It's Recyclables Day!
It's 62 degrees and wet!
No one will need to water plants or lawns - or trees! - today: that's been going on since before ten o'clock last night!
- Wednesday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Otherwise, a mix of clouds and a little sun. More humid. High near 80.
- Wednesday night: Partly cloudy with a few showers possible. Low in the mid 60s.
- Thursday: Sun and clouds, warm and humid. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms likely. High: 81, Low: 61
*********A small item on WKTV NewsChannel 2 re: roadwork in Utica:
Summer construction continues to "heat" up. Plant Street, Lafayette Street, Deveroux Street, and Genesee Street will be paved over the next few days.
Crews ask drivers to use alternative routes while the construction work is being done. There is no word on when it will be complete.
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The Borden Milk Plant
Thanks to three blog-readers, now we know when the Borden Company closed the milk plant.
Pauline Barnes was the first to answer:
"I cannot give you exact date the plant closed, but know it was operating in the early 40's. We bought the farm on White Street, Oct.1940. I remember getting very very sick from eating cold steamed clams at a cook out Stillman Dunster, the manager, put on for the farmers.
Roy Corbin was one of the employees. I think closed sometime early 40's.
Also, my husband, Ken worked at Bissell's store and delivered groceries to Sanger Mansion - occupied in the summer. Mrs. Sanger always tipped him $1.00. That looked good to us those days."
Hank Gardner, who lives in Virginia, wrote:
"My father, Henry D. Gardner, was the last superintendent. A fire destroyed the building in 1944 or 45. I am not sure of the year because I was overseas in the Navy. The Borden company never rebuilt. There was another plant built on the site, but I don't know what company or cooperative ran that one. I do not know when the Borden plant was constructed. I do know that at one time, prior to 1930, it was a processing plant. When we moved there in January 1933 the milk was brought in by farmers, visually checked, weighed, butterfat measured (I think weekly), cooled to a consistent temperature and then shipped, via rail, to near New York City for processing.
In the postcard picture the large section on the left side was one of two ice houses.
There were two artificial ponds behind the building. In the winter one was filled with water to provide for ice. Local men were employed to cut and store the ice. That process ended sometime during the late thirties when an ice making machine was installed. Later the icehouses were taken down and the wood sold.
That is according to my memory."
And Gary Tuttle added: "I asked Lynn Williams at coffee break this morning when the plant closed. He said it burned down in 1945 or 1946. He also said that there was a log cabin where Marge Wilson lives that the plant manager used to stay in during the summer. Lynn said he has lived on Osborne Ave. all his life."
Writer's note: Mr. Williams is married to Mr. Gardner's sister!
And Thank You, All! This really is turning out to be a great way to collect and share history!
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It's Butterfly Weed! (Asclepia tuberosa.)Blooming in a hay field south of Waterville!
And another clump, west of the village!
Butterfly Weed isn't really that "rare," but it's very unusual to see it around this part of New York State. It grows in very sandy or gravelly soil and its roots go "all the way to China."
-- and No: I don't know if this is acceptable or not, but it was noticed by several people, yesterday afternoon, who thought that the brick pavers weren't meant to be a parkinglot.
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On the other hand - Rose Hips on bushes along Frog Park Road are already turning red: they're rushing the season, I think.
In country woods and flowerbeds, too, Beebalm blooms. Sometimes called Bergomot (because it smells somewhat like a Bergomot Orange) or "Oswego Tea," early colonists, taking a cue from Native Americans, drank a hot beverage made from the leaves of this plant in protest to the British tax on tea!
