PowderBeard

On 4/4/2022 at 2:05 PM, powderfreak said:

Yeah he’s been around! 

Did he get his pass back or is he doing the Bobby Valentine?

16 hours ago, NW_of_GYX said:

welcome to the area. Don't sleep on Crescent lake. Some good trout and salmon fishing on the fly in this area if you're into that too.

Thanks! I saw some tournament results from Crescent and was really impressed. I plan on being there often given it is so close. 

On 4/18/2022 at 7:31 AM, MVOyster said:

Headed to Quabbin this week, may rent a boat at Gate 8 or may just fish from shore … this week last year I caught a #5.4lb, 25.5” Landlocked Salmon (State pin!) from the shore there, and several Smallmouth to 19” … one of my favorite places in New England

Very nice! The lakers and salmon are super shallow right now. Lakers are eating any and everything. I went out for an hour on Monday just to test out the boat and grabbed four lakers between 16-24" casting towards shore on blade baits.

23 hours ago, tamarack said:

An hour farther north puts the Belgrades in play, if pike are the object.  State record 31-pounder came thru the ice on North Pond, though it was 25+ years ago.  I did see a 20-pounder on that pond's ice about 10 years back.  My biggest there is a bit over 8 pounds, fun on my light tackle.

Yes, love North Pond. Seen some big pike follow my baits in and caught a lot of big fish there. Was amazed to find big smallies under docks and lily pads in 1-2' of water, not something you see often. One of the best parts was this old 5+ dinosaur while my buddy walked across the street to get us all ice cream.  

My dad and I got on a pretty fun pattern up there, just cast to any sail boat on a mooring in 4-6' of water and there would be multiple fish under it. @MBRI

On 4/15/2022 at 7:44 AM, DavisStraight said:

Are you buying a house up there? Tons of good lakes up there to fish, I spend a lot of time in Maine since my sister lives there, might move up there myself when I near retirement.

 

We are renting the first year until we decide where we want to live. Found a nice house with heat included so we jumped on it. 

11 hours ago, mreaves said:

Pretty soon it will be Sebago season for you instead of Quabbin. 

I haven't enjoyed Sebago the few times I have been, lots of traffic and stunted bass. Crescent and Crystal Lakes are within about 10 minutes of our new place but I plan on spending a lot of time on Thompson and Long Lakes, probably the Androscroggin for pike as well. 

Only got out once last week and got a couple small 1-2lbs largies on the blade bait. Boat is now tied to the trailer for Quabbin season. Put about 10-12 hours in sanding and repainting.

22 hours ago, Angus said:

Right now, life science stock options seem to be leading the charge but I always wonder about the % down payment on these homes - are the banks allowing a higher % of income to be directed to mortgage - or is it just folks with lots of home equity moving up? I pay no attention to this stuff given I'm want to downsize in 2024 and will probably leave the area.

For all the offers on our house last week it was lower down payments (5% whereas we put down 10%) and the buyer having to put in 10-20k towards making up the difference in appraisal and sale price.   

23 hours ago, Spanks45 said:

Housing market still out of control here.  Neighbor put his house on the market, 25 showings booked in the first few hours. First showing/offer came in 65 grand over asking

Seriously it is insanity. Listed our house last Wednesday, open house Sunday with over 80 people and 15 private showings Sunday-Monday. Had multiple offers well above asking (which was 40% above what we paid for it 3 years ago) with no contingencies/inspections by Tuesday. Moving up to Gray, ME for June 1st.  

32 minutes ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

Anybody venture out yet? Anybody have a link for water temps around here?

Was out Friday on a local river. Tons of dace, a couple bass on jerkbaits, water was 42-46*. Have a few buddies that have been hitting the CT River in Mass and southern VT. Water had been 38-41*, they have been getting lots of big catfish (8-15lbs) on blades/spoons over deep holes.

6 minutes ago, NorEastermass128 said:

$97 for WTI Crude 22 hours later. Let’s keep this up and then we can drop average gas prices back below $4/gallon. 

Several places around here are already below $4. I actually took the chip out of my truck to enable the V4/AFM system and average an extra 5-6 MPG, worth it to just check the oil level more regularly.  

14 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah quabbin isn’t big enough. You can get some low level very light snow from quabbin if conditions are perfect but it’s really rare. You only see it out in western ORH county and it’s basically flurries or stray flakes. 
 

I don’t know where the streamers came from. I guess lake Champlain could’ve done it on NW or NNW wind and it somehow get reinvigorated because of the upper level support. It was weird but they definitely acted like LES streamers and the snow was similar to what I’d see out in Ithaca off lake Cayuga. 
 

They did make for a good wintry scene last night. 

NWS Gray has made FB posts in the past about Sebago enhancing snow which is about 30k acres, the Quabbin is larger than Sebago. That said the shape of Sebago seems to be more favorable. 

Quabbin effect, love it. We got over 3-4", more than Berkshire East got that is for sure. 

Pounding sleet and snow. Whiting up fast. 

@radarman or anyone else heading to Berkshire East tomorrow? I should be there around mid-day.

NAM thermals for the win. Could be a nice last minute surprise west of 495/84.  

47 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

Me: “this storm can’t keep tracking east”

Storm:

 

Was finally able to watch the "Russian 5" documentary about how the Red Wings got Federov et al. to leave/defect from the Soviet Union the other night, was awesome.

For this storm I just hope the ski hills of the Berks get what they need. Some areas of Berkshire East are down to dirt and Catamount might be done after this weekend.

Well ski season is wrapping up. I finally took some time to organize the Bass Pro Shops section of my basement this week. Gear is ready, next week will be prepping the boat. Hopefully get out later in the week as temps will be in the 50s and the ice is melting. Still need 3 more cases for swimbaits and flipping baits and have two other rods coming this weekend that Lews warrantied without an issue. The both broke just below the reel seats last season, which is really strange spot to break a rod. I really liked their customer service and will see if their rods hold up this year.  Plan is the local puddles and rivers until Quabbin opens on April 18th, then we move to Maine early-mid June. Should be fun exploring some new areas up there. 

Wish this would keep up. Fat flakes and covered in 20 minutes. 

Calling it now. @HoarfrostHubb jack at 4-5". 

6 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Legend:

The "what are you afraid of?" line at the end was pretty great. Instead Putin keeps sending in forces to assassinate him.

And he can do this.

9 minutes ago, Hoth said:

The foreign minister says a full meltdown of that plant would be equivalent to 10x Chernobyl.

Check out Meg Kinnard on Twitter. I hope it's Ukrainian propoganda. 

3 minutes ago, Hoth said:

The foreign minister says a full meltdown of that plant would be equivalent to 10x Chernobyl.

Building is definitely on fire now on the CCTV. 

54 minutes ago, radarman said:

Belchertown will no longer be the best represented location in the subforum

Was such a good severe spot I'm getting a "Belchertucky 4 life" tattooed across my lower back.

11 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

Jeez...

there's live feed but Ukrainian nuclear power plant is on fire and being attacked on all side. this is scary 

It's insanity. Serious fire fight a little while. Just fire an Iskander in there, what is the worst that could happen?

I still can't believe the Ukrainians took down an SU-34, first time due to enemy fire and that is Russia's top of the line stuff.

52 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Where are you moving to?

Maine, probably the Gray/Lewiston area, got an internship up there. All but the dissertation is done at UMass but the RAs will be collecting that data so we are heading out.

1 hour ago, weathafella said:

Bite the bullet and fill the tank.  If your potential home buyers enter a cold house and see an empty tank it’s not a good look. You’ll make it up in the long run.

1 hour ago, DavisStraight said:

Not only that the seller gets paid for the oil in the tank, it's figured at closing.

Oh yea, remember all those closing costs. It's just a personal challenge to me at this point, I have been a bit lazy this year in feeding the wood stove and have gone through more oil than usual. The only time it usually runs is when we are away. The stove can keep the main house 70-72, back room where the stove is usually 76-78. I crank the stove then use the fan of forced air system to pump the heat throughout the house. If I don't then the stove room gets into the 80s. 

@DavisStraight, not sure if you know about them but I had a friend recently come across a 30" Elm Stove. It will be in safe keeping until we find our next long-term house. It is a beauty. 

2 hours ago, ineedsnow said:

home heating oil is going for 4.54 a gallon now around here yikes!

I haven't really looked since October and just about shat myself. We are just under a quarter tank and the house is going on the market next month. Woodstove will be going 24/7 now.

21 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Work from home is obviously highly inequitable, but that was obvious from the get go.

Most low level jobs can’t be done from home, so as usual, the low man is punished.

Abuse of work from home is rampant among most I know. My buddies will be out golfing or by the pool during work time. My buddy Eve rigged up some contraption that moves his mouse every 10 mins to make it look like he’s there 

Definitely agree the low man is punished and some abuse it. The abuse of the system is what will ruin it for the many, or will force companies install some serious monitoring tech on your devices. 

I think it has also made some start asking- do we really need a 40 hour week in the office to get things done? For me, I was only in the office for 16 hours a week when covid started but all my work only took me about 8-10 hours to complete. 

I think it does benefit employees looking for new positions. In selecting my next position, all of the places I got interviews to had the same amount of work and same pay, but 2 of them offered remote work 2-3 days a week because they know not everything has to be done in the office. That was the difference maker in selecting where I ended up. It's funny to see the big Ivy league places still have openings for those positions despite interviewing hundreds of people.