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above the mineface
Monday, June 12 2023
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, NY
Yesterday when I was building the little segment of connector walkway between the bluestone patio at the east end of the cabin's building site and the walkway connecting the front door to the parking area, I basically ran out of good bluestone, that is, the kind of stone that is thick and flat enough for walking on without breaking. So today at noon I drove out to the big abandoned bluestone mine and drove up the rough little road that goes along the top of the mine face (the bluestone mine was essentially a strip mine, and the stripping stops along an artificial cliff, above which is forest, and the road I took runs along the top of that cliff). Though not much mining happened above the mine face, all the best bluestone pieces seem to be up there, since people have had decades to scour below the mine face for any good pieces there (though good pieces do still occasionally calve from the mineface). Today I got some great pieces, including one roughly the shape of a guitar (but significantly bigger). I loaded the Forester with so much rock that I was a little worried about how it would handle the bumpy road leading from the mine.
This evening Gretchen was off having dinner at the Garden Café with one of her several friends named Kaycee, so I took a nice mostly-solar-heated bath. While I was in the tub, the wind blew the door of the laboratory shut (which can happen when I don't use a door stop and I leave the laboratory window open). This trapped Diane and Ramona (our two "black girls") in the laboratory. I heard whimpering but just assumed it was Neville feeling FOMO about something the Australian shepherds were barking about over at Crazy Dave's cottage. But no, it was Ramona wanting to get out of the laboratory.
Both cats Oscar and Diane have been extremely needy since we returned from the Adirondacks, and for me it's been kind of oppressive, with them constantly jumping into my lap or onto my desk while I'm trying to work. To get away from them, tonight I went down to the greenhouse to sleep. A gentle rain was falling at the time, and I love how that sounds on the greenhouse's galvanized steel roof.
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