Columns Archives - The Hardwick Gazette

Buy potatoes now and save for a winter meal. courtesy photo

Putting Away Veggies for Winter

October 13, 2021October 12, 2021 Henry Homeyer 13 Views 5 min read

Like any industrious squirrel, I am getting food stored and ready for winter. Even if your vegetable garden is depleted, you can buy things in bulk from your local farm stand now to save for winter.

Kiki is the copilot for expeditions in the little silver German roadster that was almost sixty years in arriving. courtesy photo

A Yankee Notebook Columns

This Week, Focusing on Happy Things

October 13, 2021October 12, 2021 Willem Lange 10 Views 4 min read

We had an overnight guest coming, which set the housekeeping staff (me) a-humming. I laundered the sheets and pillowcases in the guest room, hung a fresh towel in the guest bathroom, and even dressed up my end of the house, making up the bed with the flannel winter sheets and wrangling a new denim duvet cover over the old comforter.

Soil surface is covered with castings like coffee grounds where jumping worms are present

Columns In the Garden

News of the Dreaded Asian Jumping Worm

October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 Henry Homeyer 39 Views 5 min read

After decades of improving my garden soil, I have an infestation of Asian jumping worms. They can eat all the organic material in the soil, depleting it terribly. These foreign invaders multiply more quickly than our common worms, out-competing them.

A Yankee Notebook Columns

Her Feet Weren’t Muddy, Then They Were

October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 Willem Lange 25 Views 3 min read

Monday this week, like the two days before it, was gray and drizzly. It was also the Feast of St. Francis, that cheerful, optimistic 13th-century Italian friar who’s most often pictured with birds on his shoulder, animals around his feet, and a halo about his head. The day before in church, we’d observed the Blessing of the Animals: everybody who could, brought their mobile or portable pet to be blessed.

Monarch feeding on New York ironweed.

Columns In the Garden

What the Monarchs Need Now

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 Henry Homeyer 34 Views 4 min read

Monarchs are on the move! It is time for their long trip to Mexico to spend the winter. And like marathon runners, they need to bulk up on calories before the event.

Memories of canoe partners and Arctic summer days and muskoxen. courtesy photo

A Yankee Notebook Columns

I Welcome the Change

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 Willem Lange 33 Views 4 min read

As surely as sugaring presages the advent of spring, September slides into October with its usual seasonal observances.

Jerry Zezima shows his collection of weather sticks made by the Davis Hill Company (owned by Tim Hartt) of East Hardwick. courtesy photo

Columns Rural Ramblings

Weather Stick Rains Supreme

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 Hardwick Gazette 22 Views 3 min read

by Jerry Zezima STAMFORD, Conn. – Maybe it’s because my head is in the clouds, or the heat is really

This picket fence is supplemented with a living hedge to block the view from the street courtesy photo

Columns In the Garden

Hedges and Fences

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Henry Homeyer 35 Views 4 min read

While vacationing recently on the Maine coast, I admired many nice gardens. Many of them had hedges or fences, more than I am used to seeing in rural New Hampshire.

A Yankee Notebook Columns

Hearing Aid Died Before the End of the Story

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Willem Lange 42 Views 4 min read

When we were small boys, during the war, we rarely failed to make it to the Washington Avenue armory in Albany when we heard there was to be a muster of fresh recruits.

Simple compost bins made of pallets allow old compost to age, and new materials to be added courtesy photo

Columns In the Garden

Make Your Own Compost to Build Better Soils

September 15, 2021September 14, 2021 Henry Homeyer 58 Views 4 min read

Most gardeners do some composting. Some folks compost anything that once was part of a living plant, often mixing it with barnyard waste; they turn and aerate their piles and make terrific compost in record time. Others are lazy composters who just throw kitchen scraps or weeds in a pile and let it slowly decompose over time, allowing it to gradually decompose.

Peeping out at the pushy Lab. courtesy photo

A Yankee Notebook Columns

No One Was Happy

September 15, 2021September 14, 2021 Willem Lange 52 Views 3 min read

I should have known that Kiki wouldn’t stay in her little hatch in the rear deck of the kayak, even though I’d thoughtfully padded it with a big fluffy towel.