Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Slice of Heaven

Mystic Pizza of movie fame

Julia Roberts put this place on the map

A veggie pizza as good as any you will ever eat

Today's photos are from a trip East we took over three years ago that included a stop at Mystic Pizza in Mystic CT. It was the 4th of July and we still were able to get a table with no wait. We enjoyed our stay in this seaport town. If you haven't seen the Julia Roberts' movie, rent a copy. This movie put Mystic Pizza on the map and Julia Roberts too! The pizza parlor is full of movie/Roberts memorabilia.

We went to the BMV Wednesday to have our legal address changed to Huntington County and to plate both the Jetta and the Pilot. The lady helping Kathy asked if her height and weight were still correct (they were), and then left her hair coloring as brown when, if you have seen photos of her in this blog, you know is quite grey. Go figure.

We have had some strong storms lately. While Kathy was in Logansport having a sleepover with her mother, Bonnie, the dogs, and the bird were in the basement, hunkering down in the face of a tornado warning. I wonder who was having the most fun?

This morning it is quite cool. The weather here at Blossom Ridge Farm is just delightful.

The Japanese beetles have been increasing in number, and Kathy may have to spray some Sevin. Hopefully this would be the last spraying for them.

Bonnie's cold is just about history. She still hacks some, but seems much improved. She managed to keep her dental appointment yesterday and took Kathy to lunch. She is busy with her finances and trying to figure out whether to purchase a carport and shed or a large pole building. Right now the pole building has the edge.

The rain has kept outside work to a minimum and Don hasn't made an appearance to mow yet. Hopefully in the next few days since it is now difficult to walk across the field for both human and dog.

Last weekend we ended up in Fort Wayne looking for blinds for the front porch and also to purchase fruit at a fruit stand. Bonnie remembered seeing a small vineyard behind a house in a housing addition north of Sam's Club on Lima Road. She was able to find it and turned into the addition so we could look at what appeared to be two homes with backyard vineyards. We pulled into one, and when no one answered the door, we wrote a note to leave behind. Bonnie walked into the back yard and found the owner, Jeff Snyder, who gave us a tour of his vineyard and his neighbor's. His neighbor was actually the one who got Jeff growing grapes and making wine, and the neighbor's vines were much older than Jeff's.

Jeff took us into an outbuilding on his property where we assumed he made his wine. Once inside he opened a door to a spiral staircase that led to his wine cellar. It was really quite remarkable though, according to Jeff, it is nothing compared to the cellars of some of the people in the wine club to which he belongs. He let us sample some of his wines and gave us a red and white to take home with us. Thank you, Jeff, for the tour, the hospitality, and the sharing of information. (Jeff's cellar has flooded 2 or 3 times, so he is currently going through a stage where he is discouraged and has turned his enterprise over to friends.)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Another hot one on The Ridge!

WBRV receiver

Summer has been on and off this year and is currently back for a brief period, presenting us with a heat index one day of 102 degrees. What we really need is rain. This is surely going to go on record as one of the coolest summers in recorded history in Indiana.

The Japanese Beetles have also made an appearance. So far they can be handled just by picking them off.

Not much going on with us. Bonnie has been ill with flu/cold symptoms and Kathy postponed her sleepover with her mother twice to stay home and care for the pets so that Bonnie would not have to bother with them when she wasn't feeling well. The sickness has, of course, interfered with Bonnie's intention of building a small deck in the front of the cottage as well as other projects she may have wanted to accomplish before her classes begin on the 25th.

The grass is getting high again and we must get Don over to mow before we lose the dogs in the weeds again. Kathy hates to mow if there is a chance that Don will be over and all she would need to do is trim. Along the road is bad again also, and Kathy doesn't even want to think about trimming it up.

No other news here. We have just been lying low and hoping Bonnie will get to feeling better quickly.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

MADIS gives WBRV two thumbs up!

NOAA logo

WBRV received it's MADIS rating this week and we are pleased to say that we received two thumbs up for our data. Lots of criteria are used to determine a station's accuracy, including comparing it's data to the data of other nearby stations. For us that includes, in addition to the other Huntington County weather stations, the weather station at Baer Field International Airport where they have more sophisticated weather equipment. So we are very excited that our data is considered to be accurate.

Here is some information on the MADIS Program:

The Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) is dedicated toward making value-added data available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Global Systems Division (GSD) for the purpose of improving weather forecasting, by providing support for data assimilation, numerical weather prediction, and other hydrometeorological applications.

Quality Control (QC) of MADIS observations is also provided, since considerable evidence exists that the retention of erroneous data, or the rejection of too many good data, can substantially distort forecast products. Observations in the ESRL/GSD database are stored with a series of flags indicating the quality of the observation from a variety of perspectives (e.g. temporal consistency and spatial consistency), or more precisely, a series of flags indicating the results of various QC checks. Users of MADIS can then inspect the flags and decide whether or not to ingest the observation.

One WBRV page can be found at http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/search?site=D3241 and another at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?&call=DW3241&last=24

The first page reports on the quality control checks performed by MADIS. The MADIS rating reports on the percentage of observations that pass the MADIS checks. We are told to aim for two thumbs up.

And speaking of weather...today's weather is oppressive. The outside temperature is currently 89 degrees, but the heat index is a suffocating 98 degrees. The wind is currently averaging about 9 mph, and we have had some gusts of up to 23 mph.

Bonnie worked in her garden today but the heat got to her and she had to come in. Kathy decided to mow because the crabgrass around the cottage was so high we could not find our dogs in it. So she mowed around the cottage for about two hours before coming in to take a shower and cool down. A nap and a good book sound really good to her. The new mower worked great, even in the tall grass.

Bonnie purchased an Ossian ham yesterday and cooked up some new red potatoes and fresh green beans with it and made a delicious meal.

In her first week of retirement, in addition to signing up for a class at IPFW, Bonnie made a batch of Kosher dills and a batch of bread and butter pickles. We have tried the Kosher pickles and they are really good.

The pets are doing well. Most are napping. The basement stays at a very constant 72 degrees, making for a nice temp for Millie, Gizmo and Gennie.

We celebrated Bonnie's retirement Thursday at Cork 'n Cleaver with Judy, Diane, Lani and Andrea. The food and company were great. Bonnie seems to have taken very well to retirement!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Going to Muncie for a load of dirt....

Kathy and her new toy, with Little Bear in the foreground.

An update on Denny's climbing apparatus.

Asparagus beans.
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Well, we bit the bullet and purchased the Honda Pilot. Kathy loves it. It has, as previously mentioned, a wonderful ride. This purchase goes against everything Kathy believes in when purchasing a used vehicle. It has higher mileage than she would normally accept and NO warranty. The gas mileage is not that great (17-22), and Kathy believes in paying cash for her cars and this one has payments. So we will see how this works out.

We wanted a cargo tray for the Pilot so Kathy called the Ft. Wayne Honda dealer who gave her the bad news that Honda had quit making them for Pilots older than 2008. The dealer found two other dealers in Indiana who still had the trays in stock and the closest was Muncie, where they had one left. So off to Muncie Kathy went while Bonnie stayed home to make pickles. The ride was wonderful, even if the gas gauge did go down faster than Kathy would have liked. BUT...the tray is great and will protect the back end of the Pilot. We will most likely always keep the third row of seats down to have cargo space in the back. Denny was over to look at the Pilot and proclaimed it "good enough to borrow." We think that is a compliment. Tomorrow we will drive the Pilot to Bonnie's retirement dinner in Ft. Wayne that will include three of her co-workers at Cooper, her former boss at Cooper, and the two of us. We will wine and dine at Cork 'n Cleaver. We will be stopping by the villa to finally pick up the mower Bonnie purchased from Andrea so we can keep the area around the cottage mowed, hoping that will allow us to be able to have the rest of the property mowed less often.

Kathy was delighted to hear from her dear friend, Karen, today. She asked herself why they didn't call each other more often???? So they are meeting for ribs on Tues. after Kathy gets off work. Karen offered Bonnie some canning jars and packages of Mrs. Wage's pickling spices. Bonnie will need to take inventory of the jars she has at the villa tomorrow to see if she needs any extra.

Kathy's mother is at Chautauqua with her sister and Kathy misses their daily chats. She doesn't ever call her mother while she is away. The sisters need their time uninterrupted. The next sleepover is next Wed. anyway.

Bonnie has signed up for her first class at IPFW and is taking a cultural anthropology class that includes a book called Peyote Hunt. Hmmm.... Kathy hopes to register for a class next semester called Climate and Weather...an introductory class.

We got our toter from H&H Disposal this week and Kathy was able to get the bed springs in the Farm Art photo rolled up and in the trash this week. Next she will have to saw up the bed frame to put into the trash...little by little. Good-bye Farm Art!

As promised, we have given you a photo update on the climbing apparatus Denny made for his climbing vines. It appears to be working well. The asparagus beans in the bottom photo are very, very long and Denny said that, in his opinion, they don't really have any flavor...neither tasting like asparagus nor beans! He has promised us a few to try.

Kathy has been busy hoeing the vineyard and has 3 rows done. She made the mistake of telling co-workers at the library that she keeps a hoe in her vineyard, and the comments went downhill from there! Even Denny has joined in on the good-humored, but bawdy teasing!

The title of today's blog is in memory of Kathy's father-in-law, Don Baker. Kathy called Don, Dad, and loved him dearly. Dad died many, many years ago, and Kathy still misses him. Anyway, one of the things Dad used to say was, "I'm going to Muncie for a load of dirt." Dad lived in rural Miami County near Peru, Indiana, so there is no way he would, literally, drive to Muncie for a load of dirt. We have the feeling that this phrase was a cover for another activity, though Kathy never knew just what it was. So today, as Kathy left for the Honda dealership in Muncie, she turned to Bonnie and said, "I'm going to Muncie for a load of dirt," to which Bonnie did not respond (probably because she didn't understand what Kathy said). If anyone can offer a G-rated explanation for this phrase, let us know!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

WBRV weather station is born!

Citizen Weather Observer Program logo.

Denny loves weather toys too.

Barbara and Denny's homestead.

The cottage in the background of the weather station.

It's official! WBRV officially began transmitting data to the Citizens Weather Observer Program database on Friday, July 31st. Kathy named our station WBRV for Weather (for) Blossom Ridge Vineyard. It was either WBRV or WBRF and BRV (BRaVe) sounded better to her than BaRF for Blossom Ridge Farm. We will upload our weather URL soon. Next up for Kathy is to find out how to be trained as a weather spotter.

A very happy birthday to KJ who turned 41 while on the road in OH yesterday on his way to PA.

We stopped at the Farmer's Market in Roanoke yesterday but got in on the tail end of it. We will have to get around a tad earlier in the future.

Next stop was a Meijer and Wal*Mart for canning supplies (Bonnie is going to put up some pickles and beets) and other supplies, a stop at Smokey Bones for a delicious meal of pulled pork (and a Killian's on draft for Kathy), a visit to the VW dealer to test drive a used Honda Pilot, and then on to the villa to pick up some things that we needed for canning.

Now about this Honda Pilot. Kathy has been totally opposed to getting another car...especially when Bonnie suggested Kathy use HER car for the trade-in. This Pilot is used, with more miles on it than Kathy would like and no warranty. HOWEVER, it was the most wonderful ride we have experienced in a long, long time. Bonnie thought it was a nicer ride than her VW Jetta. This car was a dream to drive...smooth ride and very quiet. Kathy had Bonnie take a railroad track without slowing down and we were sooo impressed with how the Pilot handled the tracks. So we had the dealer look at Bonnie's VW for a trade and Bonnie will be taking Kathy's Focus in for a trade-in value tomorrow. Kathy wants a hitch put on so we can pull a trailer. We need something to haul our supplies and building materials in, and this will do the trick. It has 3 rows of seats, and the third row folds down flat. This thing is fully loaded with leather, a GPS system (we got lost and turned it on and found our way back to the dealership w/o a hitch). Sounds like we have already made up our minds, huh?