This morning, rather early, I headed over to the Toyota dealership to get a few important things done before my upcoming New York Finger Lakes trip: an oil change, a recall fix for an audible sound when you back up (mine was so faint I wasn't even aware there was supposed to be a sound) and most important of all, for months I had lost the sound on my GPS. Turns out the sound worked but was muted, and the tech showed me how to go into Google Maps to fix it should this be a problem again. Best of all, all this was free since I'm in my 2nd year of the Toyota Cares program. I'll have to start paying for stuff at the start of 2027. 

The woman I am meeting for the Finger Lakes trip accidentally dialed my number today and we wound up talking for over an hour about our trip and travel in general. She expressed an interest in going to Longwood Gardens and Philly in PA and Saratoga Springs, NY (not for the horse races). I wouldn't mind returning to the White Mountains in New Hampshire or any number of places. I've lived in the Northeast all my life but there are many, many places I have yet to fully explore. We both dislike flying (she was married to an airline pilot who would tell her how unsafe the airline industry was), but that still leaves open Pennyslvania, New York state, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and even Maine, all of which are drivable by car.

And then there are these cool railway bicycles that I'm seeing pop up more and more in recreational areas. I would love to try them. They are said to be easy to pedal and have an electric assist motor, much like an ebike.

The big excitement of yesterday was when a woman I knew (online only) from one of my native plants groups asked me for some Joe Pye Weed and in exchange was offering me a rare native Chinquapin oak seedling. The cool thing about it is that it often grows more like a multi-stemmed shrub or a small tree, topping out at only about 20 feet high. It's the only oak that does that. And it starts producing acorns in 3 to 5 years so you don't have to wait 20 years like you would for other oaks. I'm still reading Doug Tallamy's book, The Nature of Oaks, and if you read that, you know that oak trees are the Holy Grail among plants, attracting more moths, butterflies and widlife in general than any other plant on earth. For many homeowners, a humongus oak is not something they can grow on their property, and if they're of a certain age, they may never see it produce acorns. 

Anyway, we connected the night before last and agreed I would come over yesterday morning. That night, I dug up most of a peony bed with probably 8 plants. Peonies are pretty and make a great cut flower, but they do nothing for pollinators. The only insect I've ever seen on them is ants. I dug up the Joe Pye Weed in the am and put it in a bucket. and drove about 35 minutes to meet this woman. We chit-chatted for a while with her husband (she's also reading the same Tallamy book) and then I went home, decided to plant the oak immediately as it was wilting, but knew I had to then get in the car and run down to Lowes for the hardware cloth (to deter voles/mice) and mulch. I had ordered that stuff the night before on Tractor Supply website, but they cancelled the mulch part of the order when they ran out of inventory. It didn't make sense to make 2 trips to 2 stores to get what I needed, so I just didn't pick up at Tractor Supply and they will refund the charge after tonight. So from about 9 am to 2 pm yesterday, I was solely focused on getting this little oak (about 2.5 feet high, single stem) safely in the ground. It needs at least an inch of water a week for the year, so I'll have to pay attention to that.

The outer fence is to deter deer and the inner fence, which is sunk in the ground several inches, is for mice and voles. There is also a fence over the top. I'm not sure what I'll do once the oak gets taller than the outer fencing. I may have to invest in taller fencing.

Oh, and I picked my 37th cucumber today.