Sunshine and Cheeseburgers

The weather was simply too nice to stay at home on Saturday, so I washed and waxed the car and we headed out to The Farm. The Farm is a not so little dive, out on Route 27. I used to pass this place whenever I took the back roads from here to Lima, Oh, and almost always said that I wouild stop in sometime to see what it was like.

Well here we are 4 years later and we have not only stopped by, but have sort of become regulars. They do have one of the best cheeseburgers in these parts, and that's what we were interested in on that day.



While we were there they received a phone call from another little joint up the road that The Farm was about to be over run by over 150 bikes as part of a charity ride. Of course 150 bikes translates into over 200 people!

When they started coming in it was an awesome sound bike, after bike, after bike until the place was packed!

With only Tom behind the bar and Kate in the kitchen a couple of veteran servers kicked into gear and helped out!

Oh not me, after all someone needed to take some pictures, I'm talking about one of the ex-bartender's and of course Lightnin. Tina, the ex-bartender kept repeating, as she served cold refreshments, "I don't work here anymore" and Lightnin pitched in running food out to tables.

So, like I said I went out to take a few pictures.



Bikes,













Bikes,















and more bikes!













They ate and quinched their thirsts, and then were gone as quickly as they had appeared!







We stuck around and talked for a bit longer and then we headed on our way back towards home too!

It was a beautiful day for a drive with the rag top down or a ride on a two wheeler!

Fat Cat, Skinny Cat!

One of the sure signs of spring in Ohio is the appearance of the skinny kitty!

For those of you who have met Spot (AKA: Stinky Cat, El Gato, Dumb Katze), you know that at about this time of the year she begins to try to shed, or more like slough-off her winter coat, looking much like a miniture Musk Ox! So when spring comes along she gets a nice shave, bath, and what ever annual shots she's supposed to get.

Oh yeah she looks a little funny, and it's hard to keep from laughing, but we can tell that she definitely feels much more comfortable now that temperatures are on the rise.







We tried to get a shot of her in the same pose, but she wouldn't cooperate. True to the cat code!

Another Hops Update!

Well, it's only been another week, but just look how well they're doing!

The lead vines are almost up to my shoulders already, and we're still in April.

We've had both good rain and sun so they are about as happy as they can get. Another couple of months and we should be in for a good harvest!

Hops Update!

Doing my best to help green up the Earth! Well, ok I admit the hops do most of the work. ;-)

It looks like they have survived the freeze that we got over Easter and late this past week too. Unfortunately the Creeping Phlox that we planted didn't fair so well. It survived the frost, but the rabbits dug every one of the plants up and ate the roots! Little do they know it, but they're pretty lucky they don't like hops. If they did, rabbit stew would be on the stove while I'm writing this!

We were lucky that the storm, the same one hitting the East Coast right now, moved over us too quickly to turn to snow last night.

As the storm passed it brought high winds, but warmer temperatures. We actually made it up to 50F today, and are expected to be up into the 60's by Tuesday!



With all of the rain we've had, the warmth and sunlight is all that these lovely little vines need to get going again.

Hopefully I'll be ready to lift a carboy full of liquid by the time they're ready for harvest!

Wicked Weather This Way Comes

This past Wednesday we were hit with a pretty fierce storm on our way home from work. It just started to rain when we reached the driveway, but as soon as we were in the house it let loose. We had heavy rain and high winds, but that was about it. The folks East of us got that plus hail!

As the storm passed Lightnin got the camera out and snapped these shots.










As you can see in this photo, it was a pretty classic Thunderstorm "Anvil" cloud!

House-sitting and Deer

This past week we were house-sitting for some friends while they were out on vacation. So we kept their cat company and in the process met a couple of the neighbors, sort of.

While I was cooking dinner these two deer wondered right up next to the patio. As you can see the one got a bit concerned when it saw me with the camera, but it wasn't concerned enough to stop eating the ground cover.


The cat sat at the patio door looking at the deer and then looking at me as if to say, "Let me out and I'll bring home some dinner". I looked down and said, "Yeah right, whatever Simon". They stayed around until just about dark and then disappeared as quickly and quietly as they arrived.

Second Official Hops Update of 2007

Here it is April 6th, Good Friday, and it's currently 31F at 9:00AM! I thought this was supposed to be spring, Oh that's right I'm still in Ohio. We should actually feel fortunate to have a spring this year. It was up in the 80's last weekend and we took advantage of that.

We not only got out to see that the hops were coming up, but we also planted some creeping phlox. Let's just hope that they both survive the current backlash into winter!

I'm not sure if the photos can show scale well enough for you to see how tall the hops are already, but hey are actually up to my waist when I stand next to them. An excellent start for the season! Unfortunately Lightnin had to work today, so I didn't have her available to model next to the vines to give a better sense of scale.





I did want to try to get this close-up to show the frost that is on the leaves of the vines that sprouted up away from the rest of the main plant. This poor unfortunate may not pull through, but I can only hope that there is enough good growth on the main plants to survive the heavy freeze we're going to get again tonight.




I think the photo below shows the height of the vines a little better.














Well, like I mentioned we're in for a cold one tonight. We're expected to get down to 18F, setting yet another record for cold. We beat the old record of 23F last night by dipping down to 20F. On top of the cold we're also expected to get a dusting of snow. If that happens I'll try to get some photos of the hops against the white fluffy background.

I haven't checked on the Phlox yet to see how it's doing, but if the hops can make it through this I'll be happy!