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Taco Tuesday on Cinco de Mayo
Tuesday, May 5 2026
I processed some especially nasty wood from the vine-covered woodpile on the edge of the driveway late this morning. You can tell it's bad when you can bang a wedge all the way into a big block of it and it still shows little signs of splitting. One massive chunk of it was so slimy and gross that I only salvaged about half of it before chucking the rest of it under the the bushes east of the driveway to serve out the rest of its existence as habitat for small organisms. There are already a fair number of such pieces scattered about on either side of the driveway as it passes through a swath of land whose only human maintenance consists of occasional trimming of bushes encroaching on the driveway.
As I mentioned yesterday, Gretchen has a new idea lodged in her brain about our garden: that we can't grow tomatoes, and that the reason is probably rooted in missing soil nutrients. So she had assigned me the task of taking a soil sample to the Cornell University Extension in the Kingston Plaza in Uptown Kingston (between the Hannaford and Herzogs and JK's Liquors). She also wanted me to get some fertilizer specific for tomatoes at Herzogs and had all written down in a note. So when Gretchen got back from a dental cleaning and the Bolt was available (don't want to drive an gasoline-powered car when gasoline is $4.50/gallon!), I set out to do these assigned errands. When I arrived at the Cornell University Extension (CUE), a woman at front desk seemed strangely perplexed when I asked about their soil testing service. But then she seemed to figure out what I wanted. Gretchen had asked me to get a $3.50 test that could be performed today on a soil sample I had brought and a more elaborate $25 test that required mailing the sample off. But when the woman at the desk said the cheap test was only for pH (acidity), I opted only to get the more expensive test. But to do that, the soil sample I'd brought wasn't suitable; I would have to buy a kit and obtain the sample according to the instructions. While I was entering my credit card information into a provided laptop, another CUE employee came in and told me I really needed to check out the baby goats in breezeway next door. There was also guacamole and salsa available. "Oh, because of Cinco de Mayo!" I said. (I'm not sure how that related to baby goats.) So I was leaving, I looked as I passed down the breezeway and indeed there were a couple baby goats in a pen. For some reason the women running whatever was going on there were desperate to rope passers-by in. One of them called out, saying, "I see you're looking! Come see the baby goats!" "I grew up with baby goats," I said, adding, "They're old hat!" "But we have a lamb too!" she replied. "Nahhh," I said, not wanting to get involved in whatever was happening there. I then went to JK's Liquor for cheap half gallon of Gary's Good Gin and then to Herzog's for that special tomato fertilizer with the brand name Espoma.
But my outing was not quite over. I needed some supplies for fixing the dock on Woodworth Lake, one of whose support poles was no longer doing any good. I'd used a 1.25 inch galvanized steel pole there in a 1.5 inch bracket, which had been janky from the beginning, so I wanted to replace it with a 1.5 inch pole. To make such a pole immune to crushing (something ice can do), I also wanted to fill it with concrete. So I drove to Lowes (the only big box hardware store Gretchen permits me to buy stuff from) to get concrete and a galvanized steel pole. But the biggest size of galvanized pipe Lowes sells have a diameter of 1.25 inches. After just buying an 80 pound sack of concrete, I drove to Adam's Fairacre Farms mostly to get potatoes and asparagus, though I also got onions, mushrooms, and a boutique espresso-flavored soft drink (since they didn't have the canned unsweetened coldbrew coffee I usually get there). (Aside from being sweet, it was fun to drink.)
I ended my outing at Home Depot, where they did have the 1.5 inch galvanized pipe I needed, but the shortest piece of it I could buy was ten feet long. Still, at only $76 dollars, that seemed like a deal given the ongoing wave of stagflation driving up the cost of everything, especially heavy items full of refined material. I managed to transport the pipe by having it hang out the window restig on a grocery bag padding the top of a rearview mirror, but I will have to cut it in half before taking it on a 100 mile roadtrip to the Adirondacks.
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Gretchen headed off for pilates and I planted the rest of the lettuce seedlings in the two east-most raised-bed boxes, figuring the we will have eaten them by the time the nearby tomatoes need the space.
At around 4:00pm, I took Charlotte for a walk in the forest (well, only she seemed to be coming with me). Unusually, I took her down the Lower Chamomile Trail nearly to the bus turnaround, a path that is now blocked by fallen trees in a few places. But instead of going to the bus turnaround, I immediately began climbing back uphill on a shoulder in the hillside. But the shoulder quickly faded away and I was left climbing the extremely steep grade that mostly prevents casual hikers from ever getting up to our trail system from below. I'm used to climbing steep grades in the Adirondacks, but this grade is much longer and there are fewer toeholds, as the surface is mostly free of rocks. At some point the climbing arrived at that line of cliffs I've encountered before when climbing the grade from further to the south, and I had to work my way around them and continue another long leg of the climb.
Somewhere on the grade above the cliffs, I sat down to catch my breath and survey the scene to the east, a valley cut by Englishman's Creek (for which the Chamomile is a tributary). I heard some creature crunching on the leaves below me and assumed it was Charlotte, but when the creature broke into view, I could see it was mostly white. Neville had joined the walk! He's not very fast, but he's evidently fast than me when climbing a steep grade and he'd almost managed to catch up. The afternoon had gotten almost hot (temperatures in the 80s) and he was breathing was extremely fast. But he was having a fun adventure. I was proud of him for doing this, as he was probably still a little sore from chasing whatever he had chased some days ago north of Virginia Creek in the Adirondacks.
Soon after Gretchen returned from pilates, we went out for dinner at the Bear Cantina. We'd had a good time there last year on Cinco de Mayo, so that seemed like the best place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our engagement, particularly on a Taco Tuesday. We also brought the dogs, thinking we could sit out on the back deck near the creek. The dogs ended up being a real hit for some reason, starting with the young couple sitting at the next table over. They had a little baby with them with dark blue eyes and a stare that suggested to Gretchen (who normally has zero interest in or admiration for Caucasian babies) to declare that he was like an old man. The baby was clearly interested in the dogs, and the parents were very supportive, which was unusual given that Neville and Charlotte are pit bulls, and we've all heard the stories. When Neville came over at the end of his leash and lay down up against the mother's chair, she took the little baby and flew him like an airplane above Neville ("Planet Neville," as I referred to him). Neville raised up his big head and delightfully sniffed at the baby like the big cuddly potato he is.
Not long after that, a couple rain drops fell from the mostly-unbroken layer of clouds overhead, and people started bailing on the outdoor dining option, including a group with a tiny dog. Charlotte started barking at that dog, but not for long, and it got the attention of one of the people at that table, and 82 year old gentleman from Buffalo named Sonny. After they'd moved inside, he came out to our table (we were still outside, as the rain never actually came) to tell us all about the many pit bulls he and his wife had rescued. He then showed us pictures and videos on his phone. He clearly loved pit bulls, and our dogs were being charming, so he ended up also telling us that he had to give up dog rescuing after nearly dying from some mysterious illness that his doctor-son eventually helped his doctors find a remedy for.
Then another family took a table out on the deck and their two kids, a little boy and his sister, seemed to be interested in our dogs, so Gretchen encouraged them to come over and say hello. That went about as well as such encounters always do. Charlotte even licked the little boy in the ear, in a place where he was clearly ticklish. Finally, an older woman who had come to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by herself took the table that had been occupied by the couple with the old-soul baby, and she had love up on the dogs as well.
Since it was Cinco de Mayo, when the waiter came by to ask if there was anything else we wanted after our meal, I said I wanted a shot of tequila, which was free. (Gretchen was still working on her virgin mojito and I wanted something to do with my hands.)
Normally under my personal drinking rules, once I start drinking socially during an outing, I am free to continue drinking back at home. But I had a hangover still to atone for and didn't want to leave Gretchen lonely on such an important anniversary. So we watched two back-to-back episodes of Jeopardy!, including one where super-champion Jamie Ding came close to being defeated. I went to bed soon after that, beginning my reading of another Andy Weir book Gretchen brought home from the bookstore: Artemis, one where Andy narrates from (for the first time) a woman's perspective. Our hero this time is doing her best as a non-wealthy person at the Moon's first colony.
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The line of shale cliffs I encountered hiking up from the vicinity of the bus turnaround. Click to enlarge.
A close-up view of how the shale decomposes to form cliffs that are steeper than 90 degrees and vase-like structures. Click to enlarge.
The view through fresh new oak leaves across Englishman's Creek valley from where I sat down to rest. Click to enlarge.
Neville appears from behind a tree. Click to enlarge.
After climbing up that steep slope and hiking most of the way home, Neville lies down in a seep running along the north side of the west part of the Chamomile Wall. The same amount of exercise didn't even seem to make Charlotte thirsty. Click to enlarge.
A closeup of Neville cooling down. Click to enlarge.
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