A New Kitchen Floor

Laying cement board for the first run of tile.

The new appliances were scheduled to be delivered on February 21, so the kitchen floor had to be in by that time. I was surprised at how much planning it took to lay the tiles. It isn't as easy as shown on HGTV. I can't even begin to describe how you have to choose which wall to start from and which direction and where you want tiles to end and begin so that you have whole tiles where people walk and not partial tiles. You have to lay cement board and let that dry. You have to lay tiles and let that dry with spacers between the tiles. Then there is the grout.

Planning the laying of tile had to include the breakfast nook area

We both agreed that the kitchen and breakfast area would be tile. We chose, which surprised me considering my usual New England taste, a Mediterranean type tile. I like the geometric pattern and the colors in the wood and stone kitchen. We disagreed, until just recently at the end of March, on whether to tile the dining room. The dining room will be where the old kitchen was (to the right of the photo above). That area is not even demolished yet, but at least we are reaching consensus on what it will look like!

The finished floor

Once the floor was finished, the appliances could be installed. Above you see how the planning part of tiling affects the areas of the floor where the refrigerator and dishwasher will go. John saved the tiling of the kick plates under the cabinets until all of the tiling was done. Even that part of the floor required a couple of days of pondering and design.

_/\_/\_

My New Kitchen Sink

New cast quartz kitchen sink

On February 17 the new kitchen sink was installed. It is cast quartz and they make them by mixing a lot of ground up quartz with some epoxy. The quartz glitters in the sun. It has one shallow basin and one deep basin. The faucet is Glacial Bay with a spray and a soap dispenser. It is a great set up and I love it. When the sink gets dirty, I just wipe it with a dishrag and it's clean. It's strong enough to withstand the abuse that John gives it with his tools and substances such as joint compound and paint that he dumps in it. My sister, Camille, has a cast quartz sink also, but it is made out of black quartz and is gorgeous. Hers has one huge basin (I must get a photo of it).

_/\_/\_

Ladybug Trails

Tracks of a Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Working in the kitchen late at night, John noticed marks in the dust covered windows. A fascinating pattern of marks, triangular and linear, was in the dust. Ladybug tracks — the invasive, house-infesting ladybugs. I photographed the ladybug trails as soon as he pointed them out to me. How dirty have windows gotten when you can see bug tracks on them? It's pretty bad. But I still haven't bothered to clean the windows because the dust here is still unbelievable bad.

A secret ladybug message written in dust

_/\_/\_

How to Wreck Your Applesauce

Two experimental apples — A and B.

Do you remember Coxeter's Pippin? If not, please click that link and go read it. A geometry professor claimed that coring an apple his way was the most efficient way to core apples. His claim has been nagging me for days now, so yesterday, while making applesauce, I decided to test his theory.

I had 8 apples for the applesauce and selected two that were most identical in size. I weighed each on my digital food scale after I peeled them. Then I cut both of them equatorially (see the photo in the link of the original post above). For Apple A, I used Coxeter's method for coring. For Apple B, I used my husband's coring method (which, if you remember, he had taught me before I learned Coxeter's method). Suddenly, I wanted to see how much waste was produced with my own method, so I selected another apple, Apple C. I didn't care what size Apple C was. By this time. I just wanted to get this damn experiment over with and have supper. My method for coring apples is traditional: I cut the apple in half longitudinally and then, using a sharp knife, I cut the core out along with my own skin, nail and sometimes bone, creating a lot of blood. I weighed the stuff that I cut out of each apple and created a chart (below). Then I calculated the percent loss of each apple. If you would check my math I would appreciate it. I was grouchy when I did the numbers this morning, so I probably made a mistake.

The debris from the Coxeter Pippin Method.

Apple Method	Apple A Coxeter Pippin	Apple B John's Method	Apple C traditional
Peeled Weight	3.625 oz.	3.5 oz.	3.625 oz.
Cored Weight	3.25 oz.	2.50 oz.	2.125 oz.
Percent Loss	10.3%	28.5%	41.3%

Discussion

The Coxeter Pippin Method resulted in the least waste, therefore it was most efficient. But I didn't like it. It was tedious and time consuming. I had to dig those little skin-like things out of the apple because they did not "fall out" as Coxeter said they would. My back was killing me as I huddled over the pieces of apple. My method was most familiar so I was able to think of other things besides apples and even hum my cooking song. John’s method was comfortable and somewhat enjoyable because I knew I could become expert at it if I tried it enough. It went fairly quickly, too, but not as quickly as my method.

Conclusion

• I am going to continue using my method for coring apples.
• Don’t pay attention to cooking advice from geometry professors.
• Don’t use maple sugar in your applesauce. It tasted awful.

_/\_/\_

Why The Spider?

February 6, 2011

I went out to feed the birds, falling on the ice at the corner of the house, sinking in snow up to my waist, when in a pristine section of snow I saw this huge spider walking to the house. There were no tracks in the new fluffy snow. It was as if he had fallen from heaven just to take residence in our house. I had the camera with me, so I photographed him. I don't put my best photos on this blog (they go on the Photo A Day blog), just the interesting ones. Interesting to me. This spider was backlit on brilliant white snow on a sunny day. I'm actually surprised that I got this shot at all. I don't know what kind of spider it is, but he has antifreeze for blood. He didn't mind the cold at all.

_/\_/\_

Our New Kitchen

The cabinets and counter top.

After the new kitchen windows were installed and after the pantries were built, John began building the kitchen itself. We bought a few new cabinets to add to the old cabinets, which John rebuilt so that they are now better than when they were new.

Planning the travertine tile layout for the kitchen counter.

We spent a day at Home Depot in Littleton deciding which tile to use for the kitchen counter. We chose this travertine tile. I had originally wanted to paint the cabinets white — I have always admired white cabinets. But after seeing the tile placed on the counter, I realized that the oak of the cabinets was a perfect complement to the ivory of the tile.

The pantries in relation to the cabinets.

The custom cabinet for the double oven is at the
end of the kitchen and next to the breakfast nook.

John had to build a few more oak cabinets for the double oven (above) and the microwave. The old sun porch was cut in half and the half you see above is where we will eat when alone. The sun is brilliant in this room every morning, every season. The windows look out over the beaver bog so we can watch the moose, deer, beaver and otter. The old door to the front yard was moved to the side of the porch, where the other half of the porch will be what it should have been — a porch!

Cutting the tile for the kitchen counter.
February 13, 2011

The thinset for the tile is spread on the counter.

The first run of tiles is set in the thinset.

The counter is finished and the sink is installed.

After the tile was laid and grouted and sealed, it was time to install the new sink. We chose a quartz sink that glitters in the sun. One basin is deeper than the other.

The new sink under the new windows.

I can tell you now that the kitchen is almost completed, that it is a joy to work at this sink. I can easily monitor the goings-on in the bog. The sun is magnificent in these windows. I love the glitter of the quartz in the sink in the sun. The sink is easy to keep clean — I only have to wipe stains and they just come off!

Grouting the counter and backsplash.

John is so detail-oriented that he matched had to plan the tile layout so that tiles with similar markings flowed into each other. It is difficult for me to explain this. But when you work on this counter, you become fascinated by the natural design that nature created when the stone was created in some far off mountain.The color of the tile changes all day long as the color from the natural light changes.

Almost done!

The other side view of almost done!

This kitchen is a work of art. I can't wait to show you how it has turned out! I am quickly finishing the editing of the most recent photos (getting up to date) so you'll see it soon. John knows how to plan kitchens so that you have the least amount of movement for what you need to cook when you need it. His skill and knowledge are unsurpassed anywhere. More to come!

_/\_/\_

Mallards on Crystal Lake Outlet

The annual church meeting was on January 30 this year, so I stayed late from church and wandered about outside with my camera until the meeting started. The church abuts the Crystal Lake outlet, just about where it flows into the Barton River. The water was clear of ice and there was a healthy flock of mallards swimming about and yakking to each other. It was nice to see them in the middle of winter.

_/\_/\_

Pansy ♡ Buddy

Pansy

Pansy & Buddy
Pansy may look unhappy, but she isn’t.
She always looks miserable when I am around.

_/\_/\_

Snowy Squirrels

A squirrel enjoys the bird seed.

I usually get a lot of unsalted peanuts in the shell for the red squirrels. I throw them out under the bird feeders —  but not this winter. I got a few pounds once and for some reason I never got more. The squirrels are fun to watch as they bury their peanuts in the snow near the house or run off to the woods with their prizes. Red squirrels are loathe to cross open spaces. They prefer to run tree to tree at the edge of a field or through a network of tunnels that they make in the snow. Here is a short series on one squirrel this winter.

Running off with a peanut.

Down the hole!

The squirrel pops up out of the snow tunnel to see what's around.

_/\_/\_

Two Pantries

January 25, 2011

If you are a Facebook friend, you saw these photographs long ago. But I haven't posted them here because I do this blog in (usually) chronological order. Well, OK, not really, but I try. So these photos were taken back when the new kitchen didn't exist. The two pantries here were built first. They are built out of the wood that John took out of our bedroom floor upstairs, which was built long ago in order to keep the ancient plaster kitchen ceiling up (and it didn't work). It was expensive lumber and was a waste of money to be used in a floor. Now the wood has been put to good use. The pantry on the left is for food and on the right for bowls, pots and pans, baking dishes. These pantries are where I learned how to paint. I did a lot of the priming paint on them. More kitchen photos will be coming through now that my server and software problems are over.

The hole in the ceiling above the pantries is the gravity heating system used over a hundred years ago. These were uncovered when the bedroom floor was removed. The original cast iron grates are on them. On another hole with another grate (behind me in this photo) the original tin "pipe" connecting the grate from the bedroom to the grate that should be in the ceiling in the kitchen but is now lost. We have to somehow recreate what they did in ancient times in the kitchen ceiling. For now we are simply keeping the hole in the ceiling. The bedroom no longer gets down to 40°F (4.4°C) on winter nights!

_/\_/\_

A Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

I was on my way to the store on Chamberlin Road (on the other side of the mountain from us) when I passed a barn on the left and saw a huge bird slowly flying over the road. I knew it wasn't a crow, raven or hawk. It perched in a pine tree on the right side of the road, and I saw that it was a great horned owl! My first full sighting! I have seen them at night while driving but never in the day. I was thrilled. And to make it better, I even had my camera with me as I nearly always do. I got into position, got the window down quietly, got the camera settings right for the light . . . and realized I didn't have my 250mm lens! Well, I used to photograph long shots with 50mm before I got the big lens, and I couldn't not photograph the bird, so I began. At the moment I lifted the camera, the owl flew off. It perched in a pine tree further away — too far for any good shots.

I reported my sighting to everybody (of course). And everyone was very pleased to know that the owl was there. I began to get reports from other people of where else I could find these owls. But nothing has turned up. Owls don't travel huge distances so you can be pretty certain of seeing one again where you saw one before. But you have to be patient and wait a long time. Owls are easier to see in the winter because they leave the forest and go to the farms to hunt there. Great horned owls are the mortal enemies of crows, which is why when you see a murder of raucous crows, they are either hollering about a hawk or an owl. But in the winter, our crows go to the cities for food. One of the signs of spring here is the return of the crows. They are usually the first to return, presumably because they spent their winters closer by.

The hunt for owls is a perpetual hunt. I hope this summer we have time to put barn owl nest boxes up. Photographing an owl, any owl, will be much easier if they live in my barn!

_/\_/\_

VIDEO: Redpoll Congregation

Remember the five hundred redpolls that congregated at the feeders on Friday, April 1 (click here to see photos and text)? They returned on Saturday morning. I grabbed my Flip and recorded them. But John and I were talking while I filmed, so I used Flip public domain music to delete our voices. This is another lousy video but you can see that at least 200 redpolls congregated. I actually saw the cloud of them come down the mountain to the feeders and it was an exhilarating sight. They wheeled and dove in the air as they flew down.

After talking to people at the library and at church, we have decided this is the spring congregation of redpolls before they return to Canada for the summer. I can't find any information on redpoll congregation so I cannot confirm whether our conclusion is correct or not.

The Cornell Ornithology Lab writes "An abundant breeding bird of the boreal and taiga regions, the Common Redpoll is seen in North America primarily only in the winter. Even then, it generally occurs during irruptions, typically every other year." We have redpolls every winter, and I don't think that is considered an irruption. They are abundant here and every northern Vermonter, adult and child, knows about redpolls.

Cornell also says that these are Acanthis flammea. I have always thought, from my sources, that they are Carduelis flammea. You can search Cornell with the term Carduelis flammea and the results are redpolls. So now I have to find out why they have two names and which one is in current use.

_/\_/\_

VIDEO: Chickadee Songs

Chickadee Songs
April 2, 2011

The light was lousy on Saturday when I made this video. I also had not used my Flip for over a year, so focus is lousy, too. But you can hear the beautiful chickadee song, and that was the objective of this movie. I held the Flip outside an upstairs bedroom window that is over the bird tree. I love the music of chickadees and will probably listen to this video often in the future.

_/\_/\_

Puzzling Week Returns: Coxeter's Pippin

Peeled & equatorially cut apples ready to be cored for making apple slab.
January 24, 2011

John and I peel dozens of apples for pie, sauce, and slab. Depending on the size and quality of the apples, we will either peel and core by hand (with or without a corer) or by crank. John recently taught me that cutting apples equatorially and then coring them takes less time then the traditional cutting and coring. I have often wondered if there was an even easier or better way than all of the methods we have tried. I found a way tonight! But this is a puzzle. Your clue is the photo I took (above) of equatorially cut apples from January when I made two huge slabs for the weekend. By the way, I no longer use the King Arthur slab recipe. I double a pie crust recipe for a double 9” pie, use a 13x9 Pyrex pan, and just make an apple pie (butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves are all measured by feel and sight) in the rectangular Pyrex.

New Scientist Magazine December 21, 1961

There are many ways of eating an apple. At one extreme is the child who met the request, "Can I have the core of your apple?" with a flat, "There ain't going to be no core!". Various procedures with various implements are designed to remove the core, but probably not one apple in a million is cored in the most efficient fashion possible. How in fact should an apple be cored, to remove all the core with the least possible waste?

Spoiler Alert! The answer is the first comment to this post.

_/\_/\_

VIDEO: The Geese of My Beaver Bog

Canada Geese Defend Their Nesting Site
March 31, 2011

Canada geese did not nest here until about three years ago. They would fly through on their way north to Canada. Many ducks did, too. I have photos of mergansers and wood ducks that rested here on their way north. However, once the Canada geese decided to nest here, only mallard ducks have dropped in and/or nested here. I have gotten used to them and now actually enjoy watching the geese court, brood, and finally, raise their chicks. I have even seen their eggs when the mother rearranges herself on the nest.

But before they make a nest, the geese have a lot of work to do. Geese don’t necessarily mate for life. They lose spouses, just like people do, to death and infidelity. They don’t pine away forever if either happens, but they may lose the breeding season and have to wait until the next year. They usually, but not always, return to the same pond each year for breeding.

We had several geese for about three weeks stop in the afternoon and then leave at dawn the next day. But last week, “our” geese returned and stayed. They serenely walk side by side about the beaver bog, occasionally swim, sleep on the ice, and just take it easy. And every year, a solitary male challenges the mated male. This lone male may be a youngster or a widower, But he wants to entice the mated female to be his mate. The mated male will attack the unmated male and drive him off a safe distance. The female may join her partner in attacking the stranger. Eventually, the lonely male will take off and cruise other ponds for women. It could be one hour to a few days before he decides to try his luck somewhere else. The slide show above shows you the attacks that the mated pair makes on a solitary male. On many slides, you can just see the head of the mated male on the left side of the photo as he runs or flies in for his attack.

The other problem that the resident geese have is another couple that wants the same nesting site. The arguments between the two couples are often more violent than the arguments between a mated pair and an interloper male. Males and females will fight and I have even seen them tag team other couples. The male will attack, hands the fight off to the female, and if the strange couple is not scared off, he will go back in. We had a skirmish like this today.

The new geese arrived yesterday. Yesterday they stayed far away from our geese on the other side of the bog in the back pond although at times they would stroll a bit closer to the front pond and our geese would begin to pay attention. The new geese then returned to the back pond without a confrontation.

Today, the new couple tried to come into the pond that our geese are considering for a nest (there is no telling where they will, or if they will, build their nest).. We watched as our geese attacked the newcomers. They were sly. They walked side by side just as the do in peaceful times. But their necks would begin to extend as they got closer to the new geese. And suddenly, our male would run full tilt for the new male. After a few seconds of chasing the other male, our male would break off the attack and step aside. Then our female, who had stayed still during the attack, would run in and chase the other male. Sometimes, as our male chased the new male, our female chased the new female. But either way they decided to attack, our mated geese would reconnoiter after their attack and then extend their necks, bob their heads at each other and repeatedly touch their bills together. This cracked me up. The geese were giving each other high-fives!

If you would like to learn more about the geese in your ponds, read The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich With some knowledge of goose behavior, you can enjoy observing them much more. Heinrich, my favorite nature writer, is a professor at the University of Vermont. His writing engages you. You won’t put the book down. Heinrich wrote the book after he observed his own geese on his pond for a season or two.

As I mentioned above, this slide show shows the confrontations between a mated pair of geese and a solitary male. The action was taken with a very long lens on an extremely overcast day. The photo quality if poor, but the messages of the geese is clear. This is the first time that I have made a slide show in Lightroom. I have no idea where the first couple of frames flash a bright light. There is no audio track. I hope you enjoy it!

_/\_/\_

The First Robin

March 31, 2011

Every spring I note the day that I see my first robin. The day you see the first robin of spring is a lucky day in New England. It's an important harbinger of spring. But this was the latest that I had ever seen my first. As I write this, I can hear the snow plow go by. The season’s snow has not yet melted, the ponds and lakes are still frozen and we got another six inches of snow here yesterday on this part of the mountain. But it may reach 40°F this coming week. The sun might shine. There is always hope.

_/\_/\_

The Ice Tree

January

Out past our house, on Route 16, is this ice tree. The owners of the tree, I heard, wondered what it would look like caked in ice. So they ran a hose from the pond to the tree and this is the beautiful ice formation that developed. This photograph was taken in January. We are all wondering if the tree will survive the weight of the ice. I can't answer that yet, but you can see, below what it looks like now. It seems like they may have reinforced the tree, also.

April

_/\_/\_

Five Hundred Redpolls

I went to work after I filled the thistle socks for the redpolls earlier today. John said that very soon after I left he heard a low drumming sound that drew him to the windows. He saw at least five hundred redpolls at the feeders, in the woods, and in the air. He was stunned and grabbed my camera and started shooting. He did an awesome job with the camera. He used proper estimation procedures, the same we teach our mathematics students. He was still excited about the experience when I returned home.

The feeders are all empty now. Why were we inundated with redpolls? I think it partly was today's snowstorm. Perhaps there is also some communication between different redpoll flocks. We can't be certain of anything. But in the morning, I am going to refill the thistle socks. I want the redpolls to come back! We have video cameras that could capture the magnitude of the combined flocks.

To see the detail of these photos, click on the photo and you will open a new window to the Flickr photo page. On the top left of the photo is a drop down menu that says "Actions." Click that and select "View all sizes." View the original size. I looked at the crowds on the thistle socks and the flying birds for an hour. This is an awesome phenomenon.

_/\_/\_

April 1: A Reminder about Feeders

Black bear near our well in 2009.

It is April 1. Today is the day we are supposed to take our bird feeders down so the bears don't come and eat the feeders. They are, or will be, waking up. We know where the bears on the mountain hibernate in the winter. We know they come down to the house to see how careless we were about leaving food about (or kitties about). Click here and here for the story. We see their tracks and scat all summer long in our apple orchard, the woods and under the choke cherry trees. So bring in your feeders today.

Raccoons are a huge problem in spring, too.

But bears aren't the only problem. The raccoons destroy more of my feeders than bears do. And we have had recorded outbreaks of raccoon rabies in Orleans County in the past five years. Minks and fisher cats will be by, also (as happened to me last week when a big mink ran right by me under the feeders when I was photographing birds). So get your feeders in today!

I will be taking the feeders in as soon as they are empty. Probably tomorrow or Sunday. I put out the last of the sunflower and thistle today because of this snowstorm we are having. The redpolls were crazy happy that I filled the little thistle socks  and the chickadees were irritated at my slowness, as always. The woodpeckers are back because the others are back and the robins, doves. blue jays and red-winged blackbirds stop by to take a look now and then. It's been another great photography season with the birds and squirrels. The photos are not all posted yet, though, so you will see more!

_/\_/\_

Chatty Redheads

I am not exaggerating when I say that we are getting over one hundred redpolls at the feeders now. It is a hoard of little birds. Redpolls love thistle seed (below). I used to put out just one thistle bag. Then two. Now we have four — two small ones and two large ones. The redpolls prefer the small bags but in a pinch (like when I refuse to refill the small bags) will use the large bags. The ground beneath the bags is an inch thick in thistle seeds. John and I are going to try to plant the thistle in the upper field this year (it is not invasive) to try to harvest our own seed for next winter instead of buying fifty pound bags of it for the birdies.

Only 3 redpolls are in this photo but up to 10 birds will alight on a thistle bag.

Redpolls are a bit skittish. If a car goes by on the road (which doesn't happen that often in the winter), they all fly off. They travel together in huge flocks. More redpolls come during snowstorms than during good weather. When I go to refill the feeders, the redpolls will remain in the tree and watch me. The chickadees will bounce around the tree and feeders, so close that I can touch them, and will scold me. But redpolls wait quietly and patiently. They chatter quite a bit to each other. Some have red patches on their heads, some don't. Some have red breasts and some don't. Some simply look like a streaked sparrow. They come slender and plump, dark brown to nearly white. In the summer, they return to Canada. I miss their friendly chatter when they leave.

_/\_/\_