October brought rain, a huge snow storm, and just a little sun. The sun
fell on the right day for us, when we celebrated our annual Apple
Festival on October 8th. This was a glorious day and because the
weather was fine, everyone was able to enjoy the hayrides, crafts and
freshly pressed apple cider, along with some tasty baked goods.
The week before was the annual archaeological dig, at Natashia's home
in Blairstown. The weather brought by Hurricane Irene and rain in
September meant very wet ground for Geoff and the homeschoolers to work
with, but despite this they all had a wonderful time. We enjoyed
Geoff's company as he stayed with us, and Jack was able to help out
twice in the week, but not for the whole week due to the fact he was in
college part-time.
Phil and Lorna also attended an education day for educators, at the
Mount Bethel Welcome Center. This class was sponsored and subsidised by
PPL and the Northhampton Conservation District in Pennsylvania. The
theme was "Backyard Conservation". Next year we plan to use some of
what we learned in a new workshop on vermicomposting.
The end of the month saw us celebrating with Grow-A-Row at their annual
"Thanks for Giving" barn dance. Jack helped with the parking, and we
all enjoyed the presentations about the ever expanding work of Grow-A-Row, as well as
dancing and chatting.
The snow storm came in the next day, and brought with it many downed
trees and many people lost power. We were without power for 5 days and
many others were out for well over a week.
The generator Phil installed when we first moved to New Jersey in 2000,
has really proved its worth this year. We ran it twice a day to
pump water and cool down the refrigerator and freezers. The sun shone
most days, providing enough photovoltaic power, through the 80Watt PV
system in the Airstream, to run the DSL modem and Phil's work laptop.
It was cool enough in the mornings to light the wood-burning stove, so
cooking and making hot water were not a problem.
