, 10 to 15 mph, dark cloud covered sky, ever so slight precipitation.

11/26/08


10/10/08


9/16/08


The day was mostly dark and gray with clouds, hazy, but certainly on the warm side, at least in comparison to last week's temperatures, occasional flurries. The Caretaker was on the mainland for a brief amount of time, he went up and over the mountains to Warrensburg, what was rain here was snow over there, it was nice to see Winter's blanket. Perhaps we'll have a white Thanksgiving here on the Lake, hopefully it will be a white Winter. Now wouldn't that be nice?

The Caretaker is both happy and sad, happy because he was able to have his first cup of proper tea this morning it seemed like an eternity; sad because he ended up dropping his favorite glass tea cup and it shattered on the floor. He was being lazy, trying to do too many things at once, and so sure enough the one thing to fall was his tea cup, thankfully it had no tea in it--that would have been a total travesty. Not to be deterred he grabbed a less favored tea cup and brewed his tea in that. For the morning it was his usual Organic Scottish Breakfast tea (which is the smoothest of all the "Breakfast" teas), during the day the Caretaker usually goes with Green Pekoe and with dinner he usually has Java Kertasarie. Since he had gone so very long without proper tea he had two cups of Java Kertasarie, for a long time Scottish Breakfast had been a big favorite of his, but he is thinking that Java K. may just displace the Scotts, which is quite smooth, but Java K. seems to be even smoother. Once he finishes up his stock of Scotts he will probably just get more Java K. Always grand to find the perfect tea, at least until one's tastes change. Luckily for the Caretaker he is a patron of the world's greatest teashop, Sensibiliteas, which is owned and operated by the world's greatest teasmith, Donnalynn. She carries over 400 teas, if you are ever in the Glens Falls, N.Y. area you should definitely make a point to stop in at her shop, if you are into tea it's like being a kid in a candy store. Even if you aren't too into tea you should still stop in, Donna's always got some good conversation. Never going to make it to Glens Falls? Check out her website, you can order on-line:

http://www.sensibiliteasonline.com/

If you don't feel like copying the link, there is a hyper-link to the left under "Favorite Links", it's at the bottom of the list. Tell Donna the Caretaker sent you. If teasmithing were an art-form, well, were nothing, it is an art-form, Donna is teasmith artist extraordinaire.

Whenever the Caretaker stops in he usually ends up having three cups of tea, originally the Caretaker wasn't expecting to be stopping in for a while because he is pretty well stocked with tea, but now that he needs to replace his favorite tea cup he really has no choice. YES!!! That means more Java Kertasarie. Hm, maybe the Caretaker should break more of his tea-wares, wait, that would be stupid, not that stupid ideas ever stopped him (oh boy is that list ever so long). However, the Caretaker is quite surprised that he has managed to not break his glass teapot for the stove. Should that ever happen though he does have his stainless steel teapot he uses for when he brings tea on the trail. Ah tea. The Caretaker will pass on a tea making secret that he practices, only boil enough water for the tea you are brewing at the time. Once boiled water that has begun to cool goes flat, thus using left over once boiled water for an additional cup or pot of tea flattens the taste of the tea, AND this method conserves energy, the lower the volume of water brought to boil the less energy consumed. Yes it is true that if you know you will be having an additional cup or pot quite soon after the first, the remaining heated water will require less energy to return to boil, but when it comes to preparing tea the best way possible, well, the environment takes a back seat--it's tea for Heaven's sakes.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 11/25/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/25/08

Lake Temp. 45.75 F.
Ghetto temp. 42.5 F. and dropping.
Island tmp. 36.5 F. Yesterday's L/H: 24/33 F.

Current conditions: Dark cloud covered sky, wind from the South, about 5 to 10 mph, wet and damp. Rained during the night previous into this morning, stopped by mid afternoon, but still cloudy, low lying, with a minor break around the sun for about 5 minutes. The rain was rather hard at times, occasional mix of snow flakes, upon the mountain tops there was some snow accumulation.

11/25/08


10/24/08


8/28/08



Due to the weather the Caretaker didn't get out much today, but then again, regardless of the weather the Caretaker doesn't get out much. The Caretaker has been working without a kitchen these past few days, which he has been able to manage well enough except for one thing and that is his tea habit. Without a convenient way to rinse dish-ware he has had to forego loose leaf tea, instead he has had to make-do with packaged bagged tea. With nowhere to put his waste water he can't rinse his tea strainer, yes he does have empty bags to bag his own tea but those are lost somewhere in storage for the time being. So, it has been nothing but packaged bagged tea these past few days, because of this and this alone the Caretaker has been left a bit wanting. Sure he lives with no running water through the Winter months (millions of people do it year round), and he lives with marginal heat (millions of people do it and have done it all their lives), not to mention the time he went through the ice his first Winter and had to break through the ice for shore, or when he capsized his sailboat at night and was almost run over by a motorboat, in addition to the above mentioned experiences/circumstances the Caretaker has plenty others that he would consider merely mild annoyances, but to have to suffer packaged bagged tea is something that just might break his spirit. Now don't get the Caretaker wrong, he is not "above" bagged tea, if there is nothing else he will drink it gladly, but knowing that he has plenty of loose leaf tea on hand and can't drink it, well that is can't drink it conveniently--oh the humanity.

A thought just occurred to the Caretaker, and that is to rinse his tea strainer directly in the Lake, technically it is not pollution, but it sure would be a waste of good compost. Well, either way, if all goes as planned the Caretaker will have his kitchen arrangement up and running, at least the waste water part, by tomorrow morning.

--The Caretaker

P.S. The Caretaker would like to thank all of you who gave him compliments (through the blog, and points elsewhere) for the music he posted on his myspace page. Come next Monday he will be posting some more from past recordings.

TCC for 11/24/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/24/08

Lake Temp. 45.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 45 F.
Island tmp. 33 F. Yesterday's L/H: 20/26 F.

Current conditions: Dark cloud covered sky, not a star to be seen, the Lake is mostly calm, little to no wind.

11/24/08


10/24/08


8/28/08


Weather man is calling for snow tonight followed by freezing rain and then rain. The Caretaker is not sure what it will end up being here on the Island but he is pleased that at least it is not below freezing out. Tomorrow is supposed to be a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit! Probably won't be here on the Island but as long as it is above freezing the Caretaker will be pleased. Yes he is looking forward to a good cold Winter with plenty of snow and good thick Lake ice, but not just yet, he has a few more things to do before the Lake freezes over. Earlier today the Caretaker heard a prediction that the area will see a warm spell in the 50's before Winter really kicks in, wouldn't that be nice.

The Caretaker spent much of the day off Island, he has been off Island a lot lately, but he expects to be on the Island for much of the remainder of the week. While in town the Caretaker took delivery of his calendar from a second on-demand on-line printer, he had relatively high hopes for this company's product, unfortunately his hopes were dashed. The product was certainly far better than the first printer he tried, but the result still does not meet the Caretaker's standard. He has come to the conclusion that on-demand printing companies will never be able to meet his standards. The Caretaker has decided that he will have to go about this another way, unfortunately it will most likely require him to convert from RGB to CMYK which is a bit time consuming so it will have to go on the back burner for now, he has other matters of more pressing importance to attend to.

Since the Caretaker has no calendar to show, he has decided to step up another project he has been neglecting for a long while, recording new material. He hasn't recorded any new material yet, and doesn't expect to do so until some time in December so for the meantime the Caretaker has posted some old material on his MySpace page. A number of you have received these tracks in album form so you need not check this out, however for those of you who have requested a copy of those tracks the best the Caretaker can do right now is make some of them available on-line (he doesn't have any hard copies on hand right now). The sound quality on MySpace is a little off, but then again so is the Caretaker's singing so it all balances out. For those of you who are interested in listening to how poorly the Caretaker sings, how lousy he is at playing guitar, and how lamely he writes songs you may do so at the following web address:

http://www.myspace.com/jeffreydallasmoore

Listen and suffer at your own risk.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 11/23/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/23/08

Lake Temp. 45.5 F.
Ghetto temp. 42 F.
Island tmp. 26 F. Yesterday's L/H: 21.75/23 F.

Current conditions: Light wind from the South, 1 to 2 mph, cloud covered sky, no stars to be seen.

9/15/08


10/13/08


The Caretaker was off Island for the entire day so not much to report on other than that it is still pretty cold. So cold that the Caretaker had to start up his "heat-erator" which is like a refrigerator except that instead of keeping things cold the heat-erator keeps things warm (i.e just above freezing). The heat-erator is essentially a pantry closet with a small heater connected to a thermostat, when the temperature in the closet drops below 34 degrees Fahrenheit it kicks on, thus keeping the Caretaker's groceries and water buckets from freezing.

There was a request by a reader for more dock spiders, the Caretaker has provided however you will have to scroll down to see the photo, if you don't like spiders, don't scroll down.

--The Caretaker
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11/23/08

TCC for 11/22/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/22/08

Lake Temp. 46 F.
Ghetto temp. 28 F.
Island tmp. 24 F. Yesterday's L/H: 23/31.5 F.

Current conditions: Mix of sun and clouds, wind from the North, 10 to 15 mph, gusting up to 25, it is definitely not hot.

11/22/08


8/8/08


8/10/08


Today's post is going out early today because the Caretaker will be busy for much of the night and doesn't expect to return to the Island until late. The day has been rather cold and windy. Last night's test of the Caretaker's new down sleeping bag went rather well it kept him quite warm, well, except at one point his large left toe caught a chill but it eventually warmed up. Now this is certainly not a full test, it only got down to 21.75 degrees Fahrenheit, but if the current weather pattern is any sign of the Winter to come the Caretaker expects he will have no problem with getting a chance to do a test at Zero. He's looking forward to it, but he hopes to not have the opportunity until the end of December. If it's sooner, well then the Caretaker can expect to have a good Winter for snow and ice this time around which will make up for last Winter's rather poor showing on the snow and ice front.

--The Caretaker

TCC for 11/21/08

The Caretaker's Concern 11/21/08

Lake Temp. 46 F.
Ghetto temp. 52 F.
Island tmp. 23 F. Yesterday's L/H: 24/32.5 F.

Current conditions: Crystal clear star filled night, just after dusk the galaxy was rather visible, late into the night it was still visible but not as distinct. At dusk a planet was illuminated brightly enough for its light to be reflected on the water. Wind is from the North, mostly mild, less than 5 mph. The wind was from the North all day, not too strong but strong enough to make you cold pretty quick. Mostly sunny day, out of the wind and in the sunlight it was rather pleasant.

11/21/08


11/21/08


11/21/08


11/21/08


The first half of the day was rather uneventful, the second half of the day was a time for packages, the Caretaker received two packages which made him happy. Unfortunately the one package he is waiting on still has not arrived, this made him at touch displeased. Chances are this one package he is looking to arrive won't come tomorrow, Saturday, he is hoping it will come Monday, if not, then he will be rather displeased. Of the two packages that did arrive one was a replacement for a part of his "no running water, water system". The Caretaker knows that he had mentioned in the past that he would have posted an explanation of his water system by now but he his schedule has kept him too busy and since one of the key parts of his water system has totally failed he has decided he will hold off on the explanation until he can work out a replacement. Speaking of a replacement, he did hear back from one of the manufacturers that he was hoping to patronize, turns out their product won't work for the Caretaker unless he gets hold of a water pump. The Caretaker would rather not do that, he would much rather have a gravity fed system. It's looking more and more like the Caretaker will have to build his own tankless water heater, however he won't be able to get started on that until after the weekend and possibly not until the end of next week.

The replacement for a part of his water system that arrived today was definitely a plus, especially since he no longer has his tankless water heater. For the past three Winters the Caretaker used an enameled pot that held about three gallons of water and had a spigot. He would use this for rinse water to do dishes, being a metal pot he would fill it with warm water and then run the soapy dishes underneath the water from the spigot, it makes rinsing very convenient. However his enameled pot has started to rust on the inside, so he decided it was high time to upgrade to a stainless steel pot with a spigot. Last week he had picked up a spigoted pot but it was made of aluminum, which certainly would have worked but not wanting to run the risk of contaminating himself with aluminum he decided he should return it and splurge on a stainless steel one. He found one on the internet that wasn't all too expensive, he figures it's worth the investment, he doesn't want to get Alzheimer's in his old age, well, at least do as little as possible to contribute towards it. The only draw back of the stainless steel pot is that it is really much larger than he needs, it holds about 8 gallons, but that is a minor trouble that the Caretaker can certainly live with. Regardless of its size it certainly made his shower this evening much easier to get together than to do with out it. The spigot makes filling his shower bag a breeze, to do it otherwise requires a funnel and pipe which often times ends up making a mess of water on the floor. As easy as the pot makes getting water into the bag, it doesn't make getting the temperature correct any easier, the Caretaker is quite out of practice and so will have to work on getting back in the groove. Yesterday's shower using this method was a touch on the cool side, around 92 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't insufferable, but he prefers his shower water at around 104. Tonight's shower water temperature? It was decidedly warmer. Not wanting to take a cool shower again the Caretaker overcompensated a bit too much, tonight's shower water was above 128 degrees Fahrenheit. The Caretaker waited a bit for the water to cool down but he didn't feel like waiting too long so he went with it as it was. Hopefully the third time will be the charm and tomorrow night's shower will be like the last bowl of porridge--just right.

The Caretaker's other package was from Campmor, it had a few things that will make his winter camping more pleasurable, one of which is a down sleeping bag rated for zero degrees Fahrenheit. The Caretaker will be testing it out tonight, it isn't supposed to go down to zero tonight but it is supposed to be one of the coldest nights on record for this time of year. Conveniently enough the Caretaker won't have to sleep outside to test his new sleeping bag, instead he'll just shut off all the heat in the Ghetto. If it turns out that the sleeping bag is not as effective as it claims to be rated for he'll just turn the heat back on and sleep in the usual pleasurable 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Caretaker is thinking of writing a book:
"The Joy of Winter:
How to enjoy living in the cold... but why?"

--The Caretaker

P.S. The photo of the rock is of the first ice from the Lake on the Island, it has been so cold that when the waves splash on to the rock the water has frozen to it (the ice may not be too visible in the photo given its size.