This morning, as I stepped outside to chop firewood, I heard my first red-winged blackbird of the season, calling from the cattails. Temperatures are forecast for the low 50s. Last week, I couldn’t leave the lighthouse on account of the wind chill. This week, I’ll be walking
Read more →Negative ten. Hemmed in by the winter wind. No where to go. Nothing to do. Feed firewood into the kitchen stove. Drink tea. Listen to the radio. Think back on other places, other times.
Read more →Current weather: 10 degrees F, Northwest wind gusting over 20 mph. Wind Chill near -10 degrees F. I tried to hike to the parking lot but barely made it 100 yards along the trail before the wind made my eyes water until I couldn’t see. First time
Read more →Open water reappeared at the mouth of Esopus Creek after heavy rainfall two days ago. This morning, various waterfowl congregated in the open water. Two dozen Common Goldeneye, a half-dozen Common Mergansers, and a handful of Canvasbacks paddled the open water and dived along the edge of
Read more →The distance from the trailhead where I park my car to the front door of the lighthouse is a half mile. How do I get from point A to point B? There a numerous possibilities. For routes, the choices are the trail, the creek, and the cove.
Read more →After a day and night of wind-driven snow and white-out conditions, I was so excited to see what the snowstorm had brought to the valley that I couldn’t wait for sunrise. I was tromping around outside before dawn with my camera. The creek and river were frozen
Read more →I put on snowshoes and walked to the mailbox. Along the way, I encountered 2 to 3-foot deep drifts of snow on the trail. In other places, the wind blew the snow clear from the trail. In the relatively protected forest on the shore, the snowfall was
Read more →Twenty degrees. Wind-driven snow. White-out conditions. Can’t see the opposite shore of the river.
Read more →Today, a most unusual visitor arrived at the lighthouse, and he arrived by mail. In my mailbox was a large brown envelope. I opened it and found Stanley Lambchop inside. The envelope also contained a letter of introduction. The letter was from the second grade class at
Read more →Captain I. R. Dangerous called me on the phone this morning. “Is Ballast there?” When Captain Dangerous needs dead-weight in his boat, he calls me. Yesterday, he phoned me asking for a fool and found one. Either way, I’m happy to oblige, because it means I get
Read more →