tamarack

DNA in Cape Elizabeth and a roadkill in western CT prove that there are/were those critters around. A breeding wild population? 10,000 trailcams say probably not, 100Ks of hunters, foresters, hikers never having encountered a half-eaten partially covered deer carcass with much of the hair scraped off - classic cougar - say the same.

And apparently doing it without raising a ripple on the water. This tells me that it was some kind of image rather than a material object with mass. Of course, that image could come from natural phenomena or be produced by some kind of a sentient being. Cue Rod Serling and "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street."

The Firewood Poem Beechwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year, Chestnut's only good they say, If for logs 'tis laid away. Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house will be; But ash new or ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last, it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E'en the very flames are cold But ash green or ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke, Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter's cold But ash wet or ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by. The firewood poem was written by Celia Congreve, is believed to be first published in THE TIMES newspaper on March 2nd 1930. © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes

I'm pretty sure you're well north of the bug's presence in NH - first detected a bit east of CON. Also, that's undoubtedly white ash - green ash is quite rare in NNE outside of street trees. Those pieces show a lot of mineral (the brown centers) and not much sapwood, characteristic of slow growing low-vigor trees. You're also at an elevation that probably took a hit from the 1998 ice storm. On the public lot 10 miles NW from LEW the ice damage was terrible - twigs with ice the diameter of a Pringles can - and many of the surviving white ash had so much defect that when we harvested 17 years later trees would shatter when felled. Your wood looks a lot better but I'm not surprised it was dying back. At least it's easy to split.

Down close to 40 his morning, maybe make a run at 40° diurnal range?

Upper 70s here. We had nearly 1.5" RA on April 30, only 0.69" since. A few more pollinators in the apple trees this afternoon compared to earlier in the week. Good thing as petals are beginning to fall.

Strange? That seems a reasonable warm season indoor temp, though we all have different preferences and temp tolerance.

Back to the "other" banter subject: Maine is looking really weird concerning COVID - top 5 in vaccination percentage, also top 5 in new cases per 100k. Not quite the logical trend, especially since state regs have been on the very conservative side, though that's scheduled to change on 5/24. However, the fatality rate is running <0.5% so maybe most new cases lean toward the younger and less vulnerable folks.

We "installed" last fall when we had the heat pump put in. The rebate and a one-time federal tax credit covered nearly half the cost. Used it very sparingly for heat over the winter (says something about that season) but will enjoy it immensely this summer, especially if the run of AN months continues. NOV +1.9 DEC +4.3 JAN +5.8 FEB +0.8 MAR +2.8 APR +3.8 MAY +1.0 thru 18th, will be about +3 by Sunday NOV-APR is +3.3, quite significant for a half year. My warmest year, 2010, is 2.8° above my 23-year average.

Last 6 days have averaged 74/36, with diurnal ranges 34 to 42. May at its finest, except for the bugs. Pollen isn't too bad but the white pine is about to change that. On another subject, very few bumblebees are working the hugely abundant apple blossoms. Hope there's enough to get a good crop set after last year's total failure - total of one single bird-pecked fruit from the 3 trees. The 27° morning last June 1 probably contributed to lousy fruit set.

For central and northern Maine, FMAM was far milder in 2010 than 2012, even though the greatest daily departures came in that awesome week in March 2012.

That all sounds great except for the (I) Wonder (if it's) Bread. Though I grew up mostly on similar puffy white bread before my taste buds matured. No farmer here, but scrapes and cuts by the dozen, drinking lake water, finding (and being found by) yellowjackets, catching snapping turtles plus indifferent washing prior to reaching my 20s - probably exposed often to most of the available germs and allergens.

And call it "Truth" like the Russians do?

Anyone who fly fishes for trout knows exactly what mayflies are. Many years ago two of us in a canoe on Allagash Lake heard a whining sound from shoreward near the end of evening twilight, and commented about what fun it would be going ashore among the billions of mosquitos, including the hundreds that would sneak into our tent when we opened to flap to enter. We paddled in and maybe 50 yards from shore ran into the most incredible hatch I ever expect to encounter - green drakes, common name for one of the largest species of mayfly. Dozens were bouncing off us at a time and one wanted to breathe thru one's teeth to avoid getting a couple stuffed up one's nose. Moby Trout and his best buds were rising all over the place, sucking down the protein. Unfortunately neither of us had a flashlight, so tying on a bigger fly wasn't an option and the fish ignored the smaller ones we'd been fishing earlier.

May heat generally comes with modest dews. Between that and limited transpiration the sun has much less water to heat, so it does a better job of cooking the air.

In early 2019 one of the I-Pads we loan to our logging contractors survived the fire that toasted a cut-to-length processor. Hot fire too, as all 4 tires were consumed.

Only time we've seen a near-full semicircle was at sunset, the bow over Casco Bay as we drove thru PWM on I-295. Of the 3 consistent cocorahs observers in Franklin Co., 2 had about 0.1" yesterday and we saw nary a drop. Broke a string of 5 consecutive days with some RA, total of 0.18". We survived the flooding.

Can't judge the size of that mesh from the pic. Is it small enough to keep out small rodents? When I planted our fruit trees I made cages from 1/4" hardware cloth.

With 2 outs, Mike Trout, hitless in his last 18, pops one way up, and it's perfectly placed between 3 defenders. Then Ohtani curls one around Pesky pole.

As we left church in Farmington the whole western sky was inky dark. Over the next 4 hours the skies stayed fairly dark and I heard a couple of distant rumbles, or at least thought I did. Not a drop and the echoes are all east of here or hundreds of miles west.

Deer love chestnut shoots.

Most of the smallies I kept came from Seboeis Stream, about 40 miles north of BGR, and the crawdad feast apparently (judged by smallie tummies) continued throughout the warm season. A rocky stream bed offers wall-to-wall crawfish habitat and the bass know it.

I've never heard anyone say that (yet), but maybe it's because the blackflies are generally at their worst. (In the north part of NNE, they would then be "Juneflies.)

The yellow birch near the house is covered with catkins like those. White pine flowers just starting to show - looks like yellow/green coatings coming in a week or two.

About the same here, though the blackflies are at peak and mosquitos also out in force. Wore a chamois shirt while jacking up the toolshed and getting the cedar logs beneath it. Kept the skeeters from slipping their straw thru a t-shirt. Way too much clothing, lots of sweat, but I despise bug dope (though I always carry it when in the woods at work - can tolerate a lot more bugs if the antidote is in my pocket..)