Winter's Wood

Your winter's woodpile may have started out last fall looking as good as this one. All ricked up and ready for blowing snow. Found near Titusville, in Crawford County, northwestern PA.

The Ideal Barn?

While one is leafing through the seed catalogs now showing up in the mail or catching up on the Farmer's Almanac for 2014, might as well dream about the perfect barn. Here's a good one to copy.

Note the lean-to on the right, the excellent cupola boasting a rooster weather vane, and the sliding doors top and bottom. The top floor of this one has hosted guests, parties, and perhaps a wedding reception or two.

Hurry, April

PNC Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, view from the third base side

"Ruffy"

Get acquainted with Ruffy by clicking the Summers Run blog on the right.

Pennsylvania's Maple Syrup: where it starts

Soon it will be time. Across the farms and woodlands, folks will be "sugarin' off" the annual harvest of the Keystone State's tree sap to be boiled into maple syrup and sugar. February, usually.

Check with your local chambers of commerce or visitors' bureaus. They'll likely list those farms and families who offer tours of the woodlots and sap or sugar houses or barns where you can view the process and sample the product. Here's a view of one such shack and below is another. Near Venango, Crawford County, P. A.

A lineup . . . .

of Yesterday's iron on the farms. From the annual show at Cochranton, held every June.