November 1, 2018 – Exploring the Lake Champlain Area
Today we thought out of the box, and rather than staying in familiar territory we branched out and went North! I wanted to bring my camera and try to photograph the Flora and Fauna of the area. It was challenging trying to limit what was n my bag because for the past 9 years we have been packing for 5-hour hikes, cold, snow, rain…
you name it…our thinking was to expect anything, and everything that may come our way while we were on the trail. Today was different. Lighter pack, camera lenses packed, and camera around my neck we set off on the Wildway Overlook Trail.
Easy hike, beautiful view of the Valley and plenty of colors left on the trees.
November 2, 2018- Lewis Clearing Bay–Day two of the Champlain area
Another rainy day, so on with the precip pants and raincoats. On days like this, there is no reason to go summit anything because you take a chance of seeing nothing but fog. On occasion, the cloud cover may be high enough to see all you need, but we opted to stay shoreline. Lewis Clearing 1.9 miles in, so roughly a 3-mile day.
Horsetail grass in habitat
It was quiet, canopy drips and swishing leaves is all that was heard. It was a level trail right up until the end when a 35-degree slope led down to the shore. The rain had picked up by the time we were there but stopped by the time we had our coffee and snack for the trip back.
A great trail overall, there are many more in this area that offshoots off this one, that basically went straight to the bay. Definitely worthwhile going back, we barely scratched the surface of the area
November 3, 2018- Silver Lake Bog Preserve
Last day of hiking this time around. Rain persisted throughout our stay this time without more than a 2-hour break. Today we continued to stay low altitude, no need to 
summit and so we did the Bog preserve in Ausable Forks. The first portion of the trail is a boardwalk over the bog. A beautiful spongy array of mosses carpet the ground, while Lichen and bearded moss hang from the trees on both sides of the path.
Perhaps the rain added to the atmosphere of the place, but it was a peaceful contemplative walk. At the end of the boardwalk, the trail to the Bluff started. Low incline, very do-able in weather like today. This trip also brought us to other parts of the territory that were not the “high peaks”. 
I have heard of MicroGreens, but I have produced Micro Carrots! Actually, they weren’t all this size, 
but they were tiny, smaller than “baby carrots”. My beets had NO beets at all! just greens…which were pretty tasty, but, like the carrots a disappointment.
/ and other flying things have started to populate the Mason bee house. Happy to see life in it since I moved it from a different part of the garden. Bees have been more prevalent in the garden later in the season, although my roses did not bloom quite the way they did last season, there was a lot of activity.
tomatoes. I have given away many, and I have already dehydrated my first batch! The tomatoes in the raised beds are doing just OK. Most of the leaves have already died back, and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. This particular batch I raised from seed, the others that were Nursery purchased have been splitting due to too much water, so we have been bringing them in sooner before they start splitting, to ripen off the vine.
Grafedie in the Library 