This Side Up

Add some ‘bounce’ before packing it away for the winter

John Howell
Posted 11/11/14

It’s that time of year to put things away for the winter.

In these parts that means hauling the boat and, if you have an engine, winterizing it. And if you have a vegetable garden, it means …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
This Side Up

Add some ‘bounce’ before packing it away for the winter

Posted

It’s that time of year to put things away for the winter.

In these parts that means hauling the boat and, if you have an engine, winterizing it. And if you have a vegetable garden, it means picking the few remaining green tomatoes and pulling up the withered zucchini stalks. Then there are all the preparations with the house, like shutting off and draining outside water lines and replacing screens with storm doors.

This weekend Carol and I headed to upstate New York to close my father’s house. It’s usually a four and a half-hour drive, but the roads were wide open on Friday morning. In seemingly record time, we were on Route 20 west of Albany on a road along a ridge with the mosaic of fields and farms and distant forest in the blue haze of the Mohawk Valley. Clouds hung low in the mountains and soon fat flakes were spattering the windshield. The snow showers were brief but intense. The temperature was still in the upper 30s, so the snow wasn’t sticking, but winter was knocking.

Instinctively, I turned on the heat. Carol switched on the seat warmer. We hadn’t brought gloves and hats, let alone a parka.

There was no question the time to pack things in for the winter had come. We weren’t resisting this transition; leaving summer behind is hard enough, but embracing winter is more difficult.

That night we took Marge, my father’s companion for his last years, out for dinner. The road, usually busy with tourists, was empty. We made the 10-mile trip into Cooperstown without spotting another car. Bursts of snow gave the warm car a comfy and intimate feeling.

Amazingly, since I assumed the crowds had left, we found a restaurant full of people. Baseball draws people to Cooperstown even in winter. No one was in a rush, except the waitress, who was especially attentive.

By the time we headed back, the shoulders of the road were white and we fell in behind a plow, spewing a saline cocktail onto the shiny asphalt. Other than the truck, we were the only vehicle on the road, but we never exceeded 25 and had to perpetually spray the windshield. Winter wasn’t knocking, it was pounding.

By Saturday, temperatures climbed out of the 30s. Patches of snow held out, but by late morning it was gone.

I took my father’s car up to the village to top off the gas tank before putting her away for the winter.

“It’s time,” said the young woman who came out to the pump.

In these parts, they sell gas without ethanol at a premium and, seeing the car is a 1964 model, I don’t mess with the mix. She topped off the tank and suggested a fuel additive if I wasn’t going to be on the road until next spring. She stopped pumping and went back inside the store. I noticed a sign outside proclaiming they carried more than 100 varieties of beer but she was out of the additive. I figured the car would do just fine; it always has.

Next stop was Bill’s Garage, just to say hello. His son Dale runs the place now, and I found him in the back of the garage mounting a truck tire with local onlookers. He welcomed the break to gab and answer what more should I do other than gassing up the car. He suggested I place sheets of Bounce fabric softener throughout the car.

“The mice don’t care for the smell,” he explained.

“And the engine?”

“Oh yes, they’ll get in there and chew the wires,” he said.

“Anything other than mice that I need to worry about?”

Dale paused.

“Well, there are the coyotes. They’re making a comeback.”

Obviously, we got off cars and were getting on a topic that is dear to the locals at this time of year: hunting. Dale said more than 200 coyotes had been shot in the county a couple of years ago but that hasn’t stopped them.

His concern wasn’t for the squirrels and skunks that may fall prey to the coyotes, but deer. Deer season is coming, and Dale and his friends plan on filling the freezer with venison.

I reported that I hadn’t seen a single deer, which is unusual. Usually, one or two and as many as five or six make our place an encampment. The apple trees and flower gardens are to their liking, until deer season.

“They know,” insisted Dale, “They head over to the state park at this time.”

He has seen herds standing in the parking lot and even walking the beach, safe from the hunters just beyond the park, waiting in their blinds. One year, Dale walked the park looking to scare the deer off the land. Park rangers didn’t take kindly to that and he was told to clear out himself.

From deer, the discussion shifted to other wild animals including bobcats, fishers, wild turkeys and even pigs.

“It won’t be long before they’re here,” he said.

Wild pigs were coming up from Pennsylvania. The animals are extremely destructive, rooting up fields, garden and even trees. To top it off, they are very aggressive.

“You don’t want to mess with 300 pounds of pig,” said Dale.

Dale said they are such a menace that there’s open season for wild pigs in Pennsylvania.

“If you see ’em you can shoot ’em,” he said.

Apparently, New York officials haven’t made up their minds as to what to do. Dale thinks the delay is a bad thing. The state could be facing a big pig problem if they don’t act soon.

That was a lot more than I needed to know to close things up for the winter.

Back at the house, I made sure to spread sheets of Bounce after disconnecting the battery cables. Carol and I packed things and readied the house for another winter. It’s a ritual, a reluctant submission to winter.

But there’ll be much to look forward to come spring when we pull out the porch furniture and turn on the water when the family returns. And Dale, I’m sure, will let me know if any pigs have been sighted.

Comments

1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • mthompsondc

    Nice column, John.

    Sunday, November 16, 2014 Report this