Lawn Mowing Season Winds Down

 

South of 5 and 20's mowing crew winds up the best Finger Lakes lawn season in quite a while.

Bat McGrath in Naples

Former Naples resident Bat McGrath returned to his old stomping ground, performing before an overflow crowd at the Naples Grape Festival on Saturday afternoon.  The seasoned crowd, many of whom may not have been strangers to the 1970s Alexander Street scene themselves, overflowed the large tent and spilled out onto the lawn behind the old Naples Town Hall.

 

Bat and his long time guitarist Ethan Porter shared the stage with a strategically placed tent pole.

Across the street, Republican Rep. Richard Hanna buttonholed a future voter.

Bat performed at the grand reopening of the Blue Eagle Tavern on Italy Hill on June 30th.  We don't know if Eddie Shank was able to attend.

Trumansburg's Barangus closes

Joan Baez at Barangus, 2009

Barangus, the Trumansburg landmark known for its black bull on the roof, has closed after 50 years.  

We hear that many T-burg locals are concerned by a recent rash of business closings.  We are also told that many of those same folks proudly display "Obama 2012" bumper stickers.  Coincidence?

September in the Finger Lakes

Sunday afternoon.  Click pic for larger image.

Arlo Guthrie meets Steve Goodman

A fateful beer,  recorded in Oklahoma City last year.  Arlo shared the bill that night with Ithaca's Burns Sisters.

Independence Day

John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776"

Enjoy the Fourth in the Finger Lakes!

Having a flashback?

Do our eyes deceive us?

We acquired this convenient thirty-pack of refreshing Genesee Cream Ale, not in 1978, but earlier today!  Either our local retailer was not rotating his stock in a timely manner, or Upstate's leading brewery had rolled out a very retro look.  It turns out our purchase is indeed fresh.

According to Janine Schoos, brand manager for the Genesee Family of Beers, Genesee Cream Ale is experiencing a resurgence. The beer is taking off in cities like Brooklyn, Atlanta and Seattle. Better availability, along with growing interest in beers with heritage, have helped Genesee Cream Ale gain relevance among consumers.

The new packaging mirrors a move made last year with Genesee Beer. “The response to Genesee Beer’s vintage packaging, along with the release of a collection of heritage beers, has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Schoos. “We’re getting back to our roots and reintroducing the packaging that people knew and loved. And beer drinkers are responding – Genesee is rapidly growing.

Much as we admired GCA's gorgeous "new" logo, we always loved the simplicity of the former, and now current, look.  And we can't help but be pleased to learn that the swells in Brooklyn, Atlanta and Seattle are catching up with us.

Back to the future

Tell Mama

Savoy Brown, featuring British blues legend and current Finger Lakes resident Kim Simmonds, 1971.

From the album Street Corner Talking, which readers may order, while supporting South of 5 and 20, by clicking the link.

Getting ready to mow?

Before we know it, Finger Lakes lawns will be knee deep. We advise our readers to plan ahead for mowing season.  Time to replace that K-Mart special?  Former Dukie Shane Battier demonstrates the Cadillac of lawn mowers, the John Deere X360.

From our archives:  We explain the role lawn care plays in Finger Lakes society.

We like the cut of this West fellow's jib

Col. West greets Gov. Palin, Rolling Thunder, Washington, 5/29/11

Now that Finger Lakes lawn mowers are in the barn for the winter and our snow blowers aren't out yet, let's get caught up on another real American, Lt. Col. Alan West (Ret.), now congressman from Florida's 22nd district.  From West's official website, his point of view on Obama's May call for Israel to return to "Auschwitz borders:"

Today's endorsement by President Barack Obama of the creation of a Hamas-led Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, signals the most egregious foreign policy decision his administration has made to date, and could be the beginning of the end as we know it for the Jewish state.

While we're bombarded with mainstream media's daily Newt/Mitt/Rick/Rick/Michelle/Ron crapola, let's not forget that we have real leaders on the sidelines.  Jim Boeheim is not the only one with a deep bench.

 Title used with apologies to Iowahawk.

People disappear in the Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes wineries' success due to global warming

Bill Wagner at the Winery, 1979

After passage of New York's "Farm Winery Act" back in 1976, a few hard working entrpeneurs and visionaries got started building what is now the Finger Lakes' booming wine industry.  Today, wine tourism is a rare success story in Central New York's otherwise depressed economic landscape.

Our readers may have been under the impression that the wineries' current good fortune is the result of decades of hard work.  We might recall our neighbors risking their life savings, freezing in the mud while they fought our notorious weather to plant and establish those fussy grape vines. 

Come to find out, we were wrong.  In this morning's USA Today, Elizabeth Weise explains the real reason for the region's climb to prominence - global warming.

Warming overall has meant that areas not generally associated with wine are becoming bigger players in the industry. Among them...

•The Finger Lakes wine country in Upstate New York, where the wine industry has taken off since the 1970s, says David Wolfe, a specialist in agricultural climate change at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

We'd like to invite Ms. Weise to visit our area this February.  That's the best time to don snowshoes, trudge out into the vineyards, and tell the bundled-up locals trimming and tying the vines how the credit for the FL wine industry taking off belongs, not to them, but to global warming.

Scenes from late summer

If you live in the Finger Lakes, you've probably doing  this right now.  A high ladder, stinging insects, and dangerous chemicals are involved, so proceed with caution, have Benadryl and an EpiPen on hand, and good luck!

August in the Finger Lakes

Olde Home Days Parade, Groton, NY. 

Photo by Simon Wheeler.

July in the Finger Lakes

Mowing season under way

Finger Lakes people share a deeply rooted cultural affinity for large lawns.  Relatively inexpensive land, abundant rainfall, and occasional bright sunshine facilitate large swaths of manicured turf.  At this time of year, small talk among native or assimilated homeowners involves only two subjects:  tax assessments and lawn mowing.  

We embrace a lot of diversity between our Slim Fingers, but proper lawn care must be understood as a quasi-religious obligation.  Young and old, rich and poor, gay and straight, even Democrats and Republicans are all lawn care fanatics.  You can argue with a guy's politics, hate the Yankees, drink Bud Light, even wear long sleeves in the summertime, but don't disrespect your neighbor's well trimmed acre.

With seemingly endless rainfall this spring, our lawn mowing days have been limited, while the grass is growing like crazy.  When we do get a chance to mow, our equipment needs to be in top shape.  So be aware that the ethanol our state government requires in New York gasoline, while good for rewarding political cronies, is hazardous to you mower. 

"Since they've added the alcohol and other components to get the alcohol to mix with the fuel it causes it to break down quicker," Titus Mower Manager Gary Kubasiewicz said. "That does cause problems. It does affect fuel components. We run into corrosion in the fuel systems. It's attacking the rubber gaskets and inlet seats, things like that. So it's definitely causing problems."

We use STA-BIL.