GIANT "WELCOMING ESOPUS OAK

This oak I guess was "born" more or less when we bought 200 of these 400 or so acres from Robert Livingstong Pell in 1904. I see it as "welcoming". It welcomes all who come to see our beatiful property, to look at our birds, our deer, our abundant wildlife...It ALSO "has welcomed" many of my Redemptorist brothers and sisters who have been lain to rest in our Mt. St. Alphonsus Cemetery which is located just northwest of the orchards and just above one of the two large ponds that then feed off through the pastures into the Acre Pond.

Just southeast of our orchard with this imposing oak is the remaining silo of a barn torn down last year. It will be rebuilt way out in Montana I am told. Well, that barn and the horse stables where a "much younger Hudson River Birder worked".... that will be for a future blog. Please be patient (as those phone messages always tell us).