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Sometimes it's hard to come back from a vacation high. It has been good to snuggle the cats, sleep in a soft bed, take a shower, and be reunited with my remaining pairs of bike shorts.

But boy, this one twee houseboat just speaks of a very different sort of life:

Day 5: Weedsport to Green Lakes State Park

Day 5: Weedsport to Green Lakes State Park

Day 5: Weedsport to Green Lakes State Park

It was definitely a relief to have a break from the news. A good reminder that there are drawbacks to being glued to it all.

On the other hand, the horseshoe crab's tank needed attention, the clownfish were hungry, the ants needed watering and a temperature boost (I'd turned the heater down while away), and the windowsill plants were all thirsty.

And there's a lot of boathouse and rowing stuff on the horizon.

I am so much more motivated now to make sure we get out on some silly Petrichor adventures, and sooner rather than later!

I have to wonder whether there's a way to set up Petrichor with a boat tent. And a proper galley box. Hmmm....

I should probably finish varnishing first.
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Then there's the moment when suddenly, you're back on familiar roads/paths. I don't ride the section of the Erie Canal Trail that's north/west of here all that often, in part because the direct route is only half as long, but I've been out there occasionally.

Today's locks were particularly cool. In the morning, Lock 10 started singing to us. I got a couple of recordings of it that I'll hopefully get around to posting soon. Later on, I noticed the Lock 7 sign just in the nick of time to get us to pull over and visit. I've been to Lock 7 previously, but this time we got to watch two sailboats and a motorboat lock through. What was most amazing was watching the water spew out when they discharged the lock to get the sailboats in. I also recorded video of that bit.

And then, home along the Hudson River, over the Skyway bridge, and back to the kitties and the house!

I have a lot of catch-up stuff to attend to tomorrow, sigh. But I'll ride the vacation high just a little bit longer, now.
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Moss Island and the pothole ponds and lock 17 the guillotine lock were all big time highlights. There is an alpaca wool store in Little Falls that we will definitely go back to.

It is always funny to be almost home, but not quite.

Amazing amount of (paved) slight downhill with a tailwind. Sunny and warmer; tomorrow’s supposed to get even warmer yet.
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First, a new sea shanty verse:

Where are me shorts
Me bikin bikin shorts
All gone for beer and tobacco
For the chamois’ all wore out
And the legs are knocked about
And the tail is looking out for better weather…

So last night I hung up a few articles in the women’s bathroom at the campground in the futile hope things would maybe dry out just a little, please? When I got up to pee at 1 am, my towel, socks, and sports bra were all still there…but two of my pairs of bike shorts were gone.

In the morning, I waved goodbye to Je, who headed up the trail for breakfast, and had a modest camp breakfast of my own, of coffee, apricots, a granola bar, and a chocolate hazelnut biscotti. I was thinking to wait around for as long as I could just in case someone had good intentions when nipping my shorts. Even fit in a short hike on the Round Lake Overlook trail. But alas, nothing.

So eventually I left a note where my shorts had been, plus a longer note at the park office, then set forth.

This was a long riding day altogether, 83.7 miles, and the morning miles I mostly rode hard in order to have time to enjoy brunch and catch up with an old friend from Tufts in Rome (rowing teammate; so great to catch up!!). Then some hard miles after brunch to try and catch S expediently at the train station in Utica (success! Thanks in large part to Je). Then we decided to ride past Utica, closer to Herkimer, to be nearer to where Jo and L are staying.

So I’m kinda tired now. But on the plus side, we should have more reasonable days tomorrow and the next day. And there should be some particularly cool sights to check out tomorrow.

Plus today was dry.

So, onward.
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Last night’s campground was not the greatest. Mostly gave me Midwestern RV campground vibes, but also we were out in a site that was almost a swamp due to all the rain we’ve been getting.

To say nothing of the mosquitoes.

So I was glad to pack up and move on in the morning.

I waited until I reached an old lock site before getting out the supplies to make coffee. The site had a bit of a breeze going, to help with the mosquito situation.

But then…my first attempt at a moka pot of coffee capsized. Coffee got everywhere except where it’s supposed to go, in my mouth. Going forward I will monitor the coffee very closely so as to not repeat that most unfortunate episode.

I wound up riding solo for the morning, which meant a whole lot more singing and muttering to myself.

Presently, it began to rain again. I pulled out my rain cape and applied my various rain covers.

Sometime thereafter, it started to rain more heavily, so when I reached an underpass I pulled out the bike spats / shoe booties. And then I merrily continued on my way towards Syracuse.

Riding through Syracuse included several adventures, amplified by the fact that the gusts of wind and rain had picked up. There had been a plan to meet up at the Syracuse State Farmers Market, but by the time I arrived and checked my phone I learned the tandem had foregone the market in favor of a warm, indoors coffeeshop.

After a spin around the market plus some coffee and a donut, I joined the rest of the party at the coffeeshop to wait out the rest of the worst of the rain. Jo declared the rainstorm a Nor’easter, and I suppose he’s right?

After all that, more lovely trail, then a climb up a big hill to a campsite at Green Lakes State Park. The stay here might actually be much nicer due to the rain keeping other campers at bay?

And after 4 nights I think I finally figured out how to properly stake my tent to better keep moisture out.

Here’s hoping, at least.

Touring and camping in the rain can be a hassle, but so far I am pretty pleased with how I’ve handled myself with it all. A lot of old Washington camping habits have stayed with me.

Lots of aqueducts today, and a couple of museum ride-bys, too.
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Today some of the finest pleasures of bike touring have been experienced, along with some of the most exquisite minor annoyances.

We have had lots of sections of riding through “green tunnels,” with dappled light in woods full of pink and purple wildflowers of a type I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure they’re introduced.

We went on a short side quest to check out the remains of the Richmond Aqueduct, but the mosquitoes there were so thick we only stayed long enough for a few photos before fleeing. If I had been in a mosquito suit I would have been temped to stay far longer.

The skies turned sunny in the afternoon and we had screaming tailwinds for several sections of the trail that were on-road. That now means my legs are sunburned, argh. But it also meant fun episodes of zooming along, reminding me of brevets ridden out here.

My face and arms are fine, though, thanks to good coverage. I might just wear long leggings all day tomorrow to give my poor leg skin a break.

Tonight’s camping is unfortunately not nearly as cool as the last couple of nights. Our only options were RV parks, so we’re in one at a site on the edge across from a group holding a loud, drunken conversation (as one rightly does in this sort of place). The real problem is that we’re towards the bottom of a slope, the ground is saturated, and it’s raining again. Getting wet is one thing; I’m going to have to be really careful to avoid getting muddy.

So, all just about right for a bicycle touring expedition!

At least the rain is dampening the general noise level of the campground, plus any smoke from campfires, plus the mosquito flocks!
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It rained hard overnight, but I was spared from learning the full extent to which all my everything got sopping wet until after I got up. In hindsight I should have bum-camped under the roofed portion of the Brockport Welcome Center. Hopefully I remember that in the future.

But thankfully this isn’t the Pacific Northwest so we actually had redemption weather today. Over a long lunch in Pittsford I was able to dry out both copies of my current knitting pattern.

Later on there was an REI directly off the trail, so I was able to buy 2 more pairs of wool socks since I apparently forgot any socks other than the ones I was wearing. I was also able to find an adequate replacement bike tool kit and adequate (though not great) replacement rope. The rope was then handy for a clothesline at our campsite tonight at Lock 29, and now, magically, all my things are dry again. Amazing.

Lock 29 looks like it has stories to tell but not enough storytellers.

Another interesting point today was where the Gennesee River crosses the Erie Canal, or, rather, where the canal crosses the river.

Btw I am still uploading photos to Flickr on a daily basis; annotating them is beyond my capabilities right now, but eventually I’ll have an album from this whole adventure.
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Lockport continued to be awesome in the morning.

We got to watch a group of fourth graders lock through on a tour boat! I took several short videos.

On our way out of town we encountered three tall bike tourers headed the other way.

https://flic.kr/p/2r7Eu37

We went across a point where there’s a waterfall *under* the canal, and another spot where a road goes underneath. Not as impressive as some of the European aqueducts but still great.

Brockport has a lovely welcome center right next to the canal, with showers, laundry, space for tents on shore, and moorings for canal boats.

We had some headwinds and rain today, so I am tired and it’s time to fall asleep.
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Too many things happened and I am 1.5 beers in, in Lockport, NY

Number of bike shops visited: 2
Maid in the Mist again, still hilarious and I cackled when people screamed when they got wet
Lockport Flight of Five and wait until you see photos of where we get to camp tonight!!!!
Mississippi Mud for ice cream, 2 giant scoops
So many old bridges
Idk what else.
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Yesterday I realized I would run out of coffee this morning, so I built in a side quest to Stacks on my way to the train. But alas, they were out of bags of beans for sale!

I will have to try my luck locally here in Niagara Falls.

The train trip was uneventful up until the door I planned to exit through wouldn’t open and I had to awkwardly wheel all my stuff and bike to the opposite end of the car.

But I made it off fine, then immediately met up with J. I made him backtrack over to the start of the Erie Canal trail, then we u-turned and made our way up to Niagara Falls. I only started to recognize roads about a mile away from where we’re staying (Aashram Motel).

Weather was sunny and beautiful. We’ll stop by the falls in the morning, then head towards Lockport.

I swear there are informational signs and historical markers every 1/4 mile.
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Don't most good adventures start with a one-way ticket?

The beginning

I'll be bike touring with a couple of friends for the next 8-9 days, probably updating to Flickr primarily, then here, secondarily.
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...since [personal profile] annikusrex asked for pictures, haha, here's one:

Pittsford Regatta 2025

I feel like the mustache made me look like a Super Mario character!

One of the problems with these is you can't laugh while wearing them or they'll fall off.

So I had to just try and look "manly" instead.

Pittsford Regatta 2025

Here are some of our kids having a ball with the Stylish Mustaches:

Pittsford Regatta 2025

Pittsford Regatta 2025

So great.
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One of our favorite referees called the regatta, "Henley on the Erie [Canal]" because the section of canal the races happen on is only barely wide enough for 2 racing lanes plus a narrow warmup lane. The sculling races are run using a head race format where boats start individually and race the clock, but sweep boats compete against each other in the Henley head-to-head format.

It's a far less competitive regatta than Henley, but really, that's great for us.

I had 3 races. My priority race was the Mixed 2x with J; we've been able to train and race together for a bit over 3 years at this point, so this is a boat where we can look at our prior progress and push ourselves to improve over the past. All told, we had a pretty fantastic race. A couple of minor hiccups but overall we were able to squeak out a win! The top 5 boats in the event all had finish times within 5 seconds of each other, so it was a tight competitive field. These are all things that make for great racing.

Prior to the Mixed 2x, I went down the course in my single. It was the very first time I've been in a single this spring, but immediately after hopping into Wild Blue Yonder I had the feeling of, "Oh yeah, hello my dear boat!" And I was able to maintain a pace for the race I was happy with. Collectively that netted me a mid-pack finish (I think 5 out of 10?), which is pretty much the best I think I can ever hope for in the single. I care much more about having a great race, and I did, so that was also satisfactory. And I was really glad to have the chance to preview/steer the course before the Mixed 2x race, just to remember what it's like since it's a narrow channel.

After that, we had a race in the Men's 4x. For a little bit of context, we originally had an overall total of 8 Masters rowers sign up to go to the regatta. But that included 5 women and 3 men. There are a lot of logistics to figure out with the number of athletes, the boats available, and the regatta schedule, so collectively I just told the coaches in charge that I would be more than happy to join the Men's 4x if that helped with the numbers and facilitated other races.

And it was a good decision. We also had a pretty great race, and netted a third place finish.

But more than that...sometime after that race at the Head of the Schuylkill where I raced in a "men's quad", it occurred to me to shop for a set of Stylish Mustaches. It looks like Accoutrements for Fun no longer makes the original sets, but I did get a couple of hipster mustaches from them, and found a set of the Stylish Mustaches plus another set of the Stylish Mustaches for Women on ebay (I think it was).

Anyway, all those mustaches were hanging out in my costume box, just waiting for the right occasion, and this was almost certainly the right occasion.

But even better than that...our youth team also had a similar dilemma with the overall number of athletes competing and the team's gender and skill balance. So we also had a Boys 4x compete with two girls in it. So I pulled out the mustache collection to offer a couple to them, and all of our youth rowers were super thrilled. What was even more fun is that their boat actually won their event, so we all got a bunch of photos of our Boys 4x sporting their medals and their mustaches.

(oh, and I should also note, in our Masters Men's 4x race there were at least one and maybe 2 other boats that also had women in them, but I noticed none of the other boats were as well-prepared with their fake mustaches as we were, haha).

Overall, I tend to find 1000-m sprint races a little bit silly. But once again, this was a really fun regatta for us, and I felt like I got in some satisfying and intense racing amidst the silliness.

The only big missing factor for me and I think for all of us was not having Coach Y there; he is still in Chicago with no certainty around a return. He is so very much missed.
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On Thursday I finally got the call that Frodo was ready, so Friday morning after practice I did an errands loop, and stopped by REI and the pet food store before heading to the bike shop.

With the rack we have for this car, it’s helpful to add an extra strap or bungee to secure the wheel, so I pulled out my bike toolkit and got out a spare compression strap for the job, (now fatefully, I realize) setting the tool kit onto the car while I worked.

I am pretty sure I heard it when it fell off, but I didn’t fully register what had happened until well after I got home.

I called the shop and also made my rowing teammates retrace my path back to the shop, but the efforts were fruitless, alas.

It’s not the worst thing to lose, but it is still sad. I have had that toolkit for maybe around 15 years and it held a number of specialized tools for rescuing long-distance rides.

Godspeed, little tool kit. Any new kit I put together just won’t be the same, but must be done for the sake of my lifestyle.
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Somehow or another it's almost the end of May, and I only just got most of the tomato plants in the ground yesterday!

The varieties that I transplanted into the wine barrel a week? Two weeks? ago are looking pretty happy.

Wine barrel tomato plants

I planted six different varieties in the main garden bed. There is basically a row in between the mint and strawberry plants where I could fit them in.

Transplanted tomatoes

I still haven't decided on homes for the last 2 varieties.

Transplanted tomatoes

Transplanted tomatoes

Meanwhile, there are little strawberries on many of the strawberry plants.

And flower buds on the raspberry canes.

First raspberry flower buds

I probably won't manage to get the soaker hose and timer set up before leaving to bike tour, but the tomato plants will all fare far better in the ground instead of in pots, while I'm away. They had reached the point where I had to water them on the daily, and now they will have access to a ton more nutrients, too.

It will be interesting to see how all these different varieties fare. All of these plants are planted too densely for optimal tomato production, but for whatever reason I just can't bring myself to thin them out too much.
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I decided I should bring my last bag of chocolate-peppermint tea home with me, to do a taste test.

The tea has specific brewing instructions on the back:

Chocolate-peppermint tea experimint

I figured I could weigh out equivalent amounts of each tea, as part of the test:

Chocolate-peppermint tea experimint

Alas, my kitchen scale isn't precise enough for the task! So I had to guess.

But I steeped both teas for the same amount of time, with water of the same temperature, at least.

Not that you can compare the hues accurately, in these mugs!

Chocolate-peppermint tea experimint

A taste:
Chocolate-peppermint tea experimint

And a taste:
Chocolate-peppermint tea experimint

The Stash variety is definitely much more mellow than my homemade stuff. That could be partly due to the age of the Stash leaves, but I also wonder whether the chocolate peppermint plants might be a type of spearmint rather than a peppermint. I was getting a much stronger and sharper mint flavor from the homegrown stuff. Not enough of a chocolate note yet; it may take more trial-and-error to figure out just how much to spritz on the leaves.

I mean, this first homemade batch is certainly drinkable!

But the experimint will continue.
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I don't think I've done anything more than a day trip since we got back from the sabbatical adventures!

But now I have 2 trips in very quick succession. The first is for a regatta in eastern New York, the second is a 9-day Erie Canal bike touring trip (yay bikes!!).

Cue the packing flurries!

And also the, "OMG what do I ABSOLUTELY need to do before traveling??!!?!?!"

The incomplete list includes things like:
-Get the hissing cockroaches resettled into a fresh bin
-Water the leafcutter ants and lower the insect room temperature
[x] Do the semi-annual Deep Clean in the insect room
-Transplant tomatoes so they don't die of thirst
-(hopefully) retrieve a fully-overhauled Frodo from the bike shop
-Figure out various food things
[x] Arrange cat care for George and Martha
-Spend quality time with packing lists
-Finish getting the GPS stuff sorted out
-Feed the horseshoe crabs and the fishes
-Get ready for research students to start up

But you know, it's a privilege and a luxury to be able to travel. So it's all in good fun.
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For this morning's practice we attempted to keep all 7 boats in proximity to each other, starting by having the slower boats launch first. That gave me a chance to get this photo while we waited to launch:

Tuesday morning practice

Good practice for waiting in line at regattas! (and then also hustling once we have our turn to launch; these aspects of rowing really do cater to twitchy people like me)

It was a bit chilly, but the water was pretty calm and the current has settled down.

Tuesday morning practice

Getting 7 boats across lined up is a bit of a project, and we definitely aren't used to doing it.

Tuesday morning practice

Thankfully we only really had to do that once.

But from this photo, you can probably begin to appreciate why coaches are always trying to get their crews to bunch up together.

Tuesday morning practice

It's really hard to communicate with everyone when a group is spread out like this! And this is right after we tried to regroup!

A good row, overall. I was really glad to be back in a 2x with J, since that's our priority race for Saturday morning's regatta.

After some coffee with my teammates, I went back to the boathouse to finish constructing the main "wall." I wanted to get it done before I leave to go bike touring next week. And, success!

Main wall built

It might not look like much, but it lets me move forward with constructing a second charging station for the walkie-talkies, which can now hang in another shoe holder next to the light charging station. Prior to the wall, there wasn't really a place to put things - you can see there's just the shed's metal outer cladding that's behind the wall. And then I can eventually start work on an updated coxbox/megaphone charging shelf.

And then I worked on just one of a jillion equipment repair projects. This one was an interesting one. Here is the footstretcher assembly out of one of the club's singles:

Footstretcher temporary repair

As you can see, the sole of the right shoe tore out.

The reason why the sole of the right shoe tore out, is because the shoe had been bolted directly through the footstretcher board, with a pair of bolts.

Most modern rowing shoes are attached to a separate plate via a set of FOUR screws, and that plate is then bolted to the footstretcher board. (of course, I recently emulated this same direct bolting technique on shoes for my own boat, heh!)

However, most likely in this instance, at some point or another there was a hunt to find a footstretcher board of the correct width/dimensions to fit into this particular boat. This footstretcher board hardly looks original (although one can certainly purchase a replacement for the original, for the mere price of $265).

And with that hunt, a challenge, because boatmakers don't care to standardize things between boat brands. So maybe the board was found, but there was no shoe plate that would work with the board. In some cases I've observed that our coach has sawed (sawn?) down footstretcher boards to get them to fit the width of the boat he needs them to go in. Sometimes that works, sometimes not, depending on what the footstretcher board is made of.

Last year I did advocate for paying the hefty sum to replace one of the other really badly bodged sets of footstretchers in one of the doubles we use and race frequently.

Anyway.

With all that information, I did find a box full of spare shoe plates, and I did find a really nice, brand-new pair of shoes among the supply stockpile, which you can see on the right in the photo above.

But do the bolt holes for the nice-looking new shoes actually line up with the bolt holes in the shoe plate I found? (note, it has to be a narrow shoe plate for this narrow boat, so that did involve quite a bit of rummaging through that parts bin).

No, of course not!

But, there was another pair of worn-out shoes in the separate, bigger "footstretcher parts and shoes" bin that DID fit the bolt holes in the plate.

So the only other remaining step was to drill yet another set of holes in the footstretcher board, so the board could accept this particular (superior IMHO) style of footstretcher plate. That poor footstretcher board, though, can only handle so many holes!

And then assemble everything, after rummaging around a whole bunch more to find some acceptable bolts, too. (don't even get me started on thread pitch differences across our equipment!!!!)

Footstretcher temporary repair

There are also some brand new shoes on order anyway, but they aren't going to arrive in time for the regatta this weekend.

So when I go home, I also need to remember to find a couple pieces of foam to insert into the heels on these worn-out shoes, so that anyone rowing the boat doesn't get their heels all cut up.

And with this project, perhaps you can begin to grasp the extent to which there is a massive, massive equipment maintenance backlog to address.

We have the exact same problem with the rowing equipment, as I initially had with the first set of bicycles I obtained for my bicycling class. Used equipment, assembled back together, will work for a little while.

Until something breaks.

And when things start to break, the nightmare begins, because none of the parts are standardized. So every repair requires that someone become the champion of that particular project, and see it through from start to finish.

With the bikes, I largely addressed this by arranging to buy a fleet. I've added more bikes since then, but the fleet is the core of the bike collection. And it has been such a relief, to be able to ride and not have to worry so much about limping the bikes along.

With the rowing equipment, I think my biggest dilemma at this point is related to communicating about this whole situation to the rowing club.

Our head coach, who has been on hiatus for 6 months now (out of town in Chicago with family), has been talking to me about this problem for *years*. But he has also clearly been incredibly thrifty and clever about bodging repairs, to the point where I'm just not sure whether any of my teammates fully understand the scope of things. I mean, I'm not sure that *I* fully understand the scope!

There's also the element that it's usually a whole lot easier to convince people to contribute towards the purchase of a shiny new boat, as compared to contributing to the upkeep of many of these older, tired shells.

But it's worth keeping up at least *some* of these older shells going, because they're the boats we have right now, and we're using many of them often multiple times in a single day.

So that's where I am, with things.

And obviously I also need to be strategic with my time, since this boat stuff is a hobby and not my profession.

It's too late for today, however.
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(subject is in reference to having asked on other social media elsewhere)

The time is approaching when my father-in-law will need to move to a nursing home. Right now he is living in an extremely small town in rural Iowa. One of the main things keeping him going is his cats.

Dad's house

He has been working to stabilize the cat community where he lives, getting as many as he can spayed and neutered.

Some of the cats hang out with him indoors.

Dad's house

Some are a little more shy, and spend most of their time outdoors.

Dad's house

Dad's house


The move to a nursing home is going to be very hard. I doubt there is any way to bring his cats with him, which really sucks, because I'm pretty sure that no longer having his cats to care for is only going to hasten his decline. He's already struggling with deteriorating eyesight and hearing.

But I also don't think I will experience peace of mind if we can't figure out what to do for the cats.

S has talked about trying to bring some of the cats back with us, to New York. But my informal estimate is that there are at least 8 cats involved, which is a lot. Also, we are renting a house right now with a lease agreement that stipulates the number of allowed pets. Plus that's a lot to foist on George and Martha.

We have some concerns that these cats will simply get euthanized if they are surrendered to pet shelters. They are not totally feral, although some are more shy than others.

Anyone have more information or ideas on potential options for cats in rural Iowa? I think we could bring them down to Omaha or Lincoln without *too* much trouble (assuming we can successfully lure them in; chances are good since S's dad feeds them).
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Yesterday was Commencement. This year's ceremony was around 4.5 hours long, around 2 hours of which consisted of the reading out of every graduate's name as each graduate walked across the stage. This was our largest-ever class so it was just going to take a while no matter what.

I tried to get as many chores done ahead of time as I could, including baking scones and a quiche for breakfasts for the week:

Weekly breakfasts

By midafternoon, I was tired from the chores hustle plus commencement plus the 4 miles of walking to get to commencement and back. While my cardiovascular fitness is pretty good, I can't say the same for my walking stamina!

But the chores weren't all done, and I also wanted to tackle some time-sensitive garden projects.

At the top of the list was harvesting out as much chocolate peppermint as I could. Here's what the main garden bed looked like after I harvested:

Front bed full of strawberries and mint

The peppermint and the strawberries compete with each other, so I figured this would both yield a bunch of leaves for tea, and try to ensure the strawberry plants get a bit more sun.

I suspect that younger, more tender chocolate peppermint leaves may taste more delicious. I will probably wind up doing a series of experiments (ahem, experimints) to dial in my chocolate peppermint tea recipe. But I've got to start somewhere, right?

Harvested chocolate peppermint

I soaked the clippings to get them cleaned off, gave them a whirl in the salad spinner, then put them in the dehydrator overnight. As of this morning, the leaf tips still aren't entirely dry. But that means they should be dry by this afternoon/evening, ready for the next step, which will involve misting them with chocolate extract.

I still have some of the Stash tea remaining in my office, so I can eventually do a direct taste test comparison. Stash also augments the chocolate flavor, so we'll see if my homemade methods compare.

After the mint harvest, I got out Mr. Chippy to see how it behaved, and chipped down the entire older pile of twigs. Some of the stuff in that pile had been there for over 2 years! It felt really good to clear that whole area out, especially because some of the Evil Vines were starting to grow back in among the twigs (ripped out on the lower right of this photo). Left to their own devices, the Evil Vines will climb all the way up the side of the house, providing entry points for any and all mice that want to try their luck indoors.

Chipping branches

And just look at this glorious tub of mulch!

Chipping branches

I will probably actually use this bin's contents as mulch around the shrubs out front. That can only help with suppression of evil vines out there.

Because...here's the next pile of clippings to shred, from pruning the shrubs last weekend:
The next branches to chip

The next batch of chips will probably mostly just get set aside as compost and worm bin additives.

--

I tried to get up and go rowing this morning, but failed. The lymph nodes in my throat felt a touch swollen, and I still felt tired from the weekend, and those are my excuses and I'm sticking with them. If the exposure to 4,000 people yesterday means I'm coming down with something, better to rest. And if I'm not coming down with something, well, better to not get even more run down via overexertion.

Skipping rowing did mean I could finish up some lingering weekend household chores (namely, vacuuming and cleaning the sink) and tackle a couple more garden projects.

One project is getting the soaker hose system set up again. Here are the irises in the side bed, saying hello and that it's about time to get hoses going.

Side yard irises say hello

Much to my amazement, I managed to find the roll of teflon tape to wrap the hose connections!

But to my dismay...when I turned this faucet on, I found that there is water leaking out of that silver cap on the top.

Leaky faucet

That cap actually kind of looks like it's constructed to fail in the case of water freezing in the line, which is something that might have happened. I was pretty sure I turned the water off in January, but when I went to test the faucet a week or two ago, I discovered that water was still running to it. Argh!

Aside from that, I also just noticed yesterday that the Dark Dahlia would like to have my attention for a moment, please:
Dark Dahlia coming back to life

That means it has successfully survived the winter, hooray! I wasn't sure it would, because I only got to dig it out in late December, and I don't know how much cold it had to survive prior to that.

I put it back in its customary spot, next to the sunny promiscuous rhubarbs:
Dark dahlia now planted and fertilized with compost

I also played Compost Fairy with the rest of the compost I harvested out last weekend. Always fun. Hopefully the compost gives the strawberries an extra boost!

Last but not least, check out this luscious lettuce!

Lush lettuces

Today is day 1 of Homegrown Lettuce on Sandwiches Season. Yum!

When I was shredding, I also noted that we've got a woodchuck again, in a burrow back behind the garbage cans. S reminded me that a woodchuck previously DECIMATED our lettuce boxes at one point. So I'd better get those lettuce cages secured on sooner rather than later...

Saturday was also Flip the Switches on the Ceiling Fans Day. Temperatures cooled off again as of last night, but these things are all lovely signs of the changing seasons. Summah in Upstate New York!

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