Jay Gaulard Blog

Jay’s Tomato Plant Garden

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

If you call a porch a garden, then that’s what I have.

I told you that we bought some tomato plants the other day. We put them in a bucket that we had here. Well, they have been taking off so nicely, I decided to get some more. I figured buckets will work ok. My mother used to get the biggest tomatoes from a couple of 5 gallon buckets.

Check ‘em out. They grow fast too. I have a few different kinds there, so it should be exciting. Now, I just have to find out if these plants are related to the current salmonella issue.

Bird Nest Under the Porch

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

There are actually two different bird nests under the back porch. I look at them almost every time I walk by. The parent birds like to whiz by my head to scare the heck out of me. Actually, I am just writing that for entertainment, I really don’t get scared by birds, even if they are whizzing by my head. Now, Crows on the other hand are scary. When there are hundreds of them all screaming at the same time, it’s a little freaky.

I took a nice picture of the birds living under the porch this morning. Tell me if you like it.

That’s an up-close nature shot. I kept thinking the momma bird was going to dive bomb me from behind, but it never happened. I wouldn’t have been scared if it had.

Just a few weeks ago, these little birds were much smaller. I could hardly even see their heads. One time I saw all of the beaks wide open, sticking straight up in the air. I said to them, “No little birdies, I don’t have any worms for you” and I walked away.

That’s a “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” line if I ever saw one.

Trees Blooming in May

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

I took a few photos of the back yard this morning. Every year, I like to take pictures of the trees in the area. I do this, because every year, I forget when the heck the leaves come out. It’s kind of like a journal…or a log…or a web log…oh wait, a BLOG. That was funny.

Anyway, since it was so wonderfully beautiful this morning, I decided to drink my coffee on the back porch. One really big reason it was wonderful is because there were no bugs flying around my head yet. You should’ve seen me trying to rake up some leaves yesterday evening. Whoa…it was like I was in a boxing match. I am sure the neighbor was laughing. I put on some “Off” and it did nothing. What is it with the bugs this year? I think I may be stirring them up by raking.

It seems like the leaves are taking a reaaaaaly long time to bloom here. It may because there are virtually no Maple trees. They are all oaks and they take longer. I bet Westchester County looks totally like Summer right now. Maybe with some more warm sunny days, things will start looking greener around here.

As I was sitting on the back porch, I noticed a little bird land on our bird feeder. I thought it was odd, because there was actually bird food in the feeder. Do you know what that means? It means that the squirrels haven’t figured out where it is yet. If they had, it would be empty. I think I am going to just keep walking around quietly to keep the thing under their radar. Everyone knows what happens when a squirrel finds a bird feeder. That’s the end of that. Squirrels are on Laura’s “nemesis” list. For an animal lover, I have never seen such darkness in her eyes…

Windy in the Northeast

Monday, December 17th, 2007

There was supposed to be a big wind/snow storm over the weekend here in New York. We heard sleet hitting the windows Saturday night and woke up Sunday to see a nice layer of hard sleet/freezing rain on the already existing snow. This is the kind of snow you can walk on top of. It pretty much sleeted all Sunday. There was supposed to be heavy winds all Sunday into Monday.

Well, it was very quiet all Sunday. I was hoping that the wind missed us. I really hate wind. Of all things, I hate the wind.

About 7PM or 8PM last night, I felt a gust hit the house. I wasn’t happy about this. I looked out the window and noticed everything flying around. Good thing I brought the recycling cans inside the night before. I felt a few more strong gusts, so I looked out the back door onto the porch. I noticed that the tent (set up in the summer and never taken down) was upside down on the table. I thought the tent legs were going to put holes in the screening from tumbling around all night, so I went outside to take it down.

When I went outside, I felt like I was in a vacuum. There was strong wind coming from all directions. It had to be over 50MPH. I thought for sure that the huge oak tree in the back yard was going to take me out. I started taking the tent down. Someone call the “Guinness Book of World Records” for the least amount of time anyone has used to disassemble a tent. I was like Laurel and Hardy in fast motion. You should have seen me scurrying around pulling the tent poles out and folding them up. I got everything apart and threw it in the dining room. There was no time to drink wine, so that wasn’t even on my mind. Well, I guess I thought of it, but there were more pressing issues.

Laura got out of the shower and looked very relaxed. I was sitting there with my clothes all messed up and my hair standing on end. The tent was thrown on the floor. It was like one of those moments…when one person has no idea what the other person was just doing.

Hey, It Snowed Today

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

As I said in the title of this post, hey, it snowed today. This is the most snow we have had all season. I would say it was about an inch.

I was laying in bed this morning, going through (in my mind) what had to be done today. Hmmm…let’s see. Get up, pour a cup of coffee and sit on the couch near the pellet stove. Sounds good to me. I heard Laura put Holly the dog outside. She came back in and told me that Holly was out in the snow. I took a look out the window and sure enough, the snow was falling. I like the early snow. The late snow gets ugly and annoying, but the early snow is nice. I grabbed the camera and took some photos. They really are for your viewing enjoyment. Here, have a gander…

This is the backyard from the bedroom window. Notice the beautiful screened in porch and the not so beautiful redneck meat smoking shed down the hill.

This is Holly the snow dog. Notice how she blends like in like a chameleon. Actually, she is a Norwegian Elkhound. She is very pretty, but she has bad breath, so don’t try to give her a kiss.

Now This is Living

Saturday, August 11th, 2007

Ooh aah…Not only did I drink my coffee on the porch this morning, I had the opportunity to set up my laptop and drink a beer at the table this evening. I have to tell you, it’s very nice.

There is nothing like surfing the web with a wireless connection on the porch while drinking everyone’s favorite Double Bock. I am actually writing this post out here right now. all I hear is crickets. Laura and I just finished dinner and are pretty pleased with the whole thing. I am not sure if she is more pleased with the fact that I made dinner or if I made her eat out here with me.

Well, here is a picture I took for you…

The oil lamp on the table is the one Laura just got from her grandfather’s house. The two candles are the “Off” candles that I bought for the Tanglewood concert. I was a little forced to start up the laptop tonight because I haven’t ran it in a while and I was feeling a little guilty. I miss it. This will also give me the chance to renew the Norton System Works that it came with. Also, there are a bunch of updates that it needs. Hey, maybe this will be a nightly thing for me. All we need now is the futon, so I can sleep out here.

PS - The picture is a little blurry because it is an almost-night shot. I had my camera on the night setting, which acts really weird.

Sean Conway™ Tiverton 2006 Dining Set Arrived

Saturday, August 11th, 2007

Yeeeeees, our Sean Conway™ Tiverton 2006 Dining Set has arrived.

I came home yesterday to see two big boxes on the front porch. I was wondering how they were going to ship this thing. Well, they put the four chairs in one big box and the table top and other parts in another big flat box.

I took the chairs out and attached the cushions. Then, I had to put together the table. It came with legs and individual tiles to put in their places as the table top. I was a little concerned that the tiles would crack in transit, but they didn’t. They were packed pretty well. Two extra tiles came as well, which is good, because two tiles have chipped corners. It looks like they were that way before the set was packed up. I think the tiles are regular 12″ square tiles, which is cool, because if we ever want to change the look pf the table, we can pick up some tiles from Home Depot or Lowes.

Anyway, here is the table all set up…