Spring 2020 is here

SPRING IS HERE!

Daylight Savings time today 3/8/2020 Spring Ahead!

The birds are gathering, the sparrows are fighting, the Red Winged Blackbirds have arrived.  Rosie heard the Woodcock twitter as they flew by, and last night 3/7 the classic "Reeep" calls out in the field, we look forward to hearing them this early in the year. While we haven't seen it yet this dance is pretty funny you have to admit. We've been seeing ducks flying all winter long, I don't think the larger rivers ever froze over completely.

The fields are clear, everything is a dull brown, we noticed a couple bird houses that blew down over the winter we'll have to patch up and rehang. There are some daffodils poking through the mulch up along the house foundation about 3" or so, the crocuses are just popping out of the ground.  We're hoping the dogs don't get to them before they can flower.  

It's officially Mud season here in NH, the dogs track it everywhere. We have a dirt (Mud) racetrack around the house mostly from Hanna zooming around, she's a champion zoom-er, with Zeb following closely behind. It's funny she looks downright petite compared to Zeb who's growing rapidly. Zebulon busies himself by pulling entire rose bushes out of the ground then proudly strutting around the yard with his catch!  

Zebulon "Zeb"

Zebulon with Hannah behind him

There's a few patches of snow left in the fields. Our pussy willows are out, this year's buds have a pink hue to them we never noticed before. Rose and I gathered a bunch for the house.

We have a bunch of things to do today, seemingly endless things to do...
Pulling the boat out, changing the house water filter, cutting some boards for the camper bunk beds, we may pick up a straw bale to help with the mud pit of a lawn.  

Rose has been sewing up a storm making curtains and cushion covers for the couch and beds.  Her sewing machine crapped out, that's the 3rd Singer that's gone belly up over the years, we've picked up a Elna machine, Swiss design, a brand recommended by a local shop Levesque's Sewing Machine & Vacuum in Hooksett, NH. We found out Dennis the owner is actually a neighbor that lives just up the street from us in Weare, NH. 

Watching the Corona Virus totals go up daily, impacts to manufacturing could be epic, time will tell, the Johns Hopkins Corona-virus Map is starting to look bad for the US with 436 cases now.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

  

I hope you and yours have the best Christmas! 

Hannah is doing much better since her spay a couple weeks back, she has her "Cone of Shame" off now, and has had a bath! Hannah our drool queen with her slobber.

 Here she is trying to eat with her cone on, nobody is getting to her food!

The family is doing well, the dogs on the other hand are passing something back and forth, even Zeb is off his feed this week.

Merry Christmas to All and Happy New Year!

 

SNOW!

Our first real Winter Storm is headed our way, a cool 21 degrees this morning, smells like snow out. Up to a foot of snow is predicted, timing is good Sunday into Monday. We're ready for it, Sand barrels are out along the walks, shovels are all out, and the scrapers are ready in both cars.  Now with any luck we won't lose power and have to fire up the generator. We're ready for it though!

Pic via the Weather Channel

Thanksgiving was great, Turkey Soup will get made today, we couple of saved turkey leg quarters in the fridge to make a pot of soup for this winter.
 
Black Friday was a bust, no craziness for us... we went out with the grand kids to Ollie's for the best Loaded Nachos (James thought the Jalapeno he ate was a little on the hot side) and a Pizza, then over to Hobby Lobby to pick out their traditional Christmas ornament.


Frosty Morning Does

I Love You!  Every morning Zeb talks to Rosie

 That's all for now!

The Deer in August

The Does this year are looking good.  A little on the thin side.

Pups on the fence

Pups on the fence


The two Pups are getting big, Hannah is now 15 months old,  this picture is Zebulon two weeks ago just before he went on the Petsafe fence.  He's trained to the fence now, we still watch him but he has free reign of the yard now.

Rose helped train Zeb on the new fence, Rose pointing out the "BAD" flags that designate the borders of his wireless fenced area.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia

This is the equipment I started my NC Programming career on. It was used to program 3 Axis NC (Numerical Controlled) Drilling and routing equipment at a now-defunct company in Groton, MA.

Teletype ASR model 33

A Teletype ASR model 33 terminal with Paper tape output.  As you typed on the keyboard the teletype would punch characters one row per character on the 1" paper tape punch on the left side of the machine, you can see the series of holes that were punched in the paper tape. If you made a mistake you could back up a character and punch all the holes in a row or if you found out too late you needed to manually read the paper tape splice out the bad code and repair the break in the tape.  Want to see one in action?

 

The paper tape would then be used to run high-speed NC Drilling and Routing equipment like this used to manufacturing printed circuit boards.  These Teletype ASR model 33s are museum pieces today.

 

Wikipedia Article on Punched Tape

 

Even older...  My dad used to program back in the day on Punch Cards. I remember seeing them in shoe boxes in the back seat when he would sometime bring work home.

 

 

Dog Days!

It's the Dog Days of Summer

Sad to say summer's winding down, it's been hot enough.  The yard is beginning to brown up, our pond is still at a good level so thankfully no dry well fears this year.

The dogs for one will be glad once the summer is over,  we have a half dozen big holes in the yard to fill in this fall from the dogs trying to cool off.

Zebulon (Zeb) Nope, I wasn't digging...

We've been out in the Boat a few times, we hit a couple lakes and ponds in the area we scouted this spring. Nice time boating, not a lot of fish were caught. Rose wants to take Zeb out this week, we'll see how he does.

Fishing  Lake Massasecum

 Near as we can tell we have a single fawn this year.

Fawn feeding

Doe and Fawn

We had a single Dragonfly last week, they haven't been back since, provided some fun for the dogs trying desperately to catch 'em!

 James was out with my camera last week he took some nice shots.

 Stay Cool!

IT'S  HOT!

Humidity is crazy and so are the temps... A/Cs are struggling to keep up with the heat.

But we had our 1st local corn of the year yesterday and it was amazing! Butter and Sugar from Hollis NH! Ears were small but tasty! Now if I could just get my hands on some local heirloom tomatoes, soon I know...

Boat issue with the trailer lights, I got a tester that ruled ou the Car wiring, definitely a trailer side issue.  I spent 30 minutes messing with them last weekend, it's too hot to be clamoring on the lawn rewiring the trailer, next week I hope, we're dying to try out some new water we found. It's too hot to be on the lake this weekend. 



Filling the dog pools is becoming a twice daily routine they enjoy them in the shade but are smart enough to know the water heats up in the sun.

Zebulon, (Zeb, Zebber, for short)  is getting big, he's 4 months old now.  We took him to Ace Hardware on Saturday he loved it, the cutest 1 1/2 year old girl asked to pat him, he was loving it, and was a perfect gentlemen, he was hoovering the hardware store floor of all the dropped popcorn (is there a better reason to go?). Everyone that walked by had to pat him, he picked out a toy to take back to the car, got a drink from the dog bowl the leave out for dogs daily. We spent a few minutes under the misters rigged to an instant up tarp in the parking lot. Zeb quickly got the hang of getting in and out of the car too, he's in training trip for his vet visit next week for more puppy shots. Shh...

"Zebulon"

Hanna our Lab is a bird dog, notice the feather stuck to her nose, she has caught a couple birds in the past week alone.  Rose is not happy.

Hannah Belle has taken to Zeb, making sure he's being good, rounding him up when asked to, barking at him when he's misbehaving.
 
 This little Silver Spotted Skipper landed on Roses finger.

Stay cool folks!

The Dog Days are here!

It's official, the Dog Days of summer have arrived, we're in the 90s every afternoon now.

Bring on the dog days...

Summer at Last!

It's been cool, cloudy, and raining here, seems like forever since we had some nice weather, a couple days in the 80s but that's about it.  That all changed this weekend, Friday was nice, Saturday was great, and Sunday (today) it's supposed to get HOT!

Yesterday was a yard cleanup day, mowing, clipping, cutting, car washing, etc. 

Hannah @ 13 months, and Zeb @ 11 weeks old.

The dogs Hanna and Zebulon (Zeb) are getting along great, Hannah is taking Zeb under her wing showing him the ropes, she really is trying to be a good little Mom to little Zeb.  We may get to take Hannah swimming at Glen Lake today if it gets warm enough, Zeb's not a big fan of the lake, we took him down last weekend.

"Zebulon"

We tried them out in the newly erected kennel this weekend, they did just fine.  We don't need to worry about a dog getting wrapped up in a cable as with the overhead run where the two dogs are inseparable.

Hannah giving her best "please let me out" face...

The Bugs, mostly Gnats and Black Flies are out in force, seeing bunches of mosquitoes now.  Quite the swarm of gnats this morning.

 

Our newest Pup arrived this weekend...

We picked up "Zebulon "Zeb" for short, this weekend, he's pretty smart already at 9 weeks, he's a purebred German Shepherd we got from our favorite Vet over in Hillsborough at Fox Bend Kennels, quite the fur-ball, he loves playing with his older sister Hannah... oh and hoses too.

If we both stare at it long enough it'll turn on...       Hannah & Zeb

 

 

 

Looks like we have some great weather to get the grill going, and maybe even do some fishing on Monday!