QCD17

28.9 overnight low here.  Peach blossoms are out in full force.  28 is supposedly the magic number for them, so we're hanging on by a thread.  Not looking forward to Wed/Fri lows.

Yeah, I'm hoping we don't get a surprise frost from here on out. I can't go two years in a row without peaches on my trees.

I already had to reseed after Wednesday's deluge washed away my grass seed.  Then Saturday washed some of that away.  Saturday's rain could be the nail in the coffin, although I'm probably 70% sprouted already, so we could survive.

I'm quickly approaching 3.5" here near the pomfret line.  There are some areas in the lawn where I could probably run a jet ski for 100 yards.

gauge just got over the 3 in/hr rate.  wow.  wind picking up a bit

heaviest rain of the day here at the moment

17 hours ago, tamarack said:

Goldenrod?

Goldenrod pollen does not normally cause allergic reactions.  Ragweed and mugwort are usually the culprits.

Thinking of taking the kids boogie boarding at second beach in RI this week.  Is there a difference in conditions between hi and low tide for waves?  Preferring to be able to wade out 3-4' deep water to catch waves, versus having the kids be over their heads..  I haven't been in at least 6 or 7 years and can't remember if it stays pretty shallow at both ends of the tide or not.

17 minutes ago, hammerz_nailz said:

Wow. What a storm

The sound coming from your area is intense right now.  Looks like it's going to stay a bit NW of us on the way through.

Only got .15 here from Friday/Saturday. If we're going to be pissing off my hot peppers with these cold temps, it would be nice to at least get a decent soak out of it.

You should hook a few car batteries up to that fencing for added deterrence.

Catbirds have adapted to recognize the cowbird eggs and will get rid of them from their nest.  I'm not sure if other species also recognize them.  But it's best to leave the cowbird egg because removing it might trigger the phoebe to abandon the nest altogether.  Birds are weird like that.  We have approximately 3 to 5 mating pairs of cowbirds roaming the yard this time of year, and they seem to always be hunting for bugs, which has benefits.  The only birds I actively "discourage" from nesting are the English sparrows.  When I see them claim one of the nesting boxes I will wait a few weeks and then cover the hole so that they move on.

Hoping the coldest temps only last for an hour or two before sunrise.  If we can skate by with temps between 29 and 32 for 2 hours I think we'll be okay.  I only have peppers, cilantro, and basil that I'm worried about.  I'm going to water them this afternoon and then throw a sheet over them and keep my fingers crossed.  The rest of the stuff is in pots that will come in for the night.  I just hope this doesn't mess up the fruit trees, as they all were pollinated and set fruit.  Apparently they can go down to 28 without much harm.

Pennington is now selling a "smart seed" mix that contains clover.  People are finally coming around!

We had a spot in our yard that was always wet.  Had it dug up when we put in a new driveway last year, and it turned out that it was a pipe coming from the curtain drain around the foundation. The idiots that put it in just had it randomly stop in the yard, instead of carrying it another 50' to the drainage line that feeds into a man made pond.  So of course I had to tack on 50' of new drainage to the cost of the driveway, topsoil, reseeding, etc.

Hoping this early spring doesn't mess up the fruit tree pollination like it did last year.  Had tons of flowers, and no apples.  Most likely due to the temp being too cold for the bees to do their thing.

4 minutes ago, Modfan2 said:

Some decent rainfall totals just to NW of me in the hills of Pomfret/Hampton over towards Eastford.

.91 near the Pomfret border where I am

We're heading up to Bromley on Thursday.  Hoping for some good powder runs on Friday/Saturday.  Looks like they should benefit from the storm tonight/tomorrow, too. 

9 hours ago, weathafella said:

Yeah and since he got sick 2 weeks+ ago it’s doubtful he currently has covid even if he did then.  My lingering cough lasted a couple of weeks and it’s still not totally gone. 

5 hours ago, Torch Tiger said:

Looks like I have had covid the past 9 days. tested neg on home kit. thought it was just a basic rsv bug, but it's the same lingering symptoms I had 3 years ago (almost to the day).  still can't get out of bed without serious vertigo and falling back down lol

I got a cold back in late sept, tested negative 4 or 5 times over a 10 day period.  Still have sinus and inner ear congestion 3+ months later.  No sore throat or fever or aches or anything.  Did a round of antibiotics last week, and now on a daily dose of strong decongestants and zyrtec, because my doc thinks it's just out of control allergies.  But I do get the vertigo at times because my inner ears are so congested.  Now I wonder if these are just long covid symptoms and not allergies.  Never had anything like this in my life, but I do always get bad fall allergies, which are more itchy eyes and sneezing.

We got our first runs of the year in at Bromley today.  Was nice and warm, snow was soft but not slushy.  I feel bad for the mountain when I look at the 10-day forecast.  Hoping they can survive and get dumped on afterwards.

47.5 here now.  Picked up 1.44" total for the event.  But registered a max gust of 42.9, which is pretty decent, considering it's mounted about 5' off the ground.

ooh, new conduit for that cable box, too.  that's going to be a fun swap out for eversource/spectrum to handle

1 hour ago, UnitedWx said:

It's recommended... however most never do. I'm am electrician and never do on my own. Really if it's wired with a 4 conductor cable it's already bonded to your electrical system. Well, and wired properly. SOO many portables aren't

I read into it some more and I guess it has to do with whether it's a bonded neutral or floating neutral.  My Generac XT8000E appears to be a bonded neutral, as far as I can tell.  But then it also depends on if the panel is a bonded neutral?  If they are both bonded neutral then it says you need the rod so that in the event of a faulty appliance, the power isn't sent back to the genny, making the frame live. If both are neutral bonded, you also have the risk of parallel power, where the fault from an appliance goes back to the neutral and ground on the panel but then also back to the neutral/ground on genny, and the ground isn't meant to handle continues power, so it could cause wire failure.  But I'm hoping our electrician set up the transfer switch to separate the neutral/ground bond when it's being fed by the genny.  Here is the article I found that really spelled it out nicely.  https://homebatterybank.com/do-i-need-to-ground-a-generator-simply-explained/

7 hours ago, tunafish said:

I have a portable generator that I inherited brand new.  House has one of these exterior outlets to plug it into.  Breaker inside has one of those safety interlocks on it so you can't accidentally send feedback into the main line and kill a lineman.  

 

My question is:  Should my portable generator be grounded with a rod, or is the ground "covered" by plugging into my breaker panel via external outlet?  No clear answer via googles.

 

 

I have that same setup, and my electrician didn't say anything about needing to ground the genny, and he's very "by the book" with stuff.  The genny does have a ground wire that connects the engine block to the frame, I believe.  But per the Generac site..."When connecting to an electrical panel (building electrical system, manual transfer switch, RV, etc.) you need to connect your generator to a ground rod. Ground rods must be pounded into the earth, then connected to the ground lug on the generator via a ground cable. The rod must be at least 8ft into the earth."

This the first I've heard of this.  Not sure how the hell to get a 8' rod into the ground in New England.  Good luck finding a clear 8' shot without hitting a rock.

I saw a headline yesterday that gas was going to drop toward $3/gallon due to lowering demand.  And now the stock market has rebounded a bit?  What a roller coaster these last few months have been.