Kwaree Blog

Visiting Old Saybrook, CT For Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Okay, enough of the pleasantries.

This Thanksgiving, my lady and I had dinner at the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. Since we had been there a few times before, this wasn’t a huge deal for us. What was a huge deal was the fact that dinner was buffet style. I like buffet because it translates to “all you can eat” for me. On Thanksgiving, that’s a good thing. Trust me, we’ve been down the road of “exquisite chef who only uses locally grown foods…blah blah blah.” What that means is small portions for too much money. I am so over that.

What I am into is wearing comfortable clothes and eating until I am fat and dumb. That’s what we (I) did. Dinner was great. The only complaint I have is that there were too many people. I guess the Griswold is a popular place. Next time, we are going to eat in a different room. The room we were in was crowded and I had to keep saying, “excuse me” when I got up multiple times for more food. I started getting funny looks for my second dessert run. Oh well.

So that was dinner.

We thought that it would be fun to head down to Old Saybrook, CT before dinner to do a little exploring. Since we had to be at the Griswold at 4:30PM, we went down to the water earlier to catch as much light as we could.

It’s funny, the weather was cloudy, but there were breaks of sun here and there. It was a very weird sky. November will do that. I am happy that it was the way it was because I got some great pictures of the coast line. Rarely…I mean RARELY have I ever said that something in nature is beautiful. Not that I haven’t seen beautiful natural settings in my day, but I generally say that things are nice or cool. I don’t get too excited. For some reason, when we came around the most southern bend on Maple Avenue, I started saying, “Now that is beautiful.” I couldn’t help myself. It was the way the sun was shining through the clouds and hitting the water. It looked like the water was steaming. It was really nice and you are lucky people to see pictures of some of it. I think you’ll agree.

There is nothing nicer than going for a stroll on a beach on Thanksgiving. Not too hot, not too cold.

Related posts

• Reseeding With Pennington Smart Seed – Sun & Shade (0)
• How To Get Rid Of Crabgrass (1)
• Tennis Balls In Dryer For Static Control (3)
• Sunday Dinners Are On (2)
• Stihl BR 550 Backpack Blower (1)

Why Can’t It Be November Forever?

Isn’t November the perfect month? I mean, if you live in the New England area, you’ll surely agree that we have had the most spectacular weather.

I think Mother Nature is making up for giving us a lousy Spring. Oh yeah, I remember that. Rain, rain and then more rain. About half way through July it finally stopped raining. After that, I don’t think we got enough rain.

I’m actually kind of surprised that it hasn’t been raining all that much this Autumn. There has been a few rainy days mixed in here and there, but we have generally had perfect weather. When I say perfect, I mean 50s – 60s throughout the day and 40s overnight. It’s great walking weather.

For Thanksgiving, we are heading down to a restaurant near the water. I want to get down there early so we can visit a few beaches. I like going to visit places on the shore while no one else is there. It’s easier to breathe the fresh air.

Do you want to see what the forecast for this week?

Courtesy of Intellicast

Isn’t it always the way?

Related posts

• Photos of Spring Flowers (1)
• Green Velvet Boxwood (1)
• Cleaning Gutters & Installing Amerimax Gutter Covers (23)
• Some Days, I Don’t Have Anything To Write (0)
• The Satan Caves (52)

New Pine Trees From Home Depot

I love writing about this kind of stuff. It fills my heart with happiness.

I got the greatest deal yesterday when I went to the Home Depot. It came in the form of four pine trees for the price of one.

When I visit the Home Depot, I usually walk in through the garden center. I don’t know, I guess it’s a habit of mine. Even if I don’t plan on buying anything, I just like to see what they have. Usually, I browse the aisles in search of those ever elusive Blue Spruces that pop up every so often. Yesterday’s trip was no different.

As I was walking into the garden center yesterday, I passed by a truck parked right in front of the sidewalk. I took a look in the back of it and it was chock full of everything that used to be in the store (plant-wise). As I continued in, I bumped into the guy who was filling up the truck. He was pulling a pallet jack full of bushes and shrubs. I wanted to know what he was doing, so I struck up a conversation. First, I asked where he was bringing all the plants. He told me that he was heading towards Fairfield County because they were selling very well down there while nothing was really happening up here. I was pretty familiar with this type of event because I have struck up many conversations with garden workers over the years, especially at the very end of the growing season when there are tons of good deals.

After I absorbed that little tidbit of information, I asked if he ever brought in any small spruce trees. He told me that he did every once in a while, and he started walking towards the larger spruces they had left over from this past season. There were four of them and he told me he would give me a great deal just to get rid of them. I asked when kind of great deal and he replied that he would give me four for the price of one. About ten seconds later I was pulling the car up to the front and popping the trunk.

The prices of these trees varied from around $45 to $60. He said he would give me everything for $45. I thought that was great. Then, I was walking towards him after I got out of the car, he said he would do even better because some of the branches were bare. He said he would give me everything for $30. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. See what happens when you have a nice smile and a friendly attitude? You get a price reduction on some spruce trees.

Both of us stacked the trees up in the back of the car. I was very thankful for the trees and the fact that they fit. Now, I have the lovely task of planting these things tomorrow. Check ‘em out.

Four spruce trees

Related posts

• Famous Left Handed People (2)
• The Deer Remain…A List of Deer Resistant Plants (0)
• New 2009 BMW 328i xDrive Sedan (5)
• My Micro-Garden (0)
• The Deer Have Arrived…T’is the Season (1)

Grass Seed Germination

This is a simple post. There are two things I want to show you.

1. A Kentucky Bluegrass seed germinating
2. The new Pennington Smart Seed sun and shade mix grass seed popping up through the compost I put down last week

Boy, they aren’t kidding when they say that Bluegrass seed takes over four weeks to germinate. I planted most of the seed near the beginning of September and a lot of it is just coming up now. That’s just crazy, but I do enjoy it when I look outside every day and the grass looks slightly more green and full each time. I over seeded the entire property and it really is showing. I can’t wait for Spring to come so I can give it another layer of seed. I am going to give this a shot because I don’t want to put down any weed and feed. From now on, nothing but fertilizer. No herbicides or pesticides. We’ll see if the saying is true…”a nice thick lawn will crowd out weeds.”

Also, it didn’t take long for the Pennington Smart Seed to start growing. I watered it a few days ago and it got drenched last night. I woke up this morning to find parts of the compost actually lifted off the ground. It was like someone poured soil on a shag carpet. The new grass growing underneath the top layer of compost was lifting the whole thing up. When I put my hand on top of it, it felt like I was pushing down on a sponge.

Here are some pictures.

Related posts

• Is The End Of Summer Really Here? (2)
• Cleaning Up The Woods (0)
• Using Milky Spore To Control Grubs and Japanese Beetles (0)
• Everbearing Strawberry Plants (0)
• Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control For Killing Weeds (1)

Leaf Mulch and Leaf Compost

I told you I was going to take some pictures of the leaf mulch and compost. You should have never doubted me.

My little plan of mulching the leaves into the grass instead of raking them up is working out very well. You would be amazed at how much you can condense a big pile of leaves. If you mow over them a few times, it’s like they aren’t even there. Also, the new John Deere X300 Mulching Kit works great. It saves a lot of time and makes me happy to think that all these leaves are going to break down into the beautiful leaf compost that I am about to show you.

Let me post the pictures. We can talk about it later.

First off, I am going to tell you that this is what Autumn is all about…getting out there and playing with nature. There’s nothing like it. Sometimes you just have to take a break and smell the air.

I wanted to mention this before I forget. I am now using Pennington Smart Seed for my overseeding and spot seeding because there is a little something strange going on in the bags of Scotts grass seed. If you look at the “Inert Matter” percentage in the back of the bag, you’ll notice that it’s only a few % in the Pennington Smart Seed bag. If you look at the Scotts grass seed with the new Water Smart technology, you’ll see that the inert matter is up towards 50%. That means that there is around 50% actual grass seed and 50% other stuff that isn’t grass seed. Now, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, especially if you are trying to grow grass during a warmer season or a warmer climate and can’t water new seed all the easily, but for me, I would prefer buying the most grass seed as I can. Enough about that.

So did you see this pics? Pretty nice, huh? It’s hard to believe that it only took one season to break down those leaves into that compost. I am guessing that dumping the leaf mulch into the woods helped. The worms were sitting there waiting for it. The worms are the ones that did all the work. Notice how I said “leaf mulch.” Yeah, I think the chopped up leaves break down a heck of a lot faster than leaves that are just raked up. Those types of leaves tend to mat down and get wet. They turn into compost much slower.

I got about four wheelbarrow loads of compost out of the woods the day I took these photos. I screened it and used it to cover up and seed some areas of the lawn there weren’t doing too swell. I know it’s late in the season for planting grass, but I figured that much of the other grass I planted in early September is just starting to germinate, so this round should be fine. Also, in the grass seed that I bought, there is a high percentage of Perennial Ryegrass, which germinates very quickly (like four days). The other other types of seed in the blend will take a bit longer, but I have faith that it’ll be just fine.

If I had some advice to give (which I do) someone who lives in a cooler climate like I do and who wants to do some overseeding, I would say to do it October 1 instead of September 1 like everyone suggests. Unless of course you have an irrigation system on your property. I say this because September is still quite warm and it is very difficult to get grass to germinate on dry soil. Hey, if you can figure out a way to get out there with the hose twice a day and water your entire property, then go for it. As for me, I’ll wait for the cooler weather and let mother nature take her course. As I said above, the new grass really started coming up around October 1. I am attributing that to cooler weather and more rain.

Related posts

• New Website in the Family (0)
• Ariens Two-Stage 24 Inch Electric Start Snow Thrower (3)
• Riding a Segway in the Hudson Valley (0)
• Another Lazy Saturday (2)
• Grass Seed Germination (2)

John Deere X300 Mulching Kit

So, I have basically shifted into reverse from where I was last year at this time. If you remember, I got a rear bagger for my John Deere X300. The reason I got the bagger was to suck up all the leaves that fall off the trees. Just to let you know, it does a great job. Last year, this lawn was spotless.

A funny thing happened over the Summer. I did a lot of work in the woods. As I was working, I kept walking over these really soft and fertile areas of ground. At times, I would push the top layer of mulched leaves (this is the area I dumped all the leaves I picked up last year) just to see what was going on. Each time I pushed the leaves off the dirt, I would find this beautiful black soil. I was astounded. The leaves that I had dumped in the woods last year had composted and turned into nutrient packed soil. And, this soil was chock full of worms. You should see it. Maybe tomorrow I will take a picture of it. The worms are HUGE.

So what I have been doing rather slowly over the past few weeks is to dig up the compost and sift it into the wheelbarrow. Then, I go out to various parts of the yard and toss the compost all over the place. From what I hear, that’s good for the lawn. It is a lot of work though.

Let me tell you what has happened since I started using the bagger. I mowed and bagged and mowed and bagged. About half way through the Summer, I had this nagging suspicion that something was wrong. I kept asking myself this question – If I keep sucking up all the grass clippings and leaves, where the heck is the lawn going to get any organic materials from? I did some research and pretty much came to the conclusion that I was removing all the goodness from the lawn soil. They call “soil” with no nutrients in it “dirt.” I tend to trust my conclusion because there are parts of the lawn that are really green and lush. Those parts have better soil than the parts that are all burnt out looking. The dry grass areas have dirt that is really hard and inhospitable for growing grass.

As much as I am outside fiddling around, I do really try to cut the work load down to a minimum. I love working, but I’m not dumb. With that in mind, I did a little thinking and figured that it was foolish to suck up leaves, dump them in the woods, wait for them to break down and then dig up the compost to spread on the lawn. Why not just mulch the leaves and grass clippings right there on the lawn? I did all sorts of research on this idea and it seems to be the wave of the future. Or, at least what people have been doing since the dawn of time, before we all turned into a bunch of pansies and had to have perfectly manicured lawns. Sometimes I just shake my head and wish I was the way I used to be.

When I was a kid, do you know what my father used to say to me when the grass was getting tall? He said, “Get out there and mow the lawn.” I don’t think I ever responded, “But father, what about this month’s application of fertilizer.” We’ve been brainwashed.

Anyway, I figured that all I needed to begin my leaf and grass clipping mulching program was a mulching kit from John Deere. I could have simply mowed over the leaves with what I had (the side discharge chute), but it took a lot of extra time trying to “catch” the leaves. The air coming out from the lawn mower deck blew them all over the place. With a mulching lawn mower deck, the leaves are more contained and a lot of time is saved by not having to drive around in circles all day.

Let me show you some pictures of the mulching kit parts and setup.

The pictures really don’t do this mulch kit justice because there weren’t a lot of leaves on the ground. I basically just wanted to try the mower out. Today, I used my leaf blower to blow out this woodsy area we have. I made a pretty substantial pile of leaves. I rode over it with the mulching deck a few times and you can hardly even tell there were any leaves there. Amazing. I am looking forward to a season full of leaves on the ground that I don’t have to pick up anymore. I am also looking forward to a future with better soil conditions so the grass grows nice and thick.

Related posts

• The Pellet Stove Was Inspected (0)
• Are Lawn Weeds Annuals Or Perennials? (1)
• Tomatoes From Gotta’s Farm In Portland, CT (1)
• I Painted The Red Room (3)
• Purple and White Bearded Iris (0)

Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Lenox and Lee

On Thursday of last week, we decided to head up to the Berkshires for some apple picking. Every year, we end up going too late and are rushed by the end of the season. Of course there are still apples to pick, but many of the varieties are already gone. This year, we thought it would be a good idea to go apple picking not too early, but not too late.

I think we’ll stick with going at the end of the season. There is one reason for this…the Honeycrisps are ripe. I guess the Honeycrisp is a late season apple, because there were “Not Ripe” signs all over the place where these particular trees were. It’s funny because I tasted a few and they seemed fine to me. I grabbed about 15 of them. I have a feeling they will ripen up just fine. Just so you know, the Honeycrisp is the biggest and best apple there is. They are huge.

We go apple picking at a place called “Windy Hill Farm Nursery Orchards & Garden Center.” I think that’s the official name. We just call it Windy Hill. It’s located on 686 Stockbridge Rd in Great Barrington, MA and really is a great orchard. They have hot cider inside and plenty of apples and pumpkins to choose from. I’m guessing when I say there are about 15 different types of apples to pick. We have been visiting this orchard during Autumn for about five years now.

The only problem is…it’s a little far away. I was thinking out loud on the way back from our exciting day when I said, “I think this is the last year for Windy Hill.” I got a funny look. I continued, “It’s just too far away. I can’t see driving for almost two hours to head up to the Berkshires when there has to be plenty of good orchards around where we live.” It’s true, there are tons of orchards around here, but we really like to make a day out of it. We don’t want to just run over to Glastonbury real quick, grab some apples and leave. That seems more like a chore. 45 minutes away is a good distance for an apple orchard. That way, we get to visit some town that we hardly ever go to and it makes the whole thing more fun. I like that. So, next year, I think we’ll head up to the “Quiet Corner” somewhere. I am sure Pomfret has an apple orchard. After all, Pomfret is an area full of beautiful rolling hills, a perfect place for apples to grow.

Thursday was fun. Not only did we visit Windy Hill, we also visited Yankee Candle in Stockbridge to gather a nice assortment of Autumn smelling candles and tarts. It wasn’t my idea to go there, but being the accommodating companion that I am, I agreed that it was a good idea. Now, every time I go downstairs, I think there is an apple pie or pumpkin bread in the oven. It’s really not fair.

Besides apple picking, another goal that I had for Thursday’s trip was to head up to Lenox to check out a really nice country house/hotel called Blantyre. I have heard great things about this place and wanted to see it first hand. I am always on the hunt for the next marvelous Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. The visit was supposed to be a surprise. I wanted to drive to Lenox in stealth mode and quickly turn into the Blantyre driveway. My plan was foiled when I got lost…again. For some reason, Lenox is in something like a spiderweb vortex. It seems like every road going into the town is identical and has the same left turn. Each time I go there, I find myself making the same mistakes, over and over and over. This time, it took a confession and use of the GPS to find our destination. It really wasn’t any big deal because I am used to my surprises being ruined due to lack of preparation.

When we finally made it to Blantyre, we were very pleased by what we found. There is a really long driveway that leads to a large English house type structure. It is secluded and absolutely feels like another land. I can’t compare it to Europe because I have never been there, but if I had been there I am sure the Blantyre would feel just like it. It was kind of like Robin Hood was going to walk out of the woods.

We walked through the front door and found a really upscale and formal cluster of rooms. We visited the main room, the music room and the dining room. I also peeked out to the terrace and the front lawn and gardens. It was better than I had imagined. (Don’t worry, I have pictures)

A woman came out to greet us and answered all the questions about holiday dining that we threw at here. We gave the desk gentleman my name for a return call after they had the menu and arrangements set up. We walked out and strolled around for a while and took some photos.

After we left Blantyre, we decided to head down to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. I had this strange desire to get slippers. I know, I know…I am a big burly man. What in the world do I need slippers for? Well, this Winter, I am not fighting cold feet. I do it every year and it’s just not going to happen this time.

We arrived at Prime Outlets and were disappointed by the lack of selection of slippers. The slippers that were there were all made from leather and cost close to $50. They also had no thick hoodies or sweatpants to be found. This isn’t the first time we have walked away empty handed from this joint. I guess it was a good idea while it lasted. By the way, I picked up a nice pair of slippers in Walmart yesterday for $11. I also got a pair of sweatpants for $10. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. This is simple house gear, mind you.

Lastly, we headed back to the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge for some lunch. This is quite the tradition each year to settle us down after some good apple picking. We even got the clover leaf on top of our Guinness.

Here are some pictures of our exciting day up in the Berkshires. The weather was good when we arrived, sprinkled a little bit while we were picking apples and then cleared up again. All in all, it was a good day – minus the slipper thing.

Related posts

• A Business Idea – Start Selling Wood Pellets (4)
• Hampton HI300 Wood Insert (2)
• Gardening, Bug Repellents, Greenhouses, Organic Farm And Tea Tree Oil (0)
• Green Velvet Boxwood (1)
• Herb Lavandula – Munstead Lavender Plant (1)

Visiting Block Island – Again

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is worth over 38,000 of them. I apologize. I deleted about half of the photos I took yesterday, but so many of them were good that I didn’t have the heart to cut any further. You’ll just have to look at them.

I think I’ve been to Block Island, RI once before. It seems like more than that because I think about the place quite often. It’s one of those little gems that most of the area hasn’t visited. Don’t get me wrong, Block Island is jumping throughout the Summer, but the crowds disappear in the off season. Ahhh, the perfect time to visit.

The plan was to travel out to Block Island to have lunch at the Spring House Hotel. For my birthday last year, Laura got me a gift certificate just for this. I thought it was a great idea and was excited to go out and use it. We would take the 11AM ferry from Point Judith, arrive at Block Island at noon, eat lunch and leave at 3PM. Well, that was the plan.

When we arrived at Point Judith, we were a little early. I made a big fuss about getting out of the house at 8AM. I totally forgot how long it took to get to Point Judith, so yeah, as I said, we were a little early. Like about an hour. Good thing there was a high speed ferry that left at 10:30AM and only took a half hour to get to Block Island. By taking the high speed ferry, we arrived on Block Island an hour early (11AM).

When we got off the ferry, we walked straight up to the Spring House Hotel. I wanted to go up there just to let them know we were going to walk around a little bit and then come back for lunch. Hey, guess what? When we got to the hotel, we discovered that they don’t serve lunch after Labor Day. Oh well. We left.

On the way back down the road, I explained to Laura that it was actually a good thing that I didn’t call first to find that out. If I had, we wouldn’t have gone there for the day and would have just sat around doing other things. I was glad we made the trip. We just went and ate somewhere else.

Here’s the really cool part. Since we had a few hours to use up before the next ferry would bring us back to Point Judith, we decided to rent a scooter (or moped) to cruise around the island on. That was worth it because scooters are awesome to drive around on and you get to see the whole area. We drove from the most Northern tip of the island to the most Southern and made a bunch of stops in between. We looked hot on the scooter and all the other scooter drivers were envious of us because we could drive 28MPH. That’s a full MPH faster than most scooters on the island. Nobody had the guts to go that fast besides us. We were a gang of two.

At around 2:30PM, we gave the scooter back and did our thing to get on the ferry. During the ride back, I actually fell asleep on the bench. This was the slow ferry, so I had the time. Laura was busy talking with some old ladies who smoke and drank too much. I’ll tell ya, those ladies knew how to party.

Here are those 38 pictures I was talking about above. Enjoy.

Related posts

• Christmas Dinner At The Mayflower Inn (2)
• Transplanting Daffodil Bulbs (2)
• The Animals of Punta Cana (1)
• Point Judith Lighthouse, Narragansett, Rhode Island (4)
• Red and Yellow Delicious Semi-Dwarf Apple Trees (3)

Schooner Cruise Up Connecticut River

Well, we finally did it. We took the schooner cruise on the Mary E. up the Connecticut River.

This was something we were supposed to do about a month ago. When we got the great idea, the weather was nice and cool. When it came time to actually drive down and get on the boat, the heat wave hit. We weren’t in the mood to do anything at that point.

September offers a bunch of great days to get back into those activities you missed during the heat of the Summer. Also, the kids are back in school, so that helps with the crowd levels. The schooner cruise we went on had mostly older folks aboard. I believe we were the youngest and best behaved people on the boat.

I took a bunch of pictures during the cruise and went through them this morning. We actually went on this boat ride last week. I just found the energy to write about it today. I deleted a bunch of pictures that I thought were good at the time of taking them, but later discovered that one can only have so many photos of a flat river. The ones I posted below are the better of the bunch.

If you are interested in taking a schooner cruise on the Mary E. up the Connecticut River, click here to get more information. The Connecticut River Museum manages the whole thing and is a nice place to visit on its own.

Related posts

• RIDGID 4 Gallon Wet/Dry Vac (2)
• Installing a New Kitchen Faucet and an Under Sink Water Filter (2)
• Pinkish White Knockout Roses (1)
• Replacing The Exhaust On A 1999 Honda Civic DX (4)
• Danny Glover and Felix Justice At Eastern Connecticut University (0)

Some Late Summer Photos

I got up nice and early this morning. I didn’t know this, but Laura had taken my recommendation of setting the alarm clock to go off an hour earlier. I think this is the first step to getting old. When I hit 4AM like Seinfeld’s grandma, that’ when I call it.

I made the coffee and started my morning waltz around the property. I am sure you have heard all about that by now. This morning was pretty good…nice and clear sky with tons of dew on the grass. About half way through my stroll, I decided to go back inside to grab the camera. I didn’t have anything in particular to take pictures of, so I just took random shots.

Here they are:

Related posts

• New Blog Theme (0)
• Replacing The Exhaust On A 1999 Honda Civic DX (4)
• Everbearing Strawberry Plants (0)
• More Plantings in the Fall (0)
• Some Night Time Snow Pictures (3)